think the Lord pardons your sinnes because you have been lesse sinners then others or if you think the Lord will not pardon your sinnes because you are greater sinners then any else you sin exceedingly against the riches of Gods grace in this point What is the meane by which the Father doth thus justifie T is for the satisfaction or by the price of the redemption of Christ Rom. 3.25 Rom. 5.10 Eph. 1.7 for Mercy would but Justice could not forgive without satisfaction for the wrong done Hence Christ satisfies that Grace and mercy might have their full scope of forgiving So that neither works before conversion which are but glistering sins Rom. 1.18 nor works of grace in us after conversion can be causes of our Justification for Abraham when he was justified and sanctified yet had not whereof to boast but beleeved in him that justified the ungodly Rom. 4.5 And the Apostle Paul saith expresly We that believe have beleeved that we might be justified Gal. 2.16 t is therefore the price of Christs redemption which doth procure our justification But understand this aright for this price is not applyed to each particular man as the common price redeeming all for then every Beleever should be accounted a saviour and redeemer of all but as the price of those soules in particular to whom it is specially intended and particularly applyed Christs righteousnesse is sufficient to justifie all to whom it is imputed but it is no further imputed then to the attaining the end of imputation viz. to justifie and save me in particular not to make me a head of the Church or a common Saviour it argues a man weakly principled that denies the necessity of Christs satisfaction to our Justification because forsooth every Beleever should then be a Redeemer By Satisfaction I understand the whole obedience of Christ unto the very death which is both active and passive by which we are justified Heb. 10.10 Phil. 2.8 that righteousnesse of Christ wrought in his satisfaction is imputed which satisfies the Law and divine Justice Gal. 4.1 2 3 4. which is both active and passive the very reason why the Law requires perfect obedience of us which we cannot possibly bring before God is that wee might seek for it in Christ that fulfilled all righteousnesse and therefore he is called the end of the Law for righteousnesse Rom. 10.3 4. And it is strange that any should deny Justification by Christs active obedience upon this ground viz. because that by the works of the Law which satisfy the Law shall no sinner be justified and yet withall say that we are justified by that which satisfies the Law This righteousnesse of Christ is not that of the God-head for then what need was there for Christ to doe or suffer but that which was wrought in the Man-hood And hence it is finite in it selfe though infinite in value in that it was the righteousnesse of such a person This righteousnesse of God-man may be considered two wayes First absolutely in it selfe Secondly respectively as done for us 1. Christs absolute righteousnesse is not imputed to us viz. as he is Mediatour Head of the Church having the Spirit without measure which is next to infinite c. for though these things are applyed for our good yet they are not imputed as our righteousnesse and therefore the objection vanisheth which saith we cannot be justified by Christs righteousnesse because it is of such infinite perfection 2. The respective or dispensative righteousnesse which some call justitia fidejussoria is that whereby Christ is just for us in fulfilling the Law in bearing Gods Image we once had and have now lost by sin and thus we are truly said to be as righteous as Christ by imputation because hee kept the Law for us and here observe that the question is not whether all that Christ did and had is imputed to us as our righteousnesse but whether all that he did pro nobis for us as a surety in fulfilling the Law be not for substance our righteousnesse and therefore to think that we are not justifyed by Christs righteousnesse because then we are justifyed by his working of miracles preaching of Sermons which women are not regularly capable of is but to cast blocks before the blind so that though Christ doth not bestow his personall wisdome and justice upon another yet what hinders but that that which Christ doth by his wisdome and righteousnesse for another the same should stand good for him for whom it is done for thus it is in sundry cases among men Christs essentiall righteousnesse infinite wisdome fulnesse of spirit without measure c. is not imputed to us yet these have conspired together to doe that for us and suffer that for us by which we come to bee accounted righteous before God hee shall be called the Lord our righteousnesse Ier. 23.6 This righteousnesse therefore imputed to us justifies us Rom. 5.18 we are said to be made the righteousnesse of God in him not the righteousnesse of God whereby he is just but whereby we are just opposed to the righteousnesse of man which is called our owne righteousnesse Rom. 10.3 Rom. 1.17 Not righteousnesse from him as the Papists dreame but righteousnesse in him nor remission by Christ only but righteousnesse in Christ this imputed justifies as sin imputed condemnes Who are the persons the Lord doth justifie They are beleevers we are justifyed by faith Rom. 5. or for Christs righteousnesse apprehended by faith Phil. 3.9 it is by faith not as a work of grace but as by an instrument appointed of God for this end Christ did not dye that our sins should be actually and immediately pardoned but mediately by Faith Iohn 3.16 Iohn 17.20 and the Lord in wisdome hath appointed this as the only means of applying righteousnes because this above all other graces cast down all the righteousnesse of man in point of justification and so all cause of boasting and advanceth grace and mercy only Rom. 3.27 Rom. 4.16 Rom. 4.5 Rom. 9.30 31 32. the faithfull account themselves ungodly in the businesse of justification and thence it is said that Abraham though a godly man in himselfe yet beleeved in him that justifies the ungodly he only is righteous whom God pronounceth and saith is righteous Now Faith above all other graces beleeves the word and a Beleever saith I beleeve I am righteous before God not because I feele it so in my selfe but because God saith I am so in his Son so that you are not justified before you beleeve nor then only when you have performed many holy duties but at the first instant of your closing with Christ you are then to see it and by Faith to admire Gods rich grace for it What is the extent of this sentencâ— The description saith that Christs satisfaction thus applyed the Father doth two things 1. He absolves them from all guilt and condemnation of sin so that in this sense
saved Now to beleeve with the heart as it doth not exclude assent so it necessarily includes the acts of the will and affections in relying upon him and comming to him And hence when Peter had made that confession Acts 16.16 Christ tells him Thou art Peter i. e. a stone resting upon the rock as some good Interpreters expound it and therefore Peters faith did not exclude these principall acts of resting on Christ cleaving to Christ but did include and suppose them 2. Some run into another extreame and make faith nothing else but a perswasion or assurance that Christ dyed for me in particular or that he is mine That which moves some thus to think is the universall redemption by the death of Christ they know no ground or bottome for faith but this Proposition Christ dyed for thee and hence make Redemption universall And hence the Arminians boast so much of their Quod unusquisque tenetur credere c. But 1. This is a false bottome for Christ hath not dyed for all because he hath not prayed for all Iohn 17. 2. T is a sandy bottome and foundation which when a Christian rests upon it shakes under him when the soule shall think though Christ hath dyed for me yet no more for me then for Iudas or thousands of reprobates now in hell Indeed after faith a Christian is bound to beleeve it as Paul did Gal 2.20 1 Cor. 15.1 2. I conceive therefore those holy men of ours who have described Faith by Assurance have not so much aymed at a description of what Faith is in it selfe as it possesseth us with Christ but of what degree and extent it may be and should be in us they describe it therefore by the most eminent act of it in full assurance and therefore consult with the Authors of this description and enquire of them Is there no doubting mixt with faith Yes say they mans doubtings sometimes are even unto a kind of despaire but then say they it should not be thus The Papists commend doubtings and deny assurance place faith in a generall assent our champions that were to wrastle with them maintained it to be a particular application and not onely a generall assent and that with a ful assurance of perswasion which being the most eminent act of faith excludes not other inferiour acts of it which as they are before it so may possesse the soule with Christ without it Although withall it is certaine that there is no true faith but it hath some assurance of which afterward Let me now come to the explication of the description given where note these five things 1. The efficient cause of Faith it is a work of the Spirit 2. The subject or matter in which it is seated viz. the soule of an humble sinner 3. The forme of it viz. the comming of the whole soule to Christ. 4. The end of it viz. for Christ and all his benefits 5. The speciall ground and means of it viz. the Call of Christ in his Word 1. The efficient cause of Faith Faith is a gracious work of the Spirit of Christ the Spirit therefore is the efficient cause or principall workman of faith the Spirit doth not beleeve but causeth us to beleeve t is not principium quod the principle which doth beleeve but principium quo the principle by which we doe the soules of all the elect especially when humbled are of all other things most unable to beleeve nay look as before compunction and humiliation Satan held the soule captive chiefly by its lusts and sinnes so now when the Lord hath burnt those cords and broken those chaines all the powers of darknesse strengthen themselves and keep the soule under mightily by unbeliefe What doe you tell me of mercy saith the soule t is mercy which I have continually resisted desperately despised why doe you perswade me to beleeve Alas I cannot t is true all that which you say is true if I could beleeve but I cannot see Christ I cannot come at Christ I seek him in the meanes but he forsakes me there and I am left of God desolate and here beloved the soule had not formerly so many excuses for its sinne as now it hath clouds of objections against beleeving the Spirit therefore takes fast hold of the soules of all the elect drawes them unto Christ and therefore it is called the spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4.13 and that by an omnipotent and irresistable power Esay 53.1 Who hath beleeved and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed that the soule must and shall beleeve now Compell them to come in saith the Lord of the Supper Luke 14.23 This the Arminians will not beleeve for say they the Question is not Whether we are enabled to beleeve by grace but Wheâ—her it be after this manner and by this meanes viz. modo irresistibile Consider therefore these Reasons to cleare this point 1. Whence doth our call and comming to Christ arise but from Gods immoveable and unchangeable purpose the Lord therefore must either alter his purpose or prevail with the soule to beleeve and over-power the heart thereunto 2. Is not Christ Jesus bound by office promise to his Father to bring in all his lost scattered sheep that so the Father and he may be glorified in them Iohn 10.16 Other sheep I have those I must bring home and they shall heare my voice You that complaine you cannot beleeve nay that you have no heart to beleeve the Lord must fetch you in and you shall heare the Bride-groomes voice with joy 3. Is not the act of beleeving wrought by a creating power Eph. 1.9 Eph. 2.10 Esay 57.18 19. I create the fruit of the lips peace peace to him that is near and a far off and is not a creating voice irresistible though there be nothing for it to work upon so though you have no ability heart head or strength to beleeve yet the Lord will create the fruit of the lips of Gods messengers Peace Peace 4. Doth not the Lord let in that infinite and surpassing sweetnesse of grace when he works the soule to beleeve standing in extreame need of that grace that it cannot but come and cleave to it Psal. 63.2 3. I long to see thee saith David for thy loving kindnesse is better then life is it possible for a man not to cleave to his life much more to that which is better then life the light is so cleare it cannot but see and wonder at grace the good is so sweet it cannot but tast and accept what God so freely offers and therefore the poor Canaanitish woman Mat. 15. could not be driven away though Christ bid her in a manner be gone but she made all the objections against her arguments for her as usually faith doth when under this stroake of the Spirit The violent take the Kingdome of heaven by force the Spirit puts a necessity upon them and irresistibly overpowers them and this is the cause
with them in the same way as they doe Suppose some Reprobates doe see sin yet the Lord puts a secret vertue in that work of conviction upon thee which makes thee cry to heaven for a Spirit of brokennesse for sin which without this sight of sinne thou wouldst never so much as have desired and this they have not However conviction is a work of the Spirit though it should be but common and wilt not be thankfull for common mercy suppose it be but outward how much more for this that is spirituall though it should be common especially considering that it is the first fundamentall work of the Spirit and is seminally all Sense of sin begins here and ariseth hence as ignorance of sin is seminally all sin Remember that the discovery of Faux in the Vault was the preservation of England we use to remember the day and houre of the beginning of some great and notable deliverance oh remember this time wherein the love of Christ first brake out in convincing thee of thy sin who els hadst certainly perished in it And thus much of this first work of Conviction now the second followes Compunction SECT III. The second Act of Christs power in working Compunction or sense of sin COmpunction pricking at the heart or sense and feeling of sin is different from conviction of sin the latter is the work of the understanding and seated in that principally the other is in the affections and will and seated therein principally a man may have sight of sin without sorrow and sense of it Dan 5.22 with 20.21 Iames 1.24 Rom. 2.20 21. Yet that conviction which the Spirit workes in the Elect is ever accompanied with compunction first or last For the better unfolding of this point let me open these foure things to you 1. That compunction or sense of sin immediately follows conviction of sin in the day of Christs power 2. The necessity of this work to succeed the other 3. Wherein it consists 4. The measure of it in all the Elect. That compunction followes conviction is evident from Scripture and Reason Acts 2.37 When they heard this that is when they saw and were convinced of their sinne in crucifying the Lord of life which they did not imagine to be a sinne before what followes next it is said They were pricked at the heart Loe here is compunction Ephraim also in turning unto God Ier. 31.19 hath these words After that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh as men in great calamity befallen 〈◊〉 use to doe I was ashamed even confounded because I did beare the reproach of my youth The men of Nineveh hearing by the Prophet they were all to dye within forty daies it is said they beleeved God in the work of conviction and then fell to sack-cloth and ashes in the work of compunction which did immediately follow Iosiah 2 Chron. 34.27 in his renewed returne unto God after hee heard the words of the law his heart melted and he wept before the Lord. For what is the end of conviction is it not compunction for if the Lord should let a man see his sin and death for sinne and yet suffer the heart to remaine hard and unaffected the Lord did but leave him without excuse nay the Lord should but leave him under greater misery under a more fearfull judgement viz. for a man to see and know his sin and yet unaffected with it and hardned under it hardnesse of heart is one of the greatest judgements to see sinne and not to be affected with it argues greater hardnesse For it is no wonder if they that see not and know not sin remain senselesse of sin alas they know not what they doe but for a man to be enlightned and see his sinne and yet unaffected Lord how great is this hardnesse and how unexcusable will such a man be left before God when the Lord shall reckon with him for his hardnesse of heart â— What is the end of that light the Lord lets into the understanding in other things is it not that thereby the heart might be affected throughly with it Why doth the Lord let in the light of the knowledge of Christ and of his will Is it that this knowledge should like froth float in the understanding and be imprisoned there No verily but that the heart might be throughly and deeply affected therewith And doe you think the Lord will in the light of conviction imprison it up in the mind is there not a farther end that by this light the heart might be deeply affected with sinne if any say that the end of conviction is to drive the soule to Christ I grant that is the remote and last end of it but the next end is compunction For if the understanding be convinced of misery and the heart remain hard the mind may see indeed that righteousnesse and life only is to be had in Christ yet the heart remaining hard the wil and affections will never stir toward Christ its impossible a hard heart remaining such wholly unaffeâ—ted with sin or misery should be truly affected with Jesus Christ but of this more hereafter What necessity is there of this compunction to succeed conviction I speak now of necessity in way of ordinary dispensation not of Gods unusuall and extraordinary way of working where hee useth neither Law nor Gospell as ordinaâ—rily he doth to work by Many have been nibling lately at this doctrine and demand What need is there of sorrow and compunction of heart A man may be converted only by the Gospell and God may let in sweetnesse and joy without any sense of sinne or misery and in my experience I have found it so others godly and gracious also feele it so why therefore doe any presse such a necessity of comming in by this back-doore unto Christ This point I conceive is very weighty and much danger in denying the truth of it yet withall there needs much tendernesse in handling of it lest any stumble and therefore before I lay downe the reasons to shew the necessity of it give me leave to propound these rules both for the clearing of the point and answering sundry objections usually made about this point In this work of compunction doe not think that the Lord hath not wrought any true sense of sinne because you find it not in such a measure as you imagine you should desire to have and that others feele sense of sin admits degrees I doubt not but Iosephs brethren were humbled yet Ioseph must be more he must be cast into the ditch and into the prison and the iron must enter not onely into his legs but into his soule Psal. 105.18 He must be more afflicted in spirit because he was to doe greater work for God and was to be raised up higher then the rest and therefore did need the more ballast some are educated more civilly then others and thereby have contracted lesse guilt and stoutnesse of heart
against God and his wayes therefore these have not such cause of trouble and being lesse rugged have lesse need of axes to hew them some mens sorrow breaks in upon them more suddenly like storms and breaches of the sea and the Lord is resolved to hasten and finish his work in them more speedily and it may be more exemplarily for every Christian is not a faire coppy as in those Acts 2.37 In others their sorrowes soake in by degrees Gutta cavat lapidem the Lord empties them by continuall droppings and hence feele not that measure of sorrow that others doe every Christian is not a Heman Psal. 88. who suffers distracting feares and terrours from his youth up ver 15 who is afflicted with all Gods waves ver 7. for he was a man of exceeding high parts and gifts as you may see 1 King 4.31 and therefore the Lord had need of hanging some speciall plummets on his heart to keep it ever low lest it should be lifted up above measure Some sense of sin the Lord will work in all he sayes but not the same measure the Lord gives not alway unto his that which is good in it self its good I confesse to be deeply affected and humbled but that which is fit and therefore best for thee Doe not think there is no compunction or sense of sin wrought in the soule because you cannot so cleerly discern and feele it nor the time of the working and first beginning of it I have knowne many that have come with complaints they were never humbled they never felt it so nor yet could tell the time when it was so yet there it hath been and many times they have seen it by the help of others spectacles and blest God for it When they in Esay 63.17 complained Lord why hast thou hardned our hearts from thy feare doe you think there was no softnesse nor sensiblenesse indeed Yes verily but they felt nothing but a hard heart nay such hardnesse as if the Lord had plagued them with it by his owne immediate hand and not borne and bred with them onely as with other men Many a soule may think the Lord hath left it nay smitten it with a hard heart and so make his mone of it yet the Lord hath wrought reall softnesse under felt-hardnesse as many times in Reprobates there is felt softnesse when within there is reall hardnesse The stony-ground-hearers were plowed and broken on the top but were stony at the bottome Some men may be wounded outwardly and mortally this may easily be discerned The Lord may wound others and they may bleed out their sorrow is more inwardly and secretly and therefore cannot point with their finger to their wound as others can Doe not think the Lord works compunction in all the Elect in the same circumstantiall work of the Spirit but onely in the same substantiall work the Lord works a true sense of sin for the substance and truth of it yet there are many circumstantiall works like so many inlargements and comments upon one and the same Text. Ex. gratia The same sin that affects Paul it may be doth not affect Lydia or Apollos The same notions for the aggravation of sinne in one doe not come into the mind of the other the same complaints and prayers and turnings of spirit in the one may not be in the same circumstances and with the like effects as in the other and yet both of them feele sin and therefore complaine they both feele sin yet by means of various apprehensions and aggravations This I speak because you may the better understand the meaning of Gods servants iâ— opening the work of humiliation You may heare them say the soule doth this and thinks that and speaks another thing it may be every one doe not so think in the same individuall circumstances and therefore are to be understood as producing onely exemplum in re simili something like this or for the substance of this is there wrought In this work of compunction we must not bring rules unto men but men to rules Crook not Gods rules to the experience of men which is fallible and many times corrupt but bring men unto the rule and try mens estates herein by that For many will say Some men are not humbled at all never had any precedent sorrow for sinne Gods mercy onely hath melted their hearts and experience proves this and many finde this who are sincere and gracious Christians I answer we are not in this or any other point to be guided by the experience of men onely but attend the rule if it be proved that according to the rule men must be broken and affected with their sin and misery before mercy can be truly apprehended or Christ accepted what tell you me of such or such men let the rule stand but let men stand or fall according to the rule many are accounted godly and gracious for a time much affected with mercy and Christ Jesus yet afterward fall or wizen into nothing and prove very unsound What is the reason Truly the cause was here their first wound and sorrow for sin was not right as hereafter shall be made good many thousands are miserably deceived about their estates by this one thing of crooking and wresting Gods rules to Christians experiences let all Gods servants tremble and be wary here wrack not the holy Scriptures nor force them to speak as thou feelest but try all things by them 1 Thes. 5.21 Doe not make the examples of converted persons in Scripture patternes in all things of persons unconverted do not make Gods work upon the one run parallel with Gods work upon the other Some say that many in Scripture are converted to Christ without any sorrow for sin and produce the example of Lydia whose heart God sweetly opened to receive Christ and the Eunuch Acts 8. converted in the same manner I answer these are examples of persons converted to God before who did beleeve in the Messiah but did not know that this Jesus was the Messiah which they soon did when the Lord sent the meanes to reveale Christ and therefore Lydia a Jewish proselyte is called a worshipper of God Act. 16.14 and so was the Eunuch Act. 8.27 and in the same condition as the Centurion Act. 10.2 who feared God and whose prayers were accepted ver 4. which cannot be without faith yet did not know that this Jesus crucified was the Messiah untill Peter came unto him So that suppose here was no sense or sorrow for sinne at this time doth it therefore follow they never had any when the Lord at first wrought upon them are these examples in persons converted fit to shew forth Gods work in persons unconverted in some things indeed they are examples in others not so their examples of beleeving in Christ are not in that act examples of sorrow for want of Christ. And yet let me adde to say that God opened Lydia's heart to beleeve in