time he gives faith and Christ and Justification and Sanctification all at once as soon as the person believes he is united to Christ and hereupon justified and sanctified And others of them are of a comfortable consequence as assurance joy peace c. God doth not give these blessings first of all but after he hath given the former Ephes 1. 13. In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise mark the sealing follows the believing 1 Pet. 1. 8. In whom believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory here rejoycing follows believing Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God peace with God follows justification and therefore is it a preposterous course for any troubled souls to presse God or to expect from God the comforts and joys and assurances promised before they have faith and are in Christ for though God doth promise these things yet he promises to give them in an orderly way the graces first and then the comforts of grace faith and union with Christ first and then the joys and peace depending upon that union 5. When God undertakes to give all blessings unto his people in Covenant this He gives according to the proportions and measures he knows best for us in our places and conditions must be understood according to the proportion and measure which he knows best for us in our places and conditions There is a measure of apprehension of Christ and of our justification by Christ and of our salvation by Christ God gives a greater and clearer and more fixed measure of the apprehension or reflexive knowledge of these to some of his people then he doth to others of them And there is a measure of holinesse some have higher and some have weaker degrees of grace now in Gods undertaking to give all spiritual blessings you must not think that God intends to give every measure or degree of grace at once nor yet the like degree of grace unto every one nor yet the like measure of comfortable evidences or apprehensions of interest in Christ and remission and salvation by him no but God will give all Covenant-blessings unto all his people in such a proportion and measure in this life as may conduce most to his glory and may most fit them in their private and publick conditions for his better service Vse 1 Strive to believe and acknowledge this truth that God himself doth undertake to give all the blessings of the Covenant which do concern his Believe and acknowledge this truth people Object Why will you say no man doubts it or scruples it but it belongs to God and to him alone to give all c. Sol. I wish that â—â—me were true but if indeed this were so then 1. Why do not we in all our wants and necessities make our prime applications unto God Why do we think least of him and last of him we run to this creature and to that creature set up one friend and look upon another try all the powers and abilities here below as if God were least of all concerned in the donation of our mercies and blessings if we did indeed believe that God himself undertakes all blessings for us then our first addresses would be unto him our first work and our great work would be with himself alone to do us good 2. Why do our hearts go and come rise and fall according to the presence and absence of visible means and helps in the prevalence of them our hearts are raised up with hopes and in the absence of them they are distracted and cast down with fears Would it be thus with us if we did indeed believe that God himself undertook to give us all our blessings certainly we place our hopes and expectations below and besides God himself when inferiour causes have such a command and such an influence upon our hearts If we did believe that God himself that he alone were sufficient and faithful it would be all one to us whether the creatures smile or frown incline toward us or fall from us 3. Why do we not only for temporal supplies but also for spiritual mercies undertake for our selves and as it were discharge God from undertaking for us How often do we undertake the spiritual charge of our hearts and to make our own hearts to repent and to believe and to subdue our own sins and to do such and such commands of God by our own free-will and by our own strength if we did believe that God himself undertakes for all these and that it belongs unto him alone to give them would we presume upon our selves thus would we take his work out of his hands 4. Why dare we not in our exigency commit all unto him and quietly rest on him but when our helps and hopes are reduced only unto him so that unlesse he himself appears we can cast Anchor nowhere else and although in such cases he doth plainly appear in his Covenant graciously undertaking and faithfully promising to help and blesse us yet this is nothing to us it doth no way affect or support us assuredly either we do not know this God aright or else we do not believe that he himself doth undertake for us or else that he will performe and Not to believe and acknowledge this truth is a great sin Wherein the sinfulnesse of it lies make good what himself hath undertaken Beloved Consider what I say this is a very great sin thus to fall short in the belief and acknowledgement of this truth for 1. You deny God to be God in the Covenant you do as it were shut him out from being a party there and concerned there though indeed he be the confederating party and we are the confederated party yet you include him and deny him to be so when that you believe not that it belongs to him to be the suscipient party and your selves to be the recipient party only for I beseech you what will you make of Gods covenanting with you more than a cypher if you do not grant and acknowledge him therein as engaging himself to give us all the good which we do need What other work is there which can or doth concern him 2. And you do hereby deny all homage unto him for how can you 〈◊〉 unto him for any one good that you want or trust on him for any one â—â—â—cy if you do not acknowledge this truth that he himself undertakes to give all blessings and mercies unto you and where will you put your mite of thankfulnesse for all your receits of blessings if God himself did not undertake to give you the blessings what ground have you to undertake to give him the praise of them Therefore earnestly strive by faith to assent unto this truth which I have delivered it is of more consequence than you are aware of it is that which gives life unto you in all your dealings with God and which may
Rom. 6. 14. Here you see expresly that there is a freedome from the dominion of sinne even upon this account that we are under the Covenant of grace Though you be not totally freed from the inhabitation of sinne for sinne doth dwell in us whiles we dwell on earth and though you be not totally freed from the rebellion of sinne for peccatum hostis est quamdiu est The flesh lusteâ—h against the spirit Gal. 5. 17. and there is a law in our members warring against the law of our minds Rom. 7. 23. yet you are totally freed from the dominion of sinne which consists in the effectual Rule Command and Sovereign strength of sinne and a free and full and willing subjection or obedience unto the Law and authority of sinne and verily this freedome or deliverance is a wonderful mercy and happinesse unto the people of God whither you consider 1. The great and utmost distance twixt you and God 2. The basenâ—sse of servitude in which every one lives over whom sinne hath dominion for of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage 2 Pet. 2. 19. You were but very slaves to your lusts and to the devil whiles sinne did rule over you 3. The height of enmity As you were the basest of slaves so you were the worst of enemies living not only as aliens without God but as desperate enemies opposing and fighting against God 4. The superfluity of naughtinesse a full contrariety your whole hearts and your whole lives were nothing else but a constant dishonour unto God and contradiction to his Will and Glory 5. The certainty of destruction which would infallibly have attended you had not the mercy and grace of God rescued and delivered you I say certain destruction to your souls as there is a certain destruction to the life of our bodies if we fall into the sea and lie under it 6. The sweet and immediate communion 'twixt the deliverance from the dominion of sinne and admission to the Kingdome of Christ It is a translation from death to life The Apostle joins these together in Colos 5. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and hath translated us into the Kingdome of his dear Sonne 3. They have immunity or freedome from the damnation meritoriously depending upon the guilt of sinne As salvation depends upon the merits of Christ so From damnation for sinne doth damnation depend on the merit of sinne There is so much merit in sinne as to render us obnoxious not only to temporal destruction but also to eternal destruction for the wages of sinne is death even that death which stands in opposition to eternal life Rom. 6. 23. But from the effectual redundancy of this damnation upon your persons you are every one freed who are in Covenant with God For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. And whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life John 3. 15. And the ground of this your immunity from the damnation due unto you for your sinnes is the satisfaction which Christ hath made for your sinnes unto the justice of God and thereupon the obtaining of riches of mercy from your God who according to his Covenant with you blots out and forgives all your sinnes and never remembers them any more For this is a sure truth that remission of sinnes and actual damnation for sinnes are incompatible or inconsistent Now whether this be any cause of comfort that you and your sinnes are parted and that you and hell are for ever separated I leave it to any one of you to judge for mine own part I do look upon four things as very great mercies 1. That I am delivered from the power of sinne 2. That I enjoy the pardon of sinne 3. That I shall never be damned for sinne 4. That I shall be saved notwithstanding all my sinnes 4. They have immunity or freedome from justification by the Law from all legal From justification by the Law tryals for life Although you are not freed from the Law as it is a rule for life yet you are freed from the Law as it is a Covenant of life although you are not freed from the Law as it is the image of the good and holy will of God yet because you are under the Covenant of grace you are freed from the Law as it is a reason of salvation and justification The Covenant of grace takes you off from that Court and that Bar which pronounceth life upon your own good works and pronounceth death upon your own evil works Rom. 3. 28. We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law Gal. 3. 11. No man is justified by the Law in the sight of God for the just shall live by faith As the Law calls for perfect and personal righteousnesse of our own so the Law will not justifie you it will not give life unto you unlesse it finds that righteousnesse in you you live not if you be not perfectly righteous absolution is pronounced upon your own perfect innocency and condemnation is pronounced upon any defect or breach And verily upon this account no man living can or shall be justified therefore here is comfort that being in Christ and in this Covenant of grace ye are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses See the Apostle Acts 13. 39. Your life doth not lie now in your own righteousnesse but in the righteousnesse of Christ nor doth it depend upon your own works but upon the obedience of Christ That expression of Luther is an excellent expression Christus solus me justificat contra mea mala opera sine operibus meis bonis Though my works have been very good yet not those but Christ doth justifie me and though my works have been very ill yet the righteousnesse of Christ can and will justifie me my evil works shall not damne me and my good works cannot acquit me it is Christ it is Christ and not the Law which justifies me 5. They have immunity or liberty from the rigour of the Law The Law in the rigour of it exacts of us a most absolute obedience a most exquisite and full obedience From the rigor of the Law it will not abate us the least grain or scruple if it be not every way adequate for matter and manner and measure your obedience will not passe nor will it be accepted according to the rigour of the Law Cursed is every one who doth not continue in every thing that is written to do it But when once you are under the Covenant of grace when once God is your God and you are his people neither you nor your services are judged by the exactnesse of your services but by the sincerity of your hearts Though much be wanting which the Law prescribes yet if that be present which your merciful God and Father
Spirit He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit and he hath received the Spirit the Spirit of Christ who is in Christ But I have I but I have not the Spirit not that Spirit I finde him not I feele him not Answered Sâ—l This also is a truth that the communion of the Spirit is inseparably annexed to union with Christ And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of Christs But then know 1. You must consider in what posture a Christian must be who may judge of the presence In what posture a Christian must be who may judge of the presence or absence of the Spirit or absence of the Spirit of Christ in him 1. He must be out of melancholy 2. Out of violent temptation 3. Out of Desertion He must be himself see himself that he is able and fit to judge Spiritual works and to compare things together and to weigh all that may be said in the ballance of the Sanctuary If thou be in this free posture and upon diligent search and serious consideration canst finde not any one effect of communion with Christ the case is very heavy But I believe the contrary touching thee O weak Christian when those above mentioned impediments are off so that thou art able to use the light of grace and of a renewed conscience much of Christ and from Christ will be found in thee a love of thy Christ a delight in thy Christ a heart ready and willing to hear and to obey thy Christ Distinguish of vital and vivifical acts 2. Distinguish of vital acts and of vivifical acts that is effects of a real union and effects of a comfortable union The estate of a comfortable union and communion thou dost not perhaps espy at present viz. Not actual joy not actual chearfulness not actual assurances O but though you do not finde the childe smiling yet if you finde it living there is union There are yet the effects and characters of life and of vital union and communion with Christ though not of a comfortable communion there is yet a breathing after Christ a hunting after Christ an heart renewed and changed an image of Christ unto which thou art changed and conformed a will agreeing with the will of Christ an end agreeing with the end of Christ c. And yet thou canst serve thy Christ in tears though thou canst not serve him in joyes and though the Spirit of Christ be not seen so as to comfort thee yet he is found so as to lead and uphold thee 3. There is a communion by way of influence and a communion by way of eminency and a communion by way of evidence and all these depend upon union with Christ There is communion by way of influence and of eminency and of evidence 1. Communion by way of influence when we partake of the Nature and Life of Christ ye are made partakers of the Divine Nature saith Peter Christ liveth in me saith Paul 2. A communion by way of eminency when Christ appears mighty in the soule in the large and high and strong degrees of acting of particular graces of faith of love of patience of self-denial of zeale of wisdome of humility 3. A communion by way of evidence as when Christ kisseth the soule with the kisses of his lips That is when he sheds abroad his love into our hearts by the Spirit which he hath given us and makes us to know that he loves us and saith by his Spirit unto our hearts I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine Perhaps you have not attained to this last communion with Christ to this Osculumoris and perhaps you have not attained to the second of these which as Bernard speaks is Osculum manus well But yet you have attained to the first of these which is Osculum pedis perhaps you have not the sensible manifestations and impressions and seals of his favour by his spirit but yet you are young men in Christ and strong in the might of his Spirit perhaps you are not come to the strength of the Spirit but yet you are babes in Christ yet the liâ—e of Christ is in you you have that Spirit of Christ in way of influence which brings you into fellowship with Christ in his death and in his resurrection ye are dead to sin and you are alive unto righteousness and Christ is setting up himself in your hearts more and more Be not discouraged this shews true union with Christ for ever This is the communion of the Spirit of Christ when our hears are fashioning and conforming to Christ and have any part of his image stamped upon us If you can finde any one grace depending upon and flowing from union with Christ that is enough to satisfie you about the communion of the Spirit and that you have the faith which hath indeed united you unto Christ I but I am under much weakness of grace and many wants Ob. But if I had indeed this faith which unites to Christ I should not all this while have lived with so much weaknesse of grace and under so many spiritual wants certainly I should have found more of the strength and of the fulnesse of Christ who filleth all in all Answered Sol. I grant it for a truth that the right union is an imparting and strengthening and supplying union Whosoever is united to Christ indeed by faith to him is Christ a supplying Fountain a feeding Root and an helping Head and he will never leave the communicating of his Spirit unto him untill he hath filled him with all that fulness whereof a lively member of Christ is capable but then remember 1. Comparatively the original and first receptions from Christ are weak and little The first Receptions from Christ are weak as the seed that is cast into the earth or as the light which breaks forth in the morning compare the first works of grace with the flowing growth of grace it is but as the babe to the strong man but as the Lambe to the sheep I believe Lord help my unbelief this is that most of Faith at first Thou knowest that I love thee this is the highest of your love at first whom I serve with or in my spirit this is the greatest of our obedience at the first 2. The Communications of Christ unto the soule united by faith unto him are The communications of Christ are partly for justification and partly in sanctification Justification is perfect partly for justification and partly in Sanctification His communications in Justification are at once and full and perfect as soon as you are by faith united unto Christ you are perfectly reconciled to God you are perfectly cloathed with the righeousness of Christ you are perfectly pardoned all your sins your peace is so perfectly made with God that you cannot be more fully reconciled you have the righteousness of Christ so perfectly imputed to you that you cannot be
promise of forgivenesse of sins upon the condition of Faith The promise of forgiveness upon condition of Faith Acts 10. 43. Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins And truely if we do seriously consider the matter we must acknowledge that faith is the only condition of the Covenant of grace wherein God becomes our God and we become his people and by which therefore we become heirs of all the promises of God and consequently of the promise of the forgiveness of sins none are the children of God and heirs of the Promises but by Faith Thirdly It is expresly taken in to the justification of a sinner So taken in that by no other means he can be justified and by this only he must be justified It is expresly taken in to the justification of a sinner Rom. 3. 28. We conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law Gal. 5. 4. Christ is become of none effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace You know that the forgiveness of our sins is only in our justification and that the justification of a sinner is as to him only of grace being justified freely by his grace Rom. 3. 23. And that the sinner is justified by faith and by faith only that so it may be of grace and therefore there is a necessity of faith for the pardon of sins c. Fourthly It is impossible to finde remission of our sins out of Christ forasmuch No remission out of Christ as his blood only was shed for the remission of sins Matth. 26. 28. And in him only we have redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of sins Ephes 1. 7. â—nd him only hath God set forth to be a propitiation and to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sin Rom. 3. 25. And it is as impossible to enjoy Christ without Faith which is the only grace on our part to receive Christ to joyn us unto Christ and by which Christ doth dwell in us Now if we cannot have the forgiveness of sins but we must first have Christ and we cannot have Christ but by faith there is then a necessity of faith for the remission of sins Fifthly If for want of Faith we shall certainly lose the remission of sins then the presence of faith is necessary for the forgiveness of sins this Consequence For want of Faith we lose the remission of sins cannot be denied by any rational Christian but the want of faith will certainly lose us the forgiveness of sins three places will clear that Mar. 16. 16. He that believeth not shall be damned Joh. 3. 36. He that believes not shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him Joh. 8. 24. If ye believe not that I am he you shall dye in your sins If for want of faith we dye in our sins shall not see life shall be damned have the wrath of God still abiding on us then for want of faith we do certainly lose the remission of our sins for these are utterly inconsistent with remission but you read that for want of faith we shall dye in our sins c. Ergo there is a necessity of the presence of Faith for the forgiveness of our sins 2. As there is a necessity of the presence of faith so is there a necessity of the use or exercise of Faith for the remission of sins For as in the Covenant of works A necessity of the use and exercise of faith actual obedience was necessary to enjoy the life then promised so in the Covenant of grace actual believing is necessary to enjoy Christ and forgiveness purchased by him and promised in him Now there are two acts of faith especially required in every one who would enjoy the forgiveness of his sins 1. One is an Act of acceptance 2. The other is an Act of reliance on Christ only for that forgivenesse promised First An Act of acceptance his soul must be brought into Christ acknowledge An act of acceptance and consent to receive him and whole Christ with the whole heart If a man think thus I will have my sins forgiven me but I care not for Christ my heart cannot comply with him his Commands are too strick and his wayes are too holy for me I cannot yield to be his upon such terms as he requires Let me tell you plainly and faithfully you shall never have your sins pardoned why because the forgiveness of sins is promised upon this condition if you do believe and receive Christ You may as well say that you will be saved for ever in heaven but you will not believe you will not receive Christ you will not be his No no a Communion in what he hath purchased cannot possibly be without a precedent union with himself all the Benefits and all the Priviledges by Christ are communicable only unto them who are Christs to them there is no condemnation but c. Secondly Besides this Act of acceptance of Christ there must be also an An act of reliance Act of reliance on Christ and on him only for the forgiveness of your sins Put the case you do repent of your sins yea put the case thaâ—â—ou do by faith receive Christ if now you do rely on your Repentance and on your Faith or on any other thing besides Christ for the forgiveness of your sins you will certainly lose the forgiveness of them If you should say God will forgive me for my tears sake for my grief sake for my confession sake for my turning sake for my believing sake but not for Christs sake you will certainly miss of pardoning mercy because all forgiveness of sins unto us is for Christs sake Ephes 4. 32. Forgiving one another as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you 1 Joh. 2. 12. Your sins are forgiven you for his Name sake So then there is a necessity of such an act of faith as to rely only on Christ as the reason of the pardon of your sins i. e. to trust on his Righteousness on his Redemption on his blood only as the All sufficicient and as the effectual reason of your forgiveness c. Secondly The second thing which I would shew unto you is what that Faith is What that faith is that is so necessary which is so necessary for us if that we would enjoy the forgiveness of our sins For as to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Repentance we generally grant it for a truth that men must repent iâ— they will have their sins forgiven so as to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of faith it is generally granted that men must believe and if they do truely believe their sins shall be forgiven But the difficulty is what this faith is which intitles us unto and really assures remission of sins And great reason there is to clear this because of the general confidence in men that they have faith and
Here take notice of five particulars 1. God will shew unto his people the riches of his mercy and the exceeding riches of his grace even those hidden and unsearchable Treasures of his loving kindness God will shew his people the riches of his mercy such as infinitely excâ—ed all the mercies and all the kindness of men not only for acting but also for thinking and comprehending Ephes 2. 7. That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in kindnesse towarâ—s us through Jesus Christ Chap. 3. 30. To him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think c. Now although the pardon of sin doth assure us that God hath mercy and grace yet it must be the pardon of all our sins which doth demonstrate the exceeding riches of his grace To pardon a few sins and to damn us for the rest this is not exceeding riches of grace nor exceeding abundance of mercy nor exceeding great kindness 2. The Reasons within God himself yea and the Reason without God are both of The reasons within God and without him are of an universal obligation them of an universal and total obligation from God to pardon all the sins of his people as well as any one of their sins The Reason within God himself which moves him to forgive the sins of his people is his own love and grace they are a ground of perfect mercy and forgiveness Now the same love and grace which moveth him to pardon one doth likewise move him to pardon all the sins of his people Again the Reason of forgiveness without God which is the meritorious sufferings of Christ on which God also looks for he forgives us for Christs sake Ephes 4. 32. this is an universal motive for Christ did not suffer for some of the sins of the Elect and not for other of their sins he did not dye for some of the gâ—eater sins only or for some of the lesser sins only but for all and every one of their sins and accordingly made such a satisfaction as reached to the discharge of all 3. This must necessarily be granted that when God forgives the sins of his Whose sins God forgives he becomes their friend people he doth then shew so much of his grace that he now becomes their friend and so much of his love towards them that he ceaseth to be their enemy O but if all their sins were not forgiven but if some were and some were not then this inequality of his grace and partiality of his love would at the same time set him out as our friend and also as our enemy and would also at the same time set us forth as a people of love and a people of hatred so far as we are forgiven there you see the love of a Father and so far as we are not forgiven we may also see the wrath of a Judge 4. He qualifies his people for an universal remission of their sins in bestowing on them such gracious qualities upon the presence and actings whereof he hath He qualifies his people for an universal remission by promise assured them of that universal Remission For he hath given such a Repentance by which their hearts are turned from the love unto the hatred of all sin and from the service of all sin to a contrary course of new obedience And upon this doth God expresly settle a forgiveness of all sin Ezek. 18. 21 22. He hath likewise given such a Faith unto his people which joynes and unites them to Christ and consequently gives them a full claim unto Justification Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by Faith Now Justification is opposed to condemnation Rom. 8. 33 34. and therefore it carries with it the forgivenesse of all sins 5. There is such a Relation and such a love between God and his people as The relation and love betwixt God and his people proves it must necessarily take in the forgivenesse of their sins The relation is very near and full of love and delight in his people and they are very dear unto his heart his soul delighteth in them and all the tokens of his loving kindness are sent unto them and bestowed on them his presence is with them and he takes up his habitation in their hearts he dwells in them they are his Temples where they meet with him and he with them Now none of these would be if yet any of their sins stood before his eyes as unpardoned For unpardoned sins make a separation and distance and so are contrary to the nearness of union and likewise do hold up a difference and an enmity and so the contrary to all gracious communion Thirdly A third Argument which may demonstrate that the forgiveness of sins is univesal it is of all sins to the people of God is this viz. The consideration From the gracious effects of forgivenesse of sins of forgivenesse of sinnes as a sure ground of many precious effects redowning thereby unto the people of God The Scripture delivers five of them unto us 1. One is Peace with God Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by Faith we have peace with God 2. Another is Peace in Conscience which if I mistake not the Apostle calls the peace of God which passeth all understanding Phil. 4. 7. and Psal 85. 8. He will speak peace unto his people c. 3. A third is Joy and rejoycing We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ having now received the attonement Rom. 5. 11. 4. A fourth is the hope of glory The Apostle delivers this as the proper effect of our justification Rom. 5. 1 2. 5. A fifth is a boldnesse of accesse unto the throne of grace that we may finde grace and mercy to help in time of need Heb. 4. 16. Which of these fruits could any of the people of God enjoy were not all their sins forgiven Did any of their sins yet stand upon Record did God yet hold them guilty 1. Ye could not say that ye have peace with God for God is not at peace with you nor are ye at peace with him whiles enmity continues between you and so it doth whiles any sinne remaines unpardoned Note 2. Nor can you have any peace in Conscience In three cases Conscience cannot be quieted 1. When it sees no forgiveness at all 2ly When it fears it is such a forgiveness as God will quickly recall and reverse And 3ly When it sees only a part of the debt forgiven but much or some of it still standing upon the accompâ— O but saith Conscience your condition is sad and unsafe any one of these sins yet unforgiven will lose your soul will bring you to hell 3. And what joy can you have from a partial forgiveness only suppose the Malefactor be pardoned as to his theft if yet he shall be tried and condemned and executed for murther what joy can he have Simile so if God should pardon some
works 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousness 6. That his obedience unto the Law is propounded as a pattern for us to imitate 1 Joh. 2. 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himsel to walk even as he walked Lastly The Covenant-Faith which is in every one of the people of God as it And so doth the Covenâ—nt faith carries them out to an election of God to be their God so it carries them out unto subjection to God unto obedience Heb. 11. 4. By faith Abel offered up a more excellent sacrifice than Cain Ver. 8. By faith Abraham obeyed God Faith eyes the Word of God for a Rule and warrant and faith propounds unto us the encouragements of the word to quicken our obedience and faith fetches strength from Christ to enable us in all our works of obedience Having spoken these things for the demonstration of the Assertion I shall now speak unto three Questions 1. How this walking in Gods statutes and keeping of his judgements and doing of them may be fixed upon the people of Gods Covenant seeing they are all of them believers and being so are no longer under the Law but are freed and delivered from it 2. What manner of obedience or kind of obedience that is which is required and to be performed by the people of Gods Covenant 3. Why these are in such a special manner thus charged with walking in Gods statutes c. 1. Quest How this walking in Gods statutes c. may be forced upon the people of Gods Covenant seeing they are all under grace and believers and not under How Gods people being not under the Law are bound to obedience the Law as the Apostle expresseth it Rom. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law but under Grace Sol. For a clear Answer unto this Question I will briefly deliver my thoughts in these distinctions First Concerning the Law of God you know there were some of them 1. Ceremonial which consisted in Rites and Ordinances and Shadows typifying Jesus Christ in his sufferings unto which there was a full period put by the death of Christ 2. Judicial which respecteth the Jews as a peculiar Nation and Common-wealth being made and fitted for them as in such a particular polity And all those Judicial Laws especially these de jure particulari are ceased by the cessation of that Nation and polity 3. Moral which are these set down in the Decalogue and are called the ten words or Commandements which God spake and delivered Of the ten Commandements which we call the Moral Law is the question to be understood whether believers or the people in the New Covenant are bound unto them Secondly This Moral Law may be considered either 1. In the Substance of it Or 2ly in the circumstances of it If you consider the Moral Law in the substance of it so it is 1. An eternal manifestation of the mind and will of God declaring what is good and what is evil what we are to do and what we are not to do what duties we How the Moral Law never ceaseth do owe to God and what duties we do owe to our neighbours what worship God requires and what worship God forbids In this consideration the Moral Law never ceaseth in respect of any person whasoever 2. It discovers sinne For Rom. 3. 19. By the Law cometh the knowledge of sin And the Apostle in Rom. 7. 7. I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet In this respect likewise the Law is still in force even unto the people of God it is the glass which shews them unto themselves and the light which manifests the hidden things and works of darkness in them 3. The Rule of life For as the Gospel is the Rule of faith teaching us what to believe so the Moral Law is the Rule of manners teaching us how to live and as to this directing power it is still of force and use unto believers Psal 119. 105. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path Ver. 133. Order my steps in thy Word But then secondly the Law may be considered in respect of its circumstances not as it is a Rule of obedience but as it is a condition of life and as thus considered How it ceaseth 1. It requires a personal and perfect obedience and that under a curse Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all that is written to do it Here now it ceaseth unto the people of God the cursing and condemning power is abrogated Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. 2. It requires an exact obedience as a reason of Justification Do this and live Here likewise the people of God are freed from it who as Luther well speaks shall not be damned for their evil works nor yet shall be justified for their good works but are justified by faith in Christ and the matter of their justification being not inherent righteousness in themselves but only the imputed righteousness of Christ Thus you see in what respects the people of God are freed from and in what respects they are still obliged by the Law The Law hath not power to condem or justifie them and yet it hath a power to direct and instruct them And that it hath such a power unto which we are to conform our selves in obedience may appear thus First By that forementioned place in Matth. 5. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill And in Why the Law hath still a power to command us that Chapter he doth both interpret the Law and commend and command unto his Disciples the duties of the Law And surely it is no way probable that Christ would by his own authority so have confirmed the Law had it been his purpose and business to have cancelled the Law Secondly Paul in Rom. 13. 8. that he might shew and clear that in that one precept of love He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law produceth several precepts of the Law in ver 9. For this Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness Thou shalt not covet And if there be any other Commandement it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self All which were a fruitless proof if the Law had nothing to do with the people of God but utterly ceased to them as to point of obedience In like manner in that place of James 2. 8. If ye fulfill the royal Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye do well but if the Royal Law were abrogated certainly
altogether for sins commands but he devides himself betwixt God and his sinful lusts he will pray but withall he will swear and he will hear the Word but withall he will be drunk he will do many things that are good but withall he will do many things that are wicked Now take heed of this God cannot endure it If God be God follow him 1 King 18. 21. You shall walk in my statutes saith God here i. e. you shall set me up alone and my commands alone and my wayes alone Zeph. 1. 5. I will cut off them that swear by the Lord and that swear by Malcham Rev. 3. 16. Because thou art luke-warm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth Matth. 4. 10. It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Thirdly You must take heed of partiality in walking in Gods statutes We say Take heed of partiality that Lex est copulativa God doth not say you shall do this or do that you shall fear me or you shall love me you shall keep my Sabbath or you shall not take my Name in vain no such matter but the Law is conjunctive and doth require obedience to every commandement of God Jam. 2. 11. For he that said do not commit adultery said also do not kill now if thou commit no adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a transgresser of the Law We read that Jehu did many things which God commanded in order to the destruction of the house of Ahab but yet he disobeyed God in following the sin of Jeroboam which tended to the destruction of his own soul And so Herod heard John Baptist and did many things but yet he kept Herodias his brother Philips wife Right obedience is impartial obedience and he who regards one Commandement of God out of Conscience he doth likewise regard every Commandement of God for there is the same authority stamped on all the Commandements Therefore it is but hypocrisie to regard some of Gods statutes and to disregard others Some men stand much for obedience or duties to the second Table but they mind not the duties oâ— the first Table they seem to make conscience of lying and stealing and killing and adultery but they make no conscience of swearing and taking the Name of God in vain and breaking the sabbâ—th some seem to make conscience of lesser duties but they make no conscience of greater duties and so others â— contrà But God hath not given unto us such a liberty to pick and chuse our work if the Lord commands us the smallest or the greatest duties we are to yield obedience to the one and to the other not neglecting the least nor laying aside the greatest He that is unfaithful in the least will be unfaithful also in the greatest and he that is faithful in the greatest will be also faithful in the least it is a truth that sins of omission will damn a man as well as sins of commission therefore take heed of partiality in keeping of Gods statutes Fourthly You must take heed of resting or relying upon any of your works or Take heed of resting upon duties duties you must endeavour obedience unto Gods Law but you must beware of placing your confidence upon that obedience You must pray and read and hear and mourn and repent and walk holily and humbly with your God and you must live soberly and righteously and godly and fear the Lord and love the Lord and obey his voice and when you have done so to your utmost and to your best then must you cast your Crowns to the ground and weep that you have served your God no more and no better and cry out with the Publican God be merciful to me a sinner and with David Enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal 143. 2. And with him Domine lava quaesâ— lachrymas meas If you advance your duties or works of obedience unto a condition of life to be the matter and reason of your justification before God and say Lord these are my righteousnesses and for these I look to be justified and saved why now as Peter said to Simon Magus Thou and thy money perish with thee So say I now thou and all thy duties will perish together For 1. God commands not works of duty from his people that they should Gods Commands not duties that we should be justified thereby To set up works puls down Christ and faith in him thereby be justified but that thereby himself might be glorified not as reasons of life but as testimonies of love and thankfulness 2. You pull down Jesus Christ and faith in him if you set up any works of yours for life or justification Christ is no Christ unto you and his righteousness is no righteousness unto you if you seek to set up your own works and put confidence in them Gal. 5. 4. Christ is become of nâ—ne effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace 3. It is foolâ—sh and damnable so to do For when you have done all that you can do you are but unprofitable servants The least duties that ever you have performed Iâ—s foolish and damnable have enough in them to damn you There is much sinfulness and much weakness and much shortness in them which if God should mark you could never stand before him Remember this for a certain truth that he who would come to heaven must take heed of his good works as well as of his evil works they will damn him and if he place his confidence upon his good works they will destroy him Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us Fifthly You must take heed of performing duties or obeying Gods statutes Take heed of false ends for false ends As 1. To recompence God 2ly To give him satisfaction for the evil that you have done 3ly To offer them up as purchasers of mercies and blessings 4ly To look on them as your propitiation and peace-makers 5ly Only to quiet and still your consciences 6ly Out of vain-glory and to please men First You must not perform duties nor present them to God as compensations Duties must not be performed by way of compensation or recompence unto God for the blessings and benefits which God hath vouchsafed unto you There is a difference between thankfulness for blessings and requitals for blessings we ought to be thankful unto God and to return praises and obedience after the receit of his mercies offer unto God thansgiving Psal 50. 14. And praise is comely for the upright Psal 33. 1. But to recompence God again by any good that we can do for any good that he hath done this may not be and this cannot be Job 35. 7. said Eliphaz to Job If thou be righteous what givest
Law given on Mount Sinai though materially it respected works yet formally and intentionally it was not then given and established as a Covenant of works by which we should be justified and live this I shall afterwards make evident and therefore shall say no more unto it at the present 5. The Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace do differ in the condition In the condition of life promised of life promised in both Life is promised in both Covenants but upon different conditions Do this and live saith the Covenant of works Believe on Jesus Christ and live saith the Covenant of grace The condition of the one consists in giving The condition of the other consists in receiving The condition of the one is to give in a perfect righteousness of our own unto God and the condition of the other is by faith to receive a perfect righteousnesse from Christ In the Covenant of nature or of works there is forum justitiae where the sentence of absolution passeth if we be found righteous and the sentence of condemnation if we be found unrighteous the question is not then about faith but love not whether you believ'd but whether you obey'd But in the Covenant of grace there is forum misericordiae and the sentence of absolution passeth not upon our doing but upon our believing and the sentence of condemnation passeth upon all unbelievers Now here fall in two notable questions 1. Question Whither faith were not required in the Covenant of works Whether faith were not required in the Covenant of works How faith was rerequired Sol. To this I answer three things 1. Faith was required in the Covenant of works as Faith may be taken either for a dependance on God the only Authour of being and blessing or for an expectation of that good of life which God promised with a reliance upon God for it or for a perswasion of Gods love to him and acceptance of his obedience whil'st continuing upright with God As to these considerations of faith Adam who lived under the Covenant of works had faith and did exercise it for he was bound to acknowledge God as the only fountaine of his good and to depend upon him as so And he was bound to believe the possession of that life which God promised to him whil'st he should continue perfectly obedient and likewise he was bound to be perswaded of the love of God unto him in that course of obedience and also the acceptance of his obediential services unto God 2. But that faith which respected the Covenant of works was different from that faith which respects the Covenant of grace and is now required For 1. How not required That faith was such as looked on a promise of life made by God to a perfect creature and as so continuing but that faith which respects the Covenant of grace looks upon the promise of God in Christ made in respect to us sinners and lost in our selves 2. That faith looked on God as a creatour and preserver but this faith looks on God as a Redeemer and merciful Father 3. That faith was natural concreated with Adam not raised nor infused in a Gospel-way but this faith is now promised and infused in a supernatural way by the Spirit of Christ through the dispensation of the Gospel 4. That faith could not be at all in any but so long as he was perfectly righteous and therefore it ceased upon the cessation of that righteousnesse it was principally grounded upon inherent Righteousnesse But this faith is in a sinner who hath no righteousnesse of his own but relies upon the righteousness of another even the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ 3. Although there was a kind of faith in Adam under the Covenant of works Faith not required in both for the same end yet that faith was not for this end and purpose to be the condition of that Covenant There it was a part of his righteousnesse but was not stipulated as the condition of life as that upon which his life and justification did depend But the faith required in the Covenant of grace comes in purposely as the condition of life and justification for the sinner 2. Quest. Whither the Covenant of grace doth not require works as well Whether the Covenant of grace requires works Works are required in both as the Covenant of nature or of works If so what difference is there then between them as to doing Sol. Questionlesse the Covenant of grace requires good works This is a faithful saying saith Paul Tit. 3. 8. and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which believe in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works Matth. 5. 16. But yet there is a vast difference betwixt the good works as required in the Covenant of works But with a difference and as required in the Covenant of grace They differ in their spring and fountain and they differ in their manner of Wherein this difference lies working but herein especially they differ as to these Covenants that in the one they are a condition of life but in the other Testimonies and Evidences of life in the one they are the matter of life and justification in the other they are nothing at all they are no part no reason they have no intrest or hand at all in the justification of a sinner Faith therein wholly excludes them and fixeth only on the righteousnesse of Christ Although they are alwayes present in the justified man yet they are never present in his justification before God 6. The Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace do differ thus The In the one the least sin undoes the sinner least sin undoes the sinner under the Covenant of works but it doth not so in the Covenant of grace The Covenant of works passeth sentence against you upon the least obliquity Cursed is every one that continueth not in every thing to do it and you have no remedy against this sentence in the Covenant of works But it is not so in the Covenant of grace This is a Remedy and a Sanctuary and a City of Refuge against the sentence passed in the Covenant of works In the other there is a remedy If the condemned and distressed sinner can fly unto and reach to the Covenant of grace Christ will satisfie for him and make his peace and procure mercy for him Nay the Covenant of grace deals more favourably with us It doth not cast us out for every transgression but as a father pities his child that serves him so doth the Lord pity them that feare him Psal 103. 13. Unlesse we utterly violate the Covenant of grace we may yet find grace and mercy If any man sinne we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes
1 John 2. 1 2. 7. The Covenant of works if we could attain unto it would now be matter The one would be matter of glorying in our selves of glorying in our selves If Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory Rom. 4. 2. The elder brother who represented these work-men how did he boast himself These many years did I serve thee neither transgressed I at any time thy Commandment c. Luke 15. 29. I am not as other men said that proud Pharisee you might have challenged life by a debt by the Covenant of works To him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of grace but of debt Rom. 4. 4. You might have earned happinesse if I may so speak at your fingers ends and might have demanded your wages after you had done your work But the Covenant of grace cuts off all boasting and glorying The other cuts off all boasting in our selves Where is boasting then it is excluded by what Law of works nay but by the Law of faith Rom. 3. 27. And Jesus Christ is made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption That according as it is written he that glorieth might glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. You cannot glory in your wisdome for that you have from Christ nor in your sanctification for that you have from Christ c. you have all from Christ therefore all your glorying must be in Christ There is a twofold glorying one in the Testimony of conscience this you may have who are under the Covenant of grace 2 Cor. 1. 12. Another is A twofold glorying in the confidence of our own works This the Covenant of grace doth utterly exclude God forbid that I should glory save in the crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 6. 14. All is of grace by the Covenant of grace all is given and freely given Christ is given and grace is given and mercy is given and life is given and salvation is given and therefore all boasting and glorying in our selves is excluded by the Covenant of grace 8. They differ thus The Covenant of works breeds terrours and fear and The one breeds fear and terror despair If a man expect life by it his heart must sink within him considering how short he is of that righteousnesse therein required for life as also that abundance of unrighteousnesse in himself exposing him to wrath from a just God But the Covenant of grace is a ministration of life and peace and joy and The other is a ministration of life boldnesse you have here a sure refuge to fly unto a sure Rock to stand upon and a sure Anchor to trust unto 9. There are many other differences between them as the impossibility of Other differences summed up life by the one as the case now stands and the certainty of life by the other and the diversity of life promised in the one from that in the other and a difference in respect of the seals for the one and for the other And a difference in respect of extent The Covenant of works was with all men but this with believers only And a difference in respect of Appeals though you may appeal from the Covenant of works to the Covenant of grace yet there is no appeal from the Covenant of grace c. But I shall not stay any longer upon this first particular only by the way make some few Uses from the consideration of both these Covenants 1. Use In what a miserable condition are all unbelievers and impenitent persons who are strangers and forreiners to the Covenant of grace enemies to Christ and therefore utterly disinterested in the Covenant of grace Surely In what a miserable condition are all unbelievers mercy is not to be found in any other Covenant but in this In the Covenant of works you are condemned and accursed by reason of transgression your lives are forfeited you are under the curse cursed is every one c. Neither doth the Covenant of works mitigate or reverse or alter the sentence It admits of no mercy at all Mercy which is the only remedy against it is found only in the Covenant of grace There is the Throne of grace set up and there is the Mercy-seat to be found But unbelievers because they refuse Christ and impenitent sinners because they choose their sinnes exclude themselves from Christ and from this Covenant of grace and therefore they shall live and die accursed and condemned men 2. Vse See and admire the infinite goodnesse of God in making this Covenant Admire the goodness of God in making this Covenant of grace of grace not insisting on the other Covenant of works not holding us unto it to take us as it were out of the hand of justice and to put us into the hand of mercy not to sue the old bond but to make a new treaty that so he might pardon our former transgressions What infinite goodnesse was this Oh! this was exceeding pity and exceeding kindnesse and exceeding goodnesse to take off the yoke of bondage and to bring us into the bond of a new Covenant to set up a Mediatour to make another Covenant where we might yet find life mercy and peace not to deal with us in justice but in mercy not according to the desert of our doings but according to the riches of his grace in Christ 3. Use Here is singular support unto troubled consciences unto all who are Here is support for troubled consciences wounded with the sense of their sinnes and of their own inability to satisfie Gods justice and of their utter unworthinesse of mercy Indeed if you look into the Covenant of works in this condition there is no comfort for you no help for you no hope for you That Covenant speaks not one word of grace of mercy of peace of hope at all but if it sends you sinners it pronounceth you cursed Yet in this case if you look to the Covenant of grace there is hope and help The Covenant of grace looks not at the righteous but at sinners and it holds out a satisfaction made by Christ which could never be made by the sinner and as it hath mercy for sinners so it communicates that mercy freely unto every mourning broken-hearted penitent and believing sinner yea it doth not only comprehend mercy but every grace which makes us capable of mercy and that to be freely given by God to them that seek him 4. Use Take heed of resting upon your own works of seeking life and justification Rest not upon your works from them and for them this is to set up the Covenant of works and this is to seek life and justification in a way where it is impossible for a sinner to find it and you utterly overthrow the Covenant of grace by it The Covenant of works by which if you will be justified supposeth personal perfect and stedfast righteousnesse neither admits it of any
himself to hate every sinne to love all good to delight in the Lord to walk with God till he finde working in him the power of holinesse Vse 4 Is the Covenant of grace an holy Covenant then strive to be holy persons bewaile your former unholinesse and want of holinesse and oppositions and Strive to be holy persons contempts and reproaches of holinesse and as you desire to enâ—oy Gâ—d for your God and the mercies and comforts and hopes and happinesse of the Covenant so desire to be holy If holinesse be one of the great ingredients if it be the lively testimony of the people in Covenant with God if it be the expresse Will and Command of God for all in Covenant with him if it be the excellency of your natures if it be the necessary and certaine way of happinesse then be not ashamed be not averse to holinesse any more c. Quest And what is to be done that we may be holy What is to be done that we may be holy Beg of God to make you holy Sol. I will tell you what is to be done 1. Beseech the holy God to make you holy holinesse is attributed to God 1. Essentially he is holinesse it self 2. Infinitely there are no bounds of his holinesse And 3. Causally and therefore Christ prayed for his Disciples to his Father John 17. 17. Sanctifie them c. And the Apostle for the Thessalonâ—ans 1 Thes 5. 23. The God of peace sanctifie you And God hath promised to give his holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11. 13. And he hath sanctified those that were very unholy 1 Cor. 6. 11 12. Such were some of you but you are washed but you are sanctified And besides all this this prayer is well-pleasing to God Lord make me holy I would not grieve and dishonour thee any more I would not be vile 2. Attend the holy Word and wait upon God therein to work holinesse in Attend to the holy Word you John 15. 3. Ye are clean through the Word which I spake unto you John 17. 17. Sanctifie them through thy Word thy Word is truth The Word is compared to cleansing water to Fullers sope which whitens to refining fire which separates the drosse and purifies the mettal the hearts of sinners are changed by it so was Pauls and so those Jewes in Acts 2. 3. 4. 3. Get Faith to unite you to Christ who is made Sanctification to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. Get faith to unite us to Christ Make use of the promises 4. Make use of the promises as 2 Cor. 7. 1. SECT VII A seventh property of this Covenant is this It is a sure and stedfast Covenant It is a sure and stedfast Covenant Deut. 7. 9. The Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant with them that love him 2 Chron. 6. 14. O Lord God which keepest Covenant 2 Sam. 23. 5. He hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure Psa 19. 7. The testimony of the Lord is sure Psal 93. 5. Thy testimonies are very sure That is called sure A thing is called sure which is not a lye 1. Which is not a lye but a truth In this respect the Covenant is a sure Covenant It is no lye Psal 89. 35. I will not lye unto David Hab. 2. 7. At the end the vision shall speak and not lye Titus 1. 2. In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began It is a truth Micah 7. 20. Thou wilt perform the truth unto Jacob. Psalme 132. 11. The Lord hath sworne in truth Psalme 91. 4. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler 2. Which will not faile but will certainly come to passe it will be accomplished it will answer hope and expectation every way In this respect also Which will not fail the Covenant is sure Psal 89. 33. I will not suffer my faithfulnesse to faile Hab. 2. 3. It will surely come though it tarry wait for it Jer. 32. 41. I will rejoyce over them to do them good and I will plant them in this Land assuredly Verse 42. I will bring upon them all the good that I have promised them 1 Kings 8. 56. There hath not failed one word of all his good promise 3. Which alters not In this respect also is the Covenant sure Psal 89. 28. My Covenant shall stand fast with him Verse 34. My Covenant will I not Which alters not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips Isa 54. 10. The mountains shall remove and the hills shall fall down but my mercy shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace fall away saith the Lord that hath compassion on thee 2 Cor. 1. 20. All the promises of God in him are Yea and in him Amen unto the glory of God by us There are two things unto which I would briefly speak concerning this property of the Covenant namely the surenesse or certainty of it 1. Quest How it may be demonstrated That the Covenant of grace is a sure How it is demonstrated to be a sure Covenant It depends upon the counsel purpose and love of God Covenant Sol. There are six things to demonstrate or clear it Viz. 1. This Covenant depends upon the counsel of God and the purpose of God and love of God immutable and sure grounds these are as it were the springs and the foundations of the Covenant of grace viz. Gods love unto us his counsel wisely and deliberately contriving for us and his purpose resolving and intending everlasting good unto us Now every one of these is sure and certain The love of God is unchangeable whâ—m he loves once he loves for ever I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jer. 31. 3. The counsel of God is immutable wherein speaking of this Covenant Heb. 6. 17. God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heires of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath The purpose of God is sure So the Apostle 2 Tim. 2. 19. The foundation of God standeth sure that foundation of God is his election which is compared to a foundation because it is that upon which all our good and happinesse is built and because as a foundation it abides firme and sure 2. This Covenant hath as firme and sure Ingredients as can be desired It hath firm and sure ingredients There is in it 1. The presence of what is necessary to the certain performance of the Covenant The presence of what is necessary to the performance of it as There are two things necessary thereunto 1. The power of God 2. The Will of God if God be able and if God will performe his Covenant it is then sure Now let us consider both these in reference to the Covenant 1. The power of
so shall you and Christ was afraid and so shall you and Christ was in an agony and so shall you and Christ did drink the cup of his Fathers wrath so shall you and Christ was made a curse and so shall you Indeed a repenting and believing person may look upon the sufferings of Christ with joy and hope but an impenitent and unbelieving person must look upon them with confusion and horror The more he sees of Christ sorrows and the sharper he findes Christs sorrows the more perplexed may his soule be For what punishments Christ did suffer for sin as to the substance that same must the impenitent and unbelieving person suffer as to the substance yea and as to the circumstance of punishment Christ suffered death and thou shalt suffer eternal death Christ suffered shame and thou shalt suffer eternal shame Christ suffered wrath for a time but thou shalt suffer wrath for ever and fear for ever and separation from God for ever and the torments of hell for ever 3. Behold your Christ Pilate said Behold the man when Christ was brought in with his Crown of Thornes But I say behold your Christ look on him who Behold your Christ was crucified for you and look on him who was crucified by you There is a four-fold sight of Christ 1. One in Carne when he came into the world 2. A second in Cruce when he was leaving the world 3. A third in Caelo when he shall receive us unto himself out of the world 4. A fourth in Judicio when he shall tome to judge the world But the sight which I would desire you to behold is Christ on the Cross Christ suffering and dying for you O look on this Christ awhile as despised of men as forsaken of God as sorrowful to the death as wounded for our trasgressions as drinking the cup of his Fathers wrath as crying out as dying the cursed death of the Cross as made a curse for us I say behold your Christ in these sufferings so long untill 1. You see his infinite love to your soules thus suffering in your stead thus suffering what you should have suffered and thus suffering that you might not suffer 2. Your hearts be melted into tears for your sins which were the cause of all those sufferings by Christ Look on him whom you have pierced and mourn Let your eyes weep for your making Christ to weep let your hearts be wounded for wounding Christ let your soules be humbled for making Christ to poure out his soule 3. Your hearts can love this Christ who loved you and gave himself for you and washed you from your sins in his own blood 4. Your hearts can hate your sins which made Christ a curse or execration and untill you forsake your sins which made Christ to be forsaken for a time of God untill you crucifie those sins which did crucifie your Christ Beloved The more that Christ hath suffered for us the dearer should Christ be unto us his love should be unto us therefore the more sweet by how much the more bitter his sufferings were for us And our sins should therefore be the more odious unto our hearts because they were so grievous unto Christ The Apostle tells us in 1 Pet. 4. That because Christ hath suffered in the flesh we should therefore cease from sin and Chap. 2. 24. That he bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousnesse And therefore we should purge the old leaven that is our sinful lusts because Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 7. Vse 2 Hath Jesus Christ as our Surety and Mediatour done and suffered so much for us what comfort what support may this be for all distressed penitent and believing Comfort for distressed penitent and believing persons persons Luther professeth that this is that Ineffabilis infinita misericordia Dei that Abyssus profundissima zelus ardentissimus divinae misericordiae towards us That the Omnipotent God Creatour of all things should be so good and solicitous for me a lost sinner a child of wrath and eternal death as not to spare his own Son but give him up to a most ignominious death that he should be made for me a cursed sinner sin and curse c. and therefore he urgeth us not to rest satisfied with believing only that Christ is purissima Persona though he be so and then know that he is God and Man yet stay not there for yet thou hast not Christ but then verè habes cùm credis hanc purissimam personam tibi donatam à patre ut esset pontifex salvator imo Servus Tuus who took on him thy sinful person and bare thy sinne and death and Crosse and was made a Sacrifice and curse for thee Object But you will say Where lies the stay and comfort of Christs sufferings for us Sol. In this it lies Then you are freed then you shall never suffer in a way of Then you are freed from suffering in satisfaction to Divine justice satisfaction to Divine Justice you shall never bear wrath nor curse for your sins And the reason is because Christ hath suffered already those things due unto you for your sins Object O but did Christ suffer that which was due for all my sins Sol. Yes He suffered all even to the worst and utmost for all that the Law threatned was a curse and Christ was made a curse for us Object But did he not owe something for himself and suffered for that Sol. Surely no for he knew no sinne of his own but was made sinne for us Object O but what if he suffered all may I not yet be made to suffer Sol. No for what Christ suffered he suffered as our Surety in our stead and therefore what he suffered for us is as if we had suffered all that our selves Object But did he verily intend our good in all these sufferings Sol. Ask the Apostle in 2 Cor. 5. 22. He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him And Gal. 3. 13. He was made a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the Law Object But did God appoint him thus to suffer Sol. He did so Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood and 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is of God made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Object But did his sufferings appease God and satisfie him and reconcile him Sol. It did so For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 5. 19. not imputing their trespasses unto them And Ephes 2. 16. He hath reconciled both Jews and Gentiles unto God in one body on the Cross having slaine enmity thereby Why what a summe of comforâ—s are here Jesus Christ took upon him all our sins they were all of them laid upon him And he bare or suffered
day find it so for as our persons are the first things which Christ hath purchased and blessings and blessednesse for them the next so it is Christ himself unto whom we must be first united before we can have any portion or communion in the good things purchased by him If you did indeed believe that all your right and title to mercy and glory lay in the purchase of Christ you would never be at rest untill Christ himself were yours c. Col. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of glory 1 Cor. 1. 30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who is made unto us of God c. 3. If you do indeed believe that all your saving good depends upon the Why do you not go to Christ and get from him all that good purchase of Christ Why do you not go to Christ and get from him some of that goâ—d yea all that good which he hath purchased for us in this life Beloved the purchase of Christ 1. Contains much good for this life All that Christ hath purchased is not a reversion of heaven hereafter there is exceeding much good to be had in present possession There is for this present life an holy nature a discharge of all sins a power of new obedience the presence of the Spirit communion with our God 2. There is nothing which Christ hath purchased for us but it is very precious and very necessary Christ did not dye for small things all that Christ hath purchased he did purchase the same with his precious blood and if all that he purchased is worth his blood then surely it is worth our care and our reception But why is it not thus you look on Christs purchase only in the reversion as if heavenly glory were the whole summe It is not so there are many precious things of a present possession which he hath purchased And why are you so carelesse about them If you do indeed believe them that they are precious and necessary why take you no more pains to enjoy God as your reconciled God why do you not seek his favour and love which Christ hath purchased and why are you so negligent to make peace with God and to sue out that peace which Christ hath made and why do you not seriously beg for holiness and for all the graces of the Spirit of Christ for these hath Christ purchased as well as glory verily many men do not belive that Christ hath purchased any thing and many believe only that he hath purchased heaven but for all other things they fall neither within their faith nor within their care 4. If you believe the meritorious purchase of Christ why do you keep off and Why do you stagger in your expectations and hopes Improve the sufferings of Christ as a purchase stagger in your expectations and hopes and confidences for glory and mercy for any good and doubt your enjoyments is it not because you doubt either of Christs title or of your own right 2. Mind and improve the sufferings of Christ as a meritorious purchase do not rest in the sufferings of Christ as a satisfaction only nor as a deliverance only but go on further and consider them as a purchase and accordingly improve them Beloved ponder well what I say 1. Your estate is not full without the purchase of Christ and the good things purchased Your estate is not full without the purchase of Christ by his blood Suppose you have Gods justice satisfied for the sins which you have committed and suppose that Christ hath delivered you from wrath and condemnation yet this is not enough that all a mans debts be paid is this enough unless you set him up with a good stock again As deliverance from sin and death and wrath is necessary so a right unto and a possession of grace and glory is necessary As you must shew your aquittance from misery so you must shew your title to blessedness and this lies in the blood of Christ as a purchase the estate is not full it is not repaired unlesse you come to possession again 2. As the estate is not full so it is not safe without the enjoyment of what Nor safe without it Christ hath purchased nor without his title for the same Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his Commandements that they may have right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through the gates into the City Heb. 12. 14 Without holinesse no man shall see the Lord. Rom. 8. 30. Whom he predestinated them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Heb. 10. 39. We are of them that believe to the saving of the soule Acts 11. 18. Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life Lo here are things purchased by Christ In ordine ad finem holinesse repentance justification faith and obedience and without these there is no entring into life c. And therefore by all means look after the purchase of Christ this is your salvation and Rock to build upon 3. Your conscience will never be satisfied else it will break down your Consciences Your Conscience will never be satisfied without it from heaven if you have not Christ as your purchase your rejoycing must be in Christ Jesus and your hopes in Christ Jesus And you must be found in him not having your own righteousnesse but the righteousness which is of God by faith c. Quest. But here some may demand When should we improve the meritorious When should we improve this purchase purchase of Christ Sol. I answer you should improve the meritorious purchase of Christ 1. All the dayes of your life when at any time you find a need of any good that All the dayes of our life concerns your souls and desire to enjoy the same now remember what Christ hath purchased and bought for you and now go in his Name to God the Father for it Joh. 14. 14. If you ask any thing in my Name he will do it Chap. 16. 23. Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you Object O the matters are so high and so great I shall never attaine them Sol. Do you finde them within Christs purchase If so then they are within your faith and you may take them into your Prayer and you shall certainly speed 2. At the time of death when all your hopes to all eternity depend on At the time of death Christ and when the great business and estate of immortality and life comes to the issue and when all for ever is reduced to the merit and power of Christs death and purchase when if Christ failes all failes and if his merit holds heaven is sure and you souls are sure This is the great time the last time to improve the meritorious purchase of Christ Now lay hold on him and fast hold
be saved and all who believe not shall be damned Ergo. It discourageth none from coming to Christ 3. The Gospel holds out enough for any particular sinner to lay hold on It holds out a sufficiency in Christ for any and offers Christ indefinitely A willingness in Christ to receive any that come unto him 4. It offers Jesus Christ to any sinner yea to the vilest and most wretched To the persecuting Paul to the adulterous Magdalen to the Sodomitical Corinthians c. 1 Tim. 1. 13. 1 Cor. 6. 19. 5. Any sinner may accept the offer without any sin for it is worthy of all acceptation 1 Tim. 1. 15. 2. Let any sinner whatsoever come in by faith unto Christ and he shall effectually partake of Redemption and salvation by Christ Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the doore and knock if any man hear my voice and open the doore I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Rev. 22. 17. Let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely John 7. 23. If any man thirst let him come to mâ— and drink Joh. 3. 16. Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish You see here many promises to assure any sinner of an effectual interest in the benefits of Christ if that he doth hearken and believe and come in by faith unto Christ 1. Doe but consider as faith is the condition required on our part so it is the only condition there is no more no other thing required to bring you in to Christ nor to bring you into communion or fellowship or participation of himself nor of the benefits of his death but faith If you do believe Christ is youâ—s and if you do believe you are justified and if you do believe you shall be saved and if you do believe you have an immediate certain and full interest in Christ and his merits 2. Again where the Gospel is revealed unto a people the reason why any of them miss of salvation and are damned is because they believe not Joh. 3. 8. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God ver 36. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Now if this be so that unbelief cuts the sinner off that it hinders him of life by Christ that it is his condemnation that it seals the wrath of God on him then certainly faith in Christ in any man whatsoever will bring him to life to all good in and by Jesus Christ 3. That the death of Christ as Mediatour was not effectual for all it was not an The death of Christ was not effectual for all universal effectual Redemption Expiation Reconciliation and Salvation for all sinners and for every particular sinner There are three things which I would offer unto you about this Conclusion 1. Proofs from Scripture as to the Assertion in general 2. Proofs in particular that the Death and Redemption and Reconciliation c. by Christ was not universally effectual either 1. In God the Fathers intention nor in Christs intention 2. In the real Impetration of Christ 3. In the Application of it in time unto all the sons of Adam 3. Answers to some of the chief and speclous Arguments which are insisted on to the contrary 1. I shall endeavour in the general to prove this Negative truth that the death In the general Proofs from Scripture of Christ as Mediatour was not effectual for all and every man for Reprobates as well as Elect for unbelievers as well as believers for the damned as well as the saved Joh. 10. 15. I lay down my life for the sheep Those for whom Christ did dye were his sheep But all and every man are not his sheep Ergo he did not die for every As from John 10 15. man The first Proposition Jesus Christ delivers in this Scripture I lay down my life for the sheep The second Proposition Christ himself also delivers in verse 26. But ye believed not because ye are not of my sheep Quest. If the question be put But who are Christs sheep Sol. Why Christ also resolves that Question and so resolves it that he plainly demonstrates all are not his sheep See verse 27. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me verse 28. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish The sheep are described by their own property and by Christs bounty and care They are Christs sheep who do hear Christs voice and so hear his voice that they follow him But all and every man doth not the one nor the other again Christ sayes I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish Doth Christ give unto every one in the world eternal life and shall not any one in all the worldperish why then doth the Scripture say He that believeth not shall be damned Mar. 16. 16. And we are not of them that draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul Heb. 10. 39. Now what can be replied unto this Christ died for his sheep Eâ—go all and every man are not his sheep There are two shifts which are made instead of answers unto this Scripture 1. One is that of Haberus That all men are sheep he must mean the sheep of Christ or else he answers nothing But this Christ himself as â—e have heard of from verse 26. expresly opposeth saying to the unbelieving Pharisees and Jews ye are not my sheep There are but two respects upon which men may be called the sheep of God or of Christ One is in respect of vâ—cation whether external only or internal also The other is in respect of Predestination because God hath Chosen them and designed them for Christ and in neither of these respects can all and every man be called the sheep of Christ Neither in respect of Predestination for few are chosen Nor in respect of Vocation for though many be called yet not all called no not with an External Vocation which yet is the more general 2. Another is that of the Remonstrants who said that Christ did lay down his life for the sheep but it is not said for the sheep only for them alone Paul saith Chriâ—â— gave himself for me It will not hence follow that Christ gave himself for Paul only and for none else nay we read that Christ died fur the ungodly Rom. 5. 6. and therefore not for his sheep only Sol. This is a shift much like that of the Papists who when we presse the Scripture for justification only by faith they say the word only by faith is not expressed unto whom we reply that vertually it is for the Scripture opposeth Justification by faith unto justification by works and denying it unto works therefore it
ascribes justification only to Faith And verily thus it holds as to the present dispute Christ died for his sheep if for none but his sheep than for them only when Christ said I pray not for the world but for them whom thou hast given me Joh. 17. 9. This is as much as if he had said I pray only for them whom thou hast given me So when Christ saith I lay down my life for my sheep and afterwards so describes his sheep that all unbelievers are none of the sheep for whom he died now it will follow that he died only for his sheep And indeed I would fain know for whom Christ should die for besides his sheep should he die for them who were never given unto him of whom he never took care to whom he never was a Shepherd for them that were never a part of his flock and charge Is this the commendations of of a good Shepherd to lay down his life for such as have no Relation at all unto him nor he unto them Object But it is said that Christ died for the ungodly Rom. 5. 6. Sol. 'T is true yet not for all the ungodly for those who are made his sheep by grace were indeed in themselves ungodly sinners thâ—se ungodly spoken of there by the Apostle for whom Christ died verse 6. and 8. in verse 9. are said to be Justified by his blood and that they shall be saved from wrath through him and verse 10. are reconciled by his death and therefore much more being reconciled shall be saved by his life And truely such ungodly as these who in themselves were so and sinners and enemies but by the death of Christ were justified and reconciled and should undoudtedly be saved by him were no other then those whom he here calls his sheep not that his do continue ungodly but that the estate from which he justifies and saves them was so Object And for that conclusion from Paul saying Christ gave himself for me Hence it cannot be inferred therefore for none else but Paul I answer that speech is not alike with this I lay down my lifâ— for my sheep Here is the full number For as in a Testament where common Legacies or Estates are bequeathed unto all the Children and Kindred and Friends though this Child or Kinsman or Friend cannot say this is given to me Ergo there is nothing given to any other besides me yet all and every one of them can say This Estate is given unto us mentioned in the Will therefore it is not given to any other but our selves who only are mentioned therein So though no particular Believer can appropriate the death and vertues of the death of Christ unto himself in exclusion of any other Believer who are all mentioned in the Will and Testament of Christ yet all Believers who are the sheep of Christ can say that Christ hath died for us and hath purchased and left the inheritance to us only none other being mentioned in his Testament nay all unblâ—evers being expresly left out But I proceed unto another proof Acts 20. 28. Feed the Church of God which From Acts 20. 28. Eph. 5. 23 26 27. he hath purchased with his own blood Christ is the Head of the Church and the Saviour of the body Ephes 5. 23 25. Husbands love your Wives as Christ also loved his Church and gave himself for it verse 26. That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word verse 27. That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle but that it should be holy and without blemish In these places you see plainly five particulars 1. That the Church of God was purchased by the blood of Christ his blood was shed to Redeem and purchase it 2. That the love of Christ was to his Church and that from his love to his Church did flow the giving of himself for it 3. That the end why he gave himself for his Church was to make it holy and glorious 4. That of that Church for which he gave himself He is the Head 5. That the same Church is the body of Christ and that of that body he is the Saviour Whence I thus Argue Those whom Christ purchased by his blood were the Church of God those whom he loved were his Church those for whom Christ gave himself were his Church those to whom Christ is Head are the Church and those of whom he is a Saviour are his body the Church But all men whatsoever and every man whosoever are not the Church of God nor are Members of the Church of Christ nor is he the Head of them therefore he did not die or give himself for all and every man nor is he a Saviour to them The Major Proposition is the express Letter of these Scriptures the Minor Proposition is also most certaine viz. that all and every man is not the Church of God nor are they Members of the Church of Christ Consider the Church in any Scripture-acceptation this cannot be denied The Church is either 1. Invisibilis which is Coetus fidelium Or 2. Visibilis which is Coetus profitentium All and every man comes not within either of these they are neither believers on Christ nor professors of Christ Againe There is a Catholick Church of Christ viz. Believers in any time or part of the world and there is a particular Church of Christ which is a number of professing Believers joyned in the worship of Christ in this or that particular place Under neither of these Considerations are all and every Man Members of the Church of Christ Againe there is the Militant Church here on earth suffering for Christ and there is the Triumphing Church reigning in Heaven and glorified with Christ all and every man cannot fall in with either of these If all and every man cannot be found within the compass of the Church of Christ if this never was and is not and never will be then Christ did not die nor give himself for all and every man Object 'T is true that Christ gave himself for his Church but it is not said only for his Church and that he is the Saviour of the body but not only of the body Sol. 1. If one should thus argue from the precedent part of the Verse Verse 25. Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved the Church that they may love others besides their Wives because it is not said Love your own Wives only we should look on such a Gloss as somewhat Atheistical and Scoffing and Scurrilous so when we read that Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it c. Or Hosea 2. 19. I will Marry thee to my self it is not said Only yet Marriage is a particular and exclusive contract but let us review the place againe and try whether it will not yield us as much as Only for the Church Those for whom Christ here gave himself of them he is
Ratio par Affirmatio Put seveâ—al men into the same and like condition and into the same and like relation and into the same and like capacity then what interest priviledges one hath the same interest and priviledges the other hath and upon what ground the one can plead and conclude upon the same may the other plead and conclude I shall make use of this to the present purpose You read in Scriptuâ—e of some who have been able to say Christ loved me and gave himself for me Paul said so Gal. 2. 20. By the quality of the persons who have been able to say upon sure grounds that Christ dyed for them And I know my Redeemer liveth Job said so chap. 19. 15 And this is my beloved and this is my friend and I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine the Church said so Cant. 5. 16. and Cant. 6. 3. And of some to whom the benâ—fits of the death of Christ have been particularly applied and attributed Luke 7. 48. He said unto her Thy sins are forgiven Matth. 9. 2. Jesus saith unto the sick of the Palsie Son be of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee 1 Joh. 2. 12. I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his Names sake 1 Cor. 1. 30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who is made unto us of God wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption Revel 5. 8. Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood Now consider what was the quality and disposition of these persons who were able confidently and upon sure grounds thus to speak and of whom these things were thus affirmed and if you finde the same spiritual disposition in your selves you may then certainly conclude Christ gave himself for you and he is your Redeemer and your sins are forgiven you c. Quest Why what kinde of persons were they Sol. They were effectually called persons as Paul who saith in Gal. 1. 15. That it pleased God to call him by his grace And so were the Corinthians called to be Saints 1 Cor. 1. 2. And called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord Ver. 9. And they were upright persons fearing God and eschewing evil such an one was Job chap. 1. 8. And they were mourning and repenting persons such an one was the woman Luke 7. 37 38. And longing after Christ such an one was that person in Matth. 9. 2. And united unto Christ by Faith and Love filled with high thoughts desires and delights so was the Church mentioned in the â—anticles and the rest spoken of in the other places Why then if any man can say upon good grounds God hath called me by his grace unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ he may certainly conclude Christ dyed for me and gave himself for me I was thus and thus sinful but God hath converted me I was a blasphemer and a persecutoâ— c. And if any man can say My heart thirsts and longs for Christ and my soul is matched with Christ he is the beloved of my soul Why I say unto that man Christ loved thee and gave himself for thee And if any man finds himself a mourning and repenting sinner I can say to him Be of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee And if any man finds his heart upright with God and with Christ that man may surely conclude with By his interest in the condâ—tion of faith Job I know that my Redeemer liveth 3. Thirdly One may know that Christ dyed for him in particular by his interest in that condition of faith upon which Christ certainly becomes ours in his person and benefits If any one of â—s do indeed believe on Christ assuredly God the Father intended his salvation in the giving of Christ and Jesus Christ intended and wrought the remission of his sins and the salvation of his soul by his death Hearken what the Word of God speaketh in several places to this purpose John 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life Acts 10. 43. Whosoever believes on him shall receive remission of sins Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Mark 16. 16. He that believeth shall be saved 1 Cor 1. 30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdome righteousnesse sanctificaâ—ion and redemption In those places it is most evident that whosoever believes on Christ he is certainly interested in Christ and in all the benefits depending on Christs death he is delivered from perishing he shall have everlasting life he shall receive the remission of sins his peace is made with God Christ is wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption and salvation unto him Object You will say this is true and unquestionable that whosoever believes on Christ he is certainly interested in the death of Christ and in all the benefits of his death but here lies the scruple I doubt whether my faith be that very faith which doth indeed interest a person in Christ whether it be faith unfained 1 Tim. 1. 5. And faith that is precious 2 Pet. 1. 1. And faith that is justifying Rom. 5. 1. And faith that is saving Ephes 2. 8. Sol. I will not expatiate in the answer of this because I have upon several occasions How I may know my faith doth interest me in Christ spoken already much of the nature and properties of true faith what I would say to the present scruple whether my faith be the very faith which doth interest me in Christ and in the benefits of his death is this That faith is true and truly interesting in Christ and in his benefits which First is seated in an heart broken with the sense of sin and deeply apprehensive of the need of a dying Christ such was theirs in Acts 2. 37. c. and his in Acts 16. 29 30 31. Secondly Is raised and created by the exceeding greatnesse of the power of God and according to the working of his mighty power Ephes 1. 10. Thirdly Is let in by the Ministry of the Gospel and upon Gospel-offers and calls and promises and assurances Ephes 1. 13. In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the Word of truth the Gospel of your salvation Matth. 11. 28. Joh. 6. 36 37. Rev. 3. 20. Fourthly Raiseth the heart to high and precious thoughts of Christ unto you that believe he is precious 1 Pet. 2. 7. all is nothing without Christ And if I have but Christ I have enough he is life and best of all Fifthly Draws out earnest and unsatiable desires never resting without the enjoyment of Christ and parting with all which stands in opposition to that enjoyment Sixthly Makes the heart to receive Christ Joh. 1. 12. yea gladly to receive Christ Acts 2. 41. yea whole Christ the Lord Jesus Christ
2 Pet. 1. 4. They are in Christ and new creatures 2 Cor. 5. 17. They are a Chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an Holy Nation a Peculiar People 1 Pet. 2. 9. A peculiar treasure unto him Exod. 19. 5. A people from whom he will with-hold no good thing Psal 84. 11. Therefore unquestionably he will bestow upon them spiritual gifts and blessings and doth so or else none of these things could be affirmed of them Fifthly God will do more for his people in Covenant then he will for any out of God will do more for his people in Covenant than for any Covenant else what is the advantage of being in Covenant or where is the strength of Argument to perswade any man to disanul all other inconsistent Covenants and to submit unto the Covenant of God if he cannot better himself by being in this Covenant Now God doth give other things temporal things the things of and for this life many times to wicked men to men out of Covenant Thou fillest their bellies with thy hid treasure And if his children if the people of his Covenant who stand in near relation unto him should not have spiritual blessings and mercies given unto them if they should have after all but a common portion gain little more then what the worst of men wicked men his enemies have what advantage should they have yea thus it should be all one with them who love and fear God and with them that hate him and fear him not Sixthly Whatsoever Jesus Christ hath purchased for the people of Gods Covenant What Christ hath purchased for them God will give them that will God give unto them the purchases of Christ and the promises and performances of Gods Covenant are parallel but Jesus Christ hath by his death purchased all spiritual blessings you cannot think of any one of them which Christ hath not purchased they partake of Christ and with and by him partake of all spiritual blessings 1 Cor. 1. 30. Ephes 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Seventhly His people are to differ from all other people in the world in their His people are to differ from all other people present disposition and frame of heart as Joshua and Caleb had another spirit different from them who brought a false report upon the Land of Canaan but unlesse the Lord did give unto his people spiritual blessings there would be no intrinsecal difference as to the frame of heart 'twixt his people who are in Covenant and other people who are not in Covenant for without the reception or participation of these blessings their hearts would still remain wicked and unconverted and they would lie in the same state of condemnation with others for only spiritual blessings do make the difference Now this would be exceedingly absurd that the people of God in Covenant with him should remain in the same state of wickednesse and curse as people out of Covenant this would be 1. A dishonour to God that he should be a God in Covenant with ungodly and wicked persons and so continuing 2. A dishonour to his Covenant which is a Covenant of love and mercy and peace and life that God should in a singular manner love the wicked and assure mercy to them and make peace with them and give assurance of life and blessednesse unto them Vse 1 Are spiritual blessings promised expresly by God unto all his people in Covenant with him why this is wonderful comfort and encouragement unto any of the Comfort to the people of God in Covenant people of God being sensible of their spiritual wants and oft-times fearing and doubting and questioning spiritual helps and supplies O say we if they were lesser matters and ordinary mercies then we should not fear to go to God and rely on him and expect from him but our greatest wants are of the greatest mercies a Christ forgivenesse holinesse heaven it self and what shall we do in this case But I beseech you hearken and consider four things First Spiritual blessings are promised as well as temporal that God who Spiritual blessings are promised as well as temporal promiseth health doth likewise promise grace that God who promiseth food convenient doth likewise promise Christ and that God who promiseth deliverance from trouble doth likewise promise deliverance from hell and wraâ—â— and that God who promiseth outward peace doth likewise promise forgivenesse of sins and peace in conscience and that God who promiseth to subdue enemies doth likewise promise to subdue iniquities and that God who promiseth to give earth doth likewise promise to give heaven Is it nothing unto you that the great blessings which your souls do need are laid up and are to be found in Gods promises if you had more faith those spiritual blessings which you find in Gods promises you might quickly feel in your own hearts Secondly All spiritual blessings are promised there is not any one spiritual blessing All spiritual blessings are promised which any of the people of God do need or may need but God hath promised the same Consider spiritual blessings as in the end and means and causes God hath promised all of them He hath promised glory and he hath promised grace and he hath promised himself the cause of all He hath promised all that belongs to faith to Christ to Justification and he hath promised all that belongs to Conversion to Sanctification to Obedience and to Comfort and to Rest Thirdly God himself hath promised them If Men or Angels had promised God himself hath promised them them it were nothing for none of them are able to give any one spiritual blessing the collating of the least drop of grace and mercy and inward peace is above the power of any creature but this is the comfort that God himself hath promised to give all spiritual blessings unto his people I say God himself 1. Who is able to performe and make good whatsoever he hath promised Is any thing too hard for him is not his power more then commensurate with his Word is he not sufficient to do what he speaks he is mercifulnesse it self and holinesse it self and life it self and blessednesse it self is not the God of all grace able to give you grace is not the God of all power able to subdue your iniquities is not the God of all mercy able to forgive is not the God of all comfortable to comfort you is not the God of peace able to speak peace 2. Who is willing to do good in his promises I beseech you what are Gods promises but the expressions of his gracious will concerning us in all the good which he purposeth to confer upon us I will blesse I will heal I will shew mercy I will save I will pardon I will give grace and glory I will hear and help I will do you good these
of our sins and judge and condemn and everlastingly punish us for the rest of our sins here would be small cause of rejoycing unto us 4. Again where were the hope of glory hath the unpardoned sinner any hope of heaven doth not every sin deserve the loss of heavenly glory and will it not effectually and eventually prove so unlesse God pardons it 5. Where is the liberty of accesse and boldness of approaching to God if any of your sins are unpardoned the very spirit of fear and bondage lies still on you that God is not reconciled to you but is your enemy and he will not own and bless you but will reject and curse you and will bring on you all the evil that he hath threatned Fourthly A fourth Argument to prove that God will forgive all the sins of We are to forgive all the trespasses against us his people is this We are to forgive all the trespasses of an offending brother in case he repent Luke 17. 4. If he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him Now we are to forgive our brother as God forgives us Ephes 4. 32. Forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us his forgiving is a pattern to our forgiving and he would have ours to be universal therefore his is so to us Matth. 18. 32. I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me Verse 33. Shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as I had pity on thee Thus have you heard the Assertion cleared by Scripture and Arguments that God will foâ—give all the sins of his people Now before I passe to the useful Application of 〈◊〉 unto our selves I would speak something unto a Question much agitated amongst the Learned and others viz. SECT II. Quest VVHether God which promiseth to pardon all the sins of his people doth Whether all sins be pardoned together at once pardon all their sins Simul Semel together and at once all sins past which his people have committed and all sins present which they do commit and all sins future which they may hereafter commit Sol. This is I confess a very nice question and hath if it be well weighed something of difficulty in it peremptorily to resolve it And there are very godly and learned men who have spoken and written differently concerning it and yet all of them consent in this That God doth forgive all the sins of his people If it might not be burthensome unto you I would 1. Present unto you the several opinions of men with their chief Arguments for their different opinions concerning this Question 2. Offer my own private thoughts concerning this Controversie First Some are for the Affirmative and their opinion is this that as soon as Some are for the affirmative any are made Believers in Christ and so are within the Covenant Actually all the sins which they have committed in time past and all the sins which they are guilty of as to the time present and all the sins of which they do come to be guilty of in time future they are actually pardoned unto them in general and in particular Neither are Believers ever henceforth to pray unto God for the pardon of any sin which they do or shall commit but only for the assurance of the pardon of them in their own Consciences neither is any future Repentance required to attain the forgiveness of any new and future sin but only for the more comfortable assurance of former forgivenesse unto our selves Nay Repentance is not required of God as an Antecedent work to pardon of sins but only as a consequent work and fruit thereof c. This is their Opinion Quest Now what might be the ground inducing unto this Opinion That all the sins of a believer not only past but also present and to come are pardoned ot once and The grounds for the affirmative actually unto them Sol. The chief which I do find in writing are these First The Covenant expressions Isa 43. 25. I even I am he which blotteth out thy transgressions Heb. 8. 12. I will be merciful unto their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more Ergo all is pardoned at once Secondly Again Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus And Ver. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth And ver 38 39. Nor things present nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And Joh. 5. 24. He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life Ergo all sinnes are pardoned at once or else they were in a state of condemnation c. Thirdly A believer even when he sinneth is still united to Christ and is cloathed with the righteousness of Christ which covers all our sins and dischargeth us from them so that no guilt shall redound to us Fourthly A believer is not to fear curse or hell at all which he might do if all his sins were not pardoned at once but some of his new sins were for a while unpardoned Fifthly Repentance is not at all required for our justification where our pardon is only to be found but only faith therefore pardon of sins is not suspended untill we repent of our sins Sixthly Again if new sins were not pardoned untill you do repent then we should be left to an uncertainty whiles our sins be pardoned or when they will be pardoned for it may be long ere we repent and more long ere we can know that we do truely repent of our sins Seventhly If all sins were not forgiven at once then justification is not perfect at once but is more and more increased and perfected as more and more sins are pardoned which as they conceive cannot consist with the true Doctrine of Justification These are the chiefest and strongest Arguments which I have read for the Affirmative Some for the Negative Opinion and I have delivered them rather with advantage than with any prejudice Secondly Neverthelesse there are others of the Negative and contrary Opinion unto this who although they do hold that God hath pardoned all sins past unto believers brought into Covenant with Christ and that he will pardon also all the sins of which hereafter they shall be guilty yet they do conjecture that all these are not forgiven at once unto them but upon though not for their renewed repentance for them and upon a renewed act of Faith on Christ for the particular forgiveness of new and particular transgressions unto them Neither do they lay any Popish reason of worthiness or merit in Repentance as some unjustly do charge upon them for the
whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven But this cannot possibly be if all his sins be already pardoned in heaven for then he is alwayes loosed and never bound in heaven This Argument is of that strength that I do not see how it can be answered for if upon the right sentence of the Church of Christ the offender is bound in heaven as well as on earth in respect of his sins then his sins are not all pardoned at once and if upon repentance he is loosed in heaven i. e. absolved and forgiven as well as loosed on earth thence also it follows that all his sins past present and to come are not at once forgiven in heaven take the one or the other or both still it shakes that Opinion of a forgivenesse of all sins at once Sixthly If all sins past present and to come are forgiven at once before they are repented of then a Regenerate and a justified person in the midst of his grossest sins as suppose Davids adultery and murder may joy and rejoyce as much in God and look on him as well pleased as when they do humble their soul and repent and seek his face To this one Francis Cornwell answers freely and plainly When sin is most In lib. of the difference between Legal and Evangelical repentance p. 54. prevalent and the heart is most hardened he speaks expresly of Regenerate and justified persons yet then can they glory in Christ Jesus with a large heart breaking forth into thanksgiving as Paul did Rom. 7. 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yea and he that commits a gross sin and doubteth the pardon of it committeth a double sin the one against his Sanctification and the other against his Justification And what though a believer usually upon the pag. 56. committing of gross sins doubts of his estate this is from a defect in faith and not from any Rule and Precept of Gods Word And that it is all one and alike unto God when a person is humbled or not humbled and when he repents and forsakes his gross sins or repents not of them but continues in them for all is already pardoned on Gods part c. But these strange deliveries are contrary 1. To the Word which in case of gross transgressioâ—â— calls for humbling and mourning and repenting of the heart and weeping anâ—â—â—plication because God is dishonoured and displeased 2. To the exigence in all the children of God so fallen who thereupon have broken their peace and lost their joy and exceedingly interrupted their confidence with fear 3. To the Assertion of these very men who do hold that in case of gross transgression there must be deep humiliations to get assurance and joy Seventhly To these another Reason may be added and is added by some that forgiveness of sin is a judicial act in God as the contrary act of condemning is now the Judge neither condemns nor yet forgives offences which are not extant and which cannot be proved upon the Offender that ever he was guilty of them But when they are charged and pleaded then doth he condemn or acquit so it would be strange for a Judge to condemn one for faults not committed and so acquit a man for sins never in being and so not deserving punishment Eighthly Lastly the great and continual work of Christ in heaven as our Intercessor and Advocate 1 Joh. 1. 2. and the daily suing out of pardon in his Name and for his sake seems to carry much in it for the acquiring of daily pardon and continued forgiveness of sins His great work of Intercession and Advocater-ship surely it contains in it something more than to obtain an assurance that all is still pardoned Thus have I delievered unto you the two different Opinions with their several Arguments concerning this great Question whether all the sins of believers past present and to come are pardoned by God at once Now I shall make bold to deliver unto you my own thoughts concerning it and those different Opinions about it The truth concerning these different Opinions They agree in five particulars First I do observe that they do both agree in five particulars e. g. 1. That as to Gods eternal decree or purpose of forgivenesse all the sinnes of his people are forgiven God did not intend to forgive some of their sins and not the rest but an universal and full and compleat forgiveness was fixedly purposed and resolved on by God 2. That all the sins of his people in their absolute number from first to last were laid upon Christ who in the dayes of his suffering did meritoriously purchase perfect Remission of all their sins to be applied in future times to them and by them 3. That as soon as ever any person is brought into the Covenant by believing on Jesus Christ all his sins past whatsoever they have been they are actually forgiven unto him and God will never remember them any more 4. That as to the state of Justification there is a full and perfect remission of all sins considered under the differences of time past present and to come As in the state of condemnation there is not any one thing pardoned so in the state of Justification there is not any one sin but is pardoned for the estate of Justification is opposite to all condemnation and curse and wrath 5. That no Repentance or work of ours is a meritorious cause neither God nor any true believer looks on it as so of Justification or pardon of any sin neither the repentance which we call Initial neither that which we call Renewed we acknowledge no meritorious cause of pardon of sins but the blood of Christ Secondly The maine differences which I doe observe do rest in two The differences betwixt them things 1. One is that sins not yet committed are actually pardoned and we are to believe so say the one party not so say the other party untill committed or repented 2. Repentance is required say both of them but with this difference because sin is pardoned say the one but the other say that sin may be pardoned That we may have the comfortable sense and experience of pardon say the one that we may have the◠〈◊〉 forgiveness as well as the comfort of it say the other In this difference my own judgment inclines to that Opinion which holds That all the sins past of a Believer are at once forgiven and all his future sins are remitted unto him upon renewed acts of believing and repenting for Christs sake If that Opinion be true that Justification be one continuing or continued act this would reconcile all To me this Opinion 1. Hath clear grounds in the Scripture 2. Doth best suit with the Covenant which in this case still suits Faith and Repentance together 3. Doth best agree with the wayes which God still hath put his people upon in relation to forgiveness 4. And with the practice of the
these two great Gifts of holiness and forgiveness to sanctifie his people as well as to justifie them There Reasons why God doth sanctifie as well as justifie Both have a necessary respect to our salvation may be these Reasons for their Connexion First Both of them have a necessary respect to the salvation of the people of God A man must be justified if he will be saved and a man must be sanctified if he will be saved he cannot be saved without both he cannot be saved unless he be justified Rom. 8. 30. Whom he called them also he justified and whom he justified them he also glorified None are justified but such as are called and none are glorified but such as are justified Mar. 16. 16. He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned He cannot be saved unless he be sanctified Joh. 3. 5. Jesus answered Verily very I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Heb. 12. 14. And holiness without which no man shall see the Lord Here you see a necessity of both of them in reference to salvation we many times think that if our sins are pardoned there needed no more to save us but we are deceived for as forgiveness is necessary so is holiness necessary to our salvation as no unpardoned person so no unsanctified person shall be saved Secondly The people of God do stand in need of them both neither can they be Gods people stand in need of both restored or repaired without both for the sinnes which are in them are 1. Guilty obligations they bind them over to wrath and curse 2. Filthy pollutions they do stain and defile them and make them odious in the eyes of God Under the first notion they are a debt and under the other notion they are a disease and under both they render us needy of mercy and of grace Pardoning mercy alone doth not answer the sinful condition of man for that is a remedy only against the guilt of sin sanctifying mercy is also required to be a recovery from the filthy pollution of sin As if one be a sick Malefactor this man hath a double need he needs a pardon as he is a Malefactor and he needs a healing medicine and plaister as he is sick Now the Covenant of grace is a full remedy to the sinner and it is a full recovery Ergo God promiseth to sanctifie as well as to justifie Thirdly God doth intend an everlasting communion twixt his people and himself God intends an everlasting communion betwixt him aâ—d his people in the Covenant a communion in this life and a communion in the other life and indeed the people of God their fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1. 3. They are made nigh by the blood of Christ and have accesse unto him But they must be sanctified as well as justified for the enjoying of that communion because two things are opposite to our communion with God 1. One is enmity 2. The other is inconformity Whiles God and we are enemies how can there be communion between us Therefore in justification that enmity is removed and slain by the blood of Christ and whiles God is holy and we remain unholy there is such a dissimilitude and inconformity of our natures that there can be no communion neither and therefore God doth sanctifie our hearts by his Spirit that we partaking of the Divine Nature by way of similitude may have fellowship and communion with him Pardon of sins only makes not sufficient way for this communion for notwithstanding that pardoning mercy the heart of man is so sinfull that God cannot endure us being of purer eyes than to behold sin Put away your iniquities from before mine eyes and then come and let us reason together c. Isa 1. Fourthly We cannot glorifie God unlesse he sanctifie us Beloved the people of God are formed by him to shew forth his praise they are the only people We cannot glorifie God without sanctification that do glorifie him and honour him But this cannot be unless he were pleased to sanctifie them God indeed can glorifie himself towards us though we be not holy but we cannot glorifie him untill we are made holy we cannot glorifie him in our hearts for what glory can God have by an unbelieving impenitent hardened sensual ignorant proud ungodly heart Nor in our actions for they are as our hearts are the fruit is as the tree is c. What can a dead or a sick man do for service Fifthly we should have small comfort and peace if the Lord did not sanctifie as well as justifie us to have sinfull lusts still raigning and ruling and breaking out this would make our life uncomfortable Sixthly Are not the people of the Covenant his children and would you have the holy Father to be the Father of unholy children is this to be born of the Spirit Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh and whatsoever is born of the Spirit is Spirit Joh. 3. Vse 1. This serves to reprove those men who divide those things which God Reproof oâ— those who do divide these hath joâ—ned together who are altogether for Justification but nothing at all for Sanctification They exalt the Righteousness of Christ but they cry down the holiness of Christ They would have men to be believers of Christ but they would not have men to be holy and why not holiness as well as Faith because say they holiness cannot justifie us But this is both an Erroneous and Ridiculous Opinion as if Christians had nothing to look after but Justification and as if the gracious works of the Spirit must therefore be rejected because they are not able to justifie us Luther arguing upon this Point saith that we must give In Gal. 3 p. 356. unto every thing that which is proper unto it would you saith he conclude that because your monie and lands and eyes and hands do not justifie you therefore you must reject all these So because holiness doth not justifie you will you conclude that you must reject it As the Righteousness of Christ hath its proper excellency to justifie us so hath holiness its proper excellency to renew us to conform us unto Christ and to make us to walk as becometh men in Christ Besides would God have made Christ to be our Sanctification as well as our Righteousness if holiness did not concern us as well as faith and would he have joyned Remission of sinnes with the sanctifying of our hearts if that alone were all that concerned us Nay Faith is said to sanctifie us as well as to justifie us Vse 2. It also reproves the general presumption of men who think of nothing Reproof of the general presumption of men in order to their salvation but Gods mercy they talk much of mercy and sometimes seem affectionate
for mercy to pardon their sins and never mind holiness nor how to get their hearts to be sanctified Nay they oppose holiness and scoff and scorn at holiness These men will lose their souls because both of these which God hath promised are necessary for salvation you must have your sins pardoned or else you cannot be saved and so you must have your hearts sanctified or else you cannot be saved Quest 1. But you may say unto me why do men look only after mercy and Why men look after mercy and not holiness not also after holinesse seeing God hath joyned them together in his promise and both must be in persons which will be saved The Reasons may be these First Holinesse is more contrary to mans sinful nature than mercy Mercy indeed relieves the sinner in a more easie and delightful way but holiness though it doth relieve the sinner yet it doth it in a way more cross to our sinfull love for it fights against our sins and doth purge and work them out from our hearts and will not suffer sin to bear Rule there Secondly Though holiness be the way to heaven yet sinfull men do not look on it as so but they look on it as the way of trouble and reproach as a way that is contradicted and exposing them to crosses losses and contempts and which is too severe against their carnal liberties and pleasures and wills and therefore they like it not No man reproacheth another because he is justified but because he is sanctified for sanctification is a reproach and condemnation to the evil wayes of men Vse 3. Doth God promise to sanctifie his people as well as to justifie Be not content with the one without the other them Then be not content with the one without the other but joyn them in your prayers which God hath joyned in his promises Be not satisfied that you sins are pardoned neither be satisfied that your hearts be sanctified as he cryed out Domine de penitentiam da indulgentiam so do you Lord give me grace and Lord give me mercy God is a holy God as well as a mercifull God and Jesus Christ came by water and blood 1 Joh. 5. 6. Let your hearts be earnestly carried out for both To this end remember six Conclusions First Though your Right and Title to heaven lies in Justification yet your meetnesse and fitnesse for heaven lies in your Sanctification Col. 1. 12. Giving thanks unto God the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Acts 20. 32. I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified Is it meet or fit that an ungodly person should be in heavenly glory The Leper had a right to his house yet was not fit to dwell in it untill he was cleansed Secondly When you look at the pardon of your sins you seem to look more at your selves your own safety your own peace your own deliverance from wrath and hell but when you look after sanctification you rather look more at Gods glory how you may be enabled to honour him more 1 Pet. 2. 9. Yea are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people that you should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light Thirdly We should be compleat in Christ Col. 2. 10. And in all the will of God Chap. 4. 12. How can this be if Christ be not your sanctification as well as Righteousness if you be not partakers of his Spirit as well as of his merit if you do not dye and live with him Fourthly It is a sign of a naughty heart when mercy alone is desired and that only will satisfie In an exigence the most wicked man will cry out for mercy but he never cries for sanctity Pharaoh put Moses upon it to pray that God would forgive his sinne but never that God would heale his hardness Fifthly As God promiseth the one as well as the other so he will never give the one without the other If he justifies you he likewise sanctifies you and if you are not sanctified assuredly you are not justified when you are by Faith united to Christ your communion immediately falls in for sanctification as well for Righteousness And it is impossible that Christ should be yours but you must have the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his and that Spirit quickning us with a new life and mortifies our lusts Some hold that sanctification is an inseparable effect of justification but unquestionably it is a companion of it and a lively testimony of it Sixthly Because he promiseth both therefore seeke for both Consider 1. God promiseth nothing that is superfluous or useless but it is good and for our good 2. He promiseth no good which he 1. Is not able to perform And 2ly willing to perform Holiness is an excellent good it is the image of God it is the glory of God it is called glory 2 Cor. 10. it is the glory and excellency an unholy person is but vile and base the Saints are the excellent on the earth Psal 16. 2. It is our perfection it is the highest elevation of our names here on earth and hereafter in heaven it is the prime work of the Spirit it is the scope of election he hath chosen us that we should be holy Ephes 1. 4. It is the scope of vocation God calls us unto holiness 1 Thes 4. 7. And this God hath promised to give c. But I shall speak no more at present of this general Observation I will touch a little also upon the next general Proposition and then I will come to the principal matter in the Text. SECT II. Doct. 2. THat God himself undertakes in promise to sanctifie the hearts of his people I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within God himself undertakes to sanctifie his people you Levit. 20. 8. I am the Lord that sanctifieth thee Luke 11. 13. How much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Joh. 17. 17. Sanctifie them through thy truth thy Word is truth 1 Thes 5. 23. The very God of peace sanctifie you wholly Quest Why God undertakes it First Else it were impossible to be effected Consider First That no creature can make it self holy it cannot change it self no man Why God undertakes it Else it were impossible No creature can make itself holy can change his own sinful heart Who can say I have made my heart clean Prov. 20. 9. And this will appear by two particulars 1. No sinful man hath any supernatural power in him to produce any superdatural work in himself he is without all strength without me saith Christ
can fit and prepare us for that heavenly glory but the Spirit c. Thirdly Conformity There is a twofold conformity required in the people Conformity of God 1. To God their Father they must be like their heavenly Father be holy as he is holy be merciful as he is merciful love what he loves hate what he hates honour what he honours c. this cannot be unless they have the Spirit given unto them 2. To Christ their Head they must partake with him of the same Nature of the same Life which cannot be unlesse they partake with him of the same Spirit Fourthly Excellency the people of God are the most excellent people in all Excellency the world they are the precious of the sons of men a chosen generation a royal Priesthood the beauty of the earth there is that in them which exceeds and surmounts all the glories of the world but what is that which doth exalt them and raise them with such a differential excellency it is the presence of the Spirit and the graces of the Spirit As Pharaoh said concerning Joseph Gen. 41. 38. Can we find such a one as this is in whom the Spirit is c. Before they had the Spirit of God given unto them they were but as other men vile in their natures and at the most but of love and ordinary gifts It is the Spirit which changeth into the image of glory From glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. Fithly The love of God unto them which is exceeding great and rich in the The love of God communication of himself unto them he counts nothing too dear for them neither himself nor his Christ nor his Spirit God is their God and Christ is their Christ and the Spirit of God is also their portion Sixthly Christ hath purchased for them all that is happiness and all that makes for happiness and therefore he hath purchased the Spirit of God for Christs purchase them c. Thus you see that God gives his own Spirit unto his people and the Reasons why he doth so now follows the last Question Quest 4. In what measure God gives the Spirit unto his people whether all the people of God have the Spirit given unto them in the same In what measure he gives the Spirit measure Sol. For the resolution of this Question I will lay down these Conclusions First There are different gifts of the Spirit some are extraordinary as were There are different gifts of the Spirit those of speaking with Tongues and those of Miracles in Raising the dead and Healing the sick and of which some did partake in the Apostles times but now are ceased And some are ordinary which are gifts that the Spirit still bestowes and these are either gifts of Edificatation or of Sanctification of which the people of God do partake they have all of them such gifts of the Spirit which do make them good and which do enable them to do good And different measures Secondly There are different measures of the gifts of the Spirit in the same kind some are more and some are less holy And in Faith some arâ— strong in faith and some are weak in faith And in Knowledge some are higher and fuller and some are shorter and flatter As all the people of God have not absolutely the same gifts of edification so all of them have not the same gifts for sanctification in the same measure or degree Thirdly Every one of the people of God hath a portion of the Spirit as all the Every one hath a portion of the Spirit servants had at least a talent the first had five the second had ten and the other had one Matth. 25. 15. so all the people of God partake of the Spirit of God though they differ in their proportion for the Spirit divides to every man severally as he will 1 Cor. 12. 11. yet every one hath a portion though Benjamins mess was five times so much as his brethrens yet every one of his brethren had a mess sent unto him by Joseph Gen. 43. 34. One Christian may have abundant knowledge of Christ yet every Christian hath a knowledge of Christ and one Christian may be strong in faith yet every Christian hath faith some are young men and some are aged in Christ some are babes in Christ yet every one of them is born of the spirit Every one hath but a small portion at the first Fourthly Every one of the people of God hath but a small portion of the Spirit at first therefore the grace given us by the Spirit as to the first plantation of it is compared unto a grain of mustardseed which is sowen in the fields and is the least of all seeds Matth. 13. 31 32. unto a bruised reed which is very weak and to smoaking flax which is newly kindled Matth. 12. 20 and it is called the day of small things in Zech. 4. 10. I believe said the Father of the child Lord help my unbelief Mar. 9. 24. What I would that do I not but what I hate that do I Rom. 17. 15. And to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not ver 18. The people of God in respect of the first workings of the Spirit are called new born babes 1 Pet. 2. 2. and children and little children Gal. 4. 19. and lambs and plants Fifthly Not any one of the people of God hath the Spirit in perfection in None have it in perfection this life he hath not the Spirit in the absolute fulness of the Spirit 1 Cor. 13. 9. We know in part and we prophesie in part now we see as through a glasse darkly but then face to face Now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known Phil. 3. 12. Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect but I follow after that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Though the spirit be perfect we do partake of him imperfectly in this life we have but the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8. 23. As the children of Israel had the bunch of Grapes and some of the Figs and Pomgranates before they entred into the land of Canaan Numb 13. 23. Object But do we not read that some were filled with the Holy Ghost and were full of the Holy Ghost as Stephen Acts 6. and Barnabas Acts 11. Sol. There is a threefold fulness of the Holy Ghost 1. Absolute and Intensive as to all degrees this we cannot reach unto in this life none but Christ was thus filled with the Holy Ghost 2. Comparative i. e. more than some or many others this is granted 3. Respective as to such or such a particular work and service unto which the Spirit may let out himself in an eminent and vigorous manner thus were they filled with or were full of the Spirit c.
many times we know not what to do and cannot do any good that we would and now the Spirit of God comes and strengthens our feeble hands and supports our fainting spirits and puts out his power upon our hearts and carries us on in our wayes and works You do find it thus in several cases viz. 1. Frequently when we are to pray we are at a loss and cannot go on with Gods spirit helps us in prayer the heavenly work our ignorance our unbelief Satans temptations and distractions all these hold us down and bind us up and we cannot help and free our selves But then the Spirit of God comes in with his strength and with his help and stirs up our hearts and enlargeth our hearts and new desires flow and groans abound and affâ—â—ctions work and faith works with confidence to the throne of grace to find grace and mercy to help in time of need 2. Alwayes in our spiritual warfare with our own corruptions with Satans temptations In our spiritual warfare in these conflicts we feel our own weakness and their power and violence so that we many times cry out O wretched men that we are who shall deliver us Rom. 7. 24. Or as Jehoshaphat in another case We have no might against this great company that commeth against us neither know we what to do 2 Chron. 20. 12. And verily we may say concerning our own corruptions what he spake of his enemies If it had not been the Lord who was on our side if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick Psal 124. 1,2,3 so if the Spirit of the Lord had not been with us and if the Spirit of the Lord had not strengthened and helped us sin had been too hard for us But in those conflicts the Spirit of God hath made us strong still to pray still to believe still to wait still to resist and at length to conquer 4ly The spirit of God which is given unto us is a reconciling and a restoring spirit He is a restoring spirit he restoreth my soul saith David Psal 23. 3. Even the people of God sometimes are circumvented by Satans temptations and are overpowered by sin that dwelleth in them what I hate that do I saith Paul Rom. 7. 15. They do many times fall very grievously and sadly and are not able by their own strength to rise again but there they lye with their weakness and losses and complaints and tears Now in this condition the Spirit of God puts forth his hand and recovers and raises them up again he doth not leave them when they are fallen but by the power of his assisting grace 1. He awakens them out of their sleep by a quick conviction upon their consciences He awakens out of spiritual sleep to see the great evil which they have done I have sinned saith David as soon as Nathan said Thou art the man 1 Sam. 12. 2. He melts their hearts into singular grief for that evil which they have done Melts their hearts into grief David watred his couch with tears Psal 6. 6. And Peter goes out and weeps bitterly Luk. 22. 62. he makes them to mourn and to be ashamed and to loath themselves 3. He stirs up their hearts to confess and acknowledge their sinnings and to judge themselves before the Lord for their unfaithful dealings and unworthy walking Stir them up to confess their sins and likewise earnest wrestlings and strivings with the Lord by prayer for pardoning mercy and restoring grace and a more stedfast spirit Psal 51. 9. Blot out all mine iniquities Ver. 10. Renew a right spirit witbin me Ver. 12. Vphold me by thy free spirit 4. He enables them by faith to lay hold on Christ to be their peace and to Enables by Faith to lay hold on Christ make Reconciliation and thus doth the Spirit of God recover and restore their fallen souls and assures them that their sin is pardoned Fifthly the Spirit of God which is given unto you is a comforting Spirit Christ He is a comforting spirit himself calls him the Comforter Joh. 14. 16. and you find him actually comforting the people of God Acts 9. 31. They walked in the comforts of the Holy Ghâ—st He is called the Comforter by way of Eminency and Excellency there is no such Comforter as the Siprit of God Psal 77. 2. For 1. He can comfort your very souls with proper comfors and consolations Thy Comforts the soul comforts delight my soul Psal 94. 19. 2. He can comfort you against all your discomforts 2 Cor. 1. 4. Who comforteth Comforts against all discomforts us in all our tribulations 1. From Conscience 2. From the Divel and the world 3. From Providence when it seems to be cross to us 3. He can comfort you under all absences when there is neither Father nor In all absence and wants Mother nor Husband nor Wife nor Child nor Friend nor Land nor House yet he can comfort you he alone can shew you the salvation of the Lord speak peace and joy and assure you of mercy and cause you to rejoyce in believing Psal 27. 10. When my Father and my Mother for sake me then the Lord will take me up 4. He can comfort you and none can hinder him nor men nor Divels nor fears nor doubts for he can create you peace and create you joy and create He cannot be hindred in comforting us you comfort he himself alone is a sufficient cause of comfort Object How so how doth the Spirit comfort Sol. 1. By opening all the springs of comfort unto you the fountain of mercy How the Spirit comforts By opening the springs of comfort By actuating our Faith Zech. 13. 1. the Fountain of grace the Fountain of the blood of Christ and of justification 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. Rom. 5. 11. We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received the attonement 2. By actuating your faith to behold all these fountains of joy and to dig water out of the wells of salvation and making you to suck the brests of consolation 3. By applying them to your very souls clearing and witnessing your right unto By opplying them to our souls them your propriety in them that Christ dyed for your sins that God is reconciled to your souls that you are justified and accepted unto life and that you are the children of God Rom. 8. 4. By enabling conscience to testifie 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoycing is this By enabling Conscience to testifie the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation Sixthly The Spirit which is given unto you is dwelling and an abiding spirit He is a dwelling spirit in all the people of God Rom. 8. 11. By his Spirit that dwelleth in you Joh. 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he