faithfully bestowed upon them of which final Perseverance in Grace and Holiness is none of the least Christ's Will runs none of them shall perish and it is the Father's Will that none that he hath given to his Son should be lost Now the Spirit of God cannot fail it is his Work to regenerate sanctify and preserve and to make meet all the Saints of God for the Eternal Inheritance therefore they cannot perish 6 thly The Covenant is firm and sure and doth secure all Christ's Sheep unto Eternal Life appears further because it is confirmed by the highest Witnesses in Heaven and Earth 1. The Father 2. the Son 3. the Holy Spirit and all those wonderful Miracles that were wrought this was one End of that mighty Testimony viz. That all the Father hath given to Christ or all that believe in him may assuredly know they shall not perish but have Everlasting Life 7 thly This Covenant makes all the Blessings thereof sure to all Believers because it is confirmed and ratified by the Blood of the Testator Jesus Christ That Covenant that is confirm'd and ratified by Christ's Blood must needs be sure to all the Seed and secure all Blessings in it to them We have also as a Sign and Token of this Confirmation of the New Covenant the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper This is the Blood of the New Covenant that is shed for you to make Peace for you to procure Justification Reconciliation pardon of Sin and Eternal Life for you it is sealed to you by the Spirit through my Blood take eat this and drink this in token of it as an Assurance of it 8 thly The Covenant of Grace doth secure the standing of Christ's Sheep or preserve all Believers to Everlasting Life because of the Promise and Oath of God We have 1. The Promise of God to Christ He shall see his Seed And again His Seed shall endure for ever How can that be if any one that is begotten by Christ's Word and Spirit may perish 2. The Promises also are as made to us in Christ This was Abraham's Title to the Blessings of the Covenant To Abraham and to his Seed were the Promises made that is to Christ and to all Believers in Christ For all the Promises of God in Jesus Christ are not Yea and Nay but Yea and Amen to the Glory of God the Father From the Father through the Merits of Christ and the Application of the Holy Spirit Nay God that cannot lie promised them to us in Christ before all Worlds See Paul In hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot lie promised before the World began If Believers do perish what will become of the Promises of God nay of the Oath of God For when God made Promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater he swore by himself c. Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the Heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsel confirmed it by an Oath That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have strong Consolation who have fled for Refuge to lay hold on the Hope set before us This Promise and Oath of God doth respect the Salvation of all the Elect or all that are Believers who are the Heirs of the Promises O let any take heed how they affirm that any one of these may perish since God's Oath is passed that they shall not and 't is to this end that all of them might have strong Consolation 9 thly I might proceed to shew you that the Covenant of Grace does preserve all the Sheep of Christ to Eternal Life and shews us that it is impossible that any of them should so fall away as eternally to perish because they in this Covenant have received the Earnest of the Inheritance and by the same Spirit it is sealed to them also But I shall pass by that having elsewhere spoken fully to it 10 thly and Lastly This Covenant prevents the Saints final falling because it is an absolute Covenant which can never be broken but stands as firm as their Eternal Rock See what the Prophet speaks 't is as absolute as the Covenant God made with Noah For this is as the Water of Noah unto me for as I have sworn the Waters of Noah shall no more go over the Earth so I have sworn that I will not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee For the Mountains shall depart and the Hills be removed but my loving Kindness shall not depart from thee neither mark it the Covenant of my Peace be removed saith the Lord that hath Mercy on thee And now this Covenant is made with every Sheep and Lamb of Jesus Christ as it appears by what the same Prophet speaks Incline your Ear and come unto me hear and your Souls shall live and I will make an Everlasting Covenant with you even the sure Mercies of David that is then you shall be brought actually into the Bonds of this Covenant which is the Work of the Spirit for who else can make the Dead to hear and live So this Covenant secures you to Eternal Life Let me sum up the whole of this Argument 1. If the New Covenant be a Covenant of Grace and not of Works if it be not according to the first Covenant that was made with Adam but of a quite contrary Nature 2. If it be made with Christ for all his Elect and in him with them before the World began 3. If Christ is the Surety of the Covenant and hath ingaged or obliged himself in this Covenant to the Father to perform all the federal Conditions proposed to him and undertaken by him on their behalf namely to work out perfect Righteousness according as the Law requires of all that can be justified with God and to die in their room to satisfy for their Breach of the Law and to quicken renew sanctify and preserve them all unto Eternal Life 4. If it be an everlasting Covenant well ordered in all things and sure for the Salvation of all that are given unto him it being made upon the unchangeable Decree and Counsel of God 5. If the Execution of all things that are required of Believers in order to their Interest in this Covenant and their perseverance to the End be put into the Hands of the Holy Ghost to work in them and for them 6. If the Covenant is confirmed by such infallible Witness if it be ratified and confirmed by the Blood of Christ 7. If it is also confirmed by God's Promise and Holy Oath 8. If the Earnest of Salvation is given to them 9. And they are sealed unto the Day of Redemption by the Holy Spirit 10. And if 't is an absolute Covenant like that of Noah Then they all and every one of them shall certainly be saved and none of them can fall away so as eternally to perish But all this is true and evidently so therefore
he must be God that so he might bear the Burden of Divine Anger in his Flesh the Godhead upholding and sustaining his Humane Nature under his bloody Agony and fearful Anguish and Suffering on the Tree when God the Father was withdrawn from him and the Pangs of Hell took hold of him 3. That he might overcome and vanquish all the Enemies of our Souls as Sin Satan Death and Hell Had he not been God he could not have raised himself from the Dead from whence rises the Spring of our Regeneration to a State of Grace here and our Resurrection to a State of Glory at the last Day hereafter 2 dly He must be Man because he must die which the Godhead could not do yea he must be Man in our Nature that he might satisfy the Justice of God for us because the Righteousness of God requires that the same Nature which had sinned should make a full Compensation to the Law of God and infinite Justice O take heed no Man shakes your Faith in this great Article of the Christian Religion 3 dly Take heed also that you abide stedfast in the Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction which dependeth on the former Such who deny Christ's Deity must disown that plenary Satisfaction he gave to the Law and Justice of God Beware of Socinianism Quakerism c. and all such like Errors 4 thly Take heed there are some who tell you Christ has fully satisfied for the Breach of the Law of the first Covenant for the Sins of the whole World so that all Men are cured of that Sickness and delivered from that Curse and put into a Capacity to be saved if they will but exercise the Power of their own Will and Abilities and that Men have power to believe and be regenerated that sit under the preaching of the Gospel and if they answer and discharge their part in Salvation Christ's Death will become effectual to them it being but on this Condition that Christ Jesus died to save Men provided they answer those Terms the Gospel offers Whereas it's evident that Christ is not the End of the Law as touching Righteousness to any Man but only to such as believe I speak of the Adult and the Gospel is not our Sickness but our Cure that condemns not but as the healing Remedy is rejected and the Curse of the Law abides upon all Unbelievers And it is also as evident that Man by Nature is dead in Sin and must by an almighty and irresistible Power be quickned which is done by the infusion of a Principle of Divine Life Faith is God's Gift and not the Condition of the Covenant of Grace it is a Branch or part of that Grace promised therein upon the Condition of Christ's Satisfaction not the Condition to be performed by the Creature which procures the Blessings purchased therefore no Condition then in order and connection in the Promises that God will enable all his Elect to perform by bestowing that Blessing upon them freely by his own Grace The whole of our Salvation is by Christ It is by Faith that it might be by Grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the Seed and all boasting might be excluded And 't is not an uncertain Salvation that depends upon the doubtful and depraved Will of Man but it is well ordered in all things and sure by the infinite Grace Wisdom and Power of God Nor did Christ die only for our Good who are saved but in our stead also so that Eternal Life comes to us in a way of Justice and Righteousness as well as in a way of Mercy and Goodness God was not rendred only reconcileable by the Death of his Son which the Creature is to make effectual on his part but he is absolutely reconciled For if when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being now reconciled we shall be saved by his Life 5 thly There are others also that affirm that Jesus Christ as Mediator gave to God a valuable Consideration or Recompence that he might justly wave and not execute the Law of perfect Obedience and by his Merits purchased a new and milder Law of Grace so that Christ's Righteousness hath only purchased the removing the Law of Works from being a Covenant of Life and that our Right to Salvation the Favour of God and Peace of Conscience does depend upon our Obedience to the Gospel which Christ hath purchased should be accepted for our Righteousness by which we must be justified and judged and that Faith in its whole latitude is our believing and obeying the Gospel or new Law that by this we are made partakers of the Benefits of Christ he having merited this Grant or Law That they who obey him sincerely should be saved and that he is justified so far and so long as he answers the Condition of this new Law of Grace Now we and all sound Protestants in opposition to this affirm That Jesus Christ as the Head Surety and Representative of all the Elect did fulfil or satisfy for the Law of Works bearing the Curse of the Law for us and in our stead and by his Holy Life c. purchased for us that Life which the Law promised to him that continued to do all things that were written therein and by the Supereminency of his Obedience Additions of Blessedness unto Life and that his Obedience and Righteousness whereby he fulfilled the Law is imputed to Believers for their Justification by which God grants them pardon of Sin and a Grant of Eternal Life and that by Christ's Righteousness thus imputed Believers stand perfectly justified and delivered from the Curse of the Law and are certainly intituled to Eternal Life and that Faith is a relying on Christ and trusting in him and his Righteousness and Merits only for Salvation 6 thly Therefore be sure also you hear Christ's Voice and adhere to his Doctrine about Justification through his perfect and compleat Righteousness alone imputed unto all them that do believe in him without Works done by us or Holiness wrought in us I mean our Faith and sincere Obedience is not the Matter of our Justification before God nor any part of it but the Righteousness of Jesus Christ only in his perfect conformity to the Law of God in his Life and by dying on the Cross as our Surety and blessed Representative Yet know we constantly affirm That that Faith which unites us to Christ in whom we are justified doth purify both the Heart and Life and though inherent Grace Holiness and good Works do not justify our Persons before God yet they do justify our Faith and declare us to be in a justified State before Men and to our own Consciences also as the Apostle James shews and that that Faith that is not attended with good Fruits is dead as the Body without the Spirit is dead Pray remember that you have been often taught that Faith it self doth not
saving Knowledg the Doctrine of Free Grace of Justification Adoption Pardon of Sin and free access to the Father which shews it to be a sat and blessed Pasture and thus it feeds their Understanding 2. It feeds and raises their Affections also in Love to Christ and desire after him to hear what God is to them and Christ is to them what a Covenant is made with Christ for them what Promises are made to them what Love the Lord Jesus hath to them and what Grace is purchased laid and treasured up in Christ for them what Care he hath of them and what Glory he hath prepared for them 3. They receive the Word they assent to the Truth of it and fâ—el a so the Power thereof inclining bowing and subjecting their Wills to a holy ready and hearty Consent thereunto in a way of universal Obedience to what is required of them 4. It feeds their Faith also and every Grace of the Spirit in their Souls it increases their Faith in Christ and their Love to Christ whilst they meditate thereon and believe with an unfeigned Faith the Veracity of God's Word and apply the Promises and Blessings thereof which are purchased by Jesus Christ now is to eat and digest the Word Secondly The Ordinances of Christ may be said to be another Pasture where his Sheep do feed The Spouse no doubt enquired after this Pasture Tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest c. where thy Holy Ordinances are truly administred 1. The Ordinance of Preaching or Administration of the Gospel is a rich Pasture especially when it is preached powerfully by the Influence and Demonstration of the Spirit the opening and explaining the Word of the Gospel is like the opening the Pasture-Gate and so letting the Sheep into it Did not our Hearts burn within us while he talked with us and opened the Scriptures 'T is like the opening of the Box of precious Ointment causing a sweet Perfume in the Soul like as Mary's did in the House The Work of the Ministry is to open the Scripture Vnderstandest thou what thou readest saith Philip. The Eunuch answered How can I unless some Man should guide me He might have added some skilful Man Alas some are unlearned unexperienced and ignorant Preachers they know not the Lord themselves they never learned of the Father but want the Teachings of the Holy Spirit They understand not the Scripture the Holy Bible is a sealed Book to them notwithstanding all their Humane Literature and Knowledg of the Tongues with their Arts and Sciences The preaching the Gospel is the feeding of the Soul But O what care should be taken that nothing is delivered by the Preacher but sound Doctrine not to feed the People with airy and empty Notions corrupt and poisonous Doctrine for that is to destroy the Sheep especially such that are weak in Knowledg and cannot quickly discern Truth from Error They are not to feed the Flock with Humane Traditions nor with their own Dreams Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me Feed my Sheep Not with good Doctrine only but good Discipline also and with an holy and good Example Good Government is precious Food to the Sheep and Lambs of Jesus Christ 2. The Holy Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper is another part of this blessed Pasture And such are ill Sheep that will not feed where the Shepherd willeth them or like not a Pasture of his chusing With what gladness did those Saints at Jerusalem when they received the Word yield themselves up to Holy Baptism The Eunuch also found that Ordinance he meeting with Christ in it very sweet and therefore when baptized he went away rejoicing The Mystery of the Gospel is preached or held forth in a lively Figure in Baptism to the very sight of the natural Eye which being understood conveys much Light and Knowledg to the Understanding It shews that Christ was dead buried and rose again for our Justification 1 st Baptism saith the Learned Tilenus is the first Sacrament of the New Testament instituted by Christ in which there is an exact Analogy between the Sign and the Thing signified The outward Rite in Baptism is threefold 1. Immersion into the Water 2. Abiding under the Water 3. A Resurrection out of the Water The Form of Baptism saith he to wit External and Essential is no other than the Analogical Proportion which the Sign keeps with the Thing signified thereby The plunging into the Water saith he holds forth to us that horrible Gulph of Divine Justice in which Christ for our sakes for a while was in a manner swallowed up abiding under the Water how little time soever denotes his descent into Hell even the deepest of Lifelessness and lying in the sealed or guarded Sepulchre he was accounted as one dead Rising out of the Water holds forth to us in a lively Similitude that Conquest which this dead Man got over Death And saith the same worthy Author so dipping into the Water in a most lively Similitude sets forth the Mortification of the old Man and rising out of the Water the Vivification of the new Man it being meet that we being baptized into his Death and buried with him should rise also with him and go on in a new Life The Apostle clearly confirms the same great Truths Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised up from the Dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of Life We have Fellowship with Christ in his Death in Baptism or the Efficacy of his Death evidenced to us as the outward Symbol of it is held forth in the external Administration of it For as Christ died for Sin so we are hereby obliged to die to Sin and as he rose again from the Dead so we ought as we covenant in this Ordinance to walk in newness of Life Dr. Cave saith In Immerging there are in a manner three-fold Acts The putting the Person into the Water his abiding under the Water and his rising up again thereby representing Christ's Death Burial and Resurrection and our Conformity thereunto in our dying to Sin and the destruction of its Power and our resurrection to a new course of Life O learn what your Baptism holds forth and what you are taught thereby and promised therein and live accordingly Brethren you will find blessed Food in this Ordinance for your Souls and if you experience the Things signified thereby happy are you if not in vain were you baptized 2 dly What sweet Food or how good a Pasture is the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper to a hungry Soul who longs after the Bread of Life and Communion with Christ A Crucified Christ is the Bread of Life and by Faith in this Ordinance we feed on
Sins and Iniquities I will remember no more Though they will be sick none can live and sin not yet they have a Physician that can and will heal them The Covenant hath a healing Antidote in it for every spiritual Malady of the Soul of a poor dejected Believer And because God hath promised to give Repentance to his Israel Sin not being actually forgiven without Repentance or before Repentance therefore God will give Repentance to all his Children he will look upon them as Christ look'd upon Peter and then they shall and do weep as he did bitterly Nay Brethren Jesus Christ is exalted on high to this very End Him hath God exalted with his right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of Sins That is to cover to conquer and subdue all their Corruptions and to supply their Wants and to protect and defend them from all Enemies and eternally to save their Souls For which End he had his Name given him And thou shalt call his Name Jesus for he shall save his People from their Sins from the Guilt of them the Power of them and the Punishment of them Also therefore Sin cannot separate them from God's Love and ruin their precious Souls Sixthly No Sin can destroy the Soul nor separate it from God but such Sins only that have dominion that rule and reign in Men and Women such that the Sinner loves and allows in himself Nay all unrenewed Persons are Servants of Sin but no Sin reigns in a true Believer he loves no Sin allows of no Sin therefore cannot commit Sin Sin shall not cannot reign in them for Sin shall not have Dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace Grace will prevent it the Covenant of Grace and the Influences of Grace and the Promises of Grace The Law commands but gives no Power to obey but Power to subdue Sin goes along with the Gospel the Law is the Strength of Sin but the Gospel is the Death of it Object But for all this good Men may be overcome and backslide from God and God may leave them and love them no more Answ 1. I answer They may be overcome for a Time or worsted in the Conflict but they shall not finally be overcome though they fall they shall rise again And as it is said A Troop shall overcome Gad but Gad shall overcome at last so it may be said of every Believer Hence the Apostle says We are more than Conquerors through him that loveth us Rejoice not over me O mine Enemy when I fall I shall rise 2. Though they backslide from God for a time yet he will recover them again I will heal their Back-slidings and will love them freely See here that God's People by their Backslidings do not lose his choice Love and Affections No no he will love them still and that freely too and will not rest till he heals them of that Sickness which is the worst they can relapse into 3. The Elect are another sort they are not of them that backslide so that God's Soul takes no pleasure in them But we are not of them who draw back unto Perdition but of them that believe to the Salvation of the Soul There are some that so draw back after they have made a high Profession of the Gospel but Christ's Sheep are not Sons of Perdition but Sons of Faith or true and sincere Believers they cannot so sin so apostatize because the Seed remains in them they cannot commit Sin they cannot sin as others do not so as to lose God's Love or not sin unto Death therefore cannot perish They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us c. They were not such that had real Union with Christ the true Anointing was not in them they were not of Christ's Sheep not sincere Believers not Elect Ones From hence let me draw this Argument Arg. 2. All those that sin cannot separate from the Love of God in Christ nor eternally destroy nothing can but they shall be certainly saved but Sin cannot separate true Believers or the Sheep of Christ from the Love of God in Christ nor eternally destroy them therefore nothing can but they shall certainly be saved Object But doth not this give encouragement to Believers to sin and so a Licentious Doctrine Answ 1. The Apostle answers this very Objection to anticipate such a sort of Men that were in his Days which we meet with in these of ours What shall we say then shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid He having largely in the foregoing Chapters proved the Doctrine I am upon viz. That Salvation is alone by Christ by the Free Grace of God in him that our Justification is by the Righteousness of Christ imputed and no other way And that Everlasting Life is sure and certain to all the Seed to all in Christ or to all who do believe in him and he shews that where Sin abounded Grace hath much more abounded Particularly in the precedent Verse he asserts That as Sin hath reigned unto Death even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. From hence he raises this Objection to anticipate carnal and blind Mortals who see no further and answers it with God forbid how shall we that are dead to Sin live any longer therein 2. Let me tell you that they who leave Sin refrain from Sin upon no higher better or more noble Principles than the fear of Wrath or eternal perishing or only act from slavish Fear have doubtless not one Dram of true Grace in them Brethren to abstain from Sin to strive against Sin to resist Temptations and to be found in all Duties of Obedience and Holiness lies in high sublime and evangelical Principles and from such Motives that have greater Force and Power on the Soul than the fear of Wrath or Hell can have As 1. Saith a Believer Is Sin hateful to God doth God's Soul loath it is it abominable to him and shall it not be so to me but shall I sin God forbid 2. Hath Sin pierced my dear Redeemer Was it the Spear that let out his Heart's Blood that wounded and tore him to pieces that made him sweat great Drops of Blood that let out Divine Wrath upon him and made him a Curse for me and shall I sin and wound him again God forbid 3. Did Christ die for me to redeem me did he stand in my stead and bear mine Iniquities and shall I sin God forbid 4. Hath God bestowed such Grace upon me as to love me from Everlasting to chuse me to redeem me to renew me and all to this End that I should be to the Praise of his Glory and bring forth the Fruits of Holiness and not sin against him and shall
prayed the Father and was heard herein that all that the Father had given him might be one as He and the Father was one What can be a greater Argument to prove that that Union which is between Christ and Believers is an inseparable an abiding and an undissolvable Union The Union here doth not respect that Essential Union that is between the Father and the Son but in respect of Christ as he is our Head and Mediator in which respect the Father poured into him of his abundant Fulness that so we having a firm perfect and setled Union with him might in a glorious manner receive from him and be supplied with all things we need And Christ being the Medium of our Union with God both the Father's Union with Christ and Christ's Union with us are for the final Perfection and compleating that Glorious Work he hath begun in the Souls of his People until we all come to be with him where he is and behold his Glory If therefore we consider the Nature of this Union and the Prayer of Christ that it might be perfected and abide undissolvable it must follow that it is impossible for any Soul that is thus united to the Lord Jesus ever so to fall away as eternally to perish Fourthly By this Spiritual Union with Christ we partake of his Blessed Image or Divine Nature So that the Head and Members are of one kind and not like Nebuchadnezzar's Image a Head of Gold and a Belly and Thighs of Brass and Legs of Iron and Feet and Toes part of Iron and part of Clay This would be to make the Mystical Body of Christ a Monster an Immortal Head an Incorruptible Head and a Mortal Body and Members that may corrupt putrify and become loathsom No this cannot be such as is the Head as to Nature and Quality such is the Body and every Member in particular a living Head and living Members a Head of pure Gold and Members of pure Gold also a Head that cannot die and therefore the Members cannot die For Fifthly It is a Vital Vnion as you have heard that is to say the same Life that is in Christ is in all Believers And as it is in the natural Body the Members have not only Life in the Head but Life in themselves also and so long as there is Life in the Head there shall be Life in the Members so it is here And this must therefore be for ever for by the same parity of Reason that one Member may die or corrupt the whole Body may die and corrupt also But Christ is our Life and the Spirit which is the Bond of this Union communicates Life to every Soul in whom he resides and dwells and the Holy Spirit hath taken up his abode in Believers for ever He that hath the Spirit hath the Son and he that hath the Son hath Life I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me From hence I argue Arg. 1. If he that believeth in Christ or that hath Union with Christ is a Part or Limb of Christ Mystical then not one Soul that believes in Christ and has real Union with him can eternally perish Shall a Member of Christ perish or be torn from his Body Brethren was it Christ's Natural Body only that was concerned in that Prophecy A Bone of him shall not be broken Or did Christ take more care of the Members of his Natural Body than of the Members of his Mystical Body Arg. 2. If Christ's Love to and Care of the Members of his Mystical Body be greater than any Man's Love to or Care of the Members of his Natural Body can be then not one of Christ's Sheep or Saints can eternally perish But his Love to and Care of the Members of his Mystical Body is far greater than theirs can be therefore it follows no Believer can ever perish Arg. 3. If the Union between Christ and Believers be a Marriage-Union and that those that Christ does espouse and bring into that Relation to himself he doth espouse for ever if it is a Union like that Union that is between God the Father and Christ as Mediator if it be an indissolvable Union a Union which God nor Christ will ever break nor Sin Satan nor no Enemy can ever break then not one Soul that is truly and really united to Christ can ever so fall away as eternally to perish But all this we have proved to be true therefore not one Soul that hath true and real Union with Christ can fall away so as eternally to perish Arg. 4. If the Love of God and the Love of Christ abides firm for ever to every Soul that hath Union with Christ which is the Spring efficient and moving Cause of this Union then not one of them who have Union with Christ can perish But we have proved that the Love of the Father and Son abides firm for ever to every Soul that has Union with Christ therefore not one of them can perish for ever Arg. 5. If Christ died rose again and ascended into Heaven as the Head and Representative of all those that were given unto him and have Union with him then as sure as he is now in Heaven they shall every Soul of them come thither But this hereafter I shall fully prove and clearly God assisting make appear when I come to speak to the next General Argument Arg. 6. If the Union between Christ and Believers is so strong and firm a Union intensively that Christ and they become one Spirit so that as if there was but one Spirit in Christ and in them or what the Spirit is to Christ and doth to Christ as Mediator without measure he is to every Believer and does for every Believer in measure according to each Believer's Necessity and Capacity then this Union secures every Believer from falling so as to perish for ever But this we have proved is so the Spirit must either desert Christ as you heard or them if ever the Union be broken not Christ that all will say is impossible not Believers because of the blessed Union they have with him and also because Christ hath promised that the Spirit shall abide in them for ever Nay this is also the absolute Promise of the Father to the Son in the Covenant of Grace And as for me this is my Covenant with them saith Jehovah My Spirit that is upon thee and my Words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed's Seed from henceforth and for ever Arg. 7. By virtue of this Sacred Union because Christ lives the Saints or those that have Union with him shall live also which Blessing besides he has by a positive Promise assur'd them of then no Soul that hath real Union with him can perish But this our Blessed Saviour doth assert Because I live ye shall live also that is the
Fire opened in eight Particulars 31 33 33 9. Doctrines raised 33 34 35 The Application 36 37 38 39 Second Sermon Doct. God's Wrath is like to Fire it is intolerable 1. Demonstrated in 2. External and Internal Wrath opened 41 42 43 3. The Nature of Eternal Wrath shewed in Spira and Child 44 to 51 4. Eternal Wrath or Hell-Torments and the Nature thereof opened largely 52 c. Second Text John 10. 27 28. First Sermon 1. The Text opened and Terms explained 75 76 2. The Doctrine propounded viz. All true Believers are the Sheep of Christ 76 The Doctrine opened 1. How they may be called Christ's Sheep shewed in seven Particulars 77 to 80 2. What meant by Christ's Voice shewed in 4 respects 1. The Voice of his Word 2. Of his Spirit 3. Of his Doctrine 4. Of his Rod 80 The Nature of the Voice of Christ's Spirit opened in eight Particulars 81 82 83 3. The chief Essentials of Christianity what shewed in seven Particulars 85 86 Second Sermon 1. How Christ's Sheep hear his Voice shewed in nine Particulars 87 88 89 2. Why False Teachers are called Strangers shewed in five Particulars Pag. 90 3. The Application 91 Distinct Persons in the Godhead proved by five Arguments Christ God and Man 92 93 Third Sermon 1. In what respect Christ knows his Sheep shewed in five respects 98 99 2. What a kind of Knowledge the Knowledg of Christ is shewed in ten Particulars 100 101 All further opened in 13 Parts 101 102 3. The Application 104 105 Fourth Sermon 1. The Characters of Christ's Sheep shewed in 15 Particulars 107 to 11◠2. Christ's Sheep do follow him how in 8 Parts 3. Christ's Sheep have his Mark 118 4. They follow the Footsteps of the Flock 119 The Application 121 Fifth Sermon 1. What kind of Shepherd Christ is 122 to 130 2. What Pastures Christ feeds his Sheep in 130 1. The Word 130 2. The Ordinances 131 3. The Promises 135 4. His Providences 136 3. What the Nature of Spiritual Food is shewed in seven Particulars 137 4. The Application 139 140 Sixth Sermon I give them Eternal Life c. 1. The Text further opened 141 2. How Believers are in Christ's Hand in seven Particulars 142 3. What being in Christ's Hand denotes shewed 〈◊〉 three Particulars 142 143 4. What meant by Eternal Life A threefold Life of Man 143 5. How Christ is our Life in four respects 144 6. Man naturally dead opened and Free-will detected 144 146 147 7. Salvation or Eternal Life wholly of Grace proved 147 to 152 8. Why Salvation is wholly of Grace 152 153 154 9. Why Christ will give Eternal Life to his 〈◊〉 shewed in seven Parts 155 156 10. The Application Seventh Sermon Third Doctrine raised viz. None of Christ's Sheep can so fall away as to perish eternally 1. Something first premised before the Doctrine is proved 2. Believers may fall foully how far shewed pag. 162 163 3. The Causes of the Saints falling opened 164 169 4. The Doctrine confirmed That the Saints cannot fall finally First Argument taken from Election 169 1. The Doctrine of Personal Election proved 170 171 172 173 2. The Objection I am not elected a ninefold Answer 175 176 Eighth Sermon 1. How Election tends to prove the Saints final Perseverance shewed in seven Particulars from 177 to 183 Second Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from the Nature of the Love of God the Father in four Particulars 184 3. Sin cannot separate a Believer from God's eternal Love demonstrated and many Objections answered from 185 to 190 4. From what Principle Believers do oppose and resist Sin shewed in 10 Particulars 191 192 193 Ninth Sermon Third Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from the Nature of Christ's Love 193 1. What kind of Love Christ's Love is shewed in many Particulars 193 194 195 Application The excellent Nature of the Knowledg of Christ's Love 200 201 202 Fourth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance 1. Taken from the Nature of the Covenant of Grace 2. Which is opened in ten Particulars from 202 to 210. 3. This general Argument summed up 210 211 Tenth Sermon Fifth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from their bring the Children of God demonstrated in seven Particulars 212 213 214 215 How they that are born again cannot sin shewed in six Particulars 216 217 The general Argument summed up pag. 218 219 The Application 220 Eleventh Sermon Sixth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from their Union with Christ 221 The Nature of that Mystical Union opened in five or six Particulars 222 229 Ten Arguments taken from thence 230 231 The Application Twelfth Sermon Seventh Argment to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from the Death of Christ 235 Christ died not only for the good of his Elect but also in their stead proved by nine Arguments 236 248 Four Arguments further from thence 241 242 243 Arminian Errors about universal Redemption confuted by 19. or 20 Arguments 249 to 256 Thirteenth Sermon Eighth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from the Effects of Christ's Death 257 What the Effects of Christ's Death are largely opened 257 to 266 The Application 267 268 Fourteenth Sermon Ninth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from their being in the Father's Hand 269 What is meant by the Father's Hand shewed in three Particulars 270 271 2. From their being in Christ's Hand what it imports or meant thereby 274 275 276 278 279 In what respects the Saints are said to be in Christ's Hand opened in thirteen Particulars 280 281 282 283 The general Argument summed up 284 Fifteenth Sermon Tenth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from the nature of true Grace What a Principle of trut Grace is shewed in six Particulars 287 288 289 Weak Grace shall be victorious 290 to 295 Sixteenth Sermon The grand Objection against final Perseverance answered 297 298 1. Christ's Birth matter of Joy to all People answered 2. If none saved but such that are elected what need any look after Salvation answered 3. Doctrine of Election tends to make the Saints loose and remiss in God's Service answered page 299 4. Take beed watch c. answered 5. Some Branches in Christ wither and are cut off answered 226 301 6. If Christ died not for all how can I know he died for me answered 301 302 7. Work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling what intended by it and the Objection from thence answered 302 303 304 8. If you abide in me answered 9. Some have made Shipwrack of Faith c. answered 306 10. A righteous Man may turn from his Righteousness answered 307 11. God would have all Men be saved c. answered 12. What need preaching c. if all are absolutely elected to Salvation that shall be saved answered 309 13. Those in every Nation that 〈…〉 are accepted of him answered 383 384
something more in it the Lord by the power of his Spirit doth cut us off from any power of our natural Gifts and Parts and spiritual Gifts also or from any Confidence of our own sufficiency the Lord hath cut us off from hope in the Righteousness of our Parents and from boasting of Ordinances And again he saith This we read of Mat. 4. 1. It is spoken of the Ministry of John the Baptist which did burn as an Oven against all the Scribes and Pharisees and left them neither the Root of Abraham's Covenant nor the Branch of their own good Works He cutteth them off from the Covenant of Abraham c. And by cutting them off from the Root he leaveth them no ground to trust on Thus Mr. Cotton on The Covenant p. 177 and p. 21 22. Now evident it is that nothing but the dispensation of God's Providence or the Expiration of that period of Time determined by the Almighty for the standing of the Church of Israel could cut the Jews off as a Nation from being a Church and peculiar People unto God I mean in respect of that Legal Covenant I deny not but that the Covenant of Grace God made with Abraham and with his true spiritual Seed stands firm for ever and ever and none in that Covenant can be cut off nor fanned away for the Jewish Priesthood Church-state and Church-membership and all their Church-priviledges were to remain until Christ came or until the time of Reformation that is till the Gospel-days and Gospel-dispensation took place and no longer But now that time being come and they not seeing an end put to the old Covenant-Church as it was made with the natural Offspring of Abraham and that their right to legal Ordinances and Church-membership could not give them any right to Gospel Ordinances nor Gospel-Church-membership and they not believing in Christ not accepting of the Terms of the Gospel were all of necessity purged out or fanned away by the Fan of the New Testament-dispensation and so were no longer a people in any sense in Covenant with God Thirdly Christ hath also another Fan in his hand viz. The Fan of Church-Discipline And many persons falling into sin are purged like Chaff out of his floor Hereby 1. Sometimes some evil and corrupt Persons who get among God's people or into his Church and pass a while for Wheat i. e. for gracious Persons yet in time God suffers them to fall into one Temptation or another by which means they are fann'd away the Holy Jesus by his wise Providence makeing a discovery of them and their evil Tempers and Dispositions 2. May be some glorious Truths or Truth of Jesus Christ is revealed or cleared up to his Church in General to which several Persons of the same Congregation may not only want Light in but may be filled with Prejudice against and not only against the Truth but against the Church or Minister for seeking to bring it in and this may rise to such a height through their Pride and Stubborness that they will not abide any longer Members thereof but violently rend themselves by Schism and so are purged out Tho' as 't is observed by an Husband-man some light Corn may be good Wheat may be fanned out with the Chaff which he knows how to recover by fanning the Chaff also afterwards And thus it was with some of those who were called Christ's Disciples they could not would not endure that blessed Truth Christ preached to them of Eating of his Flesh c. but cried out This is a hard saying who can bear it and so went away and walked no more with him O see what the Effects of preaching some Truths may be how many are there who cannot bear in this day sound Doctrine but desert his People and some Truths of Christ and seem to shut their eyes against them caling them Error and false Doctrine and what not And this way God takes in his wise Providence to purge out some rotten Members which possibly were a repoach to his People And altho' may be some Wheat may by this means through Satans Temptations and Corruptions of their own hearts and their great Ignorance be fanned out with the Chaff they being carried away by the Craftiness and Subtilty of such whom Christ hath a mind to sever from the Body yet he knows how to gather up the Wheat again as the Husbandman doth 3. Others whom Christ would have purged out of his Church may be suffered to suck in some evil corrupt and dangerous Principles or Errors in Fundamentals like that of Hymeneus and Alexander whose Errours being discovered were purged out 4. Also others fall into notorious and scandalous Sins and so are purged out 5. Some who are Chaff or unsound Christians may be suffered to take up undue offences against the Church or Churches to whom they belong and by giving way to Temptation they may become unreconcileable magnifying their own Wisdom and Self-conceitedness and so by a secret hand of God be discovered and purged out But it must be considered that the use and exercise of the Keys or Rules of Church-Discipline is appointed by Christ as the proper Fan by which those sorts of Persons last mentioned and some others are to be purged out of the Church or Congregations of the Saints Now the Fan of Discipline is two-fold First The Act of Excommunication In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together with my Spirit to deliver such a one unto Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus The Persons Christ by this Fan of Discipline purges out are of three sorts 1. All gross and scandalous Persons who are Guilty of any Act or Acts of Immorality as Theft Swearing Drunkenness Vncleanness Covetousness Lying c. These being publick and reproachful Crimes the Offender ought sorthwith upon clear proof to be purged out that the Name of the Lord may not be exposed to contempt and his People villified by the ungodly World and time given to him for the proof and Trial of the sincerity or Truth of his Repentance which in part will be manifested by his Carriage and Behaviour under his Punishment I mean the Righteous Censure of the Church The Second sort that this Fan of Discipline takes hold of are such that suck in Heresies or Capital Errors these after the first and second Admonition ought to be rejected and delivered up to Satan that they may not learn to Blaspheme The Third sort are such who refuse to hear the Church after their case in which they have offended is regularly brought in against them according to the Rule contained in Matthew the offence at first may be against one brother and the offended party is first to tell him his fault between himself and his Brother or Sister that hath offended him alone Whom if he can bring to see and acknowledge his
professing Godliness tho' I dare not say but some sincere Christians may be overtaken with this Evil as well as others yet I hope God will soon convince them of the odiousness of it Yet no doubt it doth clearly discover that some of this sort are loose and vain persons and but meer chaff in Gods sight which the day that is coming will burn up And such especially have cause to suspect themselves who pride it in their own hearts and take delight in those hateful and abominable fashions and cannot bear to be told of it tho' in never so wise and discreet manner nor will they be brought by any perswasions to reform and leave them off tho' it wounds the very Souls of many of them they have Communion with Fifthly O that they that fear God would consider that he beholds them and looks upon them whose eyes are like unto a flame of Fire These Dresses O ye Daughters of Zion know assuredly none but foolish and vain persons do like and approve of even none but the Devil and his Followers is it not sad in such a day of distress sorrow and humiliation when Gods Hand is lifted up upon the Nation and thousands of poor Families want Bread that Christians should thus walk and consume their Substance on their Pride and costly Lust 4. They appear to be but chaff who seem to make it a small matter to grieve the Hearts of sincere Christians what care they who they wound and afflict they 'll have their Fancies their Humours tho' the thing in it self may be doubtful whether a breach of Gods Law or not and so like eating of Meats that was a thing indifferent in it self and might or might not be done Nay that make light of grieving the Holy Spirit in themselves and in others also let the Lord be grieved his Spirit grieved his poor Ministers grieved and his faithful Children grieved they regard it not but set light by it These may also be suspected i. e. that are indifferent in and about Closet and Family-Prayer and other weighty Duties of Religion or are loose and formal in it This shews they bear no weight they are not ponderous but light as Chaff Moreover such may be suspected who set light by Hearing the Word of God alas to go to hear a Sermon is a light thing with some if there be any worldly Loss attending it tho' it be not to the Value of a Groat they can't go or if the Weather be not very good they plead Excuse as not being able to go so far tho' may be the next day in worse Weather they can go about their earthly Business twice as far Likewise such who for every small matter refrain from coming to the Lords Table may be any trivial offence shall hinder them they are offended with this Person and that Person and so cast a slight upon Christ and on his Sacred Ordinance and thus persist from time to time They can go to Church or stay at home Can pray and hear and can forbear Religion is a light and indifferent thing with them This shews such are under fearful Temptations or else loose and light Professors in the sight of God 5. Such are Chaff that only have the husk or shell of Christianity Chaff is the husks of Wheat many Professors please themselves with the external part of Religion having a form of Godliness but are Strangers to the Life and Power thereof Like the foolish Virgins they have Lamps but no Oyl a Name but want the Nature of true Believers can talk and discourse of Religion of the Covenant of Grace and excellency of Christ they may have I grant clear Notions in their heads of the Mysteries of the Gospel and defend it too against opposers yet their Hearts are unsanctified and never felt nor experienced the work of Faith with Power they have the out-side of a true Christian the Shell of the Wheat but if tried and searched there 's nothing but Chaff no Kernil in them they want the root of the Water All true Believers have past through the Pangs of the New Birth they found they were once Dead but are now alive once blind but now they see once lost in their own Eyes but now found once Carnal but now Spiritual once had their affection set on things below but now on things above Sin was once Sweet and Pleasant to them but now 't is bitter and Loathsom in their Eyes because they see it is so in the sight of God Their Judgments are informed their Understandings savingly enlightned Christ and heavenly things are valued and esteemed above all things here below yea above ten thousand Worlds by them and their understandings are not only brought to assent to the truth of Christ to the Glory and Beauty of Christ but their wills also are subjected to him they are brought to consent and yield themselves to the Lord they believe and love believe and obey believe and suffer reproach taking up the Cross putting on the yoke of Christ their affections are so changed and under divine Influences that what they loved once they hate and what they once hated or liked not they dearly love and approve of now But thus it is not with Chaffy Professors They may be changed from open Prophanness to an outward Reformation of life but their Hearts are not changed Sin is not Crucified in them self is not subdued that enmity that was naturally in their hearts or dislike of the Life and Power of strict Godliness is not removed they act only from common Illuminations of the Spirit and so they put a force upon themselves when found in religious Duties and find not a natural Inclination and sweet Propensity in their hearts to heavenly things and this shews they are no more then Chaff 6. And lastly Chaff I told you was Light and every breath of wind will move it this way and that way and if it rises high it will may be blow it quite away there being no Kernel in it whereas the Wheat abides So Chaffy and vain Professors are startled at every small blast of Persecution and presently begin to move out of their place and shun assembling themselves with Gods People Nay every wind of corrupt Doctrine is ready to blow some of this sort a way they are unsettled Persons they want weight or are not rooted in the Truth wanting a good Understanding and a Principle of saving Grace in their Hearts Be not carried away with divers and strange Doctrines for it is good to have the heart established with Grace and not with Meats This sort are soon corrupted from the Simplicity of the Gospel by the Cunning Crastiness of Men being ready to receive any strange Notion or close in with a New Scheem of Religion some turning to Judaism and add Moses to Christ or joyn to the Gospel their own Works they are commonly corrupt either in Principles or Practices or in both making a stir about the
heed for your Souls sake that you rest not upon a bare Profession or on a name of Christians This may inform us also that Christ hath a gracious end in bringing Persecutions and Trials on his People it shews us why he uses the Fan of severe Providences Judgments and Afflictions It is you have heard to purge to purifie them and to separate the Chaff from them O do not then think it strange concerning fiery trials as if some strange thing had befallen you Exhort Let me exhort you to see to it in time that you are not deceived and so prove Chaff and Vain Persons empty and foolish Virgins at last Motives 1. O how far may men go and yet be but almost Christians Remember this 2. Many when Christ comes shall have great Confidence and go forth to meet him and yet be found foolish ones Some deceive their own Hearts and others have Hearts that deceive them by trusting in them and never examine how matters are between God and their own Souls 3. Men may Preach and Prophesie yea speak as if they had the Tongue of Men and Angels and Cast out Devils in Christs Name and yet be nothing they may Preach no doubt to the Conversion of others and yet may not be Converted themselves 4. Wheat is commonly weighed to know the goodness of it so God weighs Men he weighs the Actions of Men Thou art weighed in the ballance and art found wanting Weighed in a Ballance alluding to the weighing of Gold or Goods exactly in Scales God tries Men and Women that all may know he will proceed Justly and Righteously with them he weighs them in the ballance of the sanctuary or trys them by the Touch-stone of his Word and if found full weight or pure Gold then he declares that they are his and he owns them as his People as his Wheat but if too light or not hold weight but are greatly wanting there being no worth in them but are Dross Chaff light and empty Persons unfound and unsanctified ones then he rejects them as none of his but are as reprobate Silver false Coin People of no value with him As he weighs Men so he weighs their Works their Graces their Gifts their Duties to see whether they hold weight whether true and righteous or not whether the Grace be true Grace special Grace not common Grace and their Gifts not Counterfeit Gifts or meer Natural Gifts or only humane and acquired Gifts Some boast of false Gifts which as Solomon tells us is like Clouds and Wind without rain What a stir doth a vain Person make of a strong Memory crying it up as if it was a Spiritual Gift and as if none were true Ministers but such who have a great Memory and can deliver all they have got by their Study by the strength of their Memory alas all men of any sense know that is but a Natural Gift which some wicked men have as well as some good men but let him know God knows what mens Hearts are what their Ends and Designs are what their Gifts are and what their Duties are as well as what the matter of their Worship is which they perform to God that is whether it hath his Image stampt upon it or is of his Authority his own Appointment his own Institution or but Humane Inventions he also weighs the manner how they perform all Divine Worship towards him from what Principle Life Power End and Design whether 't is from a changed Heart from unfeigned Faith and Love to Christ in sincerity with Zeal and to glorify God if not he will discover them weigh them and they will be found wanting and be found no better than Chaff at last Though they may seek ways to hide and cover their Wickedness and false Spirits and base designs yet let them know he that weighs the hill in scales and the mountains in balances doth and will weigh them and find out all their Cursed Deeds their Pride their Malice and put a rebuke upon their back-sliding and detracting Tongues Talk saith Hannah no more so exeeding proudly let not arrogancy come out of thy mouth for God is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed Thou Peninnah as our Annotators note speak no more so insolently and reproachfully of me as thou hast done he knoweth thy Heart and all that Pride Envy and Contempt of me which thy own Conscience knows and thy perverse Carriage towards me God pondereth and tryeth all mens Thoughts and Actions as a Just Judge to give to every one according to their works Oh what a Motive should this be to us all God weighs our Persons our Graces our Gifts our Dutys and all our Services in Scales Take heed you are not found too light found wanting as be sure you will if you be found Chaff when put into the Ballance of the Sanctuary Direction 1. If you would not be found Chaff try and weigh your Spirits your Persons your Faith your Love see if it holds weight by the Kings standard see on what Foundation you are built have you dugg deep and laid your foundation on a Rock what Love have you to Christ is he precious to your Souls the chiefest of ten thousand what Love have you to the Children of God how do you carry it at home and abroad do you feed the Hungry Visit the Sick and Cloath the naked is Christs Family Christs Servants Christs Poor more in your esteem love and affections than Sons and Daughters than Brethren and Sisters that are not his Children if you do not love Christ more than Father and Mother more than Son or Daughter you may justly fear whether you are Wheat or no And if it be so that you do so Love him and his Saints Ministers and People it will appear whilst you live and when you come to die you will not forget Christ then his People and Interest then O think onthis 2. And to you Sinners if you would be found Wheat in the day of Christ then receive Christs true Doctrine labour to distinguish between Truth and Error beware of that strange and new Scheme that darkens the Free-Grace of God and tends to destroy the Covenant of Grace Remember to exalt Christ alone in your Salvation How do some turn the Gospel of Gods Free-Grace into a Law by the performance of which as the Conditions of Life and Justification tell thee thy Salvation doth depend See what subtle Opposers of the clearest Gospel are risen up amongst us and labour to avoid them though their Tongues should seem to be tipp'd with Silver yet their Doctrine is Copper 3. Be sure Build on Christ alone and see that that Faith thou hast in him be the Faith of Gods Elect which sanctifies both Heart and Life and is attended with Good Fruits you must work from Life and not for Life Consolat 1. Lastly By way of Comfort and Consolation Be not afraid O Child of God tho' thou art in Christ's Fan
by Original Sin or by Nature only wounded or maimed but dead The Holy Ghost doth not make use of an improper Metaphor We by Nature were as truly and really in a spiritual Sense dead that is had no more Life spiritual Life Motion Heat Feeling or Strength in us than a dead Man hath natural Life Motion Heat Feeling or Strength in him but when the Soul hears the spiritual and powerful Voice of Christ 't is immediately quickened a Principle of divine Life is infused You hath he quickened that were dead in Sins and Trespasses Thus the Greatness of Christ's Power towards Sinners appears that were dead or destitute of a Principle of spiritual Life Those that assert the Power of the Creature or that every Man is put into a Capacity to be saved if he will certainly do not consider this lay this to heart ponder on this viz. That all Mankind before Grace is infused into the Soul are dead What short of Almighty Power can raise the Dead to Life Power is not in the Dead to quicken himself nor can dead Lazarus resist that Principle of Life infused into him 't is not what the Sinner but what Christ the Saviour will and he quickens not all but whom he will For as the Father raiseth up the Dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will 'T is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that sheweth Mercy 4. Christ's Voice by his Spirit is a Soul-humbling and a Self-abasing Voice They that hear his Voice are straitway brought to his Feet loathing and abhorring themselves The Voice of Christ hath the same Effect on the Soul as the sight of God in Christ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the Ear but now mine Eye seeth thee Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in Dust and Ashes After Paul had heard the Voice of Christ saying Saul Saul Why persecutest thou me how humble was he though called to be an Apostle yet esteemed himself less than the least of all Saints Now to be less than the least is to be nothing Man before Grace or before he comes to hear the Voice of Christ is a proud Creature but Grace humbles him to such a degree that he is little nay nothing in his own Eyes 5. Christ's Voice is a Soul-regenerating Voice His Voice is powerful and shakes the old Foundation down all former Hopes and fleshly Confidence is gone It was the Voice of the Spirit that first made us and made this World By the Word of God were all things made and created And 't is his Voice that creates us again or that renews us or forms his Sacred Image in us He that commanded by his Voice Light to shine out of Darkness doth but speak the word and so shines into our Hearts and thereby transforms us and gives us the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ 6. 'T is a Sin-killing Voice It lays the old Man a bleeding as it were the Spirit destroys the Body and Power of Sin it breaks down all the strong Holds of Sin Christ slays this Enemy by the Sword that goes out of his Mouth that is by his Word through the Operations of the Spirit If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live 'T is not enough to forbear the acting of Sin but we must kill and crucify it and this we cannot do without the powerful assistance and help of the Spirit 7. 'T is a Soul-strengthning Voice As Sin dies Grace lives and the Soul receives strength Faith is the Life and Strength of the Soul and this Life and Strength we receive by the Holy Spirit 8. 'T is a comforting Voice 'T is by the Spirit God speaks Peace to the Soul He will speak Peace unto his People and unto his Saints I will speak comfortably to her I will speak to her Heart None can speak to the Heart but God by his Spirit it is the Holy Ghost that is the Comforter And after the Sinner hath been deeply wounded in the true sense of Sin and is dejected grieved and sorely troubled then the Spirit comes with its sweet still and comforting Voice and revives the drooping Soul To comfort the Conscience Luther saith is as great a Work as to make the World 1. Now the Spirit speaks Comfort to the distressed Conscience through the Blood of Christ that is by shewing the Soul that Christ died in its stead and bore the Wrath that was due to us having fully satisfied God's Justice and answered all the Demands and Requirements of the Law being made a Curse for us that the Blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Christ Jesus that we might receive the Promise of the Spirit through Faith The Blood of Christ speaks it hath a Voice in it it speaks good things yea better things than the Blood of Abel But it never speaks Comfort to the Soul till the Spirit applies it and sprinkleth it upon the Heart O what Peace and Comfort then doth the Spirit speak to a wounded Spirit 2. The Spirit speaks Comfort to the Soul by applying the Promises of Pardon and Peace unto us causing our Souls to take hold of them and to cleave to God in them This Promise is mine God hath fastened and fixed it on my Heart saith a Believer 3. By opening the Greatness and Preciousness of Christ's Love to us because he hath loved us with an everlasting Love therefore with loving Kindness hath he drawn us and helped us to believe and to receive him 4. The Spirit speaks Comfort to Believers by opening unto them the Nature and Excellency of the Covenant of Grace which is ordered in all things and sure being confirmed by the Oath of God c. 5. By shewing them the Power Mercy and Faithfulness of God c. O Sirs no Voice like the Voice of the Spirit happy is that Soul which hears this Voice and 't is this Voice of Christ that all his Sheep hear Thirdly There is also the Voice of Christ's Doctrine I mean the true Evangelical Doctrine of the Gospel The true Faith of the Gospel or the sacred Doctrine thereof is the Voice of Christ which his Sheep will hear And they will not hear the Voice of Strangers they will not hear the Voice of false Teachers or their pernicious Doctrine they know not the Voice of Strangers they can distinguish between Christ's Voice Christ's Doctrine and the Doctrine of false Prophets and false Teachers they know not the Voice of Strangers that is they approve not of their Doctrine but they know they approve of Christ's Doctrine though never so hard never so difficult and never so unpleasant to others yet 't is approved of by them 't is easy and pleasant to them that are Christ's Sheep They hear what Christ hath
as to be forsaken it cannot intend any kind of asking or begging for David himself desired and received Relief from others Nothing doth more clearly relieve and feed our Souls under Trouble and Distress than those Experiences we have formerly had of God's special Providence and Goodness to us or how he helped his People in their Extremities in the days of old O my God my Soul is cast down within me therefore I will remember thee from the Land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the Hill Mizar He would call to mind how God had helped him formerly when pursued by Saul or distressed by Absalom and the way his drooping Spirits were revived He that delivered me saith he from the Paw of the Bear and Paw of the Lion will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine All Power is given into Christ's Hand he is the great disposer of all things therefore be sure he will order every thing for the Good of his Church If not a Hair of our Heads shall fall without the Providence of God we may conclude he will be concerned for us in greater Matters And if he provide for Sparrows he will provide and take care of his own Children The Covenant of Grace the Love of Christ and that Relation we stand in to him must needs give us ground to believe he will in his most wise Providence order all things for our Good besides the express Promises he hath made upon that Account Doth he hold us in his Hand carry us in his Bosom nay engrave us on his Heart and will he forsake us O this cannot be Hath he took the Charge of his Sheep and will he leave them to Lions or Wolves to be torn to pieces Or shall Sin or the Devil pull Limb from Limb and he look on But I must not further enlarge here Quest What is the Nature of that Food which Jesus Christ feeds his Sheep with 1. I answer in the Negative It is not surfeiting Food some Pastures are naught they will rot the Sheep but Christ feeds not his People in such Pastures 2. 'T is not forbidden Food he hath prohibited us to follow a Multitude to do Evil to walk in the Way of the Heathen or after the Course of this World or according to the former Lusts in our Ignorance and not to touch taste nor handle of the Traditions and Doctrines of Men but he allows us his own Word and Ordinances 1. 'T is costly Food Pastures that were purchased by our Shepherd at a dear Price 2. 'T is sweet and pleasant Food More to be desired than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than Honey or the Honey-comb 3. 'T is Soul-satisfying Food he satisfies every hungry Soul I will abundantly bless her Provision and satisfy her Poor with Bread Wicked Men eat that which satisfies not what is all the Trash of this World but meer Husks Ashes and Gravel-stones 4. 'T is strengthning Food it strengthens the Soul and strengthens the Graces of the Spirit in the Soul 5. 'T is chearing comforting and reviving Food as I might shew you but must not enlarge 6. 'T is living Food 't is Bread of Life such who feed on it shall never die it gives Life and it continues and encreases Life and will feed the Soul up unto everlasting Life 7. It is Soul-fatning Food Eat you that which is good and let your Soul delight it self in fatness O this Food these Gospel-Pastures fatten the Soul when they meet with God enjoy God in his Ordinances when they have Communion with him and when they find their Sins and Corruptions wither and die and Grace grow and flourish in their Souls ' when they thrive in Holiness in Faith Love Patience and Humility c. Quest What is Christ's Fold Answ He hath a twofold Fold 1. His Church is his Fold Christ built it himself and it is a Fold the Enemy cannot destroy he hath set it upon a Rock 2. Heaven is Christ's Fold Quest What is the Fence of Christ's Fold or Church here on Earth Answ I answer It is threefold 1. The Fence may be said to be that Holy and Primitive Constitution Order and Ordinances which Christ hath appointed 2. That Sacred Covenant Believers enter into when they are admitted Members 3. The Holy Discipline Order and Government Christ hath ordained and left in the Gospel APPLICATION We infer from hence that Believers are in a most happy Condition they having such a Shepherd and such Pastures to feed in Which will further appear if we consider these things following 1. They are Pastures that will feed Multitudes nay they cannot be over-stock'd Christ's Pastures cannot be eaten up 2. Christ's Pastures are always Good always Rich as good in Winter as Summer and so are not other Pastures 3. So well fenced about that the Walls cannot by Men nor Devils be broken down God secures his People and Gospel by his own Almighty Power and Providence he is a Wall of Fire round about besides his Angels encamp about them that fear him also 4. Christ's Pastures have most precious Water in them There is a River that makes glad the City of God c. He feeds me in green Pastures and leads me besides the still Waters The Holy Spirit and Graces of the Spirit may be here intended 1. Water hath a cooling Nature it allays Thirst so these Waters cool the Fire of Lust and every evil Passion and allay that inordinate Thirst after the things of this World 2. Some Waters are of a purging Quality these Waters also purge the Soul of all evil and nauseous Humours 3. Water makes fruitful it makes Pastures fruitful and the Sheep also So these Sacred Waters make the Word and Ordinances fruitful and the Saints fruitful likewise 4. Waters soften so these Waters soften the Heart and make it tender 5. Waters have a cleansing Virtue So have these Divine Waters the Spirit and Graces of the Spirit cleanse the Soul of all Filth and Pollution of Flesh and Spirit 6. Water hath a healing Property The Spiritual Waters heal they are beyond all Waters exceed all Waters For 1. These Waters never fail other Waters may be dried up He that drinks of the Water I shall give him shall never thirst but the Waters that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of living Water springing up unto Everlasting Life 2. These are Waters of Life he that receives the Holy Spirit shall live for ever 3. These are still Waters not rough boisterous Streams they may be called still Waters in respect of their Effects 1. They will keep such that drink of them in God's Bounds and cause them to rest in quiet where he hath placed them 2. They make a still and quiet Soul a still and quiet Family a still and quiet Church when all drink of these Waters nay a still and quiet Nation they allay all Feuds and undue Heats among Christians that
partake of them These Waters quiet the Conscience under the Accusations of the Law quiet the Conscience under Satan's Temptations Thou art a Sinner saith Satan and thy Sins are committed with great Aggravations thou deservest Wrath and Divine Vengeance But no sooner doth the Soul drink of these Waters but it is quieted the Spirit by Faith shews the dejected Person that Christ hath born the Wrath of God and reconciled him to the Father 3. They quiet Believers under Affliction in Times of Want and Poverty and under National Fears and Disquietments And 4. In a Time of Sickness and at the Hour of Death 1. By evidencing to the Soul that the Covenant is well-ordered in all things and sure 2. That the Promises of God are firm and cannot be broken 3. That the Love of God is Everlasting and nothing can separate them from it 4. That the Faithfulness of God and his Almighty Power is engaged to preserve them and keep them unto Salvation 1. Exhortation If Christ feeds us in such Pastures and gives us such Waters labour O ye Saints to be thankful What Praise doth this call for even holy and thankful Lips and Lives 2. Labour to glorify this God this Saviour strive to bring forth Fruit to him Herein saith Christ is my Father glorified that you bring forth much Fruit so shall you be my Disciples 3. Take heed you do not straggle from the Fold of Christ or refuse the Conduct and Guidance of your Blessed Shepherd 4. Terror Wo to them that do annoy disturb or disquiet Christ's Flock Christ's Sheep or any manner of way seek to scatter or divide them so that they cannot comfortably feed and lie down together 5. Sinners will you not enquire where Christ feeds Remember his Direction Go forth by the Footsteps of the Flock 6. What comfort is here for you that are the Sheep and Lambs of Christ How safe are you in the Hand of such a Shepherd So much at this Time and for the first part of my Text viz. the 27 th Verse JOHN X. 28. And I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand I Closed with the 27 th Verse the last Day and shall now come to the great Subject which at first I told you I should God assisting endeavour to demonstrate and fully prove Namely The final Perseverance of the Saints of God or Sheep of Jesus Christ But that we may the more orderly proceed we shall first consider again the Parts of our Text. 1. You have an Account of a Gift given which is expressed Life 2. The Nature of that Life explained Eternal Life 3. The Donor or whose Gift it is viz. Jesus Christ's 4. To whom the Gift is given namely to his Sheep 5. The Certainty of their possession of it They shall never perish neither shall any Man pluck them out of my Hand Some read it neither shall any and from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be better so rendred viz. any that is any Enemy neither Sin nor World Men nor Devils Things present nor Things to come let all Enemies do what they can I have them in my Hand in my Power in my keeping as if our Blessed Lord should say And I will hold them fast and they shall be preserved through Faith by my Power and the Power of my Father who gave them me unto Everlasting Life and perish they shall not 1. I give them Eternal Life I now give it to them in the Seed thereof Those that Christ gives saving Grace unto he gives Eternal Life unto I give them the promise of it and when they die they shall have the actual possession thereof 2. They shall never perish that is eternally perish they shall not die the second Death or be cast into the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone They shall not come into Condemnation or be eternally damned as all Unbelievers shall be 3. Neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand No doubt by the Hand of Christ is meant his Power his Protection the Lord's Hand is not shortned that it cannot save he is able to save it is in his Power to save They were delivered into Christ's Hand by that Holy Covenant or Compact made with the Father before the World began And when they believe or by that Grace which he infuses into them he then takes actual and fast hold of them and there he will keep them and never let his hold go They come therefore into Christ's Hand upon the same Considerations by which they came to be his Sheep which as I have already opened was seven manner of ways viz. 1. By Election 2. By that holy Covenant or Compact made between the Father and the Son 3. By the Father's free Donation they were given into his Hand delivered to him by the Father 4. By Purchase he bought them and so they came into his Hand 5. By Regeneration or Transformation he hath wrought his Image upon them and so brought them into his Hand 6. By Conquest he fought for them and conquered their Enemies and subdued their own filthy and rebellious Hearts and so they came into his Hand 7. They by a holy Resignation of themselves as being overcome by his Divine Grace yielded themselves up into his Hands So that he hath a sevenfold hold of them Secondly Their being in Christ's Hand denotes 1. His personal possession of them he being now entered upon the actual Administration of his Pastoral Office 2. It denotes the present actual Charge he hath taken of them he having gathered and brought them home to his own Fold and put them into his own Pasture 3. It denotes also their great Safety and blessed Security he being as Mediator every way invested qualified and endowed with Power and Authority to keep them having received all Grace yea the Fulness of Grace from the Father as well as an express Command to supply all their Wants and Necessities to subdue all their Enemies and to preserve them unto Eternal Life So much shall serve us to the Explanation of the Terms of our Text. I shall only observe three Propositions from hence Doct. 1. Everlasting Life is a free Gift or Salvation is wholly by Grace it is only of God and the Gift of Jesus Christ Doct. 2. The Saints of God are committed into the Hand of Christ he hath the Care and Charge of them Doct. 3. All the Saints all Believers or Sheep and Lambs of Jesus Christ have Everlasting Life given to them and they shall every Soul of them be saved and none of them so fall away as eternally to perish I shall speak to the first and last of these Propositions in which the Second will be comprehended In opening the first I shall 1. Shew what is meant by Eternal Life 2. Shew how it appears that Salvation is a free Gift or wholly by Grace 3. Shew why Salvation
Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us that is in our Head Surety and Representative for though we in our Persons were utterly unable to do it yet Christ having done it in our Behalf and Nature it is accepted as if we had done it our selves Christ's Righteousness and Obedience being imputed to us who do believe so that what he did and suffered is accounted unto us as if we had done and suffered it yet it was Christ that purchased Life not we he purchased and we possess he is the Redeemer we are the Redeemed he merited all and we have all freely of Grace through his Merits or through that Redemption that is in his Blood 5. Life and Salvation is a free Gift or of Grace only doth appear yet further because the Foundation thereof laid from before all Worlds in God's eternal Election was the Spring of it and this was alone of God's own free Grace There is a Remnant according to the Election of Grace And if it be of Grace then it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace But if it be of Works then it is no more of Grace otherwise Works are no more Works This Opposition or Contrariety is not only between Grace and legal Works but between Grace and all manner of Works whatsoever because it lies betwixt the Nature of Grace and Works they are repugnant or contrary the one to the other they can no more be the Causes or Motive of any one Action than one individual thing can be White and Black in the same part as a worthy Writer notes Men are not elected partly of Grace and partly of Works foreseen but wholly of Grace nothing but an Act of God's Sovereign Grace was the Cause and Motive of it 6. Life and Salvation is a free Gift or by Grace only because the Glorious Covenant between the Father and the Son made and entred into before the World began was alone of God's Grace of his infinite Grace and Favour God was at liberty who foreseeing Man's Fall and horrible Transgression he having forfeited all those Blessings bestowed originally upon him whether he would or would not afford him any Help or Relief but might have justly and utterly rejected the whole Race of Mankind as he rejected all the Angels that sinned or kept not their first Estate Did Man fallen Man deserve this Love this Favour who was become an Enemy to God Was there any thing in Man that could be a Motive to move the Almighty to enter into this Covenant to save so vile a Creature such a poor and despicable a Creature as Man became by his Sins the Visage of his very Soul being now loathsom deformed and abominable in the sight of God God's holy Image being utterly defaced and all his Beauty gone being besmeared and covered all over with noisom Filthiness and Pollution filled with Enmity and Hatred against God dethroning his blessed Creator and setting up the Devil in his Place subjecting himself to that implacable Enemy of his and casting off his most holy and gracious Sovereign from whence he received his Breath and Being Nay and in respect of God himself it must needs appear to be wholly of Grace could Redemption of Man add any thing to the essential Glory of God Did he stand in need of Man to make him more happy or glorious in himself who being an independent Being had been eternally happy in the Injoyment of himself had Man never been made or had he left him under Wrath and Misery Or was he obliged to save us and that he might do it to send his own Son to die and be made a Curse for us Or could he not have created other Creatures to have shewed forth his glorious Perfections Or why might he not have sent his Son to have taken hold of the Nature of Angels to have redeemed them who were his Creatures as well as fallen Man and more glorious too than Man before they fell and let Man have perished for ever and not have entred into such a Covenant of Grace with his own Son on his Behalf 7. Life and Salvation therefore is a free Gift it is wholly of Grace because we could not have obtained it unless God sent his Son out of his own Bosom to effect it The giving of Christ and the Father's sending of him into the World is nothing but an Act of his own free Grace God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. 8. Because Everlasting Life is by Christ alone nor could we have had it except he died I am 〈…〉 the Truth and the Life no Man can come unto the Father but by 〈…〉 is by Faith that it might be by Grace But after that the 〈◊〉 and Love of God our Saviour appeared Not by Works of Righteousness that we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ That being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs according to the Hope of Eternal Life Thus if we consider the Rise the Spring the Motive and the Author of Everlasting Life all appears fully to be of God's Grace alone but should we proceed a little further as to the Means and Application of the Remedy in order to interest in this Salvation that is all of Free Grace also 1. We are called and quickened by God's special Grace according to his Eternal Purpose in Jesus Christ No Man could quicken himself All rational Arguments without Divine Influence or an Almighty Power will not bring our Souls into a State of Life See how Paul ascribes his Conversion and special Vocation to God's Grace But when it pleased God who separated me from the Womb and called me by his Grace to reveal his Son in me c. Special Vocation is of God's Free Grace who hath saved us and called us with an Holy Calling not according to our Works but according to his own Purpose and Grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the World begun We are quickened renewed or regenerated by Grace through the Operations of the Holy Ghost 2. Adoption is of Grace Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace As the Purpose was free so is the Execution free also That the Purpose of God according to election might stand not of Works but of him that calleth To them gave he Power to become the Sons of God c. The Privilege of being Sons and Daughters of God is freely given to us through Jesus Christ 'T is through Christ for that we might become Sons he became a Servant and died the cursed Death of the Cross for us to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons 3. Justification is wholly of Grace Being justified freely by
all Understanding It is because God's Love is set upon them and it is such a Love What a Love 1. I answer it is an Everlasting Love The Lord appeared of old unto me saying Yea I have loved thee with an Everlasting Love c. It is a Love from Everlasting therefore it must be a first Love an early Love and because he loved them from Eternity he elected them from Eternity 2. It is a firm Love a strong Love an endeared Love nay an inconceivable Love I in them and thou in me and that the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me A Love of the same Nature of the same Quality O! what is the Nature of that Love the Father hath to Jesus Christ Who can conceive of it much less express it It is impossible for us to comprehend how firm strong and endearing it is but thus he loves all his Elect Ones Christ as Mediator is the Object of the Father's Love so are all his Members The same Love that is let out to the Head as to the Nature of it is let out to his Mystical Body and to every particular Member thereof 3. The Father's Love is a Love of Delight He is said to love others with a Love of Pity but he loves his Saints with a Love of Complacency He will rejoice over thee with joy he will rest in his Love he will rejoice over thee with singing He takes delight and satisfaction in his Love not in our Love to him but in his Love to us Again it is said As the Bridegroom rejoiceth over the Bride so shall thy God rejoice over thee 4. The Love of the Father is an inseparable Love nothing can separate his Love from his Elect like as nothing could separate his Love from his own Son so nothing can separate his Love from his Saints For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I am fully assured as some read it not by any special Revelation but by the same Spirit of Faith which is common to all Believers neither fear of Death nor hope of Life nor shall the Devils be able or evil Angels though they are Principalities or Powers though of that Rank or according to others who by Principalities understand the wicked Potentates of the Earth nor shall cruel Persecutors be able nor shall Things present whatever Temptations Miseries or Afflictions which you now lie under or may hereafter meet with neither height of Honour or Spiritual or Civil Advancement nor depth of worldly Disgrace or Abasement or the deepest of Spiritual Desertion that can befal them nor any other Creature or Thing shall be able to separate us who believe or are united to Christ from the Love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Arg. That which no Power of Earth or Hell no Potentate no Enemy no Friend or no thing whatsoever is or shall be able to do or effect cannot be done or it is impossible it should be done But no Power of Earth or Hell no Potentate no Enemy no Friend or nothing whatsoever is able or shall be able to separate true Believers from the Love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord Therefore it is impossible any such should fall so away as eternally to perish Object But stay say some your Argument is not good for Sin may separate them from the Love of God We grant indeed from what the Apostle says that nothing else can do it but Sin may for your Iniquities have separated between you and your God Answ I answer It is a mistake Sin cannot separate them who are his beloved Ones from his Love the Scripture mentioned proves not that such who are true Believers may be separated from God's Love or that Sin can finally separate them from their God therefore consider 1. That I deny not but Sin may separate such from God who are his People only by visible Profession or only his in an externally legal Covenant as the whole House of Israel at that Time was when the Prophet uttered those Expressions and it hath separated them and the greatest part of them I mean for ever for the Jews for the Sin of Unbelief and rejecting of Christ were utterly cast off 2. Sin may also separate God's Elect Ones from his sensible sweet and comfortable Presence for a time God may hide his Face from his dearest Children or bring them into great Afflictions 3. Israel when in the Babylonian Captivity was said to be separated from God because they were separated from his Temple and visible Worship where he promised them his Presence But it doth not follow from hence Sin can ever finally separate God and his Love which is eternal and abiding from those he hath chosen in Jesus Christ To make it appear yet more fully that Sin cannot separate them from the Love of God for ever consider First That though it is true as I have before shewed that God's Beloved Ones may grievously sin against him yet they cannot sin away his Love and Affection And to make this appear hear what God himself saith If his Children for sake my Law and walk not in my Judgments If they break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments What then will he take away his loving-Kindness from them and cast them off for ever O no Then will I visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquities with Stripes nevertheless my loving Kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my Faithfulness to fail my Covenant I will not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my Mouth Object This is spoken of Christ My loving-Kindness I will not utterly take from him c. Answ 1. I grant that it is spoken of Christ but not of Christ personally but Christ mystically considered Did Christ personally ever forsake God's Law Besides doth not God say his Children 2. Christ and Believers are considered as one in regard of their mystical Union with him 3. Doth the Covenant of Grace made with Christ respect his Person only Or doth it not refer to all that are in him or given to him or all his true spiritual Seed But to put it out of doubt read the next Words and tremble whoever you be that assert that the Elect may perish for ever Once have I sworn by my Holiness that I will not lie to David Well what is that which God hath sworn by his Holiness and will not lie to do for David the true David that is his own beloved Son pray read the 36 th verse His Seed shall endure for ever and his Throne as the Sun before me His Seed that is all those that are given to him or
that are the Children of the Promise such who are renewed by his Grace or born of him by his Spirit these are his Seed and all these shall endure for ever And to make it good God hath sworn to Christ as Mediator by his Holiness they shall endure that is remain his Children for ever or abide in his Covenant to Eternity and therefore they can't be separated from his Love by Sin Now dare any go about through their great Ignorance to charge God with Perjury O let them dread the Consequents of their evil Opinion Object Those of the Seed of Christ or Believers who sin and afterwards do humble themselves we grant shall endure or be restored and they are such that the Spirit of God speaks of in that Psalm you mentioned Answ In answer to this Brethren pray consider that God hath promised Grace to all his Children that fall into Sin to humble them Repentance is in the Covenant of Grace a broken and tender Heart he will give them not only at first when they believe but afterwards when through Temptations and humane Frailties they are overtaken and sin against him 't is not a Repentance of their own getting whereby to oblige God to return again to them But pray see what he says to his beloved Ones For I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wroth for the Spirit shall fail before me and the Souls that I have made For the Iniquity of his Covetousness was I wroth and smote him and he went on frowardly in the Way of his Heart Well and what will God do with him now he hath sinned and that grievously too and God hath afflicted him as sorely smote him in his Wrath or as a Father seems to do when his Child that hath grievously offended him but he is not humbled he repents not but goes on frowardly under the Rod shall he perish stay a little see what God says verse 18. I have seen his Ways and will heal him although I might justly destroy him as if God should say and leave him to perish yet of my meer Mercy and for my own Name sake I will pity him I will give him Repentance I will heal him he shall mourn for his Sins and I will restore Comfort to him and to his Mourners Alas till God turn us we turn not therefore a godly Man says with poor Ephraim Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote on my Thigh After God hath graciously touched our Hearts convinced us of our Sins or changed our Minds we repent and alter our Practices and God will give Grace thus to do He remembers his Covenant and his Oath to our David c. I create the Fruits of the Lips Peace Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near saith the Lord I will heal him I will in a wonderful manner and by my own Grace and Almighty Power do all and have all the Praise to my self Object But may be the Persons you speak of were a praying People they were found in their pious Duties and so their Sins were forgiven and they healed Answ How fain would some Men eclipse the Free Grace of God and find something in the Creature to oblige God to give the Mercy promised 1. I deny not but God will be sought unto for all the good Things promised to Believers But who is it that puts it into our Hearts to seek him or helps and influences our Spirits to pray unto him We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit maketh intercession for us with Groanings that cannot be uttered 2. Yet nevertheless see what God saith of the People before mentioned But thou hast not called upon me O Jacob but thou hast been weary of me O Israel ver 22. Thou hast not brought me the small Cattel of thy Burnt-offerings neither hast thou honoured me with thy Sacrifices I have not caused thee to serve with an Offering nor wearied thee with Incense ver 23. Thou hast bought me no sweet Cane with Money neither hast thou filled me with the Fat of thy Sacrifices but thou hast made me to serve with thy Sins and wearied me with thine Iniquities ver 24. See now what a People these were they had not so much as done the least things commanded had not brought the small Cattel for a Sacrifice nor did they pray nor seek the Face of God Yet that God may magnify his Grace see what he speaks in the next Words I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgression for mine own sake and will not remember thy Sins Nothing you see can take off God's Love from his Covenant-Children nothing is done by our own Merits or for the sake or worth of our Duty but all wholly of his own Mercy and Goodness Secondly To make it further manifest that the Sins of Believers cannot separate them from the Love of God is evident because Jesus Christ hath fully satisfied his Justice for all their Sins he hath paid all their Debts Wrath and Divine Vengeance cannot hurt the Elect of God in whose stead Christ died Should their Sins work their Ruin and destroy their Souls it would follow that Christ made no perfect Compensation for them if he hath it would be injustice in God should he let out his vindictive Wrath against them for their Sins Surely he hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows c. All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquities of us all Thirdly Because they have an Advocate with the Father Christ pleads the Merits of his own Blood the Satisfaction he hath made for their Sins My little Children these things write I unto you that you sin not O take heed you sin not do not grieve your Father offend your God you know how hateful Sin is to him as if he should so say But if any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous Saints should neither presume to sin nor despair if overtaken thereby Fourthly Because Christ prayed in the Days of his Flesh that the Father would keep them that he had given him in the World from the Evil thereof though not from every Evil. I dare not say that because whatever Christ prayed for it was granted and yet we see the best of Saints do sin But he prayed that they might not fall so sin so as to perish in their sin or sin unto Death therefore their Sins shall never damn them Fifthly Their Sins cannot separate them so from the Love of God as that he should cast them off for ever because a broken Heart and pardon of Sin is contained in the Covenant of Grace I will be merciful unto their Vnrighteousness and their
this Marriage-Contract or Espousal Love of Christ to his true Israel This Conjugal Love of Christ is that never-exhausted Fountain of all our spiritual and eternal Comforts all Mercies like Streams which never fail flow to all Believers from hence Can a Man shew greater Love to a Woman than to espouse her to be his Wife This is beyond the Love of Parents to Children Christ bestows himself on us and all he hath nay and that he might do this he bought or purchases us Christ bought his Spouse none ever gave such a vast Sum for a Wife as Jesus Christ hath done and shall any think he will lose her after all this if he is able to help it How can that enter into any Man's Thoughts Will a faithful Husband a tender Husband suffer his most dear and beloved Wife that he hath such Affection to to be torn from him and be abused and pulled into pieces and he look on If he hath Power in his Hand will he not rescue her nay die upon the Spot before he will see this done But alas ala what is the Love of any mortal Man to his Spouse to his Wife when compared with the Love of Christ to his Saints who loved his Church and gave himself for her and whose Love is as you have heard so wonderful infinite and inconceivable Moreover I hope none doubt of his Power Others may see their Wives ravished and torn in pieces before their Eyes and cannot help it they are not able to help and save them but Christ wants no Power as he wants no Wisdom Care or Affections Now what are the Enemies the most dangerous Enemies of the Spouse of Christ Is not Sin the chief Sin the World the Devil c. Will he then think you let Sin prevail Satan prevail so far as to deflour murder and destroy that precious Soul he thus loves and hath espoused to himself Those who assert final falling from a State of true Grace must say he doth thus viz. He suffers Sin to destroy his Spouse even to put out the Eyes deflour strip wound and murder the Soul he has espoused whilst he stands by and looks on and can but will not help nor deliver her because the Soul is bliaded by some Lusts or drawn away by an Enemy therefore they say he will not He that can believe such a Doctrine let him But Fifthly Christ Love hath an attracting and a retaining Quality in it It draws the Soul to Christ and it keeps it close with Christ when it hath received and imbraced him it draws nay constrains the Soul to love Christ We love him because he first loved us And no Man or Woman that loves Christ sincerely but they hate Sin it constrains the Soul to return Love for Love Christ's Love is like Elijah's Garment that he cast upon Elisha who immediately run after Elijah and said Let me I pray thee kiss my Father and Mother and then I will follow thee And be said Go back what have I done unto thee Thus doth Christ's Love to the Soul in all that feel its Influences they follow him cleave to him and also keep with him for like as the Fear of God so the Love of God is put into our Hearts if we are sincere Christians and we shall not cannot finally depart from him Sixthly Christ's Love is a free Love as nothing did purchase it so nothing can nor shall lose or forfeit it I will love them freely From the whole I infer If the Love of Jesus Christ is an early Love a Love of Complacency if it be a wonderful and amazing Love if it be an immense infinite and incomprehensible Love if it is a conjugal Love an attracting and retaining Love a free and abiding Love which he hath to every Believer then he will not ever let go that hold he hath of every one of them so as to suffer them to fall from him as eternally to perish But such is the Nature of the Love of Jesus Christ therefore he will never so let go that hold he hath of every Believer as to suffer them to fall so as eternally to perish Brethren such is the Love of Christ to his Saints as that he gives them special Tokens and Assurance of his Eternal Favour Some of them are these following 1. He calls them with an effectual and special Calling 2. He renews them and stamps his own Image upon them 3. He puts his Holy Spirit into them 4. He justifies them freely by his own Grace giving them his own Robe of Righteousness which is beyond a Garment of Cloth of Gold 5. He sanctifies them and endows them with Power to mortify Sin and when they fall he helps them up again by his right Hand 6. He seals his Love to them with the Kisses of his Mouth or by his most sure and precious Promises 7. He commands his Holy Angels to attend them and to administer to them and keep them in all his Ways 8. He leads feeds and preserves them under all Trouble Temptation and Afflictions and sympathizes with them 9. He sets them as a Seal upon his Heart as a Seal upon his Arm they are engraven on the Palms of his Hands he hath sworn that his loving Kindness shall never be taken away from them As I have sworn that the Waters of Noah should no more go over the Earth so have I sworn that I will not be wroth with thee For the Mountains shall depart and the Hills be removed but my Kindness shall not depart from thee c. 10. He puts his Law into their Hearts that none of their Feet should slide APPLICATION First To close with this O see you that are Believers that you strive after the Knowledg of Christ's Love Motives 1. It is the highest Ingratitude not to desire after the Knowledg of such Love Shall a Beggar be beloved by a Prince and she not be affected with it nor inquire after it 2. Because you are the Objects of this Love of this Affection doth it not seem an amazing Consideration to you May be you can't soon believe it because you see no worth in your selves Ah saith the Soul Christ loves me thus What such a poor sorry and filthy Wretch Wonder O Heavens be astonished O Earth The more you know it the more you will love your Blessed Saviour He loved me not a righteous Person but me a Sinner a loathsom Sinner when in my Blood and Filth 3. This will make you little in your own Eyes the more we know of God and of Christ and of his Love the more we shall loath and abhor our selves O that ever I should grieve him as I have done How did the sense of God's Love and Goodness to David humble him Who am I O Lord and what is mine House that thou hast brought me hitherto And yet is this a small thing in thine Eyes O God
for thou hast spoken of thy Servant's House for a great while to come and hast regarded me according to the Estate of a Man of high Degree O Lord. Thus may every Believer say The Love of Christ will have the like Effect on our Souls as the Knowledg of David's Love to Abigail when he sent Messengers to her to make her his Wife and raise her to his Throne Let me saith she be a Servant to wash the Feet of the Servants of my Lord. 4. The Knowledg of Christ's Love will beget greater and stronger Love in our Souls to him Love begetteth Love but not till it is known O taste Sinners of this Love had you but a Taste how would your Hearts be enflamed in Love to Jesus Christ And as to you Saints 5. The more you know of Christ's Love the more your Hearts will die and your Love cool to all earthly things 6. The more you know of Christ's Love the more firmly you will be fixed and setled in his Truth and be delivered from Fears and Doubts about your standing Alas it is not Sin nor Satan nor Hell nor Death that can deprive your Souls of Christ's Love if you are his If Satan says Thou art a vile Sinner and lays before thee the Baseness of thy Heart tell him Christ's Love passeth Knowledg Does he say that thou wilt fall one time or another Tell him Christ loved thee not for thy Righteousness and his Love that is so infinite will never suffer thee to fall and rise no more 7. The Knowledg of Christ's Love will make us to speak well of God and Christ and his Ways at all times still we shall say the Love of God and Jesus Christ is the same all is in Love whom I love I rebuke and chasten Christ's Love known and experienced will be a Cordial to bear thee up to the end of thy Days 8. This will set your Souls at liberty and bring you out of the Spirit of Bondage and make you to run after him But it is not the knowing of Christ's Love in any degree but to that degree that passeth Knowledg a Love that can't fail which will do this 9. The Knowledg of Christ's Love will make you cling and cleave to him Christ is the Loadstone and our Soul the Needle and now our Soul having touched him it makes to the Center and though you may like the Needle tremble for a Time yet you are hastening to him and never will rest till you come to him whom your Souls love 10. The more you know of him and of his Love the more will be your inward Joy and Peace For this is the Way to be filled with all the Fulness of God and to know the Love of Christ which passeth Knowledg that you may be filled with all the Fulness of God Secondly This may reprehend and sharply reprove such Christians that doubt of the Love of Christ especially those who affirm that justified and sanctified Persons may for ever lose his Love and perish for this renders his Love mutable and changeable according as the Love of Mortals change one towards another Thirdly and lastly What Comfort and Consolation doth this afford to all true Christians But I must proceed to the next Argument to prove That Saints shall not cannot finally fall so as to perish Fourthly Christ's Sheep his Saints shall never so fall as finally and eternally to perish I shall in the next place prove and that from the Nature of the Covenant of Grace First Because it is a Covenant of Grace We do not stand in this Covenant as Adam stood in the first Covenant And now that it is a Covenant of Grace will appear if we consider with whom this Covenant was primarily made and that was with Jesus Christ it was made between God in the Person of the Father and Man in the Person of Christ Our Lord Jesus was constituted in this Covenant the great Head Representative and blessed Surety for and in behalf of all the Father gave unto him Adam had no Surety that undertook for him in the first Covenant as a Covenanting Hand but was entrusted with all his Riches all being put into his own Hand which he soon by his Sin lost and undid himself and all his Posterity whom he was set up as the common Head and Representative of God foresecing this he would not enter into a Covenant any more with Man his Credit being for ever lost And since he lost all when he had Power to stand there was no likelihood or possibility of his standing after he had deprived himself of his Power of doing good being depraved in all the Faculties of his Soul Therefore Christ was set up set up from Everlasting by the Holy God who foresaw all things before they came to pass as the Head and Surety of the New Covenant called the New Covenant in respect had to the time of the Revelation of it to Mankind it being not known until Man had broke the first Covenant now Christ undertook in the Covenant of Grace for all the Elect he personating them when the Father and he entred into that glorious Compact or Covenant-Transactions we having not then an actual Being he represented all that were given to him out of the lost Lump of fallen Man and undertook as Mediator to make up that Breach that was between God and Man and by his perfect Obedience to merit for them Everlasting Life and to bring them all to Glory This being so nothing can more fully demonstrate the Certainty of their Salvation and the Impossibility of any of their perishing for they for whom Jesus Christ did undertake this great and glorious Work even all the Elect Seed were put into his Hand by the Tenour of this Covenant to work out Life and Salvation for them and to die in the room and stead of them thereby to bear that Wrath and Curse that they otherwise must have suffered born and endured for ever Now in this Covenant Eternal Life comes to us primarily by God's Free Grace in his finding out parting with and accepting of his own Son to be our Saviour and Surety And secondly by virtue of what Christ hath done and did undertake to do and suffer for all that should be saved they cannot perish I have found David my Servant with my Holy Spirit have I anointed him My Mercy will I keep with him for evermore and my Covenant shall stand fast in him His Seed also will I make to endure for ever His Seed that is all that are the Product of his Spirit or are quickned and renewed by him This is the Nature of the Covenant of Grace Christ is their Root and Head their Spirit of Life is in him and it is derived from him in Regeneration in a spiritual way as our natural Life was in and derived to us from the first Adam by Generation in a natural way My Brethren pray do not mistake about
the Nature and Tenour of this great and glorious Covenant The Father we say enters into a Covenant with his Son and promises Eternal Life unto him and to all his Elect Seed upon the consideration of what he I mean our Blessed Saviour was to perform in respect of those federal Conditions proposed to him which he did then undertake on Man's behalf or such of Mankind that God did intend to save And the Father that accepted of him and sent him into the World and gave him his Sheep doth look to him as to the final and compleat Accomplishment of all things that were either to be done for them or wrought and done in them in order to the Everlasting Salvation of their Souls And this Christ engaged to do and took them into his Hands in this Covenant to effect which is clearly signified in my Text together with a full Assurance unto us that he will do it in spite of Sin Devil World and all Enemies Neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand Our Blessed Saviour further saith All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out For I came down from Heaven not to do mine own Will but the Will of him that sent me And this is the Father's Will that sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last Day This was the Covenant between them both this is his Father's Will that none no not one no nothing of them that were given to him neither their Souls nor Bodies should be lost but all must be saved he having engaged and promised to fulfil and accomplish the Father's Will herein O happy Believers you are not left to your own Covenanting with God to the Power of your own Wills nor do you stand upon your own Legs but you are in God's Covenant in Christ's Covenant you are committed into Christ's Hand to keep you stand upon your Surety's Engagements his Undertakings God looks to him and expects that he gives a good Account of all his Sheep at the last Day and Christ is able and faithful He says Them I must bring I have struck Hands with my Father I have covenanted and promised to die for them and to call renew and eternally to save them and they shall never perish This being all true what is become of the Doctrine or rather of the gross Error of a final falling from a State of true Grace Secondly To proceed a little further Jesus Christ by virtue of this Covenant and in pursuance of that great Work he undertook did not only die to satisfy for the Sins of his People but also purchased or procured thereby a gracious conveyance of the Holy Spirit and the saving Graces and Influences thereof to change their Hearts bend and subject their Wills and graciously to renew and convert their Souls unto God which God foresaw otherwise could never be done and also to carry on that good Work in them until they come to Glory And this indeed he was obliged to perform according to the Tenour of this Covenant And hence it is that Paul saith Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good Work in you will perform it until the Day of Christ or until the Day of your Death he will perform it which denotes his Covenant-undertaking he having obliged or bound himself as our Surety to do it It is not said he will perfect or finish it but he will perform it Had not the Apostle referred to that Obligation in the Covenant of Grace which he laid himself under the other Expression had been as proper i. e. to say he will perform it He is faithful and cannot fail in doing and performing what he hath made a Bargain or covenanted to do As we say when a faithful and responsible Person hath covenanted to do this or that though the Work be great and difficult and much Opposition lies in his way yet he will do it he will perform what he hath undertaken Hence David saith I will cry unto God most High unto God that performeth all things for me To God most high that is able to do it let Sin Men and Devils do what they can to hinder him This is further confirmed by the Prophet Lord thou wilt ordain Peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our Works in us All is the Effects of thy Grace according to thy glorious Covenant Hence also the Apostle saith For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure No Man can chuse that which is savingly Good much less perform it until his Will is graciously renewed My People shall be willing in the Day of my Power This being so how contrary is this Doctrine to that which some Men maintain concerning the Power of the Creature or Power of Man's depraved Will the purport of which leaves the Salvation of every Soul at the greatest Uncertainty imaginable They tell you Christ died for all Men that is for their Good and satisfied for their Sins against the first Covenant for all Men and that all are put into a Capacity to be saved if they will believe repent and continue in believing and in well-doing to the End they clearly intimate that whatsoever the Decree or Purpose of God is and whatsoever the Nature of the Covenant of Grace is yet all is at the determination of Man 's own Will whether any one will be saved or not God affording him only strong moral Perswasions Reasons Motives and Subjective Considerations thereunto which may or may not incline excite or prevail with him to believe and obey the Gospel and perform the procuring Conditions of Life and Salvation or they may not incline excite or prevail with any one Soul they do not will not say that Christ is under an Obligation by virtue of the Covenant made with the Father to afford effectual Grace special Aid internal Strength to any in order to bring them over unto God but that it is left to the Creature and that he needs no such supernatural or irresistible Grace to work upon him Which doth 1. Evidently tend to ascribe the whole Glory of our Regeneration and Perseverance in Grace unto Man and not to the Grace of God for that Act of our Wills on this Supposition whereby we convert unto God is meerly an Act of our own and not of the special Grace of God This is clear for if the Act it self were of effectual Grace then would it not be in the Power of the Will to hinder it as a late Reverend Minister notes Also 2. it would and must follow that this would leave Regeneration and Salvation absolutely uncertain notwithstanding the Purpose of God the Covenant of Grace the Undertaking and Death of Christ whether ever any one in all the World should
be saved or no as I hinted before for when God hath done all Christ hath done all that he is concerned in or is to do on his part it is absolutely in the Power of the Will of Man whether it shall be effectual or not which is directly contrary to the Covenant Promise and Oath of God unto Jesus Christ 3. It is also contrary as you have heard unto express Texts of Scripture wherein effectual Conversion and final Perseverance is wholly ascribed unto the special Grace of God as the immediate Effect thereof God worketh in us to will and to do The Act therefore it self in our Conversion is of God's Operation and though we will our selves yet it is he who causeth us to will by working in us to will and to do But if the Act of our Will in Believing and Obedience in our Conversion and Perseverance be not the effect of God's special Grace in us then God doth not work in us both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Thirdly The Covenant of Grace secures all Christ's Sheep all his Saints from falling away so as eternally to perish because the Covenant of Grace is an Everlasting Covenant well ordered in all things and sure Not only well ordered in all things for the Glory of God in all his blessed Attributes but also for the Happiness Safety and Security of all their Souls that the Father gave unto Jesus Christ 1. It is well ordered for our Good in that Christ hath pacified the Wrath of God thereby for us Christ hath by the Blood of his Covenant made up that great Breach that was between God and us So that now God says unto his People Fury is not in me See what Paul says When we were Enemies we were reconciled unto God by the Death of his Son And by his Spirit he reconciles us he slays and subdues the Enmity that naturally was in our Hearts against God Christ in this Covenant it is so well ordered is that blessed Days-man that lays his Hand upon both he brings God to Man and Man to God We were the Children of Wrath and under the Curse of the Law but by the Grace of this well-ordered Covenant we were made the Children of God and delivered from the Curse of the Law Christ hath delivered us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us We had lost the Image of God but by this Covenant it is restored to us again and so that we shall not lose it any more for ever We were dead blind naked in Bonds and in Prison but by the Grace of God in this Covenant we are quickned our Eyes are enlightned and we have our naked Souls clothed yea and are brought out of Prison and all our Wounds are healed We were guilty and filthy Creatures but by this Covenant are justified and sanctified being actually acquitted and through Faith pronounced Righteous in the perfect Righteousness of Christ and all our Sins pardoned and are sanctified purged and washed by Faith in his Blood and shall not come into Condemnation There is therefore now no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus they shall never perish If there is no Condemnation to them there is no possibility of their final falling Well but what are the Characters of those happy Souls why they are such saith the Apostle who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Moreover see this more fully confirmed by Christ himself Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Words and believeth on him that sent me hath Everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from Death to Life He is passed out of a state of Death to a state of Spiritual Life he hath Eternal Life in the Seed of it in him he hath a sure and certain Right and Title to Everlasting Life he shall not be deprived of it by any Enemy whatsoever so much do these words of our Blessed Saviour imply Now what daring Men are they who say they may come into Condemnation that do believe Will they gainsay and contradict the Lord of Life and Glory 3 dly It is a well-ordered and sure Covenant because it is made in and with our blessed Surety as before I shewed you God treats with us trades again with us gives forth his Heavenly Treasure to us but all is upon the Credit and Security of Jesus Christ who is become the Surety of this Covenant Now we may have what we need come when we will in his Name he is engaged to God the Father for us Christ was made a Surety of a better Covenant When God saw Man undone run out of all and no trusting him any more Christ step'd in and undertook for us and put his Hand to the Covenant and brings himself under an Obligation for us Quest Is Christ a Surety to God for us or of us to God An. I answer God on his part had no need of a Surety to undertake for him he never failed nor broke at first with Man it was Man that broke and failed in his Covenant with God But we on all Accounts saith Dr. Owen stand in need of such a Surety for us or on our behalf Neither without the interposition of such a Surety saith he could any Covenant between God and us be firm and stable or an Everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure 4 thly Because this Covenant is made upon the unchangeable Decree and Counsel of God My Covenant I will not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my Mouth If you can break my Covenant of the Day and Night then may also my Covenant be broken with David Now Christ and his Seed his Elect are but one Party in this Covenant it was made with him and with us in him before the World began See Paul Who hath saved us and called us with an holy Calling not according to our Works but according to his own Purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the World began It was made as firm to us in Christ who do believe as it was made to him and only made with him for us to this End even to secure Eternal Life for us that we might not lose it and it is as firm by the Decree and Counsel of God as the Covenant of Day and Night And thus it is of Grace alone the Reason of which the Apostle gives us Therefore it is of Faith that it might be of Grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the Seed Pray observe it well 5 thly This Covenant is sure to all the Elect and gives them an Assurance of Everlasting Life because the execution of it is put into the Hands of the Holy Spirit the Holy Ghost is to see that all the Legacies left in Christ's last Will and Testament are given to all Believers all Covenant-Blessings shall therefore be
they shall all be saved No more at this Time JOHN X. 28. And I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand BRETHREN I am upon the Proof and Demonstration of the Doctrine which I raised from our Text viz. That none of the Sheep of Christ or Saints of God can so fall away as eternally to perish The last time I spoke to the fourth Argument which was taken from the Nature of the Covenant of Grace I shall proceed to the next Argument Fifthly They who are the Sheep of Christ Believers in Christ or his Elect Ones cannot finally fall away because they are the Children of God begotten of God and born of God Two things I shall do in prosecuting this Argument First Prove that all Believers are begotten and born of God Secondly Shew you how it doth appear from hence that they can never finally fall away and eternally perish First That they are begotten of God appears from several Scriptures Of his own Will beg at he us with the Word of Truth c. Meerly by his own Grace as the original Cause with the Word by the Spirit as the instrumental Means Spiritual Generation is the Work of God the Product of the Will of God and not of the Will of Man Which were born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God Not of Blood as in natural Generation or not of the Blood of Abraham Grace and Regeneration being not the Product of the State or Faith of believing Parents This was the carnal Boast of the Jews We have Abraham to our Father Not of the Power of Man's Will that cannot produce the New Creature in himself nor in a Child or Brother If it was in the Power of a godly Man or godly Minister to convert or to regenerate his Child his Wife or his Brother would he let them perish But alas alas this is out of Man's reach out of his Power he cannot renew himself A Child may as easily beget it self in the Womb before it self was as a Man can form Christ in his own Soul or regenerate himself 't is God that doth it the Holy Spirit begets us Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and every one that loveth him that begetteth loveth him also that is begotten of him Whosoever hath that efficacious Soul uniting Soul transforming Soul renewing Sin-killing Grace of Faith is born of God 'T is not a bare believing Jesus is the Christ no but such a Faith that works by Love or the Faith of God's Elect For ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Jesus Christ Faith saving Faith the Faith of the Operation of God produceth this glorious Effect through the Spirit in the Soul From all which Scriptures it evidently appears that all Believers all the Saints are the Children of God begotten and born of God Quest Well what of this some perhaps may say How doth this prove they cannot fall away so as to perish 2 dly I answer This is my second Work and you will soon see how forcible the Argument is from hence to prove that none of them can perish See what our Blessed Saviour saith That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit That which is born of corrupt Nature or is the Product of the Flesh is Flesh or of the same Nature of that which did beget it As it is said of Adam he begat a Son in his own likeness that is a depraved sinful and mortal Child The Flesh bringeth forth Effects proportionable to the Cause 'T is thus in the first Birth But if by Flesh you will have our Saviour intend the product of Man's natural Abilities or the Effects of the highest Improvements of his natural Light Understanding Will c. why then it follows still that a Man purely natural can produce nothing but natural Operations for nothing in operation exceedeth the Virtue or Excellency of that Cause which influenceth it So that no Man can by his Abilities however improved produce any divine or spiritual Operation and this shews that Man must be born of the Spirit that becomes or is made truly spiritual and sit for the Kingdom of Heaven And saith our Saviour what is born of the Spirit is Spirit or is of the same Nature with the Holy Spirit that is Spiritual Holy Immortal since every Creature begetteth its own Nature Qualities and Image Such as is the Cause such is the Effect Thus it is in Generation and thus it is in Regeneration it must be from a Divine from a spiritual Cause and not a Natural that the Image of God is formed in the Soul The Flesh cannot bring forth an Heavenly Babe Can Corruption produce or be the Cause of Regeneration Can a Worm or an Ant bring forth a Man sooner than Flesh Or can any Man under Heaven beget or form and bring forth the New Creature in the Soul which is called the forming of Christ or the Image of God in us But now pray consider that such as is the Nature or Quality of the Begetter such is the Nature of that which is begotten of him therefore since the New Creature is begotten by the Holy Spirit it must partake of the Nature of the Spirit Christ saith it is Spirit it is spiritual immortal or incorruptible Hence the Apostle Peter saith Believers partake of the Divine Nature Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these we might be partakers of the Divine Nature Every Child of God is begotten by the Spirit through the Promise as Isaac was I will come and Sarah shall have a Son Compare this with that in 1 Pet. 1. 23. Being born again not of corruptible Seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God that liveth and abideth for ever Pray observe it which liveth and abideth for ever Mortal Seed in Generation begetteth and bringeth forth a mortal Babe a corruptible Child but the Word and Spirit of God begetteth and bringeth forth an immortal or an incorruptible Babe Such is the Babe of Grace or Child of God I speak of the New Creature or the regenerated Part in Man From hence let me draw this Argument viz. Arg. 1. That which is begotten and born of and is brought forth by the Spirit of God or of immortal and incorruptible Seed is an immortal or incorruptible Babe But the New Creature in the Soul of the Regenerate is begotten and born of or brought forth by the Spirit of God therefore the New Creature in the Soul of the Regenerate is an immortal or an incorruptible Babe Now if it be immortal or incorruptible it can never die but liveth and abideth for ever and
this the Apostle shews and affirms Therefore it is impossible such should fall away or suffer a Spiritual Death here or an Eternal Death in Hell hereafter 2 dly My second Argument from hence is this Because the Child of a natural Parent cannot cease to be his Child whilst he liveth or Life abideth in him this every Man must grant True he may prove a Rebellious and a Disobedient Child but still he is his Child and the Man that begat him is his Father that Relation cannot be lost nay and that Nature which the Child derived from his Father continues and must continue he is of his Flesh and Blood still Even so it is here and impossible it is that it should be otherwise that Man or Woman whose Soul is begotten and born of God cannot cease to be a Child of God though he may prove disobedient to his Heavenly Father and grieve and dishonour him but yet nevertheless he is a Child of God still and God who by his Spirit in a spiritual manner begot him is his Father and that blessed Relation continues and that holy Nature or Seed of Grace which he derived from God continues and must abide also in him as long as that Life he hath in him as a Child of God doth remain and that Life is as I have proved by the former Argument Eternal or Immortal 3 dly Besides I have made it most evident by my former Arguments that God in the Covenant of Grace and through the Suretiship of Jesus Christ hath provided that his Children shall never so rebel against him as finally to depart I will put my Fear into their Hearts and they shall not depart from me Though they may be backsliding Children yet God saith he is married to them which denotes that intimate Union there is between the Lord Jesus and them according to another Metaphor 4 thly None of those who were truly Regenerate or indeed the Children of God as being begotten and born of him though some of them grievously sinned against him were ever cast out so as to cease to be God's Children Where is he that can contradict this by shewing some that were indeed Children begotten of God who have by their Disobedience ceased from being his Children or never were restored after they sinned and fell Who fell worse than David and Peter I have before clearly proved though they may sin and fall yet they shall rise again Arg. 2. If all those that were the Children of God who sinned were restored and not one Instance can be given of any one of this sort i. e. that were truly regenerated that sinned fell and rose no more then none of the true Children of God can so sin so fall as eternally to perish But all those that were the Children of God who sinned were restored and not one Instance can be given of any one of this sort i. e. that were truly regenerated that sinned and fell and rose no more therefore none of the true Children of God can so sin so fall as eternally to perish 5 thly Those that are the Children of God begotten by him cannot sin so as eternally to perish and lose Eternal Life because all that are his Children are Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ This I grant is not always true of the Children of earthly Parents or earthly Princes for they are oft-times disinherited but it is otherwise here they are all born Heirs their being regenerated and united to Christ gives them a sure and undoubted Right and Title to Eternal Life The Holy Ghost positively asserts this very thing And if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ 6 thly It is because the Children of God are the Seed of Christ which the Father said Christ should see He shall see his Seed Nay the Father assured him that his Seed should indure for ever And they are all given to him and Christ will say at the last Day Lo here am I and the Children that thou hast given me none of them are lost 7 thly I argue yet further upon this Argument from that blessed Text in the first Epistle of John Whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for the Seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God I am very much mistaken if I have not my Argument here in express Terms Evident it is the Apostle means not that they do not sin at all that 's evident because he elsewhere says If we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us James also says in many things we offend all neither is there as Solomon declares a just Man upon the Earth that doth Good and sinneth not Therefore that is not the sense of the Text I will give you my understanding of it 1. So far as he is born of God he doth not commit Sin or so he sins not that is the New Creature doth not sin that never yields to Sin but evermore wars against it and resisteth it This is that which Paul calls the Law of his Mind it is the renewed or regenerated Part or 't is that which is born of God that lusteth against the Flesh or wars against it 2. He doth not nay he cannot sin as others do this appears by that I mentioned last because of that new Nature or blessed Seed he hath received 3. He cannot live in a Course of Sin or make a Trade of Sins He cannot live in a custom of Sinning because all evil Habits are broken by Divine Grace in him That Man that lives in any way of Sin the old Habit of Lying Pride Lusts Drunkenness Covetousness or any other Sin being not broken is not born of God for it is impossible a Child of God should so sin i. e. live in a course and practice of committing of known Sins or in a constant and continual omission of known Duties Though he may fall into gross Sins as David and other Children of God did yet they continue not in a Course of such Sins that once possibly they were overcome by nay be sure they set a greater Watch against such Sins and hate them rather more than all other Sins because thereby they greatly dishonoured God and wounded their own Souls 4. Therefore Sin is not his Way or Walk he doth not commit Sin as to walk after it he walks not after the Flesh but after the Spirit He may step into the Way of Sin but he soon steps out of it again whereas others walk in that Way every Day it is the high Way the common Road of the Ungodly 5. He doth not commit Sin with Liking Allowance and Love Though the fleshly Part may like love and allow of it yet he finds another Part in him that hates it What I hate that do I. And hence it is the Apostle saith It is not I that doth it but Sin that dwells in
said and so finish with this Text. 1. Inform. This may serve to inform and convince all Persons concerning the absolute Soveraignty of God He may save Man if he please and not Angels or may send a Saviour for some of the lost Sons of Adam and not for all Who shall say to him What dost thou If he had vouchsafed a Saviour for none of Adam's Posterity had he been unjust any more than he is in casting off for ever all the fallen Angels He called Abraham out of his own Country and revealed himself to him and let others remain then under the Power of Sin Ignorance and Idolatry calling them not He revealed himself to Isaac and rejected Ishmael he chose Jacob and refused Esau he afterwards chose the Children of Israel to be a peculiar People for himself and let all other Nations of the Earth abide in Darkness And in the Gospel-Days Christ chose a few poor Fisher-Men and refused the Learned and Wise Men after the Flesh nay and hid the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven from the Wise and Prudent and all this as an Act alone of his Soveraignty And in these days what Reason can be alledged why we and a few Nations more have the Knowledg of the Gospel when the greatest part of the Earth lie in Popish Mahometan and Pagan Darkness but that it is his good pleasure so to do He hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth 2. Praise God for the Knowledg you have of the Mysteries of Christ and the Gospel of Free-Grace Brethren next unto the Grace of God in my Conversion I have often said I do look upon my self bound to admire the Riches of God's Love and Goodness to me in opening my Eyes to see those Arminian Errors which when I was Young I had from some Men of corrupt Principles sucked in nay and when I was about 23 Years Old I wrote a little Book for Children in which some of those Errors were vindicated which after my Eyes were inlightned and the Book with Alterations being again Reprinted I left out and now do declare my dislike of the first Impressions and do disown what I there asserted When I was a Child I thought as a Child I understood as a Child as the Apostle speaks And let me intreat you to study the Nature of the Covenant of Grace for until I had that opened unto me I was ignorant of the Mysteries of the Gospel 3. O do not forget that the Design of God in contriving our Salvation in his Eternal Wisdom by Jesus Christ was wholly to advance his own Glory and the Freeness and Riches of his Grace and to abase and humble Man unto the Dust therefore be sure never err on that Hand And I think it is not easy for Men well to err on the other I mean in exalting God alone Christ alone though I deny not but that some good Men who in seeking to advance Free-Grace perhaps have erred and taken up some unsound Notions as that of Actual or Personal Justification before Faith and Actual Union with Jesus Christ O what need have we to ponder well the Paths of our Feet and not with Pride to magnify our selves or strive to promote any corrupt Notion under any Pretence whatsoever Our Days are Evil many dangerous Errors abound and it is cause of greatest Grief to see what a Generation of Men are risen up of late who strive to mix God's pure Gold with their Dross and his Wine with their Water Though on the other Hand let us bless and praise the Lord for raising up so many brave Champions in the mean time of our Brethren of the Congregational Way to defend the Gospel of God's Grace and the Truth as it is in Jesus Yet I could wish there was not so much Gall in some of them against us their Brethren who in all the great Truths of Christianity are of one Mind and Judgment and yet are exposed to Reproach for witnessing to a Truth of Christ that lies as plain in the Gospel as any one Truth or positive Precept of Christ whatsoever I mean that of Believers Baptism Why should we be censured for maintaining that Truth which the Holy Ghost so fully bears witness unto I long to see more of the Spirit of Love and Charity would to God that Chapter 1 Cor. 13. was more read and considered 4. This may also serve to reprehend such who strive to cast Reproach upon this Holy Doctrine and such that maintain it as if it tended to incourage People in Sin or open a Door to Licentiousness Let all for ever forbear such Reflections Is not this the Purport of that Doctrine which we vindicate 1. That there is wrought and preserved in the Minds and Souls of all Believers by the Holy Spirit a Supernatural Principle of Grace and Holiness whereby they are made meet and enabled to live unto God and discharge all Duties of Obedience which he requireth of them and accepteth through Christ which Principle or Habit of Grace is essentiaily distinct from all Natural Habits Intellectual and Moral however and by what Means so ever acquired or improved 2. That the Holy Spirit by his effectual Operations doth enable us according as we are required by his immediate Influences in all Acts of Obedience whether internal only in Faith and Love c. or External also even so that all the Powers of our Souls and Members of our Bodies are or ought to be in a spiritual manner governed and influenced thereby and unto all Duties of Holiness in our daily walking with God and that all this is the Effect of God's Free-Grace to us in Jesus Christ who hath communicated of the Spirit without measure to our Blessed Head and Mediator that he may give it forth to all his Saints that have Union with him and believe in him Brethren God hath circumcised the Hearts of his People to love him with all their Souls and with all their Strength He writes his Law in our Hearts as he promised I will put my Law in their inward Parts and write it in their Hearts This gracious Habit or Principle in the Soul is nothing but a Transcript of the Holy Law of God implanted and abiding in our Hearts whereby we are enabled with Chearfulness and ready Inclination of our Spirits to act in the Duties of Obedience and Holiness unto God as he requireth of us and also our Likeness and Conformity unto God doth consist herein I say it doth consist in this Divine and Sacred Principle or Spiritual Habit that is infused into the Soul it is our Spiritual Life whereby we live unto God it is the Foundation and Sum of all Internal Excellencies no Works no Duties are accepted where this Principle is not It is a Vital Principle of Holiness and it makes Religion co-natural to us Moreover it is a certain a permanent and an abiding Principle it is that Seed
final falling away and that because it is said It is impossible to renew them again unto Repentance 2. It doth intend or comprehend such Persons that have received the Knowledg of the Truth or of the Way of Righteousness according to that in 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. They are such who have not only been enlightned but also are such who had tasted of the Heavenly Gift 3. Yet never were savingly illuminated wrought upon or regenerated by the Spirit and Grace of God Brethren there are great Attainments which Persons may arrive unto without one Dram of true saving Grace as the young Man also the foolish Virgins and those meant by the stony and thorny Ground Mat. 13. I shall now come to the Text it self And First Consider the Words with the Connexion of those things preceding and succeeding Secondly The Subjects or Persons spoken of under their divers Qualifications Thirdly What it is that is said concerning these Persons First As touching the Connexion of the Words with what precedes it is evident that the Hebrew Church or some among them had been slow and dull of hearing or very ill Proficients in the School of Christ viz. they had not attained to that Knowledg and Experience which for the time they had they might have arrived unto Chap. 5. 12. They seemed but Infants or Babes in Knowledg and had need to be taught again which were the first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ And from hence the Apostle acquaints them with the Danger of not persevering in the Knowledg of Christ and of not pressing forward or going on to Perfection And also intimates that this would give just Cause or Ground to fear that they were not sincere Christians and from thence gives them an Account of those that might sin the Sin against the Holy Ghost or of the miserable State and Condition of such who after high Illuminations and great Knowledg of the Divine Truth and a Profession of the Gospel do fall away whose Apostacy though at first it might be but partial yet might they not being truly regenerated end at last in a total and final falling away And that deadness dulness and non-proficiency in Godliness might and would end if their Hearts were not right with God in a final Apostacy Or as a worthy Writer notes he presupposeth Except they study to make Progress they shall go backwards and that going backwards tendeth to Apostacy And that voluntary and compleat Apostacy from known Truth doth harden the Heart from Repentance and cutteth off a Man from Mercy He accounteth our natural Security so great that there is need of most fearful Threatnings to awaken us out of it and that the way to be freed from final falling is to make a good Progression From hence note Doct. 1. That the severest Doctrine is not only useful but exceeding necessary towards Persons that are observed to be remiss and slothful in their Profession Yet Charity becomes a Minister nevertheless and not to censure a People from hence And this we may gather from what he saith with the Connexion of the Words with what succeeds But Beloved we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany Salvation though we thus speak ver 9. Secondly We shall consider the Persons here spoken of under their divers Qualifications and great Attainments which are five-fold and yet notwithstanding all that they might fall away and perish for ever and if they did fall totally before they were truly regenerated their Apostacy would be final or it would be impossible for them to be renewed again by Repentance either to that State in which they were before or unto a better from whence there is no possibility of their final falling In this general Description of the Persons here mentioned let us consider four or five things more particularly 1 st Consider the Apostle's Design which is to declare or discover the fearful State and just Judgment of God against the Persons here meant or intended 2 dly That those five Attainments he here speaks of are acquired by some who had been Professors of the Gospel and look'd upon as eminent Christians such that had made a Profession of Repentance from dead Works and of Faith towards God and had been baptized and owned all other Principles of the Doctrine of Christ See ver 1 2 3. 3 dly That all those high Privileges and Attainments whereof they were made Partakers by the Gospel they afterwards despised or when under their Apostacy did contemn which loudly proclaims their Destruction from God to be just and deserved 4 thly That all their Privileges and Attainments as Reverend Dr. Owen observes do consist in certain Operations of the Holy Ghost under the Dispensation of the Gospel and therefore not such Persons that never professed it or had been enlightned thereby 5 thly And let it be well and for ever observed that the Apostle mentions not one of those special and distinguishing Marks or Characters of true Believers or Sanctified Christians As 1. Here is not a word of the Covenant of Grace into which they had been received nothing spoken of the Faith of the Operation of God in all those five Attainments they had arrived at 2. Not a word of their having attained to Union with Christ or of the Implantation of the Holy Spirit though they had had some kind of taste thereof 3. Not a word of Regeneration he doth not say It is impossible for such that have been born of God begotten of the Spirit No no nothing of that 4 Here is nothing spoken of their being justified or of Justification unto Life 5. Not a word in all their fivefold Attainments of Sanctification by the Spirit we read not of any effectual Calling they had arrived unto 6. Nothing is mentioned of their Election of Adoption nor of their Love to God or to his poor Saints none of these things are expressed or assigned unto them which do all appertain to every true Christian 6 thly It ought also carefully to be noted that when the Apostle comes to speak of his Hope of the Saints to whom he wrote i. e. that they were not such he lays down or describes by way of Intimation the Characters of true Believers by other distinguishing Qualifications But Beloved we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany Salvation though we thus speak Now observe if those Persons he mentions that had been once enlightned and had tasted of the Heavenly Gift c. had been true Christians what better things could the Apostle be perswaded was in these Hebrews than was in them Are there better things than Vnion with Christ than Justification than Regeneration true Faith Pardon of Sin Love to God and to his People Sanctification of the Spirit and Adoption No no there are no better things that any Christian can attain unto in this Life than these Moreover 7 thly The Apostle clearly intimates that they were such who
Ch. 6. 10. Rom. 6. 14. Cant. 1. 1 2. Psal 91. 11. Cant. 8. 6. Isa 54. 10. Psal 37. 31. 1st Exhort Joh 42. 5. 1 Chron. 17. 16. 1 Sam. 25. 41. Rev. 3. 19. Cant. 1. 4. Eph. 3. 19. The fourth A 〈◊〉 taken from the Nature of the Covenant of Grace Isa 53. 10 11. Zech. 6. 12 13. Psal 89. 20. Verse 28 29. John 6. 37 38 39. Phil. 1. 6. Psal 57. 2. Isa 26. 12. Phil. 2. 13. Psal 110. 3. Dr. Owen â— Sam. 23. 5. Isa 27. Ephes 2. 2 3. Gal. 3. 4 25. Ephes 2. 1 2. Eph. 1. 18. Zech. 9. 11. Rom. 8. 1. Heb. 7. 22. Dr. Owen on Heb. 2. 22. p. 223. Ps 89. 34. Jâ—â— 33. 20 21. Rom. 4. 16. Isa 53. 10. Psal 89. 28 29. Gal. 3. 16 29. 2 Cor. 1. 20. Tit. 1. 2. Heb. 6. 13 17 18. Ephes 1. 13 14. Ch. 4. 30. Isa 54. 9 10. Isa 55. 3. The general Argument Sermon X. 5th Arg. Taken from their being the Children of God Jam. 1. 18. Joh. 1. 13. Mat. 3. 8 9 10 11 12. John 3. 5. 1 Joh. 5. 1. Gal. 3. 26. John 3. 6. Gen. 5. 3. 2 Pet. 1. 4. Gal. 4. 23. Jer. 32. 40. Ch. 3. 14. Rom. 8. 17. Isa 53. Psal 89. 29. How Believers may be said not to commit Sin 1 Joh. 3. 9. 1 Joh. 1. 8. Eccles 7. 20. Rom. 7. 25. Rom. 8. 1. Rom. 7. 15. 1 Joh. 5. 16. V. 16 17. Ver. 18. 1 Joh. 5. 4. 1 Joh. 4. 4. The general Argument Eph. 4. 24. John 3. 6. Acts 9. 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Mal. 1. 6. 1 Joh. 5. 1. Eph. 5. 1. Zech. 2. 8. 1 John 3. 1 2. Sermon XI The Sixth Argument taken from the Soul's Union with Christ Dr. Owen 1 Cor. 6. 17. Joh. 6. 56. Eph. 5. 31 32. 1 Cor. 12. 12. Eph. 5. 30. Ephes 4. 15 16. 1 Cor. 15. 45. Ps 139. 16. Rom. 11. 17. Dr. Owen Joh. 15. 2 6. Mat 13. 21. John 15. 16. Gal. 2. 20 21. John 19. 36. Isa 29. 21. John 14. 19. Rom. 8. 1. John 3. 36. John 5. 24. Col. 1. 27. Heb. 6. 18. 19 20. Luk. 22. 32. John 11. 42. Charnock 2 Cor. 3. 18. 2 Cor. 6. 14 15. Col. 2. 19. Rom. 7. 4. Sermon XI The seventh Argument taken from the Death of Christ Heb. 9. 22. 1 John 1. 11. Dan. 9. 26. John 15. 13. 1 Pet. 3. 18. Rom. 5. 7. Isa 53. 6 7. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Isa 53. 12. Gal. 4. 4 5. Rom. 4. 24. Mr. F. Dr. Owen shews the same and many others Rom. 8. 32. John 10. 15. Luk. 22. 19. Heb. 9. 28. Isa 53. 4 5 6 8. Christ hath delivered all Believers from Condemnation 1 Pet. 2. 24. Isa 53. 5. Isa 27. 4. Rom. 1. 32. Christ the Antitype of the Scape-Goat and carried away our Sins Levit. 16. 21 22. Heb. 9. 26. Christ by his Death hath delivered us from the Curse of the Law Dan. 9. Gal. 3. 4. 5. Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath born all God's Vindictive Wrath due to Believers Rom. 3. 23 24 25 26. 1 John 1. 9. Christ by his Death purchased Grace for us Phil. 4. 19. Joh. 1. 14 16. Heb. 10. 14. Christ by his Death redeemeth us from all Sin Tit. 2. 14. Eph. 1. 13 14. Phil. 3. 10 11 12. John 3. 16. Assertors of General Redemption reprehended 1 Pet. 1. 18. Examen confectionis pacificae Joh. 17. 9. Ver. 20. Examen confectionis pacificae John 12. 23 24. Dr. Chauncy in his Treatise of the Doctrine of Godliness p. 203 204. Eph. 5. 25. * Joh. 17. 19 20. 10. 11. 16. 13 14. Mat. 3. 5 6. Joh. 3. 26. John 12. 32. 1 Cor. 12. 7. 1 Tim. 4. 4. A Minister in Glostershire as I am told of the Presbyterian Perswasion Gen. 9. 4. To eat Blood the Life of the Creature unlawful Joh. 1. 29. 1 Tim. 4. 10. Sermon XIII The Eighth Argument taken from the Effects of Christ's Death and Resurrection Rom. 6. 5 6. Col. 2. 12 13. 1 Pet. 4. 1. Rom. 6. 10 11. 1 Cor. 5. 15. Reconciliation the Effect of Christ's Death Eph. 2. 16. Rom. 8. 34. Rom. 5. 10. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Zech. 6. 13. Acts 2. 32 33. Isa 44. 3. Ezek. 36. 25. Rom. 15. 16. 2 Thess 2. 13. Ezek. 36. 27. Rom. 8. 26. Gal. 4. 5 6. 1 Joh. 4. 4. Eph. 1. 13. Rom. 8. 16. Eph. 1. 14. 4. 30. John 14. Col. 1. 14. Gal. 4. 5. Heb. 10. 19 20. Reader these things were enlarged upon when this Sermon was preached which I am forc'd to leave out here Acts 13. 39. 2 Pet. 2. 20. Ver. 22. Heb. 10. 14. Rom. 6. 5. Phil. 3. 10 11 12. Eph. 5. 25 26 27. Heb. 9. 12. Rom. 8. 30. The general Argument Acts 2. 37. Sermon XIV 9th Arg. taken from their being in the Hand of the Father and in Christ's Hand Isa 9. 1. Act. 4. 28. Rom. 11. 33. Isa 14. 24. 1 Cor. 1. 18. John 11. 28. Col. 1. 15. Psal 8â— 15. Isa 42. 3. 53. 10. Heb. 9. 22. 1 King 20. 39. Gen. 43 9. Gen. 42. 37. Philem. 18 19. Phil. 4. 19. Isa 63. 1. Mat. 28. 18 19. Heb. 7. 25. Joh. 17. 2. Isa 49. 10. Joh. 6. 37. Mat. 12. 20. John 6. 39. 1 Cor. 10. 13. Heb. 2. 18. Heb. 5. 1 2. In what respect the Saints are said to be in Christ's Hand Joh. 16. 13. Isa 42. 16. Psal 73. 2 23. Isa 49. 13 16. Jer. 17. 8. 2 Cor. 8. 5. Psa 10. 14. Psal 12. 7. Verse 5. The general Argument Sermon XV. Mat. 13. 31. Mat. 17. 20. Contin of Mr. Pool 's Annotat. 1 Joh. 5. 4. Mat. 13. Joh. 4. 14. Hos 14. 7. Mat. 13. 33. Grace compared to Leaven Grace compared to Fire Grace is a Vital Principle 1 Joh. Rom. 6. 14. Tit. 2. 12. True Grace is of a saving Nature Grace the Off-spring of Heaven Gen. 1. 26. God the Father is the Foundation of Grace 1 Pet. 2. 9. Grace God's Workmanship in the Soul Eph. 2. 10. The Power of God concerned to preserve Grace in us 1 Pet. 1. 5. The Promises of God secures Grace in us Psal 37. 23 24. Phil. 1. 6. It cannot stand consistent with the Wisdom of God and all other Attributes to let Grace utterly fail in us 2 Tim. 1. 9. Christ is the Purchaser the Author and finisher of Grace Tit. 2. 14. Acts 2. 33. Charnock 1 Joh. 3. 5 8. Heb. 12. 2. Verse 12. The Intercession of Christ secures the Saints in a State of Grace 1 Joh. 2. 2. Heb. 7. 25. Heb. 10. 21 22. The general Argument 1 Cor. 1. 30. Mat. 13. Luke 10. 20. Rom. 7. 24. Isa 40. 11. Tit. 2. 11 12. Sermon XVI How could the Birth of Christ be cause of Joy to all People answered Joel 2. 28. Col. 1. 23. Luk. 2. 34. Mark 16. 16. See p. 174. 175. of this Treatise Doctrine of Election and Perseverance opens no Door to Sin â—â—b 12. 14. Eph. 1. 4. 1 Cor. 4. 7. Col.
made it maintains it as he sits upon the Throne He it was that made it as he is a Priest and he maintains it as he is a King upon the Throne he will never suffer Sin to get such Head in us that we shall cast off God any more or violate our Covenant with him nor will he suffer Satan to do it therefore they who are reconciled shall never perish no not one of the Elect of God Thirdly The Gift of the Holy Spirit is another Effect of the Death of Christ This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we are Witnesses And having received of the Father the Promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear The Father promised unto his Son upon his dying for us that the Holy Spirit should be given to all his Seed I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed Indeed Christ receiving the Holy Spirit without measure for us in his own Person as Mediator antecedent to our believing is the fullest Security to us imaginable We are blessed with all spiritual Blessings in Christ that is in him as our Head And although Christ received the Spirit before he suffered yet it was upon the account of his Sufferings the Father trusted his Son took his Son's Word and gave him part of his Wages from the beginuing for all the Saints under the Old Testament had the Spirit upon no other Account than as we have it namely as the Fruits and Effects of Christ's Death and Purchase who was to die Now Brethren pray consider what the Work of the Holy Spirit is which is promised to abide with the Saints and Seed of Christ for ever 1. His Work is at first to quicken them You hath he quickned 2. To renew to regenerate to sanctify them this is the Work and Office of the Spirit I will sprinkle clean Water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your Filthiness And hence the Gentiles are said to be sanctified by the Holy Ghost But pray take notice of this the Rock in the Wilderness was first smitten before Water gush'd forth So Christ was first smitten first crucified then the Spirit like Water was poured forth It is Sirs wholly the Effects and Fruits of his Death 3. It is the Work of the Spirit to cause us to walk in God's Ways and to keep his Statutes I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Judgments and do them We should not do this were it not for the Spirit we could not keep God's Precepts nor walk in his Paths but God puts his Spirit into us that we shall not depart from him that is we shall not finally apostatize from him but shall keep his Precepts to the End 4. It is the Work of the Spirit to help us to pray and breathe forth our Desires to God We know not how to pray but as the Spirit helps our Infirmities and maketh intercession for us with Groans that cannot be uttered Christ having redeemed us from the Curse of the Law it is that this Blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father 5. The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit is to enable us to mortify Sin Rom. 8. 13. If ye through the Spirit mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live And hence it is also that Sin shall not have Dominion over them and therefore Believers cannot perish they having such a Helper He destroys all that Dominion Sin and Satan had in them and Power over them The Spirit utterly spoils Satan's Kingdom in them Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the World saith John speaking to the Saints This is such a Helper that can never be worsted 6. It is hereby we perform all our Holy Duties By the Spirit Ministers preach to profit and Hearers hear to their profit hereby we read to profit and sing God's Praise to our profit and sweet comfort for as we pray with the Spirit so we sing with the Spirit and the same Measure the same Fillings of the Spirit that enable us to do the one enable us to do the other By the Spirit we are also helped to meditate on God and on his Word and hereby our Meditations of him are sweet to our Souls 7. 'T is by the Spirit we resist and repel Satan's Temptations Or if he doth at any time worst us the Spirit will help us up again 8. It is the Holy Spirit that doth confirm and establish us in the Truth 9. In a word All Grace is from the Spirit and it is by the Aid and Assistance of the Spirit that we are enabled to exercise that Grace for as he first formed the Habit in our Souls so it is he helps us to do the Act also or that doth influence us in the Exercise thereof 10. The Holy Spirit is also the Earnest of the Saints Inheritance 'T is given to them as an Earnest of that Glory they shall one Day absolutely be possessed of 'T is given to assure them that as certainly as they have received the Holy Spirit here and he is in them so certain it is that they shall be saved or have the Eternal Inheritance True I have mentioned this two or three times already yet it is of so great Importance I cannot pass it by here It is no small Matter that God gives us when he gives the Holy Spirit to us for as he is that Principle of Life in us so he gives us a full Assurance of Eternal Life hereafter and it is upon this Earnest-Money a Saint may be said to live whilst in this World nay and it will defray all his Charge and supply all his Need and manifold Wants as long as he lives upon the Earth even until he comes to the full possession of his Inheritance above 11. And as the Spirit is the Earnest of Glory or of Everlasting Life so he is also the Witness of God in our Souls yea such a Witness whose Testimony every Christian may trust to and rest upon The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God It witnesseth to us our Adoption that we are Children and so Heirs Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ There is a twofold Witness of the Spirit 1. The Spirit witnesseth by a direct Act we taking hold of Christ and of the Promise Saith the Spirit to the Soul I testify that Christ and Eternal Life is yours you believe and therefore you have Christ and shall be saved 2. There is the witnessing of the Spirit by a reflex Act A Man finds such and such gracious Effects of Divine Grace upon his Soul and by these the Holy Spirit testifies he is gracious One that loves God that hates Sin is changed renewed lives
a godly Life therefore is in Christ Jesus and shall be saved 12. It is also by the Holy Spirit that Believers are sealed unto the Day of Redemption Also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise Strange Can these fall away Can such perish that have received the Earnest of Heaven and have the Witness of the Spirit and have it sealed to them No no God hath put his Seal or Mark upon them he by his Seal hath secured them to and for himself and all this is the Effects of Christ's Death and Resurrection 13. The Spirit also thus purchased by Christ's Death and given as the Fruits and Effects thereof to Believers the Promise of the Father is that it shall abide with them for ever it is the great Promise made to Christ in the Covenant My Spirit which is upon thee shall not depart from thee nor from thy Seed henceforth and for ever See the Words Isa 59. 21. there is the Promise of the Father it is an absolute Promise and it runs thus it shall be in Christ and in his Seed henceforth and for ever The Spirit is called the Promise of the Father Also we have a Promise of the constant abiding of the Spirit in all Believers made by Christ the second Person in the Trinity he told his Disciples The Spirit of Truth the Comforter should abide with them and be in them forever Unto these add the Testimony of the Holy Ghost himself for it is he that doth in the Word assure us of his own abiding with us he hath chosen our Souls to be his own Temple and Habitation for ever and also assures us That all the Promises are in Christ yea and amen to the Glory of God So that we have this great Truth sealed and confirmed to us by the Three that bear witness in Heaven Fourthly Pardon of Sin is another Effect and Fruit of the Death of Christ In whom we have Redemption through his Blood that is as the Effects of his Blood even the Forgiveness of Sin True Jesus Christ satisfied God's Justice for our Sins he paid our Debts it is not Remission without a Satisfaction but yet we are freely forgiven we have it of God's Free Grace but it is through the Blood of Christ Remission of our Sins follows Redemption as the necessary Effects thereof Christ hath procured this Favour and Blessing for us and Gospel-Remission or Pardon of Sin is for ever I will remember their Sins no more they are blotted out for ever he hath cast our Sins into the Depth of the Sea put them behind his Back yea he hath put them far away from him as the East is from the West Fifthly Adoption is the Fruit and Effect of Christ's Death He hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons God takes us through Christ or by virtue of Christ's Death into the Relation of Sons which Privilege we have for ever we shall never cease being Sons and Daughters of God Sixthly Free Access to the Throne of Grace or unto the Father is the Effect of Christ's Death Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus by a new and living Way which he hath consecrated for us through the Vail that is to say his Flesh Christ's Blood His Death opened this Way it is by him we have access to the Throne of Grace Seventhly Another Fruit and Effect of the Death of Christ is Redemption from all Iniquity He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity c. Tit. 2. 14. Therefore this Glorious Effect his Death shall have upon all Redeemed Ones it was not to redeem only from the Curse of the Law as some talk but from the Guilt Pollution Power and Punishment of Sin therefore Believers shall never perish Eighthly Justification is also another Effect of the Death and Resurrection of Christ which is to acquit absolve and to pronounce us Righteous in God's Sight God accepting us Righteous by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness which is ever the same Now Christ's Death being the Meritorious Cause thereof we are said to be justified by his Blood Rom. 5. 9. And pray see the Apostle's Argument from hence Much more then being now justified by his Blood we shall be saved from Wrath through him It is more to be reconciled and justified than it is to be saved such are justified and Christ's Blood having done the former will much more effect the latter those that Christ justifies he will glorify nay and his Death and Resurrection cannot be without this Effect And by him all that believe are justified from all things c. The Word Justified is opposed to Condemnation those that are justified are justified for ever Justification is not a gradual Act as Sanctification is it results not as the Fruits of our Repentance or inherent Holiness but as the Fruits of Christ's Death and Merits it is never less nor more as our Holiness cannot add any thing to it so the Sins and Infirmities of true Believers cannot diminish any thing from it there may be additions to our inherent Sanctification but not to our Justification Christ rose again for our Justification I may also challenge all the Men in the World to prove that any Man that was justified in the sight of God did ever fall away and come under Condemnation Ninthly Sanctification is another Effect of the Death of Christ You may again read that Text Heb. 9. 13 14. Christ died not only to justify Believers but to sanctify them also Object But some may say A Man may be sanctified and yet be defiled again We read of some that escaped the Pollution of the World through the Knowledg of Christ yet were again entangled and overcome Answ 1. If any sincere Christian be defiled again through any Sin or Corruption they shall be washed and cleansed again 2. Those that Peter speaks of were such that only had escaped gross Pollution through the common Operations of the Spirit it appears their swinish Nature was never changed he therefore saith It is happened to them according to the true Proverb The Dog it turned to his Vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the Mire Such therefore never were sanctified in Heart they never experienced the Effects of Christ's Blood not that Soul-purifying Virtue that is in it they were cleansed from gross Idolatry through the Knowledg of Christ and also from some gross Acts of Prophaneness they had obtained a reformed but no renewed Life of Grace and Holiness therefore such fall into Sin again and are so overcome that the latter End is worse with them than the Beginning As to true Believers see what the Apostle says For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified By this one Offering our Lord Jesus hath procured our Sanctification