Can any Man rationally expect strength to obey sincerely by following a Doctrine that doth not so much as promise it The true Gospel is of a more benign Nature For it promiseth that God would pour out of his spirit upon all flesh Acts 2.17 And will put his law in our mind and write them in our bearts Heb. 8.10 And will cause us to walk in his statutes that we shall keep his judgments and do them Ezeck 36.27 This word of God's Grace that requireth not Holiness of us as a Condition but promiseth it to us as a Free-gift must needs be the only Doctrine that is able to build us up and to give us an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified Acts 20.32 Seeing it pleaseth God to bring us to Holiness by believing a Doctrine we may reasonably expect that God should work upon us suitably to the nature of the Doctrine which we believe that he should give by a giving Doctrine and exact by an exacting Doctrine 4thly The way of procuring Life and Happiness by the condition of perfect or sincere Works is not a rational method for the Recovery of fallen Man though it were good for the preserving of Life before the Fall it prescribeth the immediate Practice of Holiness to recover a Man dead in Sin As if one should say to the sick of the Palsie Arise up and walk and then you shall be whole and able to walk We sometimes say jestingly to a Child that is fallen on the ground Come hither and I will help thee up but if we should say to one that is cast on his Bed by a dead Palsie we should be guilty of mocking and cruel insulting over the Afflicted Those that are humbled and made sensible of their original Sin and natural Deadness know that they must first live by the Spirit before they can act holily Gal 5.25 They will enquire How shall we have strength to perform the Duty required If you answer that they must trust in God and Christ to help them they may readily reply They have no sure Ground to trust on God or Christ for any saving Grace according to this Doctrine before they have performed this Condition at least in a sincere Resolution of Obedience and that they are as unable to bring their Hearts to such a Resolution as a dead Man is to raise himself out of the Grave Take another Instance the method of the Doctrine of Works is you must love God first and then on that Condition he will love you again whereas on the contrary we love God because he loved us first 1 Joh. 4.19 and if God suspend his Love to us upon any condition our Love to him will not be absolute but suspended upon the same condition and no way contrary to an actual hating of him 5thly The Law is so far from healing our sinful Corruption that it proveth rather an Occasion of sinful motions and actings in those that seek Salvation by the Works of it This cometh to pass by reason of the Power of our natural Corruption which is stirred up and rageth the more when the holy and just Law of God is set in opposition against it so that the fault is not in the Law but in our own hearts Those that find not this by their own Experience should believe the Apostle Paul who teacheth it plainly and that from his own Experience Rom. 7.5 to the 14. He affirmeth that there are motions of Sin by the Law in a fleshly State and that Sin taketh occasion by the Commandment Thou shalt not covet wrought in him all manner of Concupiscence deceived him flew him became exceeding sinful and that without the Law he was alive and sin dead but when the Commandment came Sin revived and he died He sheweth that the cause of this irreconcileable enmity and contrariety betwixt his sinful Nature and the Law the law is spiritual but I am carnal sold under sin Take notice here that the Reason given by the Apostle that the Doctrine of Salvation by sincere Obedience will have the same event Corrupt Nature is contrary to sincere Obedience as well as perfect and if we make it the condition of our Salvation Sin will take the same occasion by it to become exceeding sinful in its motions and actings The Success of legal Doctrine upon the natural Man is according to the Proverb Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee Prov. 9.8 Rebuking a mad Man is the way to enrage him and such is the natural Man in spiritual things since he fell out of his right Mind by the Sin of Adam We find by manifold Experience that though Men be generally addicted to the Principle of Salvation by Works yet multitudes of of them hate all strict Preachers and Professors of true Holiness because they are a Torment to their Consciences They endeavour to shelter themselves in Ignorance of the Law accounting that the less they know the less they shall answer for and therefore they would not have right things prophesied unto them Is 30.10 And they have prevailed generally in the World to darken the natural knowledge of moral Duties in such a Degree that there is a necessity of learning them by divine Revelation out of the Scriptures We may find how prone Legal-writers are to corrupt the Sense of the Law that they may leave starting holes for their Corruptions by the corrupt Glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees from which Christ did vindicate it Matth. 5. And as far as I have observed none more endeavour to discover the Purity and Perfection of the Law than those that seek Holiness and Salvation without any Legal Condition by the meer Free grace of God in Christ The Doctrine of Salvation by sincere Obedience is but a mincing of the Perfection required in the Law and yet how is this Doctrine minced again and again until it be come so small that the Substance of all true Obedience is lost without any farther Practice of Holiness A willingness to be saved according to Christ's terms or a Consent that Christ should be our Lord or a Resolution to obey his Commandments which is little more than ignorant men trust on when they say that they hope God will save them because they have a good meaning tho' they live in the neglect of all Religion shall pass with many for enough sincere Obedience both to enter them into a State of Salvation and to continue them in it so that they shall never be accounted Breakers of the Gospel-covenant while so much can be pretended The most that is made necessary for Salvation shall be only to endeavour to do what we can to obey Christ's Commands tho' all that the most can do is nothing that is truly good Those that have a little more Zeal for their Salvation by Works are prone to spend it in superstitious Observances because they suit better with their carnal Nature than the spiritual Commands of God and Christ I doubt not but this
the Spirit whereby we are made good Trees that we may bring forth good Fruit. Though they are given before the sincere Practice of the Law yet they are not given to us in our corrupt sinful Nature but in and with the new holy Nature which immediately produceth a holy Practice though it must necessarily go before as the Cause before the Effect and they are no other than Comforts of those spiritual Benefits by which our new Estate and Nature is produced and of which it is constituted and made up as the Comforts of Redemption Justification Adoption the Gift of the Spirit and the like Neither do I intend here any Transport or Ravishment of Joy and Delight but only such manner of Comfort as rationally strengthens in some measure against the Oppression of Fear Grief and Despair which we are liable unto by reason of our natural Sinfulness and Misery This Explanation of the Sense of my Assertion is sufficient to answer some common Objections against it and I hope the Truth of it will be fully evidenced by the following Arguments First This Truth is a clear Consectary from those Principles of Holiness that have been already confirmed I have shewed that we must have a good Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God and of our Happiness in Heaven and of our sufficient Strength both to will and to do that which is acceptable to God through Jesus Christ that we may be rationally inclined and bent to the Practice of Holiness and that these Endowments must be had by receiving of Christ himself with his Spirit and all his Fulness by trusting on him for all his Salvation as he is freely promised to us in the Gospel and that by this Faith we do as really receive Christ as our Food by eating and drinking Now let right Reason judge can we be perswaded of the Love of God of our everlasting Happiness and our Strength to serve God and yet be without any Comforts Can the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace be believed and Christ and his Spirit actually believed into the Heart without any Relief to the Soul from oppressing Fear Grief Despair Can the Salvation of Christ be comfortless or the Bread and Water of Life without any sweet Relish to those that feed on him with hungring and thirsting Appetites God will not give such Benefits as these to those that do not desire and esteem them above the World and certainly the very receiving of them will be comfortable to such except they receive them blindfold which they cannot do when the very giving and bestowing of them openeth the Eyes of a Sinner and turns him from Darkness to Light whereby he doth at least in some measure see and perceive Spiritually the things that concern his present and future Peace and reap some encouraging and strengthning Comfort thereby to the Practice of Holiness Secondly Peace Joy Hope are recommended to us in Scripture as the Spring of other holy Duties and Fear and oppressing Grief forbidden as Hinderances to true Religion The peace of God keepeth our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Phil. 4.7 Be ye not sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength Nehem. 8.10 Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 John 3.3 Fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in Love 1 John 4.18 This is the Reason why the Apostle doubleth his Exhortation to rejoyce in the Lord always as a Duty of exceeding weight and necessity Phil. 4.4 What are such Duties but Comfort it self and can we think that these Duties are necessary to our continuance in an holy Practice and yet not to the beginning of it where the Work is most difficult and Encouragement most needful Therefore we must make haste in the first place to get a comfortable Frame of Spirit if we would make hastâ— and not delay to keep Gods holy Commandments Thirdly The usual Method of Gospel-Doctrine as it is delivered to us in the holy Scriptures is first to comfort our Hearts and thereby to establish us in every good Word and Work 2 Thess 2.17 And it appears how clearly this method is adjusted in several Epistles written by the Apostles wherein they first acquaint the Churches with the rich Grace of God toward them in Christ and the spiritual Blessings which they are made Partakers of for their strong Consolation and then they exhort them to an holy Conversation answerable to such Priviledges and it is not only the Method of whole Epistles but of many particular Exhortations to Duty wherein the comfortable Benefits of the Grace of God in Christ are made use of as Arguments and Motives to stir up the Saints to a holy Practice which comfortable Benefits must be first believed and the Comfort of them applyed to our own Souls or else they will not be forcible to engage us to the Practice for which they are intended To give you a few Instances out of a Multitude that might be alledged we are exhorted to practice holy Duties because we are dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 And because sin shall not have dominion over us for we are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.14 Because we are not in the flesh but in the spirit and God will quicken our mortal bodies by his spirit dwelling in us Rom. 8.9.11 12. Because our bodies are the members of Christ and the temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.15 19. Because God hath made him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.20 21. And hath promised that he will dwell in us and walk in us and be to us a Father and we shall be to him sons and daughters 2 Cor. 7.1 Because God hath forgiven us for Ghrist's sake and accounteth us his dear children and Christ hath loved us and given himself for us and we that were sometimes darkned are now lightened in the Lord Ephes 4.32 5.1 2 8. Because we are risen with Christ and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3.1.4 Because God hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 Because of the many promises made to us 2 Cor. 7.1 Search the Scriptures and you may with delight see that is this the Vein that runneth through Gospel Exhortations and you may find the like Vein of Comfort running through the Prophetical Exhortations in the Old Testament Some may object that the Apostles used this Method in their Writings to Saints that had practised Holiness already that so they might continue and increase therein But to that I may easily reply If it be a Method needful for grown Saints much more then for Beginners that find the Work of Obedience most difficult and have most need of strong Consolation and I hope to shew how we may be able to lay hold
When the Gentiles heard the Word of God they were glad and as many as were ordained to eternal Life believed The Apostle Paul was constrained by the Love of Christ to give up himself to live to Christ 2 Cor. 4.14 15. I dare appeal to the Experience of any that obey God out of hearty Love let them examine themselves and consider whither they were brought to give up themselves to serve God in love without comfortable apprehensions of the Love of God towards them I dare say there are no such Prodigies in the new Birth Seventhly What comfortless Religion do those make that allow People no comfort before hand to strengthen them for holy Performances that are very cross displeasing and grievous to their natural Inclinations as the plucking out of a right Eye cutting off of a right Hand but would have them first to do such things with love and delight under all their present Fears Despondencies and corrupt Inclinations and to hope that by doing the Work throughly and sincerely they shall at last attain to a more comfortable State All true spiritual Comfort as well as Salvation is indeed quite banished out of the World if it be suspended upon the Condition of our good Works which hath already appeared to be the Condition of the Law that worketh no Comfort but Wrath Rom. 4.15 This makes the ways of Godliness odious to many they think they shall never enjoy a pleasant hour in this World if they walk in them and they had rather comfort themselves with sinful Pleasures then have no Comfort at all Others labour a while in such a comfortless Religion with inward fretting and repining at the Bondage of it and at last grow wearry and throw of all Religion because they know none better They that bind such heavy burthens upon Men and grievous to be born will plead that they are not to be blamed because they do but preach the Gospel of God and Christ whereas indeed they preach a Gospel of Man 's own forging contrary to the nature of the true Gospel of Christ which is glad tidings of great joy to all People Luk. 2.10 An uncomfortable Gospel cannot proceed from God the Father who is the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort 2 Cor. 1.3 Nor from Christ who is the Consolation of Israel Luk. 2.25 nor from the Spirit who is the Comforter Joh. 14.16 17. God meeteth him that rejoyceth and worketh Righteousness Isa 64.5 He will be served with gladness and singing as he shewed by the Type of variety of Musick and great numbers of Musicians in the Temple Christ speaks to us by his Gospel that his joy may abide in us and that our joy may be full Job 15.11 No sorrow is approved of by God except Godly sorrow which can never be in us without some comfort of the Love of God towards us They that are offended at the Uncomfortableness of a Religious Life never yet knew the true way of Religion else they would find that the ways of Wisdom arâ— ways of pleasantness and all her Paths peace Prov 3.17 DIRECT X. That we may be prepared by the Comforts of the Gospel to perform sincerely the Duties of the Law we must get some assurance of our Salvation in that very Faith whereby Christ himself is received into our Hearts Therefore me must endeavoar to believe on Christ confidently perswading and assuring our selves in the Act of believing that God freely giveth to us an Interest in Christ and his Salvation according to his gracious Promise EXPLICATION IT is evident that these Comforts of the Gospel that are necessary to an Holy Practice cannot be truly received without some assurance of our Interest in Christ and his Salvation for some of those Comforts consist in a good Perswasion of our reconciliation with God and of our future Heavenly Happiness and of Strength both to will and to do that which is acceptable to God through Christ as hath been before shewed Hence it will clearly follow that this assurance is very necessary to enable us for the Practice of Holiness as those Comforts that must go before the Duties of the Law in order of nature as the Cause goeth before the Effect tho' not in any distance of time My present work is to shew what this assurance is that is so necessary unto Holiness and which I have here asserted that we must act in that very Faith whereby we receive Christ himself into our Hearts even in justifying saving Faith This Doctrine seemeth strange to many that profess themselves Protestants a late days whereas it was formerly highly owned by the chief Protestants whom God made use of to restore the Purity of the Gospel and to maintain it against the Papists for many Years they commonly taught that Faith was a Perswasion or Considence of our own Salvation by Christ and that we must be sure to apply Christ and his Salvation to our selves in believing And this Doctrine was one of the great Engines whereby they prevailed to overthrow the Popish Superstition whereto doubtfulness of Salvation is one of the principal Pillars But many of the Successors of those Protestants have deserted them and left their Writings to be shamefully insulted over by the Papists and this innovation hath been of longer standing amongst us than several other parts of our new Divinity and maintained by those that profess to abhor that corrupt Doctrine which the Papist have built upon such Principles Modern Divines may think they stand upon the Shoulders of their Predecessors whose Labours they enjoy and that they can see farther than they as the School-men might have like thoughts of the ancient Fathers but for all this they may not be able to see so far if the eyes of their Predecessors were better enlightned by the Spirit of God to understand the Mystery of the Gospel and why may we not judge that it is so in the present Case The Eyes of Men in these late Years have been blinded in this point of Assurance by many false Imaginations They think that because Salvation is not promised to us absolutely but upon condition of believing on Christ for it therefore we must first believe directly on Christ for our Salvation and after that we must reflect our Minds upon our Faith and examine it by several Marks and Signs especially by the Fruit of sincere Obedience and if upon this examination we find out certainly that it is true saving Faith then and not before we may believe assuredly that we in particular shall be saved On this account they say that our Salvation is by the direct and our assurance by the reflect act of Faith and that many have true Faith and shall be saved that never have any assurance of their Salvation as long as they live in this World they find by Scripture and Experience that many precious Saints of God are frequently troubled with doubtings whither they shall be saved and whither their Faith and Obedience
willing until he hath gone through the whole Work of Obedience acceptably such an one was never yet truly humbled and brought to know the Plague of his own Heart neither doth he truly believe the Doctrine of Original Sin whatever formal Profession he makes of it Secondly Those that think sincere Conformity to the Law in ordinary Cases to be so passing easie shew that they neither know it nor themselves Is it an easie thing to wrestle not against Flesh only but against principalities powers spiritual wickedness in high Places Ephes 6.12 Is it an easie thing not to lust or covet according to the Tenth Commandment The Apostle Paul found it so difficult to obey this Commandment that his Concupiscence prevailed the more by occasion of the Commandment Rom. 7.7 8. Our work is not only to alter vicious Customs but to mortisie corrupt natural Affections which bred those Customs and not only to deny the fulfilling of sinful Lust but to be full of holy Lust and Desires that even the restraining the execution of corrupt Lusts and crossing them by contrary Actings is in many cases like the cutting off of a right hand and plucking out a right eye Mat. 5.29 30. If Obedience be so easie how came it to pass that the Heathens generally did those things for which their own Consciences condemned them as worthy of Death Rom. 1.32 And many among us seek to enter into this strait gate and are not able Luke 13.24 And break so many vows and Purposes of Obedience and fall back to the Practice of their Lusts though in the mean time the Fears of eternal Damnation press hard upon their Consciences As to those that find Persecution for Religion to be so rare a thing in late days they have cause to be suspected that they are of the World and therefore the World loveth his own else they would find that national Profession of Religion will not secure those that are truly godly from several sorts of Persecutions And suppose Men do not persecute us for Religion yet there is great Difficulty in bearing great Injuries from Men on other Accounts and Losses Poverty bodily Pains long Diseases and untimely Deaths from the ordinary Providence of God with such hearty Love to God and to injurious Men for his sake and such a patient acquiescence in his Will as the Law of God requireth I acknowledge that the work of God is easie and pleasant to those whom God rightly furnisheth with Endowments for it but those that assert it to be easie to Men in their common Condition shew their Imprudence in contradicting the general Experience of Heathens and Christians Though many Duties do not require much labour of Body or Mind and might be done with ease if we were willing yet it is easier to remove a Mountain than to move and encline the Heart to will and affect the doing of them I need not concern my self with those that account that all have sufficient Strength for an holy Practice because they can do their endeavour that is what they can do for God requireth actual sulfilling of his Commands What if by our Endeavours we can do nothing in any measure according to the Rule shall the Law be put off with no Performance and shall such Endeavours be accounted sufficient Holiness And what if we cannot so much as endeavour in a right way If Man's Ability were the measure of acceptable Duty the Commands of the Law would signifie very little Thirdly The Wisdom of God hath ever funished People with a good Perswasion of a sufficient Strength that they might be enabled both to will and do their Duty The first Adam was furnished with such a Strenght and we have no cause to think that he was ignorant of it or that he needed to sear that he should be left to his own Corruptions because he had no Corruptions in him until he had produced them in himself by sinning against Strength and when he had lost that Strength he could not recover the Practice of Holiness until he was acquainted with a better Strength whereby the Head of Satan should be bruised Gen. 3.15 Our Lord Christ doubtless knew the insinite Power of his Diety to enable him for all that he was to do and suffer in our Nature He knew the Lord God would help him therefore he should not be confounded Is 50.7 The Scripture sheweth what plentiful Assurance of Strength God gave to Moses Joshua Gideon when he called them to great Imployments and to the Israelites when he called them to subdue the Land of Canaan Christ would have the Sons of Zebedee to consider whether they were able to drink of his cup and to be baptized with the baptism that he was baptized with Matth. 20.22 Paul encourageth Believers to the Life of Holiness by perswading them that sin shall not prevail to get the Dominion over them because they are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.13 14. And he exhorteth them to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might that they might be able to stand against the wiles of the divel Ephes 6.10 11. John exhorteth Believers not to love the world nor the things of the world because they were strong and had overcome the wicked one 1 Jo. 2.14 15. They that were called of God heretofore to work Miracles were first acquainted with the gift of Power to work them and no wise Man will attempt to do them without knowledge of the Gift Even so when Men that are dead in Sin are call'd to do the works of holy Life which are in them great Miracles God maketh a Discovery of the gift of Power unto them that he may encourage them in a rational way to such a wonderful Enterprise DIRECT III. The way to get holy Endowments and Qualifications necessary to frame and enable us for the immediate Practice of the Law is to receive them out of the fulness of Christ by Fellowship with him and that we may have this Fellowship we must be in Christ and have Christ himself in us by a Mystical Vnion with him EXPLICATION HEre as much as any where we have great cause to acknowledge with the Apostle that without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness even so great that it could not have entred into the Heart of Man to conceive it if God had not made it known in the Gospel by supernatural Revelation Yea tho' it be revealed clearly in the holy Scriptures yet the Natural Man hath not Eyes to see it there for it is foolishness to him and if God express it never so plainly and properly he will think that God is speaking Riddles and Parables And I doubt not but it is still a Riddle and Parable even to many truly Godly that have received an holy Nature in this way For the Apostles themselves had the saving benefit of it before the Comforter discovered it clearly to them John 14 20. And they walked in Christ as the
that we may live And they plead not for doing of Duties as obliged thereunto by the Authority of the Law given of God by Moses but only in obedience to the Commands of Christ in the Gospel Neither do they plead for Salvation by sincere Obedience without Christ but only by Christ and through his Merit and Righteousness and they acknowledge that both Salvation itself and sincere Obedience are given to them freely by the Grace of Christ so that all is of Grace They acknowledge also that their Salvation is by Faith because sincere Obedience is wrought in them by believing the Gospel and is included in he nature of that Faith which is the entire Condition of our Salvation And some call it the resignating Act of Faith but all these Reasons are but a fallacious Vizard upon a legal way of Salvation to make it look like pure Gospel as I shall evince by the following particulars First All that seek Salvation by the sincere performance of good Works as the procuring Condition are condemned by the Apostle Paul for seeking Righteousness by the Works of the Law and not by Faith Rom. 9.32 and for seeking to be justified by the Law and falling from the Grace of Christ Gal. 5.4 This one Assertion if it can be proved is enough to pluck off the fallacious Vizard from the Condition of sincere Obedience and to make men abhor it as a damning legal Doctrine that bereaveth its Followers of all Salvation by Christ And the proof of it is not difficult to persons that warily consider a point of so great moment for their Salvation The Jews and Judaizing Christians against whom the Apostle chiefly disputeth in this whole Controversie did not profess any hope of being justified by perfect Obedience according to the rigour of the Law but only by such Obedience as they accounted to be sincere and not hypocritical And we have no cause to doubt but that the Judaizing Galatians had learned by the Gospel to distinguish sincere Obedience from Hypocrisie The Jewish Religion bound all that professed it to acknowledge themselves to be Sinners as appeareth by their anniversary Humiliation at the day of atonement and several other Rights of the Law and many clear Testimonies in the Oracles of God that were committed to them Psal 143.2 Prov. 10.9 Eccles 7.20 Yet they knew they were bound to turn to the Lord with all their Hearts in Sincerity and Uprightness and that God would accept of sincere Obedience for which Cause they might better put it for the Condition of the Law than we can of the Gospel Psal 51.6 10. Deut. 6.5 Deut. 30.10 So that if the Apostle had disputed against those that held only perfect Obedience to be the Condition of Justification he had contended with his own shadow And they might as readily judge sincere obedience to be the condition of Justification under the Law as we can judge it to be the condition under the Gospel Neither doth the Apostle condemn them meerly for accounting sincere Obedience to the Law as given by Moses to be the Condition of their Justification but more generally for seeking Salvation by their own Works And he alledgeth against them That Abrabam who lived before the Law of Moses was not justified by any of his Works though he did perform sincere Obedience and that David who lived under the Law of Moses was not justified by his Works though he performed sincere Obedience and was as much bound to obey the Law given by Moses as we are to obey any Commands of Christ in the Gospel Rom. 4.2 3 5 6. Neither doth he condemn them for seeking their Salvation only by Works without respecting at all the Grace and Salvation that is by Christ for the Judaizing Galatians were yet Professors of the Grace and Salvation of Christ though they thought Obedience to the Law a necessary Condition for the partaking of it as also many other Judaising Believers did And doubtless they accounted themselves obliged thereunto not only by the Authority of Moses but of Christ also whom they owned as their Lord and Saviour And we may be sure it was no damning Error to account Moses's Law obliging at that time for many thousands of the Jews that were sound Believers held the Ceremonies of Moses to be in force at that time and Paul was tender towards them in it Acts 20.20 21. Acts 15.5 And other Jews sought Justification not only by their sincere Works but also by trusting on the Promise made to Abraham and on their Priesthood and Sacrifices which were Types of Christ And the most legal Pharisees would thank God for their good Works as proceeding from his Grace Luke 18.11 And they could as well acknowledge their Salvation to be by Faith as the Assertors of Salvation by sincere Obedience can in these days for they accounted that their sincere Obedience was wrought in them by believing the Word of God which contained Gospel as well as legal Doctrin in it and therefore that it must be included in the nature of Faith if Faith were taken for the Condition of their whole Salvation Let the Assertors of the Condition of sincere Obedience learn from hence that they are building again that Judaism which the Apostle Paul destroyed whereby the Jews stumbled at Christ Rom. 9.32 And the Galatians were in danger of falling from Christ and Grace Gal. 5.2 4. And let them beware of falling under that Curse which he hath denounced on this very occasion against any Man or Angel that shall preach any other Gospel than that which he hath preached Gal. 1.8 9. Secondly The difference betwixt the Law and Gospel doth not at all consist in this that the one requireth perfect doing the other only sincere doing but in this that the one requireth doing the other no doing but believing for Life and Salvation Their terms are different not only in degree but in their whole nature The Apostle Paul opposeth the Believing required in the Gospel to all doing for Life as the Condition proper to the Law Gal. 3.12 The Law is not of Faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Rom. 4.5 To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for righteousness If we seek Salvation by never so easie and mild a Condition of Works we do thereby bring our selves under the Terms of the Law and do become Debtors to fulfill the whole Law in perfection though we intended to engage our selves only to fulsill it in part Gal. 5.3 for the Law is a compleat Declaration of the only Terms whereby God will judge all that are not brought to despair of procuring Salvation by any of their own Works and to receive it as a Gift freely given to them by the Grace of God in Christ So that all that seek Salvation right or wrong knowingly or ignorantly by any works less or more whether invented by their own Superstition or commanded of God in
Gospel though they own it in Profession never so highly They act contrary to the way of Salvation by Christ for they would heal themselves and save themselves from the Power and Pollution of Sin and prooure God's Favour by performing sincere Obedience before they are come to Christ the only Physician and Saviour They lay their own Obedience lowest in the Foundation of their Salvation and build the Enjoyment of Christ upon it who ought to be the only Foundation They would sanctifie themselves before they have a sure Interest in Christ and going about to establish their own Righteousness they do not submit themselves to the Righteousness of God in Christ Rom. 10.3,4 Sometimes they will call the Righteousness of Christ their Legal Righteousness that they may make room for an Evangelical Righteousness of their own Works to be the immediate procuring cause of their Justification by Christ whereas the Apostle Paul knew no Evangelical Righteousness but that of Christ which he calleth the righteousness of faith without the law Rom. 3.21 22. and not of the law Phil. 3.9 Thus they make void Christ's Salvation while they pretend to own it and Christ profiteth them nothing Christ is become of none effect to them while they would be justified by the Law Gal. 5.2 4. If we would be saved by Christ we must own our selves dead lost Sinners that can have no Righteousness for Justification but his no life or ability to do Good until God bring us to Union and Fellowship with him They do also act contrary to Salvation by Grace according to the true meaning of the Gospel For we are not saved by Grace as the supreme Cause of Salvation by the Intervention of Works given and accepted by Grace as the procuring Cause in which sence we might be saved by Grace though by a Covenant of Works As a Servant that hath Monies given him by his Master to purchase an Annuity of his Master at a low rate may profess that he had an Annuity given him freely and yet that he hath purchased it and may claim it as a due Debt But we are saved by Grace as the immediate and complete cause of our whole Salvation excluding procurement of our Salvation by the condition of Works and claiming it by any Law as a due Debt The Scripture teacheth us that there is a perfect Opposition and utter Irreconcileableness betwixt Salvation by Grace and Works If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more of grace otherwise work is no more work Rom. 11.6 So also there is an Opposition betwixt a Reward reckoned of grace and of debt Rom. 4.4 Betwixt a Promise of Happiness by the law and by grace Rom. 4.13.16 God is so jealous of the Glory of his Free-grace that he will not save us by any Works though of his own working in us lest any man should boast Ephes 2.9 He knoweth that when he healeth Men by Physick or maintaineth them by the Labour of their hands they are prone to attribute the Glory rather to the means they use than to his sole Bounty and Goodness 3dly They do also act contrary to the way of Salvation by Faith For as I have shewed already the Faith which is required for our Salvation in the Gospel is to be understood in a sense contrary to doing good Works as a Condition to procure our Salvation that so the true difference between the Terms of the Law and of the Gospel may be maintain'd Believing is opposed to all working for Salvation and the Law of Works to the Law of Faith Rom. 4.5 3.27 against Antinomian Errours by making it the procuring Condition of their Salvation when after all this ado the Remedy is found to be as bad as the Disease equally unserviceable and destructive to that great end for which they designed it and that it hath an Antimonian Effect and Operation contrary to the Power of Godliness Much more might be said for the Confutation of this novel Doctrine but if this one thing be well proved it may be sufficient to make the zealous Contrivers of it to be ashamed of their Crast and angry with themselves and sorry that they have taken so much Pains and stretched their Wits to maintain such an unprofitable unsanctifying Opinion It will be sufficient for the Proof of it if I shew that the practice of true holiness cannot possibly be attain'd unto by seeking to be saved by the Works of the Law because I have already proved that this Doctrine of Salvation by sincere Obedience is according to the Terms of the Law and not of the Gospel And hereby those also may see their Errour that ascribe Justification only to the Gospel and Sanctification to the Law Yet because those Assertors of the Condition of sincere Obedience will hardly be perswaded by what hath been said that it is the way of the Law of Works I shall for their more full Conviction sufficiently manifest that it is of no other nature and operation than any other Doctrine that is proper to the Law and hath no better Fruit as I proceed to prove by the following Arguments that holiness cannot be attained by seeking it by the Law of Works that so it may appear not worthy to be called Gospel Doctrine First The way of Salvation by the Works of the Law is contrary and destructive to those necessary means of an holy Practice that have been laid down in the foregoing Directions and manifestly proved out of the holy Scripture I have made it appear that a hearty Propensity to an holy Practice cannot be attained without some good Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God by Justification and of our everlasting Happiness and of sufficient strength both to will and to perform our Duty and that these and all other Endowments necessary to the same end are to be had only in Christ by Union and Fellowship with him and that Christ himself with all his Fulness is united to us by Faith which is not a Condition to procure a Right or Title to Christ but an Instrument whereby we receive him actually into our Hearts by trusting on him for all Salvation freely promised to us in the Gospel All these means of an holy Practice are things wherein our spiritual Life and Happiness doth consist so that if we have them everlasting Life is begun in us already and because they are the necessary means of an holy Practice therefore the beginning of everlasting Life in us must not be placed after such a Practice as the fruit and consequent of it but must go before it as the Cause before the Effect Now the Terms of the Law are directly contrary to this Method they place the Practice of Holiness before Life and make it to be the means and procuring cause of Life as Moses describeth them Rom. 10.5 The man that doeth these things shall live by them By these
all are given to us at one and the same time and I think enough hath been said already to shew in what order God brings us to the Practice of the Moral Law he maketh us first to be in Christ by Faith as Branches in the Vine that we may bring forth much fruit Joh. 15.5 He first purgeth our Consciences from dead Works by Justification that we may serve the living God Heb. 9.14 He maketh us first to live in the Spirit and then to walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 This is the Order prescribed in the Gospel which is the Power of God unto Salvation though the Law prescribeth a quite contrary Method that we should first perform its Commandements that so we may be justified and live and thereby it proveth a killing Letter to us Now mark well the great Advantages you have for the Attainment of Holiness by seeking it in a right Gospel-Order you will have the Advantage of the Love of God manifested toward you in forgiving your Sins receiving you into Favour and giving you the Spirit of Adoption and the Hope of his Glory freely through Christ to perswade and constrain you by sweet allurements to love God again that hath so dearly loved you and to love others for his sake and to give up your selves to the Obedience of all his Commandments out of hearty love to him you will also enjoy the Help of the Spirit of God to incline you powerfully unto Obedience and to strengthen you for the Performance of it against all your Corruptions and the Temptations of Satan so that you will have both Wind and Tide to forward your Voyage in the Practice of Holiness contrariwise if you rush upon the immediate performance of the Law without taking Christ's Righteousness and his Spirit in the way to it you 'll find both Wind Tide against you Your guilty Conscience and corrupt dead Natures shall certainly defeat and frustrate all your Enterprizes and Attempts to love God and serve him in Love and you will but stir up sinful Lusts instead of stirring up your selves to true Obedience or at best you will but attain to some slavish hypocritical Performances Oh that People would be perswaded to consider the due place of Holiness in the Mystery of Salvation and to seek it only there where they have all the Advantage of Gospel-Grace to find it Many miscarry in their zealous Enterprizes for Godliness and after they have spent much Labour in vain God maketh a Breach upon them even to their everlasting Destruction as he did upon Uzzah to a Temporal destruction because they sought him not after a due order 2 Chron. Secondly We are to look upon Holiness as a very necessary part of that Salvation that is received by Faith in Christ some are so drenched with a Covenant of Works that they accuse us for making good Works needless to Salvation if we will not acknowledge them to be necessary either as Conditions to procure an Interest in Christ or as Preparatives to fit us for the receiving of him by Faith and others when they are taught by the Scriptures that we are saved by Faith through Faith without Works do begin to disregard all Obedience to the Law as not at all necessary to Salvation and do account themselves obliged to it only in point of Gratitude if it be wholly neglected they doubt not but Free-grace will save them harmless yea some are given up to such strong Antinomian Delusions that they account it a part of the Liberty from the Bondage of the Law purchased by the Blood of Christ to make no Conscience of breaking the Law in their Conversation One cause of these Errors that are so contrary one to the other is that many are prone to imagine nothing else to be meant by Salvation but to be delivered from Hell and in heavenly Happiness and Glory hence they conclude that if good Works be a means of Glorification and precedent to it they must also be a precedent Means of our whole Salvation and that if they be not a necessary Means of our whole Salvation they are not at all necessary to Glorification But though Salvation be often taken in Scripture by way of Eminency for its perfection in the State of heavenly Glory yet according to its full and proper Signification we are to understand by it all that freedom from the Evil of our Natural corrupt State and all those holy and happy Enjoyments that we receive from Christ our Saviour either in this World by Faith or in the World to come by Glorification Thus Justification the Gift of the Spirit to dwell in us the Priviledges of Adoption are parts of our Salvation which we partake of in this Life Thus also the Conformity of our Hearts to the Law of God and the Fruit of our Righteousness with which we are filled by Jesus Christ in this Life are a necessary part of our Salvation God saveth us from our finful uncleanness here by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost as well as from Hell hereafter Ezek. 36.29 Tit. 3.5 Christ was called Jesus i.e. A Saviour because he saved his People from their Sins Mat. 1.21 therefore it is part of our Salvation to deliver us from our Sins which is begun in this Life by Justification and Sanctification and perfected by Glorification in the Life to come Can we rationally doubt whither it be any proper part of our Salvation by Christ to be quickned to live to God when we were by nature dead in Trespasses and Sins and to have the Image of God in Holiness and Righteousness restored to us which we lost by the Fall and to be freed from a vile dishonourable Slavery to Satan and our own Lusts and made the Servants of God and to be honoured so highly as to walk by the Spirit and bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit And what is all this but holiness in Heart and Life Conclude we then that Holiness in this Life is absolutely necessary to Salvation not only as a Means to the end but by a nobler kind of Necessity as part of the end it self Though we are not saved by good Works as procuring Causes yet we are saved to good Works as fruits and effects of Saving-grace which God hath prepared that we should walk in them Eph. 2.10 It is indeed one part of our Salvation to be delivered from the Bondage of the Covenant of Works but the end of this is not that we may have liberty to sin which is the worst of Slavery but that we may fulfil the royal Law of Liberty and that we may serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter Gal. 3.13 14. Rom. 7.6 Yea Holiness in this Life is such a part of our Salvation as is a necessary Means to make us meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in heavenly Light and Glory without Holiness we can never see God Heb. 12.14 and
be laid down and cleared out of the Text and confirmed particularly and then I shall make use of them all together Observ I. They who are justified are Sinners such who are come short of the Glory of God i. e. of God's Approbation Joh. 5.44 of Gods Image of Holiness 2 Cor. 3.1 Eph. 4.24 Eternal Happiness 1 Thess 2.12 Rom. 5.2 2 Cor. 4.17 1. The Law condemns all Sinners and strikes them dead as with a Thunderbolt Rom. 3.20 and adjudgeth them to Shame Confusion and Misery instead of Glory and Happiness by the strict terms of it Rom. 2.6 9.11 12. which none fulfils neither can do Rom. 8.7 neither Jews nor Gentiles there is no hope if free Grace restore them not 2. Christ came only to save Sinners and died for this end Rom. 5.6 when we were yet without strength in due time Christ dyed for the Ungodly and 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am the chief Mat. 9.13 I am not come to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance Mat. 18.11 The Son of man is come to save that which is lost And God must be believed on to Salvation as a God that justifieth the Ungodlsy he must believe as one that worketh not on him that justifieth the Ungodly Rom. 4.5 Observ II. Sinners of all sorts without difference whether Jews or Gentiles that believe are the Subjects of this Justification This is the Scope of the Apostle to shew that whereas Jews and Gentiles were universally condemned by the Light and Law of Nature or the Law written so the Righteousness of God is upon them all that believe ver 21 22. without difference This was a great point to be defended against the Jews in the Apostles times who appropriated Justification to themselves in a legal way and such were Proselites to the Law and Circumcision and therefore the Apostle Paul vehemently urged it Rom. 10.11 12. and it was a point newly revealed to the Apostles that the Gentiles might be accepted without turning Jews and much prized as a very Glorious Revelation Act. 10.28 45. Eph. 3.4 5 18. Col. 1.25 26 27. and it is confirmed 1. Because notwithstanding the Jews priviledg of the Law by reason of breaking the law they had as much need of Free Justification as the Gentiles and no worthyness above the Gentiles by their works but rather greater sinners Rom. 2.23 24. and when there is equal need and worth God might righteously justify one as well as another Rom. 3.9 2. God is the God of the Gentiles as well as the Jews Rom. 3.29 as he promised Rom. 13.9 12. Gal. 3.8 Isa 19.25 Zach. 14.9 3. Abraham was justified before he was circumcised that he might be the Father of those that believe though uncircumcised that they might inherit the same Blessing Rom. 4.10 11 12. 4. This will appear further by shewing that Justification is only by Faith and without dependance upon the Law meerly by the righteousness of another and so Jews and Gentiles are alike capable of it Observ III. That the Justifier or efficient cause of Justification is God It 's an Act of God Rom. 8.33 It is God that justifieth he only can justify Authoritatively and Irreversibly 1. Because he is the Lawgiver and hath power to save and destroy Jam. 4.12 this Case concerns God's Law and can only be tried at his Tribunal he is the Judge of the World Gen. 18.25 It is a small worthless thing to be justified by Man or by our selves meerly 1 Cor. 4.3 4. 2. To Him the Debt of suffering for Sin and acting Righteousness is owed And therefore he only can give a discharge for payment or release of the Debtor Psal 51.4 Mar. 2.7 Observ IV. God Justifieth Souls freely by his Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely by his Grace one of these Expressions had been enough but this redoubling of it sheweth the Importance of the truth to quicken our attention the more Here is the Impulsive cause of Justification and his free manner of bestowing it accordingly And this signifies Gods free undeserved Favour in opposition to any works of our Righteousness whereby it might be challenged as a Debt to us Rom. 4.4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt Chap. 11.6 if by Grace then it is no more of works otherwise Grace is no more Grace but if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Work is no more Work Eph. 2.8 9. By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Not of works least any man should boast 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with an Holy Calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which he hath given us in Christ Jesus before the World began Ver. 10. But is now made manifest by the appearing c. Grace is mercy and love shewed freely out of Gods proper motion shewing mercy because he will shew mercy and loving us because he will love us Rom. 9.15 and this is confirmed 1. Because there was not nor is any thing in us but what might move God to condemn us for we have all sinned Eph. 2.3 Ezek. 16.6 2. Because God would take away boasting and have his Grace Glorified and Exalted in our Salvation He will have all the Praise and Glory though we have the Blessedness Eph. 2.7 9. that in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ and so Rom. 3.27 Observ V. God Justifieth Sinners through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth for a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood This is the effecting means or material cause of our Justification viz. Redemption and Propitiation through the Blood of Christ which is the Righteousness of God treasured up in him By Redemption is meant properly such a deliverance as is by paying of a Price and so the Words Redeem and Redemption are frequently used Exod. 13.13 Numb 3.48 49 51. Lev. 5.24 51 52. Jer. 32.7 8 Neh. 5.8 from this proper Signification it is borrowed to signifie a deliverance without Price Luke 21.28 Eph. 1.14 Chap 4.30 or rather by a Metonimy of the Cause put for the highest effect the state of Glory so that state of Glory is called Redemption as being the compleating and crowning effect of Christs Redemption therefore it 's called the purchased Possession By a Propitiation is meant that which appeaseth the wrath of God for Sin and wins his Favour and this Propitiation of Christ was two ways typified First in the propitiatory Sacrifices whose Blood was shed and the Mercy-seat which was called the Propitiation because it covered the Ark wherein was the Law and the Blood of the Sacrifices for Atonement was sprinkled by the High Priest before it and