then is it to plead that they can do good if they will when their Minds and Will it self is enslaved to Sin A fourth Property is Subjection to the power of the Devil who is the God of this world that hath blinded the minds of all that believe not 2. Cor. 4.4 And will certainly conquer all that he sighteth with upon his own Dunghill that is in a natural State And from all these Properties we may well conclude that it hath the Property never to be good to be stark dead in Sin Ephes 2.1 according to the Sentence denounced against the first Sin of Mankind in Adam in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 For you can no more bring it to Holiness by any the most vehement Motives and Endeavours then you can bring a dead Carcase to Life by chafing and rubbing it You can stir up no strength or fortifying Grace in the natural Man by such Motives and Endeavours because there is no Strength in him to be stirred up Rom. 5.6 Tho' you do all that lieth in you to the utmost while you are in this Flesh you can do nothing but sin for there is no good lying in you as the Apostle Paul sheweth by his own Experience I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 Sixthly We have no good ground to trust on Christ to help us to will or to do that which is acceptable to him while we continue in our natural State or to imagine that Freedom of Will to Holiness is restored to us by the Merit of his Death For as it hath been already shewed Christ aimed at an higher end in his Incarnation Death and Resurrection than the restoring the Decay and Ruins of our natural State He aimed to advance us to a new State more excellent than the State of Nature ever was by Union and Fellowship with himself that we might live to God not by the Power of a natural Free-will but by the Power of his Spirit living and acting in us So we may conclude that our natural State is irrecoverable and desperate because Christ the only Saviour did not aim at the Recovery of it It is neither holy nor happy but subject to Sin and to all Miseries as long as it remaineth Even those that are in a new State in Christ and do serve the Law of God with their Mind do yet with their Flesh serve the Law of Sin Rom. 7.25 As far as it remaineth in them it lusteth against the spirit Gal. 5.17 And it remaineth dead because of sin even when the spirit is life to them because of righteousness Rom. 8.10 And must be wholly abolished by Death before we can be perfected in that Holiness and Happiness that is by Faith in Christ After God had promised Salvation by Christ the Seed of the Woman he placed Cherubims and a flaming Sword to keep Man out of Paradice thereby teaching him that his first State was lost without Hope and that the Happiness intended for him was wholly new Our old natural Man was not revived and reformed by the Death of Christ but crucified together with him and therefore to be abolished and destroyed out of us by virtue of his Death Rom. 6.6 It is like the part of a Garment infected with the Plague of Leprosie which was to be rent off as incurable that the Garment might be clean Levit. 13.56 If Christ be not in us we are reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 i. e. we are in a State which God hath rejected from partaking of his Salvation so that we are not to expect any Assistance from God to make us holy in it but rather to deliver us from it Seventhly This doth not at all discharge those that are in a natural State from Obligation to Holiness of Life nor render them excusable for their Sins at the Tribunal of God's Justice For God hath made man upright but they sought many inventions Eccles 7.29 Observe well the Words of this Text and you will find that all they who have sought out many Inventions rather than upright walking are comprehended in Man that was at first made upright And Man in the Text signifieth all Mankind the first Adam was all Mankind as Jacob and Esau were two nations in the womb of Rebecca Gen. 25.23 God made us all in our first Parents according to his own Image able and inclined to do his Law and in that pure Nature our Obligation to Obedience was first laid upon us and the first wilful Transgression whereby our first Parents bereaved themselves of the Image of God and brought upon themselves the Sentence of Death was our Sin as well as theirs For in one man Adam all have sinned and so death is passed upon all Rom. 5.12 Because all Mankind were in Adam's Loins when the first Sin was committed even as Levi may be said to have paid Tithes in Abraham before he was born because when his Father Abraham paid Tithes to Melchizedeck he was yet in his Loins Heb. 7.9 10. That Promise of God that he will not charge the Iniquities of Parents upon their Children is a Promise belonging to the New Covenant confirmed in the Blood of Christ and it is Yea and Amen to us only in Christ in whom we have another Nature than that which our Parents conveyed to us so that we cannot justly claim the Benefit of it in our old natural State Jer. 31.29 30 31. 2 Cor. 1.20 Those that account their Impotency a sufficient Plea to excuse them or others shew that they were never truly humbled for that great wilful Transgression of all Mankind in the Loins of Adam Inability to pay Debts excuseth not a Debtor that hath lavished away his Estate neither doth Drunkenness excuse the mad Actings of a Drunkard but rather aggravates his Sin And our Impotency consisteth not in a meer want of an executive Power but in the want of a willing Mind to practice true Holiness and Righteousness Naturally we love it not we like it not but lust against it Gal. 5.17 and hate the light John 3.20 If Men in a natural State had an hearty Love and Likeing to true Holiness and a desire and serious endeavour to practice it out of hearty Love and yet failed in the event then they might under some pretence plead for their Excuse as some do for them that they were compelled to sin by an inevitable Fate But none have just cause to plead any such thing for their excuse because none endeavour to practice true Holiness out of hearty Love to it until the good Work be begun in their Souls and when God hath begun he will perfect it Phil. 1.6 And will in the mean time accept their ready Mind though they fall short in Performance 2 Cor. 8.12 How abominable then and filthy is man that drinketh up iniquity us water Job 15.16 That cannot practise Holiness because he will not This is their just Condemnation that
be sincere so that they cannot see assurance in themselves therefore they conclude that Assurance must not be accounted absolutely necessary to justifying Faith and Salvation lest we should make the Hearts of doubting Saints sad and drive them to despair They account that former Protestants were guilty of a manifest Absurdity in making assurance to be of the Nature and Definition of Saving-Faith because all that hear the Gospel are bound to Saving-Faith and yet they are not bound absolutely to believe that they themselves shall be saved for then many of them would be bound to believe that which is not declared in the Gospel concerning them in particular yea that which is a plain lye because the Gospel sheweth that many of those that are called are not chosen to Salvation and that perish for ever Mat. 20.16 No wonder if the appearance of so great an Absurdity move many to imagine that Saving-Faith is a trusting or resting on Christ as the only sufficient means of Salvation without any assurance or that it is a desiring and venturing to trust or rely upon him in a mere State of Suspence and Uncertainty concerning our Salvation or with a probable Opinion or conjectural Hope of it at best Another Objection against this Doctrine of Assurance is that it destroyeth Self-examination bringeth forth the evil Fruits of Pride and Arrogancy as if they knew their places in Heaven already before the Day of Judgment causeth carelesness of Duty carnal Security all manner of Licentiousness And this maketh them commend doubtfulness of our Salvation as necessary to maintain in us Humility Religious Fear Watchfulness much searching and trying our spiritual State and Ways diligence in good Works and all Deyotion Against all those contrary Imaginations I shall endeavour to maintain this ancient Protestant Doctrine of assurance as I have expressed in the Direction and first I shall lay down some Observations for the right understanding of it which will be sufficient to turn the edge of the strongest Objections that can be made against it First Observe diligently that the Assurance directed unto is not a Perswasion that we have already received Christ and his Salvation or that we have been already brought in to a State of Grace but only that God is pleased graciously to give Christ and his Salvation unto us and to bring us into a State of Grace though we have been altogether in a State of Sin and Death until this present time so that this Doctrine doth not at all tend to breed Presumption in wicked and unregenerate Men that their state is good already but only encourageth them to come to Christ confidently for a good State I acknowledge that we may yea many must be taught to doubt whether their present State be good and that it is Humility so to do and that we must find out the Certainty and Sincerity of our Faith and Obedience by Self-examination before we can have a well-grounded Assurance that we are in a State of Grace and Salvation already and that such an assurance belongeth to that which they call the reflect Act of Faith if any act of Faith can be made of it being spiritual Sence or feeling of what is in my self and is not of the Essence of that Faith whereby we are justified and saved and that many precious Saints are without it and subject to many Doubts that are contrary to it so that they may not know at all that it shall go well with them at the Day of Judgment and that it may be sometimes intermitted if not wholly lost after it is gotten and that we should strive to walk holily that we may attain to it because it is very useful for our growth and increase in Faith and in all Holiness Most Protestants amongst us when they speak or write of Assurance mean only that which is by Reflection and I have said enough briefly to shew that what I assert is consistent with the Doctrine which is commonly received concerning it and destructive to none of the good Fruits of it therefore not guilty of those Evils that some falsly charge it with This kind of Assurance which I speak of answereth not the Question Whither I am already in a state of Grace and Salvation There is another great Question that the Soul must answer that it may get into a state of Grace Whether God be graciously pleased now to bestow Christ and his Salvation upon me though I have been hitherto a very wicked Creature We must be sure to resolve this Question comfortably by another kind of Assurance in the direct act of Faith wherein we are to perswade our selves without reflecting upon any good Qualifications in our selves That God is ready graciously to receive us into the Arms of his saving Mercy in Christ notwithstanding all our former Wickedness according to the gracious Promise I will call them my people which were not my people and her beloved which was not beloved and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them Ye are not my people there shall they be called the children of the living God Rom. 9.25 26. Secondly The Assurance directed unto is not a Perswasion of our Salvation whatever we do or however we live and walk but only in a limited way through meer Free-grace in Christ by partaking of Holiness as well as Forgiveness and by walking in the way of Holiness to the Enjoyment of the Glory of God We shall not heartily desire or endeavour to assure our selves of such a Salvation as this if we be not brought first to see our own Sinfulness and Misery and to despair of our own Righteousness and Strength and to hunger and thirst for the sanctifying as well as justifying Grace of God in Christ that so we may walk in the ways of Holiness to the Enjoyment of Heavenly Glory The Faith whereby we receive Christ must have in it not only a Perswasion of Happiness but these and the like good Qualifications that will make it a most holy Faith Certainly an Assurance thus qualified will not beget any Pride in us but rather Humility and self-loathing except any account it Pride to rejoyce and glory in Christ when we have no Confidence in the Flesh Phil. 3.3 It will not destroy religious Fear and breed carnal Security but rather it will make us fear going aside from Christ our only Resuge and Security and walking after the Flesh Noah had cause to enter into the Ark and to abide there with Assurance of his Preservation yet he might well be afraid to venture out of the Ark because he was perswaded that Continuance in the Ark was his only Safery from perishing in the Flood And how can a Perswasion of Salvation in a way of Holiness breed Sloathfulness in Duty Carelesness and Licentiousness It doth rather mightily allure us and stir us up to be always abounding in the Work of the Lord for as much as we know that our labour
after the Spirit Rom. 8.3 4. Observe here that though Christ died that we might be justified by the Righteousness of God and of Faith not by our own Righteousness which is of the Law Rom. 10.4 5 6. Phil. 3.9 yet he died also that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us and that by walking after his Spirit as those that are in Christ Rom. ibid. He is resembled in his Death to a Corn of Wheat dying in the Earth that it may propagate its own nature by bringing forth much Fruit Joh. 12.24 to the Passover that was slain that a Feast might be kept upon it and to Bread broken that it may be Nourishment to those that eat it 1 Cor. 5.7 8. and 11.24 To the Rock smitten that Water may gush out of it for us to drink 1 Cor. 10.4 He died that he might make of Jew and Gentile one New Man in himself Ephes 2.15 and that he might see his seed i. e. such as derive their holy Nature from him Is 53.10 Let these Scriptures be well observed and they will sufficiently evidence that Christ died not that we might be able to form an holy Nature in our selves but that we might receive one ready prepared and formed in Christ for us by Union and Fellowship with him By his Resurrection he took Possession of Spiritual life for us as now fully procured for us and made to be our Right and Property by the Merit of his Death and therefore we are said to be quickned together with Christ even when we were dead in sins and to be raised up together yea and to be made to sit together in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus as our Head while we continue upon Earth in our own Persons Ephes 2.5 6. His Resurrection was our Resurrection to the Life of Holiness as Adam's Fall was our Fall into spiritual Death and we are not our selves the first makers and formers of our new holy Nature any more than of our Original Corruption but both are formed ready for us to partake of them And by Union with Christ we partake of that spiritual Life that he took Possession of for us at his Resurrection and thereby we are enabled to bring forth the Fruits of it as the Scripture sheweth by the Similitude of a Marriage Union Rom. 7.4 We are married to him that is risen from the Dead that we might bring forth Fruit unto God Baptism signifieth the Application of Christ's Resurrection to us as well as his Death we are raised up with him in it to newness of Life as well as buried with him and we are taught thereby that because he died unto sin once and liveth unto God we should likewise reckon our selves to be dead indeed unto Sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.4 5 10 11. Fourthly Our Sanctification is by the Holy Ghost by whom we live and walk holily Rom. 15.16 Gal. 5.25 Now the Holy Ghost first rested on Christ in all fulness that he might be communicated from him to us as was signified to John the Baptist by the Similitude of the descending of a Dove from the opened Heavens resting on Christ at his Baptism Joh. 1.32.33 And when he sanctifieth us he baptizeth us into Christ and joyneth us to Christ by himself as the great Bond of Union 1 Cor. 12.13 So that according to the Scriptural Phrase it is all one to have Christ himself and to have the Spirit of Christ in us Rom. 8.9 10. He glorifieth Christ for he receiveth those things that are Christ's and sheweth them to us Joh. 16.14 15. He giveth us an experimental Knowledge of those spiritual Blessings which he himself prepared for us by the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of Christ Fifthly The effectual Causes of those four principal Endowments which in the foregoing Direction were asserted necessary to furnish us for the immediate Practice of Holiness are comprehended in the fulness of Christ and treasured up for us in him and the Endowment themselves together with their Causes are attained richly by Union and Fellowship with Christ If we be joyned to Christ our Hearts will be no longer left under the Power of sinful Inclinations or in a meer indifferency of Inclination to good or evil but they will be powerfully endued with a Power Bent and Propensity to the Practice of Holiness by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and inclining us to mind spiritual things and to lust against the Flesh Rom. 8.1 4 5. Gal. 5.17 And we have in Christ a full Reconciliation with God and an Advancement into higher Favour with him than the first Adam had in the State of Innocency because the Righteousness that Christ wrought out for us by his Obedience unto Death is imputed to us for our Justification which is called the Righteousness of God because it was wrought by one that is God as well as Man and therefore it is of an infinite value to satisfie the Justice of God for all our sins and to procure his Pardon and highest Favour for us 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 1.19 And that we may be perswaded of this Reconciliation we receive the Spirit of Adoption through Christ whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 Hereby also we are perswaded of our future Enjoyment of the everlasting heavenly Happiness and of sufficient Strength both to will and to perform our Duty acceptably until we come to that Enjoyment For the Spirit of Adoption teacheth us to conclude that if we be the Children of God then we are heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ And that the Law of the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus maketh us free from the Law of Sin and Death and that nothing shall be against us nothing shall separate us from the Love of God in Christ but in all opposition and difficulties that we meet with we shall be at last more than conquerours through him that loved us Rom. 8.17.23 35 37 39. Furthermore this comfortable Perswasion of our Justification and future Happiness and all saving Priviledges cannot tend to licentiousness as it is given only in this way of Union with Christ because it is joyned inseparably with the Gift of Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ so that we cannot have Justication or any saving Priviledge in Christ except we receive Christ himself and his Holiness as well as any other Benefit as the Scripture testifieth that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 Sixthly Whereas it may be doubted whether the Saints that lived before the coming of Christ in the Flesh could possibly be one Flesh with him and receive a new Nature by Union and Fellowship with him as prepared for them in his fulness we are to know that the same Christ that took our Flesh was before Abraham Joh. 8.58 and was fore-ordained before the Foundation of the World to be sacrificed as a Lamb
without blemish that he might redeem us from all iniquity by his precious Blood 1 Pet. 1.18 19 20. and he had the same Spirit then which filled his humane Nature with all its fulness afterwards and raised it from the dead and he gave that Spirit then to the Church 1 Pet. 1.11 3.18 19. Now this Spirit was able and effectual to unite those Saints to that Flesh which Christ was to take to himself in the fulness of Time because he was the same in both and to give out to them that Grace with which Christ would afterwards fill his Flesh for their Salvation as well as ours Therefore David accounted Christ's Flesh to be his and spake of Christ's Death and Resurrection as his own before hand as fully as any of us can do since their Accomplishment Psal 16.9 10 11. My flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption thou wilt shew me the path of life Yea and Saints before Davids time did all eat of the same spiritual meat and drink of the same spiritual drink even of the same Christ as we do and therefore were Partakers of the same Priviledge of Union and Fellowship with Christ 1 Cor. 10.3 4. And when Christ was manifested in the Flesh in the fulness of time all things in Heaven and on Earth all the Saints departed whose Spirits were then made perfect in Heaven as well as the Saints that then were or should afterward be on Earth were gathered together in one and comprehended in Christ as their Head Ephes 1.10 And he was the chief corner-stone in whom the building of the whole Church upon the foundation of the Prophets before and the Apostles after his comming being fitly fromed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord Ephes 2.20 21. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 His incarnation death and resurrection were the cause of all the Holiness that ever was or shall be given to Man from the Fall of Adam to the end of the World and that by the mighty Power of his Spirit whereby all Saints that ever were or shall be are joyned together to be Members of that one mystical Body whereof he is the Head DIRECT IV. The Means or Instruments whereby the Spirit of God accomplisheth our Vnion with Christ and our Fellowship with him in all Holiness are the Gospel whereby Christ entereth into our Hearts to work Faith in us and Faith whereby we actually receive Christ himself with all his Fulness into our Hearts And this Faith is a Grace of the Spirit whereby we heartily believe the Gospel and also believe on Christ as he is revealed and freely promised to us therein for all his Salvation EXPLICATION THAT which I asserted in the foregoing Direction concerning the necessity of our being in Christ and having Christ in us by a mystical Union to enable us for an holy Practice might put us to a stand in our Endeavours for Holiness because we cannot imagine how we should be able to raise our selves above our natural Sphere to his glorious Union and Fellowship until God be pleased to make known to us by supernatural revelation the means whereby his Spirit maketh us Partakers of so high a Privilege But God is pleased to help us at a stand to go on forward by revealing two Means or Instruments whereby his Spirit accomplisheth the mystical Union and Fellowship betwixt Christ and us and whereby rational Creatures are capable of attaining thereunto by his Spirit working in them One of these Means is the Gospel of the Grace of God wherein God doth make known to us the unsearchable Riches of Christ and Christ in us the hope of Glory Eph. 3.8 Col. 1.27 and doth also invite us and command us to believe on Christ for his Salvation and doth encourage us by a free Promise of that Salvation to all that believe on him Acts 16.31 Rom. 10.9 11. This is God's own Instrument of Conveyance wherein he sendeth Christ to us to bless us with his Salvation Acts 3.26 It is the ministration of the spirit and of righteousness 2 Cor. 3.6 8 9. Faith cometh by the hearing of it and therefore it is a great instrument whereby we are begotten in Christ and Christ is formed in us Rom. 10.16 17. 1 Cor. 4.15 Gal. 4.19 There is no need for us to say in our Hearts Who shall ascend into Heaven to bring Christ down from above Or who shall descend into the deep to bring up Christ from the dead that we may be united and have fellowship with him in his death and resurrection For the word is nigh to us the Gospel the word of Faith in which Christ himself graciously condescendeth to be nigh to us so that we may come at him there without going any further if we desire to be joyned to him Rom. 10.6 7 8. The other of these means is Faith that is wrought in us by the Gospel This is our Instrument of Reception whereby the Union betwixt Christ and us is accomplished on our part by our actual receiving of Christ himself with all his Fulness into our Hearts which is the principal Subject of the present Explanation The Faith which Philosophers commonly treat of is only an Habit of the Understanding whereby we assent to a Testimony upon the Authority of the Testifier Accordingly some would have Faith in Christ to be no more than a believing the truth of things in Religion upon the authority of Christ testifying them but the Apostle sheweth that the Faith whereby we are justified is Faith in Christ's Blood Rom. 3.24 25. not only in his Authority as a Testifier And tho' a meer assent to a Testimony were sufficient Faith for knowledge of things which the Philosophers aimed at yet we are to consider that the Design of Saving Faith is not only to know the Truth of Christ and his Salvation testified and promised in the Gospel but also to apprehend and receive Christ and his Salvation as given by and with the Promise Therefore Saving Faith must necessarily contain two Acts believing the Truth of the Gospel and believing on Christ as promised freely to us in the Gospel for all Salvation By the one it receiveth the Means wherein Christ is conveyed to us by the other it receiveth Christ himself and his Salvation in the Means As it 's one act to receive the Breast or Cup wherein Milk or Wine are conveyed and another act to suck the Milk in the Breast and to drink the Wine in the Cup and both these acts must be perform'd heartily with an unfeigned love to the Truth and a desire of Christ and his Salvation above all things this is our spiritual Appetite which is necessary for our eating and drinking Christ the Food of Life as a natural Appetite is for Bodily Nourishment Our assenting unto or believing the Gospel must not be forced
Goodness of God that it is no worse DIRECT VI. Those that endeavour to perform sincere Obedience to all the Commands of Christ as the Condition whereby they are to procure for themselves a Right and Title to Salvation and a good ground to trust on him for the same do seek their Salvation by the Works of the Law and not by the Faith of Christ as he is revealed in the Gospel And they shall never be able to perform sincerely any true holy Obedience by all such Endeavours EXPLICATION FOR the understanding the terms of this Direction note here that I take Salvation as comprehending Justification as well as other Saving Benefits and sincere Obedience as comprehending holy Resolutions as well as the fulfilling of them The worst of Men that have any Sense of Religion are prone to imagine that the sure way to establish the Practice of Holiness and Righteousness is to make it the Procuring Condition of the Favour of God and all Happiness This may appear by the various false Religions that have prevailed most in the World In this way the Heathens were brought to their best Devotion and Morality by the knowledge of the Judgment of God that those that violate several of the great Duties to God and their Neighbour are worthy of Death and by their Consciences accusing or excusing them according to the Practise of them Rom. 1.32 2.14 15. Our Consciences are informed by the common Light of Natural Reason that it is just with God to require us to perform these Duties that we may avoid his Wrath and enjoy his Favour and we cannot find any better way than this to obtain Happiness or to stir up our selves to Duty without divine Revelation Yet because our own Consciences testifie that we often fail in the performance of these Duties we are enclined by Self-Love to perswade our selves that our sincere Endeavours to do the best we can shall be sufficient to procure the Favour of God and Pardon for all our Failings Thus we see that the Perswasion of Salvation by the Condition of sincere Obedience hath its original from our corrupt Natural Reason and is part of the Wisdom of this World it is none of the Wisdom of God in a Mystery that hidden Wisdom God ordained before the World to our Glory it is none of those things of the Spirit of God which have not entred into the Heart of Man and which the Natural man cannot receive for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.6 7 9 14. It is none of the foolishness of Preaching whereby it pleased God to save them that believe 1 Cor. 10.21 And though we have a better way revealed to us in the Gospel for the enjoyment of the Favour of God and Holiness it self and all Salvation without any procuring Condition of Works by the free Gift of God's Grace through Faith in Christ yet it is very difficult to perswade men out of a way that they are naturally addicted to and that hath forestalled and captivated their Judgments and is bred in their Bone and therefore cannot easily be gotten out of the Flesh Most of those that live under the hearing and profession of the Gospel are not brought to hate Sin as Sin and to love Godliness for itself though they be convinced of the necessity of it to Salvation and therefore they cannot love it heartily The only means that they can take to bring themselves to it is to stir up themselves to an Hypocritical Practice in their old natural way that they may avoid Hell and get Heaven by their Works And their own Consciences witness that the Zeal and Love that they have for God and Godliness their Self-denial Sorrow for Sin strictness of Life are in a manner forced and extorted from them by slavish Fear and mercenary Hope so that they are afraid that if they should trust on Christ for Salvation by Free-Grace without Works the fire of their Zeal and Devotion would be quickly extinguished and they should grow careless in Religion and let loose the Reins to their Lusts and bring certain Damnation upon themselves This moveth them to account them the only Boanerges and powerful Preachers that preach little or none of the Doctrine of Free-Grace but rather spend their Pains in rebuking Sin and urging People to get Christ and his Salvation by their Works and thundering Hell and Damnation against Sinners It hath been farther observed that some that have contended much for Salvation by Free-Grace without any Condition of Works have fallen into Antinomian Opinions and licentious Practices The Experience of these things hath much prevailed with some learned and zealous men of late amongst our selves to recede from the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works formerly professed unanimously and strongly defended by the Protestants against the Papists as a principal Article of true Religion They have perswaded themselves that such a way of Justification is ineffectual yea destructive to Sanctification and that the practice of sincere Obedience cannot be established against Antinomian Dotages and prevailing Lusts except it be made the necessary Condition of our Justification and so of our eternal Salvation Therefore they conclude that God hath certainly made sincere Obedience to be the Condition of our Salvation And they have endeavoured to new-model the Protestant Doctrine and to interpret the holy Scriptures in a way agreeable and subservient to this their only sure Foundation of Holiness But I hope to shew that this their imagined sure Foundation of Holiness was never laid by the Holy God but that it is rather an Errour in the Foundation pernicious to the true Faith and to Holiness of Life I account it an Error especially to be abhorred and detested because we are so prone to be seduced by it and because it is an Error whereby Satan transforming himself into an Angel of Light and a Patron of Holiness hath greatly withstood the Gospel in the Apostles times and stirred up men to persecute it out of zeal for the Law and hath since prevailed to set up and maintain Popery whereby the Mystery of Iniquity worketh apace in these days to corrupt the Purity of the Gospel amongst the Protestants and to heal the deadly wound that was given to Popery by preaching the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works One thing asserted in the Direction against this fundamental Error is that it is a way of Salvation by the Works of the Law and not by the Faith of Christ as revealed in the Gospel Though the maintainers of it would have us believe that it is the only way of the Gospel that so we may not doubt of its Power and Efficacy for our Justification Sanctification and our whole Salvation Their Reasons are because the Law as a Covenant of Works requireth us to do all its Commandments perfectly that we may live whereas they plead only for a milder Condition of sincere doing
hath been one occasion of the prevailing of Heathenish Jewish and Popish Superslitions in the World We find by experience how Popery fell in several Nations in late years when the great Pillar of it the Doctrine of Justification by Works was overthrown by the Protestant Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone If these Legal Zealots be forced by strong Conviction to endeavour the Practice of spiritual Duties for the quieting of their guilty Consciences they may be brought to strive and labour earnestly and even to macerate their Bodies with Fasting that they may kill their Lusts but still their Lusts are alive and as strong as ever they were and do shew forth their Enmity against the Law of God by inward fretting repining and grudging at it as a grievous Task-mastertho ' a slavish Fear restrain their gross outward actings And if once these Zealots be enlightned with the Knowledge of the Spiritual nature of the Law to discern that God rejecteth all their slavish Service and will not own it for sincere Obedience then they fall into Despair of their Salvation because they see they have failed in their highest attempts to perform the Condition and then they can easily discover themselves that their Hearts swell in Anger and manifest Hatred against the Law yea and against God and Christ for prescribing such hard Conditions of Salvation which they cannot keep and yet expect to be damned eternally for breaking of them This filleth them with blasphemous thoughts against God and Christ and they can hardly refrain from blaspheming with their tongues and when they are brought to this horrible Condition if God doth not in mercy discover to them the way of Salvation by Free-grace through Faith alone they will endeavour if they can to sear their Consciences past feeling of Sin and fully to abandon all Religion which have proved such an unsufferable Torment to them or if they cannot sear their Consciences some of them are easily prevailed over by Satan rather to murder themselves than to live longer in the Hatred of God the Spirit of Blasphemy and continual horror of Conscience This is the pestilent effect of Legal-Doctrine upon a carnal heart that doth but rouse up and terribly enrage the sleeping Lion our sinful Gorruption instead of killing of it as is too evident by the sad Experience of many that have endeavoured with all their might to practice it and by the Scripture that sheweth a sufficient cause why it cannot be otherwise Therefore the Doctrine of Salvation by sincere Obedience that was invented against Antinomianism may well be ranked amongst the worst Antinomian Errors For my part I hate it with perfect Hatred and count it mine Enemy as I have found it to be and I have found by some good Experience the Truth of the Lesson taught by the Apostle that the way to be freed from the Mastery and Dominion of Sin is not to be under the law but under grace Rom. 6.15 6thly The way of Salvation by works was blasted by the Curse denounced against the first Adam's Sin so that now it cannot work Life in us or Holiness but only Death For the Law which requireth both sincere and perfect Obedience to God in all things was made known to Adam at his first Creation as the means of continuing the happy Life that was then bestowed upon him and it would have been effectual for this end if he had not transgressed in the forbidden fruit but when he had once brought himself and his Posterity under the terrible Sentence Thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 all that Knowledge of God or his Law that before wrought for continuance of Life was turned by that cursing Sentence the contrary way to work for his death even for the death of his Soul in sin as well as for the death of his Body and therefore it quickly moved him to hide himself from God as an enemy It was as if God should say All the light and knowledge that thou hast shall not be able to continue thy life or restore it but it shall rather tend to thy death Therefore while we continue in our Natural state under the first Adam's Guilt and Curse the knowledge of the Law yea and all such knowledge of God and his Attributes as natural Men may attain to must needs be in like manner accursed to us and seeing Man did not use his natural Knowledge and Wisdom aright God is resolved to revenge the abuse of it by giving us Salvation in a way contrary to it that seemeth foolishness to the Natural man and wholly to abolish the way of living by any of our works or by any Wisdom or Knowledge that the Natural-man can attain unto for it is written I will destrey the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.19 20 21. Hence we may conclude that no Truth known by the light of Nature can be an effectual Principle or Motive to work Holiness in us and Gospel-principles and Motives are but abused when they are applied to a Legal-way of Salvation 7thly The end which God aimed at in giving the Law by Moses was not that any should ever attain to Holiness or Salvation by the condition of perfect or sincere Obedience to it tho' if there had been any such way of Salvation at that time it must have consisted in the Performance of that Law which was then given to the Church to be a Rule of Life as well as a Covenant There was another Covenant made before that time with Abraham Isaac and Jacob a Covenant of Grace promising all Blessings freely through Christ the promised Seed by which only they were to be saved and the Covenant of the Law was added that they might-see their sinfulness and subjection to death and wrath and the impossibility of attaining to life or holiness by their works and be forced to trust on the free Promise only for all their Salvation and that Sin might be restrained by the Spirit of Bondage until the coming of that promised Seed Jesus Christ and the more plentiful pouring out of the sanctifying Spirit by him This the Apostle Paul sheweth largely Gal. 3.15 to 24. Rom. 5.20 21. Rom. 10.3 4. None of the Israelites under the Old Testament were ever saved by the Sinai-Covenant neither did any of them ever attain to Holiness by the terms of it Some of them did indeed perform the Commandments of it sincerely tho' imperfectly but those were first justified and made Partakers of Life and Holiness by virtue of that better Covenant made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob which was the same in substance with the New-covenant or Testament establish'd by the Blood of Christ Had it not been for that better Covenant the
Righteousness and Holiness and all Salvation only by Fellowship with him through Faith therefore it is no affront to Christ or slighting and contemning of the Justice and Holiness of God to come to Christ while we are polluted sinners but rather it is an affronting and contemning of the Saving-grace Merit and Fulness of Christ if we endeavour to make our selves righteous and holy before we receive Christ himself and all Righteousness and Holiness in him by Faith Christ loathed not to touch a Leper and condescended to wash the feet of his Disciples and did not expect that they should be washed and perfumed before hand as some great ones of the World are said to do when they wash the feet of Poor-men in imitating of Christ Thirdly Those that receive Christ with an unfeigned Faith shall never want a wedding garment to adorn them in the sight of God Faith it self is very precious in the sight of God and most holy 2 Pet. 1.1 Jude 20. God loveth it because it giveth the glory of our Salvation only to the Free-grace of God in Christ Rom. 4.16 and renounceth all dependance on any conditions that we can perform to procure a Right to Christ or to make our selves acceptable to him It containeth in it an hearty Love to Christ as Saviour and an hungring and thirsting Appetite for his Salvation and it is the Mouth whereby the Soul feedeth hungrily upon him What Wedding garment can sinners bring with them more delightful than this to their bountiful God whose great Design is to manifest the abundant riches of his glorious Grace and Bounty in this Wedding feast The Father himself loveth them because they love Christ and believe that he came out from God Jo. 16.27 But yet we see that the Excellency of Faith lyeth in this that it accounteth not it self or any other work of ours a sufficient Ornament to make us acceptable in the sight of God It will not be our Wedding-garment it self but it buyeth of Christ white raiment that we may be clothed and that the shame of our nakedness may not appear Rev. 3.18 Tho' it loveth and desireth the Free-gift of Holiness yet it abandons all thoughts of practising Holiness immediately before we come to Christ for an holy nature It putteth on Christ himself and in him all things that pertain to life and godliness Thus every true Believer is clothed with the Sun Rev. 12.1 even with the Sun of Righteousness the Lord Jesus who is pleased to be himself both our Wedding-garment and Feast and all our spiritual and eternal Happiness For the more full Satisfaction and Consolation of those distressed Souls that lye under the terrible apprehensions of their own sinfulness and the wrath of God and dare not venture to trust stedfastly on Christ for their Salvation until they can find in themselves some change from Sin to Holiness I shall mention particularly several of those things that such would find in themselves and I shall shew that if some of them be not partly comprehended in Faith it self they are fruits and consequences of Faith and therefore they cannot be rationally expected before we trust on Christ for our Salvation First They think it necessary to repent before they believe on Christ for their Salvation because Repentance is absolutely necessary to Salvation Luke 13.3 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish and Christ placeth the Duty of Repentance before Faith Mar. 1.15 Repent and believe the Gospel but we are to know that Christ requireth Repentance first as the end to be aimed at and Faith in the next place as the only means of attaining to it and tho' the end be first in intention yet the means are first in Practice and Execution tho' both be absolutely necessary to Salvation For what is Repentance but an hearty turning from sin to God and his Service and what way is there to turn to God but through Christ who is the way the truth and the life without whom none cometh to the Father Joh. 14.6 And what way is there of coming to Christ but by Faith therefore if we would turn to God in the right way we must first come to Christ by Faith and Faith must go before Repentance as the great Instrument afforded us by the Grace of God for the effectual Performance of it Repentance is indeed a Duty which sinners owe naturally to God but the great Question is how shall sinners be able to perform it This Question is resolved only by the Gospel of Christ Repent and believe The way to repent is to begin with believing Therefore the great Doctrine of John in his Baptism of Repentance was That they should believe on him that should come after him that is on Christ Jesus Acts 19.4 2dly Regeneration also is necessary to Salvation Joh. 3 3. and therefore many would find it wrought in themselves before they trust on Christ for Salvation but consider what Regeneration is It is a new begetting or creating us in Christ 1 Cor. 4.15 Eph. 2.10 in whom we are Partakers of a divine nature far different from that which we received from the first Adam Now Faith is the uniting Grace whereby Christ dwelleth in us and we in him as hath been shewed and therefore it is the first Grace wrought in our Regeneration and the means of all the rest when you truly believe you are regenerated and not till then Those that receive Christ by believing and those only are the Sons of God which are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.12 13. 3dly They account it necessary to receive Christ as Lord and Law-giver by a sincere Resignation of themselves to his Government and a Resolution to obey his Law before they receive him as their Saviour This is one principal Lesson of the new Divinity and such a receiving Christ as Lord is made to be the great act of saving Faith without which such Faith as I have described whereby we trust on Christ for Salvation is reckoned no better than gross Presumption They teach that Christ will not bestow his Salvation on those that do not first yield their subjection to his Kingly Authority but he calleth them his enemies because they would not that he should reign over them and requireth that they be brought and slain before him Luke 19.27 And I own it as a certain truth that Christ will save none but those that are brought to resign up themselves sincerely to the Obedience of his royal Authority and Laws But yet we must observe that they are not brought to this holy Resignation or to any sincere purpose and resolution of Obedience before they receive his Salvation but rather by receiving it Men that were never throughly sensible of their natural death in sin do easily bring themselves to resolve universal Obedience to God when they are on their Death-beds or in any eminent danger or when they would prepare
of these Consolations by Faith in the very first Beginning of a holy Life Besides the Gospel proposeth Peace and Comfort freely to those that are not yet brought to Holiness yet if they have Hearts to receive it they may be converted from Sin to Righteness When the Apostles entred into an House they were first to say Peace be to the house Luke 10.5 At their very first Preaching to Sinners they acquainted them with the glad Tidings of Salvation by Christ for every one that would receive it as a Free-gift by Faith Acts 3.26 13.26 32 38. 16.30 31. They assured them if they would but trust heartily on Christ for all his Salvation they should have it although they were at present the chief of Sinners which was Comfort sufficient for all that duly esteem Spiritual Comfort hungring and thirsting after it And this is a Method agreeable to the Design of the Gospel which is to advance the Riches of the Grace of God in all our Spiritual Enjoyments God will give us his Consolations before our good Works as well as after them that we may know that he giveth us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace and not through the Procurement of our Works 2 Thess 2.16 Fourthly The Nature of the Duties of the Law requireth a comfortable state of the Soul for the Performance of them I have before proved sufficiently that they require a Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God and of our future Happiness and Strength whereby we may be able to walk in holy Obedience Joshuah must be strong and very couragious that he might observe to do according to the Law that Moses the Servant of the Lord commanded him Josh 1.7 I shall instance briefly in the Comforts without which several great Duties cannot be sincerely performed Can we love God and delight in him above all while we look upon him as our everlasting Enemy and apprehend no Love and Mercy in him towards us that may render him a suitable Good for us and lovely in our Eyes What doleful Melody will the Heart make in the Duty of Praise if we account that all those Perfections for which we praise him will rather aggravate our Misery than make us happy What a heartless Work will it be to pray to him and to offer up our selves to his Service if we have no comfortable Hope that he will accept us Is it possible for us to free our selves from carking Cares by casting our Care upon the Lord if we do not apprehend that he careth for us Can we be patient in Affliction with Chearfulness and under Persecutions except we have peace with God and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.1 2 3. What Reason can perswade us to submit willingly according to our Duty to the Stroak of present Death if God be pleased to lay it upon us when we have no Comforts to relieve us against the horrible Fear of intollerable Torments in Hell for ever If we should be called to suffer Martyrdom for the Protestant Religion as our Ancestors in this Nation have done we should find it necessary to abandon the late upstart Notions that have been bred in a time of Ease and to embrace the comfortable Doctrine of former Protestants which through the Grace of God made so many couragious and joyful Martyrs Fifthly The state of those that are to be brought from Sin to Godliness requires necessarily that after they be convinced of the Vnnity of their former false Confidences and of their Deadness in Original-sin and Subjection to the Wrath of God they should have a Supply of new Gospel Comforts afforded to encourage their fainting Souls to holy Practices How little do many Physicians of Souls consider the Condition of their unconverted Patients that are altogether without Spiritual Life and Strength and are or must be convinced He that prescribeth bodily Exercise to a Man lying Bed-ridden under a dead Palsie before any effectual means be used to strengthen him deserveth the name of a merciless insulting Tormentor rather than of a wise and tender-hearted Physician How unreasonable is it to prescribe the immediate Practice of Love to God and universal Obedience to him out of Love as the means of Cure for those that see nothing but Wrath and Enmity in God towards them in their present Condition what is it but to require a Man to work without Strength promising him that he shall have Strength when his Work is done for Comfort and Fortitude is so called because it comforteth and strengtheneth True it is That the Law which is the Ministration of Condemnation obligeth them to Obedience but our merciful God expecteth no sincere Performance of his Law from such impotent miserable Wretches in order to their Salvation by Christ till he hath first delivered them in some measure from those Discomforts slavish Fears and Despondencies that hold them captive under the Law of Sin and Death We may require a strong healthy Person first to work and then to expect Meat Drink and Wages but a fainting famished Person must first have Food or a reviving Cordial to strengthen his Heart before he can work Sixthly Both Scripture and Experience shew That this is the Method whereby God bringeth his People from Sin to Holiness though some of them are brought under Terrours for a while that Sin may be the more imbittered and the Salvation of Christ rendred more precious and acceptable to them yet such are again delivered from their Terrors by the Comfort of God's Salvation that they may be fitted for Holiness and generally a holy Life beginneth with Comfort and is maintained by it God gave to Adam at his first Creation the Comfort of his Love and Favour and the Happiness of Paradise to encourage him to Obedience and when he had left those Comforts by the Fall he was no longer able to obey until he was restored by new Comfort of the promised Seed Christ the Second Adam set God always before his face and he knew that because God was at his right hand he should not be moved therefore his heart was glad and his glory rejoyced Psal 16.8 9. This made him willing to bear his Agony and bloody Sweat and to be obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross God drew the Israelites to Obedience with the Cords of a Man with the Bonds of Love by taking off the Yoke on their Jaws and laying Meat before them Hos 11.4 David telleth us for our Instruction how he was brought to an holy Conversation Thy loving kindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth Psal 26.3 Lord I have hoped for thy salvation and done thy Commandements Psal 119.166 We have several Examples in the New Testament of the Joy that Sinners had in the first receiving of Christ Acts 2.41 And when the Gospel first came to the Thessalonians they received the Word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost 1 Thess 1.4 5.
of the Flesh and to the Perfection of the New Man in Christ Yet it holdeth true also that our reception and enjoyment of Christ himself and all his Perfections is but in an imperfect measure and degree until Faith be turned into heavenly Vision and Fruition of Christ and therefore our old sinful State with the Evils thereof is not perfectly abolished during this Life The Kingdom of Heaven or the Grace of Christ within us is like leaven in Meal and doth not unite it self perfectly to the Meal in an Instant but by degrees until the whole be leavened Mat. 13.35 or like the morning Light that expelleth Darkness by degrees shining more and more unto a perfect day Prov. 4.18 This cannot be justly accounted any derogation to the Merits of Christ's Death or to the power of his Spirit seeing Christ never intended to bring to pass by his Death or by the power of his Spirit that we should enjoy his spiritual Blessings any further than we are in him and enjoy him by Faith or that we should be made holy or happy according to the Flesh by a Reformation of our natural State as hath been shewed Neither doth this diminish the Consolation of Believers in Christ for thereby they may know that they have the Perfection of Grace and Happiness in Christ and that they enjoy it in this World as far as they enjoy Christ himself by Faith and that they shall enjoy it in a perfect measure and be fully freed from their old Sins and miserable State when that frame of Nature which they received from the first Adam is dissolved by Death This Instruction is very useful to frame our Souls aright for the practising of Holiness only by those Gospel Principles and Means that belong to our new State which we are Partakers of by Faith in Christ And thus it is easily vindicated from another great Objection wherein the Papists and Quakers do much Triumph They appeal to Mens Conscience to answer this Question which Doctrin is most likely to bring People to the practice of true Godliness theirs which teacheth That perfect Holiness may be attained in this Life or ours which teacheth That it is impossible for us to keep the Law perfectly and to purge our selves from all Sin as long as we live in this World though we use our best Endeavours They think that common Reason will make the Verdict pass for them against our Doctrin as that which discourageth all Endeavours for Perfection and hardneth the Hearts of People to allow themselves in Sin because they cannot avoid it But on the contrary the Doctrine of Perfection hardens People to allow themselves in Sin and to call Evil Good as the Papists account That the Concupiscence of the Flesh against the Spirit is no Sin but rather good matter for the Exercise of their Vertues because the most perfect in this Life are not without it It also discourageth those that labour to get Holiness in the right way by Faith in Christ and maketh them to think that they labour in vain because they find themselves still sinful and far from Perfection when they have done their best to attain it It hindereth our Diligence in seeking Holiness by these Principles and Means whereby only it can be found For who will be Diligent and Watchful to avoid walking according to his own carnal Principles if he think that his own carnal State with it's Principles is quite abolished and is out of him so that at present he is in no danger of walking according to them Whatsoever good works the Doctrin of the Perfectionists may serve to promote I am sure it hindereth a great part of that work which Christ would have us to be employed in as long as we live in this World we must know that our old State with its evil Principles continueth still in a measure or else we shall not be sit for the great Duties of confesing of Sins loathing our selves for them praying earnestly for the Pardon of them a just sorrowing for them with a Godly Sorrow accepting the Punishment of our Sins and giving God the glory of his Justice and offering to him the Sacrifice of a broken and contrite Spirit being poor in Spirit working out our Salvation with fear and trembling Some have doubted how it can consist with our Justification by Christ that we should be still lyable to be punished for our Sins and obliged to pray for the Pardon of them because they have not well considered the twofold State of Believers in this Life and except we know this and keep it in Mind we shall never be sit to practise continually the great Duties that tend to the putting off the Old Man and putting on the New Man and mortifying the Deeds of the Body by the Spirit praying continually that God would renew a right Spirit in us and sanctify us throughout pressing forward to Perfection desiring the sincere Milk of the Word and the Enjoyment of other Ordinances Christ hath appointed that his Church on Earth should be employed in such works and Perfectionists either do or sain would account them needless for them and that they have no longer need of Christ himself to be their spiritual Physician and Advocate with the Father and Propitiation for their Sins Therefore they are not fit to be Members of the Church on Earth and are never likely to be Members of the Church in Heaven except they can make a Ladder and climb up thither before their time 2. Despair of purging the Flesh or Natural Man of its sinful Lusts and Inclinations and of practising Holiness by your willing and resolving to do the best that lyeth in your own Power and trusting on the Grace of God and Christ to help you in such Resolutions and Endeavours rather resolve to trust on Christ to work in you to will and to do by his own power according to his own good Pleasure They that are convinced of their own Sin and Misery do commonly first think to tame the Flesh and to subdue and root out its Lusts and to make their corrupt Nature to be better natured and inclined to Holiness by their strugling and wrestling with it And if they can but bring their Hearts to a full purpose and resolution to do the best that lyeth in them they hope that by such a Resolution they shall be able to atchieve great Enterprizes in the Conquest of their Lusts and performance of the most difficult Duties It is the great work of some zealous Divines in their Preaching and Writings to stir up People to this Resolution wherein they place the chiefest turning Point from Sin to Godliness And they think that this is not contrary to the life of Faith because they trust on the Grace of God through Christ to help them in all such Resolutions and Endeavours Thus they endeavour to reform their old State and to be made perfect in the Flesh instead of putting it off and walking according to
the new State in Christ They trust on low carnal things for Holiness and upon the acts of their own Will their Purposes Resolutions and Endeavours instead of Christ and they trust to Christ to help them in this carnal way whereas true Faith would teach them that they are nothing and that they do but labour in vain They may as well wash a Blackamoor white as purge the Flesh or Natural Man from its evil Lusts and make it pure and holy It is desperately wicked past all cure It will unavoidably lust against the Spirit of God even in the best Saints on Earth Gal. 17. its mind is enmity to the Law of God and neither is nor can be subject to it Rom. 8.7 They that would cure it and make it holy by their own Resolutions and Endeavours do act quite contrary to the design of Christ's Death for he dyed not that the Flesh or Old Natural Man might be made holy but that it might be crucifyed and destroyed out of us Rom. 6.6 and that we might live to God not to our selves or by any natural power of our own Resolutions or Endeavours but by Christ living in us and by his Spirit bringing forth the fruits of Righteousness in us Gal. 2.20 and 5.24 25. Therefore we must be content to leave the Natural Man vile and wicked as we found it until it be utterly abolished by Death though we must not allow its Wickedness but rather groan to be delivered from the Body of this Death thanking God that there is a Deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our way to mortify sinful Affections and Lusts must be not by purging them out of the Flesh but by putting off the Flesh it self and geting above into Christ by Faith and walking in that new Nature that is by him thus the way of Life is above to the Wise that he may depart from Hell beneath Prov. 15.24 Our willing resolving and endeavouring must be to do the best not that lyeth in our selves or in our own power but that Christ and the power of his Spirit shall be pleased to work in us for in us i. e. in our Flesh there dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 we have no ground to trust in God and Christ for help in such Resolutions and Endeavours as in things that are agreeable to the design of Christ in our Redemption as to the way of acting and living by Faith It is likely that Peter sincerely resolved to dye with Christ rather than to deny him and to do all that he could by his own power for that end but Christ made him quickly to see the Weakness and Vanity of such Resolutions and we see by Experience what many Resolutions made in Sickness and other Dangers mostly come to It is not enough for us to trust on Christ to help us to act and endeavour so far only as Creatures for so the worst of Men are helped he is the Jehovah in whom they Live Move and have their Being Act. 17.28 and it 's likely the Pharisee would trust on God to help him in Duty as he would thank God for the performance of Duty Luk. 18.11 and this is all the Faith that many make use of to a holy Practice But we must trust on Christ to enable us above the strength of our own natural power by vertue of the new Nature which we have in Christ and by his Spirit dwelling and working in us or else our best endeavours will be altogether sinful and meer Hypocrisie notwithstanding all the help for which we trust upon him We must also take heed of depending for Holiness upon any Resolutions to walk in Christ or on any written Covenants or any Holiness that we have already received for we must know that the Vertue of these things continue no longer than we continue walking in Christ and Christ in us They must be kept up by the continual Presence of Christ in us as Light is maintained by the presence of the Sun and cannot subsist without it 3. You must not seek to procure forgiveness of sins the favour of God a new holy Nature Life and Happiness by any works of the Moral Law or by any Rites and Ceremonies whatever but rather you must work as those that have all these things already according to your new state in Christ as such who are only to receive them more and more by Faith as they are ready prepared and treasured up for you and freely given to you by your spiritual head the Lord Jesus Christ If we walk as those that are yet wholly to seek for the procurement of such enjoyments as these it is a manifest sign that at present we judge our selves to be without them and without Christ himself in whose fulness they are all contained And therefore we walk according to our own Natural State as those that are yet in the Flesh and that would get Salvation in it and by our carnal Works and Observances instead of living altogether on Christ by Faith This practice is according to the tenour of the Covenant of Works as I have before shewed And we have no ground to trust on Christ and his Spirit to work Holiness in us this way for we are dead to the Legal Covenant by the Body of Christ Rom. 7. And if we be led by the Spirit we are not under the Law Gal. 5.18 When the Galatians were seduced by false Teachers to seek the procurement of Justification and Life by Circumcision and other works of the Mosaical Law the Apostle Paul rebuketh them for seeking to be made perfect in the flesh directly contrary to their good beginning in the Spirit for rendring Christ of none effect to them and for falling from Grace Gal. 3.3 and 5.4 And when some of the Colossians sought perfection in the like manner by observation of Circumcision holy-meats holy-times and other Rudiments of the World The same Apostle blameth them for not holding the Head Jesus Christ and as such as were not dead and risen with Christ but living merely in the World Col. 2.19 20. and 3.1 He clearly sheweth that those who seek any saving enjoyments in such a way do walk according to their own Natural State And that the true manner of living by Faith in Christ is to walk as those that have all fulness and perfection of Spiritual Blessings in Christ by Faith and need not seek for them any other way to procure them for themselves In this sense it is a true saying That Believers should not act for Life but from Life They must act as those that are not procuring Life by their Works but as such who have already received and derived Life from Christ and act from the Power and Vertue received from him And hereby it appears that the Papists and all others that think to Justifie Purisie Sanctifie and save themselves by any of their own Works Rites or Ceremonies whatever do walk in a carnal way as those that are without
therefore we have directed to seeking of Holiness by the Spirit of Christ and willing good freely by a spiritual Power as new Creatures partakers of a divine Nature in Christ Yea it s necessary to know the first Adam that we may know the second Rom. 5.12 To believe the fall and original Sin that we may be stirred up to fly to Christ by Faith for Holiness by free Gift knowing that we cannot attain it by our own Power and Free Will 2 Cor. 1.9 Mat. 9.12 13. Rom. 7.24 25. 2 Cor. 3.5 Eph. 5.14 There were no need of a new Man or a new Creation if the old were not without strength and Life Joh 3.5 6 Eph. 2.8 But original Deadness cannot hinder Gods working Faith and Hungrings and Thirstings after Christ by the Spirit through the Gospel in those that God chooseth to walk holily and blamelessly before him in Love 1 Thes 1.4 5. Act. 26.18 And so we are made alive in a new Head and become Branches of another Vine living to God by the Spirit not by Nature 2. It confirms us in the Doctrin of Predestination which many deny because they say it takes Men off from Endeavours as fruitless by telling Men that all Events are predetermined This Argument would be more forcible against Endeavours by the power of our own Free Will but not at all against Endeavours for Holiness by the Operation of God giving us Faith and all Holiness by his own Spirit working in us through Christ we are to trust on Christ for the Grace of the Elect and Gods good Will towards Men Matt. 3.17 Luke 2.14 Psal 106.4 5. Election by Grace destroys seeking by Works but not by Grace Rom. 11.5 6. And we are here taught to seek for Salvation only in the way of the Elect and we may conclude that Holiness is to be had by Gods Will and not by our own and it may move us to desire Holiness by the Will of God Rom. 9.16 Psal 109.32 And seeing it appears by this Doctrin of Sanctification through Christ that we are Gods Workmanship as to all the good wrought in us Phil. 2.12 13. Eph. 2.10 We may well admit that he hath appointed his Pleasure from Eternity without infringing the Natural Liberty of our corrupt Wills which reacheth not unto good Works Acts 15.18 compare with 30. Mans Natural Free Will may well consist with Gods Decree as in Paradise Decretum radii contingentia 3. It confirms us in the true Doctrin of Justification and Reconciliation with God by Faith relying on the Merits of Christs Blood without any Works of our own and without considering Faith as a Work to procure Favour by the Righteousness of the Act but only as a Hand to receive the Gift or rather as the very Eating and Drinking of Christ actually than any kind of Condition intitling us to him as our Food This great Doctrin of the Gospel many hate as breaking the strongest Bonds of Holiness and opening a way to all Licentiousness for they reckon that the Conditionality of Works to attain Gods Favour and avoid his Wrath and the necessity of them to Salvation are the most necessary and effectual Impulsives to all Holiness and they account that the other Doctrin opens the Flood-gates to Licentiousness And truly this Consideration would be of some weight if People were to be brought to Holiness by Moral Suasion and their natural Endeavours stirred up by the Terms of the Law and by slavish Fears and Mercenary Hopes for the Force of these Motives would be altogether enervated by the Doctrin of Justification by Free Grace but I have already shewed that a Man being a guilty dead Creature cannot be brought to serve God out of love by force of any of these Motives and that we are not sanctified by any of our own Endeavours to work Holiness in our selves but rather by Faith in Christ's Death and Resurrection even the same whereby we are justified and that the urging of the Law stirs up Sin and that Freedom from it is necessary to all Holiness as the Apostle teacheth Rom. 6.11 14. and 7.4 5. And this way of Sanctification confirms the Doctrin of Justification by Faith as the Apostle informeth Rom. 8.1 For if we are Sanctified and so restored to the Image of God and Life by the Spirit through Faith it is evident that God hath taken us into his Favour and pardoned our Sins by the same Faith without the Law or else we should not have the Fruits and Effects of his Favour thereby to our eternal Salvation Rom. 8.2 Yea his Justice would not admit his giving Life without Works if we were not made Righteous in Christ by the same Faith And we cannot trust to have Holiness freely given us by Christ upon any rational Ground except we can also trust on the same Christ for free Reconciliation and Forgiveness of Sins for our Justification Neither can guilty cursed Creatures that cannot work by reason of their Deadness under the Curse be brought to a rational love of God except they apprehend his loving them first freely without Works 1 John 4.19 The great Objection and Reason of so many Controversies and Books written about it is because they think that Men will trust to be saved however they live But Sanctification is an Effect of Justification and floweth from the same Grace and we trust for them both by the same Faith and for the former in order to the latter And such a Faith be it never so confident tendeth not to Licentiousness but Holiness And we grant that Justification by Grace destroys Holiness by legal Endeavours but not by Grace So that there is no need to live a Papist and die an Antinomian 4. It confirms us in the Doctrin of Real Union with Christ so plentifully held forth in Scripture which Doctrin some count a vain Notion and cannot endure it because they think it worketh not Holiness but Presumption whereas I have shewed that it is absolutely necessary for the Enjoyment of Spiritual Life and Holiness which is treasured up in Christ and that so inseparably that we cannot have it without a real Union with him 2 Cor. 13.5 1 John 5.12 John 6.53 ch 15.5 1 Cor. 1.30 Col. 3.11 The Members and Branches cannot live without Union with the Vine and Head nor the Stones be part of the living Temple except they be really joyned mediately or immediately to the Corner-stone 5. In the Doctrin of certain final Perseverance of the Saints John 3.36 c. 6.37 5.24 1 John 3.9 1 Thess 5.24 Phil. 1.6 John 10.23 29. c. 4.14 They think this Doctrin maketh People careless of good Works I answer It maketh People careless of seeking them by their own Natural Strength and in a way of slavish Fear but careful and couragious in trusting on the Grace of God for them when they are brought by Regeneration heartily to desire them Rom. 6.14 Numb 13.30 setting upon the doing of them in that Grace 1 Thess 5.8