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A27592 A conciliatory discourse upon Dr. Crisp's sermons on the observation of Mr. William's dissatisfactions in them : in which the unsearchable riches of Christ ... / by T. Beverley. Beverley, Thomas. 1692 (1692) Wing B2134; ESTC R34407 34,697 34

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Suretyship and Testamentary Grace or the last Will of Jesus Christ display themselves as if all things were carryed by Intellectual Conditionalities and the Obedience and free Complyances of those who are the Election of God of those that are Called according to Purpose while in the mean time they are most Efficaciously and yet most sweetly Swayed and Influenc'd by the Power and Grace of God in Christ and by the Increated Spirit that cannot miss of the end design'd and though all be Vested in the Action of those who are thus Chosen and Called yet not under the Incertainty of a Condition but the Infallible Certainty of a Divine Disposition a Testamentary Gift of our great Testator a Discharge of our Surety for us though within us an Acquist of our Mediator by Intercession on his own Blood of the Everlasting Covenant presented in Heaven for us Heb. 9 12. III. And thus also there is a Justification of God in his Holyness and Righteousness as also in his Patience and Long Suffering towards those whom he leaves to themselves who being applyed to according to their own Nature as Creatures of Reason and Understanding according to all the Riches of the Word of God to that purpose are condemned in not receiving such every way sufficient Applications taking them so every way as such Rational Creatures and suited thereunto which could not be so gloriously Demonstrated and Illustrated if there were not such a fittedness of the Word of God and of the Overtures of Life and Salvation by way of Condition To one Mat. 13. 11. it is given to the other it is not given So vain is that Exposition of Dr. Hammond and violent a Perversion of Scripture As many as were ordain'd viz. as he speaks fitted by former Discipline to receive the Eternal Life of the Gospel Acts 2. ult believed As appears from Rom. 9. 23. For what Discipline prepared beforehand the Gentiles to Calling or Glory Head 9. Faith is not an Assurance or Inward Persuasion that Christ is ours and that our Sins are Pardon'd But it is Accepting Receiving and Resting upon Christ alone for Justification Conciliation That Faith is a Grace of a most large and spreading Nature and Action as it is represented to us in the Word of God can be by no one that considers it denyed So that there may be many Excellent and Profitable Discourses upon it that may look very distantly one upon another and yet meet in the iame Center Yet Faith as it respects Pardon of Sin and Justification cannot have a fairer and fuller Proposition given it than that saying Worthy of both Belief or full Assent of the Judgment and Acceptation of the Will viz. that Christ came to save the chief of Sinners 1 Tim. 1 15. Now this Proposition every one is to particularize to himself as the Apostles in believing and so it differs nothing from Assurance in the Root at least And that Assurance is every way most Connatural to it is evident by the Apostles speaking of the full Assurance of Knowledge Col. 2. 2. As Faith is an Intellectual Assent to Divine Revelation The full Assurance of Faith as it is an Application for Pardon to the Blood of Christ sprinkling the Heart from an evil Conscience Heb. 10. 22. and the full Assurance of Hope Heb. 6. 11. as Faith concerning our present Interests in Christ not yet appearing fully or in future Glory aides it self against present low Appearances of its pardon'd justify'd State or its future Glory Thus a Plerophory or full Assurance in relation to Faith cannot merit any Indignation as against an Error And indeed it is so essential to Faith that there never was nor can be any true Faith without the Root and Seed of it and the Letting it down in the Descriptions and Discourses of it from this full Assurance is in compassion to the low State Tempted Deserted Afflicted Doubting State of sincere Christians It was the general Doctrin of the first Reformers when the Light was purest and quickest And it is very suspitionable the Letting it down lower may have had its Ill as well as its good Effects For if Christians aim'd in all their ways at full Assurance it would engage them to higher Aims in Holyness and closer Walking It being impossible even in the Judgment of Natural Light and Reason to separate Holyness from such Assurance or that receiving Christ as Lord and King should be made to part from it but that it would flow out into all Expressions of the Warmest and Indearedst Love to him Whereas Christians Resting and thinking it a piece of Modesty and Humility it were well if it were not allyed to that Voluntary Humility spoken of Col. 2. 18. to be in doubt and only flatly and deadly to hope well in general They find not these pungent Arguments to move Accurate and Universal Obedience but poize the one to the other their Obedience to their Measure of Assurance For a rude Presumption or bold Saying Christ is ours and our Sins are pardon'd in the midst of Licentions and loose Living is worthy only to be exploded and Hissed off the very Profession of Christianity and cannot obtain the least Credit either with others or even the Rational Conscience in themselves So that were it not in Tenderness to the Weakness of Christians in general Preaching Faith so as to include Assurance in it would be undoubtedly the best and even that taken care of as well as it may be I know not whether it might not be much to the Interest and Glory of Christianity to wind it up in the most stated Discourses of Faith to the Apostles Plerophory or full A●●urance of Knowledge Faith and Hope from which Exceptions might be made and Allowances for the Weakness of Christians in particular Exigencies This sure would more ennoble Christianity It was the Illustrious State of the very Primitive Christianity which we read of in that most admirable part of Church History the five first Chapters of the Acts of the Apostles To this I doubt not it will be restor'd within few Years when in the Succession of the Kingdom of Christ and by the Proclaiming The Kingdoms of this World are the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Rev. 11. 15. The Servants of God shall appear on Mount Zion with the Lamb having the Fathers Name not Sealed under Reserve as yet it is but Written in Capital Letters in splendid Characters on their Foreheads It is the dark and foul place of the Apostacy 2 Pet 1. 19. in which we are the Beasts forty two Months being though near yet not fully expired Rev. 13. 5. that brings so low the Doctrin of Faith as being not Assurance And because in the Reformation begun Christ appear'd making his Challenge of his Kingdom and the seven Thunders of highest Gospel Doctrin uttered their Voices Rev. 10. A Chapter on purpose to give us the Prophetick Landskip of the Reformation There was the high Doctrin of Faith
Yet speaking in the Language of Eternity he calls them Vessels of Mercy Vessels unto Honour And indeed whatever is looked upon as only a Motion or Ordination of Time must needs arise from our selves For all Acts of Grace are Eternal in their Spring and Fountain Time therefore genders only to a Covenant of Works I know not therefore but why as the generality of Preachers enlarge most upon the one as to unconverted Elect There may not be some stirr'd up and enabled of God to triumph in the Savour of the Knowledg of Christ made known by them in the other while they Center upon the Eteral Election of God demonstrating it self in Calling Conversion Sanctification But they only can do this who have receiv'd it as a peculiar Talent But I doubt not the Spirit of it will within short time be pour'd out more abundantly and that it shall not turn to Licentiousness but overflow with Holyness and Purity as also Efficacy of Conversion The third Head I Transpose into the second Place as being more Congenial or of a kind with the first and will joyn the second with the fourth and those following to Head 8th Head 2. The laying the Sins of the Elect upon Christ is not their Discharge from their Sins This is oppos'd to what Dr. Crisp hath said All the Weight and all the Burden of Sin the very Sin it self is long ago laid upon Christ and that laying it on him is a full Discharge and Release to that c. The Conciliation To an Eternal Being there must needs be an Eternal Justification because there is no new thing to him The Apostle therefore makes the whole Chain of Salvation of an Eternal old Style whom he Foreknew he Called he Justified he Glorified Rom. 8. 30. All in the Time pass'd not in the Style of Time but of Eternity But when we speak in new Style Style of Time there is not an actual Discharge of Sin or a Justification of a Sinner by Election but according to the order of things fix'd by God in Time Even so if we consider Sins lay'd upon Christ even the Sins of all the Elect in the Fulness of Time as the Apostle styles it That Fulness of Time may be very well supposed to collect into it self all Time And as the Sins that were past were Recollected so the Sins to come were Forepriz'd into it And all this issues into the Fulness of Times that is of all Time in the Kingdom of Christ For as Christ dyed in the Fullness of Time so the Glory of his Redemption appears in the Fulness of Times Eph. 1. 10. of All Time when all Things in Heaven and Earth shall be Recapitulated in him which yet we know they are not The Offering of Christ therefore is an Offering once for all and it is one Offering that forever Perfects and Jesus Christ is Yesterday and to Day the same forever As then all Time is gather'd into that Fulness of Time So that Fulness of Time redounds upon all Time and Flows out upon it till it Flows into that Fulness of Times Now as the Lord of Time offered Himself in the Fulness of Time he expiated all Sins in that Fulness and what was expiated in the Fulness can never be charged in the Retail of Time for then it was not expiated Although therefore when we are spoken of and unto as not the Lords of Time but the Subjects of Time we are oblig'd to measure it out by Parts as being Inferiors to it and below the Hill to it we see the Approaches of its Events one after another only but the Lord Paramount of it being so high above it sees all at once we are Creatures but of the Parts of it so indeed we are not Discharged from Sin in the Discharge of Christ But from hence to conclude we are not in highest Sense Discharg'd but that if the Elect dye before Faith and Repentance they are lost for ever is to make supposition of Impossibilities it is to set Time the small outlet of Eternity to rise up and Encounter and lead Captive Eternity even the Eternity of Election and that the parts of Time may be set in Battel Array and subdue the Fulness of Time But this can by no serious Considerer be allow'd I find not then but as there is just Reason to represent to Men that till they find within themselves the Efficacies of the Death and Redemption of Christ by Faith and Repentance they stand in the sight of their own Consciences as Persons who have no Interest in that Death in that Redemption And that this is proper on one side representing God and Christ therein as the Rector and Governor of the World to move them to Repentance and it is that which Scripture does very largely and frequently insist upon So on the other side it is most true That the Foundation of God stands sure and cannot shake nor totter even under this very Seal single and alone That the Lord knows who are his and that his Election shall break out with all the mighty Effects he hath pitch'd upon as most suitable and Connatural to it So that it shall produce in all its own the Derivative Stamp Let him that nameth the Name of Christ depart from all Iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. And that Christ is in all Senses the Certain and Infallible Sanctifier of his People by his Blood That he not only as a Judge and a Law-giver but as a Prince gives Repentance and Remission of Sins This may be as hopeful to move the Spirits of Men and be as gracious a Conveyance of the mighty Efficacy of the Divine Grace and Spirit For as these are rich Truths of Scripture so they have an admirable mooving Stroke upon the Hearts and Minds of Men And he that Ministers them is a Minister far more immediately of the Spirit that giveth Life of that without which the Evangelick Law is a Letter that kills Head 3 to Head 8. I put these Heads together because there cannot be any difference in the main Notions but only in the different ways of Expressions and what each part may think will most lively illustrate and make the deepest imprint of the great Scripture-truths upon the Heart I say there can be no difference in the main Truths between Persons sober and Reverent of God and of Christ for who can think the filth of Sin transacted on Christ in such a sense as that Christ should be defiled by it But now there must needs be a Moral Impurity in every Sin as it is a Recess from the Holiness of God from the Righteousness of the Divine Law there is a Dishonour a Blot a Stain and Blemish a Deformity a loss of Beauty and Honour and Happy Conformity to Goodness and Righteousness This is intended by Reatus Culpae another thing from the Reatus Poenae or a meer Obligation to Punishment I demand then What becomes of this Obliquity the Guilt of the very