hath been one occasion of the prevailing of Heathenish Jewish and Popish Superslitions in the World We find by experience how Popery fell in several Nations in late years when the great Pillar of it the Doctrine of Justification by Works was overthrown by the Protestant Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone If these Legal Zealots be forced by strong Conviction to endeavour the Practice of spiritual Duties for the quieting of their guilty Consciences they may be brought to strive and labour earnestly and even to macerate their Bodies with Fasting that they may kill their Lusts but still their Lusts are alive and as strong as ever they were and do shew forth their Enmity against the Law of God by inward fretting repining and grudging at it as a grievous Task-mastertho ' a slavish Fear restrain their gross outward actings And if once these Zealots be enlightned with the Knowledge of the Spiritual nature of the Law to discern that God rejecteth all their slavish Service and will not own it for sincere Obedience then they fall into Despair of their Salvation because they see they have failed in their highest attempts to perform the Condition and then they can easily discover themselves that their Hearts swell in Anger and manifest Hatred against the Law yea and against God and Christ for prescribing such hard Conditions of Salvation which they cannot keep and yet expect to be damned eternally for breaking of them This filleth them with blasphemous thoughts against God and Christ and they can hardly refrain from blaspheming with their tongues and when they are brought to this horrible Condition if God doth not in mercy discover to them the way of Salvation by Free-grace through Faith alone they will endeavour if they can to sear their Consciences past feeling of Sin and fully to abandon all Religion which have proved such an unsufferable Torment to them or if they cannot sear their Consciences some of them are easily prevailed over by Satan rather to murder themselves than to live longer in the Hatred of God the Spirit of Blasphemy and continual horror of Conscience This is the pestilent effect of Legal-Doctrine upon a carnal heart that doth but rouse up and terribly enrage the sleeping Lion our sinful Gorruption instead of killing of it as is too evident by the sad Experience of many that have endeavoured with all their might to practice it and by the Scripture that sheweth a sufficient cause why it cannot be otherwise Therefore the Doctrine of Salvation by sincere Obedience that was invented against Antinomianism may well be ranked amongst the worst Antinomian Errors For my part I hate it with perfect Hatred and count it mine Enemy as I have found it to be and I have found by some good Experience the Truth of the Lesson taught by the Apostle that the way to be freed from the Mastery and Dominion of Sin is not to be under the law but under grace Rom. 6.15 6thly The way of Salvation by works was blasted by the Curse denounced against the first Adam's Sin so that now it cannot work Life in us or Holiness but only Death For the Law which requireth both sincere and perfect Obedience to God in all things was made known to Adam at his first Creation as the means of continuing the happy Life that was then bestowed upon him and it would have been effectual for this end if he had not transgressed in the forbidden fruit but when he had once brought himself and his Posterity under the terrible Sentence Thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 all that Knowledge of God or his Law that before wrought for continuance of Life was turned by that cursing Sentence the contrary way to work for his death even for the death of his Soul in sin as well as for the death of his Body and therefore it quickly moved him to hide himself from God as an enemy It was as if God should say All the light and knowledge that thou hast shall not be able to continue thy life or restore it but it shall rather tend to thy death Therefore while we continue in our Natural state under the first Adam's Guilt and Curse the knowledge of the Law yea and all such knowledge of God and his Attributes as natural Men may attain to must needs be in like manner accursed to us and seeing Man did not use his natural Knowledge and Wisdom aright God is resolved to revenge the abuse of it by giving us Salvation in a way contrary to it that seemeth foolishness to the Natural man and wholly to abolish the way of living by any of our works or by any Wisdom or Knowledge that the Natural-man can attain unto for it is written I will destrey the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.19 20 21. Hence we may conclude that no Truth known by the light of Nature can be an effectual Principle or Motive to work Holiness in us and Gospel-principles and Motives are but abused when they are applied to a Legal-way of Salvation 7thly The end which God aimed at in giving the Law by Moses was not that any should ever attain to Holiness or Salvation by the condition of perfect or sincere Obedience to it tho' if there had been any such way of Salvation at that time it must have consisted in the Performance of that Law which was then given to the Church to be a Rule of Life as well as a Covenant There was another Covenant made before that time with Abraham Isaac and Jacob a Covenant of Grace promising all Blessings freely through Christ the promised Seed by which only they were to be saved and the Covenant of the Law was added that they might-see their sinfulness and subjection to death and wrath and the impossibility of attaining to life or holiness by their works and be forced to trust on the free Promise only for all their Salvation and that Sin might be restrained by the Spirit of Bondage until the coming of that promised Seed Jesus Christ and the more plentiful pouring out of the sanctifying Spirit by him This the Apostle Paul sheweth largely Gal. 3.15 to 24. Rom. 5.20 21. Rom. 10.3 4. None of the Israelites under the Old Testament were ever saved by the Sinai-Covenant neither did any of them ever attain to Holiness by the terms of it Some of them did indeed perform the Commandments of it sincerely tho' imperfectly but those were first justified and made Partakers of Life and Holiness by virtue of that better Covenant made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob which was the same in substance with the New-covenant or Testament establish'd by the Blood of Christ Had it not been for that better Covenant the
necessary to the very being there of because Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God and receiveth Christ as manifested by the Word as I have before proved Raab the Canaanite was justifyed by Faith before she had any visible Commuion with the Church in any of God's Ordinances yet not without the Word of God even the same Word for Substance which was written in the Scriptures and was then extant in the Books of Moses Though that Word was not brought to her by any Book of Holy Scripture nor by the Preaching of any Holy Minister but by the Report of the Heathens Josh 2.9 11. But here our great work must be to get such a Knowledge of the Word as is necessary and sufficient to guide us in receiving of Christ and walking in him by Faith You must not be of their Minds that think the Knowledge of the Ten Commandments to be sufficient to Salvation or that would have Mysteries to remain hidden from the Understanding of the Vulgar and nothing to be Preached to them but that they can readily assent to and receive by the Light that is in all Men of which Mind it may be some Ministers are who unwitingly agree with the Quakers in a Fundamental of their Heresie But you must endeavour chiefly to know the Mystery of the Father and the Son as it is discovered in the Gospel Wherein are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.2 3. Which to know is life eternal and the ignorance of it is death eternal Joh. 17.3 2 Cor. 4.3 You must know that Christ is the end of the law Rom. 10.4 and therefore you must endeavour to know the Commands of the Law not that you may be enabled by that Knowledge to practife them immediately and so to procure Salvation by your Works but rather by your Knowledge of them you may be made sensible of your Inablility to perform them and of the Enmity that is in your Heart against them and the Wrath that you are under for breaking of them and the Impossibility of being saved by your own Works that so you may flee to Christ for Refuge and trust only to the Free Grace of God for Justification and Strength to fulfill the Law acceptably through Christ in your Conversation And for this end you must endeavour to learn the utmost Strictness of the Commands the exact Perfection and spiritual Purity which they require that you may be the more convinced of Sin and stired up to seek unto Christ for Remission of Sin for Purity of Heart and spiritual Obedience and be brought nearer to the Enjoyment of him As Christ testified that the Scribel who understood the greatness of that Command of Loving the Lord with all the Heart and Soul was not far from the Kingdom of God Mar. 12.34 the most effectual Knowledge for your Salvation is to understand these Two Points The desperate Sinfulness and Misery of your own natural Condition and the alone Sufficiency of the Grace of God in Christ for your Salvation that you may be abased as to the Flesh and exalted in Christ alone And for the better understanding of these Two main Points you should learn how the first Adam was the figure of the second Rom. 5.14 How Sin and Death came upon all the natural Seed of the first Adam by his Disobedience in eating the forbidden Fruit and how Righteousness and Everlasting Life come upon all the spiritual Seed of the second Adam Jesus Christ by his Obedience unto Death even the death of the Cross You also should learn the true difference betwixt the Two Covenants the Old and the New or the Law and the Gospel that the former shutteth us up under the Guilt and Power of Sin and the Wrath of God and his Curse by its rigorons Terms Do all the Commandments and live and cursed are you if you do them not and fail in the least Point The latter openeth the gates of righteousness and life to all Believers i. e. the New Covenant by its gracious Terms Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and live i. e. All your Sins shall be forgiven and Holiness and Glory shall be given to you freely by his Merit and Spirit Furthermore you should learn the Gospel Principles that you are to walk by for the attainment of Holiness in Christ And here I shall mind you particularly that you would be a good Proficient in Christian Learning if you get a good Understanding of the 6th and 7th Chapters of the Apostle Paul to the Romans where the powerful Principles of Sanctification are purposely treated of and differenced from those weak and ineffectual Principles which we are most naturally prone to walk by I need not particularly commend any other Points of Religion to your Learning for if you get the Knowledge of these principal Points which I have mentioned and improve it to a right end which is to Live and Walk by Faith in Christ your own renewed Mind will covet the Knowledge of all other things that appertain to Life and Godliness And if in any thing you be otherwise minded than is according to saving Truth God shall reveal even this unto you Phil. 3.15 Yet let me caution you lest instead of gaining Christ by your Knowledge you rather lose him by putting your Knowledge in the place of Christ and trusting on it for your Salvation One cause of the Jews perishing was that they rested in a form of knowledge and of the truth in the law Rom. 2.20 and doubtless all that many Christians will gain by their Knowledge in the end will only be to be beaten with more Stripes because they place their Religion and Salvation chiefly in the Knowledge of their Lords Will and in their Ability to Talk and Dispute of it though it may be for the most part at the Tavern or Ale-Bench without preparing themselves to do according thereunto Luk. 12.47 much less are you to place your Religion and hope of Salvation in a daily Task of reading Chapters or repeating Sermons without understanding more than the Papists do their Lessons in the Latin Mass and Canonical Hours as sad Experience sheweth that many seemingly Devout and frequent Hearers of the Word do notwithstanding remain in lamentable and wonderful Ignorance of the saving Truth and in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Isaias That in hearing they shall hear and not understand and in seeing they shall see c. Mat. 13.14 15. 2. Another means to be used diligently for the promoting of the Life of Faith is Examination of our State and Ways according to the Word whether we be at present in a State of Sin and Wrath or of Grace and Salvation that if we be in a State of Sin we may know our Sickness and come to the great Physician while it is called to day And if we be in a State of Grace ws may know that we are of the truth and assure our hearts before God with the greater confidence by
and to many other assertions in this whole Discourse If we believe it to be true we cannot rationally encourage ourselves to attempt an holy Practice until we are acquainted with some powerful and effectual means to enable us for it While Man continued upright in the Image of God as he was at first created Eccles 7.29 Gen. 1.27 he could do the Will of God sincerely as soon as he knew it but when he was fallen he was quickly afraid because of his Nakedness but could not help it at all until God discovered to him the means of restoration Gen. 3.10 Say to a strong healthy Servant Go and he goeth Come and he cometh Do this and he doth it but a bedridden Servant must know first how he may be enabled No doubt the fallen Angels know the necessity of Holiness and tremble at the guilt of their Sin but they know of no means for them to attain to Holiness effectually and so continue still in their wickedness It was in vain for Sampson to say I will go out as at other times before and shake myself when he had sinned away his strength Judges 16.20 Men shew themselves strangely forgetful or hypocritical in professing Original Sin in their Prayers Catechisms and Confessions of Faith and not urging upon themselves and others the Practice of the Law without the consideration of any strengthning enlivening Means as if there were no want of ability but only of activity 2ly Those that doubt of or deny the Doctrine of Original Sin may all of them know concerning themselves if their Consciences be not blind that the exact Justice of God is against them and they are under the Curse of God and Sentence of Death for their actual sins if God should enter into Judgment with them Rom. 1.32 2.2 3.9 Gal. 3.10 Is it possible for a Man that knoweth this to be his Case and hath not learned any means of getting out of it to practise the Law immediately To love God and every thing in him his Justice Holiness Power as well as his Mercy and to yield himself willingly to the disposal of God though God should inflict sudden Death upon him Is there no skill or artifice at all required in this Case to encourage the fainting Soul to the Practice of Universal Obedience 3ly Tho' Heathens might know much of the Work of the Law by the common Light of Natural Reason and Understanding Rom. 2.14 yet the effectual Means of performance cannot be discovered by that Light and therefore are wholly to be learned by the teaching of supernatural Revelalation For what is our Natural Light but some sparks and glimmerings of that which was in Adam before the Fall And even then in its brightest Meridian it was not sufficient to direct Adam how to recover ability to walk holily if once he should lose it by sin nor to assure him before-hand that God would vouchsafe to him any means of recovery God had set nothing but Death before his Eyes in case of Transgression Gen. 2.17 and therefore he hid himself from God when the shame of his Nakedness appeared as expecting no favour from him We are like Sheep gone astray and know not which way to return until we hear the Shepherd's Voice Can these dry Bones live to God in holiness O Lord thou knowest and we cannot know it except we learn it of thee 4ly Sanctification whereby our Hearts and Lives are conformed to the Law is a Grace of God communicated to us by means as well as Justification and by means of teaching and learning something that we cannot see without the Word Acts 26.17 18. There are several things pertaining to Life and Godliness that are given through knowledge 2 Pet. 1.3 There is a form of Doctrine made use of by God to make People free from Sin and Servants of Righteousness Rom. 6. v. 17 18. And there are several Pieces of the whole Armour of God necessary to be known and put on that we may stand against Sin and Satan in the evil day Eph. 6.13 Shall we slight and overlook the way of Sanctification when the learning the way of Justification hath been counted worth so many elaborate Treatises 5ly God hath given in the Holy Scriptures by his inspiration plentiful instruction in Righteousness that we may be throughly furnished for every good work 2 Tim. 3.16 17. especially since the day spring from an high hath visited us by the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to guide our feet in the way of peace Luke 1.78 79. If God condescend to us very low to teach us this way in the Scriptures and by Christ himself it must needs be greatly necessary for us to sit down at his feet and learn it 6ly The way of attaining to Godliness is so far from being known without learning out of the Holy Scripture that when it is here plainly revealed we cannot learn it so easily as the Duties of the Law which are known in part by the Light of Nature and therefore more easily assented unto It is the way whereby the Dead are brought to live unto God and therefore doubtless it is far above all the thoughts and conjectures of human Wisdom It is the way of Salvation wherein God will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent by discovering things by his Spirit that the natural Man receiveth not for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 1.19.21 2.14 Without controversie great is the mystery of godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 The learning of it requireth double work because we must unlearn many of our former deeply rooted Notions and become fools that we may be wise We must pray earnestly to the Lord to teach us as well as search the Scriptures that we may get this knowledge O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I shall keep it to the end Psal 119.5.33 Teach me to do thy will Psal 14.3 10. The Lord direct your hearts unto the love of God 2 Thess 3.5 Surely these Saints did not so much want teaching and direction concerning the Duties of the Law to be done as concerning the Way and Means whereby they might do them 7ly The certain knowledge of these powerful and effectual Means is of greatest importance and necessity for our establishment in the true Faith and avoiding Errors contrary thereunto For we cannot rationally doubt that the Moral Duties of Love to God and our Neighbour are absolutely necessary to true Religion so that it cannot subsist without them And from this Principle we may firmly conclude that nothing repugnant to the practice of these holy Duties ought to be received as a Point of Faith delivered to us by the most holy God and that whatsoever is truly necessary powerful and effectual to bring us to the practice of them ought to be believed as
after the Spirit Rom. 8.3 4. Observe here that though Christ died that we might be justified by the Righteousness of God and of Faith not by our own Righteousness which is of the Law Rom. 10.4 5 6. Phil. 3.9 yet he died also that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us and that by walking after his Spirit as those that are in Christ Rom. ibid. He is resembled in his Death to a Corn of Wheat dying in the Earth that it may propagate its own nature by bringing forth much Fruit Joh. 12.24 to the Passover that was slain that a Feast might be kept upon it and to Bread broken that it may be Nourishment to those that eat it 1 Cor. 5.7 8. and 11.24 To the Rock smitten that Water may gush out of it for us to drink 1 Cor. 10.4 He died that he might make of Jew and Gentile one New Man in himself Ephes 2.15 and that he might see his seed i. e. such as derive their holy Nature from him Is 53.10 Let these Scriptures be well observed and they will sufficiently evidence that Christ died not that we might be able to form an holy Nature in our selves but that we might receive one ready prepared and formed in Christ for us by Union and Fellowship with him By his Resurrection he took Possession of Spiritual life for us as now fully procured for us and made to be our Right and Property by the Merit of his Death and therefore we are said to be quickned together with Christ even when we were dead in sins and to be raised up together yea and to be made to sit together in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus as our Head while we continue upon Earth in our own Persons Ephes 2.5 6. His Resurrection was our Resurrection to the Life of Holiness as Adam's Fall was our Fall into spiritual Death and we are not our selves the first makers and formers of our new holy Nature any more than of our Original Corruption but both are formed ready for us to partake of them And by Union with Christ we partake of that spiritual Life that he took Possession of for us at his Resurrection and thereby we are enabled to bring forth the Fruits of it as the Scripture sheweth by the Similitude of a Marriage Union Rom. 7.4 We are married to him that is risen from the Dead that we might bring forth Fruit unto God Baptism signifieth the Application of Christ's Resurrection to us as well as his Death we are raised up with him in it to newness of Life as well as buried with him and we are taught thereby that because he died unto sin once and liveth unto God we should likewise reckon our selves to be dead indeed unto Sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.4 5 10 11. Fourthly Our Sanctification is by the Holy Ghost by whom we live and walk holily Rom. 15.16 Gal. 5.25 Now the Holy Ghost first rested on Christ in all fulness that he might be communicated from him to us as was signified to John the Baptist by the Similitude of the descending of a Dove from the opened Heavens resting on Christ at his Baptism Joh. 1.32.33 And when he sanctifieth us he baptizeth us into Christ and joyneth us to Christ by himself as the great Bond of Union 1 Cor. 12.13 So that according to the Scriptural Phrase it is all one to have Christ himself and to have the Spirit of Christ in us Rom. 8.9 10. He glorifieth Christ for he receiveth those things that are Christ's and sheweth them to us Joh. 16.14 15. He giveth us an experimental Knowledge of those spiritual Blessings which he himself prepared for us by the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of Christ Fifthly The effectual Causes of those four principal Endowments which in the foregoing Direction were asserted necessary to furnish us for the immediate Practice of Holiness are comprehended in the fulness of Christ and treasured up for us in him and the Endowment themselves together with their Causes are attained richly by Union and Fellowship with Christ If we be joyned to Christ our Hearts will be no longer left under the Power of sinful Inclinations or in a meer indifferency of Inclination to good or evil but they will be powerfully endued with a Power Bent and Propensity to the Practice of Holiness by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and inclining us to mind spiritual things and to lust against the Flesh Rom. 8.1 4 5. Gal. 5.17 And we have in Christ a full Reconciliation with God and an Advancement into higher Favour with him than the first Adam had in the State of Innocency because the Righteousness that Christ wrought out for us by his Obedience unto Death is imputed to us for our Justification which is called the Righteousness of God because it was wrought by one that is God as well as Man and therefore it is of an infinite value to satisfie the Justice of God for all our sins and to procure his Pardon and highest Favour for us 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 1.19 And that we may be perswaded of this Reconciliation we receive the Spirit of Adoption through Christ whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 Hereby also we are perswaded of our future Enjoyment of the everlasting heavenly Happiness and of sufficient Strength both to will and to perform our Duty acceptably until we come to that Enjoyment For the Spirit of Adoption teacheth us to conclude that if we be the Children of God then we are heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ And that the Law of the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus maketh us free from the Law of Sin and Death and that nothing shall be against us nothing shall separate us from the Love of God in Christ but in all opposition and difficulties that we meet with we shall be at last more than conquerours through him that loved us Rom. 8.17.23 35 37 39. Furthermore this comfortable Perswasion of our Justification and future Happiness and all saving Priviledges cannot tend to licentiousness as it is given only in this way of Union with Christ because it is joyned inseparably with the Gift of Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ so that we cannot have Justication or any saving Priviledge in Christ except we receive Christ himself and his Holiness as well as any other Benefit as the Scripture testifieth that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 Sixthly Whereas it may be doubted whether the Saints that lived before the coming of Christ in the Flesh could possibly be one Flesh with him and receive a new Nature by Union and Fellowship with him as prepared for them in his fulness we are to know that the same Christ that took our Flesh was before Abraham Joh. 8.58 and was fore-ordained before the Foundation of the World to be sacrificed as a Lamb
then is it to plead that they can do good if they will when their Minds and Will it self is enslaved to Sin A fourth Property is Subjection to the power of the Devil who is the God of this world that hath blinded the minds of all that believe not 2. Cor. 4.4 And will certainly conquer all that he sighteth with upon his own Dunghill that is in a natural State And from all these Properties we may well conclude that it hath the Property never to be good to be stark dead in Sin Ephes 2.1 according to the Sentence denounced against the first Sin of Mankind in Adam in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 For you can no more bring it to Holiness by any the most vehement Motives and Endeavours then you can bring a dead Carcase to Life by chafing and rubbing it You can stir up no strength or fortifying Grace in the natural Man by such Motives and Endeavours because there is no Strength in him to be stirred up Rom. 5.6 Tho' you do all that lieth in you to the utmost while you are in this Flesh you can do nothing but sin for there is no good lying in you as the Apostle Paul sheweth by his own Experience I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 Sixthly We have no good ground to trust on Christ to help us to will or to do that which is acceptable to him while we continue in our natural State or to imagine that Freedom of Will to Holiness is restored to us by the Merit of his Death For as it hath been already shewed Christ aimed at an higher end in his Incarnation Death and Resurrection than the restoring the Decay and Ruins of our natural State He aimed to advance us to a new State more excellent than the State of Nature ever was by Union and Fellowship with himself that we might live to God not by the Power of a natural Free-will but by the Power of his Spirit living and acting in us So we may conclude that our natural State is irrecoverable and desperate because Christ the only Saviour did not aim at the Recovery of it It is neither holy nor happy but subject to Sin and to all Miseries as long as it remaineth Even those that are in a new State in Christ and do serve the Law of God with their Mind do yet with their Flesh serve the Law of Sin Rom. 7.25 As far as it remaineth in them it lusteth against the spirit Gal. 5.17 And it remaineth dead because of sin even when the spirit is life to them because of righteousness Rom. 8.10 And must be wholly abolished by Death before we can be perfected in that Holiness and Happiness that is by Faith in Christ After God had promised Salvation by Christ the Seed of the Woman he placed Cherubims and a flaming Sword to keep Man out of Paradice thereby teaching him that his first State was lost without Hope and that the Happiness intended for him was wholly new Our old natural Man was not revived and reformed by the Death of Christ but crucified together with him and therefore to be abolished and destroyed out of us by virtue of his Death Rom. 6.6 It is like the part of a Garment infected with the Plague of Leprosie which was to be rent off as incurable that the Garment might be clean Levit. 13.56 If Christ be not in us we are reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 i. e. we are in a State which God hath rejected from partaking of his Salvation so that we are not to expect any Assistance from God to make us holy in it but rather to deliver us from it Seventhly This doth not at all discharge those that are in a natural State from Obligation to Holiness of Life nor render them excusable for their Sins at the Tribunal of God's Justice For God hath made man upright but they sought many inventions Eccles 7.29 Observe well the Words of this Text and you will find that all they who have sought out many Inventions rather than upright walking are comprehended in Man that was at first made upright And Man in the Text signifieth all Mankind the first Adam was all Mankind as Jacob and Esau were two nations in the womb of Rebecca Gen. 25.23 God made us all in our first Parents according to his own Image able and inclined to do his Law and in that pure Nature our Obligation to Obedience was first laid upon us and the first wilful Transgression whereby our first Parents bereaved themselves of the Image of God and brought upon themselves the Sentence of Death was our Sin as well as theirs For in one man Adam all have sinned and so death is passed upon all Rom. 5.12 Because all Mankind were in Adam's Loins when the first Sin was committed even as Levi may be said to have paid Tithes in Abraham before he was born because when his Father Abraham paid Tithes to Melchizedeck he was yet in his Loins Heb. 7.9 10. That Promise of God that he will not charge the Iniquities of Parents upon their Children is a Promise belonging to the New Covenant confirmed in the Blood of Christ and it is Yea and Amen to us only in Christ in whom we have another Nature than that which our Parents conveyed to us so that we cannot justly claim the Benefit of it in our old natural State Jer. 31.29 30 31. 2 Cor. 1.20 Those that account their Impotency a sufficient Plea to excuse them or others shew that they were never truly humbled for that great wilful Transgression of all Mankind in the Loins of Adam Inability to pay Debts excuseth not a Debtor that hath lavished away his Estate neither doth Drunkenness excuse the mad Actings of a Drunkard but rather aggravates his Sin And our Impotency consisteth not in a meer want of an executive Power but in the want of a willing Mind to practice true Holiness and Righteousness Naturally we love it not we like it not but lust against it Gal. 5.17 and hate the light John 3.20 If Men in a natural State had an hearty Love and Likeing to true Holiness and a desire and serious endeavour to practice it out of hearty Love and yet failed in the event then they might under some pretence plead for their Excuse as some do for them that they were compelled to sin by an inevitable Fate But none have just cause to plead any such thing for their excuse because none endeavour to practice true Holiness out of hearty Love to it until the good Work be begun in their Souls and when God hath begun he will perfect it Phil. 1.6 And will in the mean time accept their ready Mind though they fall short in Performance 2 Cor. 8.12 How abominable then and filthy is man that drinketh up iniquity us water Job 15.16 That cannot practise Holiness because he will not This is their just Condemnation that
within themselves waiting for more full enjoyment of Adoption Rom. 8.23 Now seeing the degree and measure of our Reception and Enjoyment of Christ with all the Blessings of our new state in him in this Life is imperfect it followeth clearly that our contrary natural state with its Properties remaineth still in us in some degree and is not perfectly abolished so that all Believers in this World do in some degree partake of these two contrary states Believers have indeed put off the old man and put on the new man where Christ is all and in all Col. 3.10 11. yet they are to put the old Man off and the new Man on more and more because the old Man remaineth still in a measure They are said to be not in the flesh but in the spirit because their being in the Spirit is their best and lasting state as denominations are usually taken from the better part but yet the Flesh is in them and they find work enough to mortify the deeds of it Rom. 8.9.13 Therefore several things which are contrary to each other are frequently attributed to Believers in the Scripture with respect to these two contrary States wherein one place seems to contradict another and yet both are true in divers respects Thus holy Paul saith truly of himself I live yet not I Gal. 2.20 because he did live to God by Christ living in him and yet in another respect according to his natural State he did not live to God Again he professeth that he was carnal sold under Sin and yet on the contrary that he allowed not Sin but hated it he sheweth how both these were true concerning himself In diverse respects he saith in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing And I delight to do the Will of God according to the Inner-Man With my Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of Sin Rom. 7.14.15 John saith He that saith he hath no sin deceiveth himself and is a Lyar 1 Joh. 1. and also that it 's true that whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed i. e. Christ's the new spiritual Nature remaineth in him and he can't sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 3.9 It is true that we are weak and nothing and yet strong and able to do all things 2. Cor. 12.10 11. Phil. 4.13 It 's true that Believers are dead because of Sin but alive because of Righteousness Rom. 8.10 and that when they dye by a natural Death they shall never dye Joh. 11.25 26. They are Sons that have the Inheritance by their Birth-right and yet in some respects may differ nothing from Servants and so they may be under the Law in a sense and yet under Grace and Heirs according to the free Promise at the same time Gal 4.1 2. They are redeemed from the Curse of the Law and have forgiveness of Sins and a Promise that God will never be wroth with them nor rebuke them any more Gal. 3.13 Eph. 1.7 Isa 54.9 And yet on the contrary the Curse written in the Law is sometimes poured out upon them Dan. 9 11. and they have need still to pray that God would deliver them from their Guiltiness and forgive their Debts Psal 51.14 Mat. 6.12 and they may expect that God will punish them for all ther Iniquities Amos 3.2 These contrary things asserted concerning Believers in Scripture do sufficiently manifest that they partake of two contrary States in this Life and this is a plain and easie and ready way to reconcile these seeming Contradictions whatever other ways may be used to reconcile some of them And what reason is there to question that the old Sate remaineth in Believers in some degrees seeing all sound Protestants acknowledge that the sinful Depravation and Pollution of our Natures commonly called Original Sin which is one principal part of this old State doth remain in all as long as they live in this World Now though some penal Evils may be said to remain in us yet we can't suppose that this original Pollution is continued in us and considered in Christ But as considered in our old State derived from the first Adam therefore the first sin of Adam is imputed in some respect even to those that are justifyed by Faith and they remain in a measure as aforesaid under the Punishment and Curse denounced Gen. 2.17 in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye and on this account the same original Guilt and Pollution is propagated to the Children of believing Parents as well as others by natural Generation and if such a great and fundamental part of the natural State continue in Believers as subjection to the Guilt of the first Sin and original Corruption which is one great part of the Punishment and Death threatned and by which we are prone and inclined to all actual Sins why should we not judge that other parts of the same State do likewise continue in them as well as the guilt of their own actual Sins and subjection to the Wrath of God and the Curses and Punishments denounced against them in the Law and why should we not judge that all the Miseries of this Life and Death it self are inslicted upon Believers at least in some respect as Punishments of Sin It may be objected that this Doctrin of a twofold State of Believers in this Life doth much derogate from the Perfection of our Justification by Christ and from the fulness of all the Grace and spiritual Blessings of Christ and from the Merits of his Death and the power of his Spirit and that it greatly diminisheth the Consolation of Believers in Christ But it may be easily vindicated from this Objection if we understand it rightly for notwithstanding this twofold State it still holdeth true that Believers while they are on Earth have all Perfection of spiritual Blessings Justification Adoption the Gift of the Spirit Holiness Eternal Life and Glory in and with Christ Eph. 1.3 in the person of Christ who is now in Heaven the Old Man is perfectly crucifyed they are dead to Sin and to the Law and its Curse and they are quickned together with him and raised up with him and made to sit in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.6 7. and Believers do in their own persons receive and enjoy by Faith all these perfect spiritual Blessings of Christ as far as they receive and enjoy Christ himself dwelling in them and no further Thus far they are in a new State free from the Guilt Pollution and Punishment of Sin and so from the Wrath of God and all Miseries and Death it self while they are in this World Yea all the Guilt Pollution and Punishments of Sin and all Evils whatsoever which they are subject to according to their natural State do them no harm according to this new State but work for their good and are no Evils but rather Advantages to them tending to the Destruction only
that Faith according to the New Man in Christ and not as in a natural Condition and use all means of Holiness rightly for this end Now that this is an excellent advantageous way appears by the following desirable Properties of it 1. It hath this Property that it tends to the Abasement of all Flesh and Exaltation of God only in his Grace and Power through Christ and so it is agreeable to Gods design in all his Works and the end that he aimeth at Rom. 11.6 Isa 2.17 Ezek. 36.21 22.31.32 Psal 145.4 and a fit means for the attaining the end that we ought to aim at in the first place which is the Hallowing Sanctifying and Glorifying Gods Name in all things and is the first and chief Petition Mat. 6. and is the end of all our Actings 1 Cor. 10.31 was the end of giving the Law Rom. 3.19 20. God made all things for Christ and would have him have the Preheminence in all Col. 1.17 18. That the Father may be glorified in the Son Joh. 14.13 And this Property of it is a great Argument to prove that it is the way of God and hath the Character of his Image stamped upon it we may say that it is like him and a way according to his Heart as Christ proveth his Doctrin to be of God by this Argument Joh. 7.18 And Paul proveth the Doctrin of Justification and of Sanctification and Salvation by Grace through Faith to be of God because it excludes all boastings of the Creature Rom. 3.27 28. 1 Cor. 1.29.30 31. Eph. 3.8 9. This Property appears evidently in the Mystery of Sanctification by Christ in us through Faith For first It sheweth that we can do nothing by our natural Will or any Power of the Flesh and that God will not enable us to do any thing that way Rom. 7.18 however Nature be stirred up by the Law or natural Helps Col. 3.21 And so it serveth to work Self-loathing and Abasement and to make us look upon Nature as desperately wicked and past cure and to be put off not reformed by putting on Christ It remains wicked and only wicked after we have put on Christ 2. It sheweth that all our good Works and living to God are not by our own Power and Strength at all but by the Power of Christ living in us by Faith and that God enableth us to act not meerly according to our natural Power as he enableth carnal Men and all other Creatures but above our own Power by Christ united to us and in us through the Spirit All Men live move and have their Being in him and by his universal Support and Maintenance of Nature in its Being and Activity they act Heb. 1.3 So that the Glory of their Acting as Creatures belongs to God but God acts more immediately in his People who are one Flesh and Spirit with Christ and act not by their own Power but by the Power of the Spirit of Christ in them as closely united to him and being the living Temple of his Spirit so that Christ is the immediate principal Agent of all their good Works and they are Christs Works properly who works all our Works in us and for us and yet they are the Saints Works by Fellowship with Christ by whose Light and Power the Faculties of the Saints do act and are acted Gal. 2.20 Eph. 3.16 17. Colos 1.1 so we are to ascribe all our works to God in Christ and thank him for them as free Gifts 1 Cor. 15.10 Phil. 1.11 God inableth us to act not by our selves as he doth others but by himself The Wicked are supported in acting only according to their own Nature so they act wickedly Thus all are said to live move and have their being in God Acts 17.27 But God enableth us to conquer Sin not by our selves but by himself Hos 1.7 and the Glory of inabling us doth not only belong to him which the Pharisee could not but ascribe to him Luk. 18.11 but also the Glory of doing all in us and yet we work as one with Christ even as he works as one with the Father by the Father working in him We act as Branches by the Juice of the Vine as members by the animal Spirits of the Head and bring forth Fruit by Marriage to him as our Husband and Work in the Strength of him as the living Bread that we feed on he is all in the new Man Colos 3.11 and all the Promises are made good in him 2 Cor. 1.20 2. It hath this Property that it consisteth well with other Doctrins of the Gospel which contrary Errors do not and hence this is the way to confirm us in many other Points of the Gospel and therefore appears to be true by its Harmony with other truths and sit linking with them in the same golden Chain of the mystery of Godliness and evidenceth them to be true by their Harmony with it I have shewed that mens mistaking the true Way of Sanctification is the cause of perverting the Scripture in other Points of Faith and of declining from the Truth to Popish Socinian and Arminian Tenents Because Men cannot seriously take that for truth which they judge not to be according to Godliness But this Way of Holiness will evidence that those Gospel Doctrins which they refuse are according to Godliness and that those Tenents which a blind Zeal for Holiness moveth them to embrace are indeed contrary to Holiness However Satan appeareth to their natural Understandings as an Angel of light in such Tenents Whatever Men say its certain that Legalists are indeed the Antinomians I shall instance in some Truths confirmed by it 1. The Doctrin of original Sin viz. Not only the Guilt of Adam's Sin and a corrupt Nature but utter Impotency to do spiritual good and Proneness to Sin which is Death to God in all People according to nature Psal 51.5 Rom. 5.12 There is an utter Inability to keep the Law truly in any Point Many deny this Doctrin because they think that if People believe this they will excuse their Sins by it and be apt to despair of all striving to do good Works and leave off all Endeavours and grow licentious and they think it will be more conducing to Godliness to hold and teach either that there is no original Sin or Corruption derived from Adam or at least it is done away either in the World by universal Redemption or in the Church by Baptism and that there is free-will restored whereby People are able to encline themselves to do good that Men may be more encouraged to set upon good Works and their Neglect made inexcusable All this is indeed forcible against seeking and endeavouring for Holiness by the free-will and power of Nature which is the way of endeavouring which I directed you to avoid and if there were no new Way to Holiness since the fall original Sin might make us despair but there is a new Birth a new Heart a new Creature and
Rom. 8.7 8. Therefore that they may be encouraged and rationally enclined to Holiness they must hope that God will work savingly in them Now I leave it to considerate Men to judge whether such an Hope can be well grounded without a good Perswasion of such a Reconciliation and Saving-love of God to us as dependeth not upon any precedent goodness of our Works but is a cause sufficient to produce them effectually in us Yea we know further if we know our selves sufficiently that our Death in Sin proceeded from the Guilt of the first Sin of Adam and the Sentence denounced against it Gen. 2.17 And that it is still maintain'd in us by the Guilt of Sin and the Curse of the Law and that Spiritual Life will never be given us to free us from that Dominion except this Guilt and Curse be removed from us which is done by actual Justification Gal. 3.13 14. Rom. 6.14 And this is sufficient to make us despair of living to God in Holiness while we apprehend our selves to be under the Curse and Wrath of God by reason of our Transgressions and Sins still lying upon us Ezek. 33.10 Thirdly The nature of Duties of the Law is such as requireth an Apprehention of our Reconciliation with God and his hearty Love and Favour towards us for the doing of them The great Duty is Love to God with our whole Heart and not such a contemplative Love as Philosophers may have to the Object of Sciences which they are concern'd in no further than to please their Fancies in the knowledge of them but a practical Love whereby we are willing that God should be absolute Lord and Governour of us and all the World to dispose of us and all others according to his Will as to our temporal and everlasting Condition and that he should be the only Portion and Happiness of all those that are happy a Love whereby we like every thing in him as he is our Lord his Justice as well as any other Attribute without wishing or desiring that he were better than he is and whereby we desire that his Will may be done upon us and all others whether for Prosperity or Adversity Life or Death and whereby we can heartily praise him for all things and delight in our Obedience to him in doing his Will though we suffer that which is never so grievous to us even present Death Consider these things well and you may easily perceive that our Spirits are not in a fit frame for the doing of them while we apprehend our selves under the Curse and Wrath of God or while we are under prevailing Suspitions that God will prove an Enemy to us at last Slavish Fear may extort some slavish hypocritical Performances from us such as that of Pharaoh in letting the Israelites go sore against his Will but the Duty of Love cannot be extorted and forced by Fear but it must be won and sweetly allured by an Apprehension of God's Love and Goodness towards us as that eminent loving and beloved Disciple testifieth 1 Job 4.18 19. There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment He that feareth is not made perfect in love we love him because he first loved us Observe here that we cannot be before hand with God in loving him before we apprehend his Love to us And consult your own Experience if you have any true Love to God whether it were not wrought in you by a sense of God's Love first toward you All the goodness and excellency of God cannot render him an amiable Object to us except we apprehend him an agreeable good to us I question not but the Devils know the excellency of Gods Nature as well as our greatest Metaphysical Speculators and this doth but fill them the more with tormenting horror and trembling that is contrary to Love Ja. 2.19 The greater God's Excellency and Perfection is the greater Evil he is to us if he hate us and curse us and therefore the Principle of Self-preservation deeply rooted in our natures hindreth us from loving that which we apprehend as our own Destruction if a Man be an Enemy to us we can love him for the sake of our loving reconciled God because his Love will make Man's Hatred to work for our good but if God himself be our Enemy for whose sake can we love him Who is there that can free us from the evil of his Enemity and turn it to our Advantage until he be pleased to reconcile himself to us Fourthly Our Conscience must of necessity be first purged from dead works that we may serve the living God and this is done by actual Remission of Sin procured by the Blood of Christ and manifested to our Consciences as appeareth by Christ's dying for this end Heb. 9.14 15. and 10.1 2. 4. 14 17 22. That Conscience whereby we judge our selves to be under the guilt of sin and wrath of God is accounted an evil Conscience in Scripture though it perform its Office truly because it is caused by the evil of sin and will it self be a cause of our committing more sin until it can judge us to be justified from all sin and received into the Favour of God Love which is the end of the Law must proceed from a good Conscience as well as from any other cleanness of Heart 1 Tim. 1.5 David's Mouth could not be opened to shew forth the Praise of God until he was delivered from Blood-guiltiness Psal 51.14 15. This evil guilty Conscience whereby we judge that God is our Enemy and that his Justice is against us to our everlasting Condemnation by reason of our sins doth strongly maintain and increase the Dominion of Sin and Satan in us and worketh most mischievous effects in the Soul against Godliness even to bring the Soul to hate God and to wish there were no God no Heaven no Hell so we might escape the Punishment due to us It so disaffecteth People toward God that they cannot endure to think or speak or hear of him and his Law but strive either to put him out of their minds by fleshly Pleasures and worldly Imployments and thus they are alienated from all true Religion only blinding it and stopping the mouth of it It produceth Zeal in many outside religious Performances and also false Religion Idolatry and the most inhumane Superstitions in the World I have often considered by what manner of working any Sin could effectually destroy the whole Image of God in the first Adam and I conclude it was by working first an evil guilty Conscience in him whereby he judged that the just God was against him and cursed him for that one Sin and this was enough to work a shameful Nakedness by disorderly Lusts a turning his Love wholly from God to the Creature and a desire to be hidden from the Presence of God Gen. 3.8 10. which was a total Destruction of the Image of God's Holiness And we have cause to
How can such an one be willing to lay down his Life for the sake of God when by his Death he must part with God as well as with other things How can he willingly chuse Afflictions rather than Sin when he shall be more miserable in this Life for it and not at all happy hereafter I grant if Affliction come unavoidably upon such a Person he may reasonably judge that Patience is better for him than Impatience but it will displease him that he is forced to the use of such a Virtue and he will be prone to fret and murmure at his Creator and to wish he had never been rather than to endure such miseries and to be comforted only with vain transitory Enjoyments I think I have said enough to shew how unfurnished such a Man is for Holiness and he that will burn up Heaven and quench Hell that he may serve God out of Love doth thereby leave himself â— little better furnished than the Sadduce the one denieth them the other will not have them at all to be considered in this case Secondly The sure Hope of the Glory of Heaven is made use of ordinarily by God since the Fall of Adam for the Practice of Holiness as the Scripture doth abundantly shew Christ the great pattern of holiness for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame Heb. 12.2 And though I cannot say that the first Adam had such a sure Hope to preserve him in Innocency yet he had instead of it the present Possession of an earthly Paradice and an happy Estate in it which he knew would last if he continued in Holiness or be changed into a better Happiness The Apostles did not faint under Affliction because they knew that it worked for them a more exceeding eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.16 17. The believing Hebrews took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods knowing in themselves that they had an Heaven a better and more enduring Substance Heb. 10.34 The Apostle Paul accounts all his Sufferings unprofitable were it not for a glorious Resurrection and that Christians would be of all Men most miserable and that the Doctrine of the Epicures were rather to be chosen Let us eat and drmk for to morrow we shall die And he exhorts the Corinthians to be abundant in the work of the Lord knowing that their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 As worldly Hope keepeth the World at work in their various Employments so God giveth his People the Hope of his Glory to keep them close to his Service Heb. 6.11 12. 1 Joh. 3.3 And it is such a sure Hope as shall never make them ashamed Rom. 5.28 Those that think it below the excellency of their Love to work out of Hope of the Heavenly Reward do thereby advance their Love beyond the Love of the Apostles and Primitive Saints and even of Christ himself 3dly This perswasion of our future enjoyment of everlasting Happiness cannot tend to Licentiousness if we understand well that perfect Holiness is a necessary part of that Happiness and that tho' we have a Title to that Happiness by free Justification and Adoption yet we must go to the possession of it in a way of Heliness 1 Jo. 3.1 2 3. Neither is it legal or mercenary to be moved by this Perswasion seeing the Perswasion it self is not gotten by the Works of the Law but by free Grace through Faith Gal. 5.5 And if it be a working out of self-love yet for certain it is not that carnal self-love which the Scripture condemneth as the Mother of Sinfulness 2 Tim. 3.2 but an holy self-love enclining us to prefer God above the Flesh and the World such as God directeth us unto when he exhorteth us to save our selves Acts 2.40 And it is so far from being contrary to the pure Love of God that it brings us to love God more purely and entirely The more good and beneficial we apprehend God to us to all Eternity doubtless the more lovely God will be to us and our Affections will be the more enflamed towards him God will not be loved as a barren Wilderness a Land of Darkness to us neither will he be served for nought Jer. 2.31 Is 45.19 He would think it a Dishonour to him to be owned by us as our God if he had not prepared for us a City Heb. 11.16 And he draweth us to love him by the Cords of a Man such Cords as the Love of Men useth to be drawn by even by his own Love to us in laying his Benefits before us Hos 11.4 Therefore the way for us to keep our selves in the Love of God is to look for his Mercy unto eternal Life Jude 21. The last Endowment for the same end as the former is that we be well perswaded of sufficient Strength both to will and perform our Duty acceptably until we come to the Enjoyment of the heavenly Happiness This is contrary to the Error of those that account it sufficient if we have strength to practice Holiness if we will or to will it if we please and this is the sufficient strength which they earnestly contend for as a great Benefit bestowed on all Mankind by universal Redemption It is also contrary to the Error of those that think the Practice of Godliness and Wickedness to be alike easie excepting only some difficulty in the first Alterations of vicious Customs and in bearing Persecutions which they account to be a rare Case since the Kingdoms of the World have been brought to the Profession of Christianity or that think that God requireth of Men only to do their Endeavour that is what they can do and it is nonsence to say they cannot do what they can do According to their Judgment it is needless to concern our selves much about sufficient Strength for holy Practice For the confirmation of the Assertion against these Errours take these Arguments First We are by nature dead in Trespasses and Sins unable to will or do any thing that is spiritually good notwithstanding the Redemption that is by Christ until we be actually quickened by Christ Ephes 2 1â— Rom. 8.7 8 9. Those that are sufficiently enlightned and humbled know themselves to be naturally in this Case and that they do not want only executive Power to do good but chiefly an Heart to will it and to be pleased with it and that if God work not in them both to will and to do they shall neither will nor do any thing pleasing to him Phil. 2.13 And that if he leave them to their own Corruption after he hath begun the good Work they shall certainly prove vile Apostates and their latter end will be worse than their beginning We may conclude from hence that whosoever can couragiously attempt the Practice of the Law without being well perswaded of a sufficient Power whereby he may be enabled to be heartily willing as well as to perform when he is
and Soul is and the Spirits lively Instrument rather than the principal Cause Neither will a Believer be necessarily perfectin Holiness here by or Christ made a Sinner for Christ knoweth how to dwell in a Believer by certain measures and degrees and to make them holy so far only as he dwelleth in them And though this Union seem too high a Preferment for such unworthy Creatures as we are yet considering the preciousness of the Blood of God whereby we are redeemed we should dishonour God if we should not expect a miraculous Advancement to the highest Dignity that Creatures are capable of through the Merits of that Blood Neither is there any thing in this Union contrary to the Judgment of Sense because the Bond of the Union being Spiritual falleth not at all under the Judgment of Sense Several learned Men of late acknowledge no other Union betwixt Christ and Believers than such as persons or things wholly separated may have by their mutual relations each to other and accordingly they interpret the places of Scripture that speak of this Union When Christ is called the Head of the Church they account that a Political Head or Governour is the thing meant when Christ is said to be in his People and they in him they think that the proper meaning is that Christ's Law Doctrine Grace Salvation or that Godliness is in them and embraced by them so that Christ here must not be taken for Christ himself but for some other thing wrought in them by Christ When Christ and Believers are said to be one Spirit and one Flesh they understand it of the Agreement of their Minds and Affections as if the greatness of the Mystery of this Union mentioned Ephes 5.32 consisted rather in a harsh Hope or a dark improper Expression than in the depth and abstruceness of the thing it self and as if Christ and his Apostles had affected obscure intricate Expressions when they speak to this Church of things very plain and easie to be understood Thus that great Mystery the Union of Believers with Christ himself which is the Glory of the Church and hath been highly owned formerly both by the ancient Fathers and many eminent Protestant Divines particular Writers concerning the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper and by a very general Consent of the Church in many Ages is now exploded out of the new Model of Divinity The Reason of exploding it as I judge in Charity is not because our late learned Refiners of Divinity think themselves less able to defend it than the other two mysterious Unions and to silence the Objections of those proud Sophisters that will not believe what they cannot comprehend but rather because they account it to be one of the Sinnews of Antinomianism that lay unobserved in the former usual Doctrine that it tendeth to puff up Men with a Perswasion that they are justified and have eternal Life in them already and that they need not depend any longer upon their uncertain Performances of the Condition of sincere Obedience for Salvation whereby they account the very Foundation of a holy Practice to be subverted But the Wisdom of God hath laid another manner of Foundation for an holy Practice than they imagine of which this Union which the Builders refuse is a principal stone next to the head of the corner And in opposition to their corrupt Glosses upon the Scriptures that prove it I assert that our Union with Christ is the cause of our Subjection to Christ as a Political Head in all things and of the abiding of his Law Doctrine Grace Salvation and all Godliness in us and of our Agreement with him in our Minds and Affections and therefore it cannot be altogether the same thing with them And this Assertion is useful for a better Understanding of the Excellency of this Union It is not a Priviledge procured by our sincere Obedience and Holiness as some may imagine or a reward of good works reserved for us in another World but it is a Priviledge bestowed upon Believers in their very first entrance into an holy state on which all ability to do good works doth depend and all sincere Obedience to the Law doth follow after it as Fruit produced by it Having thus far explained the Direction I shall now shew that though the Truth contained in it be above the Search of Natural Reason yet it is evidently discovered to those that have their Understandings opened to discern that supernatural Revelation of the mysterious way of Sanctification which God hath given to us in the holy Scriptures First There are several Places in Scripture that do plainly express it some Texts shew thâ—â— all things pertaining to our salvation are treasured 〈◊〉 for us in Christ and comprehended in his fulness 〈◊〉 that we must have them thence or 〈◊〉 at all Col. 1.19 It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell And in the same Epistle Col. 2.11 12 13. The Apostle sheweth that the holy Nature whereby we live to God was first produced in him by his death and resurrection in whom also ye are circumcised in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh buried with him quickened together with him when you were dead in your sins Ephes 1.3 Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. An holy Frame of Spirit with all its necessary Qualifications must needs be comprehended here in all spiritual Blessings and these are given us in Christ's Person in heavenly places as prepared and treasured up in him for us while we are upon Earth and therefore we must have our holy Endowments out of him or not at all In this Text some chuse rather to read heavenly things as in the Margent because neither places nor things are expressed in the Original but the former textual reading is to be preferred before the Marginals as being the proper Sense of the Original Greek Phrase which is and must necessarily be so rendred in two other Places of this same Epistle Chap. 3.10 6.12 Another Text is 1 Cor. 1.30 which sheweth that Christ is of God made unto us Sanctification by which we are able to walk holily as well as wisely by the Wisdom of which we are savingly wise and Righteousness by the Imputation of which we are justified and Redemption whereby we are redeemed from all Misery to the Enjoyment of his Glory as our Happiness in the heavenly Kingdom Other Texts of Scripture shew plainly that we receive our Holiness out of his fulness by Fellowship with him Joh. 1.16 17. Of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace And it is understood of Grace answerable to the Law given by Moses which must needs include the Grace of Sanctification 1 Joh. 1.3 5 6 7. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. God is Light if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another Hence
we may infer that our Fellowship with God and Christ doth include particularly our having Light and walking in it holily and righteously There are other Texts that reach the Proof of the whole Direction fully shewing not only that our holy Endowments are made ready first in Christ for us and receiv'd from but that we receive them by Union with Christ Col. 3.10 11. Ye have put on the new man which is renewed after the image of him that created him where Christ is all and in all 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Gal. 2.20 I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me 1 Joh. 5.11 12. This is the recerd that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Can we desire that God should more clearly teach us that all the fulness of the New Man is in Christ and all that spiritual nature and Life whereby we live to God in Holiness and that they are fixed in him so inseparably that we can not have them except we be joyned to him and have himself abiding in us Take heed lest through Prejudice and Hardness of Heart you be guilty of making God a Liar in not believing this eminent Record that God hath given to us of his Son Secondly God is pleased to illustrate this mysterious manner of our Sanctification by such variety of Similitudes and Resemblances as may put us out of doubt that it is Truth and such a Truth as we are highly concern'd to know and believe I shall endeavour to contract the chief of these Resemblances and the force of them briefly into one Sentence leaving it to those that are Spiritual to enlarge their Meditations upon them We receive from Christ a new holy frame and nature whereby we are enabled for an holy Practice by union and fellowship with him in like manner as Christ lived in our nature by the Father Joh. 6.57 As we receive original sin and death propagated to us from the first Adam Rom. 5.12 14 16 17. as the natural Body receiveth Sense Motion Nourishment from the Head Col. 2.19 As the Branch receiveth its Sap Juiceand fructifying Virtue from the Vine Jo. 15.4 5 As the Wife bringeth forth Fruit by Virtue of her Conjugal Union with her Husband Rom. 7.4 As Stones become an holy Temple by being built upon the Foundation and joyned with the chief corner-stone 1 Pet. 2. 4 5 6. As we receive the nourishing Virtue of Bread by eating it and of Wine by drinking it Joh. 6.51 55 57. Which last Resemblance is used to seal to us our Communion with Christ in the Lords Supper Hear are seven Resemblances instanced whereof some do illustrate the Mystery spoken of more fully than others all of them do some way intimate that our New Life and Holy Nature is first in Christ and then in us by a true proper Union and Fellowship with him If any should urge that the Similitude of Adam and his Seed and of married Couples do make rather for a Relative than a real Union betwixt Christ and us let them consider that all Nations are really made of one Blood which was first in Adam Acts 17.26 and that the first Woman was made out of the Body of Adam and was really bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and by this first married Couple the mystical Union of Christ and his Church is eminently resembled Gen. 2.22 23 24. with Ephes 5.30 31 32. And yet it supposeth both these Resemblances in the nearness and fulness of it because those that are joyned to the Lord are not only one Flesh but one Spirit with him Thirdly The end of Christ's Incarnation Death and Resurrection was to prepare and form an holy Nature and Frame for us in himself to be communicated to us by Union and Fellowship with him and not to enable us to produce in our selves the first Original of such an holy Nature by our own Endeavours By his Incarnation there was a Man created in a new holy Frame after the Holiness of the first Adam's Frame had been marred and abolished by the first Transgression and this new Frame was far more excellent than ever the first Adam's was because Man was really joyned to God by a close inseparable Union of the divine and humane Nature in one Person of Christ so that these Natures had Communion each with other in their Actings and Christ was able to act in his humane Nature by Power proper to the divine Nature wherein he was one God with the Father The words that he spake while he was upon Earth he spoke not of himself by any meer humane Power but the Father that dwelt in him he did the Works Joh. 14.10 Why was it that Christ set up the fallen Nature of Man in such a wonderful Frame of Holiness in bringing of it to live and act by Communion with God living and acting in it One great End was that he might communicate this excellent Frame to his Seed that should be born of him and in him by his Spirit as the last Adam the quickning Spirit that as we have born the Image of the earthly Man so we might also bear the Image of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15.45 49. in Holiness here and in Glory hereafter Thus he was born Emanuel God with us because the fulness of the Godhead with all Holiness did first dwell in him bodily even in his humane Nature that we might be filled up with that fulness in him Mat. 1.23 Col. 2.9 10. Thus he came down from Heaven as living Bread that as he liveth by the Father so those that eat him may live by him Joh. 6.51 56. By the same Life of God in them that was first in him By his Death he freed himself from the Guilt of our Sins imputed to him and from all that innocent Weakness of his humane Nature which he has born for a time for our sakes And by freeing himself he prepared a Freedom for us from our whole natural Condition which is both weak as his was and also polluted with our Guilt and sinful Corruption Thus the corrupt natural State which is called in Scripture the Old Man was crucified together with Christ that the Body of Sin might be destroyed And it is destroyed in us not by any Wounds that we our selves can give to it but by our partaking of that Freedom from it and Death unto it that is already wrought out for us by the Death of Christ as is signified by our Baptism wherein we are buried with Christ by the Application of his Death to us Rom. 6.2 3 4 10 11. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh for Sin or by a Sacrifice for Sin as in the Margent condemned Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the Flesh but
Righteousness and Holiness and all Salvation only by Fellowship with him through Faith therefore it is no affront to Christ or slighting and contemning of the Justice and Holiness of God to come to Christ while we are polluted sinners but rather it is an affronting and contemning of the Saving-grace Merit and Fulness of Christ if we endeavour to make our selves righteous and holy before we receive Christ himself and all Righteousness and Holiness in him by Faith Christ loathed not to touch a Leper and condescended to wash the feet of his Disciples and did not expect that they should be washed and perfumed before hand as some great ones of the World are said to do when they wash the feet of Poor-men in imitating of Christ Thirdly Those that receive Christ with an unfeigned Faith shall never want a wedding garment to adorn them in the sight of God Faith it self is very precious in the sight of God and most holy 2 Pet. 1.1 Jude 20. God loveth it because it giveth the glory of our Salvation only to the Free-grace of God in Christ Rom. 4.16 and renounceth all dependance on any conditions that we can perform to procure a Right to Christ or to make our selves acceptable to him It containeth in it an hearty Love to Christ as Saviour and an hungring and thirsting Appetite for his Salvation and it is the Mouth whereby the Soul feedeth hungrily upon him What Wedding garment can sinners bring with them more delightful than this to their bountiful God whose great Design is to manifest the abundant riches of his glorious Grace and Bounty in this Wedding feast The Father himself loveth them because they love Christ and believe that he came out from God Jo. 16.27 But yet we see that the Excellency of Faith lyeth in this that it accounteth not it self or any other work of ours a sufficient Ornament to make us acceptable in the sight of God It will not be our Wedding-garment it self but it buyeth of Christ white raiment that we may be clothed and that the shame of our nakedness may not appear Rev. 3.18 Tho' it loveth and desireth the Free-gift of Holiness yet it abandons all thoughts of practising Holiness immediately before we come to Christ for an holy nature It putteth on Christ himself and in him all things that pertain to life and godliness Thus every true Believer is clothed with the Sun Rev. 12.1 even with the Sun of Righteousness the Lord Jesus who is pleased to be himself both our Wedding-garment and Feast and all our spiritual and eternal Happiness For the more full Satisfaction and Consolation of those distressed Souls that lye under the terrible apprehensions of their own sinfulness and the wrath of God and dare not venture to trust stedfastly on Christ for their Salvation until they can find in themselves some change from Sin to Holiness I shall mention particularly several of those things that such would find in themselves and I shall shew that if some of them be not partly comprehended in Faith it self they are fruits and consequences of Faith and therefore they cannot be rationally expected before we trust on Christ for our Salvation First They think it necessary to repent before they believe on Christ for their Salvation because Repentance is absolutely necessary to Salvation Luke 13.3 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish and Christ placeth the Duty of Repentance before Faith Mar. 1.15 Repent and believe the Gospel but we are to know that Christ requireth Repentance first as the end to be aimed at and Faith in the next place as the only means of attaining to it and tho' the end be first in intention yet the means are first in Practice and Execution tho' both be absolutely necessary to Salvation For what is Repentance but an hearty turning from sin to God and his Service and what way is there to turn to God but through Christ who is the way the truth and the life without whom none cometh to the Father Joh. 14.6 And what way is there of coming to Christ but by Faith therefore if we would turn to God in the right way we must first come to Christ by Faith and Faith must go before Repentance as the great Instrument afforded us by the Grace of God for the effectual Performance of it Repentance is indeed a Duty which sinners owe naturally to God but the great Question is how shall sinners be able to perform it This Question is resolved only by the Gospel of Christ Repent and believe The way to repent is to begin with believing Therefore the great Doctrine of John in his Baptism of Repentance was That they should believe on him that should come after him that is on Christ Jesus Acts 19.4 2dly Regeneration also is necessary to Salvation Joh. 3 3. and therefore many would find it wrought in themselves before they trust on Christ for Salvation but consider what Regeneration is It is a new begetting or creating us in Christ 1 Cor. 4.15 Eph. 2.10 in whom we are Partakers of a divine nature far different from that which we received from the first Adam Now Faith is the uniting Grace whereby Christ dwelleth in us and we in him as hath been shewed and therefore it is the first Grace wrought in our Regeneration and the means of all the rest when you truly believe you are regenerated and not till then Those that receive Christ by believing and those only are the Sons of God which are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.12 13. 3dly They account it necessary to receive Christ as Lord and Law-giver by a sincere Resignation of themselves to his Government and a Resolution to obey his Law before they receive him as their Saviour This is one principal Lesson of the new Divinity and such a receiving Christ as Lord is made to be the great act of saving Faith without which such Faith as I have described whereby we trust on Christ for Salvation is reckoned no better than gross Presumption They teach that Christ will not bestow his Salvation on those that do not first yield their subjection to his Kingly Authority but he calleth them his enemies because they would not that he should reign over them and requireth that they be brought and slain before him Luke 19.27 And I own it as a certain truth that Christ will save none but those that are brought to resign up themselves sincerely to the Obedience of his royal Authority and Laws But yet we must observe that they are not brought to this holy Resignation or to any sincere purpose and resolution of Obedience before they receive his Salvation but rather by receiving it Men that were never throughly sensible of their natural death in sin do easily bring themselves to resolve universal Obedience to God when they are on their Death-beds or in any eminent danger or when they would prepare
of these Consolations by Faith in the very first Beginning of a holy Life Besides the Gospel proposeth Peace and Comfort freely to those that are not yet brought to Holiness yet if they have Hearts to receive it they may be converted from Sin to Righteness When the Apostles entred into an House they were first to say Peace be to the house Luke 10.5 At their very first Preaching to Sinners they acquainted them with the glad Tidings of Salvation by Christ for every one that would receive it as a Free-gift by Faith Acts 3.26 13.26 32 38. 16.30 31. They assured them if they would but trust heartily on Christ for all his Salvation they should have it although they were at present the chief of Sinners which was Comfort sufficient for all that duly esteem Spiritual Comfort hungring and thirsting after it And this is a Method agreeable to the Design of the Gospel which is to advance the Riches of the Grace of God in all our Spiritual Enjoyments God will give us his Consolations before our good Works as well as after them that we may know that he giveth us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace and not through the Procurement of our Works 2 Thess 2.16 Fourthly The Nature of the Duties of the Law requireth a comfortable state of the Soul for the Performance of them I have before proved sufficiently that they require a Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God and of our future Happiness and Strength whereby we may be able to walk in holy Obedience Joshuah must be strong and very couragious that he might observe to do according to the Law that Moses the Servant of the Lord commanded him Josh 1.7 I shall instance briefly in the Comforts without which several great Duties cannot be sincerely performed Can we love God and delight in him above all while we look upon him as our everlasting Enemy and apprehend no Love and Mercy in him towards us that may render him a suitable Good for us and lovely in our Eyes What doleful Melody will the Heart make in the Duty of Praise if we account that all those Perfections for which we praise him will rather aggravate our Misery than make us happy What a heartless Work will it be to pray to him and to offer up our selves to his Service if we have no comfortable Hope that he will accept us Is it possible for us to free our selves from carking Cares by casting our Care upon the Lord if we do not apprehend that he careth for us Can we be patient in Affliction with Chearfulness and under Persecutions except we have peace with God and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.1 2 3. What Reason can perswade us to submit willingly according to our Duty to the Stroak of present Death if God be pleased to lay it upon us when we have no Comforts to relieve us against the horrible Fear of intollerable Torments in Hell for ever If we should be called to suffer Martyrdom for the Protestant Religion as our Ancestors in this Nation have done we should find it necessary to abandon the late upstart Notions that have been bred in a time of Ease and to embrace the comfortable Doctrine of former Protestants which through the Grace of God made so many couragious and joyful Martyrs Fifthly The state of those that are to be brought from Sin to Godliness requires necessarily that after they be convinced of the Vnnity of their former false Confidences and of their Deadness in Original-sin and Subjection to the Wrath of God they should have a Supply of new Gospel Comforts afforded to encourage their fainting Souls to holy Practices How little do many Physicians of Souls consider the Condition of their unconverted Patients that are altogether without Spiritual Life and Strength and are or must be convinced He that prescribeth bodily Exercise to a Man lying Bed-ridden under a dead Palsie before any effectual means be used to strengthen him deserveth the name of a merciless insulting Tormentor rather than of a wise and tender-hearted Physician How unreasonable is it to prescribe the immediate Practice of Love to God and universal Obedience to him out of Love as the means of Cure for those that see nothing but Wrath and Enmity in God towards them in their present Condition what is it but to require a Man to work without Strength promising him that he shall have Strength when his Work is done for Comfort and Fortitude is so called because it comforteth and strengtheneth True it is That the Law which is the Ministration of Condemnation obligeth them to Obedience but our merciful God expecteth no sincere Performance of his Law from such impotent miserable Wretches in order to their Salvation by Christ till he hath first delivered them in some measure from those Discomforts slavish Fears and Despondencies that hold them captive under the Law of Sin and Death We may require a strong healthy Person first to work and then to expect Meat Drink and Wages but a fainting famished Person must first have Food or a reviving Cordial to strengthen his Heart before he can work Sixthly Both Scripture and Experience shew That this is the Method whereby God bringeth his People from Sin to Holiness though some of them are brought under Terrours for a while that Sin may be the more imbittered and the Salvation of Christ rendred more precious and acceptable to them yet such are again delivered from their Terrors by the Comfort of God's Salvation that they may be fitted for Holiness and generally a holy Life beginneth with Comfort and is maintained by it God gave to Adam at his first Creation the Comfort of his Love and Favour and the Happiness of Paradise to encourage him to Obedience and when he had left those Comforts by the Fall he was no longer able to obey until he was restored by new Comfort of the promised Seed Christ the Second Adam set God always before his face and he knew that because God was at his right hand he should not be moved therefore his heart was glad and his glory rejoyced Psal 16.8 9. This made him willing to bear his Agony and bloody Sweat and to be obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross God drew the Israelites to Obedience with the Cords of a Man with the Bonds of Love by taking off the Yoke on their Jaws and laying Meat before them Hos 11.4 David telleth us for our Instruction how he was brought to an holy Conversation Thy loving kindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth Psal 26.3 Lord I have hoped for thy salvation and done thy Commandements Psal 119.166 We have several Examples in the New Testament of the Joy that Sinners had in the first receiving of Christ Acts 2.41 And when the Gospel first came to the Thessalonians they received the Word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost 1 Thess 1.4 5.
our Salvation Therefore I conclude that we must necessarily have some Assurance of our Salvation in the direct Act of Faith whereby we are justified sanctified and saved before we can upon any good ground assure our selves that we are already in a state of Salvation by that which they call the Reflect Act. Give me such a saving Faith as will produce such Fruits as these No other Faith will work by Love and therefore will not avail to Salvation in Christ Gal. 5.6 The Apostle James putteth thee upon shewing thy Faith by thy Works James 2.18 And in this Trial this Faith of Assurance cometh off with high Praise and Honour When God calleth his People to work outward Miracles by it all things have been possible to them and it hath frequently brought forth such Works of Righteousness as may be deservedly esteemed great Spiritual Miracles from hence hath proceeded that Heroick Fortitude of the People of God whereby their absolute Obedience to God hath shined forth in doing and suffering those great things which are recorded in the holy Scriptures and in the Histories of the Church And if we be ever called to the fiery Trial as Protestants formerly were we shall find their Doctrine of Assurance to encourage us in suffering for the sake of Christ Seventhly The contrary Doctrine which excludeth Assurance out of the Nature of Saving Faith bringeth forth many evil Fruits it tendeth to bereave our Souls of all Assurance of our Salvation and solid Comfort which is the Life of Religion by placing it after sincere universal Obedience whereas if we have them not first we can never attain to this Obedience and to any Assurance that dependeth on it as hath been proved and this as far as it prevails makes us subject to continual Doubtings concerning our Salvation and to tormenting Fears of Wrath which casteth out true Love to God and can produce no better than slavish hypocritical Service It is one of the principal Pillars whereby manifold Superstitions in Popery are supported as their Monkish Orders their Satisfactions for Sin by Works of Penance Bodily Macerations Whippings Pilgrimages Indulgences trusting on the Merits of Saints c. When once Men have lost the Knowledge of the right way to assure themselves of Salvation they will catch at any Straw to avoid Drowning in the Gulph of Despair There is no way to administer any solid Comfort to the wounded Spirits of those that see themselves void of all Holiness under the Wrath and Curse of God dead in Sin not able so much as to think a good Thought you do but increase their Terror and Anguish if you tell them they must first get Faith and Obedience and when they find they have done that they may perswade themselves that God will receive them into his Grace and Favour Alass they know that they cannot believe nor obey except God prevent them with his Grace and Favour and what if they be even at the Point of Death strugling with Death's Pangs so that they have no time or leisure to get good Qualifications and examine the Goodness of them you must have a more speedy way to comfort such by discovering to them the Free-Promises of Salvation to the worst of Sinners by Faith in Christ and by exhorting them to apply those Promises and trust on Christ confidently for Remission of Sins Holiness and Glory assuring them also that God will help them to believe sincerely on Christ if they desire it with all their Hearts and that it is their Duty to believe because God commands it Several other Evils are occasioned by the same Doctrine Men are unwilling to know the worst of themselves and prone to think their Qualifications better than they are that they may avoid Despair others please and content themselves without any Assurance of their Interest in Christ because they think that is not necessary to Salvation and that but few attain to it and in this they shew little Love to Christ or to their own Souls some foster Doubtings of Salvation as Signs of Humility though they will hypocritically complain of them many mispend their time in poring upon their own Hearts to find out some Evidence of their Interest in Christ when they should rather be imployed in receiving Christ and walking in him by a confident Faith Some are troubled with Doubts whether they should call God Father and what Apprehensions they should have of him in Prayer and are offended at Ministers that in their Publick Prayers use any Expressions that the People cannot joyn in as if they do own God as their God and Father and Christ as their Saviour and upon the same Account they are offended at the Publick singing of many of David's Psalms and avoid partaking of the Lord's Supper because they are not satisfied about their Interest in Christ Though true Believers have some Assurance of Salvation in Saving Faith it self yet it is much weakned in many by this contrary Doctrine and assaulted with many Doubtings and then other good Qualifications must needs be low and weak together with it and so obscure that it is very hard to discern them how hard a thing then will it be for true Believers to assure themselves by the certain Knowledge of their own Sincerity that they are in a state of Grace already which is the only Assurance of Faith Some prescribe Marks and Signs to distinguish Sincerity from Hypocrisie that Believers cannot sufficiently try themselves by them except they have more Knowledge and Experience than Ordinary Thus many Believers walk heavily in the Bitterness of their Souls conflicting with Fears and Doubtings all their Days and this is the Cause that they have so little Courage and Fervency of Spirit in the ways of God and that they so much mind earthly things and are so afraid of Sufferings and Death And if they get some Assurance by the Reflect Act of Faith they often soon lose it again by Sins and Temptations The way to avoid these Evils is to get your Assurance and to maintain it and renew it upon all Occasions by the direct Act of Faith by trusting assuredly on the Name of the Lord and staying your self upon your God when you walk in Darkness and see no light in any of your own Qualifications Isa 50.10 I doubt not but the Experience of many choice Christians will bear witness to this Truth DIRECT XI Endeavour diligently to perform the great work of believing on Christ in a right manner without any delay and then also to continue and increase in your most holy Faith that so your enjoyment of Christ Vnion and Fellowship with him and all holiness by him may be begun continued and increased in you EXPLICATION HAving already discovered to you the powerful and effectual means of an holy practice my remaining work is to lead you to the actual Exercise and Improvement of them for the immediate attainment of the End and I think it may be clearly perceived by the
foregoing Directions That Faith in Christ is the Duty with which a holy Life is to begin and by which the Foundation of all other holy Duties is laid in the Soul It is before sufficiently proved That Christ himself with all Endowments necessary to enable us to an holy practice is received actually into our hearts by Faith This is the uniting Grace whereby the Spirit of God knitteth the knot of mystical Marriage betwixt Christ and us and maketh us Branches of that noble Vine Members of that Body joyned to that excellent Head living Stones of the spiritual Temple built upon the precious living Corner-stone and sure Foundation partakers of the Bread and Drink that came down from Heaven and giveth Life to the World This is the Grace whereby we pass from our corrupt natural State to a new holy State in Christ also from Death in Sin to Life in Righteousness and whereby we are comforted that so we may be established in every good Word and Work If we put the Question what must we do that we may work the works of God Christ resolveth it That we believe on him whom he hath sent Joh. 6.28 29. He putteth us first upon the work of believing which is the work of God by way of eminence the work of works because all other good works proceed from it The scope of the present Direction is to put you upon the performance of this great work of believing on Christ and to guide you therein for which end you are to consider distinctly four things contained in it 1. The first is you are to make it your diligent endeavour to perform the great work of Believing on Christ Many make little Conscience of this Duty It is not known by Natural Light as many moral Duties are but only by supernatural Revelation in the Gospel and it is foolishness to the natural Man These are sometimes terrified with apprehensions of other sins and will examine themselves concerning them and it may be will write them down to help their Memories and Devotion but the great sin of not believing on Christ is seldom thought of in their self-examinations or registred in the large Catalogues of their sins and even those who are convinced that Believing on Christ is a Duty necessary to Salvation do neglect all diligent endeavours to perform it Either because they account that it is a motion of the heart which may be easily performed at any time without any labour or diligent endeavour or on the contrary because they account it as difficult as all the works of the Law and utterly impossible for them to perform by their most diligent endeavours except the Spirit of God work it in them by its mighty power And that therefore it is in vain for them to work until they feel this working of the Spirit in their Hearts Or because they account it a Duty so peculiar to the Elect that it would be presumption for them to endeavour the performance of it until they know themselves to be elected to Eternal Life through Christ I shall urge you to a diligent performance of this Duty notwithstanding all these Impediments by the following consideration It is worthy of our best endeavours as appeareth by the preciousness excellency and necessity of it already discovered If the Light of Nature were not darkned in the matters of Salvation then it would shew us that we cannot of our selves find out the way of Salvation and would condemn those that despise that Revelation of the way of Salvation that God hath given us in the Gospel declared in all the holy Scriptures The great end of Preaching the Gospel is for the Obedience of Faith Rom. 1.5 that so we may be brought to Christ and all other Obedience yea the great end of all revealed Doctrines in the whole Scriptures is to make us wise to Salvation by Faith that is in Christ Jesus 2 Cor. 3.15 The end of the Law given by Moses was for Righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 and Christ was that end for Righteousness The moral Law it self was revealed in order to our Salvation by believing on Christ or else the knowledge of it had nothing availed fallen Man that was unable to perform it Therefore they that slight the Duty of Believing and count it foolishness do thereby slight despise and villisie the whole Counsel of God revealed in the Scripture The Law and the Gospel and Christ himself are become of none effect to the Salvation of such the only fruit that such an one can attain to of all the saving Doctrines of the Scripture is only some hypocritical moral Duties and slavish performances which will be as filthy rags in the sight of God in the great day However many mind not the sin of unbelief in their self-examinations and write it not in their Scrouls yet let them know that this is the most pernicious sin of all All the sins in their Scrouls would not prevail to their Condemnation yea they would not prevail in their Conversation were it not for their unbelief This one sin prevailing maketh it impossible for them to please God in any Duty whatsoever Heb. 11.6 If you will not mind this one main sin now God will at last mind you of it with a Vengeance For He that believeth not on the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3.36 The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire taking Vengeance on those that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes 1.5 2. Believing on Christ is a work that will require diligent endeavour and labour for the performance of it we must labour to enter into that rest lest any man fall by unbelief Heb. 4.11 we must shew diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end that we may be followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherited the promises Heb. 6.11 12. It is a work that requireth the exercise of Might and Power and therefore we have need to be strengthned with might by the Spirit in the inward Man that Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Eph. 3.16 17. I confess it is easie pleasant and delicious in its own nature because it is a motion of the heart without any cumbersome bodily Labour and it is a taking Christ and his Salvation as our own which is very comfortable and delightful and the Soul is carried forth in this by Love to Christ and his happiness which is an Affection which maketh even hard works easie and pleasant yet it is made difficult to us by reason of the opposition that it meeteth withall from our own inward Corruptions and from Satans temptations It is no easie matter to receive Christ as our happiness and true Salvation with true confidence and lively affection when the guilt of sin lyeth heavily upon the Conscience and the wrath of God manifested by the Word and terrible Judgments especially when we have been
mis-spending the precious time of their Health and Strength which is most meet for the performance of this great Work They highly provoke God never to give them Time or Grace to Repent hereafter Others imagine that after they have heard the Gospel of Salvation by Christ they may lawfully defer the Believing of it until they have sufficiently examined the Truth of some other different Doctrin or until God be pleased to afford them some other means to assure them fully of the Truth of the Gospel Thus they that are called Seekers mis-spend the day of Grace ever learning but never coming to the knowledg of the Truth 2 Tim. 3.7 But the Truth of the Gospel doth so clearly evidence its self by its own Light That if People do not wilfully shut their Eyes or blind themselves by their own Pride and love of their Lusts they would easily perceive that it is the Truth of God because the Image of his Grace Mercy Power Justice and Holiness appears manifestly engraven upon it It is a sign People are Proud when they consent not to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 If they were humble and sincerely inclined to do the Will of God they would know whether the Doctrine be of God or no Joh. 7.17 They would quickly be persuaded of the Truth by Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles spoken to them in the Scripture and if they will not hear them neither will they not be persuaded tho one rose from the dead or whatever other Miracle be wrought to confirm the Divine Authority of the Gospel Luke 16.31 Another sort of People there are that delay the great work of Believing to the ruin of their Souls upon the outward means of Grace and Salvation instead of any endeavours to receive Christ by Faith tho they be convinced of the Truth of the Gospel This they call waiting upon God at the doors of his Grace and Salvation in the use of Means appointed by him and sitting under the droppings of the Sanctuary But let them know that this is not the right waiting on God required in Scripture it is rather disobedience to God and to the Name of his appointment which requires that we should be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving our selves Jam. 1.22 and that we should come in to the spiritual Feast Luke 14.23 and not only stand at the door or sit under the droppings of the House of God lest Christ repute us no better than eve-droppers That holy waiting on the Lord commended to us in Scripture is ever accompanied with Believing and Hoping in the Lord and dependeth thereon I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living Psal 23.13 14. It is good that a Man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. 3.26 What is it that these deluded ones wait for before they perform the Duty of Believing Is it for more knowledge of the Gospel The way to encrease thy Knowledge as well as any other Talent is to make use of what thou hast received already Believe heartily on Christ for all thy Salvation according to that little knowledge of the Gospel which thou hast and thou wilt have an interest in the promise of knowledge contained in the New Covenant They shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them saith the Lord Jer. 31.34 Is it for the appointed time of thy Conversion that thou waitest then thou waitest as those impotent folk lay at the Pool of Bethesda waiting for the Season when the Angel would come down and move the Water know then that if thou enter into Christ now by Faith thou shalt find in him Waters of Life and the Spirit moving them for the Healing and Quickning of thy Soul God hath appointed by his Word that it shall be thy Duty to endeavour that the present time should be the time of thy Conversion as the Holy Ghost saith To day if thou wilt hear his Voice harden not thy Heart Heb. 3.7 8. and thou shalt never know at what time God hath purposed in his Secret Counsel to give Faith to thee until thou dost actually believe Dost thou wait for any Manifestations or Flowings in of Gods saving Love to thy Soul Then the way to obtain it is to believe that the God of Peace may sill thee with all Joy and Peace in Believing Rom. 15.13 Thou hast sufficient Manifestation of Gods Love to thy Soul by the free Promises of Life and Salvation by Christ do but trust on the Name of the Lord and stay upon thy God when thou walkest in Darkness and seest no Light of sensible Comforts any other way Otherwise thou waitest for Comfort in vain and this thou shalt have at the Lords hand thou shalt lye down in Sorrow Isa 50.10 11. Dost thou wait for any Qualifications to prepare thee for the work of Believing If they be good and Holy Qualifications thou canst not have them before Faith but they are either included in the Nature of Faith or they are Fruits of it as hath been largely proved If they be bad and Sinful it 's strange that any should wait for them and yet no more strange than true Some foolishly wait to be terrified with the Sense of Gods Wrath and despairing Thoughts and these they call the Pangs of the New Birth tho in their own Nature they are rather the Pangs of the Spiritual Death and bring forth Hatred to God rather than Holiness and therefore we should strive to prevent them by believing Gods Love in Christ rather than to wait for them It is true that God maketh these despairing Thoughts as well as other Sins work for good to them that are delivered from them by Faith in Christ they are moved thereby to hate Sin and to prize Christ the more and the Comforts of his Gospel and to loath and abhor themselves yet many are brought to Christ without them by Gods giving them the knowledge of their own Sins and of Christ's Salvation together several Examples of these were above mentioned who received the Word with Joy at the first hearing of it And we must not desire or wait for any evil of Sin such as these despairing thoughts are that good may come of it Neither should we expect to be worse before we be better when we may and ought to be better presently by believing on Christ 4. In the direction it is that we should continue and increase in the most Holy Faith and that we may we must not think that when we have once attained to the Grace of saving Faith and thereby are begotten anew in Christ our Names are up in Heaven and perfect we may lye in Bed till Noon but as long as we continue in this Life we must endeavour to continue in the Faith grounded and setled not moved away from the
Conversation in the World not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God 2 Cor. 1.12 having or holding fast Grace that we may serve God acceptably labouring abundantly in such a manner as that the whole work is not performed by us but by the Grace of God that is with us 1 Cor. 15.10 By Grace therefore we may well understand the priviledges of our new state given to us in Christ whereby we ought to be influenced and guided in the performance of holy Duties 4. It is also signified when we are to put off the old and put on the new Man yea to continue in so doing tho we have done it in a measure already and that we avoid our former sinful Conversation Ephes 4.21 22 24. and to avoid sin because we have put off the old and put on the new Man Col. 3.9 10 11. I have already shewed that by this twofold man is not meant merely sin and holiness but by the former meant our natural Estate with all its Endowments whereby we are furnished only to the practice of sin and by the later or new Estate in Christ that whereby we are furnished with all means necessary for the practice of Holiness 5. We are to understand the same thing when we are taught not to walk after the Flesh but after the Spirit that we may be free from the Law of sin and that the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.1 2 3. and through the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the body and to be led by the Spirit because we live by the Spirit and have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 The Apostle doth shew by these expressions not only that we are to practise holiness but also by what means we may do it effectually By the Flesh is meant our old Nature derived from the first Adam And by the Spirit is meant the Spirit of Christ and that new Nature which we have by him dwelling in us We are said to walk after either of these Natures when we make the Properties or Qualifications of either of them to be the principles of our Practice So when we are taught to serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter that so we may bring forth fruits unto God The meaning is that we must endeavour to bring forth the fruits of holiness not by vertue of the Law that killing Letter to which the Flesh is married and by which the motions of sin are in us but by vertue of the Spirit and his manifold Riches which we partake of in our new state by a mystical marriage with Christ Rom. 7.4 5 6. and by vertue of such Principles as belong to the New State declared in the Gospel whereby the holy spirit is ministred to us 6. This is the manner of walking which the Apostle Paul directeth us unto when he teacheth us by his own Example That the continual work of our lives should be to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to his Death if by any means we may attain to the Resurrection of the dead and to encrease and press forward in this kind of knowledge Phil. 3.10 11 12 15. Certainly he meaneth such an experimental knowledge of Christ and his Death and Resurrection as effectually makes us conformable thereunto in dying to sin and living to God And he would hereby guide us to make use of Christ and his Death and Resurrection by Faith as the powerful means of all Holiness in Heart and Life and to encrease in this manner of walking until we attain unto perfection in Christ 2. The second thing proposed was to lay before you some necessary Instructions that your steps may be guided aright to continue and go forward in this way of Holiness until you be made perfect in Christ And seeing we are naturally prone to mistake this way and are utterly unable to find it out or discern it by our own Reason and Understanding we should the more diligently attend to these Instructions taken out of the Holy Scriptures And we should pray earnestly that God would give unto us the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that we may discern the way of Holiness thereby and walk aright in it according to that gracious promise The wayfaring men tho Fools shall not err therein Isa 35.8 1. Observe and consider diligently in our whole Conversation That tho you are partakers of a new holy state by Faith in Christ yet our natural state doth remain in a measure with all its corrupt Principles and Properties as long as we live in this present World our apprehension of Christ and his perfection in this Life is only by Faith whereas by Sense and Reason we may apprehend much in our selves contrary to Christ and this Faith is imperfect So that true Believers have cause to pray to God to help their Unbelief Mar. 9.24 Therefore tho we receive perfect Christ by Faith yet the measure and degree of enjoying him is imperfect and we hope still so long as we are in this World to enjoy him in a higher degree of perfection than we have done we are yet but weak in Christ 2 Cor. 13.4 Children in comparison to the perfection we expect in another World 1 Cor. 13.10 11. and we must grow still till we come to the perfect man Eph. 4.13 and some are less Babes than others and have received Christ in so small a measure that they may be accounted carnal rather than spiritual 1 Cor. 3.1 And because all the Blessings and Perfections of our new state as Justification the gift of the Spirit and of the holy Nature and the Adoption of Children are seated and treasured up in Christ and joyned with him inseparably we can receive them no further than we receive Christ himself by Faith which we do in an imperfect measure and degree in this Life The Apostle Paul proposeth himself as a pattern for all those that are perfect in the truth of Grace to imitate And yet he professeth That he was not yet made so perfect in the degree or measure of saving Endowments but that he did still press forward towards the mark of the prize of the high-calling of God in Christ Jesus labouring still to apprehend and win Christ more perfectly and to be found in him not having his own Righteousness but that which is of God by Faith and to gain more experimental knowledge of Christ and of the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his Resurrection being made conformable thereunto Phil 3.8 10. Believers are Justified already yet wait for the hope of Righteousness by Faith i. e. for the full enjoyment of the Righteousness of Christ Gal. 5.5 They have received but the first-fruits of the spirit and must wait for a more full enjoyment of it The Spirit witnesseth now to them that they are the Children of God and yet they groan
of the Flesh and to the Perfection of the New Man in Christ Yet it holdeth true also that our reception and enjoyment of Christ himself and all his Perfections is but in an imperfect measure and degree until Faith be turned into heavenly Vision and Fruition of Christ and therefore our old sinful State with the Evils thereof is not perfectly abolished during this Life The Kingdom of Heaven or the Grace of Christ within us is like leaven in Meal and doth not unite it self perfectly to the Meal in an Instant but by degrees until the whole be leavened Mat. 13.35 or like the morning Light that expelleth Darkness by degrees shining more and more unto a perfect day Prov. 4.18 This cannot be justly accounted any derogation to the Merits of Christ's Death or to the power of his Spirit seeing Christ never intended to bring to pass by his Death or by the power of his Spirit that we should enjoy his spiritual Blessings any further than we are in him and enjoy him by Faith or that we should be made holy or happy according to the Flesh by a Reformation of our natural State as hath been shewed Neither doth this diminish the Consolation of Believers in Christ for thereby they may know that they have the Perfection of Grace and Happiness in Christ and that they enjoy it in this World as far as they enjoy Christ himself by Faith and that they shall enjoy it in a perfect measure and be fully freed from their old Sins and miserable State when that frame of Nature which they received from the first Adam is dissolved by Death This Instruction is very useful to frame our Souls aright for the practising of Holiness only by those Gospel Principles and Means that belong to our new State which we are Partakers of by Faith in Christ And thus it is easily vindicated from another great Objection wherein the Papists and Quakers do much Triumph They appeal to Mens Conscience to answer this Question which Doctrin is most likely to bring People to the practice of true Godliness theirs which teacheth That perfect Holiness may be attained in this Life or ours which teacheth That it is impossible for us to keep the Law perfectly and to purge our selves from all Sin as long as we live in this World though we use our best Endeavours They think that common Reason will make the Verdict pass for them against our Doctrin as that which discourageth all Endeavours for Perfection and hardneth the Hearts of People to allow themselves in Sin because they cannot avoid it But on the contrary the Doctrine of Perfection hardens People to allow themselves in Sin and to call Evil Good as the Papists account That the Concupiscence of the Flesh against the Spirit is no Sin but rather good matter for the Exercise of their Vertues because the most perfect in this Life are not without it It also discourageth those that labour to get Holiness in the right way by Faith in Christ and maketh them to think that they labour in vain because they find themselves still sinful and far from Perfection when they have done their best to attain it It hindereth our Diligence in seeking Holiness by these Principles and Means whereby only it can be found For who will be Diligent and Watchful to avoid walking according to his own carnal Principles if he think that his own carnal State with it's Principles is quite abolished and is out of him so that at present he is in no danger of walking according to them Whatsoever good works the Doctrin of the Perfectionists may serve to promote I am sure it hindereth a great part of that work which Christ would have us to be employed in as long as we live in this World we must know that our old State with its evil Principles continueth still in a measure or else we shall not be sit for the great Duties of confesing of Sins loathing our selves for them praying earnestly for the Pardon of them a just sorrowing for them with a Godly Sorrow accepting the Punishment of our Sins and giving God the glory of his Justice and offering to him the Sacrifice of a broken and contrite Spirit being poor in Spirit working out our Salvation with fear and trembling Some have doubted how it can consist with our Justification by Christ that we should be still lyable to be punished for our Sins and obliged to pray for the Pardon of them because they have not well considered the twofold State of Believers in this Life and except we know this and keep it in Mind we shall never be sit to practise continually the great Duties that tend to the putting off the Old Man and putting on the New Man and mortifying the Deeds of the Body by the Spirit praying continually that God would renew a right Spirit in us and sanctify us throughout pressing forward to Perfection desiring the sincere Milk of the Word and the Enjoyment of other Ordinances Christ hath appointed that his Church on Earth should be employed in such works and Perfectionists either do or sain would account them needless for them and that they have no longer need of Christ himself to be their spiritual Physician and Advocate with the Father and Propitiation for their Sins Therefore they are not fit to be Members of the Church on Earth and are never likely to be Members of the Church in Heaven except they can make a Ladder and climb up thither before their time 2. Despair of purging the Flesh or Natural Man of its sinful Lusts and Inclinations and of practising Holiness by your willing and resolving to do the best that lyeth in your own Power and trusting on the Grace of God and Christ to help you in such Resolutions and Endeavours rather resolve to trust on Christ to work in you to will and to do by his own power according to his own good Pleasure They that are convinced of their own Sin and Misery do commonly first think to tame the Flesh and to subdue and root out its Lusts and to make their corrupt Nature to be better natured and inclined to Holiness by their strugling and wrestling with it And if they can but bring their Hearts to a full purpose and resolution to do the best that lyeth in them they hope that by such a Resolution they shall be able to atchieve great Enterprizes in the Conquest of their Lusts and performance of the most difficult Duties It is the great work of some zealous Divines in their Preaching and Writings to stir up People to this Resolution wherein they place the chiefest turning Point from Sin to Godliness And they think that this is not contrary to the life of Faith because they trust on the Grace of God through Christ to help them in all such Resolutions and Endeavours Thus they endeavour to reform their old State and to be made perfect in the Flesh instead of putting it off and walking according to
that it is the proper nature and tendency of Baptism to guide us to Faith in Christ alone for remission of Sins Holiness and all Salvation by Union and Fellowship with him and that a diligent improvement of this Ordinance must needs be of great advantage to the Life of Faith 5. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is as a spiritual Feast to nourish our Faith and to strengthen us to walk in all Holiness by Christ living and working in us if it be used according to the Patern which Christ gave us in its first Institution recorded by Three Evangelists Mat. 26.26 Mar. 14.22 24. Luk. 22.19 20. and was extrordinarily revealed from Heaven by Christ himself to the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 11.23 25. that we might be the more obliged and stirred up to the exact Observation of it It s end is not only that we may remember Christs Death in the History but in the Mystery of it as that his Body was broken for us that his Blood is the Blood of the New Testament or Covenant shed for us and for many for the remission of Sins that so we may receive and enjoy all the Promises of the New Covenant which are recorded Heb. 8.12 It s end is to mind us that Christs Body and Blood are Bread and Drink even all-sufficient Food to nourish our Souls to everlasting Life and that we ought to take and eat and drink him by Faith and to assure us that when we truly believe on him he is as really and closely united to us by his Spirit as the Food which we eat and drink is united to our Bodies Christ himself Joh. 6. doth more fully explain this Mystery Furthermore this Sacrament doth not only put us in mind of the spiritual Blessings wherewith we are Blessed in Christ and our Enjoyment of them by Faith but also it is a Mean and Instrument whereby God doth really exhibit and give forth Christ and his Salvation to true Believers and whereby he doth stir up and strengthen Believers to receive and feed upon Christ by present actings of Faith while they partake of the outward Elements When Christ saith eat drink this is my body this is my blood no less can be meant than that Christ doth as truly give his Body and Blood to true Believers in that Ordinance as the Bread and Cup and they do as truly receive it by Faith As if a Prince invest a Subject in some Honourable Office by delivering to him a Staff Sword or Signet and say to him take this Staff Sword or Signet this is such an Office or Preferment or if a Father should deliver a Deed for Conveyance of Land to his Son and say take it as thine own this is such a Farm or Mannor how can such Expressions import any less in common Senfe and Reason than a Present Gift and Conveyance of the Offices Preferments and Lands by and with those outward Signs Therefore the Apostle Paul asserteth that the bread in the Lords supper is the communion of the body of Christ and the cup is the communion of his blood 1 Cor. 10.16 which sheweth that Christ's Body and Blood are really communicated to us and we do really partake of them as well as of the Bread and Cup. The chief Excellency and Advantage of this Ordinance is That it is not only a Figure and Resemblance of our living upon a crucified Saviour but also a precious Instrument whereby Christ the Bread and Drink of Life is really conveyed to us and received by us through Faith This makes it to be a Love-Token worthy of that ardent Affection toward us which filled Christ's Heart at the time when he instituted it when he was on the point of finishing of his greatest work of Love by laying down his Life for us 1 Cor. 11.23 And this is diligently to be observed that we may make a right improvement of this Ordinance and receive the saving Benesits of it One reason why many do little esteem and seldom or never partake of this Ordinance and do find little benefit by it is because they falsly imagine that God in it only holds forth naked signs and resemblances of Christ and his Salvation which they account to be held forth so plainly in Scripture that they need not the help of such a sign Whereas if they understood that God doth really give Christ himself to their Faith by and with those Signs and Resemblances they would prize it as the most delicious Feast and be desirous to partake of it on all opportunities Acts 2.42 and 20.7 Another reason why many partake seldom or never of this Ordinance and know little of the benefit of it is because they think themselves brought by it into great danger of eating and drinking their own Damnation according to those terrifying words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.29 therefore they account it the safest way wholly to abstain from such a dangerous Ordinance or at least that once a year is enough to run so great a Hazard And if they be brought to it sometimes by constraint of Conscience their slavish Fears bereave them of all comfortable Fruit of it So that instead of striving to receive Christ and his Salvation therein they account themselves to have succeeded well if they come off without the Sentence of Damnation As the Jewish Rabbies write that the High-Priests Life was so eminently hazarded by his entring once a year into the Holy of Holies that he stayed there as little time as he could lest the People should think him to be struck dead by the Hand of God And when he was come forth alive he usually made a Feast of Thanksgiving for Joy of so great a Deliverance But there is no reason why we should be so much terrified by those words of the Apostle for they were darted against such a gross prophanation of the Lords Supper amongst the Corinthians as we may easily avoid by observing the Institution of it which the Apostle proposeth to them as a sufficient remedy against the gross abuse in not discerning or differencing the Lords Body from other bodily Food and partaking of it as their own Supper with such disorder that one was Hungry and another Drunken Besides that terrifying word Damnation may be rendred more mildly Judgment as it is in the Margent yea the Apostle himself Ver. 32. doth interpret it of a merciful temporal Judgment whereby we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the World We are indeed prone to sin in receiving this Ordinance unworthily and so we are also to pollute more or less all other holy things that we meddle with So that the consideration of our danger might sill us with slavish fear in the use of all other means of Grace as well as of this were it not that we have a great High-Priest to bear this Iniquity of our holy things Exod. 28.38 under the Covert of whose Righteousness we are to draw near unto God without
slavish fear in the full assurance of Faith in this as well as in other holy Ordinances and we are to rejoyce in the Lord in this spiritual Feast as the Jews were bound to do in their solemn Feasts Deut. 16.14 15. There are other Abuses of this Ordinance like to those of Baptism forementioned whereby it is rendred opposite rather than subservient to the Life of Faith Some put it in the place of Christ by trusting on it as a work of Righteousness for the procuring of Gods Favour or an Ordinance sufficient to confer Grace to the Soul by the very work wrought Others make it so necessary that they account that Faith is not sufficient without it and therefore they will partake of it if they can possibly tho it be in a disorderly manner upon their sick-Beds when they are in fear of Death as their Viaticum The Papists do horribly Idolize it by their figment of Transubstantiation and the Adoration of their Breaden God and their Sacrifice of the Mass for the sins of the Quick and the Dead We ought warily to conceive that the true Body and Blood of Christ are given to us with the Bread and Wine in a spiritual mysterious manner by the unsearchable Operation of the Holy Spirit uniting Christ and us together by Faith without any Transubstantiation in the outward Elements 6. Prayer is to be made use of as a means of living by Faith in Christ according to the New Man And it is the making our Requests with Supplication and Thankfgiving That it is to be used so as an eminent Means appears because God requireth it 1 Thess 5.17 Rom. 12.12 It is our priestly Work 1 Pet. 2.5 compared with Psal 141.2 and the property of Saints 1 Cor. 1.2 and God is a God hearing Prayer Psal 65.2 God will be prayed to by his People for the benefit that he is minded to bestow upon them when once he hath enabled them to pray though at first he is found of them that seek him not Ezek. 36.27 37. Phil. 1.19 20. that he may prepare them for Thanksgiving and make Benefits double Benefits to them Psal 66.16 18 19. and 50.15 2 Cor. 1.10 11. Though his Will be not changed by this means yet it is accomplished ordinarily and his Purpose is to accomplish it this way And therefore trusting assuredly should not make us neglect but rather perform this Duty 2 Sam. 7.27 Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant by which Justification and Sanctification are promised is also the Mediator for Acceptance of our Prayers Heb. 4.15 16. The Spirit that sanctifieth us begetteâ—h us in Chist sheweth the things of Christ to us is a Spirit of Prayer Zech. 12.10 Gal. 4.6 He is as Fire inslaming the Soul and making it to mount upward in Prayer to God Prayerless People are dead to God If they are Children of Sion yet they are but still-born dead Children that cry not Acts 9.11 not written among the living in Jerusalem Heathens in Nature though Christians in Name Jer. 10.25 It is a Duty so great that it is put for all the Service of God as a fundamental Duty which if it be done the rest will be done well and not without it and other Ordinances of Worship are Helps to it Isa 56.7 It is the great means whereby Faith doth expert it self to perform its whole Work and poureth it self forth in all holy Desires and Affections Psal 62 8. and so yeilds a sweet savour as Mary's Box of precious Spicknard Mark 14.3 John 12.3 And so the same Promises are made to Faith and Prayer Rom. 10.11 12 13. It is our continual Incense and Sacrifice whereby we offer our selves Hearts Assections and Lives to God Psal 141.2 We act all Grace in it and must act it this way or else we are not likely to act it any other way And as we act Grace so we obtain Grace by it and all Holiness Psal 138.3 Luk. 11.13 Heb. 4.16 Psal 81.10 Our Riches come in by it Israel prevails while Moses holds up his Hands Exod. 17. By Prayer Hannah is strengthened against her Sorrows 1 Sam. 1.15 18. Peace is continued Phil. 4.6 7. the disordered Soul set in order by it as Hannah 1 Sam. 1. Psal 32.1 5. Incense was still burnt while the Lamps were dressed Exod. 30.7 8. It is added to the Spiritual Armoury not as a particular piece of it but as a means of putting on all and making use of all aright that we may stand in the evil Day Eph. 6.18 It is a means of transfiguring us into the likeness of Christ in Holiness and making our spiritual Faces to shine as Christ was transfigured bodily whilst he prayed Luk. 9.29 and Moses his Face shone whilst he talk'd with God Exod. 34.29 Hence the frequent use of this Duty is commended to us Eph. 6.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on all Seasons and Opportunities and by the example of the Saints in publick with the Congregation Acts 2.42 10.30 31. Solemn continued Acts of Prayer should be Mat. 6.1 Yea several times as Morning and Evening Sacrifice Dan. 6.10 Psal 92.2 or Thrice Psal 55.17 besides special Occasions Jam. 5.13 and brief Ejaculations that hinder not other business Psal 129.8 2 Sam. 15.31 Nch. 2.4 Prayers should be solemn in our Closets Mat. 6.6 in Families Acts 10.30 31. And as Sacrifices were multiplyed on the Sabbath-days and days of Atonement and at other appointed seasons Numb 〈…〉 the continual burnt-offering so ought 〈…〉 In a word a Christian ought to give up himself eminently to this Duty Psal 109.4 without limits Psal 119.164 But the great work is to practise this Duty rightly for Holiness only by Faith in Christ Here we had need say Lord teach us to pray Luke 11.1 and that not only as to the matter but as to the manner both which are taught by Christ in some measure in that brief patern of Prayer which he taught his Disciples But for the understanding of it we must consult the whole Word 2 Tim. 3.16 17. And we have need of the Spirit of Christ to guide us in the Duty and therefore we are taught to pray by the Spirit i. e. the Holy Ghost Jude 20. Eph. 2.18 the Spirit of God only guideth and enableth our Souls to Pray aright and that you may do so take these Rules 1. You must pray with your Hearts and Spirits Isa 26.9 Joh. 4.24 where the Spirit of Christ and of Prayer principally resides Gal. 4.6 Eph. 1.17 with Vnderstanding 1 Cor. 14.15 16. for we are renewed in Knowledg Col. 3.10 2 Pet. 1.3 so that praying in Ignorance cannot Sanctifie And it must be with sincere hearty desire of the good things we ask in Prayer For God seeth the Heart Psal 62.8 Prayer is chiefly a heart-work Psal 27.8 God heareth the Heart without the Mouth but never heareth the Mouth acceptably without the Heart 1 Sam. 1.13 Your Prayer is odious Hypocrisie mocking of God and taking his Name
therefore we have directed to seeking of Holiness by the Spirit of Christ and willing good freely by a spiritual Power as new Creatures partakers of a divine Nature in Christ Yea it s necessary to know the first Adam that we may know the second Rom. 5.12 To believe the fall and original Sin that we may be stirred up to fly to Christ by Faith for Holiness by free Gift knowing that we cannot attain it by our own Power and Free Will 2 Cor. 1.9 Mat. 9.12 13. Rom. 7.24 25. 2 Cor. 3.5 Eph. 5.14 There were no need of a new Man or a new Creation if the old were not without strength and Life Joh 3.5 6 Eph. 2.8 But original Deadness cannot hinder Gods working Faith and Hungrings and Thirstings after Christ by the Spirit through the Gospel in those that God chooseth to walk holily and blamelessly before him in Love 1 Thes 1.4 5. Act. 26.18 And so we are made alive in a new Head and become Branches of another Vine living to God by the Spirit not by Nature 2. It confirms us in the Doctrin of Predestination which many deny because they say it takes Men off from Endeavours as fruitless by telling Men that all Events are predetermined This Argument would be more forcible against Endeavours by the power of our own Free Will but not at all against Endeavours for Holiness by the Operation of God giving us Faith and all Holiness by his own Spirit working in us through Christ we are to trust on Christ for the Grace of the Elect and Gods good Will towards Men Matt. 3.17 Luke 2.14 Psal 106.4 5. Election by Grace destroys seeking by Works but not by Grace Rom. 11.5 6. And we are here taught to seek for Salvation only in the way of the Elect and we may conclude that Holiness is to be had by Gods Will and not by our own and it may move us to desire Holiness by the Will of God Rom. 9.16 Psal 109.32 And seeing it appears by this Doctrin of Sanctification through Christ that we are Gods Workmanship as to all the good wrought in us Phil. 2.12 13. Eph. 2.10 We may well admit that he hath appointed his Pleasure from Eternity without infringing the Natural Liberty of our corrupt Wills which reacheth not unto good Works Acts 15.18 compare with 30. Mans Natural Free Will may well consist with Gods Decree as in Paradise Decretum radii contingentia 3. It confirms us in the true Doctrin of Justification and Reconciliation with God by Faith relying on the Merits of Christs Blood without any Works of our own and without considering Faith as a Work to procure Favour by the Righteousness of the Act but only as a Hand to receive the Gift or rather as the very Eating and Drinking of Christ actually than any kind of Condition intitling us to him as our Food This great Doctrin of the Gospel many hate as breaking the strongest Bonds of Holiness and opening a way to all Licentiousness for they reckon that the Conditionality of Works to attain Gods Favour and avoid his Wrath and the necessity of them to Salvation are the most necessary and effectual Impulsives to all Holiness and they account that the other Doctrin opens the Flood-gates to Licentiousness And truly this Consideration would be of some weight if People were to be brought to Holiness by Moral Suasion and their natural Endeavours stirred up by the Terms of the Law and by slavish Fears and Mercenary Hopes for the Force of these Motives would be altogether enervated by the Doctrin of Justification by Free Grace but I have already shewed that a Man being a guilty dead Creature cannot be brought to serve God out of love by force of any of these Motives and that we are not sanctified by any of our own Endeavours to work Holiness in our selves but rather by Faith in Christ's Death and Resurrection even the same whereby we are justified and that the urging of the Law stirs up Sin and that Freedom from it is necessary to all Holiness as the Apostle teacheth Rom. 6.11 14. and 7.4 5. And this way of Sanctification confirms the Doctrin of Justification by Faith as the Apostle informeth Rom. 8.1 For if we are Sanctified and so restored to the Image of God and Life by the Spirit through Faith it is evident that God hath taken us into his Favour and pardoned our Sins by the same Faith without the Law or else we should not have the Fruits and Effects of his Favour thereby to our eternal Salvation Rom. 8.2 Yea his Justice would not admit his giving Life without Works if we were not made Righteous in Christ by the same Faith And we cannot trust to have Holiness freely given us by Christ upon any rational Ground except we can also trust on the same Christ for free Reconciliation and Forgiveness of Sins for our Justification Neither can guilty cursed Creatures that cannot work by reason of their Deadness under the Curse be brought to a rational love of God except they apprehend his loving them first freely without Works 1 John 4.19 The great Objection and Reason of so many Controversies and Books written about it is because they think that Men will trust to be saved however they live But Sanctification is an Effect of Justification and floweth from the same Grace and we trust for them both by the same Faith and for the former in order to the latter And such a Faith be it never so confident tendeth not to Licentiousness but Holiness And we grant that Justification by Grace destroys Holiness by legal Endeavours but not by Grace So that there is no need to live a Papist and die an Antinomian 4. It confirms us in the Doctrin of Real Union with Christ so plentifully held forth in Scripture which Doctrin some count a vain Notion and cannot endure it because they think it worketh not Holiness but Presumption whereas I have shewed that it is absolutely necessary for the Enjoyment of Spiritual Life and Holiness which is treasured up in Christ and that so inseparably that we cannot have it without a real Union with him 2 Cor. 13.5 1 John 5.12 John 6.53 ch 15.5 1 Cor. 1.30 Col. 3.11 The Members and Branches cannot live without Union with the Vine and Head nor the Stones be part of the living Temple except they be really joyned mediately or immediately to the Corner-stone 5. In the Doctrin of certain final Perseverance of the Saints John 3.36 c. 6.37 5.24 1 John 3.9 1 Thess 5.24 Phil. 1.6 John 10.23 29. c. 4.14 They think this Doctrin maketh People careless of good Works I answer It maketh People careless of seeking them by their own Natural Strength and in a way of slavish Fear but careful and couragious in trusting on the Grace of God for them when they are brought by Regeneration heartily to desire them Rom. 6.14 Numb 13.30 setting upon the doing of them in that Grace 1 Thess 5.8
this Mercy-seat was a sign of God's Favourableness to a sinful People in residing among them and was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 9.5 Now this Doctrine appears confirmed for these Reasons 1. Because Christ by the will of God gave himself a Ransom for us to redeem us from Sin and Punishment Wrath and Curse Tit. 2.14 He gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity He gave himself to Death for us was delivered for our Offences his Death was the Price of our Redemption that we might be justified in Gods Sight God gave him up to Death he spared him not that he might be made Righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 and Mat. 20.28 He gave his own life a Ransome for many And so 1 Tim. 2.6 He hereby bought us by this Price 1 Cor. 6.6 He Redeemed us not with Silver and Gold but with his precious Blood as of a Lamb without spot 1 Pet. 1.18 19. 2 Pet 2.1 Rev. 5.9 He suffering the Penalty due to us for Sin 1 Pet. 2.24 He bare our Sins in his Body on the Tree Gal. 3.13 He was made a Curse for us thereby redeemed us from the Curse of the Law and that he might be made a Curse he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 Isa 53.5 6. He subjected himself to the Law both in active as well as passive Obedience Gal. 4 4. And obeyed his Father even to Death doing and suffering at his Commandment John 14.31 Heb. 10.7 And his Obedience was for our Justification Compare Rom. 5.19 with Phil. 2.8 So Christ satisfied both for our Debt of Righteousness and Debt of Punishment for our Faultiness taint of Sin and want of Righteousness as well as for our guilt and obnoxiousness to punishment that we might be free from Wrath and deemed Righteous in God's Sight His Suffering was the consummating Act of Redemption and so all is attributed to it Heb. 2.9 10. Even to his Blood though other doings and sufferings concur 2 Cor. 8.9 We are righteous by him as we were guilty by Adam Rom. 5.12 2 God accepted this Price as a Satisfaction to his Justice which he shewed in raising Christ from the Dead and so acquitting him from all our Sins He was justified by the Spirit 1 Tim. 3. ult for us Rom. 4. ult raised for our Justification see Rom. 8.34 It is God that Justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen from the Dead And Heb. 10.5 14. By one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified And Eph. 5.1 2. This Sacrifice was a sweet smelling savour unto God If Christ had sunk under the weight of our sins and not been raised the Payment had not been finished and so the Debt not discharged John 16.10 Of Righteousness because I go to my Father 3. This Righteousness is in Christ as to the benefit of it So that it can't be had except we be in Christ and have Christ So the Text expresseth and sheweth that he is the Propitiation and as so he is our Righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 We have Redemption and Righteousness in him Eph. 1.7 2 Cor. 5.21 And therein our freedom from Condemnation Rom. 5.1 Christ dyed that his Seed might be justified Isa 53.10 11. Those that are in him by Spiritual Regeneration 1 Cor. 4.15 Observ VI. The formal cause of Justification or that wherein it consists is the Remission of Sin i. e. not only the Guilt and Punishment is removed but fault because it 's a Pardon grounded on Justice which cleareth the fault also By him we are justified from all things that the Law chargeth us with Act. 13.39 In Men subject to a Law there is no middle condition between not Imputing of Sin and Imputing of Righteousness and so these terms are used as Equivalent Act. 13.36 39. Through this Man is Preached Forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified c. Rom. 4.6 8. 2 Cor. 15.19 21. Rom 5.17 This is through the Bloodshed of Christ Eph. 1.7 Mat. 26.28 Observ VII God Justifieth a Sinner through Faith in Christs Blood Faith is the Instrumental Cause of receiving this Benefit Faith in the Blood of Christ 1. This Faith is believing on Christ that we may be justified by him Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a Man is not justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law we believe in Christ for Justification out of a sence of our inability to obtain Justification by Works 2. This Faith doth not justify us as an Act of Righteousness earning and procuring our Justification by the work of it for this would have been Justification by works as under the Law diametrically opposite to Grace and free Gift which excludes all consideration of any works of ours to be our Righteousness under any denomination or diminutive terms whatever whether you 'l call it Legal or Evangelical though you reckon it no more then the payment of a Pepper-corn Rom. 11.6 Faith in this case is counted a Not working Rom. 4.5 And it 's not Faith that stands in stead of the Righteousness of the Law but the Righteousness of Christ which satisfieth for what we ought to have done or suffered as hath been shewed 3. God Justifieth by Faith as the Instrument whereby we receive Christ and his Righteousness by which we are Justified properly and we are justified by Faith only Metonymically by reason of the Righteousness received by it and to be justified by Faith and Christ is all one Gal. 3.8 Rom. 5.1 By Faith we receive remission of sins Act. 26.18 and Chap. 10 43. It s effect is the reception of Justification not the working of it as a man may be said to be maintained by his hands or nourished by his mouth when those do but receive that which nourisheth his food and drink the Cup is put for the Liquor in the Cup 1 Cor. 11.26 27. See Rom. 1.17 and 13.22 Christ is in us by Faith Eph. 3.17 perceived eat drunk Joh. 1.12 Chap. 9.49 53. 4. This Faith is to be understood Exclusively to all our works for Justification we defend against the Papists Justification by faith only and there is nothing more sully expressed in Scripture Phrase Rom. 3.28 Gal. 2.16 Phil. 3.8 9. Rom. 4.16 5. We must understand faith in a full sence of receiving Remission of the sault as well as of the punishment we believe that God accounts not the fault to us of the least sin and where faith is said to be accounted for Righteousness it is because of the object it receives Rom. 4.6 7 8. 2 Cor. 5.19 21. We believe Christs Righteousness imputed to us as our sins to him or else we receive not remission of Sins by believing which is contrary to charging us with sin and condemnation which charging signifieth imputing sin Rom. 8.33 34 together
God 3. They have no need to seek Salvation by Works of the Law and so are delivered from a Yoke that cannot be born from endless observances that Pharisees and Papists have heaped up from the continual frights doubts fears and terrors by the Law Act. 15.10 Rom. 8.15 from a Wrath-working Law Rom. 4.15 from a Sin irritating Law Rom. 7.5 from a killing Law a Ministration of Death and Condemnation 2 Cor. 3.6 7 9. Mount Sinai which gendreth to Bondage Gal 4.24 4. Hence they are delivered from a condemning Conscience which otherwise would still gnaw them as a Worm Heb. 9.14 If the Blood of Bulls and Goats sanctified to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works c. A guilty conscience is a foul conscience and it will make all his services and duties dead works unfit for the service of the living God it s the blood of Christ applied by Faith that takes off this foulness of guilt from the conscience therefore the blood of Christ hath the only efficacy this way to take off the conscience of Sin Heb. 10.1 2 3 4 c. Hence they come to have a good conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 void of offence toward God Act. 24.16 5. It is an everlasting Righteousness by which their standing in Christ is secured Heb. 9.12 It s an eternal Redemption that is obtained So Dan 9.24 Whereas by the Law those that were justified to day typically might fall under condemnation so far as to need another sacrifice for Sin they had no real purgation of conscience from sin by those Sacrifices and therefore could not have a lasting delivery of their consciences from guilt by them here it is far otherwise here is an effectual compleat and perpetual Redemption reaching the conscience of the Sinner and for the purging away all sins past present and to come 1 Joh. 1.7 6. It 's a Righteousness of infinite value because it is the Righteousness of one that is God and his Name is Jehovah our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 Heb. 9.14 It is therefore more powerful to save than Adams sin was to destroy or condemn Rom. 5. Christ is here the power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 thence we are powerful and conquer by Faith likewise there 's a marvelous plenty of Mercy and Grace that is brought to us by Jehovah our Righteousness plenteous Redemption Psal 130.7 it must be most plentiful because infinite though no creature could satisfie for sin yet Jehovah could do it abundantly and therefore in Christ Gods merey prevails high above our sins Psal 103.11 12. 7. Gods Grace and Justice is both ingaged on our behalf in this Righteousness Justice is terrible and seems to be against mercy and dreadful to Natural people but it is otherwise to Believers it 's pacified and appeased through this Righteousness it 's satisfied in Christ for our sins Justice becomes our Friend joins in with Grace and instead of pleading against us it 's altogether for us and it speaks contrary to what it speaks to sinners out of Christ Josh 24.19 20. We may also plead Justice for forgiveness through mercy in Christ Rom. 3.26 8. We may be sure of Holiness and Glory of delivery from the power and dominion of sin as well as the charge of it before God and guilt in our own consciences for this was the end of Christs death Tit. 2.14 Rom. 6.6 Rom. 8.3 4. ch 6.14 c. 8.30 Whom he hath justified them hath he glorified The Law was the strength of Sin for sin had its title to rule in us by reason of the Curse and thence Satan also rules but here is our deliverance from Sin and Satan yea from Death too Heb. 2.14 15. Hos 13 14. And by the same reason we are raised by this excellent Righteousness to a better State than we had in Adam at first for Christ died that we might receive the Adoption of Sons and the Spirit that we might be brought under a new Covenant and be set in the right way of Holiness serving out of Love Gal. 3.14 1 Joh. 4.19 Gal. 4.4 Heb. 9.15 Rom. 5.11 Mat. 22.37 38. Col. 2.13 9. We may be sure hence of a concurrence of all things for our good all things shall work for good through Grace to bring us to Glory because God is for us who is the Creator and Governor of all things Rom 8.28 31 33. God will never be wroth with us nor rebuke us in anger any more Isa 54.9 Rom. 5.3 10. Hence we may come before God without confusion of face yea with boldness to the Throne of Grace in Christs Name Joh. 14.13 14. and expect all good things of him Eph. 3.12 in whom we have boldness of access with confidence by saith in him Heb. 10.22 23. Let us draw nigh with full assurance of faith Christs blood pleads for us in Heaven Heb. 12.14 and we may and are to plead boldly a satisfaction on his account 11. We live in those times when this righteousness is fully revealed and Sin made an end of Rom. 3.21 22. this is our happiness above those that lived before Christs coming who were under Types and Shadows of this righteousness when as we have the substance in its own light and so we are not under the Law which they were under as a School-master we are not Servants but Sons called to liberty Gal. 3.23 26. 4 7. 5 13. The preaching of the old Covenant as a Church Ordinance to be urged now is ceased the Law is not to be preached now in the same terms as Moses preached it for Justification Rom. 10.5 6 7 8. 2 Cor. 3.6 7. Gal. 3.12 21. its contrary in terms to saith though it were subservient Vse II. For Examination whether we be in Christ and have received this Justification by faith with all our hearts 1. Consider whether you be made really sensible of Sin and your Condemnation by the Law this is necessary to make us fly to Christ and for this as one great end was the Law given Gal. 3.22 23 24. Mat. 9.13 Act. 2.37 without sense of sin no prizing of Christ or desire of Holiness but rather abuse of Grace to carnal security and licentiousness those that were stung with the fiery Serpents looked up to the brazen Serpent 2. Dost thou trust only upon free mercy for Justification in Gods sight renouncing all thy works whatever in this point as not able to stand in them before Gods exact Justice crying mercy with the poor Publican Perfectionists and Self-righteous persons have no share in this matter Luk. 18.13 14. and Paul notwithstanding all that the World might think he had to plead for himself yet he counted all but dung that he might win Christ and be found in him not having his own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is of the faith of Christ the righteousness which is
on thy sin and misery and Christs excellency that so thou may'st be inclined in thy heart to believe Song 1.3 Gal. 2.16 Ps 9.10 for this is the way God useth to beget faith Isa 55.3 But if thou hast a desire and inclination to fly from thy self to Christ in the bent of thy heart so that thou preferrest Christ above all then the spirit hath begun and will carry on the work so that now thou mayst pray confidently for faith Cant. 1.4 Luk. 11.13 Mar. 9.24 Obj. III. But without holiness no Man shall see God Heb. 12.14 And how shall I do to get holiness And I cannot sanctifie my self and this confidence you speak of may slacken my diligence A. If thou hast Righteousness in Christ God will make thee holy and this confidence is the only way to get Holiness because of that Righteousness Rom. 5.21 The new Covenant is confirmed in him which promiseth a new Heart if sin be forgiven thou shalt be delivered from the power and quickned by the same Death and Resurrection of Christ whereby thou art Justified Col. 2.12 13. Exhort III. It Exhorteth them that are justified by Faith 1. To walk humbly as nothing of themselves to acknowledge themselves Enemies to God by Nature and acknowledge sins in the greatness and heinousness of them that they are saved freely by a Righteousness of another not by their own yea so far fallen that the Justice of God would have been against them if it had not been satisfied Psal 71.16 Rom. 3.27 but now see that Christ hath satisfied and his Righteousness is above their Sins Ezek. 26.31 2. To praise and glorifie God through Christ for this Grace Oh! what abundant grace and love appears in Gods washing and cleansing us by his Sons blood Rev. 1.5 Gal. 2.20 and in making his Son Sin and Curse for us Rom. 5.5 8. 1 Joh. 4.9 10. Ch. 3.16 2 Cor. 8.9 and what a glorious excellent Righteousness hath God given us in Christ Isa 61.10 3. To walk comfortably upon the account of this Righteousness Isa 40.1 2. Triumph over Sin and Affliction Rom. 8.33.39 Be confident in expecting great things from God Heb. 10.22 for though you be unworthy and grace will shew you your own unworthiness yet you stand upon the Righteousness of Christ glory in the hope of Gods glory for if Christ died to reconcile you when you were Enemies much more will he save you by his life now you are reconciled Rom. 5.3 10. Ask boldly for what you want for God is in Christs Manhood as the Mercy-seat when ever Sin stings you and objections trouble you look to the Brazen Serpent confess Sin and trust for Pardon meditate on Christs Righteousness and the abundance of grace in him Rom. 8.32 If you find never so much Ungodliness no good qualifications yet Christ is at hand for your comfort Isa 50.10 2 Thes 2.16 17. In all your Sins apply your selves to this Fountain Zach. 13. 1 Joh. 1.7 If Sin lye on conscience it weakens peace and spiritual strength lye not under guilt with a slavish fear you have a Righteousness to deliver you from it applying it by Faith that you may have no more conscience of Sin as condemning Heb. 10.2 Psal 32. you have a better Righteousness than any Perfectionists can have Exhort IV. Hold fast this way of Justification notwithstanding all the noise that is made in the World against it for the Devil will strive to scare you out of it or steal it from you as he did from the Jews from the Galatians the Papists and many Protestants Gal. 1.6 And the Apostle reckons it 's by a Spiritual bewitchery he will strive to get you to trust on Works and tell you it is for the promoting of Holiness and to trust on Works to get Christ and to lay Works lowest in the foundation If you lose this Righteousness of Christ under any colour or pretence whatever you lose all Gal. 5.2 3. Do not so dishonour Christ as to think of procuring that by Works which you have fully in Christ think not that the Gospel requires another Justification to gain this for the Gospel is no legal Covenant but a Declaration of the Righteousness of Faith and we being Justified are Heirs by Adoption and Promise Gal. 3.25 This is the Doctrine which glorifieth God and abaseth the Creature which is a great mark of its truth Beware therefore of carnal reason which will go quite contrary and make Christs righteousness a stumbling Stone to thee 1 Pet. 2.8 Rom. 9.32 â—3 V. Walk as one that enjoys the favour of God in Christ Let him have the honour of it walk therefore in Holiness knowing by what price you are redeemed 1 Pet. 1.17 18. 2 Cor. 5.14 15. 2 Pet. 1.5 11. 1 Cor. 6. last Love God that hath loved you first 1 Joh. 4.19 Psal 116.16 Believe that God will inable to Holiness Rom. 6.14 Particularly walk in Love to the Saints exercise forgiveness to your Enemies sense of your own Sins and Gods forgiving you will cause you to pity and forgive others else you cannot pray or trust for forgiveness of your own Sins upon reasonable grounds Eph. 4.31 32. Mat. 6.14 15. Mat. 18.21 Desire grace may be exalted upon others and wait patiently for the full Declaration of Justification at the great day Gal. 5.5 Act. 3.19 for here your Justification is known only by Faith but in outward things you are dealt with as a Sinner then your Righteousness shall appear openly and you shall be dealt with according to it FINIS