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A81566 Divine characters: or, The true Christian discovered, and the hypocrite detected. In three treatises. The first treatise shewing, that both saints and unconverted sinners ought daily to go to God in Jesus Christ, for pardon of their sins ... The second treatise shewing, how we are to expect salvation, not from any righteousness of our own, but by the righteousness of the mediator, Jesus Christ ... The third treatise shewing, The Gospel evidences of a true Christian ... ; To which is added the summe and substance of the Christian religion, in a short catechise. P., A. 1695 (1695) Wing D1718A; ESTC R174671 155,114 255

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Christ they have been shaken in their bottoms being legal and thought if they took up from their sins and had a kind of sorrow for them and then set themselves to obey the law strictly be close in the Sabbath and some such duties that God would accept them being still ignorant at least practically that when they were convinced of sin they were to see where to have a righteousness and how to get into Christ and have life and strength in and from him for their new Obedicence which is that I drive at in this and my afterwards discourse in opening the New Creature as in Christ Having premised this I come to speak to the first particular laid down namely Observ 1. Every son and daughter of Adam in their natural estate are under the Law By the Law I do not mean the Mosaical or old Testament way of worship But by the law I understand that which we stile the moral law the law of the ten Commandments that was written in Adams heart and afterwards given out by God unto Moses at Mount Sinai and promised in the New Covenant to be written again in the hearts of all that are really called into the grace of ihe Covenant Ezek. 36.27 To be under the Law is an Expression familiar to you you know what it is to live under a law To be under this law of God then bespeaks these things 1. To be under it is to be bound over to the exact fulfilling it See Rom. 10.15 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law that the man which doth these things shall live by them that is it to be bound over to the fulfilling and doing of the law which if done exactly without the least deviation there is life promised to it But upon the least transgression of it to be liable to the penalty which God hath pronounced against the transgressors of it 2. It follows thence that to be under the Law is to be bound over to the whole Law in its full and perfect latitude as it reacheth the whole Man Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Mark well the tenour of these words Here is required of every one an exact doing not only purposing and thinking to do and that not only of some or the most of the Law but in all things and that not only for a time but a Continuance of doing so or else under the curse One sinful thought hath a curse belonging to it as well as the breach of the whole Law if under the Law Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Law 1 John 3.4 3. To be under the Law is to be subject to and to be under all the curses threatnings judgments wrath that it threateneth to the transgressors of it here and for ever Whatsoever the Law saith in point also of judgment and wrath it saith to all that are under it 4. To be under it is to be bound to make God satisfaction in our own persons for the breach of it I mean while under it every soul is so obliged to make satisfaction to the justice of God If a poor soul be in his natural estate and so under the Law he must stand or fall to the Law God expects personal satisfaction from every soul that sinneth against it that will stand to his keeping the Law in whole or in part and God in his justice can bate nothing of what he hath spoken Now That all Men and Women are by nature as of and in the first Adam thus under the Law to wit to be bound up to it and to have life only upon the exact and perfect fulfilling of it to be bound up to the whole Law subject to the curse of it upon the transgression of one part bound to make God satisfaction in his own person for any breach thereof I briefly prove Saith Paul Rom. 6.14 Ye are not under the Law but under grace Implying till a soul is brought under grace the Covenant of grace justifying and sanctifying grace in and by Jesus Christ he is under the Law whosoever he be so Gal. 4.5 To redeem them that were under the law c. implying also that all mankind are naturally under it till under the power and efficacy and priviledge of Christ's Redemption The main reasons of it are All are under this law because all Mankind were bound up under the same Covenant with Adam who was a publick person representing all mankind as a man may bind up himself and his posterity to such and such Conditions and such a Covenant decree or obligation binds his posterity in Law so was Adam bound up to God See Rom. 5.12 the special Scripture that proves this truth Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned So verse 16 17 18 19. by one that sinned c. by one mans offence death reigned by one by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation By one mans disobedience many were made sinners Implying clearly that the guilt of Adam as representing all his posterity was and is imputed to all and therefore all were and are bound over to the same Law bottomed upon that word of the Lord to Adam by which God put the Covenant upon him Gen. 2.17 For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Adam had the law of Holiness and Righteousness the Moral Law written in his heart before and his nature perfect which bound him over to obey every command of his God now God gave out that external law unto him by way of trial in which the form of the Covenant was implied but sinning against that he transgressed the Moral law written in his heart also which bound him over to obey God in all things so that the sin of Adam was at least virtually a transgression of the moral law now abiding and obliging mankind which law we all brake in him as it was given to all in him and being written in Adam's heart it was as much as if it had been actually written in the hearts of all mankind which doth also appear by the remnants of the Law as that there is a God and man should be just and remaining in the hearts of all Therefore by nature we are all bound up to and are under this law 2. It doth appear that all do sin and transgress this law of God therefore they are under the penalty and condemnation of it This Argument the Apostle brings to prove the same thing verse 9. of this 3d. of the Rom. For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin And verse 12. They are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one Thefore seeing all do sin they are bound to answer the law as you use
it by fulfilling it whereby the righteousness of the Law is fufilled upon us Rom. 8.4 Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law and kept it and so makes over the righteousness of it to Believers as hath been shewed and so the Law stands establisht Secondly The Law stands establisht as a means through the Spirit to convince of sin and of our shortness of the righteousness of it as ver 20. And so Christ often made use of it for such ends Thirdly The Law stands establisht as an Everlasting Rule of righteousness and holiness promised in the New Covenant to be written in the Heart Heb. 8. So that through Jesus Christ in justifying by his blood hath quit the sinner from all guilt and condemnation by the Law yet he hath not given the Believer a discharge from all obedience of it And therefore to evince this I shall lay down this Position that Observ Though all a Believer hath done or can do cannot justifie him before God yet there are other blessed ends why he should obey God and delight in his Law 1. Obedience to God is placed as the great End of our redemption Luke 1.74 75. That we might serve him without fear a sear of bondage in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life God hath not only in his purpose the remission and salvation of the Sinner but that thereby he would have all that are called into this grace to serve him in Holiness And this end is to be upon the heart of the Believer when justified by Faith The purpose of God in this is that I should serve him in holiness 1 Tim. 1.9 That I should live to God Rom. 6.11 as hath been shewed 2. From the Sovereign Command of God who saith Be ye holy 1 Pet. 1.15 16. This is enough to a Believer that God hath commanded it though there should be no other end in it 3. Holiness and Righteousness is the Soul's conformity unto God it is a Beam of God an Image of God which he designs to be renewed upon all that shall be saved as shall be further shewed 4. Justified Believers do see an equity goodness and blessedness in the Law of God in all his holy and righteous Precepts though they were not commanded The Law is holy just and good Rom. 7. saith Paul speaking after the regenerate part So David Psal 119. often Thy Commandmeats which I have loved They give God his due and the Creature his due and therefore to be walkt in though not thereby justified 5. There is a principle of love to God shed abroad in the heart of every justified Believer from the sense of his rich pardoning grace the freeness of his love which acts and constrains a Soul to take delight so far as it is regenerated in every Command of God Rom. 5.5 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not live to themselves but to him that died for them 6. Called and justified Believers have blessed sights of Jesus Christ that wonderfully take their hearts They have glimpses of the Beauty of his Holiness and would therefore be made like unto him 1 John 3.2 3. They would obey the Will of the Father as Jesus Christ did They would be holy and righteous and wise and patient and Heavenly as Jesus Christ was 7. Believers in the way of their Duty and Obedience have blessed Fellowship and Communion with God Saith God of his Ordinances Exod. 25.22 There will I meet thee and commune with thee And Exod. 20.24 In all places where I record my Name there will I come unto thee and bless thee They are everlasting Promises to all the ways of obedience wherein the people of God do walk before him in They pray they read hear they partake of the Supper in Christs way and there they have life and blessing to their Souls and many a sweet intimation of love and mercy they have whispered into them they set themselves to walk with God in his fear and counsel and God walks with them and their lives if they keep close to God are sweet and comfortable to them And this is even as much to them as if they were thereby justified They would not miss the sweetness they meet with in such ways of Duty for all the World 8. By their Sanctification and Obedience their justification is comfortably evidenced to them Rom. 6.16 Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto Death or of obedience unto Righteousness And Ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of him 1 John 2.29 We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren So that no doubt Believers may come to a sweet and blessed Evidence of their good estate and of their justification by the work of Sanctification in them and their willing obedience to God though a Believer doth not always and at all times fetch in his evidence of Believing and of comfort this way but sometimes from the Promise and from the more immediate Testimony of the Spirit But though a Believer doth not and it may be cannot always fetch in his consolation and peace from Sanctification and Obedience Yet that soul that wholly neglects it and slights Evidences from Humiliation Sanctification and Obedience had best timely look to it that the Witness in himself he pretends to be not from imagination of his own heart from the wicked ones delusion and from some overly notions of grace that may affect his heart but leave him on this side Regeneration 9. Believers do perform their Duties as returns to God Every called Believer saith in his heart as David Psal 116.12 Oh! What shall I render to thee How gracious hath God been and now how holy should I be Who shall love the Lord and fear before him and praise him If I shall not To whom shall his Name Laws Ordinances be precious if not unto me Who is more bound to love the blessed God than I and how shall I love him but by obeying him Thus doth a Believer perform his obedience as a Testimony of a thankful return to God though I do not say that this is all his motive 10. By the Obedience and Holiness of Believers God is much glorified in the World 't is the greatest glory that God designs to himself in the World even by the holiness and willing gracious obedience of his people to him When the World lies in wickedness and makes war against the great and Holy God this is that which honours God that he hath a people called by his grace that set forth the glory of holiness in the world that are witnesses to the holiness of God the holiness of his Worship and all his ways and profess and endeavour to walk
up themselves to him Only a word to any poor humbled doubting soul that thinks infinitely well of all this but saith in his heart all this grace is too good for me I have sinned against it and slighted it I fear whether ever I may be accepted Oh remember and consider that Grace were not Grace if 't were not free God can save a sinner freely that 's enough to stay thee yea though thou hast slighted grace as where is the Saint but did so before effectually called yea God will save a sinner freely that will come by Jesus Christ unto him He will What would'st have more Do not stand reasoning thus but if thou art a sinner undone without him cast off from thy own Confidences go to him in the Name of God and believe him upon his own Word Say I take thee Blessed Lord upon thy own Word thou sayest Whosoever will let him come And Lord therefore I come I durst not come were I not invited freely and if I must be saved freely if ever then thou art to bestow all work all begin and perfect all Oh blessed Lord I come unto thee for it go and do thus and thou shalt be comforted and rejoice in his Salvation I might also here press blessed Souls who have been drawn to Jesus Christ and overcome by Free-grace to do it to live in the Admiration of that grace and to be low and poor and emptied in your selves in the abundant sense of it all your days Let your enjoyments and attainments be what they will be it known unto you that by grace ye are saved and you had and have as much need of it as any sinner in the World God's Design in saving you was to glorifie Grace and it must be your Design also here and for ever Having thus opened in some measure the grace of God to be the Fountain of a sinner's Salvation I shall now proceed to discover the way of the conveyance of this grace which is by Jesus Christ Being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Though God resolved to bestow grace upon such as shall be saved freely yet in a way of his own most wise and blessed Designing by his Eternal Son Jesus Christ to whom this Dispensation of Grace was committed which I shall further open in this Doctrine Namely Doct. All that Grace and Mercy which GOD gives out freely to sinners is conveyed to them by his Eternal Son Jesus Christ I might be abundant in the proof of this See in that 5th of the Rom. v. 17 21. Much more they which receive abundance of Grace and of the gift of Righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ And vers 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might Grace through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord All the Grace that should reign unto Life is given out by one Jesus Christ The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 All the Treasures of Grace were laid up in him and therefore he saith of himself Matth. 11.27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father and none can come unto the Father but by me which he makes as the great Argument why sinners should come unto him vers 28. Now so far as the Lord hath revealed the wise and holy Counsels of his heart in his Word unto us let us enquire into the Reasons why he took such a way to give all his grace to the children of men Reason 1. The first is this That as Mankind lost all in the Fall of the first Adam as he was a publick person representing all that came of him So it was the Wisdom of God in the recovery of lost-man to bring forth another person that should be fully stockt with Grace and Righteousness as a publique person to represent all the Elect unto the Father upon which account Jesus Christ is called the Second Adam 1 Cor. 15. And the Apostle sets the first Adam in his offence unto Death and the Grace and Righteousness of Jesus Christ as the Second Adam one against the other Rom. 5.15 16 c. For as by one mans Disobedience many were made sinners so by the Obedience of one shall many be made righteous And so the Apostle sets the Life Grace Righteousness of Jesus Christ as the Second Adam against the Death Condemnation Disobedience of the first man that sinned in the seven last Verses of that Chapter And herein the Wisdom of the Father is most excellently set forth and the ground of Consolation to Believers laid upon a most sure Foundation That whatsoever they lost in the First Adam they recover with much more abundance in Jesus Christ for so the Apostle hath that much more in the Scripture mentioned three or four times that Saints may see how abundantly compleat they are in Christ Reason 2. All Grace is conveyed by Jesus Christ because there needed a person to stand between GOD and Sinners as a Mediator to work forth Reconciliation between them Now who was meet but the Lord Jesus Christ to undertake this He being the Eternal Son of God equal with God was near unto God A meer creature was infinitely unfit for such an undertaking and he being also the Son of man cloathed in the nature of man he thus partaking of the nature of God who was to be appeased and of the nature of Man who was to be reconciled he became a most meet Undertaker of so glorious a Work Whence he hath that blessed Title given him of Mediator Jesus the Mediator of a New Covenant Heb. 12.24 There is one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 3. God resolved that his blessed Son Jesus Christ should have the Honour in this blessed Transaction to convey his Grace to lost Sinners James 5.22 23. That all men should honour the Son So the Apostle fully Col. 1.16 17 18 19 20. All things were for him And that in all things he might have the preheminence c. For by him and to him and for him are all things This Honour the Father committed to the Son to bring about this great Contrivance of bringing Man back again unto God 4. God letting out his Grace by Jesus Christ renders his love more abundant and acceptable to poor Sinners John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. So loved it that he could not give forth a greater manifestation of his love Now the Father purposed to render his love to sinners by the gift of his Son most full and glorious and therefore gave him out of his Bosom and all the Riches of his Love and Grace by him 5. This way of the Father's Dispensation of Grace by his Son Jesus Christ hath rendered the Grace of God most sure and unchangeable to his own The Covenant of Grace being now established between the Father and
and by the Spirit of our God Or at least that I may speak to poor weak willing trembling souls Is this it that your souls are restless after Oh that I were that I were in such a blessed state Oh that I could but believingly say the righteousness of Jesus Christ were mine and that now I am I am justified Oh what peace and sweetness and joy would fill my heart Why Soul If this be indeed the breathing of thy Soul Jesus Christ is thine and thou art justified and pardoned and God will at last give in unto thee if thou continue to follow him the sense and comfort of it in thy poor Soul Only by the way take a Discovery or two of the reality of thy Heart in this matter 1. If thou Soul from a Spiritual Conviction be under a real making out after justification by Jesus Christ then thou wouldst also be as really sanctified be made holy 'T was as much in the purpose of God to call thee out of a state of sin and to sanctifie thee as to pardon and justifie thee 1 Ep. John 5.6 2. If thou art brought into a justified state thy soul making out after it thou art made alive in the Spirit Rom. 8.1 Thou art in Jesus Christ and wouldst walk no more after the flesh and the lusts thereof but after the Spirit Gal. 5.18 If ye are led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law namely to condemn you but are free from the curse of it And verse 23. Against such there is no Law that is such as would walk after the Spirit be led by the Spirit and shew forth the fruit of the Spirit And this is that which the Apostle intimateth 1 Ep. John 5.10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself namely of the Spirit So that every justified person hath the Spirit of Christ according to the measure of the grace of God dwelling in him is quickened in the Spirit being once dead prays in the Spirit mortifies sin through the Spirit is taught by the Spirit and so in all other saving and sanctifying vertues of it If it be not thus with thee thou as yet hast no part in this blessedness but art under condemnation unto death And therefore sinner come before God in the sence of thy condemned estate and give up thy self to Jesus Christ to be washed justified sanctified and then blessed for ever 3. Let called and sanctified Believers labour to live in the sense of a pardoned justified state that God is not off and on with them in the matter of justification though it may be sometimes darkned and clouded as to the evidence of it Oh! do you labour to preserve the sense and sweet and blessed peace of it in your souls and give glory to the riches of grace for now there is No No condemnation to you you are passed from Death to Life and the Blessed God imputes no sin unto you Let this be the highest and strongest Argument to Holiness and love to the glory that possibly may be and if indeed you walk in the comfort of it it will be so unto you Only let me give caution here to young Converts whose hearts at the first discovery of the free and glorious grace of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ are wonderfully taken and affected with it but after a time are apt to wanton with it unless the first humiliation be the deeper and to wax sleight in Duties and so their Lusts recover strength again and return upon them and either they fall or are near unto it to the fresh wounding of their Souls This hath been the condition of many therefore be well caution'd in it and walk with fear in the midst of your joyous apprehensions of the sweetness of grace and the endearing love of the Lord Jesus to you Having briefly shewed what the nature of justification is what it is to be in a justified state before God I now come to open more particularly how a Soul comes to be partaker of this justification through the Redemption of Jesus Christ namely Through Eaith in his blood ver 25. of this 3d. of Rom. Observ As God through Free-grace hath set forth Jesus Christ to work forth Redemption for sinners so there must be a special believing on and applying the blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins by every one that is saved Therefore justification is attributed to Faith Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God by our Lord Jesus Christ So Gal. 2.16 and 3.11 In all which places Faith is put in opposition to the works of the Law And so the righteousness of Christ is called the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 9.30 and 10.6 in opposition to the righteousness by Works Not as if Faith were the matter of our justification that it did as an Act or Work in the Soul justifie before God but that God doth thus make over the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ to a Soul by enabling the Soul to come unto to take hold of to apply to it self to appropriate the merit of the blood of Jesus Christ for its own Redemption and Salvation which may afford us a plain Description of justifying Faith precisely considered Namely Faith is a Work of the Holy Ghost in the Soul enabling it to appropriate or apply to it self the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ for the Remission of sin and its justification unto eternal Life So it is called the work of Faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 and 't is expressed by receiving of Jesus Christ Joh. 1. and believing on his Name coming unto him resting upon him So that plainly Faith is a going out to believing in trusting on another namely the Lord Jesus Christ For what it can never be able to find or bring about in or by it self which may lead us to the more particular way of the Holy Ghost's working this power in the Soul in the saved ones of God 1. In the working of Faith in the Soul it is first brought to see an impossibility of coming to God as in its self or by its self concluded under an utter unability to pacifie God or make up a righteousness in it self to get access to God The soul is emptied from vessel to vessel till all the things that it counted gain before become loss for Jesus Christ this is the first work of the Spirit it empties a poor sinful Creature of all its refuges all its dependencies all its sufficiencies and so becomes naked in its guilt before God and therefore is brought to this that its acceptance to God if ever it be accepted must be out of its self what ever become of him he must perish as in himself 2. In the work of Faith the Soul is brought to see that this was the end of the Revelation of Jesus Christ of God's setting him forth to be a propitiation that he might work forth Redemption and Righteousness