away of sin is the remission of sin by which a sinner is freed from the guilt of sin from the curse of the Law and from the wrath of God hence it appears that Salvation lies chiefly in remission of sin Psal. 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose transgressions is forgiven blessed is he whose sin is covered blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity Neither does the consideration of any good works done by man come in as a motive for God to pardon our sins because to pardon sin is to impute Righteousness without works i. e. God looks upon pardoned sinners as righteous through Faith in Christ though their works be not answerable to the Law of Righteousness laid down in the Covenant of works Christ comes in in the room and place of our Good Works and Free Grace confers that upon us for Christ's sake which our own Good Works were to procure for us under the Law For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Eph. 2. 8 9. Thus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10. 4. The end of the Law under the Mosaical Dispensation whether Moral or Ceremonial was to lead a sinner to Christ for Righteousness this Righteousness lies in the full satisfaction that Christ made to the Law for the sin of man we must bring to the Law either a perfect Righteousness of our own or a full satisfaction for all our sins which is equivalent to man's perfect Righteousness and not only equivalent but much beyond it for our own perfect Righteousness had we continued in it would have kept us in a happy Paradisical state here on earth I know Divines speak of our Translation afterwards into Heaven but of that the Scripture is silent 't is evident that had we kept the Law we had not died but upon the satisfaction Christ has made to the Law we obtain Eternal Life have a more abundant entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven and this satisfaction accepted for us is in the infinite merit of it our Righteousness Thus the Law obtains its end in that full satisfaction that Christ gave it for the sin of man and can demand no more of any believing sinner for his Justification it becomes the Law to bring things to a righteous Conclusion between the Justice of God and a sinner The Law cannot do unjustly but is righteous in condemning the Unbeliever and righteous in passing by the Believing sinner If any ask How comes a Believing sinner to escape the Vengeance of the Law to get out of the hands of a sin-revenging Law Answ. Because the Law hath obtained its end in Christ and done full execution upon him for the sin of man to its own satisfaction and this secures a man from the curse of the Law as much as his own perfect righteousness would have done The Papists deny the imputation of Christ's Righteousness and derive Remission of Sin from inherent Righteousness whereas inherent Righteousness never frees us from all Sin in this World he is a liar who says he hath no Sin But imputed Righteousness is opposed to all Sin in us and covers it all We are holy and unblameable and unreproveable in the sight of God Col. 1. 22. New Obedience and the practice of Holiness is the consequent of Pardon which must not be taken for a permission or licence to Sin Pardoning-Grace lays a strict injunction upon us to Sin no more as Christ did upon the man whom he healed at the Pool of Bethesda Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee John 5. 14. Christ Died primarily for our Justification from all Sins committed by us and also for our Sanctification to prevent the Commission of further sin To that end he purchased for us his holy spirit that we might live to God 2 Cor. 5. 15. That being dead to sin we should live to righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. The blood of Christ purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. There are two special parts of the covenant of grace Heb. 8. 10 11 12. viz. Remission of sin and a change of Heart and Nature they always go together to fancy a change of State without a change of Nature is but a fancy Though Justification be a continued act yet that it may be continued to us in a comfortable sense of it Believers must sue out their Pardon for every new sin and by renewed acts of Faith apply the Blood of Christ in particular for the Pardon of this or that sin In Justification all sin is Pardoned past present and future that no place may be left for Condemnation John 5. 24. Sins to come are virtually Remitted to a Believer i. e. we are by Faith put into a state of Pardon Faith knows whither to go for Pardon upon all occasions Tho the Commission of new sins does not cast a Believer out of a state of Grace does not null and make void his former Justification in the sight of God yet he may lose the comfortable sense of it in his own Conscience and lye under though not judiciary Punishments yet under such castigatory Chastisements from an Angry Father that may be a great bitterness of Soul unto him till by a renewed act of Faith he does apply himself to Christ for Pardon and make his peace with God Faith it self can't speak peace to an impenitent Believer who as to this or that sin may be called impenitent though as to his state he be a Believer Till Faith do bring down the Blood of Christ by a particular application of it to the Conscience of a man for the Pardon of this or that particular sin he may and will be very uneasy under it and the longer Repentance is deferred the more angry reflections will Conscience make against that man he may be brought to question his own state by deferring his Repentance so long Care must be taken to set upon this work of Repentance out of hand and when we go about it we must still keep Christ in our eye and not sorrow as without hope that sorrow for sin that in the beginning may be Godly sorrow may by the cunning of the Devil rise so high as to become ungodly sorrow sinking the Soul into despair Many do begin in the Spirit and end in the Flesh therefore care must be taken to keep our selves in a due temper of mind that we be not overwhelmed with sorrow that sorrow for sin that hinders us from coming to Christ is sinful and not to be allowed in a Christian. So that Repentance is required not as a previous condition of our Justification but as that without which no man can or will ever come to Christ for Justification Faith first works Repentance under a secret hope of Pardon and then applies Christ not
not but there may be matter of doubt among the Saints in heaven it self whether they be real Saints or no. 'T is the weakness and imperfection of things that casts them under a suspicion but when they shine out in their full beauty and glory there is no room for any objection Does any man question whether the Sun be risen at Noon-day If perfect Day will not pass for Day then there is no difference between Day and Night Light and Darkness must be all one 'T is not a right way to a setled peace of Conscience that some take who instead of an humble application to free Grace for the Pardon of sin do apply themselves to their own goods works considering how holy they have been how holy they are how holy they intend to be and all this in order to their Justification at last 't is a hard matter to keep men humble under such thoughts they will be glorying in the flesh and think themselves something when they are nothing To look for Justification by our own Holiness will prove an ineffectual motive unto Holiness either they are discouraged from the visible imperfection of their Holiness or else they grow remiss in it thinking that any thing will serve to justifie them since perfect Righteousness is not required such as they have must serve the turn rather then fail of eternal life any thing will do under the umbrage of it may be but a pretended sincerity a good meaning must answer for a bad life and on they go in their wonted evil course all is but imperfection and weakness and the Covenant of Grace not requiring perfection will bear with that and pass it by I confess there is Grace enough in the Gospel to Pardon all your sins but whether the best of you have good works enough to justifie your Persons you had best see to that I dare appeal to all your Consciences in point of experience whether you do not find your selves growing more holy and conscientiously strict in your walking with God under an humble dependance upon the Free Grace of God in Christ Jesus for the Pardon of all your sins than ever you did under your greatest endeavours to save your selves by your own works The Grace of God teaches to deny all ungodliness and nothing will effectually do it but that The great question among us this day about Justification is Whether our Good Works and Evangelical Righteousness have not some place in our Justification as con-causes or social causes having some partial influence at least that way I would propound two Expedients for Peace 1. Since the main point of difference is about the use of our Good Works at the day of Judgment when we shall be sententially justified or pronounced just by God I would have the decision of this left to that day for I fear we are not likely to agree sooner Then 't will appear that evidences of Faith are no cause of the Justification of our persons in the sight of God That will be resolved into pure Faith resting upon Christ for Righteousness and life 2. Since we cannot agree in the nature use and proper ends of Evangelical Righteousness let us more strictly intend the thing it self and labour every one of us to be more Evangelically holy and righteous in our lives and conversations Did we live more by Faith in Christ Jesus we should quickly see how all good works rise out of that Faith by which all true Believers are already justified All that An inomianism that the Orthodox Preachers of Free Grace are falsly charged with lies here Because they maintain and I hope ever will maintain that the first thing a convinced sinner is to eye in his turning to God is the Free Grace and Mercy of God in Christ for the Pardon of Sin Evangelical Conviction leads him to a reliance upon Christ in some degree of Saving Faith for the pardon of all his Sins and this Faith begets in him a secret hope of Pardon and is the spring of all after Sanctification viz. of Mortification of Sin of Repentance of all new Obedience Let this be remembred as the main thing we contend about that we begin our Religion at the Grace of God and not think to ground our Faith in Christ upon any legal preparations or works of our own We ought not to hold a convinced sinner one moment under Legal Terrors without making an offer of Grace in Christ to him I see not what should hinder a sinner under the height of Legal Conviction from hanging himself as Judas did I am sure a thorough Legal Conviction of Sin will sink any man into utter despair if Faith in Christ come not in immediately to his relief Indeed those who are but half convinced by the Law and know not the strict Spiritual sense of it may betake themselves to their works and duties and think to save themselves that way but this is so vain a thought I will not spend time to confute it you who have lived so long under the Light of the Gospel can answer that your selves Besides Pure Legal Convictions have a greater tendency to Despair than to Faith they naturally work despair but 't is the work of God a supernatural work of his Spirit that any under such Convictions are made to believe in Christ. The Conviction becomes Evangelical in all who believe and it is Faith makes it so Evangelical Conviction includes Legal Faith indeed pointing to Christ abates something of the Terror of the Law and by a clearer Gospel-light expounds the law into its true sense and meaning which no natural man can gather from the bare Letter of the Law and thus Faith by the Law lets us further into the knowledge of sin than the Law alone without the Gospel could ever do And this is that Faith we preach as the beginning of all true Conversion and the only spring of all true Holiness We cannot begin to lead a holy life till we first look unto Christ by Faith for the pardon of sin CHRIST THE Great Redeemer of Body and Soul 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's CHAP. I. FOR ye are bought with a price c. i. e. with the Price of the Blood of Christ who has redeemed us to himself and purchased an everlasting Right in and Dominion over our bodies and souls therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's Or thus Obs. The absolute Dominion that God has over us and the special right that he hath in us and to us not only as our Creator but as our Redeemer lays a strong Obligation upon us to glorifie God in our body and in our Spirit which are his 'T is fit that man should have the use of his own things what he has bought and paid for we stand much upon our Property would not have that invaded meum tuum
his Law in the inward man these are so far from being conditions of the Covenant giving us an interest in it that they are rather the Covenant it self fulfilled in us which is an undeniable proof of our being in Covenant 9. The New Covenant does not so much imply an outward Law or Rule of government set before us as an inward Law or rather a spirit and principle of Love and Obedience inclining us to a willing performance of all those Duties that either Law or Gospel call for The Covenant of Grace brings forth a new creature created in Christ Jesus unto good works that he should walk in them you put a force upon the new creature if you turn him out of his walk By the Covenant of Grace our Justification hangs not upon doing but upon believing That which much perplexes the point of Justification is the separating of Faith and Justification too far asunder which hath many ill consequences in it 1. If you suppose Faith as a quality pre-existing in the Soul before Justification and standing a while alone by it self in order to our Justification this lets in previous qualifications in us as necessary to Justification And if Faith as a quality in us have any causal influence into our justification so must Repentance and all good Works which are linked to it This lets us into a justification by Works of our own doing and by qualities inherent in our selves which is downright Popery 2. If we place our personal Justification before Faith this runs us up to an actual Justification of our persons from eternity which is of as ill consequence as the former Therefore the safest way is to put them both togethet What God hath joined let no man put asunder He that believes is justified and he that is justified Believes there can be no justification without Faith nor no true Faith without justification God's act in justifying doth symphonize and correspond to our act in Believing There cannot be actual giving without actual receiving one is naturally necessary to the other I know Faith and Justification are different notions and may in our way of speaking and expression be put one before the other but the things themselves are always together God justifies us by working Faith in us The Covenant of Grace requires nothing to be done by us as an antecedent moral condition or procuring cause of our Justification it supposes Faith in all who actually partake of the Grace of this Covenant Nay the Covenant of Grace I mean the outward proposal of the terms of the New Covenant is an outward means appointed by God for the working or begetting of Faith in us Faith comes by hearing i. e. by hearing the Doctrine of our Redemption by Christ and this Faith so wrought by hearing the Word disposes the Soul ever after to Repentance and new obedience which are the inseparable effects of Faith in all who are justified He who doth not shew his Faith by his Works is no sound Believer Though it be commonly said by many That Repentance is in order to justification the sense cannot be that Repentance is instrumentally necessary to justification as Faith is Do but keep up the different relation that Faith hath to justification from all other Graces and good Works and we shall quickly understand one another and not confound Faith and Works together in our justification We may differ in our expressions but that should make no real difference if the same thing be meant and intended This account of Faith or to this effect for I will tie none to my words does answer all the ends of true Religion it exalts Christ ascribes our free Justification and Pardon to him and his Righteousness only it secures our own Souls it suppresses and discountenances all Vice all licentious loose living it establishes the Law as a Rule of life it promotes all practical Holiness by the most forcible motives that can be We can never keep up Religion in the power of it if we do not keep up the plain notion of it in the sense that is commonly received by all sober sincere Christians Arguings pro and con may have their use among the Learned but still let us be sure to sail by the Pole-Star to keep that in our Eye as a fixed point that governs all our motions My meaning is this let us ultimately resolve Religion in the main fundamentals of it into such naked simple truths as may fall under the capacity of all plain meaning Christians that they may know what we Believe and what we Profess That we all aim at the same thing in our Preaching and that the same Spirit may still appear in all the diversity of gifts that is among us The reason why the Apostle Gal. 3. 17. calls the Mount Sinai-Covenant a Law is because the Mount Sinai-Covenant is a mixt Covenant made up partly of the Law and partly of the Gospel and the Apostle in that place opposes the Legalities of the Sinai-Covenant to the promise made to Abraham There was no reason why he should oppose the Gospel part of the Sinai-Covennat to the Covenant with Abraham for they were both the same they were coincident there was no opposition between them therefore he calls the Mount Sinai-Covenant a Law in opposition to the Covenant of pure Grace made with Abraham The Covenant of Works made with Adam as to any benefit from it ceased at the entrance of sin which laid all mankind under a curse This curse cannot be taken away but by a New Covenant you see how sin disordered the whole world put all things out of frame God's Government of the world as to the outward administration of it must be altered or else the whole world must be destroyed there must be a new Constitution a new Covenant What havock did sin make in one day that put God upon a second Creation making all things new casting all into a new mould to prevent the utter destruction of all mankind that otherwise must have ensued This Covenant of Grace may be considered Four ways 1. In the promise of the seed of the Woman made to Adam at least in his hearing couched in the threatning denounced against the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. 2. In the Promise made to Abraham Gen. 17. 7. 3. In the Mount Sinai-Covenant with all Israel Exod. 19. 8. this Covenant had the nature of a Testament therefore confirmed by Death hence beasts slain in Sacrifice Heb. 9. 16 18. 4. In the New Covenant with Jews and Gentiles now under the Gospel CHAP. II. SEcondly See Mr. Petto â—n this Subject The comparison of the New Covenant made with Jews and Gentiles now under the Gospel with the Mount Sinai-Covenant made with the Jews only under the Law When Abraham's Posterity grew numerous even into a Nation then commenced the Mount Sinai-Covenant containing the moral judicial and ceremonial Laws given not with an intent to disannul the Promise made Four hundred and thirty
stands for little with such men who resolve to believe themselves leaning in all things to their own understandings And under that Spiritual slumber I must leave them till it pleases God to awaken them As for those who make previous Conditions performed by themselves the ground of their Faith in Christ for Pardon not daring to trust in Christ for Salvation 'till they have first prepared themselves by such doings of their own as may give them a right and title to it and encourage them to trust in Christ for that Salvation whereas I conceive the bare offer and tender of Grace made to sinners in the Gospel is sufficient to give them a right and title to it who thankfully accept the offer though they come without Money have no Righteousness of their own to make way for them coming as they are in their nakedness and Poverty casting themselves upon Christ for all looking for acceptance only in the Beloved Besides to require such preparatory works before believing I mean before we close in with Christ by an act of justifying-Faith is to put natural men upon supernatural acts which they have no strength to perform and doth suppose that in their natural state they may be brought to true holiness may reform their lives and attain to some degree of Sanctification before their hearts are changed and purified by Faith There must be a change of state before there can be a change of life in a real turning to God by a sincere obedience In Preaching the Gospel we exhort and press our Hearers to holiness not as if we thought to bring them to it while in their natural state but because there is a converting Power in the Gospel to make them new Creatures that must be first done before any acceptable obedience can be performed 'T is Faith that unites us to Christ and being so united all principles and habits of holiness are infused which the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us draws into act upon all occasions Some carry it as if all holy dispositions and inclinations were acquired by our own endeavours But as original Corruption was propagated by our descent from the first Adam so the first seeds and principles of true holiness are propagated by our descent from the second Adam in our new birth Let us not think to become holy any other way than by Faith in Christ in whom we are sanctified and by whose Spirit the Saints are stirred up and quickned to all those duties that tend to the perfecting of holiness in them Christ is the root that bears us our fruit is found in him all our springs are in him without me says Christ you can do nothing we shall be sorry doers of Righteousness if we set about it in our own strength therefore I conclude we must begin our Religion with Faith in Christ and Pray that we may be led by his Spicit in all ways of holiness to our lives end I see no ground in all the new Testament to press and exhort Sinners to humiliation repentance and reformation of life from any other motive than that of Gospel Grace which must be received and taken in in some degree of Saving-faith before we can heartily set about the foresaid duties and this is all I contend for This reception of or faith in Christ must go before all things that are afterwards to be received from Christ That which leads many into a mistake in this matter it their putting too great a difference between saving Evangelical Conviction of sin and true saving-Faith as if such a Conviction of our lost undone state by nature were but a preparative to saving-Faith whereas it is an essential part of justifying-Faith to convince us of sin from which we are justified by Christ they are always concomitant and cannot be separated in any act of saving-Faith we put forth upon Christ What is Faith but a Conviction of sin and righteousness shewing us our sins that we may seek after righteousness in Christ As for legal Conviction and repentance that is but a common work As God pleases to awaken natural Conscience by setting home the threats and terrors of the Law this may or may not be previous to Conversion and is wrought in whom and in what degree God pleases Some lie in a spiritual slumber all their days without any legal touch upon their Consciences are fast asleep 'till they awake in Hell which is full of legal Convictions Sometimes God reserves the whole of Conviction for saving-Faith he lets in a sense of sin and of the remedy at once and this Faith may first shew it self in some more in an humbling Conviction of sin than in the comfortable application of Christ's righteousness that may come afterwards when Faith has done its humbling work under which there is a secret looking unto Christ tho not with that comfortable sense of our interest in him as we are made afterwards to understand What I urge is this We must begin our Religion with Faith in Christ which never fails to produce repentance and new obedience but how to attain to any degree of either before we are in Christ is to me unconceiveable They who so much contend for these Preparatives do run upon Rocks and will be forced to deny such fundamental Points of the Protestant Religion which I am persuaded they will be ashamed to disown when closely put to it many things are required of those who are in Covenant that are not required as Conditions of our first entring into Covenant We must not think to bring any Grace to the Covenant but must fetch all Grace from the Covenant even Faith it self a power to believe being the first thing promised in the Covenant and by our passive reception of this first Grace a spiritual Principle of life is let into the Soul from whence flow all holy and spiritual actions Qua facultates Animae in calescunt vivificantur potentes fiunt in ordine Spirituali Tho. Parker Thes. 43. as the fruits and effects of that habitual Faith infused at first by God This reception of Christ by Faith is our life 1 John 5. 12. John 6. 53. by which the faculties of our Souls are warmed and quickned and enabled unto all acts of spiritual life being now throughly furnished unto every good word and work Were Pride and Prejudice laid aside and did every one study his own Justification and mind that more some would find those very Arguments which they take up against their Antagonists whilst they are acting the part of Opponents contending more for Victory than Truth to make against the inward Judgment of their own Consciences when once it comes to be their own case I am persuaded many plead for those opinions and notions upon which they would be loth to venture their own Souls in a dying hour I value more the Judgment of a dying Saint about Justification than all the wrangling Disputes of Learned men who are under a great
strain we move it a little though ordinarily we cannot stir it So there are some certain strains of Faith that give us that discerning of Spiritual Things that we never had before lifting up our heads within the Vail Let us then wait upon God for such further manifestations of his Spirit and pray That he would shine in our hearts the Light of the Knowledge of his Glory What shall I say more Now we live upon Creatures and have but a remote View of God in them and through them and this is our Grace But when we come to Heaven God will be all in all We shall stand in no need of Creature-Comforts to Eternity but shall derive all our support satisfaction and joy immediately from God himself His Spirit will be instead of Meat Drink and Cloaths to our bodies and will to Eternity fill up the Capacity of our Souls with Ravishing Joys and Delights And this is our Glory The sum of all is That Christ received into the heart by Faith as our Jesus our Redeemer and Saviour doth beget in the Soul thus relying upon him an earnest Expectation and lively Hope of all that Good that may consummate and perfect mans Happiness to Eternity And this in the Text is called Glory Christ in us the Hope of Glory So much for that part of the Text. I come now to the First Part of the Text. What are we to understand by Christ in us And this is Mystery upon Mystery It is evident that in Scripture Christ is said to be in us and we in him he to abide in us and we to abide in him I shall now only give you a more general Exposition of these Words in the general sense of the Text. I say Christ is said to be in us and we in him To abide in us and we in him John 15. 4. And all this must be spiritually understood all this is by Believing by Faith we receive him and by continued Acts of Faith we do keep him dwelling in our hearts Eph. 3. 17. We abide in Christ and Christ in us we are in him and he in us when we do persevere in the Faith when we have in our hearts an inward belief and persuasion of all the Gospel saith concerning Christ as our Redeemer and Saviour He is in the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts continually and we do act towards him according to what we believe of him this is believing indeed And here comes in hope as most suitable to the apprehensions of our Faith concerning Christ as our Jesus Christ in you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some render the Greek thus Christ among you outwardly Preached to you is the hope of Glory This is Doctrinally true but this is not enough to beget Hope Many hear and don't believe they have much of Christ without them but nothing of Christ within them Hope arises from something within impressed upon the mind the Soul doth not stir till then doth not put forth any act of Hope till Faith comes That sets all the wheels in motion draws our affections after him such is the power of Faith that we cannot but love and desire what we believe to be so good and desirable Hope naturally springs out of Faith and in this Hope you have the comfort of your Faith you see the benefits of Faith rejoycing in what you believe Gospel truths are very advantageous to a believer when he sees the advantage that accrues to him by them and therefore is filled with joy unspeakable and full of Glory by believing We should be little concerned in our Faith were it not for the Hope it begets It is life Eternal to know Christ in the light of that knowledge you perceive how you live in him and by him As Faith carries up our Souls to Heaven so it brings down all the good things of Heaven to our Souls Faith is a very enriching Grace rich in Faith saith the Apostle when the Soul takes notice of this it cannot but Hope What Faith hath obtained of God through Christ Hope goes out after longs for and patiently waits for things unseen Faith hath ensured them and therefore Hope will expect them So that Christ outwardly Preached is the Hope of Glory that is Doctrinally so It is Doctrinally true but it is not experimentally true to you and me that Christ is our Hope of Glory till we do believe in him Christ must be ours before this Hope in the Text can be ours Christ is not ours till we receive him by Faith from an inward Revelation of him Gal. 1. 16. Till then he is a Christ without us not in us With the heart man believes It is an inward act of the mind to believe in Christ. The Soul doth converse with Christ about its own Salvation our Thoughts are much taken up in considering him applying to our selves the benefits of his Death If Christ be thus in you you cannot but have Hope I am upon the general Exposition and shall shew you more at large how Christ is in us by believing I say Faith lets Christ into the Understanding Will and Affections Naturally when the Vnderstanding acts upon any Object it draws the species and image of that Object into its self Hence they say Intellectus intelligendo fit omnia the Understanding is every thing it understands That is it takes in the Idea Shape Image of that thing which it knows under all its distinguishing Properties else there would be confusion in the Understanding we should not know one thing from another which is not to know at all So Faith brings in Christ into the Soul under a peculiar Character as the fairest of Ten thousand proposes him as the greatest truth to the Understanding as the greatest good to the Will and frames conceptions of him accordingly thus is Christ formed in us Faith doth not take in Christ notionally only to lye by as other notions do in which we are little concerned but it takes him in in reference to our selves as a new Mould into which the Soul is to be cast as a Spirit and Principle of new life He comes to rule and reign and to reduce man to a conformity to himself And here lies the difference between historical and saving Knowledg one is purely Speculative the other is Experimentally Practical that is there is always something done upon it in and by the Soul 2 Cor. 3. 18. We do behold as in a glass the glory of God and are changed Pray observe that Text There is a Beholding and there is a Transformation upon that beholding a being changed into the same Glory We do not know Christ savingly if every thing we know of him doth not help to change us more and more into his Image I say we do not know Christ savingly till then You must judge of your saving knowledge of Gospel Truths by the lively impressions they make upon your hearts Are you brought to act do think that which you never did
before Do you find Christ hath had a quickning influence upon your Hearts is indeed become your life He savingly knows Jesus Christ who doth act towards him according to what he believes of him Let men talk of this or that concerning Christ and pretend to understand all Mysteries to have all knowledge yet unless they can shew the work of the Gospel written in their hearts as the Apostle speaks of the work of the Law Rom. 2. 15. I say unless they can shew the work of the Gospel written in their hearts I am sure they are nothing For it is impossible to receive Christ by the saving knowledge of Faith and not to have his Image impressed upon all the faculties of the Soul by that Faith which first brought it in The very conceptions of Faith concerning Christ are the very thoughts of a mans own heart so he is so he thinks so he acts even as he believes Gospel truths cannot enter into our rational Nature at any other door than that of Faith When Faith comes there needs nothing else to turn that Soul unto God Every man is an his Faith is Faith contains the true inward sense of the Soul about Jesus Christ And God is the Author and Finisher of this Faith and understood to be so by all true Believers Pray let us close up all with this for I am only now labouring as well as I can to shew you in general how Faith lets Christ into the Soul The main thing in Conversion is Faith and the main thing in Faith is the Power of God in working it These two things are principally taken notice of by all Believers They observe them in others much more in themselves Acts 11. 17 18. compared with Acts 14. 23. What notice did they take there of the Faith God had wrought in those They perceived they had received the same Faith with themselves that God had granted unto the Gentiles Repentance unto life Faith is the main thing in Conversion Christ is the same in himself both before and after Conversion So are all Gospel-truths the same in themselves only then we did not believe them and now we do It is Faith makes all the difference and the principal thing in Faith is the power of God in working it How doth Paul admire the goodness of God to him that he should obtain Mercy and believe in Jesus Lord saith he What wilt thou have me to do He never called him Lord before The High Priest was his Lord and Master before from whom he received his orders what to do against the Saints Now he is Sick of that imployment he lays down his Commission at the feet of Christ and desires he would give him instructions what to do None should be his Lord None should now command him but Christ Lord what wilt thou have me to do The beginning of Faith and Conversion lyes in looking unto Christ for Power to believe And our first Faith usually breaks out in an Outcry to God to help our unbebelief All true Converts are sensible of this they in Acts 7. 47. How did they Praise God for their Conversion They ascribe it all to him I say our first Faith in the Lord Jesus comes in with a sense of God's Power in working it and Faith is known to be the gift of God by those who have it They who begin their Faith in the strength of their own Reason thinking to take in such considerations of God and Christ and to draw such arguments from Scripture as can induce them to believe will find themselves mistaken I am persuaded the doubts and fears of many Believers have their rise from hence That they did not begin their Faith in such an humble dependance upon God for strength to believe they did not I say do this as they should And it appears that that is the cause of their fears because nothing but such a dependance upon Christ for Grace does cure them When once they have learned the right way of believing and trusting in Christ they enter into rest there is an end of all their fears There are Promises in Scripture made unto Faith and there are Promises made of Faith These so far as we may be concerned in them seem to be made to Believers quite void of Faith Though to Unbelievers remaining in unbelief nothing is promised yet all things are promised to Unbelievers going out by Faith unto Jesus Christ Or if you will I had rather express it thus These promises of our first faith of the first Grace of giving the Spirit and the like they are made to Christ in the behalf of Unbelievers such who were from Eternity ordained unto Life so many of them whose Names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life The Covenant of Grace made between God and us doth respect the Covenant of Redemption between the Father and the Son This first Faith is wrought in us in such a manner that we are sensible of the Divine Power and Efficacy of God's Grace in working it Though God doth lead out our Souls into rational considerations of Himself and his Son yet we find that these considerations do flow into our Minds from an inward Revelation made of Christ. We do know that such thoughts of God and Christ could never have come into our minds if the Holy Ghost had not suggested them In his Light we see Light and our coming to Christ is always by the Father's drawing CHAP. II. More Particularly How Christ is in us by Faith How Faith brings Christ into the Soul Or how Christ conveys himself into our hearts through Faith And also How we may discern this in our selves THis is the Point and a Point of greatest concernment it is unto us all And therefore I beseech you follow me with your strictest Attention First That Christ may be in us it is necessary that he should be first outwardly proposed unto us There is an outward Light of the letter proposing Christ to us and there is an inward Light of the Spirit revealing Christ in us It is one thing to speak Notionally from the outward Light of the Letter another thing to speak Experimentally from an inward Light of the thing it self in our own Souls Besides the outward Light of the Word there is in every true Believer an inward Light flowing through the Word from the Object or thing spoken of The Spirit reveals Christ the Object and so making us Light in the Lord in his Light we see Light As we cannot see the Sun but by its own Light so neither can we see Christ but in his own Light By Faith we go unto Christ by Faith we go into Christ and we sit down in his Light entertaining our selves with Spiritual Contemplations of his Glory I say that Christ presents himself to us in a Gospel Promise as our God and Saviour He offers himself to us as such and by offering himself or under that proposal he doth act as a Gracious
in you i. e. the Spirit of him that Rose from the Dead and is now Alive in Heaven When we speak of Christ being in us we do not mean his Corporal Personal Presence but his Spiritual Presence If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his so saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 9 10. Though his Person be taken away from us Acts 1. 11. and is contained in Heaven till his second Coming Yet the Life Power and Spirit of Christ doth dwell in us now and this is the Spiritual Presence of Christ in the hearts of Believers now this is a good proof of Christ being in us of a truth in power and spirit 2 Cor. 13. 3 4 5. Fourthly Christ appears to be in Believers by the inward Communion they have with him by the daily moving of their hearts towards him the Soul gathering up it self more and more into Christ often revolving what Christ hath done for them Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We have frequent serious Thoughts of Christ That which is in you is in your Thoughts must be in your Thoughts you are full of him Some can think of nothing but the world and the things of the world and it is a sign Christ is not in them That 's the Fourth Fifthly By the suitable actings of the Soul towards Christ in the most proper and seasonable Exercise of those Graces that such or such a Manifestation of Christ unto us may call for A Soul in communion with Christ is very observant of him very attentive to him eyes him strictly As the eye of the servant looks unto the hand of his master and the eye of the maiden to the hand of her mistress so do our eyes wait upon thee O God Psal. 123. 9. You would take it ill and count it a great neglect in a servant if while you are speaking to him he should look another way not minding what you say And so doth Christ If you will not keep him company when he comes to visit you if you will not sit with him and converse with him and perform your part of Communion with him readily answering to his Call making suitable Returns to all the Motions of his Holy Spirit you offend the Holy Ghost and give him just occasion to leave you to your worldly sullen frame of Spirit See what the Spouse in the Canticles lost by such a carriage chap. 5. 2. She was in a sleepy frame when Christ came to visit her not at all disposed to entertain him He calls and knocks at the door uses many loving compellations to allure her to open to him Open to me my love my dove my sister my undefiled What kind soft words are here Christ would fain have had Admittance tells her how long he had waited that he was now benighted and suffered the injury of the weather was wringing wet Nothing would do she is loth to rise I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet and how shall I defile them What! set her naked feet upon the bare ground not she tho but a step or two to the door After she had paused a while she bethought her self and arose I rose up to open to my beloved and my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone And well he might after such ill usage If Christ be in you be sure you use him well lest he withdraw from you They who know what it is to have Christ within them unless it be under some such Temptations as the Spouse was assaulted with they will do all they can to keep him dwelling in their hearts They study to please him their Carriage towards him is suitable to the Apprehensions their Fath hath of him There are many things in Christ that fall under the consideration of a Believer some at one time and some at another some upon one occasion and some upon another as the matter they come to Christ about may require and as he is pleased to let out himself more or less to us This must be attended to We must answer the Call of Christ by stirring up that Grace by which we may best experience the sense of what Christ is to us doth for us requires of us at such or such a season under such or such circumstances in reference to this or that particular discovery Christ makes of himself unto us Sometimes our duty lies in acting this Grace sometimes in acting that Grace whether it be Faith Love Fear Joy c. Tho we cannot act one Grace aright but we must in some degree act every Grace for all Graces run into that one which bears the name for the time as most suited to the present occasion we have for the Exercise of our Grace Hence the Saints sometimes speak of one Grace and sometimes of another Grace Sometimes it is Faith sometimes it is Love Zeal Joy I protest by our rejoicing in Christ Jesus Sometimes it is this sometimes it is that Grace that their Souls are most taken up with There is that in Christ that will draw out every Grace in its season and we should at all times be in the actual exercise of some Grace If you ask Which I say That which best suits the present occasion that is given for the exercise of your Grace We should labour to pitch our Thoughts upon that in Christ that doth most directly relate to our present case and many are the cases of our Souls God hath ordered it so that we might have recourse to all his Attributes sometimes to one sometimes to another God hath suited our dependance upon him to his several Attributes and to the several Properties of his Name and of his Son's Name He expects our Faith in him should be always grounded upon that in Christ which we see makes most for our present Relief Whether we want Wisdom Righteousness Strength Patience Pardon Comfort we must eye that in Christ that is the next immediate Encouragement to our Faith for that thing In the next place I shall shew you the necessity of Christ being in us and that upon a double ground First Because otherwise there can be no Vital Union between Christ and us no real Communion with him no saving Application of him to our Souls no Communication of Life and Grace to us A Branch can't bear fruit unless it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me John 15. 4. He saith further Every branch that brings not forth fruit v. 2. A dreadful Text it should make Professors tremble at the reading of it every branch in me that brings not fruit No wonder to hear of fruitless Professors out of Christ but to hear how fruitless many are who are in Christ that is outwardly by Profession We may seem to be in Christ when Christ is not really in us The unfruitfulness of many Professors gives sad Demonstration of this Truth When Christ
Christ into the Soul begets Hope And also How Christ received doth feed nourish and maintain this Hope keep it up I begin with the First To consider the Nature of Faith as it is a Cause of Hope When the Apostle saith Christ in us is the Hope of Glory he means Christ received by us or Christ believed on For nothing but Faith can raise up Hope no not from Christ himself Faith is before all other Graces is the Mother of them all Hope Love Fear Joy Zeal and the like are but the several Motions of the Heart towards Christ as he is represented to us by Faith Faith raises and sanctifies our Affections lets them out upon Christ so leading out our Souls towards him by all those holy Passions that may be any way expressive of the high Veneration we have for him Our Affections do express the sense of our Souls whether we like or dislike how we stand affected towards any thing proposed to us My business is To shew how Faith begets Hope how naturally Hope rises out of Faith and is founded upon it And I shall argue from the Nature of Faith as it stands in relation to Hope so it is spoken of Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen It is the Substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quasi fulcrum rerum sperendarum It is Calvin's Notation upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Institut lib. 3. c. 2. Sect. 41. Faith is that which under-props Hope and therefore rendred the substance of things hoped for à substando denoting not only the subsistance of the things hoped for in the Understanding of a Believer but also the help that Faith gives our Minds to conceive of things to come as if they were now before our eyes and in our hands Faith is Hypostasis that which under-props our Hope that which Hope stands upon Faith bears up Hope Hope stands upon the shoulders of Faith and looks over into Eternity upon things to come which are lifted up as it were by Faith out of their Futurity and rendred as present to us in their very substance that is The Objects of a lively Hope do affect the Mind of a Believer as much as present Objects do our Senses Hence Faith is also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Index Ostension Probation or Conviction of things hoped for that is it is the evidence of things not appearing the sight or intellectual Vision of things not seen it is the Perspicuity or plain Appearance of things obscure it is the presence of things absent the demonstration of things occult and hidden and all this because Faith doth secure to us what is hoped for from the Promise of God Evidence is a rational intellectual thing the demonstration of something to our Understandings But the Substance of a Thing is the Thing it self it is as if it were so to a Lively Hope thus raised and influenced by Faith Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Besides Faith sees that in Christ that answers all Objections against our Hope His Power and Ability to save is unquestionable to every true Believer whether he will save such vile sinners as we are many doubts may come in at this door but it is of the Essence of Saving Faith to believe the Power and Ability of Christ to save to the uttermost there can be no Faith till then neither weak nor strong Where there is nothing to relye upon there can be no reliance That which we rely upon must be sure and certain in it self Hence Christ is compared to a Rock to a Foundation to a Corner-Stone that bears up the Weight of the whole Building He is one mighty to save and must be looked upon as such before a poor trembling Sinner will venture to trust in him I grant they who don't question his Power may doubt of his Will as that Leper Matth. 18. 2. If thou wilt thou canst make me whole Yet when things come to extremity between God and a Sinner Faith in the Power and Ability in Christ to save us will carry it against all surmizes of any unwillingness in him to save us When we are put to it indeed Faith will make the venture the Consideration whether he will or will not save thee is out of doors then you 'll cast your selves upon him at all adventure if I perish I perish tho thou killest me I will trust in thee To whom should we go with thee only are the words of eternal life There is no other name under heaven salvation is in no other Acts 4. 12. There is many a soul goes o Christ for Salvation who at the same time may fear and think and it may be say That Christ will not save them will not own them nor look upon them but having none else to flye unto to him they must and to him they will go at last if they belong to God Lord save us we perish say they They come to Christ under fears of perishing as appears by their Outcries and yet not without some hope of Deliverance as appears by their Coming I am persuaded many a dear Child of God goes out of the world under such a trembling Act of Faith and blessed are they that do so for certainly that is dying in the Lord. It may not be so comfortable yet it is a safe state And this may be not only the concluding Act of Faith in a dying hour but Faith may and doth so act in weak Christians at other seasons it brings them to the feet of Christ full of Fears and Doubts and there they lye and there they will lye till help comes from the Lord. They are long a coming to Christ but come they will first or last It shews they have some hope more it may be than they themselves take notice of They express it rather by their Actions than by their Words They act like those who have hope tho they speak like those who have none Master save us we perish I must allow something for these doubts and fears of our Acceptance with God upon the account of our own unworthiness as consistent with the Nature of Saving Faith in the main Yet whatever shew of Humility they have they are but a proud piece of Unbelief And I will further say That these distrustful Thoughts of Christ's Willingness to save us are most directly opposite to the Hope in the Text and do arise I am persuaded from a secret Distrust of his All-sufficiency and Power tho we may not discern this in our selves That act of Unbelief that is uppermost and most palpable goes for all the Unbelief that is in our heart when it is quite otherwise if they were searched to the bottom Unbelief hath many Strings and Fibres it is a complicated thing all evil is in it even Atheism it self let us carry it how we will it is a denial of God
him no seeing of him but as the Soul moves towards him in the Light of Faith God shines in our hearts saith the Scripture the Light of the knowledge of his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ and this Light of knowledge is Faith When we Believe we know Christ we See him we Come to him we Rely upon him Rejoyce in him we Love and Obey him all the actings of the Soul towards Christ they are from Faith representing him to us out of the Word And when we believe the Report of the Gospel concerning him we are persuaded and must be persuaded of the Truth of that which by a present Act of Faith we do Believe There goes no more to your knowledge persuasion and satisfaction than real Believing Faith in its own Nature is all Evidence though Flesh and Blood do contradict this Evidence seek to cast clouds over it yet those doubts that arise they come not from Faith but Unbelief that accompanies it more or less in every act we perform The more Faith the more Hope the more Unbelief the less Hope Hope will be in a proportion to the degree of our Faith The Spirit works Faith in us and then shews us Christ in the Light of it Christ is let into the Soul by Faith there he is and there he dwells transforming us into his own Image by our Faith in him As Faith works by Love so the Spirit works by Faith I mean by our Faith in him The Spirit knows how to improve our Faith in Christ to draw arguments from thence to bring us to any thing which the Gospel calls for I am persuaded I speak to many who have Christ within them who would not quit their Interest in him for Ten thousand Worlds if so you must fetch the reason of this from your Hope in Christ What! Not part with Christ upon any terms and yet Hope for nothing from him not part with Christ upon any terms and yet get nothing by him He doth not offer himself to you upon these terms but that ye may be enriched by him in all things You dishonour Christ and forget your Faith when you don 't Hope for great things from him I Beseech you Sirs Bethink your selves a little of your standing in Christ what hold you have taken of Eternal life in him and don't after all say I have no Hope Neither would I have you content your selves in bare saying you have Hope But stir it up act it shew it rejoyce in it daily Hope to the end that others may see how happy you count your selves in Jesus Christ tell every one you meet That Christ in you is your hope of Glory We often Preach and Hear of Faith and Hope but we practice those Graces at leasure Sermons of Faith and Hope don't beget these Graces in us nor draw them out into act Pray consider of this were our hearts changed under the Preaching of the Word into a frame suitable to it this would be a token for good unto us that the Lord is indeed among us If Sermons of Hope did end in lively actings of Hope we should all go home Rejoycing Blessing and Praising of God for his abundant Mercy towards us Great Hopes can't easily be forgotten we naturally run into our Hopes we are fond of them they present themselves to our Thoughts continually have easy access to us they take up our Minds daily making pleasing representations to us of the Good that is coming towards us I would leave you under the Contemplation of these things Did we converse more with our Hopes of Heaven and Glory this would keep sorrow from our hearts and cause us always to rejoyce in the Lord. Here is a present Cordial for the Poorest the most Afflicted and Disconsolate Soul How uncomfortable soever your present circumstances may be if you would get up into this Hope what happy Men and Women would you be you would count your selves happy and be filled with joy unspeakable and full of Glory None of your wants would pinch you you would be lifted up above the afflicting sense and smart of any outward Cross that may now lye heavy upon you All your Afflictions would be light if compared to this Eternal weight of Glory which weighs down all troubles and doth wonderfully alleviate and moderate all your Griefs You may be AS sorrowful in the Judgment of others and yet always rejoycing in your own Spirits from the Power of Hope It may be some will say How can this be Were we never so high in these Hopes yet we should grow weary and restless under them because all is put off to the Resurrection till the Coming of Christ and who can tell when that will be Hope deferred makes the heart sick we may faint under our desires before they come to pass Prov. 13. 10. I Answer In worldly hope it is so worldly hope is not so strengthned is not so established hath not that overcoming Power and Virtue in it as this Christian Hope hath for these Two Reasons 1. Because of the firm Assurance we have of the certain Accomplishment of our Hopes which cannot be said of any outward humane worldly hope As Christians we know our hope will not make us ashamed Rom. 5. 5. comp with Rom. 8. 38 39. A Christian knows his Hope is founded upon immutable Promises and this doth strangely animate the Power of a Christian Hope 2. We cannot flag in our Christian Hope because of the present satisfaction it gives us Wordly Hope is but a lank thing promises fair but hath little present influence upon the minds of men to give them any real satisfaction but a Christian Hope doth give present satisfaction There is always something in hand some pledges some earnest of all that is to follow and this is sufficient for our present occasions to serve the turn till we have finished our Pilgrimage here below They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up as with eagles wings they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint Isa. 40. 31. There is a strange Strength and Virtue in a Christian Hope The Hope of a Christian is a feeding Hope a Soul-satisfying Hope there is no languishing under it it feeds upon the present overflowings of the Promise Tho the thing it self is not yet brought forth out of the Promises yet the Actings of Faith and Hope do cause a strange present overflowing from the Promise that drops into the heart like Oil to refresh it I say the Promises are continually dropping in fresh Comforts giving us fresh Tastes of the Love and Goodness of God Now under this satisfaction our expectation is raised and this again heightens our present satisfaction we have enough now are full are rich have all our hearts can now hold and yet we do see more a coming with a further Capacity Skill and Wisdom to improve it I shall see him but not now Numb 24. 17.
way concerned in his Hope it is impossible to leave himself quite out of his Hope If Christ in you be your hope of Glory Then look upon him as the only sure bottom and foundation of all your Hopes you will prize him the more We naturally love and esteem that which gives us hope of any goood coming towards us The Reason why Christ is so little regarded so lightly set by is because men are afraid they shall be losers by him Go and sell all and follow me this is an hard saying to such as understand not the gain of Godliness the excellency of Christ that he is able to do more for them than all the World can Paul was so persuaded Rom. 8. 37. Nothing could separate him from the Love of God in Christ Jesus Neither life nor death nor all evils that it was possible for men and devils to bring upon him In all these things saith he we are more than conquerors As if he had said we are so far from being losers that we are great gainers come off with advantage Thanks be to God who hath given us the victory 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God who also causes us to triumph in Christ 2 Cor. 2. 14. Thus he overcomes the world who believes Jesus is the Son of God 1 John 5. 4 5. Quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked one Eph. 6. 16. Overcomes by the blood of the Lamb Rev. 12. 11. But after all this If any should Object and say We cannot rejoyce in this Hope of Glory by Christ we cannot bring our hearts under the Power of this Hope as you have been persuading us to do I Answer You cannot but God can God by his Spirit of Power can do this in you and upon you We have a cloud of Witnesses to this in all those Saints in former Ages who have gone Triumphing to Heaven in a Joyful Hope and Expectation of Eternal Glory and you will find it so in your selves when the Spirit of God comes upon you as a Spirit of Power Let me tell you The impressions of the Spirit are strange things till you come under them then you feel the powerful effects of them in your own Souls will see that done which you thought could never have been done find that made easy to you which you thought was impossible And thus it will be when you are begotten again to a lively Hope Many Professors have a dead Hope of Eternal Life and Glory which make no impression upon them but a lively Hope hath lively Effects that will be felt It may be you will further Object and say It is true there are some who have this Hope and this Joy But may not all this be a Delusion upon false Grounds All I shall say in Answer is this I wish you would make the same Objections against your Worldly Hopes as you do against this Christian Hope I am sure you have more cause How prone are men to Object against the Hope of the Gospel And how willing are men to be flattering themselves with all Worldly Hopes they follow them are mightily pleased with them they all run well and are well founded But this Hope of Glory by Jesus Christ that is an ignote thing they know not what to make of it Look to it Those who are willing to nourish vain Hopes now will have Hope little enough ere long they will be Punished with Everlasting Despair in Hell But alas with what confidence and security do Men Hope in the Creature but with what trepidation and doubtfulness do some Trembling Souls Hope in Christ Methinks their Reason might instruct their Faith to argue otherwise from Gospel Principles the consequence of which Sanctifi'd Reason may discern and ought to attend unto You find a Thousand Instances in every Age of such whose Worldly Hopes have disappointed them and made them ashamed But never since the World began could there be one Instance produced of any Believer whose Hope in Christ hath made him ashamed It is strange that we should rejoyce so much under that Hope which seldom or never answers our expectation and be so much cast down and dispirited under those Hopes of Glory that never fail I wish you would but ask your selves the Reason of this It is a sign we are rather Carnal than Spiritual and savour more the things of this Earth than the things of Heaven It is a shame to think how little Influence this Hope of Glory hath upon us We usually count our selves the better for our Hopes but it seems the Hope of Glory adds little to us we lay it by as that which speaks of something to come a great while hence in another world we know not when we cannot get our minds to attend to it and look for the accomplishment of it And thus we bereave our selves of much good by suffering our Hope to languish as it will do if we don't take comfort in it and daily solace our selves with the thoughts of it To think of our Hopes is enough to revive us at any time especially when we count them sure and certain I know not whence it is but you may observe many Christians to be more in the Exercise of Faith and Love than of Hope We reverence the Word and dare not disbelieve that when we are under little or no Hope of what is promised to us in the Word A little Fear drowns our Hope We believe the Truth of the Promises but in modesty suspend the application of them to our selves as if it were a piece of Humility to Believe much and Hope but little God is good and gracious and faithful saith the drooping Soul here is Faith But I am unworthy I am less than the least of all his mercies unfit to receive any thing at his hand Thus by sinking our Hope we do insensibly weaken our Faith for a weak Faith doth always follow a languid Hope the Promises will grow out of credit with us when in an affected Despondency we humour our selves too much in refusing our own Mercies It would make our hearts ake if God should take us at our word and say Because you will not have this or that Mercy you shall not have it because you will not have life by applying this and that Promise to your selves I reverse it call it in declare you shall never have that Mercy I say it would make our hearts ake if God should take us at our word when in a froward sullen fit of Despondency It is a slight to his rich Grace to be so shy of it to take but little when much is offered Express then the greatness of your Faith by the greatness of your Hope As God hath abounded yea superabounded in his Grace towards you so do you abound more and more in your Hope in him Faith is but a Notion a mere empty Speculation when the good things of the Promise are not brought down to our selves by a lively Hope that
suffered for us interceded for us but before Faith he is not said to be in us i. e. Not to live in us by his Spirit that we may live to God Gal. 2. 20. This Saving Knowledge of God which I am now speaking of is not the Knowledge of his Essence but of his Grace Love and Good-Will towards us in Christ and this the only begotten Son declares to us John 1. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plenior perfectior rerum explitio CHAP. II. THat I may more distinctly open to you the nature of this saving knowledge of God in Christ I shall shew 1. What may be known of God out of Christ. 2. All that may be known of God out of Christ is better known in and by Christ. 3. What may be known of God in and by Christ that cannot be known any other way 4. What it is to know God in Christ. 5. What a true saving knowledge of God implies 1. What may be known of God out of Christ viz. The invisible things of God even his eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1. 19 20. This Natural Philosophical knowledge of God though it be not sufficient to Save us yet 't is sufficient to Damn us to render us inexcusable and consequently to justifie our Damnation It may convince us of Sin but does not enable us to shun it or to do Good to addict our selves to it in a constant way this is a special work of the Holy Spirit Natural Concience knows something of God but nothing of Christ till our Ears are opened Psal. 40. 6. Aures perfodit digged or bored our Ears There is an obstruction a stoppage in all our Natural faculties that Spiritual objects can't enter till we are Spiritually enlightned till God moves our Hearts to assent to this Divine Revelation of God in Christ so giving us knowledge which is an effect of Divine Power 2 Pet. 1. 2 3. Eph 1. 19 2 Thes. â— 11. Which overthrows the Pelagian Doctrine asserting it to be in man's power to believe contrary to 2 Cor. 4. 7. and 2 Cor. 2. 5. in the Power of God i. e. In the irresistible efficacy of his Grace Though all Natural men do resist Grace at first yet Grace overcomes them at last takes away all final prevailing resistance turning the heart of stone into a heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 26. Besides to be able to resist the Grace of God is no Argument of man's Power but of his Weakness Malice and Pride The Gentiles knew God by the Creation but not by the Scriptures forbidding inward Lust and Concupiscence which natural light does not Rom 7. 7. They judged thoughts to be free for this reason the Gentiles are said not to know God 1 Thes. 4. 5. 2. All that may be known of God out of Christ is better known in and by Christ By Reason we know that the World was made but by Faith we know it more certainly Heb. 11. 3. The light of Nature gathers up something from the Works of God but Faith gathers up more from the Word of God the Word speaks more distinctly than the Works of God do these hold forth something of God in the general Notion of a Deity but leave us in the dark where to find out this God They speak out God to our Reason by some remote consequences leading us up to a first cause and in a discursive way convincing us of the Being of a God but few men have such Logical heads as to keep themselves under the power of these reasonings they are apt ever and anon to sink at last into practical Atheism He is a Practical Atheist who does not order his life according to those inward speculations he has of God The Word holds forth God more powerfully and directly to our Faith shewing us that God in Christ which it speaks of Since in the Wisdom of God i. e. by the Fabrick of Heaven and Earth setting forth the Wisdom of God the World cannot by all its Wit and Wisdom comfortably know God unto Salvation therefore he calls us to Faith in Christ 1 Cor. 1. 21. 3. What may be known of God in and by Christ that cannot be known any other way viz. His Pardoning Grace which as Sinners we are most of all concerned to know all other Attributes of God make against us without the knowledge of this which makes all to be for us The way of a Sinners Salvation is no where revealed but in Christ the last word the Law speaks is Death in the day thou eatest thou shalt dye and so leaves us under that Sentence till the day of Execution The Devils knew God without a Redeemer and therefore tremble Jam. 1. 19. The Gentiles knew God but not in Christ Rom. 1. 20. The Jews knew God as the Creator of the World as their Deliverer out of Egypt as the founder of their Commonwealth but not as the Father of Christ the true Messiah All this knowledge of God out of Christ does represent him to us only as our Judge which leads a Sinner to utter Despair overwhelms him with a sense of God's Wrath. 'T is only in Christ that we look upon God as a Saviour freely pardoning all our Sins This Pardoning Grace flows down to us only through Christ In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins Col. 1. 14. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be apâ—opitiation through Faith in his blood to deelare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Rom. 3. 24 25. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1. 15. Who hath saved us and called ws with a 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 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 9 10. From all these Texts it plainly appears that God never had a thought from all Eternity of Pardoning Sinners but only in and through Christ and what applications we have made and do make every day unto God in the Name of Christ for the Pardon of Sin does highly concern every one of us seriously to consider This hidden Mystery of Gods Pardoning Grace unknown to the World before Mat. 13 35. is revealed to us in and by Christ being intimate with the Father even in his bosom Joh. 1. 18. And what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth John 3. 32. Let us receive his Testimony and set to our seal that God is true and will never pardon any who believe not in Jesus The end of his Coming into the World in our Nature was
Promise so he becomes our God he makes a Covenant with us in Christ to be our God that for his sake he will freely pardon our sins and receive us into a state of Grace and Favour again thus God offers himself in the Covenant to be our God But an outward tender of grace if not closed in with and accepted is but a bare offer not a gift till we receive it when God intends to give grace he secretly joyns with the outward call speaks himself to the heart and inclines us to receive it herein lyes the difference between an outward and an inward effectual Call An effectual Call is that which hath its effect upon the Soul makes us answer to the call and obey it we are called to come to Christ and when we actually come then is the Call effectual and not before when God offered himself to Abraham it was with a purpose not to be refused and therefore he inclined the heart of Abraham to believe You may live long under an outward Call and not be effectually called i. e. not called with such a Call as God gives his Elect at thir Conversion many are called but few chosen i. e. few called with such a Call as God gives his Elect. We cannot be sure of our Election till we are thus effectually called To be frequent Hearers of the word calling us to Christ and yet find no inclinations in our hearts to come to him is a sign that God hath not yet spoken to us himself Ministers have but God hath not yet by his Spirit set home his word upon our hearts The inclinations of the Soul towards Christ that arise from an effectually Call are very strong they put the Soul upon coming to Christ urge us to it every day there is something writ upon the heart whch he that runs may read Conscience is reading over that inward Writing every day to the Soul calls for a speedy answer why is not this done that God requires that God has left upon record in thy heart Why so backward why so slow of heart to believe Arise arise away to Christ as fast as you can run for your life to the City of refuge that God has appointed They who know what an inward Call is cannot resist it an awakened Conscience is in hast will have the business dispatched out of hand nothing can stop that man who is effectually called O that every one here present were under such a Call this day God is able to give it and I am sure none of you are able to resist it Christ is offered to us in the New Covenant as our Peace-maker and Mediator therefore called the covenant of the people Isa. 42. 6. the sure foundation of it Isa. 26. 16. The Covenant made with Abraham is said to be confirmed of God in Christ before his Incarnation Gal. 3. 17. This Covenant was made between the Father and the Son from Eternity Isa. 42. 6. Tit. 1. 2. 2 Tim. 1. 9. The first outward declaration or revelation of it was in time Gen. 3. 15. The actual application of this Grace to our selves is when we first Believe We enter into Covenant by Faith we set our seal to the truth of the Promise and receive that right that Christ Believed on gives to Eternal life Faith it self gives no right to Salvation unto us but what it first receives from Christ we have nothing to do with the promise till we are in Christ by Faith Eph. 2. 12. Rom. 8. 32. Faith discerns the Grace and Love of God to us in Christ and accepts of the offer of life upon Gospel terms which the Soul could never be brought to till Faith came Who has believed the report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been reveal'd i. e. to beget Faith which wins over a Sinner to Christ We should be much in the first direct acts of Faith coming to Christ casting our selves on Christ relying on Christ these direct acts of Faith often repeated will sooner clear up our Interest in Christ than our judging by marks signs effects and fruits which can give no clearer Evidence of their truth than Faith does of its truth in a real closing with Christ in an absolute Promise this is the first act of Saving Grace antecedent to all qualifications in us or conditions performed by us this alters our State They understand not the Gospel who keep off from Christ for want of such and such qualifications which Christ expects not we should bring to him but derive from him an humble sense of our vileness and unworthiness is qualification enough for a Sinner to come to Christ and cast himself upon him When God has once said he will be our God he is ever after minding us of that speaking it over again and again upon all occasions Isa. 43. 1 2 3. c. Isa. 41. 10. Heb. 8. 11 12. I will and they shall God undertakes both parts of the Covenant The Covenant in the first initial Grace of it must be first executed on God's part towards us before it can be executed on our part towards God God begins with us doth his part first and that enables us to do our part i. e. we cannot give up our selves to him to be his people till he has writ his Laws in our Hearts and put his Spirit within us thereby declaring himself to be our God and strongly inclining us to give up our selves to him as his People God first enters into Covenant with us brings us under the bond of it and then governs us ever after by the Grace of that Covenant freely conferred upon us There may be conditions in the Covenant that speak out the order of it what is first and what follows upon it according to the method of the All-wise God in bringing hom-Sinners to Christ But I do not conceive there are any conditions previously required in us in order to our first entring into Covenant God takes whom he will into Covenant and leaves out whom he will 't is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God that shews Mercy 't is a Covenant of Free Grace consisting of absolute Promises what God will do our doing comes afterwards as a fruit and effect of God's work in us That which is done by us in the virtue and power of that which is first done in us by God must be ascribed to him and not to our selves Turn thou me and I shall be turned God gives the first turn before we can perceive any such thing as Conversion in our selves God lays in the principle and then draws us in the Power of it after himself The Terms of the Covenant may be outwardly propounded to many who never enter into Covenant with God nor God with them the Covenant is never executed in them and towards them though it be often preacht to them How often would I have gathered you and you would not Mat. 23. 37. When the word of
God's grace comes to us we either receive it or put it from us and 't will be no joy of heart to us in a dying Hour to think how often we have refused our own Mercies offered to us which nothing but our final unbelief can hinder us of you who do not now believe know assuredly that you will never believe 'till God turn your hearts and he then begins to turn them when he puts you upon seeking earnestly to him for it as that which none can do besides I wish this sign of Conversion were more apparent in us all how diligently should we wait upon God for converting Grace in the use of means the reason why many receive so little benefit from the word is because they expect so little from it they do not come with raised expectations of a powerful Revelation of the Arm of God upon their hearts you that do have I doubt not seen and felt the mighty works of God upon your Souls Faith begins at the promises is raised from thence and ever after waits for the performance of them it shall be done according to your Faith Some think they must bring Faith to the Covenant as a preparatory Qualification for all the Grace that is there promised whereas we must come to the Covenant for our first Faith and fetch it thence the Spirit by the outward proposal of the Covenant kindles Faith in us by which we cast our selves upon the free Grace of God in Christ We have nothing to believe till then Do this and then look for the Law written in your hearts for the Spirit of God and all the fruits of the Spirit in your repentance Love Obedience and holy walking with God all Graces flow from the Covenant of Grace Pray that God will give you a heart to assent to and close with Christ upon the terms of the Covenant and then see if all be not made good to you God will do much for the Glory of his Grace but he will do nothing to nourish your Pride and Conceitedness of your selves and your own righteousness seek all from Grace and you have all but if you go about to establish your own righteousness you will never attain unto righteousness if you seek it not by Faith Rom. 9. 32. 3. How come we to discern God to be our God in Christ or what is there in Christ that makes out this unto us 1. Christ as Man does own God to be his God and the God of all who are in him My Father and your Father my God and your God John 20. 17. God is not only the God of Christ Personal but of Christ Mystical his Head both ways 1 Cor. 11. 3. When we are one in Christ then the God of Christ is our God we cannot since the fall have an Interest in God but through a Mediator he is the great Peace maker 't is Christ makes God to be ours who otherwise would be against us not for us God is in Christ reconciling the World unto himself As Christ owns God to be his God so God the Father owns Christ incarnate as his wellbelovedSon and the same love he beareth to him he beareth to all his Members John 17. 23 26. We can have no immediate Knowledg of God in his own Divine Essence So he is perfectly known only to himself all that concerns us to know of him he has revealed in Christ Without a personal knowledge of God in Christ we cannot act our Faith upon him nor have any real Communion with him Notions are not Persons or Subsistencies but Mental Conceptions neither can we apply our selves to those Speculations if we know not the Person to whom they belong all Divine Attributes relate to their proper Subject nay more all Divine Attributes are of the essence of God they are God himself neither do our thoughts of Omnipotency Allsufficiency c. signify any thing to our relief unless we know him who is all this we cannot know Omnipotency to be God himself unless we see it acted and expressed by him who is God 't is a hard matter to prove the reality of that which was never acted and 't is impossible to know that such Attributes have been exerted unless we know by whom None of the idol gods were ever able to act over any one of the essential Attributes of God by the help of the Devil they pretended something that way but it was a mere pretence easily disproved by any considering man strictly examining either their Predictions of future Events or their feigned Miracles which were all mere Delusions false and groundless Christ out-did them all he did the works of God indeed and for his work-sake ought to be believed to be God indeed 2. In Christ we see God's Wrath appeased his Justice satisfied for all our Offences all causes of Enmity between God and us are taken away by Christ Eph. 2. 13 14. The body of sin destroyed Rom. 6. 6. We Crucified to the World Gal. 6. 14. The Image of God restored his Law writ in our hearts 3. The Spirit of Christ dwelling in us tells us so teaches us to cry Abba Father As no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. So none can say that God is their God but by the Holy Ghost By the Spirit of Christ which is the Spirit of God Rom. 8. 9. When God himself tells you by his own Spirit that he is your God he makes you to understand what he says and to see how happy you are in having God for your God Till we come to some sense of this we lose the comfort of our Religion it has little Influence upon us whence does the power of godliness arise but from the power of God who is the Author of true Religion and puts that power into it that belongs to true godliness take away the relation that is between Godliness and God and you quite destroy the power of godliness Religion is a weak thing if it be not maintained and supported by the authority and power of God himself 4. We see that of God in Jesus Christ that makes us fall down and Worship him as our God crying out with Thomas John 20. 28. My Lord and my God When we look upon Christ with an eye of Faith we do with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. God causes his glory to pass before us le ts out some beams of his Divine Majesty that we may know him to be the Lord such Manifestations of God to the Soul through Christ have I hope fallen under your own experience many a time and that you are not now without such a sight of God in Christ as does create in you a holy Reverence towards him a holy trembling at his word if you receive it as the word of God of your God it must have this effect upon you any thing from our God that bears his
for the sake of Repentance but because by Repentance a man becomes willing to receive Christ 't is a vain thing to pretend to Faith in Christ for Pardon unless we see the Fruits of Faith in our selves in the exercise of all other Graces and in those good works of Holiness that always accompany Saving-Faith Faith never speaks but in some act it never gives a comfortable sense of it self but in some present act now 't is impossible truly to act Faith without an universal consent of the Soul to this act it diffuses its influence all over the Soul touches the Soul in every part strikes upon every string puts the whole Soul in tune every thing in a man does answer and correspond to such an act of Faith you may see your Faith in your Hope Love fear Zeal Repentance c. All Graces rise or fall as Faith does 't is like the spring of a Watch it sets all the Wheels in motion We may have a clearer discerning of Faith by a reflex act whence all assurance springs then we can by a direct act though you cannot see your selves closing in with Christ for Pardon whilst you only intend that thing and would fain prove Faith by it self and by its own justfying act yet if you look through your Love your Repentance through all the fruits of Faith in your Lives you will more clearly discern it in its Saving Justifying Act that you do really and sincerely take Christ as your only Righteousness and to shew that you do so you produce those things as proofs of your sincerity which this Faith hath put you upon and which you could never bring your selves to till Faith came drawing the whole Soul after Christ and strongly inclining you to a holy life this is God's way of teaching his Children by putting Principles of Faith and Holiness into their Hearts powerfully inclining them to live to God this is set forth by God's teaching the Ants to provide their Meat in the Summer Prov. 6. 8. i. e. God inclines them naturally to do this so does God Spiritually incline his Children by his Spirit dwelling in them to act as Christians ought to do The sum of all is this The Justifying-Righteousness of a Believing sinner before God lies in the Remission of sin and God's Gracious acceptation of sinful man upon the sole account of the Obedience of Christ our Mediator apprehended by Faith and imputed to him for Righteousness thus the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifest In humane Judicatories Forgiveness implies a meer non-imputation of the fault only but no imputation of Righteousness because in our Courts a man is Tried for some particular Offence and if he be found Guilty and through the Favour of the Prince obtain his Pardon that Pardon looks no further than that time for the after-course of his life he is accountable to the Law and must be Judged by it he stands upon his good Behaviour and must be a doer of Righteousness to avoid the Condemnation of the Law if not he must answer for his misdoing and be judged according to Law But 't is not so in Divinity for when we obtain the Pardon of sin by Faith that Pardon is general and universal to a man's life's end 't is not only a Pardon of this or that sin to such a time but a Pardon of all sins for ever such a Pardon does necessarily imply in it an imputation of Righteousness because no sin can ever be imputed to him his Pardon is valid in all times to come though the Law be still a rule of Obedience yet he is no longer under the Law as a Covenant of life but under Grace and for all his miscarriages under the New Covenant he must apply himself to the Grace of that Covenant for Mercy and Pardon but he shall never be judged by the Law more the satisfaction of Christ is instead of all legal Righteousness to him and to that he stands the Law having accepted of it delivers him up to Christ untouched by the hand of Vengeance to be governed ever after by the Law of Grace which establishes the holiness of the Law though it shuts it out of our Justification yet not out of our lives but strictly enjoins it CHAP. VI. The APPLICATION SINCE God hath given us the knowledge of Salvation by the Remission of sin let us act according to that knowledge and begin our Religion with Remission of sin I mean let us first study that point well when we are over that are got into the Mystery of that great Gospel-Truth we shall more clearly see upon what account it is we are dealt with looked upon and accepted as Righteous in Christ unto Eternal Life Faith ought to have both the active and passive Obedience of Christ in its eye but I would not too nicely distinguish between them abstracting the active from the Passive ascribing the Remission of sin to one and our title to life to the other because I find some who do so apt to drop the Righteousness of Christ that will not serve the turn they must have a Righteousness of their own an Evangelical righteousness to strengthen their title to Life thus while they set up a Law of Grace requiring such and such things to be done by us in order to our Justification they turn Grace into Works set up a New Covenant of Works differing from the first only in this that whereas the first Covenant in Innocency justified upon the account of perfect Obedience this upon the account of our imperfect Obedience We know but in part there will be some difference among us in our Notions and Conceptions of these things and more in our Words and Expressions the same thoughts in one and another seldom come forth in the same words I have offered you what I take to be most agreeable to the Mind of God Do you search the Scriptures and judge I do conceive that the New Covenant of Grace requires as compleat and perfect a Righteousness nay a higher Righteousness for the Justification of a Sinner than the Law of Innocency did for the Justification of a sinless man That was but the Righteousness of man this must be the Righteousness of God reckoned or imputed to us not his essential Righteousness but that which is wrought out for us by him who is God and which God approves of and being thus justified God does graciously accept of our sincere imperfect Obedience together with our persons Let us not puzzle our selves about a second Justification get the Pardon of all your sins sealed to you in the Blood of Christ and fear no after-charge at the last day that will answer all I see no room for a Second Justification Can it be imagined that defects of our Grace here in this imperfect state should be brought in as proofs against the truth of Grace in our perfect state hereafter If Grace in its perfection cannot sufficiently evidence its Truth I see
us and to us as God's Executioner by virtue of that Law which casts us into his hands but when the Law is satisfied and the Curse taken off the Devil's claim ceases where there is no condemnation there can be no punishment inflicted Just punishment is according to Law but where no sentence of judgment can be passed there can be no execution of the minatory part of the Law upon that man Currat lex fiat justitia but where the due course of Law is stopped and by some means prevented there can be no trial and consequently no judgment pass upon that man unto condemnation The Devil detains us Captives not in his own right but in God's whose Prisoners we are Our Redemption by Christ is a spiritual Redemption both of our Bodies and Souls as we are said to be sold under sin by our own default so we are said to be Redeemed or freed from sin by Christ's giving satisfaction for our offences the Price was paid to God Christ offered up himself to God Heb. 9. 14. Who as a Righteous Judge has power to cast Body and Soul into Hell 'T was his Divine Majesty that we offended 't was his wrath we lay under Rom. 1. 18. John 3. 36. We don't ask pardon of the Devil but of God 't is to his judgment that we are bound over Gal. 3. 22. Rom. 3. 9. Rom. 11. 32. 'T was God that cast the Devils into Hell 2 Pet. 2. 4. So he delivers Impenitent sinners up to the Devil as his Executioner as that Lord delivered the unjust servant to the tormentors Mat. 18. 34. And the Judge to the officer Mat. 5. 25. The power of the Devil over us mentioned Col. 1. 13. 2 Tim. 2. 26. is but a secondary power derived from God the Judge as Christ said of his Murtherers You could have no power over me if it were not given from above John 19. 11. 'T is God who has power over all plagues Rev. 16. 9. Even over death it self Heb. 5. 7. He hath the keys of hell and death Rev. 1. 18. When we are redeemed from the curse of the law and from the wrath of God 1 Thes. 1. 10. we are Redeemed from all the adjuncts and effects of these as a vain conversation from the power of Sin Satan and Death Our Captivity lies in our alienation and distance from God and when we are brought nigh by the Blood of Christ and reconciled to God the ransom being paid by Christ we are delivered from the wrath of God and all the consequents of it As in Civil Corporal Redemptions the Price is paid not to the Jaylor to the Hangman to the Tormentors but to the Supreme Judge in whose power the Prisoner is if he be discharged by the Judge he is freed of course from his Chains from the Dungeon and the noysome stench of it Thus you see how we are bought with a Price not one Penny or Farthing of this comes out of our own Purses Isa 45. 13. Isa. 53. 3. No good thought no good word no good work of our own no not any act of our own Faith does belong to this sum as part of the Price We buy but without money Isa. 55. 1. what is so bought is freely given The hope of eternal Glory is proposed in the Gospel as a motive to and reward of our good works but still 't is Faith in Christ alone that lets us into this hope begets it in us and being justified by Faith perfectly justified in this life our good works though imperfect in themselves are rewarded of mere grace yet the imperfection of them makes them uncapable of a reward from Justice and if that imperfection were not covered and pardoned Grace it self would turn away from them and disregard them but being justified from the guilt of all our sins God remembers them no more he will not see iniquity in Jacob there it is but God having pardoned it he passes it by and overlooks it so as not to charge it upon us to our condemnation God considers the Holiness of his children as if it were by it self shining out under the covering of all their infirmities through their Faith and Sincerity 'T is not the degree but the truth of their Holiness that God takes most notice of he is pleased to see the fruits of his own Spirit in Believers he looks through their good works upon their Faith from whence they spring and so accepts both of their persons and their works for his Son's sake Though Faith be an appointed means instrumentally necessary to apply and put on Christ by whom alone we are justified in the sight of God we shall never be the less justified for deriving all from Christ alone converting our own inherent holiness to those proper uses the Gospel hath assigned it unto viz. the glory of God in this World a testimony of our obedience and thankfulness to him an example to others provoking them to good works and a meet fruit of true saving justifying Faith these are motives strong enough to good works without advancing them into the room and place of Christ robbing him of the Glory of our full and free Redemption What the Socinians object against this purposely to overthrow the satisfaction of Christ denying any Price to be really paid to the Father for our Redemption I shall speak to next time and clear the Text from their Cavils The Socinians that they may overthrow the necessity of Satisfaction for Sin deny the Divinity of Christ and that he paid any Price to the Father for our Redemption They say the word Redemption is but a Metaphor signifying only simple deliverance or freedom from Bondage without any Satisfaction given to any they make Mercy and Justice no essential Properties in God but only mere voluntary effects of his Free-will because God say they may pardon sin without satisfaction by an Arbitrary Act of his Absolute Power For this they quote many Scriptures speaking of God's redeeming his people out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh Deut. 7. 8. Deut. 15. 15. Neh. 1. 10. Jer. 15. 21. Answ. 'T is granted that the Hebrew word used in all those formentioned places is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies redimere absque pretio and 't is applied to civil bodily temporal Redemptions but when the Holy-Ghost speaks of our Spiritual Redemption by Christ either in the thing it self or in the Type He uses another word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redimere pretio So Exod. 15. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redimisti That this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to redeem by price appears plainly Lev. 25. 49 50 51. in buying the Field of Naomi Ruth 4. 6. and the field of Hanameel for money seventeen shekels of silver I weighed him the money Jer. 32. 7 8 9 10. The same word is applied to Christ Gen. 48. 16. The angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads The Angel in the precedent
17. The Law was given 430 Years after the promise made to Abraham threatning the sinner not with an intent that the Curse should be executed or the hand-writing against us fulfilled but rather blotted out Col. 2. 14. Is the law then against the promises Gal. 3. 21. 'T is certain the Law as threatning is against the Promises against us and contrary to us as Col. 2. 14. But not so against the Promises as to vacate and abolish them but is rather subservient to them stirring up the sinner to fly to the Promise for a Pardon When the people just after the giving of the Law had grievously sinned in making the Calf and God threatned to consume them Exod. 32. 9 10. Moses does not plead the Mount Sinai Covenant but the Covenant made with Abraham vers 13. So Deut. 9. 27. 2 Kings 13. 23. The condition of the Sinai-Covenant being performed by Christ the New Covenant becomes absolute to us nothing more can be demanded of us in a way of satisfaction for sin Heb. 10. 14. Christ as our Advocate pleads this and that we ought to be discharged from the Curse of the Law All doing for life is over in the New Covenant our Surety has done that and therefore is become the Mediator of a better Covenant Heb. 8. 6. Having made way for our receiving the Promise Heb. 9. 15. This full satisfaction is the main thing we are to believe in order to our Salvation this is the sense of every act of Justifying-Faith to which Salvation is annexed we must mean this in believing or we mean nothing neither do we understand those Scriptures Mark 6. 16. Joh. 3. 16 36. The Obedience of Christ comes instead of our doing for life he is the Lord our righteousness Jer. 23. 6. Christ being made of God our Righteousness for Justification it is the will of God that he should by his Spirit sanctifie us and make us inherently holy Our Mediator does not only take away the guilt of sin which legal Sacrifices could not do they only purified the Flesh Heb. 9. 13. but not the Conscience the Blood of Christ only does this v. 14. So the Spirit of Christ by Faith purifies the Heart sanctifies the whole person 1 Thes. 5. 23. since we are come to the Mediator of the New Covenant let us see we don't abuse the free Grace of God Heb. 12. 25. In the New Covenant great Grace is revealed to Believers and great wrath against all Unbelievers Mat. 3. 7 10 12. Isa. 61. 2. vide 3. The necessity of a Mediator between God and Fallen man If one man sin against another the judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him 1 Sam. 2. 25. This necessity appears 1. From God's just anger against us 2. From our inability to appease his wrath I put them both together Adam was the Son of God by Creation Luk. 1. ult but soon alienated himself and all his Posterity from God his Father and Creator neither could we ever become the Children of God again but by Christ John 1. 12. Heb. 2. 10 c. Angels though they need no Redeemer yet they need a Mediator a Head in and through whom they have access to God and communion with him much more does fallen man need a Mediator by whom he may come unto the Father Joh. 14. 6. 'T is impossible to see God any otherwise than through Christ John 1. 18. if any man sin as every man does let him not despair for we have an Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. in whom God is well pleased Mat. 3. 17. We cannot have immediate access to God himself but through a Mediator we may 3. By those terrors of Conscience which we are under when our hearts smite us for any sin accusing us Rom. 2. 15. telling us that God knows all this evil and much more by us 1 John 3. 20. Then whither shall I go from thy spirit whither shall I flee from thy presence Psalm 139. 7. How terrible is God out of Christ to a convinced sinner 4. The dreadful Punishments that are inflicted upon sinners upon the fallen Angels upon the old word many particular instances in former and latter times do render it a very fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10. 31. When a guilty sinner has none to speak for him what trembling must needs seize upon him lest God tear him in peices and there be none to deliver him Psal. 50. 22. 5. By the Sacrifices of the Old Testament and also of the Heathens which were designed to pacifie God some means was to be used all the Sacrifices of old appointed by God himself could never expiate sin nor pacifie God but as they pointed to the great Sacrifice in the New Testament Christ is the great Reconciler Col. 1. 20. We come to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant to be freed from the curse of the Old and invested in the priviledges of the New The Covenant of Works made at the Creation with Adam in Innocency being broken and the legal Administration of the Mount Sinai-Covenant being faulty and unprofitable Heb. 8. 7 13. Our Father 's not continuing in it God regarded them not Heb. 8. 9. And being thus alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked Works God thus provoked gave up man a child of wrath to be a slave to sin Satan and Death Rom. 1. 28. Heb. 2. 14 15. Yet God so loved the world John 3. 16. Whilst we were yet without strength Rom. 5. 6. when we were sinners v. 8. and enemies v. 10. Then did God reconcile us to himself by the death of his Son entring into a New Covenant with us by appointing Christ to be the Mediator 1 Tim. 2. 5. and Surety of a better Covenant Heb. 7. 22. Heb. 8. 6. so reconciling us to himself 2 Cor. 5. 18. God the Father provided this Mediator John 3. 16. Rom. 3. 25. Isa. 49. 1. 1 Cor. 1. 30. You may see the greatness of the sin and of the Punishment too in the greatness of the Mediator God himself in the person of his Son became our Mediator and Redeemer 6. The Law was ordained in the hand of a Mediator to shew that 't is not in the power of any man since the Fall to satisfie the Law Gal. 3. 19. By the hand of a Mediator we must understand not only Moses but the virtue and power of the great Mediator Christ of whom Moses was a Type Thus you see the necessity of a Mediator Fallen man himself could not deal with God because of sin Angels could not being not of Humane nature and since there is but one God then either the Majesty of Heaven must descend down to us immediately which could not be or else this one God must become our Mediator our Immanuel his Godhead and our humane Nature being joyned together in the Divine Person of the Son The low estate
as Christ make many Righteous Therefore 't is said 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. One Mediator gave himself a ransom for all There is one Lord Ephes. 4. 5. Obj. 4. From Psal. 132. 10. The Papists infer from thence That God does not hear us for Christ's sake only but for David's sake too Answ. When 't is said for David's sake 't is not meant for the Merit Intercession or Mediation of David as we understand when we say for Christ's sake But here 't is for the sake of the Covenant made with David and his seed from whom should spring the Messiah this Covenant is mentioned Psal. 89. 3 4 24. Hence the Saints expostulate with God in the same Psalm v. 49 50. So these words in Psalm 132. 10. are explained in the next v. 11. CHAP. VI. The APPLICATION 7. WHAT use we should make of Christ our Mediator Are we come to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Then let us never think to obtain any New Covenant-mercy without the Mediation of Christ 't is great presumption to come alone and in our own names to the Throne of Grace all the force and efficacy of our Prayers depends upon the Intercession of Christ who is our Advocate with the Father our great High-Priest always appearing in Heaven for us he undertakes that our Prayers shall be heard Mat. 21. 22. Whatsoever ye ask in prayer believing ye shall receive Mark 11. 24. Joh. 14. 6. No coming unto the Father but by me and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it V. 13 14. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you John 16. 23. What encouragement does Christ give us to pray in his Name to make use of him for our Mediator in all things wherein we have to do with God! He presents his People and their services to God for acceptance What can a man do for himself How can he deal with God without a Mediator I have sinned says Job 7. 20. What shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men A Sinner knows not what to do without a Mediator We can have no Communion with God but by a Mediator no Mediator but Christ our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son i. e. with the Father by the Son and no otherwise 'T is not enough to own one God unless we own one Mediator the man Christ 1 Tim. 2. 5. I am the door no entring but by me John 10. 9. No other name under heaven whereby we must be saved Acts 4. 12. Christ is the Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven Gen. 28. 12. No climbing up to Heaven any other way they are Thieves and Robbers who attempt it we can have no access to God but through Christ John 10. 1 7 8 9. All our Spiritual Sacrifices are acceptable to God through Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5. All Blessings come upon us through Christ Tit. 3. 6. and in Christ Eph. 1. 3. Let us come in that Name for the Remission of Sins Acts 10. 43. By him let us offer the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually Heb. 13. 15. Let us be sure to eye Christ in all the actings of our Faith upon God 1 Pet. 1. 21. By him believing in God And in all our accesses unto God that we may come boldly by the Faith of him Eph. 3. 12. Since our High Priest hath such fellow-feeling of all our infirmities sympathysing with us therefore let us come boldly unto the throne of grace Heb. 4. 15 16. To Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant The New Covenant implies That God will deal with men upon new terms upon other Terms than he did before under the first Covenant this is a better Covenant established upon better Promises more encouraging more relieving to a poor Sinner The Mediator of the New Covenant lives for ever to make intercession for us Heb. 7. 25. From this the Apostle argues That they shall be Saved to the uttermost or evermore as in the Margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in eternum or perfectè servare or vivificare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to quicken or make alive Christ as Mediator will do every thing that tends to the perfecting of eternal life Christ is a very powerful Advocate heard in all the requests he makes to the Father John 11. 41 42. If so then the perseverance of the Saints is built upon a sure bottom because Christ has prayed for them John 17. 24. That they may be kept v. 15. That their Faith fail not Luke 22. 32. Christ's Mediation as useful and necessary as it is extends not it self beyond his Church and Chosen Rom 8. 33 34. Acts 20. 28. Eph. 5. 25. John 10. 14. He plainly declares this John 17. 9 20. His Mediation reaches no further than the Covenant every Mediator is the Mediator of a Covenant all men are not taken into the Covenant of Grace though Christ prayed for his Enemies here on Earth Luke 23. 34. That was because he knew some of his Elect were to be found among his Murtherers this Prayer of Christ took effect for some of them were afterwards converted Acts 2. 23 37. You see how effectual the Mediation of Christ is therefore if we intend to speed at the Throne of Grace let us be sure to direct all our Prayers to God by Faith in the Name of Christ Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant As we are directed to come to God by Christ and through Christ so we must be sure to come to God in Christ to God in a Mediator as well as by him Christ though he be another Person yet he is not another God from the Father and the Holy Ghost he is alius but not aliud not differing in the essence of the Deity from the Father we shall become vain in our imaginations if we set our selves to conceive of God out of Christ we are apt to pass through the Mediator to the Father as to a God distinct from the Mediator Some Christians have been very much at a loss in the actings of their Faith upon God through Christ because they have not looked unto God in Christ so much as they should Christ calls us to the knowledge of himself that we might know the Father in him John 14. 7. If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also He that hath seen me hath seen the father v. 9. I am in the father and the father in me v. 10. God in Christ is the only true object of all Divine Worship In him the Godhead dwells bodily Col. 2. 9. We can have no Communion with the Godhead but through the Flesh of Christ as he is God Incarnate our Emanuel and Mediator Faith first takes hold of the Flesh of Christ and through that veil draws nigh to God who is a Spirit Heb 10. 19 20. John 6. 56. The main end of Christ in dying for us was
Souls about Justification we shall conclude as Paul does Rom. 3. 28. Then Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works Romans 4. 6. CHAP. IV. Fifthly the Privileges of Adoption ADoption carries all the outward privileges of the Covenant along with it Rom. 2. 4. But because this relates to Adoption at large I shall confine my self to those special privileges of Adoption that belong to the true Children of God only viz. 1. A filial confidence and boldness at the Throne of Grace In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him Ephes. 3. 12. Heb. 4. 16. Adoption heightens our trust and confidence in God Christ as a Son trusted in God and so do all Christians Heb. 2. 13. 2. Conformity to Christ Christ is formed in them all Gal. 4. 19. As Christ is so are they each one resembles the children of a King Judg. 8. 18. They will be exactly like Christ at the Resurrection Psal. 17. 15. They were from Eternity predestinated unto 〈◊〉 Rom. 8 29. 3. If 〈◊〉 then Heirs Rom. 8. 17. Gal. 4. 7. We have not only a right but a present participation of the inheritance in some degree here we have something in hand and more in hope the earnest Penny the first fruits we now have the rest is reserved for us in Heaven Eph. 1. 13 14. 1 Pet. 3. 4. God makes us joint heirs with Christ to share with him because the Heavenly inheritance is not diminished by being communicated to many Every one has all The Sons of God are Heirs 1. Of Glory 1 Pet. 1. 4. 5. 2. Of this World 1 Cor. 3. 22. 3. Of the Promise Heb. 6. 17. Heb. 11. 9. 4. Adoption translates us out of a Miserable estate into a Happy estate from being Children of the Devil of Wrath of Perdition of Darkness to become the Children of God partakers of the Divine Nature Brethren of Christ Children of Light Children of Abraham being Aliens and strangers before standing at a great distance from God We are now brought nigh by the blood of Christ Eph. 2. 12 13. Are become children of the house to abide there for ever God is in Covenant with us and we in him I will receive you and be a father to you 2 Cor. 6. 17 18. A great promise indeed it secures us for ever like that which God made to David concerning his Son Solomon 2 Sam. 7. 14 15. I will be his father and he shall be my Son my mercy shall not depart away from him Adoption casts us upon God puts us under his Fatherly care for ever Mat. 6. 25 26 32 33. So Mordecai brought up Hester when he took her for his own Daughter Esther 2. 7. This title of being the Children of God is very honourable how do the Saints glory in it 1 John 3. 1. it makes us great indeed as was said of Christ Luke 1. 32. He shall be great and shall be called the son of the most High How do men value themselves upon the account of their Birth as descending from an Ancient Honourable Family He that is born of God is better born more Nobly descended than they and may vie Genealogies with the best of them By Faith Moses refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter chusing rather to suffer Affliction with the people of God esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the Treasures in Egypt Heb. 11. 23 24 25. I shall chuse rather to insist upon those privileges of Adoption that flow from that Christian Liberty which always accompany it If the son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed John 8. 36. We are freed from the curse of the Law by the merit of the death of Christ Believers look above the Law and the Righteousness of it for their Justification they have no respect to their own Works in Justification because they know they are justified without them they eye only the Mercy of God in Christ for their Justification When the question is about Justification and 't is a question much agitated among us now-a-days 't is not how we are made Righteous in our selves but how we being Sinners in our selves may be accounted Righteous and Just before God we must consult with the Gospel about this not the Law how God becomes propitious to Sinners 't is Christ not the Law gives us the reason of this And when Conscience is satisfied in this point That we shall not be Judged by the Law the Saints do willingly yield Obedience to the Law according to the measure of Grace they have received they know now that for Christ's sake their sincere though imperfect Obedience will be accepted We can never serve God chearfully till then we cannot believe that God counts himself truly Worshipped by our imperfect Obedience till we believe he will accept of it through Christ For the Law rejects all imperfect Works 't is Faith in Christ only procures their acceptance For we are not under the Law but under grace i. e. We are not only freed from the Curse of the Law But Are put into such a state of Grace that we seek not the Blessing from the Law indeed it has none for us but from the Gospel which blesses us in the Name of Christ and for his sake Gal. 3. 23 24. Before faith came we were kept under the law shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith So Romans 8. 15. And as we are freed from the curse of the Law and also from the intollerable yoak and servile paedagogy of the Law So We are no longer tied up from the use of those indifferent things prohibited by the Law and this is another part of the glorious Liberty of the Children of God which we should always use to God's Glory and the good of our Neighbour Indifferent things are of that middle nature that in the simple use of them or abstaining from them there lies no Religion either way i. e. Conscience is not bound to one or to the other but free to either 'T is necessary to know this to satisfy scrupulous Consciences that may be under the power of a superstitious Opinion as if the use of this or that were unlawful 'T is a dangerous thing to speak too freely of Christian Liberty because many under that pretence allow themselves in very unwarrantable courses running into excess laying aside all Moderation Order and Government of themselves in the use of outward things Therefore you must note That Christian Liberty is altogether Spiritual 2 Cor. 3. 17. Not to be used for an occasion to the Flesh Gal. 5. 13. So that Luxury in Diet Pride in Apparel c. can never be justified by the doctrine of Christian Liberty which is principally intended to pacifie fearful Consciences in these Three Things 1. Whether our sins be all pardoned 2. Whether our
with all manner of Salvation not only from Hell but from the power of sin that they may live no longer therein Paul knew no other way of Salvation according to his Gospel they that do must invent another Gospel to support their New Divinity I see no ground in Scripture for those preparatory Works that some urge as antecedently necessary to our first Faith in Christ because Faith brings all along with it viz. Conviction of Sin Humiliation Repentance c. Faith never comes to Christ but it shews us a reason why and that reason is drawn from our lost undone Condition by Nature which true Faith is never without some knowledge and sense of and therefore sends us to Christ for help By Nature all men are equally indisposed to Faith counting the Gospel foolishness when their time of their Coversion comes whether prepared or unprepared whatever their present practice or frame is whether legally Convinced or Unconvinced sitting in gross darkness and unbelief the Power of God by the Preaching of the Gospel works a convincing saving Faith in all those who are ordained unto life God calls one and not another of his meer good Pleasure being not moved thereunto by any thing in us that may render one man more capable of Conversion than another sometimes they who in an eye of reason seem furthest off from the Kingdom of God and are most unlikely to be Converted them doth God call by his Grace even Publicans and Harlots Before the stricter sort of formal Professors who notwithstanding their Preparations and seeming fitness for Conversion are left behind in their Natural State when others who sought not after God are found of him and brought into a state of Grace God doth this to shew that the Battel is not to the strong nor the Race to the swift not of him that runeth but of God that sheweth mercy to whom he will Rom. 9. 15 16. Many may outrun others in their acquired Qualifications and yet not so run as to obtain the prize 1 Cor. 9. 24. We are like to make but a sorry Market of it unless we come without Money many have been too rich too well qualified in their own opinion for Christ but none were ever too poor and wretched for Christ whose hearts were stirred up by the Preaching of the Word to come unto him and cast themselves upon him There is nothing required by way of Preparation as antecedently necessary to our first Faith in Christ but hearing the Word let the Hearer be who he will never so unprepared if he belong to God the Word will one time or other make it 's own way to the heart of that man and work Faith in him there is no resisting the Wisdom of the Holy-Ghost The Doctrine of Faith and the Doctrine of Good Works are both very sound Christian Doctrines agreeing very well in their proper place and order As no man can enter into a state of Grace by good Works so no man can conclude himself to be in a state of Grace without Good works 't is one thing to prove that I am already in a state of Grace another thing to shew how a Sinner may now enter into a state of Grace and what is first to be done in order thereunto 'T is not said he that worketh but he that believeth shall be saved and 't is the work of God that we believe and none but God can bring over the heart of a Sinner to trust in Christ and under such a Faith 't is impossible not to lead a holy life We had need be clear and distinct in our Conceptions of these things since our Salvation depends upon our right understanding this Point I say we had need consider what we mean and how we express our selves lest instead of trusting in Christ we trust in our selves and drop the Gospel whilst we seem to maintain it If any scoff at this Doctrine and count it foolishness I will only say that the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men FINIS BOOKS Printed and Sold by THOMAS COCKERIL at the Three Legs ever-against the Stocks-Market HIstorical Collections The Third Part in Two Volumes Never Printed before Containing the Principal Matters which happened from the Meeting of the Parliament November the 3 d. 1640. To the End of the Year 1644. Wherein is a particular account of the Rise and Progress of the Civil War to that Period Impartially Related Setting forth only Matter of Fact in Order of Time without Observation or Reflection With Alphabetical Tables By John Rushworth late of Lincolns-Inn Esq Fitted for the Press in his Life-time The Works of the late Learned Divine Stephen Charnock B. D. In 2 Vol. Fol. A Demonstration of the First Principles of the Protestant Applications of the Apocalipse Together with the Consent of the Ancients concerning the Fourth Beast in the 7 th of Daniel and the Beast in the Revelations By Drue Cressener D D. The Morning Exercises at Cripplegate of several Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers in 4 to A Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripplegate or several more Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers in 4 to Speculum Theologia in Christo or a view of some Divine Truths which are either practically exemplified in Jesus Christ set forth in the Gospel or may be reasonably deduced from thence by Edward Polhil of Burwash in Sussex Esquire in 4 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Succinct and Seasonable Discourse of the Occasions Causes Nature Rise Growth and Remedies of Mental Errors Written some Months since and now made publick both for the healing and prevention of the Sins and Calamities which have broken in this way upon the Churches of Christ to the great scandal of Religion hardening of the Wicked and obstruction of Reformation Whereunto are subjoyned by way of Appendix I. Vindiciarum Vindex Being a Succinct but full Answer to Mr. Philip Cary's Weak Impertinent Exceptions to my Vindiciae Legis Faderis II. A Synopsis of Ancient and Modern Antinomian-Errors with Scriptural Arguments and Reasons against them III. A Sermon composed for the preventing and healing of Rents and Divisions of the Church by John Flavel Preacher of the Gospel at Dartmouth in Devon With an Epistle of several Divines relating to Dr. Crisp's Works A Discourse concerning Liturgys by the late Learned Divine Mr. David Clarkson Precious Faith considered in its nature working and growth by Edward Polhil Esq c. in 4 to Geography Rectified or a description of the World in all its Kingdoms Provinces Cities Towns Seas Rivers Bays Capes Forts their Ancient and Present Names Inhabitants Situations Histories Customs Governments c. And also their Commodities Coyns Weights and Measures compared with those of London Illustrated with above sixty new Maps The whole work performed according to the accurate Discoveries of Modern Authors The Third Edition Enlarged in 4 to The right use of an