forth as the mark of an Hypocrite Now you have heard the law requires inward as well as outward perfection perfect holiness within as well as righteousness in the outward man I verily believe want of this conviction upon the soul sends more souls to Hell than any other thing in the world besides how confident are poor Creatures if they are a little consciencious in dealing and sober and blameless to men this you may be and be no better than Devils as in your selves in Gods account and thy best Character from Jesus Christ Mat. 23.26 is a Blind Pharisee Every place I fear abounds with them therefore this inveterate cursed plea of being outwardly blameless in keeping the Law will not in the least render you more accepted with God but 't is at the best but painted Hypocrisie And yet wretched souls that you are none so well perswaded of themselves as these This is the fourth Reason 5. All the best keeping of the Law doth not cannot make satisfaction to God for one sin of thy soul therefore 't is worth nothing Gods Justice is wronged and if the sinner be remitted God must be satisfied by the sinner himself or by another Now all the obedience of a sinner cannot make satisfaction to God in the least if he had the whole world to offer up to God it could not satisfie him for the wrong of one Sin See that known place Micah 6.6 7. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt offerings with Calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl shall I give my first born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Implying that there is nothing that a poor sinner of himself can offer up to God to make atonement of satisfaction to God for the least sin of his soul should he offer up thousands of prayers rivers of tears whole ages spent in services to God take up to a severe new obedience if you should so take to a new course as never to sin more all your days it would not make God satisfaction or atonement for one evil thought of thy soul Now observe this for if thou art not rightly convinced of this thing thou art lost for ever 'T is naturally upon every man and womans heart that hath sinned to imagine that when they have sinned they can put off God as to his displeasure with something or other they will reckon what good they have done gone to Church as you style it given Alms been just to Men or some such thing and the poor blind Creature imagines and pleaseth himself in it that this good thus done will well enough pacifie God for his sins or at least he will go over some prayers and be strict for a little while and then they doubt not but God because also he presently smites not with judgment is well enough appayed and he need no more trouble himself Is not this the very way of your hearts hath not the word found you out Object But you will say why cannot these duties and this obedience satisfie and pacifie God well enough for sin Answ 1. Because there is sin mixt in them they come from a prophane heart as is shew'd in the last reason thou thou ignorantly because thou knowest not thy heart call'st it a good heart Now that which is in it self sinful cannot sure satisfie for sin 2. Because of the infiniteness of God's justice as well as purity of it a finite creature cannot offer up a proportionable attonement to an infinite God Suppose a poor man were under the guilt of treason and condemn'd to dye and he should go and offer up a little course broken bread to the Prince would any one think that this would satisfie the Prince for his treason So poor deceived creature thou art guilty of treason and rebellion against the great and most high God and thou comest and offerest up to him thy poor polluted broked obedience and duties and thinkest he will be satisfied with this whereas God may in the same moment justly send thee to Hell for the iniquity of them A poor sinful soul thinks that because such doings and services do satisfie himself his own conscience therefore he thinks they will satisfie God also because they quiet him upon any trouble for guilt he thinks they will also quiet God and take off his anger and justice from punishing him Poor Creature this thy way is thy folly and the ready way to come under the severe justice of the Almighty who will not thus be dealt with nor be thus bribed with thy cursed sacrifices this is a further convincement of the point all the creature can do cannot pacifie God for one sin and therefore all his best keeping of the law cannot justifie a poor sinner before God nor give him acceptance in the least with him till he sees pacification another way and takes up obedience from another principle and to another end as we are to shew 6. All a mans endeavour in setting himself to keep the law to the utmost cannot give him acceptance with God because it cannot give life to the soul Gal. 3.21 For if there had been a law which would have given life verily righteousness had come by the law Man hath procured death and weakness upon his soul and the law cannot give life nor strength to obey it All that righteousness which leaves the soul dead comes to nothing while a soul is under the law and upon the fulfilling of it as he hopes in a good measure still the soul is as dead as sin left it and void of the life of God True a poor soul thinks himself alive by his legal performances as Paul thought Rom. 7.9 but he is dead in sin and under the sentence of death by the Law and all the performances towards the keeping of it can never give a drop of life to such a poor soul They are dead works and there 's no life in them or from them therefore they stand no soul instead while under the law as under it he is whiles he goes upon this account 7. The main reason of all which is now but to be touched is this If a soul endeavouring to keep the law of God as well as he can may be accepted of God thereby what need Jesus Christ to have dyed 'T is Pauls great argument Rom. 8.3 4. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us c. Mark ye what the law could not do that it could not give us a righteousness whereby God might accept us therefore God sent his Son in the flesh and condemned sin upon him which otherwise had been condemned
will not hide his Ear from the breathings of his poor Children Only let crying panting Souls take heed that this breath be not stopt nor intermitted 't is a most dangerous thing to intermit the breath of Prayer that it grows weaker and fainter it will be a sign unto you and a sad one too that the New-Creature is rather decaying than encreasing in you Be not contented with no more praying than will just as we say hold Life and Soul togerher that is to live at a very low rate but just to live if that As breathing takes in the Air revives enlargeth the Natural Spirits renders the whole man lively and lightsom and vigorous so doth this constant Spiritual breathing with God and after God it enlargeth the Heart revives the Soul keeps freshness and vigour of Spirit in the way of God when God comes in with a full gale upon the soul how sweetly is it refreshed how doth faintness weariness indisposition go off and the Spirit of a poor Creature is chearful with God and blessedly delights it self in him Oh delight to be every where in every way where God breaths upon the hearts of his people and where they breath after him And let new living Souls take heed by the way how their hearts do pant after the Earth and World and the contentments of it This will as much damp Spiritual Life and breath in the Soul as any evil whatsoever Lay your hearts to the fulness and sweetness of the Lord Jesus Christ and breath strongly for them and those things will be but wind and vanity 1. But I must proceed I come now to speak of the next discovery of the New-Creature and that is it hath new senses That you may see how fully it answers the frame of man as a Living Creature and what a New-Creation this is As the New-Creature hath a New-Nature a new inward life and hath a new breathing so it hath new Spiritual Senses So the Apostle Heb. 5.14 speaks of the Exercise of Spiritual Senses And as the Natural Life is exercised and preserved by Senses so is also this new Spiritual Life of the New Creature which I shall mention particularly First There is a New Ear given to this New-Creature This Jesus Christ hath frequently promised that he would open the deaf Ear So Job 36.10 He openeth also their Ear to Discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquity The hearing Ear and the seeing Eye the Lord hath made even both of them Prov. 20.12 By this opening the Ear is meant the opening of the Heart as 't is said of Lydia Act. 16. Whose heart the Lord opened The heart is shut up naturally and naturally cannot hear the voice of the Spirit till the Lord himself open it A natural man hears no more than the voice of a man and the Letter of the Word but when this New-Creature is formed he is ennabled to hear the voice of Jesus Christ himself the voice of the Spirit Joh. 10.27 My sheep hear my voiee A Soul can then say This the Lord speaks to me in special This is the voice of Christ that calls me to come to him and that Soul comes Jesus Christ speaks with a convincing particular powerful Word and the Heart being opened to receive it obeys it as his voice And so in every Ordinance 't is the voice of the Spirit of Christ the New-Creature waits for He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Rev. 3. last Secondly The New-Creature hath a new seeing eye The eyes of the Understanding opened to see into the blessed and hidden mysteries of the Gospel of Jesus Christ saith the Apostle of the Natural man Eye hath not seen 1 Cor. 2.9 And seeing they see not Matth. 13. But Christ speaking of called Disciples saith Blessed are your eyes for they see c. They have a new sight of God in Jesus Christ which sight doth abase them and also draw them to Jesus Christ The Vail being in part taken away they can look into the things of God which they saw not before the Scriptures begin to be unveiled and they see beyond the Letter of them into the Life and Spirituality of them And thus the Lord Jesus promised of old especially as to New-Testament-days I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not I will lead them in paths that they have not known I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight c. Isa 42.16 Thirdly There is a new power of tasting given to the Soul as another Spiritual Sense which before the Soul had to no purpose A new and blessed tasting of the good Word of Life Thy word is sweeter than the Honey-Comb Psal 19. How sweet are thy words unto my mouth Psal 119.103 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2.2 there is a new tast of the bitterness of sin The heart knows its own bitterness saith the Wise-man A Tasting of the special free and precious love of Christ A tasting of the goodness of God in mercies And thus there is a savoury spirit given to the New-Creature whereby he doth delightfully savour the things of Jesus Christ and can speak savourly of them to others Fourthly Add to this a new smelling to which the Spouse of Christ often alludes in Solomon's Songs Because of the savour of thy good Ointments Chap. 1.3 speaking of Jesus Christ who is a new and precious Perfume to the Soul Who is this that cometh out of the Wilderness perfumed with Myrrh and Frankincense Chap. 3.6 so saith the word of the promise Chap. 4.6 His smell shall be as Lebanon And when Jesus Christ breaths in his Ordinances upon blessed Souls it is as sweet and delightsom Perfume to them Fifthly There is a new feeling wrought as an effect of this new life which the Soul hath in Christ when a new Creature is in him The natural man is without feeling as a dead man is let never so great a weight lie on a dead man and he feels not but now take a Soul created into Christ and he feels a new weight within him Heb. 12.1 Sin is not only a burden as to the weight of Guilt but every corruption even when the sense of guilt is removed by Jesus Christ is a Weight to the Soul under which the Soul crys out mourns groans to be delivered Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Sin hangs like a dead body about him Vse If the Gospel-New-Creature is a living new-Creature and doth exercise Spiritual Life and hath new spiritual senses Let this then be a word of Tryal to discover the state of your Souls Can you say I that was dead am alive I was once spiritually dead without feeling did neither see nor hear nor tast in a spiritual way but now the Lord in rich grace hath opened my deaf ear and my blind
vilest sinner in order to my acceptance with Jesus Christ Nay if this Conviction take upon thee thou wilt say to the glory of God and thy own Confusion If there be any difference 't is that thou art the greatest sinner having mock'd the Lord rested in out-side service dealt hypocritically with the jealous God offered him abominable sacrifice and therefore fit to be abhorred of the Lord for ever Oh! that this might be the posture of thy Soul and so thou may'st come and lye prostrate at the feet of Jesus Christ crying Oh! no more no more a righteous person but a sinner a guilty sinner a condemned sinner a poor blind naked sinner nothing else but a sinner Away with all my former confidences tear them from my heart Lord. Now Lord Jesus I cast my self upon thee Oh! let me creep unto thy blessed feet Oh! I come to thee not because I am righteous for I would abhor my self for ever in the thought of it but as a poor perishing sinner the worst of sinners an hypocritical sinner Oh! that I could take hold of thy righteousness to cover my naked Soul I expect it only upon the account of thy Free-Grace Oh Lord I come unto thee do not do not reject me And thus I have been endeavouring to lay the sinner before Jesus Christ in such a posture having proved him under the Law excuseless in his transgressing of it guilty before God under an impossibility of reaching to an acceptance with God by the best keeping of the Law laboured to beat him off such props and confidences that the Heart naturally cleaves to and stript him of all naked as Adam when he had sinned before the Lord as nothing else but a Sinner which is that I have driven at I now come to speak of the way of a poor Souls justification and acceptance with God by Jesus Christ as the Lord shall assist to the capacity of the weakest ROM 3.24 Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ c. I Am now come to open the Gospel-righteousness wherein a poor sinner finds acceptance with God which in ver 21. of this third of the Romans is said to be now manifested that is more fully manifested by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the Gospel being witnessed before by the Law and the Prophets Even the righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe ver 22. called the righteousness of God namely that whereby God doth only justifie and accept of a Sinner wrought forth by the obedience of Jesus Christ and made over and imputed to a poor Soul that doth embrace it by Faith whether Jew or Gentile outwardly righteous or profane All that ever come to God must come this way and stand before him in this Righteousness or perish for ever which I shall begin to open from ver 24 25. 1. Being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Cheist 2. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood c. We have endeavoured in the former Discourse to go along with the Apostle in proving that by all the Deeds of the Law all the best Obedience that a sinner can reach unto he cannot be justified before God neither in part nor in whole that your good deeds will not procure pardon nor poise down your sins but all by the Law equally under condemnation Of what importance then is it for poor condemned souls to be well acquainted with and really and practically invested in that way of justification that God in infinite wisdom mercy and love hath set forth in the Gospel which is that I now design The Apostles arguing is thus If all fall short of righteousness and acceptance with God by their own obedience if all have sinned and come short of the glory of God then are all and that equally condemned If so condemned then acceptance with God and justification and remission of sins must come in another way The Rise and Fountain of which must necessarily be Gods free mercy and grace If made righteous it must be in the righteousness of another wrought forth by another Justice must be satisfied by another a price paid to God for a sinners redemption by another which is Jesus Christ blessed for ever From the words then I shall first lay down this plain Observation viz. Observ Gods free mercy and grace is the first Fountain of any sinners salvation or 'T is upon the account of Gods free grace that any sinner is saved Thus runs the current of the whole Gospel the main design of the Gospel being to glorifie the riches of Gods Free-grace by Jesus Christ Among many other Scriptures the Apostle doth most convincingly discourse in Rom. 5. from the 15th to the end setting the Free-grace of God unto Justification in opposition to a sinners condemnation But not as the offence so also is the free gift for if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many To the same import runs the rest of the verses The free gift of many unto Justification much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of Righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ All of Grace and of Free-gift abundance of Grace from first to last That as sin reigned unto death so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord verse last So the Apostle in that Epistle to the Ephesians wherein the Doctrine of Grace is blessedly given forth drives all the spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ mentioned Chap. 1.3 c. to this blessed Fountain Chap. 2.4 c. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ for by Grace ye are saved so verse 7. That in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace and ver 8. For by grace ye are saved it is the gift of God Therefore the invitation of the Gospel to sinners runs upon this score Ho Every one that thirsteth come to the Waters of Life Isa 55.1 And Whosoever will let him come to the Water of life freely Revel 22.17 I might illustrate this in all the particulars of a sinners salvation God's fore-ordaining and choosing any to salvation 't was to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1 5 6. The gift of his Eternal Son Jesus Christ from free love and grace John 3.16 The New Covenant and all the Promises of it freely given out for his own Names sake Ezek. 36. Effectual Calling from free grace 2 Tim. 1.9 The gift of Faith actual Justification Tit. 3.7 Sanctification Perseverance Eternal Life and Glory all flowing from the same fountain of Free-grace Some
up themselves to him Only a word to any poor humbled doubting soul that thinks infinitely well of all this but saith in his heart all this grace is too good for me I have sinned against it and slighted it I fear whether ever I may be accepted Oh remember and consider that Grace were not Grace if 't were not free God can save a sinner freely that 's enough to stay thee yea though thou hast slighted grace as where is the Saint but did so before effectually called yea God will save a sinner freely that will come by Jesus Christ unto him He will What would'st have more Do not stand reasoning thus but if thou art a sinner undone without him cast off from thy own Confidences go to him in the Name of God and believe him upon his own Word Say I take thee Blessed Lord upon thy own Word thou sayest Whosoever will let him come And Lord therefore I come I durst not come were I not invited freely and if I must be saved freely if ever then thou art to bestow all work all begin and perfect all Oh blessed Lord I come unto thee for it go and do thus and thou shalt be comforted and rejoice in his Salvation I might also here press blessed Souls who have been drawn to Jesus Christ and overcome by Free-grace to do it to live in the Admiration of that grace and to be low and poor and emptied in your selves in the abundant sense of it all your days Let your enjoyments and attainments be what they will be it known unto you that by grace ye are saved and you had and have as much need of it as any sinner in the World God's Design in saving you was to glorifie Grace and it must be your Design also here and for ever Having thus opened in some measure the grace of God to be the Fountain of a sinner's Salvation I shall now proceed to discover the way of the conveyance of this grace which is by Jesus Christ Being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Though God resolved to bestow grace upon such as shall be saved freely yet in a way of his own most wise and blessed Designing by his Eternal Son Jesus Christ to whom this Dispensation of Grace was committed which I shall further open in this Doctrine Namely Doct. All that Grace and Mercy which GOD gives out freely to sinners is conveyed to them by his Eternal Son Jesus Christ I might be abundant in the proof of this See in that 5th of the Rom. v. 17 21. Much more they which receive abundance of Grace and of the gift of Righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ And vers 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might Grace through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord All the Grace that should reign unto Life is given out by one Jesus Christ The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 All the Treasures of Grace were laid up in him and therefore he saith of himself Matth. 11.27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father and none can come unto the Father but by me which he makes as the great Argument why sinners should come unto him vers 28. Now so far as the Lord hath revealed the wise and holy Counsels of his heart in his Word unto us let us enquire into the Reasons why he took such a way to give all his grace to the children of men Reason 1. The first is this That as Mankind lost all in the Fall of the first Adam as he was a publick person representing all that came of him So it was the Wisdom of God in the recovery of lost-man to bring forth another person that should be fully stockt with Grace and Righteousness as a publique person to represent all the Elect unto the Father upon which account Jesus Christ is called the Second Adam 1 Cor. 15. And the Apostle sets the first Adam in his offence unto Death and the Grace and Righteousness of Jesus Christ as the Second Adam one against the other Rom. 5.15 16 c. For as by one mans Disobedience many were made sinners so by the Obedience of one shall many be made righteous And so the Apostle sets the Life Grace Righteousness of Jesus Christ as the Second Adam against the Death Condemnation Disobedience of the first man that sinned in the seven last Verses of that Chapter And herein the Wisdom of the Father is most excellently set forth and the ground of Consolation to Believers laid upon a most sure Foundation That whatsoever they lost in the First Adam they recover with much more abundance in Jesus Christ for so the Apostle hath that much more in the Scripture mentioned three or four times that Saints may see how abundantly compleat they are in Christ Reason 2. All Grace is conveyed by Jesus Christ because there needed a person to stand between GOD and Sinners as a Mediator to work forth Reconciliation between them Now who was meet but the Lord Jesus Christ to undertake this He being the Eternal Son of God equal with God was near unto God A meer creature was infinitely unfit for such an undertaking and he being also the Son of man cloathed in the nature of man he thus partaking of the nature of God who was to be appeased and of the nature of Man who was to be reconciled he became a most meet Undertaker of so glorious a Work Whence he hath that blessed Title given him of Mediator Jesus the Mediator of a New Covenant Heb. 12.24 There is one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 3. God resolved that his blessed Son Jesus Christ should have the Honour in this blessed Transaction to convey his Grace to lost Sinners James 5.22 23. That all men should honour the Son So the Apostle fully Col. 1.16 17 18 19 20. All things were for him And that in all things he might have the preheminence c. For by him and to him and for him are all things This Honour the Father committed to the Son to bring about this great Contrivance of bringing Man back again unto God 4. God letting out his Grace by Jesus Christ renders his love more abundant and acceptable to poor Sinners John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. So loved it that he could not give forth a greater manifestation of his love Now the Father purposed to render his love to sinners by the gift of his Son most full and glorious and therefore gave him out of his Bosom and all the Riches of his Love and Grace by him 5. This way of the Father's Dispensation of Grace by his Son Jesus Christ hath rendered the Grace of God most sure and unchangeable to his own The Covenant of Grace being now established between the Father and
Jesus Christ Jesus Christ being the Undertaker in it for all the Father gave him it is certainly founded upon a sure Bottom This was the Fathers Promise Isa 42.6 I will give him for a Covenant to the People Jesus Christ as a common person did represent all the Elect in the Covenant as the first Adam in the first Covenant did represent all his and Jesus Christ did undertake to bring them to God to bring them into the Covenant and so to estate them in all the grace and Mercy and Blessing of it Therefore the Mercies of the Covenant are stiled The sure mercies of David Isa 55.3 As a Type of Jesus Christ coming of the Seed of David wherein is set forth the excellency of the New Covenant the whole Transaction of it entrusted in the hands of Jesus Christ and therefore not one drop of the Mercy of it can ever fail those that are taken into it 6. By the giving forth of Jesus Christ the whole of Gospel-Salvation is rendered more glorious The Wisdom Justice Holiness of God as well as Mercy and Love do shine forth in Jesus Christ And therefore the Gospel-Mystery is styled The manifold Wisdom of God Ephes 3.10 Every Attribute of God is glorified in the giving out of Jesus Christ 7. Yea had not God taken this way of making out himself by Jesus Christ the world had dwelt in gross darkness of him therefore Jesus Christ is styled The Image of the Invisible God Col. 1.15 The express Image of the Father The brightness of his glory Heb. 1. And in 2 Cor. 2.6 The light of the knowledge of the Glory of God is said to shine in the face of Jesus Christ The Creation is but a dark shadow of the glory of God as to what is revealed of God in the manifestation of Jesus Christ There are the Footsteps of God in the Creatures but his Character and Image in his Blessed Son Jesus Christ 8. There could not have been access to God but by Jesus Christ for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father Eph. 1.18 How could polluted Dust draw nigh to the absolute Majesty and Glory of God had not he let forth himself in Jesus Christ as in our own Nature and so makes way for a poor sinner to come before him 9. Had God let forth Mercy to Sinners and not given out his Son Jesus Christ his justice must have been violated which is the main of all The word of the Lord was absolute In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Gen. 2.17 which was meant of the Eternal Death of the Soul in its separation from the life of God as is clear in Rom. 5. last where grace unto eternal life by Jesus Christ is put in opposition to that death which was by sin which must therefore needs be meant of Eternal Death So Rom. 6. ver last Now this Death must be executed upon all the Posterity of Adam or else God must take some other way to satisfie his Justice he will save the Sinner which was upon his own Son Jesus Christ as will further be evidenced in the following Discourse 10. The blessed God took this way of letting out himself his Grace by Jesus Christ that thereby Saints might have Vnion with him which was a holy Design of the Father in saving them That they may be one in us John 17.21 The deepest and most unconceivable Mystery in our Salvation Now Jesus Christ as the Eternal Son of God taking upon him our natures we became capable of being united to him through the Spirit and made one with the humane nature of Christ whereby we are also united to the God-head and so become one with the Father and the Son which is the top of the Saints perfection Vse 1. Now what hath been said as to the grounds and reasons of God in giving out his eternal Son and letting forth all grace by him may serve to acquaint us with this rich and glorious Mystery as it is styled Col. 1.27 Namely God reconciling the world by Jesus Christ letting forth the knowledge of himself glorifying all his Attributes making such discoveries of his Glory providing such a way of Mediation such a glorious Mediator laying the blessed project of a sinners glorious Salvation so sure rendring his love so acceptable and glorious making way for free access unto himself and how we might become one with him Oh! the depths of the Wisdom and Love of God which of them may we admire most Well may Angels pry into this Holy Mystery well may it be the astonishment of Heaven and Earth of the whole Creation How much more of a sinner for whose sake it was thus ordered Oh that we might fall upon our faces and adore the Wisdom and Grace of God in such a contrivance as this Oh unmeasurable Goodness unfathomed Wisdom Eternity is but enough to admire it To behold God in Christ will be the vision which the souls of blessed Saints will be wrapt up into to all Eternity 2. Oh! therefore what infinite Mercy is it to be brought forth in the New-Testament-times when the Mystery hid in God hid from ages kept secret since the world began 1 Cor. 16.25 is brought to light and sparkling upon the darkness of the world when the glory of God is risen upon the World Now if this Gospel be hid 't is hid to them that are lost 2 Cor. 4.3 Wo unto them that close their eyes when the light shines round about them Oh you that yet sit in darkness and the shadow of death Arise Awake look up that Gospel-light may shine into you Oh cry and wait that your eyes may be opened to behold God coming forth in the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the glorious Gospel wait for the Spirit and that the Gospel in the preaching of it may become the ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 Oh guilty world that so slight the Knowledge of Jesus Christ and contemn the Ministration of it wo unto them 3. If God doth let forth no Grace and Mercy but by Jesus Christ it may serve to unbottom poor souls from a general carnal hope of Mercy not being acquainted with the way of Grace by Jesus Christ nor coming as lost sinners in themselves to be found in Christ and justified by Jesus Christ this they utterly neglect having an empty notion of Christ's dying but know not for what and upon what grounds and how a sinner gets to God by him Oh! let this reprove you for this gross and damnable neglect and convince you that all your pretended hopes of Mercy will vanish unless you learn the Knowledge of Jesus Christ 4. And therefore If no way to the Father no Interest in Mercy no access to God but by Jesus Christ let it serve to teach poor ignorant sinners yea all of us how to get to God to Mercy into his Covenant Oh! No way but by Jesus Christ Oh! I can never come to
freely to speak after the manner of men let out grace and mercy unless such satisfaction had been given by Jesus Christ Now it can come easily delightfully chearfully from the righteous and gracious God seeing his justice will not plead against it but for it being blessedly satisfied and Jesus Christ by his death did fully merit it and deserve it at the hands of God and laid down as much as God in infinite justice would require therefore 't is now as well justice as mercy for God to remit a Sinner that comes to God by Jesus Christ 1 John 1.7 God is just to forgive us our sins Now hereupon God having ordained and accepted of such a way of attonement his justice glorified and satisfied his word that the sinner should die made good his Law to the utmost satisfied what remains but that the blessed God can remit the bondage guilt condemnation of the sinner having thus accepted of satisfaction what remains but that he should pronounce as he doth Job 33.24 Deliver him for I have found a Ransom God can now pardon the sinner that comes believingly by Jesus Christ to him for it without any regret his justice shall be glorified by it as well as his mercy God hath charg'd all upon another and accepted of full payment call'd himself to witness of it and will never repent of it Object If any should Object Wherein is free-grace glorified if God hath received full satisfaction to his justice Answ I answer 1. 'T was infinite free grace for God to give out his blessed Son Jesus Christ when there was no obligation upon him he gave him and sent him freely John 3.16 from his own free love therefore there 's infinite of free grace in Man's salvation 2. 'T was infinite grace towards the sinner to accept of satisfaction by a surety Heb. 5. and not on the sinner the party offending himself what abundant grace and love to lay the sins and guilt upon another especially the only Son of his bosom who was without all sin 2 Cor. 2.21 and not to condemn the poor helpless sinner for ever 3. 'T was infinite free grace for God himself to contrive the way of such a Redemption Had it been left to sinful man to have found out a way how justice might be satisfied he could never have done it It could never have entred into the heart of Man or Angels to have offered to God a satisfactory way for the making up of his wronged justice but he must have perished for ever 4. The Father was at Liberty to impute this Redemption of Christ to whom he would to this sinner and not to another Rom. 9. He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy c. So that 't is indeed a debt to Christ but all of free mercy and grace to any sinner that is saved Vse 1. If then Salvation and remission of sins came in this way by the death and blood of Jesus Christ then it may discover to us the infinite hatred that God bears to sin that to make expiation and attonement to his justice there could no sacrifice be found but the death of his eternal Son Jesus Christ Oh! that ever a sinner should delight in that which the holy God so much hates and abhors 2. Let it be for convincement to poor sinners of the infinite necessity of this way of Redemption by Jesus Christ in laying down his life to satisfie the justice of God and of getting their part in it you have heard the case of a Sinner condemn'd by the Law liable to eternal death subject to the rigour of divine Justice no way able or in a capacity to make satisfaction to God mercy as it were bound up by justice Oh! therefore what necessity of a Mediator of a Redeemer to work forth deliverance to lay down a Ransom for sinners dye and undergo the curse and wrath of the great and dreadful God fulfill the Law make satisfaction to the wronged justice of God to the utmost this Jesus Christ hath done for miserable sinners that will come unto him Now the most of poor souls have but a Notion of Christ's dying but know not what is meant by Christ dying for me though sometimes in their Mouths Oh! sinner for Christ to die for thee if thou gettest a part in his Death is to undergo the punishment and curse and death that thy soul was liable to which otherwise must have come upon thee to the utmost it was to be made sin and a curse for thee to bear thy Sins and stand in them Oh! that thou couldst really be convinc'd of the necessity of this Redemption that thou couldst never come to God without it and therefore to get thy poor soul stated in it 3. If satisfaction to Gods justice can only be by the blood of Jesus Christ then let me again press you that you take heed of performing your duties and repentings as if thereby you did satisfie and pacifie God for the sin of your souls This is the most dangerous snare upon poor souls that though they have sinned yet they hope God will be pacified with some praying and sorrowing and amendment Now though this shall be in a spiritual manner upon every pardoned sinner and 't is a capacity God puts the sinner into when he applies the death of his Son and so gives out mercy and pardon yet you must most carefully take heed that you offer not up such duties as if they did make God amends and pacifie him for your sins but look above and beyond them as if they were not and so to cast your eye to the great sacrifice of the blood of Jesus Christ which Alone makes attonement to God and makes way for a poor sinner to come to him 4. That as sinners would learn the blessed Mystery of this Redemption and the necessity of it and how it makes attonement merits mercy and pardon procures peace and reconciliation with God so they would come and accept of it and fall down before the righteous God and plead it to him Thou hast heard the way of God's letting out mercy to sinners and no mercy but in that way but by justice being satisfied by the death and blood of Jesus Christ whereby he becomes the Saviour of sinners now this blood is offered up to God the price is paid and accepted with God and in the Gospel of God 't is revealed and preach't to the guilty world and 't is freely offered to any poor sinner that will come and accept of it and make claim to it and plead for mercy and forgiveness upon the account of it and will come to the terms of it which is to be accepted and pardoned alone by vertue of it to be washed and sanctified and actually deliver'd not only from the guilt and condemnation of sin but the power and reign and pollution of it Oh Sinner be awakened and stirred up by the word of the Lord to get actual deliverance from the
and by the Spirit of our God Or at least that I may speak to poor weak willing trembling souls Is this it that your souls are restless after Oh that I were that I were in such a blessed state Oh that I could but believingly say the righteousness of Jesus Christ were mine and that now I am I am justified Oh what peace and sweetness and joy would fill my heart Why Soul If this be indeed the breathing of thy Soul Jesus Christ is thine and thou art justified and pardoned and God will at last give in unto thee if thou continue to follow him the sense and comfort of it in thy poor Soul Only by the way take a Discovery or two of the reality of thy Heart in this matter 1. If thou Soul from a Spiritual Conviction be under a real making out after justification by Jesus Christ then thou wouldst also be as really sanctified be made holy 'T was as much in the purpose of God to call thee out of a state of sin and to sanctifie thee as to pardon and justifie thee 1 Ep. John 5.6 2. If thou art brought into a justified state thy soul making out after it thou art made alive in the Spirit Rom. 8.1 Thou art in Jesus Christ and wouldst walk no more after the flesh and the lusts thereof but after the Spirit Gal. 5.18 If ye are led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law namely to condemn you but are free from the curse of it And verse 23. Against such there is no Law that is such as would walk after the Spirit be led by the Spirit and shew forth the fruit of the Spirit And this is that which the Apostle intimateth 1 Ep. John 5.10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself namely of the Spirit So that every justified person hath the Spirit of Christ according to the measure of the grace of God dwelling in him is quickened in the Spirit being once dead prays in the Spirit mortifies sin through the Spirit is taught by the Spirit and so in all other saving and sanctifying vertues of it If it be not thus with thee thou as yet hast no part in this blessedness but art under condemnation unto death And therefore sinner come before God in the sence of thy condemned estate and give up thy self to Jesus Christ to be washed justified sanctified and then blessed for ever 3. Let called and sanctified Believers labour to live in the sense of a pardoned justified state that God is not off and on with them in the matter of justification though it may be sometimes darkned and clouded as to the evidence of it Oh! do you labour to preserve the sense and sweet and blessed peace of it in your souls and give glory to the riches of grace for now there is No No condemnation to you you are passed from Death to Life and the Blessed God imputes no sin unto you Let this be the highest and strongest Argument to Holiness and love to the glory that possibly may be and if indeed you walk in the comfort of it it will be so unto you Only let me give caution here to young Converts whose hearts at the first discovery of the free and glorious grace of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ are wonderfully taken and affected with it but after a time are apt to wanton with it unless the first humiliation be the deeper and to wax sleight in Duties and so their Lusts recover strength again and return upon them and either they fall or are near unto it to the fresh wounding of their Souls This hath been the condition of many therefore be well caution'd in it and walk with fear in the midst of your joyous apprehensions of the sweetness of grace and the endearing love of the Lord Jesus to you Having briefly shewed what the nature of justification is what it is to be in a justified state before God I now come to open more particularly how a Soul comes to be partaker of this justification through the Redemption of Jesus Christ namely Through Eaith in his blood ver 25. of this 3d. of Rom. Observ As God through Free-grace hath set forth Jesus Christ to work forth Redemption for sinners so there must be a special believing on and applying the blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins by every one that is saved Therefore justification is attributed to Faith Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God by our Lord Jesus Christ So Gal. 2.16 and 3.11 In all which places Faith is put in opposition to the works of the Law And so the righteousness of Christ is called the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 9.30 and 10.6 in opposition to the righteousness by Works Not as if Faith were the matter of our justification that it did as an Act or Work in the Soul justifie before God but that God doth thus make over the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ to a Soul by enabling the Soul to come unto to take hold of to apply to it self to appropriate the merit of the blood of Jesus Christ for its own Redemption and Salvation which may afford us a plain Description of justifying Faith precisely considered Namely Faith is a Work of the Holy Ghost in the Soul enabling it to appropriate or apply to it self the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ for the Remission of sin and its justification unto eternal Life So it is called the work of Faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 and 't is expressed by receiving of Jesus Christ Joh. 1. and believing on his Name coming unto him resting upon him So that plainly Faith is a going out to believing in trusting on another namely the Lord Jesus Christ For what it can never be able to find or bring about in or by it self which may lead us to the more particular way of the Holy Ghost's working this power in the Soul in the saved ones of God 1. In the working of Faith in the Soul it is first brought to see an impossibility of coming to God as in its self or by its self concluded under an utter unability to pacifie God or make up a righteousness in it self to get access to God The soul is emptied from vessel to vessel till all the things that it counted gain before become loss for Jesus Christ this is the first work of the Spirit it empties a poor sinful Creature of all its refuges all its dependencies all its sufficiencies and so becomes naked in its guilt before God and therefore is brought to this that its acceptance to God if ever it be accepted must be out of its self what ever become of him he must perish as in himself 2. In the work of Faith the Soul is brought to see that this was the end of the Revelation of Jesus Christ of God's setting him forth to be a propitiation that he might work forth Redemption and Righteousness
that this is a way of God's own ordaining Jesus Christ was set forth for this very end even by God himself and therefore the soul is brought to this conclusion to venture the Issue of its life and eternal salvation upon it and so throws it self as in a sinking condition upon the grace blood righteousness of Jesus Christ sink or swim live or perish saved or damned there the soul casts Anchor there it pitcheth to this it will stand or fall before the righteous God if there be not enough in the blood of Jesus to give it acceptance with God the Soul resolves to Hell it must There saith a poor self-emptied Soul I cast even away my self if it might be upon it Phil. 3.9 3. The soul is brought on to believe the report that God in his word makes concerning his Son Jesus Christ and of the price value merit and all-sufficiency of his blood to save a poor sinner even to the utmost that comes to God by him Heb. 7.25 to answer all the wants and distresses of a poor soul namely in pacifying the Justice of God fulfilling the Law making attonement removing guilt procuring remission of sins reconciling to God Rom. 5.9 10. Much more being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life In all which things the soul is enabled to believe the report of the Gospel that the blood and death of Jesus Christ can do all this for poor sinners that shall pitch upon it 4. In this working of faith the soul comes to see and fasten upon an absolue unlimited Free promise where any sinner that will may come to Jesus Christ and so have the vertue of his death and blood applied to it and therefore that he as well as any other sinner in the world may come to him and make claim to his blood and plead it before God whosoever will let him come Rev. 22. Now saith a poor self-emptied sinner I do not find that I am any where excluded but invited and called upon to come to the Lord Jesus and claim an interest in his blood and that I may plead it even at the throne of his Justice and that I may warrantably safely upon good grounds given out from the mouth of God himself take hold of the Lord Jesus in such a Promise and there is no sin or unworthiness can exclude me unless I will frowardly and wretchedly exclude my self I do not find saith the poor soul that any sin is too great for the Sacrifice of that blood of Jesus so the sinner will come to it yea that 't is the greatest sin and the top of condemnation not to come to it that I more injure God by standing off from Jesus Christ than by all the filthiness blasphemies ungodlinesses my Soul ever wallowed in Heb. 10.29 The Blood of Christ is a price sufficient for the sins of the whole World therefore saith a poor soul for mine He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world and therefore he can take away mine and I am freely called and invited to it and 't is my Rebellion not to come what can I have more And so sense of Peace and Reconciliation falls in upon the Soul 5. The Soul by its often renewing of such Acts of Believing comes at last to see the blood of Jesus Christ appropriated to him now it can stay it self upon the word of promise and can sometimes rejoyce in believing If I roll my self upon the blood of Jesus I have the Word of God for it that I shall be saved we shall be saved from Wrath through him not it may be but we shall be saved and all upon the account of being justified by his blood Rom. 5.9 which justification ariseth upon this believing we have mentioned Thus have I opened the nature of Faith as it is precisely justifying as it applies and appropriates the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus for Remission of sins and Justification unto eternal Life I might insist upon the discovery of the effectual operations of Faith in the Soul as may distinguish it from a meer belief of the History of the death of Jesus Christ take two or three 1. When the Soul by Faith doth act upon the blood of Jesus Christ for justification it doth also bring the power and efficacy of it for purging of the Soul Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God So Acts 15.9 Purifying your hearts by faith There is a purifying vertue in the blood of Jesus Christ upon the souls of Believers they are for the purging away the filth as well as the guilt of sin there 's no believing soul but crys out Purge me Oh Lord purge me and throughly from my filth 2. The soul hath a secret yet real fellowship with the death of Jesus Christ to crucifie and destroy the body of sin in a justified believer which ariseth from its union with Christ Rom. 6.5 6. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection knowing that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Every true believer can really say I am or I would be Crucified with Christ Gal. 2.20 Which the Apostle there brings in as an effect of Justification by Faith 3. Every justified believer looks upon this as one great end of his Justification that he might live to God Gal. 2.19 That I might live unto God Likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto him but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 Every justified Believer doth thus reckon of himself I am to be dead to sin but alive to God I am to yield my self to God verse 13. To have my fruit unto Holiness verse 22. 4. Faith that justifies doth through the Spirit work the Soul to Gospel-obedience to all the Laws and Ordinances of Jesus Christ which shall be revealed to be the Will of Christ from the Command of Jesus Christ and from a principle of love to Jesus Christ John 15.10 5. A justifi'd believer will deny himself for Christ take up his cross and follow him let any sufferings be proposed to a called believer and let him know it is for Jesus Christ and that soul unless under a temporary desertion or temptation will choose and embrace those sufferings and undergo them with some chearfulness Luke 14.26 27. 7. Every justified believer hath a Marriage Vnion with Jesus Christ Ephes 5.25 26 32. The soul hath chosen Jesus Christ having broken off from all other lovers hath betrothed it self unto Christ in an
it by fulfilling it whereby the righteousness of the Law is fufilled upon us Rom. 8.4 Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law and kept it and so makes over the righteousness of it to Believers as hath been shewed and so the Law stands establisht Secondly The Law stands establisht as a means through the Spirit to convince of sin and of our shortness of the righteousness of it as ver 20. And so Christ often made use of it for such ends Thirdly The Law stands establisht as an Everlasting Rule of righteousness and holiness promised in the New Covenant to be written in the Heart Heb. 8. So that through Jesus Christ in justifying by his blood hath quit the sinner from all guilt and condemnation by the Law yet he hath not given the Believer a discharge from all obedience of it And therefore to evince this I shall lay down this Position that Observ Though all a Believer hath done or can do cannot justifie him before God yet there are other blessed ends why he should obey God and delight in his Law 1. Obedience to God is placed as the great End of our redemption Luke 1.74 75. That we might serve him without fear a sear of bondage in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life God hath not only in his purpose the remission and salvation of the Sinner but that thereby he would have all that are called into this grace to serve him in Holiness And this end is to be upon the heart of the Believer when justified by Faith The purpose of God in this is that I should serve him in holiness 1 Tim. 1.9 That I should live to God Rom. 6.11 as hath been shewed 2. From the Sovereign Command of God who saith Be ye holy 1 Pet. 1.15 16. This is enough to a Believer that God hath commanded it though there should be no other end in it 3. Holiness and Righteousness is the Soul's conformity unto God it is a Beam of God an Image of God which he designs to be renewed upon all that shall be saved as shall be further shewed 4. Justified Believers do see an equity goodness and blessedness in the Law of God in all his holy and righteous Precepts though they were not commanded The Law is holy just and good Rom. 7. saith Paul speaking after the regenerate part So David Psal 119. often Thy Commandmeats which I have loved They give God his due and the Creature his due and therefore to be walkt in though not thereby justified 5. There is a principle of love to God shed abroad in the heart of every justified Believer from the sense of his rich pardoning grace the freeness of his love which acts and constrains a Soul to take delight so far as it is regenerated in every Command of God Rom. 5.5 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not live to themselves but to him that died for them 6. Called and justified Believers have blessed sights of Jesus Christ that wonderfully take their hearts They have glimpses of the Beauty of his Holiness and would therefore be made like unto him 1 John 3.2 3. They would obey the Will of the Father as Jesus Christ did They would be holy and righteous and wise and patient and Heavenly as Jesus Christ was 7. Believers in the way of their Duty and Obedience have blessed Fellowship and Communion with God Saith God of his Ordinances Exod. 25.22 There will I meet thee and commune with thee And Exod. 20.24 In all places where I record my Name there will I come unto thee and bless thee They are everlasting Promises to all the ways of obedience wherein the people of God do walk before him in They pray they read hear they partake of the Supper in Christs way and there they have life and blessing to their Souls and many a sweet intimation of love and mercy they have whispered into them they set themselves to walk with God in his fear and counsel and God walks with them and their lives if they keep close to God are sweet and comfortable to them And this is even as much to them as if they were thereby justified They would not miss the sweetness they meet with in such ways of Duty for all the World 8. By their Sanctification and Obedience their justification is comfortably evidenced to them Rom. 6.16 Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto Death or of obedience unto Righteousness And Ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of him 1 John 2.29 We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren So that no doubt Believers may come to a sweet and blessed Evidence of their good estate and of their justification by the work of Sanctification in them and their willing obedience to God though a Believer doth not always and at all times fetch in his evidence of Believing and of comfort this way but sometimes from the Promise and from the more immediate Testimony of the Spirit But though a Believer doth not and it may be cannot always fetch in his consolation and peace from Sanctification and Obedience Yet that soul that wholly neglects it and slights Evidences from Humiliation Sanctification and Obedience had best timely look to it that the Witness in himself he pretends to be not from imagination of his own heart from the wicked ones delusion and from some overly notions of grace that may affect his heart but leave him on this side Regeneration 9. Believers do perform their Duties as returns to God Every called Believer saith in his heart as David Psal 116.12 Oh! What shall I render to thee How gracious hath God been and now how holy should I be Who shall love the Lord and fear before him and praise him If I shall not To whom shall his Name Laws Ordinances be precious if not unto me Who is more bound to love the blessed God than I and how shall I love him but by obeying him Thus doth a Believer perform his obedience as a Testimony of a thankful return to God though I do not say that this is all his motive 10. By the Obedience and Holiness of Believers God is much glorified in the World 't is the greatest glory that God designs to himself in the World even by the holiness and willing gracious obedience of his people to him When the World lies in wickedness and makes war against the great and Holy God this is that which honours God that he hath a people called by his grace that set forth the glory of holiness in the world that are witnesses to the holiness of God the holiness of his Worship and all his ways and profess and endeavour to walk