It is true Because as God saith they were his Servants in the doing of them And they were as the Axe and as the Saw in his hand he gave them great strength And so now what is done and has been done by the French Potentate certainly it is because God hath had a great End and Design in it And I am very sure it is well known that God hath set him up to do all that he has done for special purposes of his own and According to all that Frame of Prophesy that is given But now here 's a great Difference As here do but observe it As God speaks in the Prophet Isaiah There 's great difference between David and Nebuchadnezzar Between Joshua and such a one as Nebucadnezzar or such a one as Alexander or such a one as Julius Caesar that History makes so famous I say here 's the great difference As God saith They are but like the saw in his hand Isa 10. 15. Shall the Ax boast it self against him that heweth therewith Or shall the Saw magnify it self against him that shaketh it That is These are things without Sense You know an Ax or a Saw whatever it doth it does without any Sense of what it does So these have done great things because they have been in God's hand to do by But they had no sense at all of the things they did They had no Faith Here 's the great difference Now I say if we could receive it this I look upon to be the great Reconciliation between the Apostle Paul and the Apostle James This 11th to the Hebrews it Expounds what the Apostle means by a Faith of Works He does not speak of the ordinary Works of Holiness but he speaks of extraordinary As Abraham Sacrificing his Son and Rahab leaving the Int'rest of his Country from a sight that God was pleased to Exalt that People of Israel These were the Heroick Acts of Faith And these the Apostle properly speaks of And therefore to Argue the ordinary Duties Practice and Conversation and Holiness to Justification is not according to the sense and intention of the Apostles meaning not in Justifying Abraham as I shall speak particularly to that wherein and how Faith comes to Justify But still I go on further Lest any one should say why then are not the ordinary ways of Holiness under the Power of Faith and so Derived by Christ Yes by all means as I have spoken to you before He is our Sanctification But I speak of it only now as under this Head the Heroick Acts of Faith For all the ordinary Acts of Faith come under him As now suppose any one is called out either as a General in this very Age if he be truly a Believer in Christ tho he does but the things that are Accountable according to the Law of Arms if I may so speak according to the Law of a General and the great use and office of a General yet still even those ordinary Actions where they are Believers are done by the Power of Faith You 'll say Why when others do the same thing I Answer as I did before They are but Axes and Hammers As God calls Nebuchadnezzar the Hammer of all the Earth And his Empire was the Hammer of all the Earth They do things but as Hammers There 's a great deal of difference I 'll assure you in this thing tho the outward Action be the same yet the inward is not the same When a Man as a General leads an Army in the Cause and Interest of God and when another does it by his own Prowess The one does it by Faith the other by an Instrument There is a living Spirit in Believers and therefore God does many times raise them up to greater Actions than Ordinary But I only speak when God calls Men to Deny to be the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter as Moses when he calls Joshua to be so great a Warriour in the World And David and those Worthies to do extraordinary Works It is by Faith through the Mediator it is all upon his Account and is managed for him and by his strength by Faith The Fifth thing in which I would open to you the great excellency of the Nature of Faith That in the obtaining of Wonderful things it is a Wonderful thing how God hath enlarged Faith to the obtaining of extraordinary things in several Ages of the World Indeed you may say such things are ceased now But as I have endeavoured to shew you there shall be a Revival of them But now when such great things as we read of at any time in the Scripture Extraordinary Appearances of God in a way of Deliverance of his Saints When Elijah prayed and shut the Heavens When great Deliverances were obtained by Prayer in Fights When there has been great Answers of Prayer extraordinary Answers of Prayer in any case That God hath Appeared in the Mount This hath been from the Power of Faith And therefore the Apostle Heb. 11 one of the things that he puts into the great Record of Faith it is this That they obtained promises vers 33. They stopt the Mouths of Lyons When the Fire could not burn upon those three Shadrach Meshach and Abednego Why this was by the Power of Faith they quenched the Violence of the Fire And Women received their Dead raised to Life again This was by the power of Faith All these things are extraordinary things given to the Mediator to do for his Servants according to the season that he sees fit And they are conveyed to But I would very earnestly desire to add something concerning the Kingdom of Christ What is the Reason that the Scripture is so abundant of such a World to come Whereof as the Apostle saith we speak In such a new Heaven in such a new Earth In such a Sabbattism that remains for the people of God In such a glorious Inheritance as shall he What is the Reason we are so hard to believe it It is only the want of Faith I 'll give you one Scripture concerning this Heb. 11. 39 40. These all having obtained a good report through Faith receiving not the promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect This place of Scripture if it were but well pursued followed and Argued from would prove to you That the great Point of Faith is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Undoubtedly there should have been an Eternal Life an Eternal Happiness for Adam If he had stood in Innocency There had been a preparation and a provision But this very state of things comes in by the Mediator by his entring into Rest for us this great Sabbattism comes in But now the thing that I would urge I wouid help you in this thro' Faith they obtained a good Report A great Fame as I told you before a great Renown But they received not the Promise How can it be said They received not the
shall shew you in every respect how the Father the VVord and the Spirit and the VVater and the Blood do VVitness First therefore concerning the full Assurance of understanding Concerning Jesus Christ in the first place And then concerning all the Truths of the Gospel in the second place And I desire you to remember a distinction I gave you the last day I told you there are immanent Acts of Faith as they say those that remain and stay within that 's the meaning of the Word There are Acts then and Motions of Faith when Faith stays within in that great point of taking Christ And then There are Truths of the Gospel that are Ad Extra as they say or without that do not immediately concern that great point of the Redemption of Christ but flow from it No I 'll make this plain to you by setting two points of Scripture before you of which Faith has an assurance But one is like Faith staying at home and within it self and within Christ in the great point of Redemption and Justification As Now Here 's this great Truth That Jesus Christ came into the World to save the chief of Sinners Sinners of whom every one may say I am chief Now when Faith Acts upon this Truth Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom I am chief And so That he shed his Blood for sinners and gave himself a Sacrifice and an Attonement All these are Truths properly within Faith and Christ And when the Soul is upon them it is at home with it self And Faith is also at home with Christ and with the Soul in them But now here 's another great Truth That whoever it is that does not Cut off his Right Hand or Pull out his Right Eye and cut off his Right Foot he shall be cast into Hell where their VVorm dies not and their Fire is not quenched Now this is a great Truth of Christ And Faith hath assurance of this Truth But yet when it acts upon this Truth Pray observe it does not stay within properly with Christ and within it self in the point of Believing But it goes out to a Truth that lyes without as to the great point of Justification So that if you say wherein is Faith Justifying Faith in Relation to Truth I desire that I may be understood I say when it is ask'd wherein is Faith Justifying Faith as to the point of Truth It is not in believing that whosoever doth not cut off his Right hand or pluck out his right Eye shall be cast into Darkness It is true this always is together with Justifying Faith But it is not that wherein Faith properly Justifies But all the Truths concerning the Blood and Righteousness of Christ they are Truths that Faith acts upon when it is in the great point of Justification as it is acted by Christ and his Spirit Now this being not many times well Considered It makes a great Confusion in the point of Justifying Faith For though it is true It is said and I desire it may be carefully remembred that no one may any way take offence or mention what I say to give offence I say that that Truth that a man that does not cut off his hand or pluck out his Right Eye which means any Lust shall be cast into Hell is never separated from true Justifying Faith But I say again that Faith acting upon that Truth does not Justify But acting upon the great Truth wherein Jesus Christ is held forth as a sacrifice a propitiation a Mediator an Intercessor and Redeemer But yet this is certainly true that the Father Son and Spirit give a mighty power to these great Truths and to every Truth that is delivered in the Gospel but especially with this great Principal Truth that Jesus is the Son of God and hath layd down his life for sinners For you see very plainly in this place that I have quoted to you Pray Consider it who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God Faith is therefore in its Immanent action when it is upon this point that Jesus is the Son of God and gave himself for Sinners This is the Immanent Truth that Faith fixes upon But then when it comes to that Truth that without Holiness no man shall see the Lord that can never be separated from this Truth that Jesus is the Son of God when Faith acts upon that Truth or any like it Without Holiness no man shall see the Lord It does not act like Justifying Faith strictly taken in that point of believing Because Justification flows onely from the Righteousness from the Blood from the Obedience from the Redemption of Jesus Christ And therefore to Find a mighty power To find the Soul Impregnated and fill'd out in all the Truths that concern Jesus Christ and in all the other great Truths of the Gospel that Christ hath spoken Here 's the strength and the assurance of Faith And it flows from God in and through Christ For Jesus Christ is the great and Principal Actor in the Soul 's Receiving all Truth I say the great and the principal Actor As you may find the stability of Faith the great Ballance and Poize of Faith that keeps it steady and even Heb. 13. 8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day for ever Be not carryed about with diverse and strange Doctrines Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day for ever It is he that is the Alpha and Omega As he saith himself The Truth the way the Truth and the Life He is the Truth And the Son of the Father in Truth And Truth came by Jesus Christ But I would a little further clear to you this distinction of the Immanent acts of Faith and shew you whence I take the word You know in that great mystery of the Father Son and Spirit Divines when they treat of it they say that those actions between the Father and the Son and the Spirit themselves and no Created Bing comes between they call them Immanent actions of the Father the Word and the Spirit As the Father begat and knoweth the Son so the Son knoweth the Father and that he is begotten of him The holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son And the holy Spirit knows and Glorifieth in every thing the Father and the Son as proceeding from them Now while they are acting within in the Divine Being the Father the Son and Spirit one with another Those are called Immanent acts But when they go outward either to Angels or men or any of the Creatures then they are called extra-acts Or ad extra or Transient acts because they go out from the Divine being to the Creature I make use of it to explain the Immanent acts of Faith The Immanent acts of Faith are upon Christ's Righteousness and Blood and not upon the Points of Repentance or obedience or Love or self Resignation to Christ But wholly and solely in
evil works passes uncontrolled unquestioned from hand to hand and no body but by faith disputes it if it comes by Tradition As you know the things that are but in fashion They run through not only those that make no profession of the Gospel but those that make a profession so Tradition runs through All. Now how shall we be Redeemed from this There is no way to be Redeemed from the common Evils that are done in the world but by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ And then In the Second place as I began to say Christ is the great Principle of them How can you walk in the ways of Holiness No way but by Jesus Christ being within us the Principle of those Holy Actions And therefore tho I say it is our Duty and we are condemned indeed most righteously in not Answering our Duty Yet still we cannot do the Holy Actions required of us but under a Purchase under a Price Ye are bought with a Price therefore glorify God as the Apostle saith And so we must have that mighty Principle I can do all things saith the Apostle through Christ that strengthens me And in John 15. Our Lord shews plainly that he is the Principle Without me saith he v. 5. ye can do nothing He had compared himself to the Vine and Believers to the Branches Now as the branch can do nothing without the Vine you know it cannot so our Souls can do nothing without Christ He is the great Principle of it And then In the Third place They are washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ And they are all made up in their Imperfections by the great Perfection of the Righteousness and Holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ this must necessarily be considered Take that Action of Abraham as the Apostle speaks he was Justified by the Offering of Isaac Naw I say That very Offering of Isaac was as it was Abraham's Act washed in the Blood of Jesus or else it had never been Accepted There were tho we cannot trace them yet God understands them such Corruptions adhering to this Holy Action of Abraham that if it had not been wash'd in the Blood of Christ it could not have stood before him Rahab sending away the Spies It was washed in the Blood of Christ Moses keeping the Passover and refusing to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter all these they were wash'd in the Blood of Jesus or they could not have stood before God All the Repentance all the Holy Actions of the Best and most eminent of Christians they are wash'd in the Blood of Christ that they may be accepted And wherein they are found Light they are made up by the Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled So I understand that in Rom. 8. 4. It is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit That is by Jesus Christ as the Apostle had said He condemns sin in the flesh viz. His Flesh his Sacrifice And so the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us By all those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus it makes free from the Law of sin and Death VVhat is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus But that perfect Righteousness and that perfect obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ even to the Sacrificing himself The fourth and last thing in which I would shew you that Jesus Christ is supremely to be considered by every Believer as the foundation of all his Holiness and the Acceptance of it is this That Jesus Christ is He through whom alone and through whose perfect Holinest God accounts us Holy This I confess is a Point that is not generally spoken of And it may seem to be something singular But I am fully perswaded of it That we do not only stand before God by Imputative Righteousness But we stand before him by imputative Holiness also That is not as iâ— there were no Holiness Inherent and Real in the Saints of Christ But their Holiness could not be counted Holiness if it were not for the Holiness of Jesus Christ I will not stand much upon it because I know it is a singular Apprehension Yet I would give you two Scriptures that do strongly perswade me that this is the very case Till we are brought into the Perfection of Holiness at the State of the Resurrection of the Dead which as I have formerly told you is either when Spirits go out of the Body or when all the Saints shall appear in the Resurrection then shall they be in a perfection of Inherent Holiness But while we are here in the World we are not in a state of Perfect Inherent inward Holiness And therefore Christ in that that 's the first Scripture that enclines me to this Apprehension 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sactification and Redemption Christ is as truly made to us Sactification as he is made Redemption or as he is made Righteousness or Wisdom in our first being brought home to God Therefore I say if he not our Sanctification our Sanctification could not be looked upon as Sanctification if it were not made Acceptable by the Holiness of Jesus Christ Another Scripture is that in the 7th to the Romans Saith the Apostle We bring forth Fruit unto Death in our selves He is speaking of Sanctification in Believers We bring forth Fruit unto Death In our selves But when we are Married unto another even to him who is raised from the Dead we bring forth Fruit unto God We cannot bring forth Fruit unto God which is certainly meant of Sanctification any other way but by being Married to another even to him who is raised from the Dead because the Resurrection of the Dead in all sense of Scripture is the Perfection of Holiness Till we therefore are in the State of being risen from the Dead being in Spirits separated as I have spoken or in Bodies of Glory we cannot bring forth Fruit unto God but we bring forth Fruit unto Death if we are not in Christ the great Husband who is risen from the Dead All our Holiness is made Perfect by his Holiness But then he brings us into that Perfection that every Saint is indeed perfectly Holy in the state of Spirit and state of a Body of Glory given to that Spirit that went out of the Body long it may be before accordlng to the several times in which the Saints of Christ have Dyed I come now to the Third and Last thing which I proposed in this Discourse And that is To shew you what the Sense of the Apostle James is for it seems to run very Counter to all the Doctrin of Free Justification by Faith and not by Works It seems a wonderful thing that the Spirit of God after it had said so much by Paul of being Justified by Faith without Works That the Spirit
of God I say should send out so great a Minister of the Gospel as the Apostle James was to lay down a Position so contrary as it seems to be to Paul That a Man is not Justified by Faithly but by Works And to make so great an Appearance against that Truh that great Truth of the Gospel and to give occasion to so many Enemies of the Free Grace of God and to so many Devines and strange kind of Representations of this great Truth by Men in all Ages bearing up themselves upon the Authority of such a place of Scripture as this is Now therefore by way of Answer to it I shall not be long altho the thing requires indeed a great deal of Thought and Consideration And I hope God will enable me to give it in summ tho I cannot speak so large of it The first thing I desire you to consider is That certainly upon this great Point I am very clear in it We are call'd to Consider that if we speak indeed strictly and down-right to the Point a Man is no more Justified by Faith as it is a Grace or an Act or a Work or whatsoever you call it in it self I say no more Justified by it than he is by Works Certainly God would have us fetch about every way and consider how this can be that the Apostle James can seem so to Contradict the Apostle Paul Now The first thing that offers it self to us is That a man is not indeed Justified by Faith upon any Merit Excellency or Worth or Desert that is in Faith it self As I told you if Faith should pretend to it it would be thrown like Lucifer out of Heaven And therefore it is not by Faith in it self And then Secondly I do believe that in the same sense wherein Faith is said to be Justifying in dependence upon the Righteousness of Chriâ—t in the same sense Works may be said to Justify in dependence upon Faith Pray observe what I say I say Faith Justifies in dependence upon Christ And works may be said to Justify in dependence upon Faith For in the same degree wherein Faith stands to Christ for Righteousness in the same degree may works stand to Faith in the matter of Justification So that works depend upon Faith and that depends wholly upon the Righteousness of Christ And if this be seriously considered it will clear to you what else might seem a very great doubt Now therefore to lay down plainly my sense of the Apostles scope of being Justified by Works and not by Faith only There are these three senses in which it may be understood And I shall make out every one to you by plain Expressions of the Apostle James and yet very briefly Leaving it especially to your own Meditation and Thoughts upon it The first is this That wherever a Man is supposed by the Apostle James to be Justified by Works and not by Faith only it is because Faith and Works have a kind of Hypostatical Vnion a Personal Vnion So that to say Faith and VVorks is to say no more than to say whole Faith entire Faith For if Faith have not works it is false Faith it is Counterfeit Faith it is not whole entire true Faith And therefore the Apostle means nothing more by it than only that if you would know what Faith you are Justified by it is Faith that hath a Mighty Power of Operation or VVork And therefore I understand no more by the Apostle James speaking of Works joyned with Faith than the Apostle Paul said The work of Faith with Power Faith hath a mighty Power of working By Faith they did so and so all along Heb 11. This is through Faith a mighty operating working faith And when Jesus Christ gives himself he always gives an operating Faith so he gives himself only to a Faith that he knows hath mighty Power and Principles of Operation It is because it is true Faith whole Faith entire Faith the Faith of God's giving like precious Faith As you know in a Jewel if it be only a counterfeit it wants some of the essential Excellencies of a Jewel As if a Man should think to be made Rich by a false Jewel it is a false counterfeit appearance though it may have some appearance of a true Stone yet it wants the true Exccellency and Value of it So the Apostle Discourses and shews what a true real working justifying operating Faith is James 2. 16. If a Brother or Sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto him Depart in peace be ye warmed and filled notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful for the body You know this is a false Charity And so it is a false faith that pretends to believe in Christ and cannot act suitably And again he faith As the Body without the Spirit is dead so Faith without Works is dead also Now if we should make a dead Man set his hand to a Writing you know that Writing is of no value though you may guide the Hand of the dead Man to write so and so while you guide the Hand because he is a Man without Spirit He has not the Spirit of a Man And so Faith if it hath not all the Graces and Actions suitable to it it is but a dead Faith It is dead as the Apostle saith and it is but the faith of Devils It is not a perfect faith it hath not truly the Nature of faith It is not as I may the whole Person of faith This is the first Sense the Apostle aimed and drove at to distinguish true faith from a meer formal professionary faith saying as Men do I believe in one God the father Almighty And so you know they go on Now a meer Profession of Faith without the power of Faith in a Man's Soul It is but the counterfeit Image of faith and not faith it self So James saith Thou believest there is one God c. In this second place This indeed is the way that God doth generally demonstrate and manifest the Truth of faith to the Souls of Believers and to the Observation of others And so it is true That faith cannot demonstrate it self either to a Believer's Soul or in ordinary and general speaking it cannot manifest it self except it have Works And so that Sense that some Interpreters give of this Discourse of the Apostle here is That one Faith justifies before God and the other justifies before Men that is Faith in its Works justifies before Men But faith alone taking Christ and his Righteousness before God though it is always a faith that hath within it self such a power of Action as to demonstrate it self to Men or else it is but a dead Faith And a vain Man it is that looks upon a faith to be faith that has not this mighty Operation And so the Apostle saith Faith wrought with Works He does not say His works were alone but faith wrought
with them That 's the second Sense It manifests and demonstrates it self before Men to be Faith It is that that justifies before a Man 's own Conscience concerning the truth of Faith and before Men concerning that real Operation of God upon faith in the Soul Now to this the Apostle seems to speak very plainly in the 18. verse Yea a man may say Thou hast faith and I have works shew me thy faith without thy works and I will shew thee my faith by my works You know this plainly speaks that faith justifies it self before Men to be true faith when it shews it self in Operations suitable to the Nature and to the Excellency of faith But if a Man have no works if a Man says I believe in Christ and be a Swearer a Drunkard an impure Person every way unrighteous and unsuitable to the Commands of God how can such a Man shew his faith There must be an agreeableness and suitabless of Conversation and Action And seest thou how faith wrought It was visible to Men. And then The third and last Sense is That faith is daily perfecting it self in holy Action till it comes to that Perfection as I have spoken before and several times upon the 3 d. of Philippians till it comes to the Perfection of the Resurrection of the dead And so it fufills the Scripture as the Apostle speaks That is That whereas it was said before of Abraham He believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness long before he offer'd Isaac There was not a staying of his Justification till he had offered Isaac but he was justified before he offered Isaac But yet faith perfects it self and fulfils the Scripture daily going on from Grace to Grace from Strength to Strength from Degree to Degree till it appears before God perfect And so the Apostle saith By works was faith made perfect And this is suitable to the 2 Thes 1. 11. that I named several times That God would fulfil all the pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power That the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him Here you see it is very plain That the fulfilling of the good Pleasure of the Grace of God it demonstrates the Truth of Faith and glorifies the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ in Believers and Believers in him according to the Grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ Methinks this very Expression it should silence all the Enemies of the Free Grace of God and of Justification by Free Grace For here is as highly spoken of the working of Faith as all the Understanding of Man can possibly reach to either to conceive or to express What can be greater than the Glorifying the Name of the Lord Jesus in Believers and Believers being Glorified in him And yet all this thrown off quite from any thing of Man or Redundancy by way of Glory upon Man It is said According to the Grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ I shall now close these Things that I have spoken thus narrowly to you I hope God will enlarge them in your Hearts in these three brief Applications and so conclude The first is this That you would consider the infinite Wisdom of Scripture Indeed there is nothing so admirable as these two Things in Scripture to cut off all occasion to turn the Grace of God into Lasciviousness and yet to set out the Grace of God at its full Height and Excellency O do but take these Two Things along which can never divide nor deceive 1. All is Grace And yet 2. Grace is mighty in its Operation And indeed though we have reason to lie low because Grace as in us seems so short and narrow in its Operation Yet these are two Things that can never be disjoined They are one within another It is the Grace of God that brings forth the Holiness and keeps it in Union to Christ even throughout the whole Course of a Christians Life and even indeed throughout Eternity it self Grace keeps us in the way of Holiness and new Obedience O therefore let us not turn the Grace of God into Wantonness And yet let us be continually admiring and adoring free Grace Let us be great Professors of free Grace but Professors of it in the Holiness and Purity of it And then In the second place it teaches us still never to forsake that Fundamental Point of all our Interest of all our Hope of all the Holiness that ever we had or can have If we have any at all we have it from Jesus Christ He is the Alpha and the Omega He is the Author and Finisher He is the Beginning and End He is the First and Last All in All. And therefore whenever we desire to be Holy O go to Christ the Redeemer and Finisher of Holiness Whenever we complain of Corruption go to him that is able to Redeem from all Iniquity Whenever we are like to be drawn to vain Tradition go out to the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ who alone can set us free from the Power of it Lastly I beseech you expect that there will indeed be a greater State of Holiness when that Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ shall come into Succession And don't think it a long time because you see no more Holiness yet I would only desire you to consider one place of Scripture and with that I will conclude On what a sudden God will do this great Thing The 2 Cor. 10 4 5 7. For the Weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to pulling down of strong holds casting down Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the Obedience of Christ And having in a readiness to revenge all Disobedience when your Obedience is fulfilled Herein the Gospel in the Apostles Days for a little time gave a Spetimen and appearance of it self Just like some of the great Conquerors that we read of in the World either Alexander or Julius Caesar or Soliman among the Turks They pass'd through the World as it were and all lay at their feet They brought every thing down As the Scripture speaks they heap'd dust and took every City and derided every strong Hold Hab. 1. 10. As now the way of Bombing you know Men go suddenly through their Undertaking In the same manner and much more shall the Gospel when once it comes to play its Artillery as I may so speak through the World it will open its Magazeen and carry every thing in the World before it though they are never so strong and bring every thought and all into Captivity And it hath in a readiness to revenge all Disobedience If there be any thing that yields not it hath a mighty power to Revenge to bring every thing under And it only stays for this Till the Obedience of Saints be fulfilled Some may say If we were but more Righteous God will make us more Righteous when this time of the Grace of his Gospel shall begin he will then fulfil in our Obedience FINIS
of Holy Life and Holy Action And a Man believes no more than he is truly and really transformed by into the thing that he Believes I shall shew you That Jesus Christ is that great principle of Holy Life and of Heavenly Life that doth impower the Souls of his People according to the degree of the present State and shall bring them to that spotless to that blemishless state in the Glory of his Appearing I begin with the First thing and that is to shew you that Jesus Christ is that great Revelation that Faith hath Primarily Principally Originally and Supremely to close with and to give up it self unto You shall find in the 3d of John that this is a Notion of Faith and a Notion of Faith proper to the great Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ saith John 1 John 5. 10. He that believeth in the Son of God hath the Witâ—… in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a Liar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son The great Record that God hath given it is of his Son that he hath given his Son as the Great Mediator as the Great Redeemer as the Great Sacrifice as the Great Righteousness of the World Aâ—d therefore if any Man does not believe this he has made God a liar God hath done all in the Gospel that can be done to give us an Assurance of it So it is the great Revelation And so when our Lord saith They have surely known and believed that thou didst send me It is the very same thing that Jesus Christ is the great Saviour and Redeemer of the World For what 's the meaning of God's sending Christ but a sending him as a Saâ—…or As you may find plainly John 3. 17. For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved And Him hath God the Father Sealed John 6. So that from all this it is most Evident that it is the great Revelation And tho this be a great Truth yet still the Gospel raiseth it higher And I beseech you that you would seriously consider when a Man Believes in Jesus Christ he does not only believe a written Word I desire again your serious Attention to it He does not only believe a written Word he does not only Believe a great Testimony from God or a sound of words concerning it but Jesus Christ the word himself comes to him Indeed it was heretofore in a manifestation in the Flesh But the very same thing is now manifested by the Spirit of Jesus Christ And by his coming in Spirit he comes as that Word of the Father as the Eternal Word of the Father And he shews himself to the Soul he shews himself in Spirit to the Soul so that the Soul Believes the Word of God because Christ the word of God shews himself to him And we never have the Truth of Faith till we have this very coming of the Eternal Word to us As you see 1 John 1. 1. how the Apostle speaks concerning this word That which was from the Beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life For the Life was manifested and we have seen it and bear Witness c. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you Now pray Why does the Apostle declare this Not that you should rest in a written word That 's the thing I would desire you to observe Not that you should rest in a sound of Words but that ye also may have fellowship with us ver 3. and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Not that we should expect any Visional Representations of these things That 's not the Intention of it But that we should look for a real Manifestation of the Father and the Son or of the Father by the Son and through the Son And also of the Son by the Father So that there is certainly a Sight of Christ I say a sight of the Son in Faith And if we did but thus consider the excellency of Faith indeed I cannot but apprehend there could be no difference between Christians and Christians in these points concerning Faith and so concerning Justification if we had but true and right apprehensions of Faith It is true indeed there 's a great deal of false Faith of counterfeit Faith that has never seen Christ But all true Faith it hath seen Christ it hath come up to the very word of Jesus Christ That is to Jesus Christ the Word So John 6. 40. there must be a sight of the Son before there can be a believing in him And this is the the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting Life And therefore as I told you he is called the Word of God that is the Essential and Eternal Word of God manifested in Flesh manifested in Human Nature And There is no sight of Christ without his coming to us without our receiving of him by the Teaching of thâ— Father and by the manifestation of himself And so saith the Apostle Paul when it pleased God to Reveal his Son in me You see here is not only words either Spoken or Written but there is the very Son himself Revealed in us I do acknowledg all this is in a Spiritual Sense not only in an Intellectual Sense Tho it is true That shall be Subservient and as it were the Conveyance and Vehicle of this sight But it is a Spiritual Sight wrought by the Power of God and by the Spirit of God And O therefore This is the great Point I would press upon you And indeed I have taken notice that the most Spiritual Writers and Preachers of Faith They have said That Faith is upon the Person of the Son the Person of the Eternal Word in our Nature the Lord Jesus Christ It does not deal first of all with his Benefits and Salvation that comes by him I mean principally I don't say but God may draw a Soul first by the consideration of his Benefits But the principal Touch of Faith it is upon the Son of God I might give you innumerable Scriptures that verify this great Truth And I desire that we may take notice of it In that forenam'd place John 17. v. 8. Christ saith this is the point They have believed that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee and that I came forth from thee and that thou didst send me All this Christ says you may see immediately concerns the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ So in the Epistle to the Galatians a place that is worthy our notice and that I shall have occasion of continual recourse to Gal. 2. 20 21. I am Crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I urge it
here only to this purpose to shew you that Faith it immediately goes out to the Person of Christ even in the point of Revelation This is That it principally goes on and touches there closest and fastest upon the very person of Christ O therefore that our Souls now might find something of this going out to the person of Christ A Tender of the Person of Christ to us that Jesus Christ the Word would come and shew himself to us That in a Spiritual sense we might see him with our Eyes and handle him with our hands we might have all assurance of a real Union of a real Touch betwixt Christ and our Souls And then I would desire you to take notice also of this that when this great Revelation of Jesus Christ hath come in and has a Reception in the Soul then all the Truths that flow in along with him they come in also into the Soul and the Soul receives according to all the Knowledg of God and Jesus Christ it receives all Truth when this great Revelation hath first of all entred and taken place in it All the Truths of God they come in by Jesus Christ as he is said to be The Truth and the Son of the Father in Truth It is a very great consideration this no Truth is indeed truly taken in till Christ is taken in If you would but apprehend this I confess there are many Learned and Wise and Great Men in Discourse they insist very much upon the Proof by Natural Demonstration Argument and Reason of the Being of a God I am very far from Detracting or Derogating from what they do For it is very worthy in its own kind and place But this I do assure you that there 's no man in the whole Universe that hath taken in truly the Knowledg of the One God But he hath taken it in and through Christ and by Christ Or else he hath it not savingly if he hath it not in and through Christ So there are great Arguments to Distinguish between Good and Evil the Law and Natural Conscience go far in it But I assure you no Man has taken in any of the Principles of Natural Conscience in a saving way till he hath taken in Jesus Christ All Truth it comes in by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. The Evangelist there hath it expresly The Law came by Moses saith he There was a measure of Light given by the Law But saith he Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ And I 'll give you one great Scripture that will make this very plain Heb. 11. 6. Saith the Apostle there Without Faith it is impossible to please him For he that cometh to God must believe that he is A great many of the Rationalists that are in this very Age at this very time carry it as if they would not thank the Gospel as I may so express it they are ready to say they would not thank the Revelation of it for the Proof that there is a God that is One God But as it may be true in their sense too that is It is Demonstrable by the Light of Nature and by Reason and by Argument I acknowledg with all my Heart it is so And yet notwithstanding I say no man that savingly believes that there is a God But he that doth it by that Faith that hath taken in the Lord Jesus Christ And therefore saith the Apostle If any Man hath not the Son he hath not the Father If he doth not come to the Knowledg of the Father by the Son he hath not the true and the right Knowledg the true Evangelical Spiritual saving Knowledg so much as of a God So concerning Eternal Happiness and Misery there may be great Light of Truth offered from Natural Argument We never come to see and know Truths indeed till we come to know them by the Eternal Word that word of God coming in to us who is the Truth Therefore I beseech you That you would retain these things in your Minds and Judgments and that you might be able when you hear Disputes concerning Faith and concerning Justification by Faith that you would remember that this is the true excellency of Faith To touch the Person of the Son of God to come to Him to see Him to be united to Him as the Great Truth It is true all the Truths that we have in the Word of God they are All of great Excellency and of great necessity But they all Centre in Christ the Truth who 〈◊〉 the Truth They Centre in him who is the Truth they are all but Lines flowing from him and Return to him I know every one will easily grant that the Knowledg of the Angels is much greater than the Knowledg of any Man or of all men put together Now you shall find that the Angels notwithstanding the great Orb of Light that they make or are notwithstanding they are great Intelligences yet notwithstanding the Knowledg of Christ is the Supreme Knowledg that they have saith the Apostle To the intent that now unto the Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord Eph. 3. 10 11. And therefore indeed tho Angels and Men were Created with very large measures of knowledg I make no doubt and excellency of an Intellectual Being yet that God hath so ordred things that the great Knowledg the great Manifestation of his manifold Wisdom should come in by Jesus Christ that hath given occasion to such wonderful Explication of that Infinite Essential Truth That God is I say it hath given the occasion That indeed I may say there had never been such a thing as Faith that is an higher understanding than Natural Understanding is a greater Comprehension of Truth than all Natural Comprehension of Truth is O Infinite Treasures of Truth that will be found to have flown from the bringing in of Jesus Christ the great Mediator This is that which hath broken up the great Deep of Truth I say the great Deep of Truth is broken up by the Manifestation of Christ The great Cataracts as they call them of Heaven are opened by this very Wisdom The great flowings in and Cataracts of Truth have flown by the Manifestation of Christ Indeed I am not able to conceive the greatness of this Truth or to speak to you How greatly Rich will Heaven and Saints and Angels be made by knowing this great Truth of the Manifestation of Christ And therefore it is not Truth Rivetted into their Natural Understandings But it is properly called Faith tho indeed all Truth will be Demonstrated so really in the Future State that it will make that kind of Faith to cease that is an Evidence of things not seen tho it may still properly be called Faith in regard of that Infinite Knowledg Flowing from God through Influence by and in Jesus Christ So I have spoken of
the First Head I proposed The Second thing I would therefore open to you is Faith doth properly adhere and run to some good that is offered And especially under a sense of Danger and a sense of great Ruin and Misery if there be not extraordinary Rescue And therefore this is the Second thing I assert That there had never been that Faith and Trust that Faith of Refuge that Faith of Reliance that Faith of Dependance if Jesus Christ had not been made known For What 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ but the great Deliverer As the Apostle speaks in 1 Thes 1. last He that Delivers ver 10. It is not Delivers us But he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Deliverer his Name is the general Deliverer Who is The Deliverer even Jesus Christ Stiled and Surnamed made notably known to us by being The Deliverer from the Wrath that it to come He is The Deliverer from the wrath that is to come So I say There had never been Footing for Faith if it had not been for Christ because of that great Good And indeed as I have often declared to you so I am positively of that Judgment that the Elect Angels did fly to Christ even as we do in a lost and undone state So they to be secured from that lost State the Fallen Angels and Man-kind run into I make no doubt they found all Created Beings stood in themselves too slippery and too ready to fall And they thought it safest to be under the Wing of the Mediator to be within the everlasting Arms of the Mediator Therefore much more if God had not given this great Saviour to lost Man this great Deliverer this great Ransom this great Sacrifice this great Righteousness of Jesus Christ the Righteousness of God there had been no Room for the Faith of Trust for the Faith of Relyance among Men. You know oftentimes in scripture Faith is spoken of as trust That when a Creature does not know what to do nor whither to run It runs to God by Faith Now this is all founded in the absolute necessity that we all have to fly to Christ for Redemption being lost and undone without him And therefore you find all scripture agrees to it that we are under a necessity to come to him as the greatest Good that can be offered to us Christ is that greatest Good that can be offered to us Even Eternal Life Life from Everlasting to Everlasting And therefore observe the vein of Scripture It is indeed so much That I need not almost name such things to you John 13. 14. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Eternal Life It is very plain what our Lord here intends We are under the same necessity that they that were bitten with the Serpents in the Wilderness that died immediately they swelled and died and broke in pieces immediately if they had not the Remedy in this Brasen Serpent And so we are in the same Condition Our Thigh would Rott and our Belly would swell to allude to that Representation under the Law I say the Thigh That is the Soul and the Conscience and all the Powers of the Soul they would presently be Gangren'd in a spiritual sense and give up to Ruin and Destruction were it not for Jesus Christ And so again ver 16. For God so loved the World that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life That very word should not perish it is as much as to say he shall certainly perish if he does not come to Christ If he does not believe in him And v. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life And he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him As Jeremiah saith He that trusteth not in the Lord he shall be like a barren Wilderness that shall not see when good cometh So he shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him Wherever he goes the wrath of God abides on him Though he be Rich and happy in the world yet still he does not know what a Companion he hath with him The wrath of God going along And what a Roof and what a skie he is always under what a Canopy of Heaven he is under The wrath of God abides on him Dwells over him So He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life And therefore here is Faith in Jesus Christ Reliance upon him the Faith of Trust Jesus Christ is he that hath brought in the Faith of Trust I have said it to you before and I should never be afraid to say it to a Congregation of the Learned'st and Wisest in the World That the Angels fled to Christ foreseeing possibility of Ruin if they stood upon themselves But we are upon a plain and Confessed and Acknowledged necessity we had never had such a thing as Faith if God had not offered and given and made known his Son to us as a Redeemer Now I would desire you to Consider That Jesus Christ never came to any Soul with his Benefits And not come himself He doth not send his Benefits and not come himself Which is the thing I would very fain in every thing press upon you I say he never sends his benefits but he always comes himself I am the way the Truth and the Life I am the Life saith Christ And he is Redemption saith the Apostle Paul He is the Redemption There is not a Redemption separate from him But he is our Redemption and he is our life and he is our Ransom He is our Sacrifice He is our Redeemer He is our Mediator He is our All. And therefore Faith It hath to do with the Person of Christ Indeed it may be very necessary to hold out and is certainly absolutely necessary to hold out the Benefits of Christ But we should take heed of this For here comes in a great deal of dispute and wrangling who should have the Benefit of his Righteousness by his Blood Alas This is not the thing First but we are to come to the very Person of Christ and to unite with him who loved us and gave himself for us For It is not a disputable thing how we shall have his Benefits If we pitch first upon him by Faith and by his coming into us and dwelling in us and we in him As I shall after shew if the Lord give opportunity that our Justification is by union There is no Justification but by union It is not by what we do or what Conditions or Terms of the Gospel we observe Though they shall more effectually follow than any other way we Discourse of I don't say that there is no need of Repentance of Faith and holiness of life But our Justification is immediately flowing from
of Holiness it comes by Jesus Christ He hath as the Apostle saith implanted the Law by himself And the Law is written in the Hearts of his Servants by and through the Grace of the New Covenant as you know that great Place Heb. 8. 10. How comes the Law to be written in the Hearts of the Servants of God It is because of the New Covenant of which Jesus Christ is the Surety and the Mediator This is the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their Mind and write them in their Heart All the Holy Laws of God they are written in the Heart and Mind through the New Covenant of which you know every where the Apostle declares Christ to be the Surety and the Mediator and the Testator of So that if there be any thing that is well spoken in the whole World of Morality it is properly transplanted under the Influence of Jesus Christ the Son of Righteousness and the great Sanctifier of his People And so if we take those Places of Scripture to be sure Holiness and Sanctification in the strict Sense is not to be excluded That he might Sanctifie his People with his own Blood For their Sake I sanctifie my self That they might be Sanctified through the Truth Now Faith is that as I shall shew you by which we derive from Jesus Christ All Sanctification in what sense soever I come to the fourth thing in which I would shew the excellency of Faith and that it is all in and through Christ. And that is those Heroick Acts those extraordinary Acts that the Servants of God have done in the World at any Time they have been done by the Power of Faith as that Power has been received by Faith from Jesus Christ In Heb. 11. We have a great Record of those things that the Servants of God have done in the several Ages of the World the great many things they have done those mighty Acts that they atchiev'd as you see all along in that Chapter The Apostle begins with Abel and so he comes down to Noah and to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and then to Joseph and to Moses and then to the Servants of God together as you find verse 33. Gideon and Barak and Sampson and Jepthah and David and Samuel and the Prophets it comes down to Who through Faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousness obtained Promises stopped the Mouths of Lions quenched the violence of Fire escaped the edge of the Sword out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant in Fight turned to flight the Armies of the Aliens Women received their dead raised to life again and others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection And others had Tryals of cruel Mockings and Scourgings yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonments They were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were flain with the Sword they wandred about in Sheepsâ—skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented And these all saith the Apostle verse 39. having obtained a good Report Indeed a good Report are Words in our ordinary use of them too low For the Apostle means they obtained a high Renown for they are words of a celebrating Nature they are of a Holy great Fame they obtained a great Fame that 's the meaning of it they are spoken of with great Honor in all Ages And all this was by Faith And their Faith it rested upon Jesus Christ For as a Captain as he spoke to Joshua who is here referred to he appeared Nay saith he Captain of the Lords Host am I now come and now thus appear unto thee It is very remarkable that all the great Acts that the Servants of God have at any time done they have done it by the power of Faith and that Faith in Christ Josh 5. 13. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jerico that he lifted up his Eyes and looked and behold there stood a Man over against him with his Sword drawn in his Hand and Joshua went unto him and said unto him art thou for us or for our Adversaries And he said nay but as Captain of the Host of the Lord am I now come And Joshua fell on his face to the Earth and did worship and said unto him what saith my Lord unto his Servant Now this we know is not what any Holy Angel would accept And therefore it is certain it was Christ He fell down and worshipped But when the Angel in the Revelation was offered to be worshipped you know he said see thou do it not for I am but a fellow Servant But saith Joshua What saith my Lord unto his Servant And the Captain of the Lords Host said unto Joshua loose thy shooe from thy foot for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground and Joshua did so I speak this only as an evident Argument that this was Christ And it is evident that he is the Captain of the Lords Host in any great thing that his Servants do And therefore when any of the Servants of God in the old Testament did extraordinary things it was by the Power of their Faith and their Faith it was a Faith in Christ And therefore certainly if we had the power of Faith there would be great things that we should do We do but very little things because we have very little Faith But if an abundance of Faith was given to us we should be able to do the great things that the Servants of God have done heretofore And when ever such things as I cannot but upon all Occasions say to you I hope the time is near that great Things shall be done they shall be done by the Power of Faith and by the Captain of the Lords Host appearing and coming on our side And as a further proof if there needed any but I think there needs nothing more to be said The Captain of the Lord's Host was Christ The Apostle takes that very Expression surely we have Reason to think so For Scripture delights in its own Language and to refer to it and to speak like it self Heb. 2. 10. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto Glory to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings the Captain of the Lord's Host So that I say all the great things that have been done by the Servants of God have been done by the power of Faith Such things had never been done if it had not been for the Power of Faith coming in by Jesus Christ It is certain such things had never been done so as to give glory to God in the doing of them Indeed I know you may be ready to say why the Enemies of God have done great things Have we not heard and read of great Alexander Of the great Caesars of the World Of the great Princes of the Turkish Army They have done great things
And that this is the Condition upon which Christ is ours and upon which his Righteousness becomes ours and thus Faith Justifies And thus Faith comes to be through such very Discourses of Faith an Eclipse upon the Righteousness of Christ And so the Works of Faith come to be so also for say they Every true Faith must have VVorks And the Apostle saith A Man is justified by VVorks and not by Faith only Now these things they raise not only great Disputes concerning which it were indeed much and earnestly to be desired that they may be laid among the Servants of God that they may be calmed and composed because it is greatly to the dishonour of the Gospel that there should be those noises of Axes and Hammers in the Work of the Gospel and because Men are ready to be scandalized And it is told in Gath and published in the streets of Askalon as the Expression is And therefore I say we should earnestly desire to speak all the same thing and to be in one Mind and in one Judgment according to the Truth of the Gospel And then besides they are ready to stagger Souls and to make them they know not which way to turn and they must dispute the things with themselves and so they are kept off from the healing that wound of Conscience and from the getting that full Assurance of Faith and of Hope and of Knowledge So that while the wound of Conscience and the bleeding of Conscience should be stanched and while the close Application of the Blood of Christ should work the Cure the Souls and Spirits of Men are greatly in Dispute and Perplexity which way and in what Method what they should lay first as it were to the bleeding Conscience and to the distressed Spirit Now I have lately given you this Rule and I would renew it and 〈◊〉 it to you That you labour after and seek after these things from God and that you would not perplex your selves about the term of Dispute in which these things are conveyed O! Let but our Souls find that we have Christ indeed for ours and that we apply to his Blood by Faith and that we turn from every Iniquity by Repentance and it is no matter for all the Disputes about the Order and whether a Man should stay for this or for that But let him give up his Soul according to the Impression of Grace and the Spirit of God upon him But yet however when we discourse of these things plainly and peaceably and according to the clearest Light and Reason of the Gospel they are to be attended to And our Minds thereby shall have Ideas and Representations of them that may be suitable to the inward Case of our Souls And therefore at this time I shall lay down four Positions in which I shall open to you the nature of Faith in Relation to Justification Or The true nature of Justification as it is taken in by Faith The First Position that I shall lay down is this I say No Righteousness but a Divine Righteousness an Everlasting Righteousness can be the Righteousness of a Lost and undone Sinner Of an Immortal Eternal Soul lost and undone by sin No Righteousness but a Divine Righteousness an Eternal and Euerlasting Righteousness O! Keep this always in your mind It must be such a Righteousness Or it will not serve the great Purpose of your Souls The Second thing that I would lay down is this that there is no possibility that Faith by any virtue or Excellency of its own should be our Righteousness And therefore tho there be a great Renown of Faith in the Gospel compared with the Graces of the Spiâ—… â—f God and the working of that Spirit in the Hearts and Lives of Châ—stians yet still it is not with Relation to God so as to be our Righteousness But onely as I shall shew you it takes in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ and wherein the Excellency of it lyes to that purpose In the Third place the Third Position that I would lay down is this That tho it is true that the Faith the Gospel speaks of is a vigorous working active Faith yet the works of Faith are further off from the Justifying of a Sinner than Faith it self is So that take the most excellent works of any of the Believers in Jesus Christ It is not their works I say it is not their works that are their Righteousness to Justification they are further off from Justification than their Faith is And yet this Faith cannot be their Justification The Fourth Position that I would lay down is this that Faith has not a Power of it self to take Christ But Jesus Christ gives himself to the Soul And then the mighty Power of Faith flows out from him and Twines about Christ and unites it self unto Jesus Christ These Four Positions I do not find upon the most severe Examination that they do in the least Abridge or take off any thing from the Holiness of the Gospel and from the duties in which all Christians are to be found And yet they give us indeed the truth of the freeness of the Grace of the Gospel and will Redeem us from all mistakes and misapprehensions or from lessening the Glory of Christ and his Righteousness I Begin at this time with the First of them And that is that no Righteousness but an Everlasting a Divine Righteousness can possibly serve the case of our Souls You find therefore in Dan. 9. 24. When Jesus Christ came into his great Action as a Mediator He is said to finish transgression and to make an end of sin and to make Reconciliation for Iniquity and to bring in Everlasting Righteousness He brings in Everlasting Righteousness David has an Expression which I confess one would be ready If one does not weigh and compare it with the whole Scripture to think it was the Righteousness of Holy works onely he or rather the Holy Spirit intended by him in it But if we consider it close and with the whole Scripture there is Reason to look upon it as having Relation to the great salvation by the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Psal 119. 144 The Righteousness of thy Testimonies is Everlasting c. I say it does seem to refer to those Righteous and Holy Precepts of God But he calls it the Righteousness of thy Testimonies That is the Great Testimony of Revelation that God hath given anew by the word Not that Righteousness that was written upon the heart of man But the Righteousness of the Testimony of the Revelation of God And therefore give me understanding herein and I shall live According as he said there is a Covenant made with me ordered in all things and sure And it is an Everlasting Covenant And therefore the Righteousness of his Testimonies is to be expounded by those very words Sam. 2. 23. 5. Although my house c. And though his house was not so with God That is though he could not
Therefore the Fourth Particular is this That indeed if any one could frame a Notion of the Righteousness of Christ to be his Righteousness Or of the Blood and Death of Christ to be his for Justification and Pardon and clearing from sin If that Righteousness separated from Christ It would be no other to us and in us but as a Creature-Righteousness and as a self-Righteousness And for us to trust in it and to stay our selves upon it would be a trusting to our own Righteousness Therefore as it is in him a Spring and a Fountain There is the Life and there is the Glory of it I 'll give you but one Scripture Rom. 5. 17. Mark Here 's a Receiving abundance of Grace and of the gift of Righteousness Nothing can be more express than this A man takes in by Faith abundance of Grace and of the gift of Righteousness But now the Question is does he live by this receiving abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness No For the Apostle goes on He shall reign in Life by one Jesus Christ He shall not reign by abundance of Grace and of the gift of Righteousness which he receives simply and separately and distinct from Jesus Christ But he shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ Surely this Scripture does cut off all disputes and all Controversies and shews that Justification is onely by union to Christ and by nothing else whatsover is the abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness And healed by the Wings of Christ and flowing out and Righteousness streaming out continually from the Sun of it that is Christ Oh then that we were but clear in this great truth of the Righteousness of God Jehovah being our Righteousness For if such a poor weak thing as Faith because it is conformable as is supposed to the Evangelical Law were our Righteousness we should have Reason to fear and much more because indeed no one comes up so much as to the Evangelical Law as they would phrase it Our Faith is so weak and low that if we were to be Justified by it we should be utterly undone even by that which we call the Gospel-Law but when it does but onely attend the Communication and giving of the Righteousness of the Eternal Jehovab to us when it does onely that O we that are in this Righteousness and are made the Righteousness of Jehovah It is impossible we should be condemned We must needs condemn every tongue that rises in Judgment against us because we have the Righteousness of Jehovah I confess the thing is so great that many even would be ready to look upon it as strange and next to Blasphemy But it is the very words of Scripture and even the thing it self it always presses Not that we are Righteous as God is Righteous As some would Infer from such Expressions or Righteous as Christ is Righteous That is according to the Divine Original Righteousness of Jesus Christ or according to any perfections that are proper to him But that we are utterly uncondemnable and set out of the reach of Condemnation hereby and arrayed as in our degree with this rich Robe Because it is the Righteousness of God we are found in and that we are made by Vnion to Christ the Righteousness of God And yet all the distinction that ought to be preserved to the greatness of the Righteousness of God and Christ is still preserved And that 's the first thing in which I would open this point The second thing is to shew you that Faith in it self it cannot be looked upon as our Righteousness Because there is a great deal of difference in all our Reason and Apprehension between the taking of a Gift and the Gift Because I take a great Gift shall therefore my taking be counted of Equal value with the Gift You know this is contrary to all our Reason to all our Apprehension in the case A man may have a Pearl of Incomparable value given to him suppose in a state of necessity and want Shall his taking of the Gift or of the Pearl be look'd upon as of equal value with the Pearl it self Why now if we were Justified by Faith as it is a work or an act of ours or any thing let it be called by what name it will as it is in us would it therefore Justify us as it is in us Because of its taking of an incomparable invaluable gift must it be equal with the gift it self Therefore though Scripture speaks so much of Faith as it does and of being Justified by Faith yet let Faith lye low before Christ For It is not our taking If it were the most perfect act it could be supposed But it is not so But we have Reason to cry out Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief But if it were so It were nothing at all in the case As you know the most perfect and grateful and delightful Receiving of a gift can no way answer or stand in account with the gift it self Now therefore this I desire should be Imprinted upon our spirits both to take down all imagination of our selves and also to give Consolation in many of the Anguishes and Agonies of Conscience that come upon Believers through the weakness of their Faith Rom. 5. 17. They which receive saith the Apostle abundance of Grace Now can any of us suppose that the Receiving abundance of Grace should be any way equal to the abundance of Grace it self And so in the first Chapter of John saith the Evangelist there He came unto his own and his own received him not But to as many as received him ver 12. Now I would desire to ask you whether you think that the receiving of him that is of Christ whether it be any way matchable or can countervail the Excellency of Christ himself Or whether it can come near in any of the vertues or the Powers of Jesus Christ to Adoption or Justification therefore it is most evidently cleared that it is not the worth of Faith or the Excellency of Faith or the Activity or Applicatoriness of Faith But it is wholly in that Great and Excellent and Infinite Person whom we receive by Faith there 's the whole of the thing And therefore If you ask where is our Riches where 's our Righteteousness where 's our Strength It is evident it is not in our receiving But in him whom we receive It is not in our receiving but in the abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness that we receive together with the receiving of Christ himself and no otherwise Not by receiving of it and going away with it from Christ and saying we have it now But by keeping close to him as our Sun and as our Fountain the Sun of Righteousness and Fountain of Righteousness keeping close to him And so that Righteousness of his overflows and runs out upon us and then as I said our Consolation depends upon it For O! How do
the 17 th of John That they all may be one As thou Father art in me that they also may be one in us And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them c. And so Christ is even in them and his Righteousness and his Glory and his Perfection are always in himself and in a Communication unto them and they in Union with him and in that Communication If this be not truly the sense and the Spirit of the Gospel I must freely acknowledge I am not in any capacity to speak of these things For there is nothing more evident to me than this That our whole Salvation according to the Gospel does no more stir out of God and Christ than to speak of a thing that we know we see now the Beams of the Sun and the Light of the Sun stir out of the Sun but all is in the Sun For if any one should go to say this Room or Place is full of Light or full of the Beams of the Sun we 'll presently shut up all the Avenues between us and the Sun and we 'll have the Light as our own you know how presently the place would be dark and there would be no remainder of Light at all in it because the Sun is shut out So now and to Eternity if you could shut out God and Christ the Eternal fountain of Righteousness from any Soul that Soul would be immediately dark as to the state of Grace and so grow darker and darker to the darkness of Hell And now in the fifth Place If the Righteousness of Faith were a Righteousness onely because it is freely given why then Love and Repentance and Obedience they are all freely given even as Faith And yet for all this Scripture never speaks of them as Justifying And therefore I come to the last thing to shew you wherein Faith Justifies It is onely in this that by the most simple and abstracted and the most naked Apprehension of the thing that can be It has nothing but what it is made to receive in this great point of Justification I say it is made to receive and to do nothing but to receive It is made to depend and to do nothing but to depend To trust and to do nothing but trust I do acknowledge there 's a great vertue of Faith outward but this is that Immanent act of Faith As I may so speak as Divines call those Immanent acts of God in the Father the Son and the Spirit that do not go out of Himself So I say that Immanent act of Faith that is betwixt Christ and the Soul It is to trust and onely to trust to depend and onely to depend and to receive and onely to receive And as for Faith It hath nothing It is nothing but onely this Receipt So it is the most perfect dependence that Faith hath upon Christ I will trust and not be afraid In that Isa 12. 2. And in that day thou shalt say O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me Behold God is my Salvation I will trust and not be afraid Here therefore is the great Excellency of Faith the meet Excellency of Faith not in it self but onely that it wholly depends It is made and fitted by God on purpose wholly to depend I would come now to the second thing that I proposed which I shall very briefly represent to you For if Faith it self can do nothing It is certain then that the works of Faith can do nothing And therefore that great objection that is made against this out of the 2d of James that Faith which hath not works is Dead and can't Justify It is nothing at all to this Great Point But onely this it is indeed to shew us that if any man has Faith in Christ this Faith shall appear not to be an Idle and a Dead Faith But it shall every way be active from the Power it receiveth from Christ to walk in all ways of obedience to Render up the Soul entirely in the Love of God according to the present state I mean with sincerity and uprightness But it is not to this great point For it is very plain when two things are spoken of in Scripture If there be a higher and a Lower the Lower must be always subordinated to the higher that I look upon to be a stable and unchangeable Rule Now we are said to be Justified by a Faith that is not without works and yet without works we are Justified and in other places we are said to be Justified in God In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be Justified and shall Glory And Jehovah is our Righteousness And the Righteousness of God Now I say that which is infinitely above Faith As we will all grant God and the Righteousness of God Christ and the Righteousness of Christ are far above Faith Why then though sometimes we are said to be Justified by Faith and the Faith by which we are Justified is said to have works Yet certainly the Righteousness of God and of Christ must infinitely take place of these because they are so far above in the Transcendency and Infiniteness of their own nature So that it can never be that the Righteousness of God and of Christ can be brought down Therefore we are said sometimes to be Justified by Faith But it is very plain that Faith in its Justifying Power it must be brought up to God and Christ And there is all that is to be said of it that it takes hold of God and Christ That 's the whole of it it takes hold of God and Christ Therefore indeed I cannot but think of that expression though I don't say it will hold in this Solomon says the Spider is very wise because it takes hold with its hands and is in Kings Palaces The Spider seems a base Creature yet notwithstanding the baseness and poisonousness of its nature yet in this it prefers and advances it self because it takes hold with its hands and is in Kings Palaces So I say in regard of us who are poisoned with sin and Corruption yet Faith takes hold with its hand and it is in the Righteousness of God and in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Now still if you look upon us in our selves or look upon Faith in it self Alas What can it do onely it can take hold of the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness of Jesus Christ And therefore I do acknowledge that Faith is of great power and vertue The 11 Chapter to the Hebrews makes evident as well as the 2d of James Therefore I wonder that men look so disproportionably The great things there ascribed to Faith all along in the 11 th of Heb. make out the very same thing So that the Apostle James did not contradict the Apostle Paul nor the Apostle Paul the Apostle James both of them speaking by the spirit of God and therefore I
say Faith indeed is of great Holiness and of great operation but it takes hold of Christ onely by way of Receipt and dependence and so we are alone Justified by it I would fain clear one particular more that you may be very absolute in this great point wherein the Excellency of Faith lyes And that is You may say still why Faith is a great thing indeed And so far as it is ours we may look upon it as a great thing if it can take hold of God and of Christ and of the Righteousness of God and of Jesus Christ What is like it in the whole world if it can do this Therefore though I acknowledge all that Scripture hath spoken by way of Commendation of Faith yet I must humble Faith as I may so express it before you as to this very particular For Faith could no more take God or Christ or the Righteousness of God or of Christ than any of us can span the whole Heaven or take the whole Heaven into our hands It is nothing but onely this wherein Faith excels that God and Christ give themselves with infinite Riches of Grace And Christ gives himself he gives himself to Faith This is that that I positively affirm that Faith has no more Power to take hold of God and Christ than as I said before any one of us can take that great Globe of the Sun into our hands But God gives himself and Jesus Christ gives himself by a free and absolute will And when he gives himself he draws out by himself such a turn of the Soul back unto himself that it causes the Soul by Faith to twist about him He draws out himself so to it that by Faith it Returns with such a twist of the heart to himself that it never uncloses any more that is the great and mighty Power of God and Christ and of the Righteousness of Christ Christ becoming wisdom and Righteousness to the Soul draws out this Twisting of the Soul about him which the Scripture calls Faith This laying hold upon him this as the Scripture calls it is Leaning upon him and Rolling of our selves upon him Let no man despise these Expressions seeing the Spirit of God has sanctified them It is Just as the Sun it calls out the Eye and the motions of the Eye to Twist about it and to unite with it by seeing In the very same manner when Christ gives himself then he calls out this Faith which is a Twist and a hand of the Soul upon Christ and about him Now if Christ did not give himself and if God did not give himself it were utterly impossible that Faith should lay hold Nay though there is this Proposition of the Gospel every where held out whoever believes in him shall not perish but have Eternal life Alas Men do no more stir to this Proposition than a stone flyes up to the Sun because the Sun shines upon it with its Beams So I say you may see plainly that Men don't stir to Christ but when God draws near and gives Christ and Christ draws near and gives himself then it is that the Soul is drawn out to Christ again and feels the coming of Christ and the approach of Christ to it and then turns it self towards him and then it catches about him and then it begins to say My Lord and my God as Thomas did when he put his finger into the wounds that had been made in Christ upon the Cross This I say we should seriously consider and to know this if any of our Souls have been drawn to Christ O know That they had for ever layn still and sunk as a stone if Christ had not come and given himself to the Soul I might give you many expressions to Explain this To us a Child is given as Isaiah speaks Chap. 9. 6. to whoever it is as he was given to the world of Elect in General so he is given in particular to every soul Who loved me and gave himself for me And so as John speaks concerning love We love him because he first loved us So we apprehend him because he first apprehended us As I have shewn you out of Phil. 3. 12. If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus A man would never apprehend Christ if he were not first apprehended by him So saith the Church in the Song of Solomon My Beloved is mine and I am his First he is mine and then I am his We should never come to be Christ's if Christ did not please to come and to be our Husband This certainly is the true freeness of the Grace of God And if you should say what necessity is there that Christ should thus draw out Faith What need of Faith at all I 'll give you but a threefold Account why there must be this Faith notwithstanding it does no more and though it is no more in the great point of Righteousness and Justification yet still it is most necessary it should be upon a four fold account The First Account is 1st Faith is necessary as it is that Joyning uniting act of the Soul by way of Return to Christ giving himself to it receiving him and possessing it self of Christ and of his Righteousness For as in our Law though the foundation of the Title lye elsewhere yet the Consummating of the Right is by Livery and Seisin as they speak and though the Espousal of a mean person to a Prince is by his free Love yet the Consummation of the marriage is by her consent and acceptance Consummate so though Christ and his Righteousness are free gift yet Faith is necessary for our acceptance and till that be Christ is not ours in Full sense of the Gospel It is true Faith is chosen and singled out as that which as it turns to Christ and his Righteousness most Diaphanously and most clearly as through a thinnest Transparency shews the Righteousness of Christ flowing from himself above what Love Repentance or any other graces or gracious actions can do as being onely as I have said Dependence Receiving Trusting yet this Faith as taking Christ and uniting to him is more then manifestation it is Consummative of our Title Christ ours and we his Christ is wisdom to us in this wise Grace of Faith and thus as in a Consummate Title we are said to be Justifyed by Faith Faith is imputed to Righteousness but Christ our wisdom is also our Righteousness in highest Gospel truth The second account is 2dly Else it would not be for the happiness and good of that Soul that hath Christ It cannot be that Christ should be a Saviour and that the Soul should not know it Therefore I say it is necessary it should be throughout the Soul made known by Faith I confess there is a time and a long time even from Creation till the Soul is called home to Christ that it does not know it till the time of bringing home to
Christ But I say it cannot be throughout so For then men should be saved by Christ and never know that they are saved by Christ Then Christ would be no more the Saviour of his people than he is the Saviour of stones or insensible Rocks We must therefore come to have a feeling and knowing that Jesus Christ is ours Or else we could not receive his salvation How should we be the better within if we did not know Christ An understanding and Intellectual Being must have such a knowledge of Faith to know Christ And therefore as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I must know him Not that this Contributes any thing to our happiness but onely the feeling and enjoying that happiness That happiness is onely from God But as you know a blind man is never the better in point of Light and sight though the Sun be never so Glorious Every one that seeth the Son and believeth in him We must see him or else we could not know he is ours we could have no Enjoyment of him our Souls would be still like unsensible Rocks and Marbles if there were not this sense by Faith and the knowledge of Christ by believing And therefore it is a very great truth that Faith is a manifestation to us and within us that Christ is ours When our Souls receive the touches of his Love and grace upon us and we come to know and find the sweetness to taste that the Lord is Gracious and to know what a Pearl we have in some measure and that we find Christ is ours and hath given himself for us In the third place there could not else be a manifestatory Glory It is true Christ is glorious as a Saviour But we could not Glorify him if we did not know by Faith that he is such a Saviour This is that that the soul makes its Boast in God by this draws it to Glory in Christ and to give all the Glory it can do to him Because it finds it is saved by him and him alone Now it is very Evident God had no need of Glory from Angels nor from men to manifest his Glory by them But it pleased the wisdom and Grace of God to declare his infinite Being before such Beings as Angels and men fitted with understandings to behold it Why so Christ had no need of our Glorifying of him But yet it is very Evident that he is pleased to be Glorifyed by us and that we Glorify him by acknowledging all our salvation from him And herein is Faith of great use It gives Glory as the Apostle speaks Abraham was strong in Faith giving Glory to God Rom. 4. So Faith gives Glory to the Righteousness and Freeness of the Grace of God in Jesus Christ And then In the Fourth place it is also necessary upon this Account for I am far in all this discourse from that which is truly called Antinomianism or Libertinism I say as Faith looks outward and from Christ into holy Action the knowledge that Faith gives is serviceable in the hand of Christ to all holiness and purification of Life To live to him to live and to walk by Faith to be every way self-Resigning according to that whole 11th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews And thus I have endeavoured with all briefness to set out the Excellent nature of Faith I shall but make one short Application of it And that is to stir up all our hearts in looking up to God according to that great prayer Ephes 3. 14 15 16. verses For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man To what End That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith O look up to this You see how Faith is indeed always called up by Christ when he gives himself to any Soul when he comes to dwell in any Soul Faith must receive him it must embrace him it must depend wholly upon him Now therefore O! That our hearts may be strengthened by his Spirit in the Inner man Alas Our Inner man you may see plainly by all that I have said is very weak and unfaithful And it is confirmed by this expression of the Apostle how the Inner man would never draw in Christ it would never hold him if it came to him Our Inner man is such a false thing to the Great things of our Eternal salvation it is such a feeble weak thing it would never be able to hold Christ But the Spirit strengthens the Inner man That Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Else I say it could never if you would give me leave to use such a plain word as that fetch in Christ And if he came it would never hold him Our Inner man must be strengthened by the Spirit of Christ that Christ may dwell in us And then we go forward to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and to Comprehend that love of Christ which passeth knowledge that we may be filled with all the fulness of God I hope there is nothing that I have spoken that can Justly offend any man's mind for it is fully to the sense of Scripture and of Scripture Reason and it excludes all manner of looseness and Libertinism of life For Christ is certainly sanctification to every one to whom he is Justification he gives the power of Holiness And Faith is made serviceable As I told you the immanent acts are those whereby it stays within and has Communion with Christ wherein it has nothing but to depend and trust in him But then It works outward as they say of the works of God Ad Extra The Excellent acts of the Father Son and Spirit they go out of themselves So Faith goes out to all the works of obedience And therefore if you would know what Faith is when it works outward I would propose to you to Read that Chapter Heb. 11. How greatly Faith works outward But Christ still is the Author and finisher And when it comes to Christ it has nothing to do but to trust and depend and receive And O! therefore let us all bow our knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant us according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the Inner man We can never have such a thing as Faith if the Riches of Glory does not come in with it and if the spirit of Christ does not come in with it And indeed where the spirit of Christ comes he comes And so Christ and the spirit Elicits as they call it and draws and Brings the Soul to clasp about him to lay hold upon him He brings the Soul thus near to
him Just as the Load stone fetches in the Iron and calls it to it self And so when Christ comes near to the Soul He draws it near to himself c. THE FAITH BY WHICH We are Iustified c. The Fifth Sermon Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ FRom what I have discours'd in the last Sermon That we are Justified by Faith in such a sense only as that Nothing can be attributed to Faith but only to Christ Two Objections may arise which I would answer before I pass on to the main Point I now intend Object 1. What then is it may it be said in Faith upon which Justification is attributed to Faith rather then to any other Grace Answ I Answer it is like taking possession the having Livery and Seizin in an Estate become ours or like the consent of a mean person in Marriage to a Prince Or indeed to speak yet more plain to our apprehension if any one will give us a Gift before we come to be really invested in that Gift we must take it and have it in possession And we have not a true Title to it else tho it does not depend upon our taking But it is only a Consummative and Perfecting thing that we take it into our possession we accept it from the giver as his gift and we take it into possession as our own And thus I say it is and that we are Justifyed by Faith And it seems to me except any one shall shew me wherein I am in a mistake in thus saying I shall conclude it to be the very sense of the Spirit of God in all those Expressions that we are Justifyed by Faith and live by Faith These things I say shew to us the worthlessness of Faith in it self And yet that it is Consummative and a Consummation of our Title to Christ and to his Righteousness I would only first answer one more seeming great objection against this representation of Faith I have given as if it were only the Imprint of Christ's gift of himself and his Righteousness to the Soul why is it then so often said Repent and believe the Gospel And whoever believes in him c. And we are called on as if it were our act to believe Now to this I Answer that it is true we are so Though I am fully by the grace of God of that Judgment that I have declared to you concerning the nature of Faith And that it is Christ Imprinting his gift the gift of his Righteousness and of himself upon us And yet for all that I think my self bound in all the Discourses of this grace of Faith to move you to perswade you to Exhort you to receive to press you to Believe in Jesus Christ Because this is the Rational way that God doth deal with those as I have said he giveth understanding and Rationality to and because this is that Ordinance of God and for great and wise Reasons both to his Servants whom he draws thus to believe by the obedience 〈◊〉 Faith to the preaching of the Gospel And in regard of those that do not believe That he may Justify and vindicate himself that he hath gone that way which is proper unto the Soul of man He hath drawn with the Cords of a man and with the Bands of his Love in offering Christ to them I now come to what I proposed in the next place To shew you the great assuâ—…nce of Faith the assurance of it from these words of our Lord They have known They have known And they have surely known And yet wheâ— it comes to be Explained what this knowledge is It comes to this it is Believing For Pray observe the course of the words Jo. 17. 7. They have known To know is of great Certainty and of great Assurance And again in the latter part of the verese They have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me They have known surely And yet when it comes to the issue they have believed Therefore I shall endeavour I say to make out to you the great Assurance of Faith And I shall propose these four kinds of assurance that Faith hath And there are Scriptures very full for each of them I 'll lay them first before you together The first assurance of Faith is the assurance of understanding So you find Col. 2. 2. That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding in the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the father and of Christ There 's the first assurance of Faith the assurance of understanding when all the great truths of the Gospel that men are ready to say how do you prove them How will you make them out either by sense or by Reason How shall we know that these things are indeed true Why now when Christ and his Spirit do fix these truths upon Souls they have Riches of the full assurance of understanding The second full assurance of Faith it is in that great Point of Pardon of sin and peace of Conscience by Jesus Christ For if a man comes and says to another As you know men are ready to do you talk at a strange Rate Do you know that your sins are pardoned Do you know that God and Christ have Done this and that you shall be saved from wrath for ever Observe now what the Apostle saith to this in Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart You know it is a phrase in our English such a man when we do speak of him as fearful or a person of no valour we say he is a false-hearted man And that man that is Resolved and valiant and great in Prowess we say he is a man of a true heart of a true valour Now whereas some are apt to think that every man should stand trembling and doubting and say I don't know whether my sins are pardoned or not I dare not be so bold or presumptuous as once to say I am sure that I am freed from wrath to come Why now saith the Apostle Let us draw near with a true heart having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water So here 's a second great assurance of Faith A Third assurance of Faith is in this O what shall become of me for ever What shall become of me when I dye Where will be my dwelling Where will be my Reception my Receptacle for ever when I go out of the world Can I hope for such a state as the Scripture Describes Heaven to be Can I bear up in those hopes Why then Consider what the Apostle saith Heb. 6. latter part of the 11 ver We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end So here you see is another assurance the
whether we have been right in the first Act But there has been as they say an Error in the Foundation an Error in the first Concoction as Physitians speak and cannot be mended So there has been an Error in taking Christ and Error in the Foundation becomes Error in the whole course of a Mans Building A man says he has taken Christ and lives under the Power of his Lusts and the Power of the World Because he never look Christ aright Men will say Here you are mistaken in your Profession That you cannot live Holily which your Profession binds you to But I say if the thing were but well traced and enquired into it would be found here was the great miss that your first Action flew off and did not rightly take Christ The 2d Chapter of John is a Scripture that will clear this that a Man may take Christ by a false Action and lose him in the very first Rudiments and the first beginnings by a mistake As now it is in Nature in the forming of an Embrio in the Womb If there be a false formation a monstrous formation in the VVomb there 's an irregularity all along the Life So if Faith be mistaken in its first Act in supposing it takes Christ and does not that Error cannot be mended The Latter Errors may be more apparent than the first but the first is the cause of all John 2. 23 24 25. Now when he was in Jernsalem at the Passover in the Feast-day many believed in his name when they saw the Miracles that he did One would have thought this was true Faith as the great Men of Reason say because they were brought over to believe by seeing the Miracles of Christ But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men And needed not that any should Testify of man for he knew what was in man If he did not commit himself to them we may very well understand he did not Unite himself to them He knew it was not that Faith to which he United himself and his Righteousness Christ does not commit himself to a Faith that is not indeed as I said before a Faith of God's Elect and the like pretious Faith and that is not given by that Divine Lot of Grace as the Expression is 2 Pet. 1. 1. that I have formerly spoken to you of To them who have obtained by Lot by this Divine Lot like precious Faith with us according to the Righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ I know we cannot look into this but by the Divine Spirit and by feeling the twistings of the Soul about Christ through that great Opperation of God upon us But this we may see plainly Christ did not commit himself to them So he does not commit his Righteousness his Propitiation his Redemption he does not commit it but where he sees a Faith which he himself hath given that is indeed of the true and excellent Alloy For he knows at the very first He sees many that pretend to Believe and that think they Believe but he knows very well where their Faith is wrong and where it loses that great Prize that Pearl of Price that it is to obtain He himself not committing or giving himself knows a true Action of Faith in Receiving him will not follow for that 's the first Action of Faith to Receive Christ giving himself The Second kind of the Actions of Faith they are those that though they are not immediately as the first Acts of taking of Christ by Faith yet they immediately Result and Rise up When any Man hath taken Christ there are some Actions that do immediately Result and Arise They bear the Hiew they carry the Complexion they have upon them the Lineaments of the Death of the Dying of our Lord Jesus Christ They have such peculiar Respects to his Blood to his Death to his Redemption I would instance in two of these we find in Scripture-Saints And then I shall draw out in brief Expressions the general Actions of Christians according to their pattern The first is that in the 11 Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said of Moses v. 28. Through Faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of Blood lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them This he did by faith God commanded him indeed to keep the Passover But Moses had an Eye upon the Redemption of Christ in it And by Faith he kept the Passover So every Act of the Soul by which it makes Recourse to Christ upon all occasions after it hath taken him it is like keeping the Passover Every Act I say wherein we do especially depend upon the Blood of Christ and make close Recourse and Application to it it is an Action Resulting from true saving Justifying faith that true faith by which we are Saved and Justified For so indeed I observe tho we call it Justifying faith the Scripture never calls it so But the faith by which we are Justified To make good that point that I have always press'd upon you that we are not Justified by Faith as an Act But we are Justified only as the Righteousness of Christ is given to it for that Righteousness alone is our Justification But this I say there are Acts of the Soul by which it does make recourse to Christ and to his Blood Another Example and I choose to give it you because it is Seated in that of the Apostle James that is made the great Objection against the faith by which we are Justified through the Righteousness and Propitiation of Christ James 2. 21. saith the Apostle Was not Abraham our Father Justified by works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar Seest thou how faith wrought with his Works and by works was faith made perfect Now this is the thing that I observe to you The Offering of Isaac it was as great a Conversant Act about the Death Blood and Sâ—crifice of Christ as any could possibly be represented in Scripture to us For there could not be a greater Type and Representation of the Father giving his Son to Die for Sinners and to become a Sacrifice for them than that of Abraham the Affectionate Father of Isaac Offering up his Son Isaac Therefore the Apostle uses this for an Argument of a Working faith This was a Work of Faith indeed it was not a work of Faith taking Christ but it was a work of Faith conversant about the Death and Sacrifice of Christ And therefore the Apostle is express in it Seest thou how Faith wrought with his works This was a great act in which Faith wrought mightily when Abraham offered up Isaac But 't was not so properly a work of Moral obedience as the work of Faith in Christ if we Consider the Greatness and excellency of it and the Eye it had to Christ though it was a high act of obedience of self Resigning also So I say there are many acts which are
union and no other way As I hope by the assistance of God and his Goodness giving leave evidently to make out by Scripture I shall therefore pitch upon that Heb. 6. to shew you that Faith flyes with all the speed it can for Righteousness saith the Apostle who have fled for Refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us verse 18. who have fled All the speed they can possibly make is little enough too little as it were to lay hold upon that Hope that is set before us Jesus Christ so saith the Apostle I desire to be found in him The Expression evidently alludes to that Expression in Scripture when the Man slayer fled from the Revenger when the Pursuer of Blood and the Minister of Vengeance was at his Heels he made all the way he could to fly to the City of Refuge So I say the Soul by Faith makes all the way it can with all the speed it can to flee for Refuge to the Hope set before it in Jesus Christ Now I would argue another thing to you as I did in the former as I told you All Truth comes in by the Knowledge of Christ the Great Truth All the Report of Truth comes in by Jesus Christ the supream Truth So all Trust and Hope of Good comes in the Great Sacrifice As now suppose a Man be in want or in fear of Danger or in fear of this or that Inconeniency in the present State Why Faith this Saving Faith in Christ having taken him in as the great Redeemer as the great Sacrifice it flies to God through him in every Case As now It was certainly a Fruit of Saving Faith in David when he said to God I flee to thee to hide me from danger when my Heart is overwhelmed Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. I make no doubt but this was a Fruit of Saving Faith And so when the Servants of God cry to him for necessary Food and Rayment if they have taken Christ it is a Fruit of Saving Faith of that kind When Jehoshaphat cryed out to God when he was likely to have been slain as Ahab was it was Saving Faith in Jehoshaphat that cryed to God why because he had taken in the Redeemer But if we cry to God without the Redeemer it is but howling But when once we have taken hold of Christ it is Saving Faith There 's one Scripture more and then I 'll conclude this with Application to shew when we come to Christ upon a Title when we have first taken Christ as the supreme Good and Saviour and Deliverer 1 Pet. 4. 19. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the Will of God commit their Souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator He does not say a faithful Redeemer but a faithful Oreator Why because Jesus Christ the Redeemer had been taken in We can never trust in God as a faithful Creator till we have first trusted in Jesus Christ the great Redeemer the great Sacrifice of Attonement I come therefore to make the Application of this in these three Particulars in which I will be very brief The first Vse is Oh! I beseech you let us in every thing consider Faith When ever you think of Faith don't look upon it in it self but only in its Relation to the Redeemer Indeed Faith is like the Eye there is a great deal of admirable curious Workmanship in the Eye as the Anatomists of the Eye have made very plain One would stand amazed to behold the admirable Skill of the Creator in the Eye that excellent Machine as I may call it And yet notwithstanding all this Without Light what were the Eye even nothing at all And so Faith hath a great deal of curious Workmanship It is a great Work of God The Work of Faith with Power as the Apostle saith It is the Faith of Gods Power It is the like precious Faith But if you take away Christ from it alas It is nothing at all All its Excellency is in its Union to Christ I speak this that I would not in the least seem to quarrel or to raise a Controversie with any Holy Servants of Jesus Christ Yet I say we are ready to run into such a kind of Notion of Faith as if there was some Excellency in its self and because it obeys as it is very true it does And because it purifies the Heart and Life and lays Arguments and Engagements of Obedience I don't deny any thing of this but desire to speak the same thing But I still affirm that we may not be mistaken in Faith For this is not its Excellency no more than it is the Eyes Excellency that it is curiously made whereas it would be nothing no not so much a beauty if it were not for Light It were all one as if a Man were blind or had no Eye So it is all one if it were not for Christ whether there were such a thing as Faith or no such thing as Faith It were of no value or Account if it were not for him And therefore I beseech you keep all this strictly in your Thoughts Faith is excellent Why because Christ is excellent and it hath to do with him It hath a great many Subordinations of Excellency on this side Christ but its great Excellency is it touches Christ And then In the second Place I beseech you let us always mind this the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ Don't think of his Benefits divided from his Person for God gives you his Son he gives you his Son first and Principally but when he gives you his Son all his Benefits come with him There is Pardon Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption every thing comes in by Jesus Christ He gives you Christ himself first It is He that is made this to us There are so many Scriptures in this Point that I don't know where to stay when I come to consider it As now He that hath the Son hath Life And God gives his Son and all things together with Him And we have not Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption as it were apart that God sends them by themselves and we have them And though Christ be to be known to be the Author only of them it is no matter whether we mind him further or not I say this is not the Truth of the thing But ye are of God in Christ Jesus who is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness c. And you cannot have them except you have Christ first you must have him first and unite first with him But that which I shall pitch upon is Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me But indeed the first and principal thing that we are to look to in Christ is Redemption