rests it self in the Act of Saving Faith may thus appear 1. Man being an Offender and guilty of Death Eternal cannot be saved but in a way of Pardon which is an act of Mercy And thereforefore he can have no hope of Salvation from God but as he is a merciful God He that 's bound over to the punishment of Eternal Death must either suffer it or be forgiven it Now nothing forgives but Mercy Look upon God as Almighty and it speaks terror to the guilty Soul Power makes him able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Look upon him as Just and Justice speaks terror as that which makes him hate Sin and punish Sinners But consider him as he is merciful and pitiful to poor Creatures in their misery and there you have some ground of hope Hope can never find whereon to rest the sole of its foot till you come to a sight of God as merciful God be merciful to me a sinner Luke 18.13 He could light on nothing in all the World to stay his Hope upon but Mercy The poor Leper Matth. 8. urged our Saviour with his power to make him clean but if he had not had some hopeful conceit of his willingness to relieve poor Supplicants in such a case he would never have asked him for the cure He that expects a Debt may trust in the Justice of him that owes it But he that expects an Act of Grace must rest on the mercy of him from whom he expects it or he has nothing to trust to Obj. You will say a Believer hopes in the Faithfulness of God and the infallible Truth of his Word as well as in his Mercy Ans I grant it A believer hopes in the Truth of God but 't is only as his Truth and Faithfulness doth assure the Soul of his Mercifulness God professes and declares himself merciful the Soul believes that he is so and will approve himself so because it judges him faithful and therefore hopes in Mercy so declared So the Soul relying on Mercy relies upon the Power of God but only as Mercy turns and uses it to the saving of Sinners otherwise he is true to punish according to his Threatnings as well as he is true to save according to his Promise So he is mighty to destroy as well as to save Yea the Soul relying on Mercy relies also on the Justice of God as he is just in shewing mercy But all this while Mercy lies at the bottom as the foundation of a Believer's Hope Let God be never so mighty never so wise never so faithful never so righteous all this speaks no encouragement to the poor humbled Sinner but all against him till Mercy be discovered and then some ground appears for him to build his hopes upon And now the other Attributes of God give their assistance and bear up Expectation 2. But yet no man can safely hope in the absolute Mercy of God for Salvation but only in the Mercy of God consider'd as he is merciful in Jesus Christ i. e. as he is merciful so as to provide and accept a satisfaction to Justice in the Death of his Son and so to offer Salvation freely to Sinners or in the words of Scripture As loving the world so as to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life For 1. If the humbled Sinner considers Mercy absolutely Justice presently comes in and damps his hopes of Salvation For as it is not to be expected that God though he be Almighty should do any thing which his Wisdom doth not allow of because he is infinitely Wise as well as Almighty so neither can it be hoped though he be infinite in mercy that he should do any thing in a way of pity to a Sinner which his Justice will not bear because he is just as he is merciful Now Justice requires that the Law should proceed and that the Soul that has sinned should die Gal. 3.10 Deut. 27.26 But God in giving his Son to die for Sinners has so satisfied the Law that Justice has nothing at all to plead against the Salvation of any one Sinner whom God will please to save Rom. 3.25 26. By this means God has so ordered it that he is highly just in shewing mercy to the Sinner as having laid the punishment which belonged to him upon his own Son And therefore Mercy thus considered is a sufficient ground of hope but not otherwise as Heb. 9.21 Without shedding of blood there is no remission no hope of Pardon and Salvation but through the Death of Christ though God be never so merciful Secondly If the humbled Soul considers Mercy absolutely he can have no Assurance of the Terms on which he will save Sinners supposing that he will save any of them and so the Soul may object against his own hopes of Salvation Obj. 1. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have not broken out into gross wickedness but have restrained themselves to some bounds of fairness and morality And 't is great mercy if he will save such But I have exceeded in Sin and done evil with an high hand Obj. 2. It may be he will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have sinned out of ignorance as being uninformed and unconvinced of the evil of the things wherein they have offended and 't is great mercy if he will save such But I have rebelled against the light and sinned against knowledge and the express dictates of my own Conscience Obj. 3. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that accept the first or second call that he gives them to Repentance and close with offered Grace betimes and 't is great mercy if he will save such Sinners But alas I have withstood many gracious Invitations and neglected Salvation when it has been offered to me God knows how many times and so my day may be expired It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have not signally contradicted their Professions in the course of their lives who as they have not practised Godliness so have never much pretended to it and 't is great mercy if he will save such or some of them But I have dissembled with him and lived the life of the Ungodly under the profession of Godliness yea I have given up my Name to Christ and yet have given my hand to Satan and my own Lusts Object 4. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have not sinned against the Holy Ghost and 't is great Mercy if he will vouchsafe to save some of them But I fear I have sinned the Sin that 's never to be pardoned Object 5. It may be God will save some great and eminent Sinners but they are such only as are within the eternal purpose of Election and he shews great mercy in saving them but I fear I am under the decree of Reprobation
to the means is called Faith As we are saved by faith Eph. 2.8 or as Rom. 8.24 We are saved by hope I shall therefore for plainness treat of fiducial Faith and Hope as one Act not as affecting to follow the Schoolmen or others who go that way but as intending the best advantage of the Understanding which is usually disturbed by an unnecessary multiplication of things And if Scripture commonly speaks of both as one Act which is confessed why may they not be so handled Obj. If any object that in 1 Cor. 13.13 Where Faith Hope and Charity are enumerated as three distinct Graces Ans I answer If we take Faith for Assenting Faith which is primarily and most properly Faith the number is made good and indeed it is most probable that the Apostle intends that Faith whereby we believe those thing now which we shall hereafter see as by Hope he means the confident expectation of that Good which we shall hereafter enjoy These things premised I proceed to the Description of fiducial Faith Viz. A Resting or trusting in the mercy of God in Christ in hope of his Salvation tendered to Sinners in the Gospel Here we are distinctly to consider 1. The end of Faith the Salvation of God 2. The tendency of Faith to that end and that is in Hope 3. The foundation of that Hope the mercy of God in Christ First The End of Faith i. e. that which it looks to attain is the Salvation of Christ propounded in the Gospel 1 Pet. 1.9 What this Salvation is was shewed before Viz. Pardon of Sin and an holy union and conjunction with God John 3.16 not to perish i. e. to be condemned for Sin but to have everlasting life i. e. he united to God and enjoy him which is the Soul's life Sin separates from God meritoriously and legally by virtue of the Curse binding the Sinner over to an everlasting Separation from his glorious presence and to everlasting Destruction And it separates from him naturally and formally though there were no punishment by Law assigned to the Sinner for what fellowship has light with darkness Now separation from God is man's spiritual Death even as the separation of the Body and Soul is his natural Death So men are by nature dead in Trespasses and Sins as well as liable to death for them Death is the work of Sin as well as its wages And the Salvation of Christ consists as well in delivering men from Sin it self as from the punishment of it Matth. 1.21 And if he did not this as well as the other he could never make them happy Sin would keep them miserable still though they were redeemed from the pain of sense Then a man is saved when he is brought to God 1 Pet. 3.18 i. e. into an union and conjunction with him And indeed pardon of Sin is but in order to this part as the principle of mans Salvation The Law subjecting the Sinner to his Sin and giving him up to Satan as the most signal part of his punishment it is impossible that he should be delivered from Sin unless the bond of the Law the Curse I mean which holds him under Sin be loosed 1 Cor. 15.56 This then is the End of Faith Salvation from Hell and Sin Pardon and an holy Conjunction with God Secondly The tendency or motion of fiducial Faith to this end i. e. toward Salvation is in a way of Hope Faith rests on Christ in hope of everlasting Life All fiducial Reliance or trusting in any thing or person in reference to any good to be attained is in hope of that good When a Man trusts in a Physician for his Health 't is in hope of obtaining it When a rich Man trusts in his Riches 't is in hope of safety and favour among Men c. When the Jews trusted or were said to trust on the broken Reed Egypt it was in hope of aid from thence So to trust in Christ for Salvation is to hope for his Salvation Tit. 1.2 The faith of God's elect is in hope of everlasting life Now Hope as was said before is the Intention or Desire of the Soul to some good thing which is looked upon as attainable Some put in difficulty but that is not always competent to the object of hope Hope therefore implies First 1. An earnest desire of the thing hoped for Secondly 2. A Perswasion in the mind that it may be attained Where-ever these two meet there is Hope and no where else No man hopes but as the word is sometimes used Catachrestically for that which he desires not A Man may desire that which he has no hope of As Men totally despairing under sense of God's Wrath have a desire of Pardon else they could not be grieved as they are for want of it but they have no hope of Pardon A Man may wish himself an Eagle or a Swallow as David but can have no hope to be so For besides desire Hope always implies a Perswasion that the good desired may be attained or which is more that it shall be attained Devils may have a desire to be out of Torment and 't is certain they have so but no hope of it because they cannot believe it attainable The lame man Acts 5. hoped to receive Money of the Apostles as desiring it and thinking they had it to give him But as for a Cure he desired that also but hoped not for it because he did not believe at first that they had such an healing-power about them He that hopes for any thing looks on it as attainable and the more likely he apprehends it to be attained the more confident he is in his hope And if he looks upon it not only as probable but as certain then 't is full Assurance of hope as Heb. 6.11 Now to apply this to the case in hand When God has brought the humble Soul to an hearty believing of the Gospel he thereby works him up to an hearty desire of the Salvation therein propounded and withal perswades him that he may for his own part attain it and so the Soul begins to hope for everlasting Life The Soul understanding already and believing the Gospel sees such an excellency in the Salvation of God as makes him vehemently desire it he now accounts it the greatest happiness in the World to be delivered from Sin and Hell and joined unto God though he made never so light of it before and earnestly crys out Oh that I might have peace with God Union with God and God to be my God for ever Oh that I might eat Bread in my Father's house Luke 15. Thus the Merchant having seen the Pearl like Achan presently fell in love with it and so importunately desired it that he stuck not at selling all he had to buy it This is that Hunger and Thirst to which the promise is made Matth. 5.6 Isaiah 55.1 and elsewhere This is that willingness which makes a Soul capable of the Water of
the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God THE last and greatest step to or into a Christian's perfection is the Soul's resignation in death Death as 't is alike certain and inevitable to all men so 't is equally profitable and advantagious to all Believers But it must be noted it 's easy and comfortable to some more to others less in a great variety as Job said concerning men so we may say of Christians One dies in his full strength another in the bitterness of his soul Job 21.23 that is one dies mourning and dejected another joyous and triumphant which was Paul's ambition in these words That I may finish my course with joy The Life of man is a Race and so is his Work First His Life is a Race Every man runs from the womb to the grave a Stage far shorter to some indeed than 't is to others but it 's a Race to all 2dly His Work in his Life-time is a Race Man is a busy Creature and doth much Work such as it is in a little time and therefore his action in this World is not only called in Scripture his walking as Job 9.25 My days are swifter than a post they flee away they see no good But it 's called his running and running his course as in the Text and in Jer. 8.6 Every man turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel that is to his own way and actions John's work in the Ministry is called his course Acts 13.25 As John fulfilled his course he said c. And so Paul speaking of Christian practice tells the Galatians Ye did run well Gal. 5.7 And thus the Apostle's own work was his course in which he proceeded with an extraordinary swiftness I laboured more abundantly than they all 1 Cor. 15.10 But the course which he here speaks of finishing is that of his life the other of his Ministerial work being presently subjoined And the ministry which I have received Both these Races had the same period in Paul's intention at least and probably in performance though not the same speech it was the Apostle's intention not to leave off the work of his Ministry during the term of his life and his great desire was that when he should finish the one and so be taken off from the other he might finish both with joy the course of his life and the course of his work That I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received Of the former I may finish There is nothing wherein according to nature a man is more passive than his death and yet even death it self is sometimes attributed to men as their own act All men are active to their own death in sinning which is the meritorious and procuring cause of it the wages of sin is death Godly men are active in their own death in a willing resignation of themselves and delivering up of their Souls into the hand of God as 't is said of Jacob Gen. 49. ult He yielded up the spirit So for a man to finish his course is to die and depart this life which Paul earnestly desires to do with joy And hence we may observe Doctr. That it is a Christian 's great concernment that he may depart this life with spiritual joy and comfort or while he lives to consult and provide for a comfortable dying Because first Reas 1. A Christian is subject to many Troubles in his life-time In the world says St. John ye shall have tribulation John 16. It 's a sad thing after a wearisom day to lie down in sorrow A servant says Job waits earnestly for the shadow of the evening Job 7.2 that is of his going to his rest after his days-work whether you live regularly or loosely if you stick to rule men will be upon you if you sin God will rebuke you 2dly Reas 2. A Christian has great need of spiritual joy to support him against the sorrows with which death is naturally accompanied Death is so sorrowful a thing that it would be too much misery to a godly man to endure it without spiritual comfort and therefore as God in kindness to him will not leave him altogether destitute of it in so needful a time so he himself is highly concerned to make the best and most effectual provision for it There are three sorts of sorrows of death that make spiritual comfort highly needful to a dying Christian First The sorrow of the parting between Soul and Body This is the most proper and immediate sorrow of death the union between Soul and Body is such as makes division grievous to the person Death of it self is an enemy to Nature and therefore it must needs be a very sorrowful thing to come under its hands even Christ himself that had no sin in him was afraid of it and prayed against it Hebr. 5.7 When he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared The Scripture sets forth this by many significant expressions as the pains of death Acts 2.24 Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death And again the terrors of death and the king of terrors as Job 18.14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle and it shall bring him to the king of terrors Again it 's called the bitterness of death 1 Sam. 15.32 And Agag said Surely the bitterness of death is past And then it 's called the sorrows of death as David says in Psal 18.4 The sorrows of death compassed me Now seeing death is unavoidable and has in it self so much grievousness men have great need of comfort to make it easier and more tolerable Secondly The sorrow of parting with present mercies and comforts that we have had the use of if a man has not hopes of better this also is very grievous though he gets better yet 't is hard to leave the comforts which we have been used to and in which God has been kind to us It 's said of Hezekiah that when the message of death came to him he wept sore 2 Kings 20.3 though he knew his passage from hence was into a far better place therefore God is usually pleased to mortify men to the World by Age and Sickness before Death comes to make it easier parting with present comforts Thirdly The sorrow of God's Rebukes and Reproofs for Sin Death commonly brings Sin to remembrance and awakens Conscience to inveigh against the Soul for it So Conscience will tell us at such a time when Death's approaching it will mind us of our Sins of Omission the undue expence of precious time the loss of opportunities for spiritual benefit It will mind us of the careless use of the means of Grace Sins of Commission in which a man has dishonoured God or been injurious to man These things usually come to remembrance at such a time and
seasonably found me out I thought I had been armed sufficiently and could have endured the force of a Sermon as easily as any man in the Congregation and have born up my face undauntedly against all Rebukes and Threatnings but the Word was too strong for me and brought me down upon my Knees and blessed be God that it did so blessed be God that prepared it so sharpened it so timed it and so followed it with powerful motions of his Spirit that I could never acquit my self of it till I was perswaded to return and yield my self up to God Secondly 2dly Their thankful acknowledgement of the goodness of God to them in that they died not in their former Estate As Hezekiah when he was recovered of his Sickness and found himself well again wrote a Memorial of the goodness of God to him in his Restitution wherein he recorded the danger he had been in and how near he was to Death and what a narrow escape he had Isaiah 38.9 So Christians when once they apprehend themselves passed from Death to Life are even afraid to think what an Estate they were in before and mightily taken with the Mercy of God that suffered them not to perish in that Condition I was in love with my own perverse way when I was running headlong to Destruction I thought my self safe enough when I was even in the midst of all Evil I trusted to my own Works when I was working out my Damnation Prov. 5.14 I was almost in all evil I despised reproof and hearkned not to the voice of my Teachers and if the Lord had then taken me off by Death I had certainly perished O! blessed be God that had pity on me when I had no care of my self and awakened me when I was sleeping the Sleep of Death Thus Paul I was a persecutor a blasphemer and injurious but I obtained mercy c. Now to the King eternal the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever 1 Tim. 1.13 So all the followers of the Lamb the Lord Jesus are said to sing the Song of Moses Rev. 15.3 Blessing God that suffered them not to dye under Egyptian Bondage or perish in the Red-Sea 3dly Their readiness to tell others what God has done for their Souls Christians are hardly ever so communicative of their experiences as about this Age. As Children when first they get use of their Tongues are most apt to talk Thus Christians when they have newly got the sense of saving love are often saying with David Come and hear ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my Soul Psalm 66.16 I was perishing unawares and he shewed me my danger and then I thought I must needs perish without remedy I walked up and down trembling like Cain and could neither eat nor drink lye down nor rise in peace All was black and dark about me Every word of God seemed to be against me and the Wrath of God was always ready as I thought to swallow me up till such a Word came and such a Promise was set home to my heart And them my Fears vanished and my Soul was quieted my Mourning turned into Joy c. Never was a poor fainting Soul so revived O taste and see that the Lord is grocious he belivered my soul from death my eyes from tears my feet from falling Psalm 116.8 4thly Their great contentedness under outward Troubles because God has spoken peace to their Souls Though they be poor it may be and low in the World and meet with many Enemies though they are reproached by their Neighbours and their old Companions and suffer the displeasure of their Friends for betaking themselves to a new course of Life yea though they are watcht and kept in and are fain to make hard shift to get out to Ordinances and into Christian Communion yet all is easy to them and they bear it patiently because God has manifested himself to their Souls and given them good hopes through Grace of everlasting Glory Now let Friends reject them Father and Mother forsake them since God has taken them up Their acquaintance disown them but God owns them the World frowns upon them but Heaven smiles They are in danger to suffer loss of all but they have found Christ and won Christ and 't is enough they rejoyce in their Portion Fifthly 5thly The sweet Savour which they find in the Gospel and the word of promise Joy sweetens our Meat and Drink to us and makes us relish what is set before us So Christians in this Estate are strangely taken with spiritual Promises and find a sweetness in them which they never perceived before so that they wonder at themselves to think how many times they have read and heard such a Portion of the Word and never understood it never found any relish in it But now they cry out O what a good Word is this Oh delicacies of our Father's House What Nourishment what Cordials are in his Evangelical Provisions This is bread from Heaven Angels food indeed What a Table is here spread What a Cup is here filled The Word of God is quite another thing to such a Soul from what it was before Sixthly 6thly Their affectionate Thoughts of God and Christ as David expresses himself in Psalm 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications So Christians raised up out of their Sorrows Terrors and Despairs highly admire and love Jesus Christ in whom they have now believed as the Apostle Peter speaks in his first Epistle Chap. 2. Verse 7. To you that believe he is precious Though they were yet but as new-born Babes Now let me give you a few Reasons First Reas 1. No marvel that Christians are so much rejoiced upon the first receit of such Assurance because it is usually the fruit of much studious Pains and Labour many Prayers much waiting and many strict Examinations of themselves That is naturally pleasant which is hardly attained They that sow in tears reap in joy Psalm 126.5 Secondly Reas 2. It has in it the beginning of Heaven 1 Pet. 1.9 Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls Believers now receive the beginning of that Salvation which is the end of their Faith Salvation is the intended end of Faith that which Faith is always seeking and aiming at that which Faith seeks and waits for and it is the end of the Faith of Christians as that in which it ceases as believing and is turned into Vision So Faith of Assurance is a very joyous thing Thirdly Reas 3. They commonly think their doubts and fears now gone for all they think they shall despair no more distrust God no more As David Psalm 30.6 said I shall not be moved But this third Reason has a mistake in it as it ordinarily proves of which I shall speak afterward Fourthly Reas 4. God gives this comfort to facilitate his Peoples way to Heaven If
and for all that ever they can do you may be strengthning your selves in your love to God lowering your selves in humility bowing your souls to patience and perswading your hearts to love them that use you most unkindly and injuriously while men are acting their enmity against you you may be confirming your love to them which will be no small advantage to you Against these there is no law Gal. 5.22 2d Use The second Use shews the unsoundness of their Religion who rest in external Reformation Christians indeed begin there but they cannot rest there nor suffice themselves with it It 's that which our Saviour charges on the Scribes and Pharisees that they made clean the outside only You are temperate and abstain from Excesses just and honest in your dealings you worship God in publick and in Families as others But what do you within doors Thirdly 3d Use It shews how far they are from true Christianity that are not careful so much as to rectify the course of their Lives who make not clean the outside that are not ashamed to appear outwardly Ungodly Atheistical Voluptuous Intemperate Fourthly 4th Use The Fourth Use is to perswade Christians to the mortification of Sin 1. Resolvedly deny the motions of Sin when first you observe them As Asaph when he found his heart about to speak bad language against God Psal 73.15 presently recollects his thoughts and says If I speak so I shall offend against the generation of thy children 2dly When you are overtaken in any signal act of Sin take an early opportunity to humble your selves for it So what Sin gains by your Fall it will lose and somewhat more by your Humiliation 3dly In all your resistances to Sin look up to Heaven for help As the Apostle says 1 Pet. 5.3 Whom resist stedfast in the faith 4thly Interest all your Crosses and Afflictions into Rebukes for Sin that you may set your hearts against it 5thly Aim still at perfection of Holiness As in the Text Perfecting holiness in the fear of God Keep up an awful fear of God And thus much for the fourth Period of a Christian's motion towards Perfection A laborious endeavour to mortify indwelling Sin ROM VII 24. O wretched man that I am THE Fifth Step or Period of a Convert's motion toward Perfection that I shall treat of is the Sou's Conflict with Discouraging-troubles arising from the sense of indwelling Sin which as 't is the main Subject of the latter part of this Chapter so is most emphatically exprest in these words O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or as 't is in the Margin from this body of death I confess I cannot well say how long Paul had been converted when he wrote this Epistle the time of his writing it being uncertain but 't is certainly evident first 1. That he speaks of himself as a converted Person and in the state of Grace renewed and sanctified in some good degree his Will being habitually determined against the evil which he did and to the good which he did not as verses 15 16. and verses 18 19. He speaks of himself of his inner man delighting in the law of God verse 22. which is the very practice of a godly man as David speaks in Psal 40.8 I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy law is within my heart The Law is always grievous to a wicked man though he may like well of some Duties required by it yet the Law it self is a burden to him which he is not willing to bear c. All this that he professes of himself to wit that he had such a will to good against evil and delighting in the Law was highly good and that for which he is thankful verse 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But he utterly denies any good to dwell in him as carnal verse 18. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing So that if he had now been altogether fleshly and carnal thus much good could not have been in him nor any at all 2dly That he speaks of himself as labouring to do the Will of God in a course of Obedience He did some good and intended and was desirous to do all the rest even that he did not and though he did many evil actions yet his intention and endeavour was against them all which is manifestly the case of a man applying himself to holiness of life 3dly That in his endeavouring thus to obey God in all his Actions he found a strong and vigorous Inclination in his heart to Sin and against Holiness As appears verse 21. I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me And ver 23. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind 4thly That upon this discovery of so much wickedness within him he turned his hearty endeavours against it As appears by these words verse 23. Rebelling Warring leading Captive In his mind he had as before entertained the Law of God and in obedience thereto he made resolute Decrees against his contrary Inclinations But they rebelled he fought against them and they against him for a War cannot be without fighting on both sides And when he sinned at any time he was carried Captive by his indwelling Sin which plainly argues he made resistance against it for they are Adversaries one to another that carry one another Captive 5thly That in this War against his evil Inclinations he found himself too weak of himself to obtain the Victory and therefore cries out as a distressed man in these words O wretched man that I am No man will so bewail his case that finds it in the power of his hand to keep himself O wretched man that I am it's the same word that 's translated Misery Rom. 3.16 Destruction and misery are in their ways And Jam. 5.1 Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you O miserable man I It 's made of two Greek words which signify Suffering and Lamentation that is to say I am a lamentable Sufferer Hence we observe this Doctrine Doctr. That Christians heartily endeavouring and labouring against Indwelling Sin are subject to much discouraging and afflicting trouble about it O wretched man that I am The very Phrases of mortifying the members of the body of Sin Coloss 3.5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication c. Crucifying the Flesh imply much pain and anguish killing and crucifying are painful things Object Yea you will say to them that are killed now that is Sin not the man that kills it I answer Answ Sin in a man is so near to him and has such an union with him that it is not unfitly called himself And so the man that mortifies Sin as he is spiritually renewed mortifies himself as he is sinful and unsanctified therefore the Apostle
all through Christ implies him not otherwise sufficient for any thing according to the words of our Saviour John 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing 4thly The strength on which he professes his reliance is the power of Christ working in him Christ strengthening me within A strength not only given by Jesus Christ but acted and exerted by him not a strength received from Christ but the strength of Christ imployed in him Christ in me strengthening me 5thly He attained to this dependance on the Power of Christ by the benefit of Experience He had learned it verse 12. As men learn matters of Practice by many Experiments So States-men learn their Policy and Trades-men their Arts So David learned to keep the Commands of God by experience of the Evil of Affliction that attends the neglect of them and the comfort that follows a diligent observance of them even in affliction as Psal 119.21 Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed which do err from thy commandments Thus Paul having had experience of his own weakness and the power of Christ in him was now come to this That he could confidently undertake the whole Duty belonging to him as a Christian and an Apostle too depending on the Power of Christ And hence we may observe Doct. 1. That Experience brings Christians to a stedfast reliance on the gracious power of Christ for the performance of their whole Christian Duty 1. I shall give you Scripture-Arguments to prove that Christians do depend on Jesus Christ for his gracious Power in the performance of their Christian Duty First The promise of perseverance is made peculiarly to them that depend upon the gracious Power of God for it Isa 40.31 They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength 't is promised to them that wait on God for strength Now see the former Verse and you find the rest excluded the Youths that trust to their own strength shall fail Hence it 's manifestly consequent That all persevering Christians that make a constant progress in Godliness and grow up to maturity do thus depend on the Grace of God for it Joh. 15.4 5. In the 4th Verse our Saviour commands his Disciples to abide in him as the branch doth in the vine Now men are in Christ by Faith and so their continuing in him is in a continual exercise of Faith and particularly Faith for a Fruit-bearing Virtue as the Branch cleaves to the Vine to derive nourishment from it and be made fruitful by it And to such as abide so in him he promises that they shall bring forth much Fruit Verse 5. So all fruitful and thriving Christians do certainly depend on Jesus Christ for strength and spirit requisite to Christian duty The Conditions of Promises are the qualities of those to whom they are performed If a man be justified 't is certain he is a Believer because 't is promised to such and so if a man makes a good proficiency in Christian practice 't is evident he depends on the strength of Christ because 't is promised only to such 2dly It 's their earnest prayer that they may be enabled for their duty in the strength of God That they may be strong in the power of his might As David prays in the 119th Psalm 35. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein do I delight Though he had not only been exercised to obedience but had found pleasure in it yet he knew himself unable to go on without the Power of God and therefore begs that he may be made to go Matter of Precept is matter of Prayer to a Godly man what God requires of him that he requests of God what God bids him do that he begs God to do in him The Apostles Acts 4.22 was mightily confirmed with strength and courage for their work of Preaching the Gospel and yet they pray for further supplies as acknowledging themselves unable to go one step further without the strength of God though they had gone with much boldness so far already Prayer is the Language of Faith what a serious Petitioner asks of God that he depends and relies upon him for According to that of the Psalmist in the 62d Psalm 8. Trust in the Lord at all times pour out your hearts to him 3dly They humbly acknowledge all that they do in the way of duty to the grace of God working in them Phil. 1. last So in 1 Cor. 15.10 I laboured more abundantly than they all according to this working Yet not I but the grace of God which was with me So in 2. Gal. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me So the Church confesses all her work to be the work of God Isa 26.12 Thou hast wrought all our works for us or in us All which plainly demonstrates that experienced godly men do constantly and in a setled way depend and rely on the power of Christ for the performance of their duty Now I shall shew you in the 2. Second place How Experience brings them to it First Upon trial and experience they find themselves utterly unable to maintain the practice of godliness in their own strength At first setting out Christians usually betake themselves to reformation and holiness of Life as if they were now able enough for it of themselves in the use of that which they have attained thinking that the hatred which they have to Sin which has cost them so much humiliation and their high esteem of Godliness will carry them through all they have to do in obedience to God They know indeed that all that belongs to their Salvation is of Grace and therefore do in some measure trust in Christ for it But yet at first there is but little of this Faith in them and much of Self-confidence remaining till Grace has wrought it out and therefore they are much persuaded at first that they shall discharge all Christian Offices in the strength of those Resolutions and Purposes of Holiness which are raised in them and scarce apprehend any danger of being at any time drawn away from their known duty to the Sin which they have heartily forsaken But after a-while the sense they have of indwelling Sin makes them ready to despair of any progress at all in Christianity because they are so strongly diverted by the body of Death from the good they would do and carried to the evil which they would not This makes them cry out O wretched man and raises in them that woful Soul-trouble of which I have been lately speaking and so brings them to that sorrowful acknowledgment of the Apostle Rom. 7.18 To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not Moses Example is a fit Emblem of a Christian in this Case At first he went out among his Brethren in Egypt and smites an Egyptian and reproves an injurious Israelite As if he would presently deliver the Nation and reduce them to a free Estate even of
to persuade Christians troubled about their inability for holy actions to yield themselves to the Counsel of God's conduct of Experience as it leads to a reliance and waiting on God for strength of his Grace That which the Word requires Isa 40. last To wait on the Lord that they may renew their strength You find your selves weak c. And do you not sometimes find God relieving you against your weakness and that when you are most pressed down under the sense of it especially when you look up most earnestly to him for help What can be more plainly spoken than this speaks the Language of the Prophet Isa 26.4 Trust in the Lord for ever For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength 1 JOHN I. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ THE Eighth degree of a Christian's Motion toward Perfection is a spiritual Communion or Conversation with God When God has brought a Believer to a setled dependance on his gracious Power for the practice of Godliness He gradually draws him into a converse and intimacy with himself which is at least comprehended in these words Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ The word Fellowship signifies Communion or Communication when two or more Persons partake of the same thing as they that feed on the same Diet and Table together are called Commoners So they whose Cattle partake of the same Pasture are said to Common together and so they are called partakers of the Altar who eat together or alike of the Sacrifices as in 1 Cor. 10.18 This is an ordinary Signification of the word Fellowship Communion or Conversation But when 't is referred to God and Christ in Scripture it has a more free Signification 1st Sometimes it imports Assimilation and Conformity of Christians to God the Father and Christ the Mediator So in as much as Saints are like God in holiness They are called partakers of his divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 Holiness in Christians is not the same that is in God for that 's Essential but somewhat Analogous So Christians conformed to Christ in Sufferings are said to partake of his Sufferings 1 Pet. 4.13 Rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings that is He suffered and they suffer likewise as Verse 1. 2dly It is used to signify the virtual Interest that Christians had and have in the Death and Mediatory Performances of Christ The benefit whereof is derived to them as if themselves had died and done as he did for them Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Fellowship of his Sufferings that is what it is to partake with the Saints of the benefit of his Sufferings as if I had suffered with him in which respect Christians are said to have died risen ascended with Christ and to sit in Heaven with him as Col. 3.1 and Eph. 2.6 He has raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ And Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above 3dly It notes Converse and Society between God and Man 2 Cor. 6.14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness that is They cannot joyn or abide together God who is Light can have no Conversation with Unbelievers who are Darkness Christ with Belial Ver. 15. therefore you should have none Hence the word Companions Heb. 10.33 Ye became companions of them which were so used that is suffer like them And this I understand to be especially intended in this place Our fellowship is with the Father Christians are at first Conversion conformed to God in some degree of Holiness and made partakers of the benefits of the Death and Resurrection of Christ in their Justification and Adoption But acquaintance and converse with God they attain to by degrees when they have had experience of him and his ways Now 't is evident the Apostle is here directing Christians to something higher than they had yet attained to They were now the Children of God Chap. 3.2 And had the Unction of the Spirit Chap. 2.20 But he directs to something in which they might be Copartners with himself and others whose Fellowship he could truly say was with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ To have fellowship with the Son is to have fellowship with the Father as to see the Son is to see the Father John 14.19 Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more but ye see me God transacts all things with his Church in the Person of his Son the Mediator He is doer of all since his Ascension and is always with his to the end of the World Matth. 28.20 Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world So Communion with the Father is Communion with the Son Again Christ being now ascended manages all in a Divine way and invisibly therefore they that have fellowship with him are said to have fellowship with the Father So the Apostle having attained this fellowship with God the Father and Son and directing others to it We may gather this Observation Doct. That Christians as they proceed in Godliness they grow into an intimate acquaintance and fellowship with God That your fellowship may be with us And truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ There is much proof I might easily give of this Phil. 3.20 For our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Our Conversation is in Heaven that is with God So Asaph in Psalm 73.23 says I am continually with thee So Enoch and Noah walked with God So in John 14.23 our Saviour says If any man love me he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him So in Psalm 139.18 saies David I am continually with thee And so in several other places we find the Intimacy and Communion with them that walk with God And this comes to the point in hand That Christians as they proceed in Godliness they grow into an intimate Acquaintance and Fellowship with God Take some instances of the Converse and Fellowship which Christians have with God 1. They confer much with God in Holy Meditation Meditation is a secret Conference and close Discourse between God and the Soul Good thoughts as they come into the mind are the very whisperings of God and as they are the act of the Mind upon God they are the proper Language of the Soul speaking to him as Psalm 27.8 Thou saidst Seek ye
't is rather than to go out of it and that is not heartily afraid of death Answ 1. I answer Among sincere Christians many are weak and of little growth Though a man have not attained such a willingness to entertain death as some have he may be sincerely godly and growing to it Answ 2. You must take these conjunctly A desire to depart and be with Christ. So Christians can ordinarily subscribe and say I desire to depart and be with Christ. Looking on the one as enough to sweeten the other and make it desirable else it were better for a Christian to be with Christ as he is than die and not be with him This Paul intimates in the next words which is far better As a dinner of herbs where love is Prov. 15.17 is better than a stalled ox with hatred A Wilderness with Manna is better than the Flesh-pots in Egypt So to be gone out of this world and be with Christ is far better than to be in this world Answ 3. The one part must be understood as absolutely desired the other but relatively to that in its relation to the other To be with Christ a Christian desires absolutely he aims at it in all his faith and holiness but die he desires not at all save only as it serves to bring him to Christ as Christ laid down his life to take it up Joh. 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again So earnest willingness excludes not real unwillingness as a man desires to have his Leg or Arm cut off to preserve his Body yet is really unwilling to have the one or the other cut off 4thly The best of Christians are not always actually assured of this conjunction and relation of death and being with Christ and then they cannot desire death at all Death cannot be desired but as it 's a passage to Jesus Christ tâ—ke away that order which it has to a Christians being with Christ and 't is undesirable and a Christian is not always sure that when he dies he shall be with Christ 5thly Though a Christian do heartily desire to depart and be with Christ yet he cannot fix his desire upon any particular point of time for them as to say Now I desire to depart and be with Christ. For 1. Christians usually desire somewhat between them and death which they apprehend conducing to their better dying as David requests of the Lord Spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and as Moses Lord let me go over Jordan c. But now it 's not the case of every Christian that he can fix upon the time and say as Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Every Christian cannot say so though he has a desire to depart and be with Christ. 2. They must be determined by the Will of God however for the time and not by their own assignment as Simeon Now dismissest thou thy servant in peace Luke 2.29 So Paul I know not which to chuse Philip. 1.22 And so much for the proof of this Point That well-setled and established Christians do live in an earnest desire to leave this world and be with Christ in Heaven I come now to the Uses And first 1 Use By this we may judge of our Attainments in Christianity If our hearts stick fast to the world and we have no mind to leave it If our desires after Heaven be loose and cool 't is a sign we have made little progress in Christianity If we be Christians at all natural motion is stronger toward the end as a Stone falling to the earth the nearer it comes to the ground the swifter 't is in motion So the further we grow in Christianity the more heavenly-natur'd we grow and so the more desirous to be there every thing tends to its natural place The more we grow in Grace the more sight we have of the excellency of Heaven and so are more willing to leave the world Heaven is the Christian's Centre and the nearer he comes to it the faster he moves toward it Time and experience of the world may make us less esteem earthly things but Grace only makes us willing to leave them because it only raises our desires to Heaven for till we know and hope for better we are never content to leave what we have though it be never so sorry and undesirable Secondly Use 2. This serves to humble us for our unwillingness to leave the world and weak desire to be with Christ. 'T is an evidence of our little proficiency or improficiency under means of Grace when 't is little in our minds and unpleasing we hardly leave the world and join with Christ a little while a Sabbath an hour when it 's grievous to us to part with any thing in the world for Christ when we take little care to get and keep that communion with him which we might have in this world Thirdly Use 3. This serves to perswade Christians to set their affections on things above Coloss 3.1 That they may be loose from these earthly things and live in a desire to depart and be with Christ. For 1. This will assure you of your attainment of your desire Earnest desire to depart and be with Christ is a certain evidence that when you depart you shall be with Christ in Heaven as the Apostle speaks in 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing that is his coming to receive them to himself c. that long to see the very first glimpse that is to be had of him as when a man looks for a Friend coming by Sea he longs to see the top of the Sails of the Ship that brings him so the Soul that loves the appearance of Jesus Christ if there be any sign of his coming to receive them to himself they rejoice to see the very tops of the Sails of that Ship that brings Jesus Christ to them The Lord will never frustrate such a desire open thy mouth thus wide and it shall be filled if Heaven be enough to fill it 2. It will make all easy that is to be suffered by the way If once you attain to this that you can desire to die and be with Christ you will not stick at sufferings on this side death that being the King of Terrors all other Fears are but its Subjects and terrible only as they serve under its Banner to subdue men to it and bring them under its power as Paul argued Acts 21.13 I am ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus If to die no doubt to be bound ACTS XX. 24. That I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of