not mixed with Faith And that for making the Duty acceptable Faith is necessarily requisite we may clearly see Heb. 11.6 where it is expressly said that without Faith it is impossible to please God And how is it that Abel offers a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain it was nothing sure in Cain's Sacrifice it self that made it be casten nor any thing in Abel's that made it be received or acceptable but Faith in the Messiah to come that was found to be in the one and was a missing in the other Is there not reason then to press this Duty on you and to exhort you not to think this a common and easie thing though the most part think it to be so if we look to the benefites of it to the difficulty of it and to the rarity of it in the World there is no Duty had need more to be press'd than this even that Christ Jesus should get the Burthen of your immortal Souls cast on Him by this Saving Faith I shall therefore in the further prosecution of this First Shew what mainly ye would eshew and avoid as that whereat Folk more ordinarily stumble Secondly What it is we would press you to and on what Grounds For the first I know the deceits and mistakes in Men about the Exercise of Faith are so many that they are moe then can well or easily be reckoned up yet we shall in some generals spoken of before hint at a few of them for so long as ye continue in the same Snares they must be still pointed out to you and endeavours still used to undeceive and extract you out of them and therefore 1. Beware of resting on a Doctrinal Faith which before I called Historical We know it 's hard to convince some that they want Faith yet we would have you to consider that it is not every kind of Faith but Saving Faith that will do your turn it 's the want of that which the Prophet complains of And therefore to open this a little ye would consider That there may be really such a Faith as is an assent to the truth of the Word in a natural Man yea in a Reprobate but that Faith will never unite to Christ nor be waited with the Pardon of Sin First I do not say that every one that is in the visible Church hath this Doctrinal Faith to believe a Heaven and a Hell that the Scripture is the Word of God and that all that believe in Christ shall get Pardon of Sin and Life the carriage alace of many testifies that they have not this much whatever fleeting notions they may have of these things or whatever esteem they may seem to put on the Gospel and whatever profession they may make that they believe the truth of it yet in their deeds they deny it for if there were a fixedness in the Doctrinal Faith of the Gospel in Men they durst not for their Souls live as they do Neither yet Secondly Do we say that all they that have this Doctrinal Faith of the Gospel or somewhat of it do believe every passage in it alike but often as they please them they believe them Hence many believe what the Word speaks of Mercy and of Pardon of Sin and will not question that but what it speaks of Holiness and of the severity of God's reckoning with Men for Sin they do not so credit that part of the Word it 's true where the Faith of the one is the Faith of the other will some way be but because the one agrees better with their Corruption than the other therefore the one is not so so received as the other and it 's very frequent with such to be found diminishing from one place and adding to another of the Word of God Nor Thirdly Do we say that all Men do in a like and equal degree believe the truâ—h of the Word there is in some more Knowledge in some less in some moe Convictions in some fewer and though we preach to you all yet there are some that believe not this to be God's Ordinance albeit there are many who will not be saved that takes this Word to be the Word of God and believe what is the meaning of it because the Word it self says it is so And the reason of this is 1. Because there is nothing that is not Saving but a Natural Man may hâ—ve it now this Doctrinal Faith is not Saving and so a Natural Man may have it yea the Devils believe and tremble and James does not dispute with these to whom he writes on this account that they believe not thus but tells them that Historical Faith was not enough and we think a man in Nature may have a great perswasion of the truth of the Word of God and that what it says will come to pass and yet still continue but a Natural Man A second Reason is Because the Scripture speaks so often of many sorts of Faith that are not Saving as Exod. 14. at the close it 's said the People believed the Lord and Psal 106.12 then they believed His Word and sang His praise and John 2.23 many believed on Christ to whom He did not commit himself there was Faith in them which His Signs and Miracles extorted from them which was not Saving and Matth. 13. two or three such acts of Faith are spoken of in the Parable of the Sower that were not Saving however sound they might be in their own kind and 1 Cor. 13. we have such a Faith spoken of as a Man dare not deny the truth of the Word though he should bring his Body to be burnt by his avouching of the same A third Reason is Because as much credit may be given to the Word as is given to any other History that is creditably believed and it 's on this ground that we believe there was such Men as Cesar Pompey Wallace c. and it being certain that there may be impressions on the Consciences of Hearers that this is God's Word backed with some common work of the Spirit and that it is generally received to be the Word of God in the part of the World we live in what wonder is it that Folk believe thus and drink in this Historical or Doctrinal Faith of the Word so as they may even dare to suffer to Death for it and yet in the mean time they may want Saving Faith the Devils being as sure as any Natural Man is that God is true and that His Word will be performed and therefore they say to Christ Art thou come to torment us before the time the Paâ—gs of a Natural Conscience in Men will assure them of a Judgment coming though they tremble to think on it And therefore ere we proceed further take a word of Use from this and it may let you see the great and very general mistake of the most part of the Hearers of the Gospel in resting on this Doctrinal Faith If ye tell them that
and it pleads much for them that never heard the Gospel yea possibly for all if they be not obliged to believe the Gospel as it 's hard to say they are who never heard of it 4. There are many in hell this day who know and feel this to be an untruth being condemned for sins against the Covenant of Works therefore he undertook not their debt nor payed for them And when the Books shall be cast open there will be many other sins sound to be reckoned for then sins against the Gospel Are not Whoremongers Adulterers Murtherers Thieves c to to reckon for these sins It 's very sad that such things should take place with men otherwayes useful but is in other things so in this hurtful â—hich we should not speak of were it not that they are spread abroad in Books wherewith many may be leavened A 3d. Branch of this errour which this Doctrine refutes is that Christ died conditionally for all hearers of the Gospel to whom he is conditionally offered and this is also vented by the same Authors who say that though he hath not bought all men absolutely nor died to procure life absolutely to them yet that he did so conditionally and upon supposition that they should afterward believe on him But there can be no conditional satisfaction intended here for 1. If respect be had only to the sins of the Elect in Christs undertaking then none is had to the sins of all 2. If the Fathers acceptation of the price be absolute then there is no conditional buying 3. If it be conditional then he suspended the effect of his death the satisfaction for his Soul-travel on mans will And if this condition could not be fulfilled by man then it is an unwise bargain and nothing of it may fall to be fulfilled and then believing is no fruit of grace Again he hath either bought Faith to them as he hath done to the Elect or not If he hath then they reject it and so grace is not efficacious If not he hath bought the end without the midses leading to it Or thus if it be conditional it 's either on a condition which they can fulfil or on a condition that they cannot fulfil If it be on a condition which they can fulfil then it hangs Grace on mens free-will and suâ—pends the Decree of Election on their receiving of Christ If it be a condition that is not in their power to fulfil then either Christ hath bought that condition to them or not to say that he hath not bought the condition of Faith it will infer a strange assertion that he hath bought life and not the condition the end and not the midses And if it be said that he hath bought it it cannot be said that he hath done so absolutely because they never get it Or if absolutely then to the Elect only in whom it must be and is in due time fulfilled And so in effect it resolves in this that Christ's purpose is to be bounded and confined to say so to the Elect only There are some difficulties and objections that will readily here be moved which we will not enter upon only for preventing of mistakes It stands in the way of some to hinder their believing as they suppose that Christ hath died for some and not for all aad they know not if they be of that small number If we were to speak to such we would say 1. God hath not elected all and so who knows if he hath elected them I And he will not save all and who knows if he will save them And so the doubt will stick still If folks will thus break in upon Gods secret will and purpose which belongs not to them 2. Christs death for you is not the formal ground not warrand of your Faith not yet of the offer of the Gospel but the Lords will warranding you to believe and calling for it from you and his commanding you to rest upon Christ for the attaining of righteousness as he is offered in the Gospel We are invited by his command and promise and we are not first called to believe that Christ died for us but we are called â—â—â—st to believe in him that is offered to us in the Gospel that is our duty And folks are not condemned because Christ died not for them but because when he offered the benefit of his death and sufferings to them they slighted and rejected it We are to look first to what Christ calleth to and not to meddle with the other to wit whom Christ minded in his death till we have done the first The Word bids all believe that they may be saved and such as neglect this command will be found disobedient 3. Though Christ hath not died for all yet all that flee unto him by Faith shall be partakers of his death and from this ye should reason and not from his intention in dying If ye come not to him ye cannot have ground to think that he died for you but if ye go to him by Faith ye may expect that he will pray for you and own you for Believers Christ casts in that word John 17. They have believed thy word as well as that other Thine they were and thou gavest them me And if we put these two together the one will be found as sure a ground of consolation as the other But it were but a poor comfort to say that Christ died for all and yet that they may all or most or many of them perish for all that The 2d Use serves to stir them up to thankfulness for whom Christ hath satisfied and who are fled for refuge to him If there be any here to whom Christ hath manifested such love that they can say he hath loved me and given himself for me O! How are ye obliged to wonder and bless him Greater love than this cannot be and it should warm your hearts with love to him the more when ye reflect on God's design upon you in particular in the Covenant of Redemption Use 3d. If Christ intended his Death and Sufferings only for behove of the Elect Then as because few come to Heaven all should be the more diligent so because Christ died not for all every one should aim in Gods own way to have it made sure to himself that Christ died for him and should be the more watchful and diligent to make his Calling and Election sure because as it s not all that are elected so it s not all that are purchased by Christs death Redemption is sure in it self and free Grace kithes conspicuously in it yet Wisdom and Soveraignity do also appear in this that it s not of all therefore study ye to make it sure by fleeing to Christ by Faith and by the study of Holineâ—s and Mortification in his Strength and through the power of his Death which will be a proof of your Interest in it This were much more suitable than to be quarreling with God's
and these Sufferings are more then if all the Elect had Suffered Eternally in Hell 2 His Death is considered as a Satisfaction And this looks to the Wrong that Men by Sin have done to God That the finit and feckless Creature durst be so malapert as to break God's Command It required a Satisfaction equivalent to the Wrong done though the Word Satisfaction be not in Scripture yet the thing is Christ Jesus for the Restoring of God to His Honour That was as to the Manifestation of it wronged by Mans Sin comes in to perform the will of God and to Satisfie for the wrong done Him by Man that it may be made known that God is Holy and Just who will needs avenge Sin on His own Son the Holy and Innocent Cautioner when He Interposes in the Room of the Sinner which vindicats the Spotless Justice and Soveraignity of God as much as if not more then if He had exacted the satisfaction off the Sinners themselves As it is Rom. 3.16 To declare his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus 3 Christ's Death is considered as a Redemption of Man from Sin the Law and the Curse because lyable to a Debt which he cannot of himself pay and His Death was in this respect a paying of the Debt that Man was owing and a loosing of the Captive and Imprisoned Sinner even as when a Piece of Land is morgaged and a Person comes in and payes that for which it was Morgaged So Jesus Christ comes in and as it were asks what are these Men owing and what is due to them It 's answered they are Sinners Death and the Curse are due to them well saith He I will take their Debt on my Self I will pay their Ransom by undergoing all that was due to them He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law saith the Apostle Gal. 3.13 being made a curse for us that the blessing of Abraham might come on us Gentiles And so Christ's Death in this respect is to be looked on as a laying down of the same Price that Justice would have exacted of Men His Death is the paying of our Ransom and Satisfying of the account that was over our head 4. His Death is considered as it furthered the Work of the Redemption of Elect Sinners by a powerful annulling of the Obligation that was against us and by a powerfull overcoming of all enemies that kept us Captive He grapled and yocked with the Devil in that wherein he seemed to be strongest and overcame him He tore the Obligation that stood over Sinners heads as it is Coll. 2.14 15. Blotting out the hand writting of ordinances that was against us and that was contrary to us he took it out of the way nailing it to his cross and having spoiled principalities and powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it In this respect though His Death be one of the lowest steps of His Humiliation yet considering Him as in it prevailling over the Devil and other Enemies He is to be looked on as powerfully Working and efficaciously perfecting our Salvation In the former respect He payes God the Debt that was due by Sinners in the Latter Respect considering the Devil and Spiritual Enemies as so many Jaylours keeping Sinners Prisoners He by His Death wrings as it were the Keyes out of their hands and sets the Prisoners Free 5. Christ's Death is considered as it is in the Text As an Offering and Sacrifice for Sin In this respect it looks to God as displeased with Man and our Lord Jesus Interposes to pacifie Him and to make Him well pleased and that by the means of His Death God's Peace Favour and Friendship may be recovered to poor sinfull Men All these Considerations of the Death of Christ are but one and the same upon the matter Yet thus diversified they serve to shew how unexpressibly much Sinners are oblidged to Christ what great advantages they have by Him And what a desperat condition they are in who are without Him having nothing to satisfie Justice nor to pay their Debt with 2dly We said that this Sacrifice was especially Offered by Him in His Death Therefore He is said to Offer this Sacrifice on the Cross He himself as Peter hath it 1 2.24 bare our sins in his body on the tree Heb. 9. at the close And Heb. 10.14 It is said that he once offered up himself to bear the sins of many and by his once offering he hath perfected for ever these who are sanctified So that this Offering is to be applyed to that which He suffered on Earth before He ascended and it is in this respect that He is a Propitiatory Sacrifice though as I said the Vertue thereof is still communicated by Him now when He is in Heaven Use This serves to remove two Errors about Christ's Sacrifice The 1. is that which bounds and limits Christ's Offering and Priest-hood to His going to Heaven thereby to enervat the Efficacy of His Sufferings and Death quit contrary to this Scripture wherein the Prophet explicating His Sufferings on Earth calleth them an offering for sin The 2. is that Blasphemous Conceit and Fancie of the Papists who account their abominable Mass a Propitiatory Sacrifice for taking away the Sins of the Quick and oâ— the Dead which as it is most horrid Blasphemy So it is most expresly against this Text for if Christ's Sacrifice for the taking away of Sin be peculiarly applyed to His Humiliation and Death which brought with it such a change as made Hâ—m not to be for a time what He was before Then certainly there can be nothing of that now which can bear that Name there being no other thing to which the properties of a real Sacrifice can agree but this only 3. I said that Christ's Offering up of Himself in a Sacrifice was in His Soul as well as in Hiâ— Body and that He was therein obnoxioâ—s to the Wrath of God That is as He stood Cautioner for the Elect and had the Cup of Wrath â—u in His hand He Suffered not only in His Body but also and Mainly in His Soul which the Jews could not reach and He is here holden out as a Sin-offering in His Soul yea considering that it was the Wrath of God and His Curse due to the Elect that He had to deal with His Soul was more capable to be affected with it then His Body Hence He sayes when no hand of Man touched Him John 12.27 Now is my Soul troubled and what shall I say and Matth. 26.38 and Luk. 22.44 Now is my soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death and being in an agony he prayed c. That which looked like strong Armies mustered and drawn up against Him was not the Souldiers that came to take Him nor the Bodily Death which was quickly to follow but it was the Fathers coming with His awakned Sword to exact of Him the Debt due
I could never have expected mercy 2. In the solid Faith of a Believer there is as an Use-making of Christ Crucified allenarly as the meritorious Cause of Justification and Life So he is exercised in this to be allenarly settled on Him as such As for presumptuous Souls as they find it easy to believe so they find it easie to believe and to rest on Him only but as the true Believer hath it for one Piece of Exercise to Him how to win to Christ so it 's a Second Piece of Exercise to Him to get Him rested on only and to get Him as Crucified made the Ground of his Faith As the Apostle insinuates when He sayes 1 Cor. 2.2 I determined to know nothing among you but Christ Jesus and him crucified Where we have three Grounds of Sâ—ving Faith or Knowledge 1. Jesus Christ 2. Him as Crucified and 3. A determining to know no other thing but Him to rest upon for Life and Salvation It 's in this Respect that the Apostle Philip. 3. Doth count all things to be but loss and dung and cast as it were all over board that he may wâ—n Christ and be found in Him Many find it no difficult business to rest on Christ only and to keep out other things from being joyned with Him and never once suspect themselves in this by any thing But the Believer as I just now said hath here an Exercise and Difficulty to get Christ alone rested on so that nothing else be in the least rested on Because he knows nothing else to be a sure Foundation and because he knows that it 's natural to him to rest on other things beside Christ 3. The true Believer is taken up not only to have a sure Ground to build on but also to have his own Gripping at and Building on that Ground made sure It 's his exercise to have it out of question that his Faith is true Faith and not Presumption or Guessing To have the Grace of Faith Actually and Really taking hold of or apprehending Christ Whereas another that presumeth and hath only an Opinion or Conjecture in place of Faith As he is in his own Opinion easily brought to Christ so he finds it easy to exercise believing on Him he will it may be grant that he cannot Sanctifie the Sabbath-day and yet he can believe as if Believing were less difficult then to Sanctifie the Sabbath So many will grant that they cannot Pray and therefore do decline Worshipping of God in their Families who yet will confidently say that they can believe and that they do believe alwayes as if believing were lesse difficult then to Pray for a quarter or half a quarter of an hour But where solid Faith is the exercise of it is a difficult thing and the Person that hath it hath a holy Jealousy of it And the experience of many others and of himself sometime telling him that he may be mistaken he is often trying it and doth not nay he dar not trust much to it and is put often with that Man spoken of Mark 9. To cry and sometimes with tears Lord I believe help my unbelief He dar not trust much to his own Grip and therefore hath recourse to Christ to get it sickered and to have Him taking and keeping the Grip of his Grip as it was with the Apostle Phil. 3.12.4 When Believers have betaken themselves to Christ they have a new Exercise to know that it is so indeed It 's not only an Exercise to them how to Ground their Faith right how to quite all other things and to betake themselves to Christ only and to cast their burden on Him But it 's an exercise to thâ—m to clear that it 's Christ indeed that they rest on or to be clear that they have rested on Him It 's no good token when folk are soon Satiâ—fiâ—d with their Believing and never put it to the Tryâ—l And this is it that mâ—kes many go on guessing till they come to Death which makes a devorce betwixt them and their fancied Faith and discovers it to be but a Delusion Wheras it is Believers Work to try whether they have and to know that they have believed which they win not soon to know and the Reason is because the sense of Sin the apprehension of Wrath and their love to God and to Christ the Mediator with their desire to enjoy Him suffer them not to be quiet till they be sicker We may see all the Four together Philip. 3.7 8 9 10. Where the Apostle speaking of his case when he was a converted Christian in opposition to what it was when he was a Pharisee and thought himself to be very well and a strong Believer sayeth What things were gain to me I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things to be but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dâ—ng that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness c. The oâ—jâ—ct he would be at is Christ The manner how is Not having mine own righteousness The meâ—n through whâ—ch is Faâ—th in Him This is it that brings him to Union with Him And then he would know experimentalâ—y that he doth know Him savingly as a Believer in Him By finding the power of his resurrection by having fellowship in his sufferings And by being made comformable unto his death Whereby he would prove and make out to his own Quieting and Consolation that he is indeed a Believer The Bâ—liever is never right till he be in Christ and it s his Exercise to be quit rid of all other things and to rest upon him alone neither doth he rest here but he must be clear that he is in Him and that he hath fellowship in His Sufferings and Conformity to His Death This we would recommend to you as your main study as ever ye would comfortab y evidence to your selves your believing in Him SERMON XLVI ISAIAH LIII XI Vers 11. He shall see of the travell of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities THE Bargain of Redemption is a great Bargain and we may say that it is a good Bargain wherein the greatest things that ever were imagined are transacted The sum whereof is in these two 1. What shall be the Satisfaction that must be given to the infinit Justice of God or what shall be the amends that must be made to God for the Satisfying of His Justice for the Sins of all the Elect and that is compended in these Words The travel of Christs soul That is the condition or these aâ—e the Terms on which only the Lord Jehovah will Tryst to speak so and He will Tryst on no other Terms 2. What shall be the Satisfaction that the Mediator shall have for all His Sufferings and Soul-travel