pitty for my own holy Name ver 21. Thus saith the Lord God I do not this for your sakes but for mine holy Names sake ver 22. I will sanctifie my great Name ver 23. And when the Lord had shewed what he would do for the poor Jews in special and so for all Sinners taken into Covenant with him that he would sprinkle clean water upon them cleanse them from their Sins give them a new heart put his Spirit upon them write his Laws in their hearts and so take them to be his people he again concludes with the same ground as before that all this was still for his own Name ver 32. Not for your sakes I do this be it known unto you c. And yet that he would as certainly and fully do it as if all the engagements from man in the world had been upon him as undoubtedly make good every part and article of the Covenant he adds ver 36. I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it you may safely abide by it Neither should his grace and power come hardly from him as poor doubting souls surmise as if 't were as much as ever the Lord could do to give out mercy and grace to poor Sinners but saith the blessed God in another place upon the same account having given out the promises of Grace in the New Covenant Jer. 32.37 and so on He subjoyns I will do it with my whole heart and my whole soul mark it poor souls with my whole soul will I pardon you love you never turn away from you to do you good and never suffer you to turn away from me If poor souls for whose sake I put it should here ask what is this Covenant what do you mean by it only a word here God at first when he made man agreed with man to be his God to give him life for ever upon these terms that man would keep the Law that God gave him and 't was a Law that would have given all glory to the Creator preserved the creature in a holy and blessed order and been a blessing to the whole Creation but man transgressing here the blessed God from his own good pleasure for his names sake gives out another Covenant provides in it terms of reconciliation for the first breach of the first Covenant sends his eternal blessed Son Jesus Christ to be a mediator of this new Covenant gives him commission to offer it to all and that freely and to let the World know that if any Sinner in the World never so great come and put up his plea make his claim enter his claim accept of this Covenant and new agreement with God accept of the terms of it give up himself mutually to God back again then will God be his God and that upon better terms than before with Adam pardon own love bless unite to himself never suffer him to fall mercy built upon an unmoveable foundation The foundation of God standeth sure 2 Tim. 2.19 This briefly is the meaning of the New Covenant upon which all our mercy is built now from first to last from the first to the top-stone of it from Election to Glory all is done and made good for the Lords own glorious Names sake Souls elected the Covenant transacted between God and Christ Jesus Christ sent the Sinner called forgiven justified sanctified adopted kept glorified All for his Names sake See the promises running thus in most places Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions Why for my own sake Purge away our sins for thy Names sake Psal 79.9 This is the bottom of all This name he hath revealed in Jesus Christ Exod. 23.21 Now because the further clearing of this blessed truth is my design through Grace in the next discourse I shall speak but a word more by the way of use only Vse 1. If it be thus that whatever God gives out to poor souls is for his own Names sake that this is the plea a poor Sinner hath let it then be for your information and instruction that you have no other plea to be heard in Heaven but this the plea of Jesus Christ being upon the same bottom Don't make a sorry pile of carnal duties and works and say for the sake of these Lord do me good and pardon where I have failed the Lord may send fire from Heaven to consume thee and them because of their pollution and that 't is a cursed offering but never hear thee and bless thee upon such a plea No no say in thy soul and that from full conviction If ever I have any thing from God on this side Hell it must be for his own Names sake I expect I plead I wait upon no other ground Vse 2. If the Lord's Names sake be the only plea for grace then let poor Sinners drawing near to God by Jesus Christ be perswaded that 't is a good plea and most acceptable before the Lord. Now this is the way of the heart of poor creatures from rooted self-love and pride we think if God could give out good unto us for our sakes it were something if there were any thing to be beheld in us that were commendable to the Lord I could go with some confidence but seeing 't is thus that I am nothing else but vile before him how can I go to him with what face or how can he give out unto me Sinner be as low as thou wilt or canst but reason not so with thy self If God can as freely as fully do thee good all good for his own Names sake and hath thereby the more glory by it why shouldest thou so stand upon thy terms with God and not be as willing as contented to accept of Mercy all mercy for Gods own Names sake as well as for thy sake 'T is thy pride be it known unto thee Sinner as thou thinkest thou art and not thy lowliness know for thy comfort God can more readily easily do thy soul good upon the terms he now is for his own sake and so the thing be done thy soul pardoned blessed saved and all shall end in everlasting love upon thee let the Lord have all the Glory though thou hast nothing to boast of for thy own sake And yet also know that when the Lord saith he doth it for his own sake he doth not exclude that he hath no respect and love unto thee but that the great and highest motive with God was and is his own Name his own glorious grace why he ever had a thought of good to an undone creature that there was no motive in the creature unless misery which is no glory but all is done given estated upon souls undone poor Sinners freely for his own sake 3. Let it exhort souls to make use of this plea therefore and that with great though humble confidence It never failed poor Souls since the world was that made use of it when they were low and helpless and eyed
and thence concludeth ver 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ purge the Conscience c. A much more upon that above all the Sacrifices that were offered up to God which will appear 1. Because of the eternal Godhead of Christ's Person by which he offer'd up his blood unto his Father Heb. 9.14 Who through the eternal Spirit offered up himself without spot to God Which put an infinite value and efficacy upon the offering of his blood inasmuch as Jesus Christ was God as well as Man though he could only dye in his humane nature yet the efficacy of his Godhead had an influence upon the price of his dying which put an infinite worth upon it and so renders it full and perfect Redemption 2. The price of the blood of Jesus Christ did not only give a bare Satisfaction to the justice of God but it had an infinite Merit in it a redundancy of Merit whereby it deserved at the hands of God that Sinners that are interessed in it should have remission of Sins grace the love of God and glory to come spiritual blessings which the death of Christ purchased for the elect which being also by the free purpose and compact of God there must necessarily arise an infinite Merit in it 3. The All-sufficiency of the price of Christ's blood is evidenced by his Resurrection and Ascension into Glory implying that he wrought forth full and perfect Redemption by his Death therefore he is said to rise again for our Justification Rom. 4. last and to be justified in the spirit 1 Tim. 3. last that is God by raising him from the dead justified him in the attonement he had made by his Death and that he did chearfully accept of satisfaction by it 4. The Blood of Christ procures boldness of access to God therefore there is an infinite worth in the price of it Heb. 10.19 Having therefore Brethren Boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus which boldness doth arise from the full satisfaction that is made to Divine Justice in as much as God upon the Acceptance of it hath nothing to charge upon the Sinner himself no quarrel against him having charged his sins upon Christ and therefore the poor sinner may come with an humble boldness into the Presence of God and this is that which puts boldness into the Conscience of a Believer when he appears before God 5. From the Experience of it the soulest Sinners that have come unto it have been washed from their sins by it as 1 Cor. 6.11 Idolaters Adulterers Sodomites Drunkards Revilers have been washed and justified and sanctified by it The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin 1 John 1.7 6. It cleanseth and perfects them for ever therefore called eternal Redemption once for all and for ever Heb. 10.10 19. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified once justified and for ever Now from this Satisfaction Merit All-sufficiency of the Sacrifice of the blood of Jesus to cleanse a sinner to commend him to God how safely may a sinner venture his Soul upon it which is the first act of Faith A poor sinner when under conviction and the terror of the Lord hath taken hold of him lies trembling before the Lord whether God will let out Justice or Mercy upon him he is ready to give glory to the justice of the Lord if he reject him for ever But now if a poor soul get a sight of the blood of Christ how it deals with the justice of God what full and all-sufficient Satisfaction it hath made to God for the sins of such as plead it to him how God more delights in it than in the condemning of the sinner what a stay is this to the wavering doubtful spirit of a poor sinner when he can come to see justice to have its due and so God can freely let out Remission to a poor Soul upon the very first Act of a poor sinners closing with it though not presently evidenced in his Conscience Oh sinner venture the Issue of all upon this price of the Blood of Jesus thou may'st see thou hast the greatest reason in the world to do so thou wilt never come to have a safe bottom for thy Soul till thou comest thus to deal with the justice of God as fully satisfied by the blood of Jesus Christ thou wilt still be off and on about Free-Mercy till thou come to fix here and be in some good measure established in it Be daily in exercising thy Soul in such ventures and castings upon it and the Spirit will at last witness Peace and Reconciliation to thy Conscience In a word Sinners you that have had no stay to your spirits for the forgiveness of your sins but a blind hope of Mercy look up look up to the justice of God and see this way of access to God for you by the blood of Jesus Oh! let not any prophane sinner trample it under foot cast it back upon the blessed face of God say not in thy heart Let God take the blood of his Son to himself I 'le not be washed from my Sins I 'le not be sanctified I 'le rest as I am Desperate Sinner of how much sorer punishment shalt thou be thought worthy than any Sinner under Heaven who rejectest the only worthy price of a Sinners Salvation Know the great God will let out all his justice upon thee to the utmost and Oceans of his Wrath shall fall upon thee if thou thus abuse the blood of his Son a greater guilt than all thy Ungodliness thou hast hitherto been wallowing in from thy youth up Oh! come thou despiser and cast thy soul under the droppings of this blood and it shall cleanse thee though thy soul were as black as Hell Zach. 13.1 And thou poor formal out-side Professor who never didst feel the vertue healing life and warmth of the blood of Christ upon thy heart Oh rest not in good thoughts of it only but come believingly to it as thou hast been exhorted Say and that with thy heart Now Lord I would know the power and efficacy of this Redemption upon my poor soul Wash me Lord wash me I renounce all but the blood of this Christ as to making way to God for me Oh! let it pacifie my Conscience and purge my Conscience and I shall be clean If the Spirit of the Lord shall work thy heart to come as a guilty helpless unholy sinner in thy self to this blood of Jesus and make thy approaches to God daily and argue for Grace and Remission upon it and purging thy Soul these inestimable blessings will be the issue of it which I will but name to thee 1. Thou shalt certainly find forgiveness of thy sins In whom we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our sins Ephes 1.7 God will remember them no more against thee and thou shalt have peace with thy God for ever 2. God will let forth
and by the Spirit of our God Or at least that I may speak to poor weak willing trembling souls Is this it that your souls are restless after Oh that I were that I were in such a blessed state Oh that I could but believingly say the righteousness of Jesus Christ were mine and that now I am I am justified Oh what peace and sweetness and joy would fill my heart Why Soul If this be indeed the breathing of thy Soul Jesus Christ is thine and thou art justified and pardoned and God will at last give in unto thee if thou continue to follow him the sense and comfort of it in thy poor Soul Only by the way take a Discovery or two of the reality of thy Heart in this matter 1. If thou Soul from a Spiritual Conviction be under a real making out after justification by Jesus Christ then thou wouldst also be as really sanctified be made holy 'T was as much in the purpose of God to call thee out of a state of sin and to sanctifie thee as to pardon and justifie thee 1 Ep. John 5.6 2. If thou art brought into a justified state thy soul making out after it thou art made alive in the Spirit Rom. 8.1 Thou art in Jesus Christ and wouldst walk no more after the flesh and the lusts thereof but after the Spirit Gal. 5.18 If ye are led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law namely to condemn you but are free from the curse of it And verse 23. Against such there is no Law that is such as would walk after the Spirit be led by the Spirit and shew forth the fruit of the Spirit And this is that which the Apostle intimateth 1 Ep. John 5.10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself namely of the Spirit So that every justified person hath the Spirit of Christ according to the measure of the grace of God dwelling in him is quickened in the Spirit being once dead prays in the Spirit mortifies sin through the Spirit is taught by the Spirit and so in all other saving and sanctifying vertues of it If it be not thus with thee thou as yet hast no part in this blessedness but art under condemnation unto death And therefore sinner come before God in the sence of thy condemned estate and give up thy self to Jesus Christ to be washed justified sanctified and then blessed for ever 3. Let called and sanctified Believers labour to live in the sense of a pardoned justified state that God is not off and on with them in the matter of justification though it may be sometimes darkned and clouded as to the evidence of it Oh! do you labour to preserve the sense and sweet and blessed peace of it in your souls and give glory to the riches of grace for now there is No No condemnation to you you are passed from Death to Life and the Blessed God imputes no sin unto you Let this be the highest and strongest Argument to Holiness and love to the glory that possibly may be and if indeed you walk in the comfort of it it will be so unto you Only let me give caution here to young Converts whose hearts at the first discovery of the free and glorious grace of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ are wonderfully taken and affected with it but after a time are apt to wanton with it unless the first humiliation be the deeper and to wax sleight in Duties and so their Lusts recover strength again and return upon them and either they fall or are near unto it to the fresh wounding of their Souls This hath been the condition of many therefore be well caution'd in it and walk with fear in the midst of your joyous apprehensions of the sweetness of grace and the endearing love of the Lord Jesus to you Having briefly shewed what the nature of justification is what it is to be in a justified state before God I now come to open more particularly how a Soul comes to be partaker of this justification through the Redemption of Jesus Christ namely Through Eaith in his blood ver 25. of this 3d. of Rom. Observ As God through Free-grace hath set forth Jesus Christ to work forth Redemption for sinners so there must be a special believing on and applying the blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins by every one that is saved Therefore justification is attributed to Faith Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God by our Lord Jesus Christ So Gal. 2.16 and 3.11 In all which places Faith is put in opposition to the works of the Law And so the righteousness of Christ is called the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 9.30 and 10.6 in opposition to the righteousness by Works Not as if Faith were the matter of our justification that it did as an Act or Work in the Soul justifie before God but that God doth thus make over the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ to a Soul by enabling the Soul to come unto to take hold of to apply to it self to appropriate the merit of the blood of Jesus Christ for its own Redemption and Salvation which may afford us a plain Description of justifying Faith precisely considered Namely Faith is a Work of the Holy Ghost in the Soul enabling it to appropriate or apply to it self the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ for the Remission of sin and its justification unto eternal Life So it is called the work of Faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 and 't is expressed by receiving of Jesus Christ Joh. 1. and believing on his Name coming unto him resting upon him So that plainly Faith is a going out to believing in trusting on another namely the Lord Jesus Christ For what it can never be able to find or bring about in or by it self which may lead us to the more particular way of the Holy Ghost's working this power in the Soul in the saved ones of God 1. In the working of Faith in the Soul it is first brought to see an impossibility of coming to God as in its self or by its self concluded under an utter unability to pacifie God or make up a righteousness in it self to get access to God The soul is emptied from vessel to vessel till all the things that it counted gain before become loss for Jesus Christ this is the first work of the Spirit it empties a poor sinful Creature of all its refuges all its dependencies all its sufficiencies and so becomes naked in its guilt before God and therefore is brought to this that its acceptance to God if ever it be accepted must be out of its self what ever become of him he must perish as in himself 2. In the work of Faith the Soul is brought to see that this was the end of the Revelation of Jesus Christ of God's setting him forth to be a propitiation that he might work forth Redemption and Righteousness
1. From the tenour of the New Covenant in which way God hath obliged himself to give out mercy and in no other Now thus runs the New-Covenant this is the great Article of it Make you a new heart and a new Spirit Ezek. 11.31 Which God promiseth to give to all he takes into a Covenant of mercy and peace with himself I will put a new Spirit within you and a new heart will I give unto you Ezek. 11.19 And to the same purpose Ezek. 36.26 Wherein as we shall shew lies the special part of the New-Creature 2. Because the Old man all that is of the First Adam the whole frame thereof is corrupted and polluted therefore it must be repaired renewed be made new if ever it enter into glory Ephes 4.22 That ye put off concerning the Former Conversation the Old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the New man that after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness 3. Whosoever shall be saved shall be a New-Creature from the great design of God in giving out his Son Jesus Christ which was that all the Elect should be made conformable to the Image of his Son Rom. 8.29 For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first born among many Brethren Jesus Christ is called the express Image of the Father Heb. 1. And to that Image all Believers shall be conformed Jesus Christ the first-born and all his Brethren to be made conformable unto him God was infinitely pleased with such a Pattern and resolved all that he gave to him and designed for glory should be conformed to his likeness 4. All the services that a sinner offers to God are not accepted till a New Creature till a Soul shall act from a new living holy principle towards God Pray and hear and give Alms God regards it not till a New-Creature So the Word of the Lord often casts back the services of unregenerate men upon their faces as loathsom to the Lord because they proceed from the old corrupt Adam from unchanged Natures Isa 1.15 When you cry I will not hear you Why You are in your uncleanness therefore Wash you make you clean Vse Oh let this make for your Instruction and Conviction that if ever you come to God in glory you must first be New-Creatures If you will have mercy you must have it in the way of the New-Covenant and if so you must be made new While you have nothing but the Old Adam you are corrupt and polluted and abominable If you shall become the Brethren of the first-born Jesus Christ you must bear his Image and have it renewed upon you Oh you that are yet in your old sins and walk after your Old Lusts you are not New Creatures You will not think so thefore sit down with this conviction That as yet you have no part in this blessedness Oh! All of you who are the same that ever you were whether living in gross sins or sober and civil from your youth up you are yet of the Old Adam nothing but corrupt nature upon you Your hope is vain and you are blinded in your sins and the Grace of God is not in you 2. Oh! Let me before I go further put this to tryal and suffer the word of the Lord which shall one day judge you can you say in good earnest Old things are past away and all things are become new in me Now I am a Vessel in the hand of God wrought by his Spirit and there is through infinite grace a new workmanship upon my Soul I shall lay down rules for the particular discovery of this only at present yield up your conscience to the power of the Word do not slink from under it if it find you out in your sin in nature the same that ever you were give glory to God and say the word of the Lord is quick and powerful and go off with this conviction in power upon thy soul I never expect to go to Heaven and glory if I become not through Grace a New Creature But before I go further I would open that every soul that is a New Creature must be in Christ and why So saith the Apostle to these Corinths in this Epistle 13. Chap. 5. Examine your selves prove your own selves know you not that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates ye are created into Christ Jesus Ephes 2.10 If a man abide not in me he is cast out as a Branch and is withered John 15.6 Now herein lies the great Mystery of Godliness unto which all our Evidences for Heaven are resolved and therefore this is a weighty enquiry I am to speak of it especially as it relates to the making and forming the New-Creature This being in Christ is expressed by being rooted into Christ Col. 2.7 Planted into him Rom. 6. Built up in him Col. 2. All which bespeaks a real union with him that this is not a meer imaginary thing but as true and real as the union between the root and the branches John 15. and the foundation and the building Ephes 2. which is wrought by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus drawing and uniting true believers unto him the same Spirit dwelling in them Rom. 8.9 10 11. By his Spirit that dwelleth in you Now to consider Why all that are New Creatures according to the Gospel must be so in Christ 1. Such as are Gospel New Creatures must be in Christ because if they be New Creatures they must be Living Creatures Now God hath laid up all life that shall be dispenced forth in his Son Jesus Christ John 5.21 26. The Son quickneth whom he will for as the Father hath life in himself So he hath given to the Son to have Life in himself Because I live ye shall live also John 14.19 Now naturally all sinners are dead in the old Adam and utterly unable to beget life in themselves Who can make alive his own soul but when they were New-born as new Creatures they are said to be quickned in Christ Ephes 2.5 As God breathed life into man at first and so he became a living soul so in the new Creation the soul is said to be created into Christ Ephes 2.10 and to be made Alive in him Rom. 6.11 2. If there were not a real union of the soul with Christ life if it should be given without it would not be preserved in the soul Thou holdest our Soul in life Psal 66.9 As the branch though it was once quickned cannot preserve its life if cut off from the root and therefore a continued supply of life from Jesus Christ to the soul is necessary as to all its spiritual actings as a new Creature 3. By being in Christ the Soul is made partaker of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 by which the regenerate part all gracious
vilest sinner in order to my acceptance with Jesus Christ Nay if this Conviction take upon thee thou wilt say to the glory of God and thy own Confusion If there be any difference 't is that thou art the greatest sinner having mock'd the Lord rested in out-side service dealt hypocritically with the jealous God offered him abominable sacrifice and therefore fit to be abhorred of the Lord for ever Oh! that this might be the posture of thy Soul and so thou may'st come and lye prostrate at the feet of Jesus Christ crying Oh! no more no more a righteous person but a sinner a guilty sinner a condemned sinner a poor blind naked sinner nothing else but a sinner Away with all my former confidences tear them from my heart Lord. Now Lord Jesus I cast my self upon thee Oh! let me creep unto thy blessed feet Oh! I come to thee not because I am righteous for I would abhor my self for ever in the thought of it but as a poor perishing sinner the worst of sinners an hypocritical sinner Oh! that I could take hold of thy righteousness to cover my naked Soul I expect it only upon the account of thy Free-Grace Oh Lord I come unto thee do not do not reject me And thus I have been endeavouring to lay the sinner before Jesus Christ in such a posture having proved him under the Law excuseless in his transgressing of it guilty before God under an impossibility of reaching to an acceptance with God by the best keeping of the Law laboured to beat him off such props and confidences that the Heart naturally cleaves to and stript him of all naked as Adam when he had sinned before the Lord as nothing else but a Sinner which is that I have driven at I now come to speak of the way of a poor Souls justification and acceptance with God by Jesus Christ as the Lord shall assist to the capacity of the weakest ROM 3.24 Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ c. I Am now come to open the Gospel-righteousness wherein a poor sinner finds acceptance with God which in ver 21. of this third of the Romans is said to be now manifested that is more fully manifested by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the Gospel being witnessed before by the Law and the Prophets Even the righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe ver 22. called the righteousness of God namely that whereby God doth only justifie and accept of a Sinner wrought forth by the obedience of Jesus Christ and made over and imputed to a poor Soul that doth embrace it by Faith whether Jew or Gentile outwardly righteous or profane All that ever come to God must come this way and stand before him in this Righteousness or perish for ever which I shall begin to open from ver 24 25. 1. Being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Cheist 2. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood c. We have endeavoured in the former Discourse to go along with the Apostle in proving that by all the Deeds of the Law all the best Obedience that a sinner can reach unto he cannot be justified before God neither in part nor in whole that your good deeds will not procure pardon nor poise down your sins but all by the Law equally under condemnation Of what importance then is it for poor condemned souls to be well acquainted with and really and practically invested in that way of justification that God in infinite wisdom mercy and love hath set forth in the Gospel which is that I now design The Apostles arguing is thus If all fall short of righteousness and acceptance with God by their own obedience if all have sinned and come short of the glory of God then are all and that equally condemned If so condemned then acceptance with God and justification and remission of sins must come in another way The Rise and Fountain of which must necessarily be Gods free mercy and grace If made righteous it must be in the righteousness of another wrought forth by another Justice must be satisfied by another a price paid to God for a sinners redemption by another which is Jesus Christ blessed for ever From the words then I shall first lay down this plain Observation viz. Observ Gods free mercy and grace is the first Fountain of any sinners salvation or 'T is upon the account of Gods free grace that any sinner is saved Thus runs the current of the whole Gospel the main design of the Gospel being to glorifie the riches of Gods Free-grace by Jesus Christ Among many other Scriptures the Apostle doth most convincingly discourse in Rom. 5. from the 15th to the end setting the Free-grace of God unto Justification in opposition to a sinners condemnation But not as the offence so also is the free gift for if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many To the same import runs the rest of the verses The free gift of many unto Justification much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of Righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ All of Grace and of Free-gift abundance of Grace from first to last That as sin reigned unto death so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord verse last So the Apostle in that Epistle to the Ephesians wherein the Doctrine of Grace is blessedly given forth drives all the spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ mentioned Chap. 1.3 c. to this blessed Fountain Chap. 2.4 c. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ for by Grace ye are saved so verse 7. That in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace and ver 8. For by grace ye are saved it is the gift of God Therefore the invitation of the Gospel to sinners runs upon this score Ho Every one that thirsteth come to the Waters of Life Isa 55.1 And Whosoever will let him come to the Water of life freely Revel 22.17 I might illustrate this in all the particulars of a sinners salvation God's fore-ordaining and choosing any to salvation 't was to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1 5 6. The gift of his Eternal Son Jesus Christ from free love and grace John 3.16 The New Covenant and all the Promises of it freely given out for his own Names sake Ezek. 36. Effectual Calling from free grace 2 Tim. 1.9 The gift of Faith actual Justification Tit. 3.7 Sanctification Perseverance Eternal Life and Glory all flowing from the same fountain of Free-grace Some
Reasons of the Design of the Blessed God in this may be gathered from the Scriptures The Free-grace of God is the Fountain of all in any sinners salvation 1. Because There is nothing in the Creature that may move God to save him Nothing at all all we know or do could not move God to mercy Deut. 7.7 8. The Lord did not set his love upon you because you were more in number than any people but because he freely loved you c. Not for your sake do I do this c. Ezek. 36.32 2. As God saw nothing in him so the sinner is able to bring nothing to God to draw out mercy of his own therefore saith the Lord Isa 55.1 let him come without his price As the sinner lost all his good so he can procure none anew to bring to God that may in the least move the heart of God to give out more to him 3. If it were not all of Grace then the Creature would have occasion of boasting but the Lord in infinite wisdom so laid the Project of a sinners Salvation that no Creature should have the least ground of boasting So the Apostle having given out the Doctrine of Grace in this Scripture we are upon draws this conclusion ver 27. Where is boasting then It is excluded c. So in the 1 Cor. 1.29 the Holy Ghost lays down this as the main scope of God in the Gospel That No flesh should glory in his presence Therefore Salvation is all of Grace of Free-grace 4. If it were not so The glory of God would not be so great in the Salvation of a sinner 'T is now so laid that all might be to the praise of the glory of his Grace Ephes 1.6 It being the highest piece of glory that the Wise and Blessed God did ever design unto himself that his free rich abundant infinite grace might be made known in the Salvation of a Sinner That he might make known the riches of his glory on the Vessels of Mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory Rom. 9.23 Vse 1. If God's Free-grace be the Fountain of all in a poor Sinners Salvation then let it establish our judgments in this Doctrine Therefore God had no respect to any fore-sight of Faith or Works in the Creature God had no respect to the freeness of his Will for he knew he had none God had no respect to any conditions to be wrought in us but all he did and doth was from absolute Independing Grace Nothing moved him but his own Free-grace The same Free-grace that pardons gives and works all in us all from the same Fountain 2. If all be of Free-grace then there is no meritorious procuring Cause in us that moves the Lord to mercy Now the contrary is naturally rooted in our hearts poor Souls are most apt to conceive that if they can grieve for their sins repent and reform this will sure move God to mercy and pardon A most dangerous snare from which a Soul after much conviction is hardly wrought off Now though God in the way of a sinners Salvation hath promised to give Repentance Act. 5.31 and a Spirit of mourning for sin Yet a poor soul must take heed that he make not this a procuring cause of Pardon Many a Soul sticks here before emptied of himself even of his very repenting and so come for grace and mercy upon the account of the Free-promise only How many a Sinner might have been saved if he would have been saved freely 3. If God hath so laid the Design to save a Sinner freely then how great how just is the Condemnation of guilty sinners that will not hasten in unto it how could the Lord have laid it more freely than he hath Oh that any sinner for ever condemned to Hell without it should withstand it Why sinner Shall the blessed God that might have much glory in condemning thee to all Eternity be willing to save thee freely and wilt thou not come and bow unto him and accept of it All the contempt of God in all his holy Commands is not like this to turn the back upon Free-Mercy Free-Salvation This will be the Worm that never dies to any of your Souls that shall not come into and rightly accept of Gospel-Salvation that you might have been saved freely have had grace remission of sins Jesus Christ the Spirit Eternal Life freely and yet turned your backs upon it But you may demand How is it that any sinner doth so What is it that causeth any Soul to forego Free-grace and Mercy when held out unto him that we may beware of such hinderances I will therefore shew you such Hinderances that keep Souls from accepting of God's Free-grace in Jesus Christ when held out unto them 1. Wilful Obstinacy Joh. 5.40 Ye will not come unto me that you might have life Ye will not such is the stubborness and rebellion of the heart of a sinner that he will not as we speak because he will not to such a height hath sin raised the heart of the rebellious children of men for every natural man till made sensible of unbelief thinks he hath power of himself though he hath not but his Rebellion lies in his Will I would have gathered you and you would not Mat. 33. last 2. A sinner doth not accept of Free-grace because he stands upon his self-justification he will not be perswaded he hath so much need of all Free-grace as the Gospel discovers as hath been shewed at large though he hath sinned yet also he hath obeyed and so he puts one against the other his obedience against his sin and so hopes to get that mercy he hath need of And upon this ground more sinners even that profess the Name of God do miss of Heaven than any other in the World 'T is not so easie a matter to submit to God's Free-grace alone as many do imagine Upon this Snare many of the Jewish Professors of Christ fell short as 't is clear from the Epistle to the Galathians and did frustrate the grace of God 3. A Sinner hath a secret thought of making God satisfaction by his sorrow and amendment and so makes void the Free-grace of God 'T is the easiest thing in the World to put up legal sorrow and amendment of life to God as that which may make God amends yea to make an attonement of every Duty which is the closest and most desperate evil of the heart So did the Jew by his sacrifices and obedience which caused the Lord to pronounce them That his soul loathed them Isa 1. 4. A Sinner doth not savingly close with free grace from secret pride of heart he would not be found so poor and helpless so unrighteous and ungracious as to be beholden to free mercy for all many persons will rather starve than beg than live upon another mans mercy 'T is so between a sinner and the Lord till God humble him he 'd rather venture Hell than come and
Jesus Christ Jesus Christ being the Undertaker in it for all the Father gave him it is certainly founded upon a sure Bottom This was the Fathers Promise Isa 42.6 I will give him for a Covenant to the People Jesus Christ as a common person did represent all the Elect in the Covenant as the first Adam in the first Covenant did represent all his and Jesus Christ did undertake to bring them to God to bring them into the Covenant and so to estate them in all the grace and Mercy and Blessing of it Therefore the Mercies of the Covenant are stiled The sure mercies of David Isa 55.3 As a Type of Jesus Christ coming of the Seed of David wherein is set forth the excellency of the New Covenant the whole Transaction of it entrusted in the hands of Jesus Christ and therefore not one drop of the Mercy of it can ever fail those that are taken into it 6. By the giving forth of Jesus Christ the whole of Gospel-Salvation is rendered more glorious The Wisdom Justice Holiness of God as well as Mercy and Love do shine forth in Jesus Christ And therefore the Gospel-Mystery is styled The manifold Wisdom of God Ephes 3.10 Every Attribute of God is glorified in the giving out of Jesus Christ 7. Yea had not God taken this way of making out himself by Jesus Christ the world had dwelt in gross darkness of him therefore Jesus Christ is styled The Image of the Invisible God Col. 1.15 The express Image of the Father The brightness of his glory Heb. 1. And in 2 Cor. 2.6 The light of the knowledge of the Glory of God is said to shine in the face of Jesus Christ The Creation is but a dark shadow of the glory of God as to what is revealed of God in the manifestation of Jesus Christ There are the Footsteps of God in the Creatures but his Character and Image in his Blessed Son Jesus Christ 8. There could not have been access to God but by Jesus Christ for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father Eph. 1.18 How could polluted Dust draw nigh to the absolute Majesty and Glory of God had not he let forth himself in Jesus Christ as in our own Nature and so makes way for a poor sinner to come before him 9. Had God let forth Mercy to Sinners and not given out his Son Jesus Christ his justice must have been violated which is the main of all The word of the Lord was absolute In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Gen. 2.17 which was meant of the Eternal Death of the Soul in its separation from the life of God as is clear in Rom. 5. last where grace unto eternal life by Jesus Christ is put in opposition to that death which was by sin which must therefore needs be meant of Eternal Death So Rom. 6. ver last Now this Death must be executed upon all the Posterity of Adam or else God must take some other way to satisfie his Justice he will save the Sinner which was upon his own Son Jesus Christ as will further be evidenced in the following Discourse 10. The blessed God took this way of letting out himself his Grace by Jesus Christ that thereby Saints might have Vnion with him which was a holy Design of the Father in saving them That they may be one in us John 17.21 The deepest and most unconceivable Mystery in our Salvation Now Jesus Christ as the Eternal Son of God taking upon him our natures we became capable of being united to him through the Spirit and made one with the humane nature of Christ whereby we are also united to the God-head and so become one with the Father and the Son which is the top of the Saints perfection Vse 1. Now what hath been said as to the grounds and reasons of God in giving out his eternal Son and letting forth all grace by him may serve to acquaint us with this rich and glorious Mystery as it is styled Col. 1.27 Namely God reconciling the world by Jesus Christ letting forth the knowledge of himself glorifying all his Attributes making such discoveries of his Glory providing such a way of Mediation such a glorious Mediator laying the blessed project of a sinners glorious Salvation so sure rendring his love so acceptable and glorious making way for free access unto himself and how we might become one with him Oh! the depths of the Wisdom and Love of God which of them may we admire most Well may Angels pry into this Holy Mystery well may it be the astonishment of Heaven and Earth of the whole Creation How much more of a sinner for whose sake it was thus ordered Oh that we might fall upon our faces and adore the Wisdom and Grace of God in such a contrivance as this Oh unmeasurable Goodness unfathomed Wisdom Eternity is but enough to admire it To behold God in Christ will be the vision which the souls of blessed Saints will be wrapt up into to all Eternity 2. Oh! therefore what infinite Mercy is it to be brought forth in the New-Testament-times when the Mystery hid in God hid from ages kept secret since the world began 1 Cor. 16.25 is brought to light and sparkling upon the darkness of the world when the glory of God is risen upon the World Now if this Gospel be hid 't is hid to them that are lost 2 Cor. 4.3 Wo unto them that close their eyes when the light shines round about them Oh you that yet sit in darkness and the shadow of death Arise Awake look up that Gospel-light may shine into you Oh cry and wait that your eyes may be opened to behold God coming forth in the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the glorious Gospel wait for the Spirit and that the Gospel in the preaching of it may become the ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 Oh guilty world that so slight the Knowledge of Jesus Christ and contemn the Ministration of it wo unto them 3. If God doth let forth no Grace and Mercy but by Jesus Christ it may serve to unbottom poor souls from a general carnal hope of Mercy not being acquainted with the way of Grace by Jesus Christ nor coming as lost sinners in themselves to be found in Christ and justified by Jesus Christ this they utterly neglect having an empty notion of Christ's dying but know not for what and upon what grounds and how a sinner gets to God by him Oh! let this reprove you for this gross and damnable neglect and convince you that all your pretended hopes of Mercy will vanish unless you learn the Knowledge of Jesus Christ 4. And therefore If no way to the Father no Interest in Mercy no access to God but by Jesus Christ let it serve to teach poor ignorant sinners yea all of us how to get to God to Mercy into his Covenant Oh! No way but by Jesus Christ Oh! I can never come to
guilt bondage reign service of thy sin go and cry to God offer him up the blood of his own eternal Son tell him thou seest he may let out justice upon thee to destroy thee and damn thee for ever of thy self thou hast no plea against it But ask the blessed God if it may not be more glory to him and his grace and mercy glorified by it if he will accept of satisfaction by his own Son Jesus Christ plead to him that thou hearest he died in the room of guilty condemned sinnners such as thou art ungodly Rom. 5.6 yea tell him with an humble adoration of his mercy and love in it that thou hearest in his blessed Gospel that 't is offered to any sinner that will come and accept it and that 't is proclamed from Heaven and there 's satisfaction made by the blood of a Jesus for the greatest Sinner such as thou art Oh! cry unto him that therefore thou comest and begg'st to be heard in thy plea and that it may be entred in Heaven that thou comest for all the ends of his death thou art weary of the service of thy lusts and the pollution of thy nature and therefore thou wouldst have thy nature cleansed thy conscience purged all which thou findest the blood of Jesus Christ is able to do yea tell him and plead it with some humble boldness that thou art acquainted that Jesus Christ prays in Heaven for such sinners that come and plead his blood to thee and that he is heard in what he prays and that therefore forgiveness must be had yea say thou wilt hold on thy plea thou hast no other and art resolved against any other If thou shalt to Hell pleading the blood of a Saviour be it so but I am resolved to plead it to the utmost yea tell him and cry to him that it cannot repent him that he hath ordained the sacrifice of the blood of his own Son and therefore why should'st thou be rejected Yea Come to this Issue through the Spirit of Faith upon thee that if it can be that a Sinner crying out for pardon upon the account of the death and blood of Jesus Christ and for sanctification may go to Hell then thou wilt willingly lay thy hand upon thy mouth and open it no more but sink under Divine Vengeance to Eternity Oh! That every poor sinner might go home with this plea in his heart written there by the Holy Ghost and peirce Heaven with his or her crys and groans and put the blood of Jesus Christ before him and plead for mercy and holiness to be pardoned and sanctified till God say Go in peace thou art pardoned redeemed and blessed for ever Yet a little to excite a poor drowsie sinner to this eternal Concernment 1. Consider thou art under the guilt of thousands of Sins one whereof is enough to sink thee to Hell Guilt if continued is Hell begun and wants nothing but the execution of Vengeance upon thee Oh what should a guilty sinner do but close with a Saviour and get an interest in Redemption from it 2. Especially considering that all the Duties and Obedience thou hast performed towards God or ever shall have not made nor ever will the least payment to God for thy sins thou art as much in debt to God as ever thou wast as much behind with him All the Items for the sin of thy Nature thy thoughts words and actual Wickedness and thy sinful neglects stand uncancelled all ready to be charged upon thee and nought will be accepted for payment but the Death of Jesus Christ the only price that God will hearken to Nothing will cancel the Book where all thy sins are recorded Nothing will blot out the Hand-writing that is against thee but the Blood of Jesus Christ Col. 2.13 14. 3. God is resolved never to forgive you the Debt till you have put in this Plea and it be recorded in Heaven and you have it in a Gospel-way No forgiveness of Sins but by Redemption pleaded claimed possessed and sealed by the Holy Spirit Ephes 1.7 14. 4. Thou art yet under the Bondage and Reign of thy sin and therefore under condemnation the Law is gone out against thee thy Sentence pronounced Cursed is every one that transgresseth c. saith the Law and thou art in bondage yet and hast not procured actual deliverance from it If a Prisoner be condemned and lye in Fetters in a Dungeon and hears of a Ransom paid for him what 's this to him till he have Liberty So for a Sinner to be in the Fetters of his Lusts held fast by them a Bond-man to the Devil and hear of a Christ laying down a Ransom what is this to him unless he sue it out and get actual deliverance and liberty the liberty of the Sons and Daughters of God and have a Spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father Gal. 4.4 5. That being made free from sin the Reign and Power of it by the Power of the Lord Jesus revealed in him you may become servants to God and have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life Rom. 6. 5. Consider as thou standest in thy filth and uncleanness of thy Sins thou art unfit for God either to please him in any thing thou doest or to be with him in Heaven hereafter thy person and services are loathsom to the Soul of God therefore get washed and purified in the blood of Jesus Christ Go on to cry and wait and beg a heart to do it and that in Faith till thou shalt feel Peace coming in by thy constant Plea of the blood of Christ till thou shalt feel cleansing vertue of it upon thy Soul till thou shalt experience the power of his death destroying Sin in thee and so shalt find thou hast fellowship with him and so a part in this blessed Redemption we have been treating of 6. Now to encourage a poor Sinner to this coming to God with the Plea of Christ's blood in his heart and mouth and to draw forth the Faith of a poor humbled doubting Soul Consider the All-sufficiency and worth of the price of the Death of Jesus Christ to satisfie the justice of God and procure Pardon and Sanctification for a poor Sinner which may appear from such like Scriptures The Apostle in the 7th of the Hebrews having been opening the excellency of Christ's Priesthood which is chiefly conversant in this Work of Redemption in the offering up of himself a Sacrifice concludes ver 25. of that Chapter Wherefore he is able to save them to the utmost that come to God by him To the utmost that is with a perfect Salvation that nothing more can be desired to it So in the 9th Chap. ver 11 c. The Apostle reasoning from the Levitical Sacrifices to this of the blood of Christ argueth the full perfection of it By his own blood he entred in once into the holy place namely into Heaven having obtained eternal Redemption for us
never humbled for the spiritual wickednesses of their hearts I call them so in opposition to the more gross and fleshly wickednesses now these are Hypocrisie selfishness spiritual pride vain-glory unbelief many that have had trouble for some gross sins and will withstand some gross corrupttions through common grace never come to be abased for these depths of the heart which are more hardly discerned I may well enough call that soul as yet a Hypocrite that is never humbled for the Hypocrisie of his heart for selfishness and the rest 5. Common-grace measures the soul chiefly by Negatives what it is not rather than what really it is as the Pharisee Luke 18. I am not as other men are pleaseth himself rather in what he is not than what he is I am not thus and thus as abundance of debaucht persons are but whether he be called of God emptied of his own righteousness sanctified in Christ Jesus a New Creature in him he puts off the Examination 6. Common grace doth at best respect a mans self in all it does and not the glory of God which it sees not let others be as wicked as they will it is not much to such a soul let every one look to himself such a soul doth not avoid sin as sin but only for fear it should damn him whereas the proper nature of Grace is to respect God his Holiness Name and Glory Thus have I laid down some plain Discoveries of the pretended New-Creature that which I have stiled a Legal New-Creature I shall now proceed a little further to make discovery of a more seeming Gospel New-Creature yet but seeming That which hath the nearest resemblance of the New-Creature is when from some common enlightnings of the Gospel of Grace and some overly tastings of the good Word the affections being something stirred therewith there is some affection expressed to the Gospel and some outward Reformation upon it and a Profession above the common formal rate taken up joyned also with common gifts of Praying or Prophesying knowledge c. Now all this may make so great a blaze and flourish that it shall be hardly discerned by such a Professor himself or others that are spiritual that all this may be 't is clear from several Scriptures Heb. 6.4 5. where mention is made of enlightning tasting gifts of the Holy Ghost and yet such to fall away and never to renew themselves again and to be nigh unto cursing verse 8. and verse 9. Beloved we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany Salvation c. Implying that these things may be but do not always accompany Salvation So the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 2.20 speaks of such who had escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Jesus Christ and yet again entangled therein and overcome and their latter end worse than the beginning They shall escape many gross pollutions and that through a kind of knowledge of Jesus Christ and yet be again overcome and return wholly to them So Matth. 12.45 Our Lord Jesus speaks of the house swept and garnished the unclean spirit cast out for a time some outward reformation a damp upon the lusts of the heart and knowledge and common gifts and yet the unclean spirit returning again Examples might be produced of such Professors in the Gospel as that of Judas an eminent Professor a forward follower of Christ suffered some persecution and gifted and yet proves a Reprobate Simon Magus baptized by Philip renounced his Sorceries took upon him a forward Profession of Christ accompanied Philip and yet his heart not right in the sight of God Acts 8.13 21. It may be more than feared this age to the high scandal of Sinners and Saints hath produced many such that have been much taken with the glorious grace of the Gospel their Consciences something awakened for Heaven the affections stirr'd have attained to flourishing gifts and yet returned to their first nothing turn'd blasphemers and professed Atheists And no doubt there is such a Majesty Excellency Sweetness in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that may for a time much affect a carnal heart and may be recieved with joy Matth. 13.20 The very History of Jesus Christ dying for sinners may much affect that he will freely save Sinners the glory he hath provided for his own these and the like things may much take the affections for a time make a soul ashamed of gross pollutions and yet no New-Creature all this while And of such as these it is that Christ doth prophesie of Mat. 25. who shall have Lamps Light and Profession go along with the wise Virgins wise and truly gracious Professors not be discovered many of them till the Lords appearing and yet kept out of the Kingdom of Heaven Now of all others these have the most resemblance of a real New-Creature and yet fall short and perish for ever I should prevent my self should I at large discover wherein such Professors are short only a word or two 1. Such Souls are never emptied of themselves and humbled and so come poor and nothing to Jesus Christ though happily they may be able to speak of it as many Souls have a form of Gospel-Knowledge and can say We are nothing and yet never had the saving experience of it upon their own hearts 2. Such Souls have no true brokenness of heart for sin they much slight it yea say many 't is Legal brokenness for sin is a low dispensation as they will stile it without which in some measure no saving repentance which is as necessary to Salvation as believing on Jesus Christ and Free-Grace 3. Though such souls may reform many things yet there is some unsubdued lust in the heart that at last breaks out and carries an end the heart as with Simon Magus and Demas 4. Under all such enlightnings and tastings which may for a time affect the heart the heart still remains unchanged and so no New-Creature 5. They are not rooted into Jesus Christ which we have shewed is the root of the New-creature not rooted and built up in him Col. 2.7 Therefore 't is said of the Hearers with joy for a time that they had no root Mat. 13. What hath been spoken as to this may put the more forward Professors upon a close and diligent search and to see if their Attainments in enlightning tasting knowledge gifts reformation be no more than what a Reprobate may attain to and to lay their hearts under the searching Power of the Word and to open their hearts to God and cry unto him and keep a godly jealousie over their spirits And rest not till you get poor and emptied and humble your selves your hearts broken for sin every lust subdued and crucified the heart changed and your Souls rooted into Jesus Christ by a saving union with him yea to give up your hearts to what we shall further say through grace as to the plain opening the real Gospel-New-Creature The Gospel New-Creature positively
it is renewed it is fetcht in again to Jesus Christ 8. The heart of it self is unbelieving Take heed lest there be in you an heart of unbelief Hebr. 3. Now when the heart is made New there is a Work of Faith with power 2 Thess 1.11 And then the soul is made sensible of that bitter root of Unbelief that is naturally in their hearts and they find it the hardest work in the world to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins to fix on Promises and that a believing heart is a special gift of God and a work of the Spirit which while a poor sinner was shut up under Unbelief he felt not Vse 1. To unchanged persons who are the same in heart as ever they were Oh learn by what hath been opened what is the natural make and frame of them There is in you a Rebellious heart against the Lord and wilful obstidacy against his Word and Spirit and therefore 't is that you cast the Word of the Lord from you and in your hearts despise it and say This is not the Word of the Lord and we will not obey it You have hard and impenitent hearts and therefore you do not mourn for sin you have proud hearts and are well-conceited of your condition though damnable and therefore you do not humble your selves to God you have Hypocritical Hearts and see it not full of Hell of Uncleanness dead in sin and without feeling a heart divided between Christ and the World unbelieving and yet say you have Faith If thou canst not make out a Newness upon thy heart as we have shewed thou hast still thine old heart with its lusts and thy estate is as yet damnable let thy Knowledge Profession Outward-blamelessness be what it will 2. Oh therefore let this Word be yet for further Tryal of your Estate Can you say to the praise of free and rich Grace that God hath in some measure taken away your Rebellious Heart from you and you can stoop and yield to the power of Truth and rejoyce in it that God hath made your heart soft in some measure and the Pride of your hearts in the false conceit you had of your selves hath a stroak from God upon it that God hath shewed you your deep and cursed Hypocrisie and how your heart was divided and was wholly unbelieving and that the Remnants of these wickednesses in you of heart rebellion hardness pride hypocrisie pollution unbelief are your greatest burden and you mourn over them daily If this be not your Experience let that man or woman know he or she is a Hypocrite and Unbeliever and sees it not c. 3. Therefore let it convince you and exhort you to go and fall down before the Lord and beg him to open your hearts which naturally are shut up in Darkness and to abase you in the sense of your Rebellion and that he would even do this for you in much Mercy to take away a rebellious hard proud heart from you and would make your hearts pliable to the Word and make them soft and humble before him and to close with the whole heart with Jesus Christ through a work of Faith upon you Do this in the fear of the Lord and through his Grace coming upon you and see what God will do for you and you will be your own wonders that ever such abominations should lye hid in your hearts and yet you not be confounded in your selves in the sense of them 4. Let Souls that are through infinite grace under some heart-renewings know that they have never done with this Work till they come to Glory Yea Soul thou hast depths of rebellion pride hypocrisie pollution unbelief which yet thou hast not reach'd to and therefore as thou must ascribe all to Grace for what the Lord hath done upon thee and remember to thy greater humbling how much adoe the Lord had with thee to bring thy heart under so much as it is so to consider that the Candle of the Lord must more and more search thy dark and deep heart and 't is to be thy daily work or else all these evils will again much prevail upon thee Love therefore a searching Word from the Servants of Christ that are over you 6. The next Discovery of the Gospel New-Creature is this namely The Gospel New-Creature hath New Affections Briefly to instance in some of the chief 1. The New-Creature hath new fear The fear of an eternal Condition that first usually seizeth upon a convinced sinner the fear of a just and angry God against sin and at last upon its renewing a holy awful fear of God as great and holy and good a fear of sinning against him and that because he is gracious Naturally this affection of fear in a carnal heart is conversant about the loss of outward things about shame in the World and the like and so far as it respects God his Soul 't is a slavish fear of breaking out of some grosser sins only lest God should damn him but not fearing the Lord with a gracious Son-like fear a fear that purifies the Heart a fear that is mixt with a blessed love of God and delight in his ways 2. The Heart is exercised with new Sorrow A godly sorrowing for sin such sins which were once the delight of the Heart such a sorrowing that works an Indignation against the Darling sins a taking of a kind of Revenge of our selves for it a vehement desire after pleasing of God and Holiness 2 Cor. 7.11 There is a sorrowing over a crucified Christ and a sorrowing after him and well is a poor soul when it can go in secret and have this affection most exercised with sighs and groans and tears and sad complaints against it self 3. There is a new joy by degrees instilled in the Soul of which though there are various measures to the Children of God yet every New-Creature can go thus far though not in that vigour of Spirit he would do that when the Spirit is free from great distempers it can say he hath some joy that he is deliver'd from the dominion and thraldom of lusts that 't is its joy to go before God I will go unto God my exceeding joy Psal 43.4 Even when under some disquietness of Spirit as verse 2. Why dost thou cast me off Yea will a poor soul say God and Communion with him could I see his face would be my greatest joy And the carnal joy of the heart when it breaks forth leaves the soul but more in heaviness and the New-Creature would have his joy run spiritual 4. Upon this the New-Creature hath New delights The Word of God becomes his delight seeking the face of God and the People of God Delight thy self in God Psal 37. And his chief delight is in the Saints Psal 16.3 The heart cannot as it could formerly delight it self in folly and in vanity and in vain carnal ways and people but is rather burthened with
which defile a man Which defilements unfits the soul for communion with God they make a filthy puddle in the Soul and what a case is a poor Creature in to come to God in Duty in such a pickle 5. Evil Thoughts do pervert the Heart from God which should be fixed upon him they draw away the strength of the heart from God they suck up the juice and marrow of the heart which should be spent in spiritual things in Jesus Christ 6. Such Thoughts do grieve the Spirit Nothing more the Spirit cannot delight to teach and comfort when the heart is mostly acted by foolish and unholy Thoughts 7. When such Thoughts are acted in the Soul God may leave you to the power of them to break out to some grievous fall and so may ship-wrack your peace and comforts for a great while and go with broken bones and it may cost you much bitterness before you are healed 8. If vain carnal Thoughts are not resisted at first but given way to they are hardly check't and subdued and turned upon other Objects and therefore to watch the first Risings of them Now not one of these Considerations but may make a Child of God to tremble how he lets forth his heart into vain carnal idle defiling thoughts and musings which do so much wast a gracious Spirit and lay him open to such woful dangers as these are To help a Child of God in this spiritual Work of looking to and a holy ordering the Thoughts of his Heart 1. Be deeply humbled to God with abhorring and loathing for Atheistical unclean proud vain foolish worldly thoughts that croud in upon you when you make them your Burden you will be the sooner eased 2. Delight thy self much in the Word of God not only in Publick Hearing but Daily Reading and not only Reading but getting some good word upon thy heart that may season thy thoughts and affections Saith David I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love Psal 119.113 The love of the Word of God made him be so far from cherishing vain Thoughts that he did hate them It doth appear this was a special part of David's exercise of Spirit to get some blessed Word upon his heart and he thinking of it and so it did turn into the sweet and wholesom nourishment of the New-creature Oh how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day Blessed and holy practice worthy a gracious Saint indeed you have one word especially that David had much on his heart out of the Books of Moses for we know not whether any other Scripture were then exant 't is that of Exod. 34.6 where the Lord saith he will proclaim his Name and Glory The Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering abundant in goodness and truth which you have in Psalm 103.8 Psal 86.15 and 145.8 Happily one of those sweet words which he often magnifies How hath a single word dwelt upon the heart of a Child of God and hath kept the heart savoury for Christ 3. The next Remedy against such Thoughts is Much Prayer diligence fervency pouring out the heart to God till the heart melts and runs forth sweetly spiritually and is engaged with God and hath a sight of him and a divine impression of God's Majesty left upon the soul 4. Get more and more brokenness of heart for sin when the Heart hath been broken 't will not so easily get into Vanity again At least a Child of God should take care that it should not when the heart is broken and mourning the Spirit doth wonderfully in that work refine the heart All the sleightness vanity defilement distraction that comes upon the New-Creature is mostly for want of this 5. Mortification of that Corruption that is most apt to stir doth much cure our thoughts Inordinate Affections are the Saints greatest Evils and do bespeak an unmortified heart as to what a Child of God should still be pressing after even to be dead and crucified with Christ Those that are Christs have crucified their Affections and Lusts Gal. 5.22 6. Contending for a Spiritual Heart So far as the Heart is spiritual it acts spiritually 'T is the carnality of Heart that works up all those frothy distempers that defile us Paul's corruption was much let out upon him when he cries out of the carnality of his Heart Rom. 7. which should be the daily complaint of God's poor Children 7. A great help to the preserving the Thoughts of the Heart according to the New-Creature will be to consider How precious the thoughts of God are to his people Psal 139.17 How precious also are thy thoughts O God unto me How great is the sum of them If I should count them they are more in number than the sands c. David in v. 2. was considering how God's Eye was upon his Thoughts and 't was a means to rectifie them and then David's Thoughts run forth in the sweet and blessed apprehension of the preciousness of Gods thoughts in him from all Eternity and in the ways of his Covenant towards him If Gods thoughts to us be holy and precious and ever towards us the thoughts of his Servants should be so also and as little common and unsavoury as may be More particularly let us yet consider what blessed and excellent and glorious things such as are New-Creatures in Christ have to exercise their thoughts about 1. Gracious Souls have the Attributes of God to exercise the thoughts of their Hearts in the Infiniteness of God his Greatness Holiness Glory c. A blessed Exercise for Saints indeed So we find the Scripture-Saints sweetly taken up with contemplation and admiration of the Excellencies of God himself Thou art glorious in Holiness Exod. 15.11 saith Moses But Thou art holy saith David Psal 22. Oh how great is thy Goodness Psalm 8.31 as might be abundantly shewed and the exercise of the thoughts this way hath a powerful influence upon the Heart as to its abasement purity sincerity 2. Saints have the riches and freeness of the grace of God in Jesus Christ towards poor sinners to be taken up withal Oh the free rich distinguishing Grace of God to a poor Creature that was posting to Hell that was a Rebellious Wretch a vile Hypocrite the worst of sinners the most unlikely to be converted of any sinner in the world We have David and Paul's hearts swallowed up in this above any other as David in many Psalms is in the admiration of grace and Paul in most of his Epistles makes it his great scope as the great Argument to be not only believing but humble and holy and heavenly all their days especially Col. 1. and Ephes 1st 2d and 3d. Chapters 3. Saints have the unsearchable Riches of Jesus Christ to take up their thoughts with the Excellencies and Dignities of his Person the Beauty and Glory that is in him the depths of his love the matchless price of his blood his bowels to sinners his care of his Churches Oh