by meer conviction of the Truth such as wicked Men and Devils may be brought to when they had rather it were false Neither must our believing on Christ be only constrained for fear of Damnation without any hearty Love and Desire towards the enjoyment of him but we must receive the Love of the Truth by relishing the Goodness and Excellency of it and we must account all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord and count them but dung that we may win Christ and be found in him 2 Thess 2.10 Phil. 3.8 9. esteeming Christ to be all our Salvation and Happiness Col. 3.11 in whom all fulness doth dwell Col. 1.19 And this Love must be to every part of Christ's Salvation to Holiness as well as Forgiveness of Sins We must desire earnestly that God would create in us a clean Heart and right Spirit as well as hide his face from our sins Psal 51.9 10. not like many that care for nothing in Christ but only Deliverance from Hell Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Mat. 5.6 The former of these Acts doth not immediately unite us to Christ because it is terminated only on the means of Conveyance the Gospel yet it is a saving Act if it be rightly performed because it enclineth and disposeth the Soul to the latter Act whereby Christ himself is immediately received into the Heart He that believeth the Gospel with hearty love and liking as the most Excellent Truth will certainly with the like heartiness believe on Christ for his Salvation They that know the name of the Lord will certainly put their trust in him Psal 9.10 Therefore in Scripture Saving-Faith is sometimes described by the former of these Acts as if it were a meer believing the Gospel sometimes by the latter as a believing on Christ or in Christ Rom. 10.9 If thou believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved 11 the Scripture saith Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed 1 John 5.1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God For the better understanding of the nature of Faith let it be further observed that the Second and Principal of it believing on Christ includeth believing on God the Father Son and Holy Ghost because they are one and the same infinite God and they all concurr in our Salvation by Christ as the only Mediator betwixt God and us in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen 2 Cor. 1.20 By him as mediator we believe on God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory that our faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 And it is the same thing with trusting on God or on the Lord which is so highly commended in the whole Scripture especially in the Old Testament as may easily appear by considering that it hath the same Causes Effects Objects Adjuncts Opposites and all the same Circumstances excepting only that it had a respect to Christ as promised before his Coming and now it respecteth him as already come in the Flesh Believing in the Lord and trusting on his Salvation are equivalent terms that explain one another Psal 78.22 I confess that trusting on things seen or known by the meer Light of Reason as on our own Wisdom Power Riches on Princes or any Arm of Flesh may not so properly be called believing on them but trusting on a Saviour as discovered by a Testimony is properly believing on him It is also the same thing that is expressed by the terms of resting relying leaning staying our selves on the Lord because it is the Ground of that Expectation that is the proper Act of Hope though our Believing and Trusting be for the present as well as future benefit of this Salvation The reason why it is so commonly expressed in the Scriptures of the New Testament by the terms of believing on Christ might be probably because when that part of Scripture was written there was cause in a special manner to urge believing the Testimony that was then newly revealed by the Gospel Having thus explained the nature of Faith I come now to assert its proper Use and Office in our Salvation That it is the Means and Instrument whereby we receive Christ and all his Fulness actually into our Hearts This excellent Use and Office of Faith is encountered by a multitude of Errors men naturally esteem that it is too small and slight a thing to produce so great effects as Naaman thought washing in Jordan too small a matter for the cure of his Leprosie They contemn the true means of entring in at the streight Gate because they seem too easie for such purpose and thereby they make the Entrance not only difficult but impossible to themselves Some will allow that Faith is the sole Condition of our Justification and the Instrument to receive it according to the Doctrine maintained formerly by the Protestants against the Papists but they account that it is not sufficient or effectual to Sanctification but that it rather tendeth to Licentiousness if it be not joyned with some other means that may be powerful and effectual to procure an holy Practice They commend this great Doctrine of Protestants as a comfortable Cordial for Persons upon their Death-beds or in Agonies under Terrors of Conscience but they account that it is not good for ordinary Food and that it is Wisdom in Ministers to preach it seldom and sparingly and not without some Antidote or Corrective to prevent the licentiousness to which it tendeth Their common Antidote or Corrective is That Sanctification is necessary to Salvation as well as Justification and that though we be justified by Faith yet we are sanctified by our own performance of the Law and so they set up Salvation by works and make the Grace of Justification to be of none effect and not at all comfortable If it had indeed such a malignant influence upon Practice it could not be owned as a Doctrine proceeding from the most holy God and all the Comfort that it affords must needs be ungrounded and deceitful This Consequence is well understood by some late Refiners of the Protestant Religion and therefore they have thought fit to new-model this Doctrine and to make Saving-Faith to be only a Condition to procure a Right and Title to our Justification by the Righteousness of Christ which must be performed before we can lay any good claim to the enjoyment of it and before we have any right to the actual receiving of it and this they call an accepting of or receiving Christ And that they may the better secure the practice of Holiness by their Conditional Faith they will not have trusting on God
or Christ for Salvation to be accounted the principal Saving-act of it because as it seemeth to them many loose wicked People trust on God and Christ for their Salvation as much as others and are by their Confidence hardened the more in their Wickedness But they had rather it should be Obedience to all Christ's Laws at least in their Resolution or a Consent that Christ should be their Lord accepting of his terms of Salvation and a resignation of themselves to his Government in all things It is a sign that the Scripture-form of Teaching is grown into disesteem with our great Masters of Reason when trusting in the Lord so much commended in Scripture is accounted a mean and ordinary thing They endeavour to affright us from owning Faith to be an Instrument of Justification by telling us that thereby we that use the Instrument are made our own principal Justifiers to the dishonour of God though it might be easily answered that we are made thereby only the principal receivers of our own Justification from God the Giver of it to whom all the Glory doth belong All these Errors will fall if it can be proved that such a Faith as I have described is an Instrument whereby we actually receive Christ himself into our Hearts and Holiness of Heart and Life as well as Justification by Union and Fellowship with him For the proof of it I shall offer the following Arguments First By Faith we have the actual enjoyment and possession of Christ himself and not only of Remission of Sins but of Life and so of Holiness Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith Ephes 3.17 We live to God and yet not we but Christ liveth in us by the Faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.19 20. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Son and everlasting life that is in him 1 John 5.12 13. John 3.36 He that heareth Christ's word and believeth on him that sent Christ hath everlasting life and is passed from death unto life These Texts express clearly such a Faith as I have described therefore the efficiency or operation of Faith in order to the enjoyment of Christ and his Fulness cannot be the procurement of a bare Right or Title to this Enjoyment but rather it must be an entrance into it and taking possession of it We have our accâ—ss and entrance by faith into that Grace of Christ wherein we stand Rom. 5.2 Secondly The Scripture plainly ascribeth this effect to Faith that by it we receive Christ put him on are rooted and grounded in him and also that we receive the Spirit remission of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified John 1.2 Gal. 3.26 27. Col. 2.6 7. Gal. 3.14 Acts 26.18 And the Scripture illustrateth this Receiving by the Similitude of Eating and Drinking He that believeth on Christ drinketh the living water of his spirit John 7.37 38 39. Christ is the bread of life his flesh is meat indeed and his blood drink indeed and the way to eat and drink it is to believe in Christ and by so doing we dwell in Christ and Christ in us and have everlasting Life John 6.35 47 48 54 55 56. How can it be taught more clearly that we receive Christ himself properly into our Souls by Faith as we do receive Food into our Bodies by eating and drinking and that Christ is as truly united to us thereby as our Food when we eat or drink it So that Faith cannot be a Condition to procure a meer Right or Title to Christ no more than Eating or Drinking procureth a meer Right or Title to our Food but it is rather an Instrument to receive it as the Mouth that eateth and drinketh the Food Thirdly Christ with all his Salvation is freely given by the Grace of God to all that believe on him for we are saved by Grace through Faith and that not of our selves it is the Gist of God Eph. 2.8 9. We are justified freely by his Grace through Faith in his blood Rom. 8.24 The Holy Ghost who is the Bond of Union betwixt Christ and us is a Gift Acts 2.38 Now that which is a Gift of Grace must not be at all earned purchased or procured by any Work or Works performed as a Condition to get a right Title to it and therefore Faith it self must not be accounted such a Condition If it be by Grace it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace Rom. 11.1 The Condition of a free Gift is only take and have and in this sence we will readily acknowledge Faith to be a Condition allowing a Liberty in Terms where we agree in the thing but if you give a Pepper-corn to purchase a Title to it then you spoil the freeness of the Gift The free Offer of Christ to you is sufficient to conferr upon you a Right yea to make it your Duty to receive Christ and his Salvation as yours and because we receive Christ by Faith as a free Gift therefore we may account Faith to be the Instrument and as it were the Hand whereby we receive him Fourthly It hath been already proved that all spiritual Life and Holiness is treasured up in the Fulness of Christ and communicated to us by Union with him therefore the accomplishing of Union with Christ is the first work of Saving Grace in our Hearts and Faith itself being an holy Grace and part of spiritual Life cannot be in us before the beginning of it but rather it is given to us and wrought in the very working of the Union And the way wherein it conduceth to the Union cannot be by procuring a meer Title to Christ as a Condition because then it should be performed before the uniting Work beginneth but rather by being an Instrument whereby we may actively receive and embrace Christ who is already come into the Soul to take possession of it his own Habitation True Saving-Faith such as I have described hath in its nature and manner of Operation a peculiar aptitude or fitness to receive Christ and his Salvation and to unite our Souls unto him and to furnish the Soul with a new holy Nature and to bring forth an holy Practice by Union and Fellowship with him God hath fitted natural Instruments for their Office as the Hands Feet c. so that we may know by their nature and natural manner of operation for what use they are designed In like manner we may know that Faith is an Instrument formed on purpose for our Union with Christ and Sanctification if we consider what a peculiar fitness it hath for the Work The discovery of this is of great use for the understanding of the mysterious manner of our receiving and practising all Holiness by Union and Fellowship with Christ By this precions Grace of Faith and to make you as it were to see with your Eyes that it is such an Instrument as I have asserted it to be I shall present it to your view
that we may live And they plead not for doing of Duties as obliged thereunto by the Authority of the Law given of God by Moses but only in obedience to the Commands of Christ in the Gospel Neither do they plead for Salvation by sincere Obedience without Christ but only by Christ and through his Merit and Righteousness and they acknowledge that both Salvation itself and sincere Obedience are given to them freely by the Grace of Christ so that all is of Grace They acknowledge also that their Salvation is by Faith because sincere Obedience is wrought in them by believing the Gospel and is included in he nature of that Faith which is the entire Condition of our Salvation And some call it the resignating Act of Faith but all these Reasons are but a fallacious Vizard upon a legal way of Salvation to make it look like pure Gospel as I shall evince by the following particulars First All that seek Salvation by the sincere performance of good Works as the procuring Condition are condemned by the Apostle Paul for seeking Righteousness by the Works of the Law and not by Faith Rom. 9.32 and for seeking to be justified by the Law and falling from the Grace of Christ Gal. 5.4 This one Assertion if it can be proved is enough to pluck off the fallacious Vizard from the Condition of sincere Obedience and to make men abhor it as a damning legal Doctrine that bereaveth its Followers of all Salvation by Christ And the proof of it is not difficult to persons that warily consider a point of so great moment for their Salvation The Jews and Judaizing Christians against whom the Apostle chiefly disputeth in this whole Controversie did not profess any hope of being justified by perfect Obedience according to the rigour of the Law but only by such Obedience as they accounted to be sincere and not hypocritical And we have no cause to doubt but that the Judaizing Galatians had learned by the Gospel to distinguish sincere Obedience from Hypocrisie The Jewish Religion bound all that professed it to acknowledge themselves to be Sinners as appeareth by their anniversary Humiliation at the day of atonement and several other Rights of the Law and many clear Testimonies in the Oracles of God that were committed to them Psal 143.2 Prov. 10.9 Eccles 7.20 Yet they knew they were bound to turn to the Lord with all their Hearts in Sincerity and Uprightness and that God would accept of sincere Obedience for which Cause they might better put it for the Condition of the Law than we can of the Gospel Psal 51.6 10. Deut. 6.5 Deut. 30.10 So that if the Apostle had disputed against those that held only perfect Obedience to be the Condition of Justification he had contended with his own shadow And they might as readily judge sincere obedience to be the condition of Justification under the Law as we can judge it to be the condition under the Gospel Neither doth the Apostle condemn them meerly for accounting sincere Obedience to the Law as given by Moses to be the Condition of their Justification but more generally for seeking Salvation by their own Works And he alledgeth against them That Abrabam who lived before the Law of Moses was not justified by any of his Works though he did perform sincere Obedience and that David who lived under the Law of Moses was not justified by his Works though he performed sincere Obedience and was as much bound to obey the Law given by Moses as we are to obey any Commands of Christ in the Gospel Rom. 4.2 3 5 6. Neither doth he condemn them for seeking their Salvation only by Works without respecting at all the Grace and Salvation that is by Christ for the Judaizing Galatians were yet Professors of the Grace and Salvation of Christ though they thought Obedience to the Law a necessary Condition for the partaking of it as also many other Judaising Believers did And doubtless they accounted themselves obliged thereunto not only by the Authority of Moses but of Christ also whom they owned as their Lord and Saviour And we may be sure it was no damning Error to account Moses's Law obliging at that time for many thousands of the Jews that were sound Believers held the Ceremonies of Moses to be in force at that time and Paul was tender towards them in it Acts 20.20 21. Acts 15.5 And other Jews sought Justification not only by their sincere Works but also by trusting on the Promise made to Abraham and on their Priesthood and Sacrifices which were Types of Christ And the most legal Pharisees would thank God for their good Works as proceeding from his Grace Luke 18.11 And they could as well acknowledge their Salvation to be by Faith as the Assertors of Salvation by sincere Obedience can in these days for they accounted that their sincere Obedience was wrought in them by believing the Word of God which contained Gospel as well as legal Doctrin in it and therefore that it must be included in the nature of Faith if Faith were taken for the Condition of their whole Salvation Let the Assertors of the Condition of sincere Obedience learn from hence that they are building again that Judaism which the Apostle Paul destroyed whereby the Jews stumbled at Christ Rom. 9.32 And the Galatians were in danger of falling from Christ and Grace Gal. 5.2 4. And let them beware of falling under that Curse which he hath denounced on this very occasion against any Man or Angel that shall preach any other Gospel than that which he hath preached Gal. 1.8 9. Secondly The difference betwixt the Law and Gospel doth not at all consist in this that the one requireth perfect doing the other only sincere doing but in this that the one requireth doing the other no doing but believing for Life and Salvation Their terms are different not only in degree but in their whole nature The Apostle Paul opposeth the Believing required in the Gospel to all doing for Life as the Condition proper to the Law Gal. 3.12 The Law is not of Faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Rom. 4.5 To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for righteousness If we seek Salvation by never so easie and mild a Condition of Works we do thereby bring our selves under the Terms of the Law and do become Debtors to fulfill the whole Law in perfection though we intended to engage our selves only to fulsill it in part Gal. 5.3 for the Law is a compleat Declaration of the only Terms whereby God will judge all that are not brought to despair of procuring Salvation by any of their own Works and to receive it as a Gift freely given to them by the Grace of God in Christ So that all that seek Salvation right or wrong knowingly or ignorantly by any works less or more whether invented by their own Superstition or commanded of God in
this be truly believed it will exclude Doubtfulness concerning your Salvation Secondly Several places of Scripture declare positively and expresly that we are to be assured of our Salvation in that Faith whereby we are justified and saved I shall produce some Instances We are exhorted to draw near to God with full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 Many apply this Text to that which they call the reflect Act of Faith because they imagine that all Assurance must needs be by Reflection but the Words of the Text do clearly teach us to understand it of that Act of Faith whereby we draw near to God that is the direct Act and it is that very Faith whereby the Just do live even justifying saving Faith verse 38. And this Assurance must be full at least in the true and proper Nature of it in Opposition unto mere Doubtfulness and Uncertainty though we are yet further to labour for that which is full in the highest Degree of Perfection And the same Faith whereby we are exhorted to draw nigh unto God and whereby the Just liveth is a little after Chap. 11.1 affirmed to be the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Why should saving Faith have these high Titles and Attributes given to it if it did not contain in it a sure Perswasion of the great things of our Salvation hoped for which maketh them to be evident to the Eyes of our Mind as if they were already present in their Substance though yet not visible to our bodily Eyes that Faith whereby we are made Partakers of Christ and to be Christ's House must be worthy to be called Confidence and accompanied with reioycing Hope Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end Heb. 3.6.14 What is Confidence concerning any thing but trusting concerning it with a firm Perswasion of the Truth of it If we have only a strong Opinion concerning a thing without any absolute certainty we use to say that we are not altogether confident of it The Faith whereby we are justified must be in a measure like to the Faith whereby Abraham against Hope believed in Hope that his Seed should certainly be multiplyed according to the Promise of God though by reason of the Deadness of his own Body and of Sarah's Womb he could have no Evidence from his own Qualifications to assure himself of it but all Appearances were rather to the contrary as the Apostle teacheth clearly Rom. 4.18 19 23.24 As absolute as this Promise was thus made Abraham yet it was not to be fulfilled without this Assurance of Faith and by the like Faith the free Promises of Salvation by Christ will be absolutely fulfilled to us The Apostle James expresly requireth that we should ask good things of God in Faith nothing doubting which includeth Assurance manifestly and he telleth us plainly that without it a Man ought not to think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord therefore we may firmly conclude that without it we shall not receive the Salvation of Christ James 1.6 7. And that which the Apostle James requireth us not to doubt of is the obtaining the things that we ask as we may learn from an Instruction to the same purpose given to us by Christ himself What things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them Mark 11.24 More places of Scripture might be alledged to the same purpose but these are sufficient to evince that we are bound to assure our selves of our Salvation in Faith it self or else we are never likely to enjoy it and that it is not Humility but rather proud Disobedience to live in a state of mere Suspense and Doubtfulness concerning our Salvation and that this Assurance must be in the direct Act of Faith whereby we are justified and saved For as for that which is called the Reflect Act of Faith it is a certain Truth and generally owned that it is not absolutely necessary to Salvation to any and that it is sinful and pernicious to many to believe that they are already entred into a state of Grace and Salvation Thirdly God giveth us sufficient ground in Scripture to come to Christ with confident Faith at the very first trusting assuredly that Christ and his Salvation shall be given to us without any Failing and Delay however vile and sinful our Condition hath been hitherto The Scripture speaketh to the vilest Sinners in such a manner as if it were framed on purpose to beget Assurance of Salvation in them immediately Acts 2.39 Chap. 3.26 This Promise is unversal That whosoever believeth on Christ shall not be ashamed without making a Difference between Jew and Greek Rom. 10.11 12. And this Promise is confirmed by the Blood of Christ who was given for the World and lifted up upon the Cross for this very end that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.14 15 16. His Invitation is free to any If any man thirst let him come to me and drink and this Drink is promised to every one that believeth John 7.37 39. The Command of believing is propounded not only in general but in particular and the Promise of Salvation upon believing is also applyed personally and that to such as have been hitherto in a state of Sin and Wrath as to the wicked persecuting self-murdering Jaylor Acts 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thine house God commanded them that walked altogether in Sin hitherto to call him their own Father in their very first returning Jer. 3.4 So Hos 2.23 God saith he will say Thou art my people and they shall say Thou art my God confidently averring their personal Interest in him God hath joyned Confidence and Salvation inseparably together In returning and rest ye shall be saved in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength Isai 30.15 What a poor slender Use and Improvement do many make of these Discoveries of the rich Grace of God towards Sinners who say that if we see that we have performed the Condition of believing then we may take Christ confidently as our own they skip over the first and principal Use they ought to make of them the very Performance of the Condition is to take Christ as our own immediately and to eat him and drink him by believing consiently on him for our Salvation If an honest rich Man say to a poor Woman I promise to be thy Husband if thou wilt have me say but the Word and I am thine may not she presently answer confidently Then thou art my Husband and I claim thee for my Husband and should she not rather say so then say I believe not what thou sayest If an honest Man say Do but take this Gift and it is your own do but eat and drink and you are freely welcome may not I take the Gift and eat and drink at first
bring us at last to perfection of Holiness through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we should carefully observe in all things that good Lesson of the Apostle not to think of our selves more highly than we ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every Man the measure of Faith Rom. 12.3 DIRECT XIII Endeavour diligently to make the right use of all meansappointed in the word of God for the obtaining and practising of Holiness only in this way of believing in Christ and walking in him according to your new State by Faith EXPLICATION THis might have been added to the Instructions in the Explication of the former Direction because its Use is the same to guide us in the mysterious manner of practising Holiness in Christ by the life of Faith but the weight and comprehensiveness of it maketh it worthy to be treated of by it self as a distinct Direction Two things are observable in it First That though all Holiness be effectually attained unto by the life of Faith in Christ yet the use of any means appointed in the Word for attaining and promoting Holiness is not hereby made void but rather established This is needful to be observed against the Pride and Ignorance of some carnal Gospellers that being puft up with a Conceit of their feigned Faith imagine themselves to be in such a state of Perfection that they are above all Ordinances except singing Halelujahs And also against the Papists that run into the contrary Extream by heaping together a multiude of means of Holiness which God never commanded neither ever came they into his Heart and that Slander the Protestant Doctrin of Faith and Free Grace as if it tended to destroy all diligent use of the means of Holiness and Salvation and to breed up a company of lazy Solifidians We do indeed assert and profess that a true and lively Faith in Christ is alone sufficient and effectual through the Grace of God to receive Christ and all his Fulness so far as is necessary in this Life for our Justification Sanctification and eternal Salvation But yet we also assert and profess that several means are appointed of God for the Begetting Maintaining and Increasing of this Faith and the Acting and Exercising of it in order to the attainment of its End and that these means are to be used diligently which are mention'd in the Sequel True Believers find by Experience that their Faith needeth such Helps and they that think themselves above any need of them do reject the Counsel of God against themselves like to those Prond Pharisees and Lawyers that thought it a thing beneath them and refused to be baptized of John Luk. 7.30 yet we account no means necessary or lawful to be used for the attainment of Holiness besides they that are appointed by God in his Word We know that Holiness is a Part of our Salvation and therefore they that think that Men may or can invent any means effectual for the attainment of it do ascribe their Salvation partly to Men and rob God of his Glory in being our only Saviour and they do thereby plainly shew That though they draw nigh unto God with their mouth and honour him with their lips yet their hearts are far from him and in vain do they worship him teaching for Doctrins the commandments of men Mat. 15.7 8 9. The Second thing observable and principally design'd in this Direction is the right manner of using all the means of Holiness for the obtaining and practising of it in no other way besides that of believing in Christ and walking in him according to our new State by Faith which hath been already demonstrated to be the only way whereby we may effectually attain to this great End We must use them as helps to the life of Faith in its Beginning Continuance and Growth and as Instruments subservient to Faith the principal Instrument in all its Acts and Exercises whereby the Soul receiveth Christ and walketh in all Holiness by him We must beware lest we use them rather in Opposition than in Subordination to the way of Sanctification and Salvation by Free Grace in Christ through Faith and lest by our Abuse of them they be made rather Hindrances than Helps to our Faith We must not Idolize any of the means and put them into the place of Christ as the Papists do by trusting in them as if they were effectual to conferr Grace to the Soul by the work that is done in the use of them Neither may we use them as works of Righteousness to be performed as Conditions for the procuring of the Favour of God and the Salvation of Christ Neither must they be accounted so absolutely necessary to Salvation as if a true Faith were void and of none effect when we are debarred from the Enjoyment of several of them The holy Scriptures with all the means of Grace appointed therein are able to make us wise unto Salvation no other way than by faith in Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 3.18 and therefore our wise Endeavour must be not to use â—hem in any opposition to the Grace of God in Christ For God's Ordinances are like the Cherubims of Glory made with their Faces looking towards the Mercy-Seat They are made to guid us to Christ for Salvation by Faith alone If any turn them to another use it is a great Violation of divine Institutions as if any Sacrilegious Person had presumed to turn the Faces of the Cherubims from the Mercy-Seat some other way This right use of the means of Grace is a Point wherein many are Ignorant that use them with great Zeal and Diligence and thereby they do not only lose their Labour and the benefit of the means but also they wrest and pervert them to their own Destruction The Jews under the Law of Moses enjoyed many more Ordinances of divine Worship than we do under the Gospel but their Table became their Snare and they fell miserably from God and Christ because the Veil of Ignorance was upon their Hearts that they could not look to the end of those Ordinances even to the Lord Jesus Christ And they sought not salvation by faith but by the ordinances as works of righteousness and by other works of the law for they stumbled at the stumbling stone Rom. 9.31 32 and 10.4 5. 2 Cor. 3.13 14. That you may not stumble and fall by the same pernicious Error I shall shew particularly how several of the principal means of Holiness appointed in the Word of God are to be made use of in that right manner expressed in the Direction 1. We must endeavour diligently to know the Word of God contained in the Holy Scripture and to improve it to this end That we may be made wise unto Salvation through saith which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.15 Other means of Salvation are necessary to the more abundant well-being of our Faith and of our new State in Christ but this is absolutely
this Mercy-seat was a sign of God's Favourableness to a sinful People in residing among them and was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 9.5 Now this Doctrine appears confirmed for these Reasons 1. Because Christ by the will of God gave himself a Ransom for us to redeem us from Sin and Punishment Wrath and Curse Tit. 2.14 He gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity He gave himself to Death for us was delivered for our Offences his Death was the Price of our Redemption that we might be justified in Gods Sight God gave him up to Death he spared him not that he might be made Righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 and Mat. 20.28 He gave his own life a Ransome for many And so 1 Tim. 2.6 He hereby bought us by this Price 1 Cor. 6.6 He Redeemed us not with Silver and Gold but with his precious Blood as of a Lamb without spot 1 Pet. 1.18 19. 2 Pet 2.1 Rev. 5.9 He suffering the Penalty due to us for Sin 1 Pet. 2.24 He bare our Sins in his Body on the Tree Gal. 3.13 He was made a Curse for us thereby redeemed us from the Curse of the Law and that he might be made a Curse he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 Isa 53.5 6. He subjected himself to the Law both in active as well as passive Obedience Gal. 4 4. And obeyed his Father even to Death doing and suffering at his Commandment John 14.31 Heb. 10.7 And his Obedience was for our Justification Compare Rom. 5.19 with Phil. 2.8 So Christ satisfied both for our Debt of Righteousness and Debt of Punishment for our Faultiness taint of Sin and want of Righteousness as well as for our guilt and obnoxiousness to punishment that we might be free from Wrath and deemed Righteous in God's Sight His Suffering was the consummating Act of Redemption and so all is attributed to it Heb. 2.9 10. Even to his Blood though other doings and sufferings concur 2 Cor. 8.9 We are righteous by him as we were guilty by Adam Rom. 5.12 2 God accepted this Price as a Satisfaction to his Justice which he shewed in raising Christ from the Dead and so acquitting him from all our Sins He was justified by the Spirit 1 Tim. 3. ult for us Rom. 4. ult raised for our Justification see Rom. 8.34 It is God that Justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen from the Dead And Heb. 10.5 14. By one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified And Eph. 5.1 2. This Sacrifice was a sweet smelling savour unto God If Christ had sunk under the weight of our sins and not been raised the Payment had not been finished and so the Debt not discharged John 16.10 Of Righteousness because I go to my Father 3. This Righteousness is in Christ as to the benefit of it So that it can't be had except we be in Christ and have Christ So the Text expresseth and sheweth that he is the Propitiation and as so he is our Righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 We have Redemption and Righteousness in him Eph. 1.7 2 Cor. 5.21 And therein our freedom from Condemnation Rom. 5.1 Christ dyed that his Seed might be justified Isa 53.10 11. Those that are in him by Spiritual Regeneration 1 Cor. 4.15 Observ VI. The formal cause of Justification or that wherein it consists is the Remission of Sin i. e. not only the Guilt and Punishment is removed but fault because it 's a Pardon grounded on Justice which cleareth the fault also By him we are justified from all things that the Law chargeth us with Act. 13.39 In Men subject to a Law there is no middle condition between not Imputing of Sin and Imputing of Righteousness and so these terms are used as Equivalent Act. 13.36 39. Through this Man is Preached Forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified c. Rom. 4.6 8. 2 Cor. 15.19 21. Rom 5.17 This is through the Bloodshed of Christ Eph. 1.7 Mat. 26.28 Observ VII God Justifieth a Sinner through Faith in Christs Blood Faith is the Instrumental Cause of receiving this Benefit Faith in the Blood of Christ 1. This Faith is believing on Christ that we may be justified by him Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a Man is not justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law we believe in Christ for Justification out of a sence of our inability to obtain Justification by Works 2. This Faith doth not justify us as an Act of Righteousness earning and procuring our Justification by the work of it for this would have been Justification by works as under the Law diametrically opposite to Grace and free Gift which excludes all consideration of any works of ours to be our Righteousness under any denomination or diminutive terms whatever whether you 'l call it Legal or Evangelical though you reckon it no more then the payment of a Pepper-corn Rom. 11.6 Faith in this case is counted a Not working Rom. 4.5 And it 's not Faith that stands in stead of the Righteousness of the Law but the Righteousness of Christ which satisfieth for what we ought to have done or suffered as hath been shewed 3. God Justifieth by Faith as the Instrument whereby we receive Christ and his Righteousness by which we are Justified properly and we are justified by Faith only Metonymically by reason of the Righteousness received by it and to be justified by Faith and Christ is all one Gal. 3.8 Rom. 5.1 By Faith we receive remission of sins Act. 26.18 and Chap. 10 43. It s effect is the reception of Justification not the working of it as a man may be said to be maintained by his hands or nourished by his mouth when those do but receive that which nourisheth his food and drink the Cup is put for the Liquor in the Cup 1 Cor. 11.26 27. See Rom. 1.17 and 13.22 Christ is in us by Faith Eph. 3.17 perceived eat drunk Joh. 1.12 Chap. 9.49 53. 4. This Faith is to be understood Exclusively to all our works for Justification we defend against the Papists Justification by faith only and there is nothing more sully expressed in Scripture Phrase Rom. 3.28 Gal. 2.16 Phil. 3.8 9. Rom. 4.16 5. We must understand faith in a full sence of receiving Remission of the sault as well as of the punishment we believe that God accounts not the fault to us of the least sin and where faith is said to be accounted for Righteousness it is because of the object it receives Rom. 4.6 7 8. 2 Cor. 5.19 21. We believe Christs Righteousness imputed to us as our sins to him or else we receive not remission of Sins by believing which is contrary to charging us with sin and condemnation which charging signifieth imputing sin Rom. 8.33 34 together
and Soul is and the Spirits lively Instrument rather than the principal Cause Neither will a Believer be necessarily perfectin Holiness here by or Christ made a Sinner for Christ knoweth how to dwell in a Believer by certain measures and degrees and to make them holy so far only as he dwelleth in them And though this Union seem too high a Preferment for such unworthy Creatures as we are yet considering the preciousness of the Blood of God whereby we are redeemed we should dishonour God if we should not expect a miraculous Advancement to the highest Dignity that Creatures are capable of through the Merits of that Blood Neither is there any thing in this Union contrary to the Judgment of Sense because the Bond of the Union being Spiritual falleth not at all under the Judgment of Sense Several learned Men of late acknowledge no other Union betwixt Christ and Believers than such as persons or things wholly separated may have by their mutual relations each to other and accordingly they interpret the places of Scripture that speak of this Union When Christ is called the Head of the Church they account that a Political Head or Governour is the thing meant when Christ is said to be in his People and they in him they think that the proper meaning is that Christ's Law Doctrine Grace Salvation or that Godliness is in them and embraced by them so that Christ here must not be taken for Christ himself but for some other thing wrought in them by Christ When Christ and Believers are said to be one Spirit and one Flesh they understand it of the Agreement of their Minds and Affections as if the greatness of the Mystery of this Union mentioned Ephes 5.32 consisted rather in a harsh Hope or a dark improper Expression than in the depth and abstruceness of the thing it self and as if Christ and his Apostles had affected obscure intricate Expressions when they speak to this Church of things very plain and easie to be understood Thus that great Mystery the Union of Believers with Christ himself which is the Glory of the Church and hath been highly owned formerly both by the ancient Fathers and many eminent Protestant Divines particular Writers concerning the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper and by a very general Consent of the Church in many Ages is now exploded out of the new Model of Divinity The Reason of exploding it as I judge in Charity is not because our late learned Refiners of Divinity think themselves less able to defend it than the other two mysterious Unions and to silence the Objections of those proud Sophisters that will not believe what they cannot comprehend but rather because they account it to be one of the Sinnews of Antinomianism that lay unobserved in the former usual Doctrine that it tendeth to puff up Men with a Perswasion that they are justified and have eternal Life in them already and that they need not depend any longer upon their uncertain Performances of the Condition of sincere Obedience for Salvation whereby they account the very Foundation of a holy Practice to be subverted But the Wisdom of God hath laid another manner of Foundation for an holy Practice than they imagine of which this Union which the Builders refuse is a principal stone next to the head of the corner And in opposition to their corrupt Glosses upon the Scriptures that prove it I assert that our Union with Christ is the cause of our Subjection to Christ as a Political Head in all things and of the abiding of his Law Doctrine Grace Salvation and all Godliness in us and of our Agreement with him in our Minds and Affections and therefore it cannot be altogether the same thing with them And this Assertion is useful for a better Understanding of the Excellency of this Union It is not a Priviledge procured by our sincere Obedience and Holiness as some may imagine or a reward of good works reserved for us in another World but it is a Priviledge bestowed upon Believers in their very first entrance into an holy state on which all ability to do good works doth depend and all sincere Obedience to the Law doth follow after it as Fruit produced by it Having thus far explained the Direction I shall now shew that though the Truth contained in it be above the Search of Natural Reason yet it is evidently discovered to those that have their Understandings opened to discern that supernatural Revelation of the mysterious way of Sanctification which God hath given to us in the holy Scriptures First There are several Places in Scripture that do plainly express it some Texts shew thâ—â— all things pertaining to our salvation are treasured 〈◊〉 for us in Christ and comprehended in his fulness 〈◊〉 that we must have them thence or 〈◊〉 at all Col. 1.19 It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell And in the same Epistle Col. 2.11 12 13. The Apostle sheweth that the holy Nature whereby we live to God was first produced in him by his death and resurrection in whom also ye are circumcised in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh buried with him quickened together with him when you were dead in your sins Ephes 1.3 Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. An holy Frame of Spirit with all its necessary Qualifications must needs be comprehended here in all spiritual Blessings and these are given us in Christ's Person in heavenly places as prepared and treasured up in him for us while we are upon Earth and therefore we must have our holy Endowments out of him or not at all In this Text some chuse rather to read heavenly things as in the Margent because neither places nor things are expressed in the Original but the former textual reading is to be preferred before the Marginals as being the proper Sense of the Original Greek Phrase which is and must necessarily be so rendred in two other Places of this same Epistle Chap. 3.10 6.12 Another Text is 1 Cor. 1.30 which sheweth that Christ is of God made unto us Sanctification by which we are able to walk holily as well as wisely by the Wisdom of which we are savingly wise and Righteousness by the Imputation of which we are justified and Redemption whereby we are redeemed from all Misery to the Enjoyment of his Glory as our Happiness in the heavenly Kingdom Other Texts of Scripture shew plainly that we receive our Holiness out of his fulness by Fellowship with him Joh. 1.16 17. Of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace And it is understood of Grace answerable to the Law given by Moses which must needs include the Grace of Sanctification 1 Joh. 1.3 5 6 7. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. God is Light if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another Hence
without blemish that he might redeem us from all iniquity by his precious Blood 1 Pet. 1.18 19 20. and he had the same Spirit then which filled his humane Nature with all its fulness afterwards and raised it from the dead and he gave that Spirit then to the Church 1 Pet. 1.11 3.18 19. Now this Spirit was able and effectual to unite those Saints to that Flesh which Christ was to take to himself in the fulness of Time because he was the same in both and to give out to them that Grace with which Christ would afterwards fill his Flesh for their Salvation as well as ours Therefore David accounted Christ's Flesh to be his and spake of Christ's Death and Resurrection as his own before hand as fully as any of us can do since their Accomplishment Psal 16.9 10 11. My flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption thou wilt shew me the path of life Yea and Saints before Davids time did all eat of the same spiritual meat and drink of the same spiritual drink even of the same Christ as we do and therefore were Partakers of the same Priviledge of Union and Fellowship with Christ 1 Cor. 10.3 4. And when Christ was manifested in the Flesh in the fulness of time all things in Heaven and on Earth all the Saints departed whose Spirits were then made perfect in Heaven as well as the Saints that then were or should afterward be on Earth were gathered together in one and comprehended in Christ as their Head Ephes 1.10 And he was the chief corner-stone in whom the building of the whole Church upon the foundation of the Prophets before and the Apostles after his comming being fitly fromed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord Ephes 2.20 21. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 His incarnation death and resurrection were the cause of all the Holiness that ever was or shall be given to Man from the Fall of Adam to the end of the World and that by the mighty Power of his Spirit whereby all Saints that ever were or shall be are joyned together to be Members of that one mystical Body whereof he is the Head DIRECT IV. The Means or Instruments whereby the Spirit of God accomplisheth our Vnion with Christ and our Fellowship with him in all Holiness are the Gospel whereby Christ entereth into our Hearts to work Faith in us and Faith whereby we actually receive Christ himself with all his Fulness into our Hearts And this Faith is a Grace of the Spirit whereby we heartily believe the Gospel and also believe on Christ as he is revealed and freely promised to us therein for all his Salvation EXPLICATION THAT which I asserted in the foregoing Direction concerning the necessity of our being in Christ and having Christ in us by a mystical Union to enable us for an holy Practice might put us to a stand in our Endeavours for Holiness because we cannot imagine how we should be able to raise our selves above our natural Sphere to his glorious Union and Fellowship until God be pleased to make known to us by supernatural revelation the means whereby his Spirit maketh us Partakers of so high a Privilege But God is pleased to help us at a stand to go on forward by revealing two Means or Instruments whereby his Spirit accomplisheth the mystical Union and Fellowship betwixt Christ and us and whereby rational Creatures are capable of attaining thereunto by his Spirit working in them One of these Means is the Gospel of the Grace of God wherein God doth make known to us the unsearchable Riches of Christ and Christ in us the hope of Glory Eph. 3.8 Col. 1.27 and doth also invite us and command us to believe on Christ for his Salvation and doth encourage us by a free Promise of that Salvation to all that believe on him Acts 16.31 Rom. 10.9 11. This is God's own Instrument of Conveyance wherein he sendeth Christ to us to bless us with his Salvation Acts 3.26 It is the ministration of the spirit and of righteousness 2 Cor. 3.6 8 9. Faith cometh by the hearing of it and therefore it is a great instrument whereby we are begotten in Christ and Christ is formed in us Rom. 10.16 17. 1 Cor. 4.15 Gal. 4.19 There is no need for us to say in our Hearts Who shall ascend into Heaven to bring Christ down from above Or who shall descend into the deep to bring up Christ from the dead that we may be united and have fellowship with him in his death and resurrection For the word is nigh to us the Gospel the word of Faith in which Christ himself graciously condescendeth to be nigh to us so that we may come at him there without going any further if we desire to be joyned to him Rom. 10.6 7 8. The other of these means is Faith that is wrought in us by the Gospel This is our Instrument of Reception whereby the Union betwixt Christ and us is accomplished on our part by our actual receiving of Christ himself with all his Fulness into our Hearts which is the principal Subject of the present Explanation The Faith which Philosophers commonly treat of is only an Habit of the Understanding whereby we assent to a Testimony upon the Authority of the Testifier Accordingly some would have Faith in Christ to be no more than a believing the truth of things in Religion upon the authority of Christ testifying them but the Apostle sheweth that the Faith whereby we are justified is Faith in Christ's Blood Rom. 3.24 25. not only in his Authority as a Testifier And tho' a meer assent to a Testimony were sufficient Faith for knowledge of things which the Philosophers aimed at yet we are to consider that the Design of Saving Faith is not only to know the Truth of Christ and his Salvation testified and promised in the Gospel but also to apprehend and receive Christ and his Salvation as given by and with the Promise Therefore Saving Faith must necessarily contain two Acts believing the Truth of the Gospel and believing on Christ as promised freely to us in the Gospel for all Salvation By the one it receiveth the Means wherein Christ is conveyed to us by the other it receiveth Christ himself and his Salvation in the Means As it 's one act to receive the Breast or Cup wherein Milk or Wine are conveyed and another act to suck the Milk in the Breast and to drink the Wine in the Cup and both these acts must be perform'd heartily with an unfeigned love to the Truth and a desire of Christ and his Salvation above all things this is our spiritual Appetite which is necessary for our eating and drinking Christ the Food of Life as a natural Appetite is for Bodily Nourishment Our assenting unto or believing the Gospel must not be forced
in three particulars 1st The Grace of Faith is as well fitted for the Souls receiving of Christ and Union with him as any Instrument of the Body is for receiving and closing with things needful for it By the very act of hearty trusting or believing on Christ for all Salvation and Happiness the Soul heaveth and putteth away from itself every thing that keepeth it at a distance from Christ as all confidence in our own Strength Endeavours Works Privileges or in any Worldly Pleasures Profits Honours or in any humane Helps and Succours for our Happiness and Salvation Because such Confidences are inconsistent with our Confidence in Christ for all Salvation Paul by his Confidence in Christ was taken off from all Considence in the Flesh he suffer'd the loss of glorying in his Privileges legal Righteousness and counted all other Enjoyments in matters of the World or of Religion to be but Dung that he might win Christ and be found in him Phil. 3.3 6 7 8 9. the voice of Faith is Ashur shall not save us neither will we ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our God for in thee the Fatherless find mercy Hos 14.3 We have no might against this great company of our spiritual Enemies neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee 2 Chron. 20.12 I might multiply places of Scripture to shew what a self emptying Grace Faith is and how it casteth other Considences out of the Soul by getting above them to Christ as the only Happiness and Salvation The same act of trusting or believing on Christ or on God is the very manner of our Souls coming to Christ Joh. 6.35 drawing near to the Lord Psal 73.28 fleeing unto the Lord to hide us Psal 143.9 making our resuge in the shadow of his wings Psal 57.1 staying our selves and our minds upon the Lord Isa 50.10 26.3 laying hold of eternal life 1 Tim. 6.12 lifting up our selves to the Lord Psal 51.1 2. rolling our way and casting our burden upon the Lord Psal 37.5 55.22 and of our eating and drinking Christ as hath already appeared Let us consider that Christ and his Salvation cannot be seen or handled or attained to by any bodily motion but are revealed and promised to us in the Word Now let any invent if they can any way for the Soul to exercise any motion or activeness in receiving of this unseen promised Salvation besides believing the Word and trusting on Christ for the Benefit promised If Christ were to be earned by Works or any other kind of Conditional Faith than this yet a Faith must be instrumental to receive him Some think Love as sit to be the uniting Grace but I have shewed that Love to Christ's Salvation is an Ingredient into Faith And though Love be an Appetite unto Union yet we have no other likely way to fill this Appetite while we are in this World besides trust on Christ for all his Benefits as he is promised in the Gospel 2dly There is in this Saving-Faith a natural Tendency to furnish the Soul with an holy Frame and Nature and all Endowments necessary thereunto out of the Fulness of Christ An hearty affectionate trussing on Christ for all his Salvation as freely promised to us hath naturally enough to work in our Souls a rational bent and inclination to and ability for the Practise of all Holiness because it comprehendeth in it a trusting that through Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God and that our old man is crucified Rom. 6.2 6 4. and that we live by the spirit Gal. 5.25 and that we have forgiveness of sin and that God is our God Psal 31.14 and that we have in the Lord righteousness and strength whereby we are able to do all things Isa 45.24 Phil. 4.13 and that we shall be glortensly happy in the anjoyment of Christ to all eternity Phil. 3.20 21. When the Saints in Scripture speak so highly of such glorious spiritual Privileges as I have here named they acquaint us with the familiar fence and language of their Faith trusting on God and Christ and they give us but an Explication of the nature and contents of it and they speak of nothing more than what they receive out of the Fulness of Christ And how can we otherwise judge but that those that have an hearty Love to Christ and can upon a good ground think and speak such high things concerning themselves must needs be heartily disposed and mightily strengthened for the practice of Holiness 3dly Because Faith hath such a natural tendency to dispose and strengthen the Soul for the practise of Holiness we have cause to judge it a meet Instrument to accomplish every part of that Practice in an acceptable manner Those that with a due affection believe stedfastly on Christ for the free Gift of all his Salvation may find by experience that they are carried forth by that Faith according to the measure of its Strength or Weakness to love God heartily because God hath loved them first 1 Joh. 4.19 to praise him to pray unto him in the name of Christ Ephes 5.26 John 16.26 27. to be patient with cheerfulness under all afflictions giving thanks to the Father that hath called them to his heavenly inheritance Col. 1.11 12. to love all the children of God out of love to their heavenly Father 1 John 5.1 to walk as Christ walked 1 John 2.6 and to give themselves up to live to Christ in all things as constrained by his love in dying for them 2 Cor. 5.14 We have a Cloud of Witnesses concerning the excellent works that were produced by Faith Heb. 11. And though trusting on Christ be accounted such a slight and contemptible thing yet I know no Work of Obedience which it is not able to produce And note the excellent manner of working by Faith by it we live and act in all good Works as People in Christ as raised above our selves and our natural state by partaking of him and his Salvation and we do all in his name and on his account This is the Practice of that mysterious manner of living to God in Holiness which is peculiar to the Christian Religion wherein we live and yet not we but Christ liveth in us Gal. 2.20 And who can imagine any other way but this for such a Practice while Christ and his Salvation is known to us only by the Gospel The explanation that I have made of the Nature and Office of true Faith and of its Aptitude for its Office is sufficient to evidence that it is a most holy Faith as it is called Jude 20. and that such a trusting on Christ as I have described in its own nature cannot have any tendency to Licentiousness but only to Holiness and that it rooteth and groundeth us in Holiness more than the meer accepting of any terms of Salvation and consenting to have Christ for our Lord can do
and is more powerful to secure an holy Practice than any of those Resolutions of Obedience or resignating Acts that some would have to be the great conditions of our salvation which are indeed no better than hypocritical Acts if they be not produc'd by this Faith There is indeed a counterfeit dead Faith such as wicked men may have and if that tend to Licentiousness let not true Faith be blamed but rather mark the Description of it which I have given that you may not be deceived with a counterfeit Faith instead of it I shall add something concerning the efficient cause of this excellent Grace and of our Union with Christ by it whereby it may appear that it is not so slight and easie a way of Salvation as some may imagine The Author and Finisher of our Faith and of our Union and Fellowship with Christ by Faith is no less than the infinite Spirit of God and God and Christ himself by the Spirit for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body of Christ and are all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor 12.12 13. God granteth us according to the Riches of his glory to be strengthened with all might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3.16 17. If we do but consider the great effect of Faith that by it we are raised to live above our natural condition by Christ and his Spirit living in us we cannot rationally conceive that it should be within the power of Nature to do any thing that advanceth us so high If God had done no more for us in our Sanctification than to restore us to our first natural Holiness yet this could not have been done without putting forth his own Almighty Power to quicken those that are dead in Sin How much more is this Almighty Power needful to advance us to this wonderful new kind of Frame wherein we live and act above all the power of Nature by an higher Principle of Life than was given to Adam in Innocency even by Christ and his Spirit living and acting in us The natural man bringeth forth his Off-spring according to his Image by that natural Power of multiplying with which God blessed him at his first Creation but the second Adam bringeth forth his Off-spring new born according to his Image only by the Spirit Joh. 3.5 As many as receive him even those that believe on his name are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.12 13. Christ took his own Humane Nature into personal Union with himself in the Womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost coming upon her and the power of the Highest overshadowing her the same Power whereby the World was created Luke 1.35 So He taketh us into mystical Union and Fellowship with himself by no less than an Infinite Creating Power For we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ephes 2.10 And if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 For the accomplishing of this great Work of our new Creation in Christ the Spirit of God doth first work upon our Hearts by and with the Gospel to produce in us the Grace of Faith for if the Gospel should come to us in Word only and not in Power and in the Holy Ghost Paul might labour to plant and Apollos to water without any success because we cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God yea we shall account them foolishness until the Spirit of God enable us to discern them 1 Thess 1.5 1 Cor. 3.6 2.14 We shall never come to Christ by any teaching of Man except we also hear and learn of the Father and be drawn to Christ by his spirit John 6.44 45. And when Saving Faith is wrought in us the same Spirit giveth us fast hold of Christ by it As he openeth the Mouth of Faith to receive Christ so he filleth it with Christ or else the acting of Faith would be like a Dream of one that thinketh that he eateth and drinketh and when he awaketh he findeth himself empty The same Spirit of God did both give that Faith whereby Miracles were wrought and did work also the Miracles by it So also the same Spirit of Christ doth work Saving Faith in us and doth answer the aim and end of that Faith by giving us Union and Fellowship with Christ by it So that none of the Glory of this Work belongeth to Faith but only to Christ and his Spirit And indeed Faith is of such an humble self-denying nature that it ascribeth nothing that it receiveth to itself but all to the Grace of God and therefore God saveth us by Faith that all the Glory may be ascribed to his Free-Grace Rom. 4.16 If Adam had Strength enough in Innocency to perform the Duty of Faith as well as we yet it will not follow that he had Strength enough to raise himself above his natural state into Union with Christ because Faith doth not unite us to Christ by its own Vertue but by the Power of the Spirit working by it and with it Thus we are first passive and then active in this great work of mystical Union we are first apprehended of Christ and then we apprehend Christ Christ entereth first into the Soul to joyn himself to it by giving it the Spirit of Faith and so the Soul receiveth Christ and his Spirit by their own Power As the Sun first enlighteneth our Eyes and then we can see it by its own light We may note further to the Glory of the Grace of God that this Union is fully accomplished by Christ giving the Spirit of Faith to us even before we act that Faith in the reception of him because by this Grace or Spirit of Faith the Soul is enclined and disposed to an active receiving of Christ And no doubt Christ is thus united to many Infants who have the Spirit of Faith and yet cannot act Faith because they are not come to the use of their Understandings but those of riper years that are joyned passively to Christ by the Spirit of Faith will also joyn themselves with him actively by the Act of Faith and until they act this Faith they cannot know or enjoy their Union with Christ and the Comfort of it or make use of it in acting any other Duties of Holiness acceptably in this Life DIRECT V. We cannot attain to the Practice of true Holiness by any of our Endeavours while we continue in our natural State and are not Partakers of a new State by Vnion and Fellowship with Christ through Faith EXPLICATION IT it evident all have not that precious Faith whereby Christ dwelleth in our Hearts yea the number of those that have it is small comparatively to the whole World that lieth in Wickedness 1 Joh. 5.19 20. and many of those that at length attain unto it do
the Old or New Testament shall at last stand or fall according to those Terms Thirdly Sincere Obedience cannot be performed to all the Commands of Christ in the Gospel except it be also performed to the Moral Law as given by Moses and as obliging us by that authority Some Assertors of the Condition of Salvation by sincere Obedience to the Commands of Christ would fain be free from the authority of the Law of Moses because that justifieth none but thundereth out a Curse against all those that seek Salvation by the Works of it Gal. 3.10 11. But if they were at all justified by sincere Works their respect to Moses's Authority would not hinder their Success for many that were good Christians accounted themselves bound to obey not only the moral but the ceremonial Law and if they had sought Justification by any Works they would have sought it by those Acts 20 20 21. They knew not of any Justification by sincere Works as commanded only in the Gospel yet if they had erred in any thing absolutely necessary to Salvation the Apostles would not have tolerated their weakness And whether they will or no they must seek their Salvation by the Works of the moral Law as given by Moses or else they can never get it by sincere Obedience to the Commands of Christ Christ never loved their new Condition so well as to abolish the Mosaical Authority of the moral Law for the establishment of it he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them in the Practice required by them and hath declared that those that break one of the least of these Commandments and teach men so shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5.17 19. He commandeth us to do to men whatsoever we would they should do to us because this is the Law and the Prophets which is sufficient to prove that He would have us to account the Law authoritative to oblige us in this matter He requireth his Disciples to observe and do whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees bid them because they sate in Moses's Seat Mat. 23.23 And to come to the point in hand when Christ had occasion to answer the Questions of those that were guilty of the same Error that I am now dealing with in seeking their Salvation by their own Works He shewed them that they must obey the Commands as they were already established by the Mosaical Authority in the Scripture of the Old Testament What is written in the Law how readest thou This do and thou shalt live Luke 10.26 If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments which are Thou shalt do no Murder Thou shalt not commit Adultery c. In like manner the Apostles of Christ urged the performance of moral Duties upon Believers by the authority of the Law given by Moses The Apostle Paul exhorteth to love one another because He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law Rom. 13.8 and to honour our Father and Mother which is the first Commandment with Promise Ephes 6.2 The Apostle John exhorteth to love others as no new but an old Commandment The Apostle James exhorteth to fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self and to keep all the Commands of the Law one as well as another because He that said Do not commit Adultery said also Do not kill Jam. 2.8 10 11. Sound Protestants have accounted the denial of the Authority of the moral Law of Moses to be an Antinomian Error tho' our late Prevaricators against Antinomianism maintain this Error yet they establish a worse Error of Justification by their sincere Gospel-works I think the denomination of the Antinomians arose from this Error The Law of Moses had its Authority at first from Christ for Christ was the Lord God of Israel that ordained the Law by Angels on Mount Sinai in the hand of Moses a Mediator for the Israelites who were then his only Church and with whom we believing Gentiles are now joyned as fellow-Members of one and the same Body Eph. 3.6 And though Christ hath since abrogated some of the Commandments then given by Moses concerning figurative Ceremonies and judicial Proceedings yet he hath not anulled the obligative Authority of the moral Law but hath left it in its full force to oblige us in moral Duties that are still to be practised as when some Acts of any Parliament are repealed the Authority of the same Parliament remaineth inviolable in other Acts that are not repealed I know they object that the Ten Commandments of the Moral Law the Ministration of Death written and engraven on Stones are also done away by Christ 2 Cor. 3.7 but this maketh altogether against their Conditional Covenant for they are the ministration of Death and done not as they commanded perfect Obedience for even Christ himself commandeth us to be perfect Mat. 5.48 but as they were Conditions for procuring Life and avoiding Death established by promise of Life to the Doers and a Curse to the Breakers of them Gal. 3.10 12. The Covenant made with Israel on Mount Sinai is abolished by Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant Heb. 8.8 9 13. And the Ten Commandments bind us not as they were words of that Covenant Exod. 34.28 I mean they bind us not as Conditions of that Covenant except we seek to be justified by Works for the Law as a Covenant doth still stand in force enough to curse those that seek Salvation by their own Works Gal. 3.10 and if abolished it is only to those that are in Christ by Faith Gal. 2.19 20. 15.15 But the Ten Commandments bind us still as they were then given to a People that were at that time under the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham to shew them what Duties are holy just and good well pleasing to God and to be a Rule for their Conversation The result of all is that we must still practise moral Duties as commanded by Moses but we must not seek to be justified by our Practice If we use them as a Rule of Life not as Conditions of Justification they can be no ministration of Death or killing Letter unto us their Perfection indeed maketh them to be harder Terms to procure Life by but a better Rule to discover all Imperfections and to guide us to that Perfection which we should aim at And it will be our Wisdom not to part with the Authority of the Decalogue of Moses until our new Divines can furnish us with another System of Morality as compleat as that and as excellently composed and ordered by the Wisdom of God and more authentick than that is 4ly Those that endeavour to procure Christ's Salvation by their sincere Obedience to all the Commands of Christ do act contrary to that way of Salvation by Christ's Free-grace and Faith discovered in the
Terms you are first to do the holy Duties commanded before you have any Interest in the Life promised or any Right to lay hold of it as yours by Faith and you must practice Holiness without the forementioned means or else you can never attain to them Thus the true means are turned out of their Office and instead of being Causes they are made to be Effects and Fruits of an holy Practice And it will be in vain ever to expect such Effects and Fruits for Holiness it self with all its Effects must needs be destroyed when its necessary Causes are taken away Therefore the Apostle Paul testifieth that the way of salvation by the works of the law maketh faith void and promises of none effect And frustrateth the grace of God as if Christ died in vain and maketh Christ to be of no profit and of none effect to us as those that are fallen from grace Rom. 4.14 Gal. 2.21 5.2 4. Let us now examine the modern Doctrine of Salvation by the Condition of sincere Obedience to all the Commands of Christ and we shall quickly find it to be a chip of the same block with the former legal way of Salvation in the same manner destructive to the means of Holiness and to Holiness it self It requireth of us the Performance of sincere Obedience before we have the means necessary to produce it by making it antecedent to our Justification and Perswasion of eternal Happiness and our actual Enjoyment of Union and Fellowship with Christ and of that new Nature which is to be had only in him by Faith It destroyeth the nature of that saving Faith whereby we actually receive and enjoy Christ and all his Benefits and knocketh off our Hands from laying hold of Christ and his Salvation by telling us still as Christ told the Legalworker after all his Labour that yet we lack something Mat. 10.21 That it is Presumption to take him as our own until we have performed the Condition for our Right and Title to him which is another kind of saving Faith otherwise called sincere Obedience By this devised conditional Faith Satan keepeth many poor Souls at a bay poreing upon their own Hearts for many years together to find whether they have performed the Condition and whether they have as yet any Right to Christ for their Salvation not daring to venture to take him as their own It is a strong Partition-wall that will certainly hinder the Soul from coming to Christ until it be thrown down by the Knowledge of Salvation by grace without any procuring Condition of Works And though it be accounted but as the Payment of a Pepper-corn for a great Estate yet it is enough to break the ablest Man in the World because it debarreth him from laying hold of the only effectual means of Holiness whereby that Pepper-corn may be obtained 2dly Those that seek Salvation by the Works of the Law do therein act according to their natural State they live and walk according to the Flesh or Old-man not according to the New-state by Christ living in them I doubt not but several of them that live under the light of the Gospel are Partakers of a new State in Christ and do walk holily in it but the best in this World have in them Flesh as well as Spirit and may act according to either State in some measure and in this matter they do act only according to their carnal natural State When the believing Galatians were seduced to a Legal way of Salvation the Apostle Paul chargeth it upon them as their Folly that having begun in the spirit they would now be made perfect in the flesh Gal. 3.3 And he resembleth those that desire to be under the Law to Abraham's Son born of Hagar the Bondwoman to shew that such do walk as those that are born after the flesh not after the spirit Gal. 4.19 23 29. The Law was first given to Adam in his pure natural State to prescribe Terms for his continuance in Happiness which he then enjoyed and ever since that time the Flesh or Natural-man is married to the Law and the Law hath Dominion over a Man as long as he liveth i. e. until he be dead to his fleshly State by the Body of Christ and married to him that is risen from the dead Rom. 7.1 4. We are not at all under the Law as a Covenant of Works according to our new State in Christ as the Apostle testifieth Rom. 6.14 Ye are not under the law but under grace And Gal. 3.18 If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law From hence we may firmly conclude that none can possibly attain to true Godliness by acting according to Legal-terms because I have fully proved already that it is impossible to be godly while we are in the flesh or in a natural State and that as far as we act according to it we can do nothing but sin The Law is weak through the Flesh that it cannot bring us to fulfil its own Righteousness Rom. 8.3 4. It is married to a cross piece of flesh that is Enmity to it and can never be subject to it Rom. 8.8 It sueth the Natural-man for an old Debt of Obedience that he is utterly unable to pay since the Fall and the Success is according to the Proverb Sue a beggar and catch a louse Neither do those take a better Course that would bring themselves to Holiness by making sincere Obedience to Christ's Commands the Condition of their Salvation Their way is the same for Substance with that of the Calatians before mentioned who would be made perfect in the Flesh not by perfect Obedience but sincere as hath been shewed before Their Eudeavours to procure an Interest in Christ by their sincere Obedience do testifie against themselves that they do not act as People that are in Christ but rather as People that judge themselves to be without an Interest in Christ and to be yet to seek for it And sincere Obedience is as impossible to be attained unto as perfect Obedience if we act according to our dead natural State 3dly As the Law bereaveth of all strengthning means that are to be had by Faith in Christ and findeth us without strength in our natural State so of it self it affordeth us no Strength to fulfil its own Commandments If there had been a law given that could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law Gal. 3.21 It doth not so much as promise us life until we have performed the Obedience required by it The man that doth these things shall live by them Rom. 6.5 It is well called a voice of words Heb. 12.19 because its high and big words are not acompanied with any enlivening Power and the Doctrine of Life and Salvation by sincere Obedience is not better natur'd or more bountiful to us For it exacteth of us the Performance of the Condition before it alloweth us any Life or Salvation by Christ
Righteousness and Holiness and all Salvation only by Fellowship with him through Faith therefore it is no affront to Christ or slighting and contemning of the Justice and Holiness of God to come to Christ while we are polluted sinners but rather it is an affronting and contemning of the saving-Saving-grace Merit and Fulness of Christ if we endeavour to make our selves righteous and holy before we receive Christ himself and all Righteousness and Holiness in him by Faith Christ loathed not to touch a Leper and condescended to wash the feet of his Disciples and did not expect that they should be washed and perfumed before hand as some great ones of the World are said to do when they wash the feet of Poor-men in imitating of Christ Thirdly Those that receive Christ with an unfeigned Faith shall never want a wedding garment to adorn them in the sight of God Faith it self is very precious in the sight of God and most holy 2 Pet. 1.1 Jude 20. God loveth it because it giveth the glory of our Salvation only to the Free-grace of God in Christ Rom. 4.16 and renounceth all dependance on any conditions that we can perform to procure a Right to Christ or to make our selves acceptable to him It containeth in it an hearty Love to Christ as Saviour and an hungring and thirsting Appetite for his Salvation and it is the Mouth whereby the Soul feedeth hungrily upon him What Wedding garment can sinners bring with them more delightful than this to their bountiful God whose great Design is to manifest the abundant riches of his glorious Grace and Bounty in this Wedding feast The Father himself loveth them because they love Christ and believe that he came out from God Jo. 16.27 But yet we see that the Excellency of Faith lyeth in this that it accounteth not it self or any other work of ours a sufficient Ornament to make us acceptable in the sight of God It will not be our Wedding-garment it self but it buyeth of Christ white raiment that we may be clothed and that the shame of our nakedness may not appear Rev. 3.18 Tho' it loveth and desireth the Free-gift of Holiness yet it abandons all thoughts of practising Holiness immediately before we come to Christ for an holy nature It putteth on Christ himself and in him all things that pertain to life and godliness Thus every true Believer is clothed with the Sun Rev. 12.1 even with the Sun of Righteousness the Lord Jesus who is pleased to be himself both our Wedding-garment and Feast and all our spiritual and eternal Happiness For the more full Satisfaction and Consolation of those distressed Souls that lye under the terrible apprehensions of their own sinfulness and the wrath of God and dare not venture to trust stedfastly on Christ for their Salvation until they can find in themselves some change from Sin to Holiness I shall mention particularly several of those things that such would find in themselves and I shall shew that if some of them be not partly comprehended in Faith it self they are fruits and consequences of Faith and therefore they cannot be rationally expected before we trust on Christ for our Salvation First They think it necessary to repent before they believe on Christ for their Salvation because Repentance is absolutely necessary to Salvation Luke 13.3 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish and Christ placeth the Duty of Repentance before Faith Mar. 1.15 Repent and believe the Gospel but we are to know that Christ requireth Repentance first as the end to be aimed at and Faith in the next place as the only means of attaining to it and tho' the end be first in intention yet the means are first in Practice and Execution tho' both be absolutely necessary to Salvation For what is Repentance but an hearty turning from sin to God and his Service and what way is there to turn to God but through Christ who is the way the truth and the life without whom none cometh to the Father Joh. 14.6 And what way is there of coming to Christ but by Faith therefore if we would turn to God in the right way we must first come to Christ by Faith and Faith must go before Repentance as the great Instrument afforded us by the Grace of God for the effectual Performance of it Repentance is indeed a Duty which sinners owe naturally to God but the great Question is how shall sinners be able to perform it This Question is resolved only by the Gospel of Christ Repent and believe The way to repent is to begin with believing Therefore the great Doctrine of John in his Baptism of Repentance was That they should believe on him that should come after him that is on Christ Jesus Acts 19.4 2dly Regeneration also is necessary to Salvation Joh. 3 3. and therefore many would find it wrought in themselves before they trust on Christ for Salvation but consider what Regeneration is It is a new begetting or creating us in Christ 1 Cor. 4.15 Eph. 2.10 in whom we are Partakers of a divine nature far different from that which we received from the first Adam Now Faith is the uniting Grace whereby Christ dwelleth in us and we in him as hath been shewed and therefore it is the first Grace wrought in our Regeneration and the means of all the rest when you truly believe you are regenerated and not till then Those that receive Christ by believing and those only are the Sons of God which are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.12 13. 3dly They account it necessary to receive Christ as Lord and Law-giver by a sincere Resignation of themselves to his Government and a Resolution to obey his Law before they receive him as their Saviour This is one principal Lesson of the new Divinity and such a receiving Christ as Lord is made to be the great act of saving Faith without which such Faith as I have described whereby we trust on Christ for Salvation is reckoned no better than gross Presumption They teach that Christ will not bestow his Salvation on those that do not first yield their subjection to his Kingly Authority but he calleth them his enemies because they would not that he should reign over them and requireth that they be brought and slain before him Luke 19.27 And I own it as a certain truth that Christ will save none but those that are brought to resign up themselves sincerely to the Obedience of his royal Authority and Laws But yet we must observe that they are not brought to this holy Resignation or to any sincere purpose and resolution of Obedience before they receive his Salvation but rather by receiving it Men that were never throughly sensible of their natural death in sin do easily bring themselves to resolve universal Obedience to God when they are on their Death-beds or in any eminent danger or when they would prepare
we must perceive it to make us love him for if we look upon him as a God contrary to us that hateth us and will damn us our own innate Self-love will breed hatred and heart-risings against him in spite of our Hearts that love which is the end of the Law must flow from Faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 And if Hatred work in thee more than Love how canst thou expect good thoughts of God or any other than blaspheming or at least murmuring thoughts of him in this condition ill-will never speaketh or thinketh well The first right holy Thoughts thou canst have of God are thoughts of his Grace and Mercy to thy Soul in Christ which are included in the Grace of Faith Get these thoughts first by believing in Christ and they will breed in thee love to God and all good thoughts of him and free thee from blasphemous and murmuring Thoughts by degrees for love thinks no evil 1 Cor. 13.9 Then wilt thou be able to account God just and merciful if he had damned thee and extended his Grace to others and thou wilt be able to think well of his Holiness and of his Decrees which many cannot endure to hear of The way to get rid of thy raging Lusts is by Faith that purifieth the Heart and worketh by Love Act. 15.9 Gal. 5.6 The Soul must be brought to take pleasure in God and Christ by Faith or else it will lust after fleshly and worldly Pleasures and the more you strive against Lusts without Faith the more they are stirred up though you prevail so far as to restrain the fulfilling of them beg a holy Fear of God with fear of coming short of the promised Rest through unbelief Heb. 4.1 Such a Fear is an Ingredient of Faith and it will breed in us a reverential yea a Child-like fear of God and his Goodness Heb. 12.28 Hos 3.5 We must have Grace whereby we may serve God with Reverence c. It is in the Margent we must have or hold fast Grace and there is no other way to hold fast Grace but by Faith and this will quickly calm all pannick and tormenting Horror And if you would be free from carelesness and slightning the Wrath of God your way is first to avoid dispairing by believing for People grow careless by dispairing and for their own quiet they will endeavour to slight Evils which they have no hope to prevent according to the Proverb Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die 1 Cor. 15.32 True Humiliation for Sin is either a part or fruit of Faith for on our believing we shall remember our own evil ways and doings that were not good and shall loath our selves in our own sight for all our Abominations Ezek. 36.31 We shall also then willingly renounce our own Righteousness and account it but dung that we may win Christ by Faith Phil. 3.7 8. But Beggars will make the most of all their nasty Rags till they be furnished with better Cloaths and Cripples will not cast away their Crutches until they have a better support to lean on Godly Sorrow for Sin is wrought in us by believing the pardoning Grace of God as it is found by experience that a Pardon from a Prince will sometimes sooner draw tears from a stubborn Malefactor than the fear of a Halter will thus the sinful Woman was brought to wash Christ's Feet with her Tears Luke 7.37 38. We are not like to be sorry for grieving God with our Sins while we look upon him as an enemy that will ease himself well enough of his burthen and right himself upon us by our everlasting destruction The belief of God's pardoning and accepting Grace is a necessary means to bring us to an ingenuous Confession of Sins The People freely confessed their sins when they were baptized of John in Jordan for the remission of sins Mark 1.4 5. The Confession of Despairers is forced like the extorted Confessions and Cryings out of Malefactors upon the Rack A Pardon sooner openeth the Mouth to an ingenuous Confession than confess and be hanged or confess and be damned therefore if you would freely confess your sins believe first that God is faithful and just to forgive your sins through Christ 1 Joh. 1.9 And if you would pray to God or praise him with lively Affections you must first believe that God will hear you and give you what is best for you for Christ's sake Joh. 16.23 24. otherwise your praying will be only from the Teeth outward for how shall you call on him on whom you have not believed Rom. 10.14 You must come first to Christ the Altar by Faith that by him you may offer the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually Heb. 13.10 15. Finally to pass from Particulars to the general Assertion laid down in the Direction if you ask What shall we do that we may work the Works of God or get any saving Qualifications I must direct you first to Faith as the Work of Works and the great saving Preparatory to all good Qualifications by answering in our Saviour's words This is the Work of God that ye believe in him whom he hath sent Joh. 6.28 29. DIRECT VIII Be sure to seek for Holiness of Heart and Life only in its due order where God hath placed it after Vnion with Christ Justification and the Gift of the Holy Ghost and in that order seek it earnestly by Faith as a very necessary part of your Salvation EXPLICATION I Hope the Reader will observe warily in all these Directions that the Holiness aimed at as the great End in the whole Discourse consisteth not in the Grace or Act of Faith required peculiarly by the Gospel which though it be a saving Gift of Christ yet is here considered rather as a means precedent to the Reception of Christ and all his Salvation then a part of his Salvation received But the Holiness aimed at consisteth in Conformity to the whole Moral Law to which we are naturally obliged if their had never been any Gospel or any such Duty as believing in Christ for Salvation Now in this Direction three Things are contained that are very necessary to guide us to the attainment of this great End and therefore worthy of our serious Consideration First It is a Matter of high concern to be acquainted with the due Place and Order wherein God hath settled this holy Practice in the Mystery of our Salvation and a great Point of Christian Wisdom to seek it only in that order we know that God is the God of Order and that his infinite Wisdom hath appeared in appointing the Order of his Creatures which we are forced to observe for attainment of our ends in worldly things so also in Spiritual things God hath made an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure 2 Sam. 23.5 the Benefits of it have an orderly dependence each upon other as Links of the same golden Chain though several of them and a Title to them
be sincere so that they cannot see assurance in themselves therefore they conclude that Assurance must not be accounted absolutely necessary to justifying Faith and Salvation lest we should make the Hearts of doubting Saints sad and drive them to despair They account that former Protestants were guilty of a manifest Absurdity in making assurance to be of the Nature and Definition of Saving-Faith because all that hear the Gospel are bound to Saving-Faith and yet they are not bound absolutely to believe that they themselves shall be saved for then many of them would be bound to believe that which is not declared in the Gospel concerning them in particular yea that which is a plain lye because the Gospel sheweth that many of those that are called are not chosen to Salvation and that perish for ever Mat. 20.16 No wonder if the appearance of so great an Absurdity move many to imagine that Saving-Faith is a trusting or resting on Christ as the only sufficient means of Salvation without any assurance or that it is a desiring and venturing to trust or rely upon him in a mere State of Suspence and Uncertainty concerning our Salvation or with a probable Opinion or conjectural Hope of it at best Another Objection against this Doctrine of Assurance is that it destroyeth Self-examination bringeth forth the evil Fruits of Pride and Arrogancy as if they knew their places in Heaven already before the Day of Judgment causeth carelesness of Duty carnal Security all manner of Licentiousness And this maketh them commend doubtfulness of our Salvation as necessary to maintain in us Humility Religious Fear Watchfulness much searching and trying our spiritual State and Ways diligence in good Works and all Deyotion Against all those contrary Imaginations I shall endeavour to maintain this ancient Protestant Doctrine of assurance as I have expressed in the Direction and first I shall lay down some Observations for the right understanding of it which will be sufficient to turn the edge of the strongest Objections that can be made against it First Observe diligently that the Assurance directed unto is not a Perswasion that we have already received Christ and his Salvation or that we have been already brought in to a State of Grace but only that God is pleased graciously to give Christ and his Salvation unto us and to bring us into a State of Grace though we have been altogether in a State of Sin and Death until this present time so that this Doctrine doth not at all tend to breed Presumption in wicked and unregenerate Men that their state is good already but only encourageth them to come to Christ confidently for a good State I acknowledge that we may yea many must be taught to doubt whether their present State be good and that it is Humility so to do and that we must find out the Certainty and Sincerity of our Faith and Obedience by Self-examination before we can have a well-grounded Assurance that we are in a State of Grace and Salvation already and that such an assurance belongeth to that which they call the reflect Act of Faith if any act of Faith can be made of it being spiritual Sence or feeling of what is in my self and is not of the Essence of that Faith whereby we are justified and saved and that many precious Saints are without it and subject to many Doubts that are contrary to it so that they may not know at all that it shall go well with them at the Day of Judgment and that it may be sometimes intermitted if not wholly lost after it is gotten and that we should strive to walk holily that we may attain to it because it is very useful for our growth and increase in Faith and in all Holiness Most Protestants amongst us when they speak or write of Assurance mean only that which is by Reflection and I have said enough briefly to shew that what I assert is consistent with the Doctrine which is commonly received concerning it and destructive to none of the good Fruits of it therefore not guilty of those Evils that some falsly charge it with This kind of Assurance which I speak of answereth not the Question Whither I am already in a state of Grace and Salvation There is another great Question that the Soul must answer that it may get into a state of Grace Whether God be graciously pleased now to bestow Christ and his Salvation upon me though I have been hitherto a very wicked Creature We must be sure to resolve this Question comfortably by another kind of Assurance in the direct act of Faith wherein we are to perswade our selves without reflecting upon any good Qualifications in our selves That God is ready graciously to receive us into the Arms of his saving Mercy in Christ notwithstanding all our former Wickedness according to the gracious Promise I will call them my people which were not my people and her beloved which was not beloved and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them Ye are not my people there shall they be called the children of the living God Rom. 9.25 26. Secondly The Assurance directed unto is not a Perswasion of our Salvation whatever we do or however we live and walk but only in a limited way through meer Free-grace in Christ by partaking of Holiness as well as Forgiveness and by walking in the way of Holiness to the Enjoyment of the Glory of God We shall not heartily desire or endeavour to assure our selves of such a Salvation as this if we be not brought first to see our own Sinfulness and Misery and to despair of our own Righteousness and Strength and to hunger and thirst for the sanctifying as well as justifying Grace of God in Christ that so we may walk in the ways of Holiness to the Enjoyment of Heavenly Glory The Faith whereby we receive Christ must have in it not only a Perswasion of Happiness but these and the like good Qualifications that will make it a most holy Faith Certainly an Assurance thus qualified will not beget any Pride in us but rather Humility and self-loathing except any account it Pride to rejoyce and glory in Christ when we have no Confidence in the Flesh Phil. 3.3 It will not destroy religious Fear and breed carnal Security but rather it will make us fear going aside from Christ our only Resuge and Security and walking after the Flesh Noah had cause to enter into the Ark and to abide there with Assurance of his Preservation yet he might well be afraid to venture out of the Ark because he was perswaded that Continuance in the Ark was his only Safery from perishing in the Flood And how can a Perswasion of Salvation in a way of Holiness breed Sloathfulness in Duty Carelesness and Licentiousness It doth rather mightily allure us and stir us up to be always abounding in the Work of the Lord for as much as we know that our labour
is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.5 They that are perswaded of the Free-grace of God toward them in Christ are not indeed sollicitous about earning their Salvation by their own legal Works and Satan is ready to suggest to them that this is a sinful Carelesness and tendeth to Licenciousness but they that will believe this false Suggestion of Satan shew plainly that they do not yet know what it is to serve God in Love and that they are held in to all their Obedience by the Bit and Bridle of slavish Fear as the horse and mule that have no understanding Psal 32.9 Thirdly Beware of thinking so highly of this Assurance as if it were inconsistent with any doubting in the same Soul A great Reason why many Protestants have receded from the Doctrine of their Ancestors in this Point is because they think there can be no true Assurance of Salvation in any that are troubled with Doubtings as they find many be whom they cannot but own as true Believers and precious Saints of God True indeed this Assurance must be contrary to Doubtings in the nature of it and so if it be perfect in the highest Degree it would exclude all Doubting out of the Soul and it doth now exclude in some Degree But is there not Flesh as well as Spirit in the best Saints on Earth Gal. 5.17 Is there not a law in their members warring against the law of their minds Rom. 7.23 May not one that truly believeth say Lord help my unbelief Mark 9.24 Can any on Earth say they have received any Grace in the highest Degree and that they are wholly free from the contrary Corruption Why then should we think that Assurance cannot be true except it be perfect and free the Soul from all Doubtings The Apostle accounts it a great Blessing to the Thessalonians that they had much Assurance intimating that some true Assurance might be in a less Degree 1 Thess 1.5 Peter had some good Assurance of Christ's Help when he walked on the Water at Christ's Command and yet he had some Doubtfulness in him as his Fear shewed when he saw the Wind boisterous He had some Faith contrary to doubting though it were but little as Christ's Words to him shew O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt Matth. 14.29 30 31. It is strange if the Flesh and the Devil should never oppose a true Assurance and assault it with Doubtings A Believer may be sometimes so overwhelmed with Doubtings that he may not be able to perceive an Assurance in himself he is so far from knowing his Place in Heaven already as some scoffingly object that he will say that he knoweth not any Assurance that he hath of being there and needeth diligent self-examination to find it out yet if at that time he can blame his Soul for doubting Why art thou cast down O my soul why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him Psal 42.11 If he can condemn his Doubtings as sinful and say with himself This is mine infirmity Psal 77.10 These Doubtings are of the Flesh and of the Devil if he still endeavour to call God Father and complain to him that he doubteth whether he be his Father and pray that God will give him the Assurance of his Fatherly Love which he is not sensible of and dispel those Fears and Doubtings I say that such an one hath some true Assurance though he must strive to grow to a higher Degree for if he were not perswaded of the Truth of the Love of God towards him he could not rationally condemn his Fears and Doubts concerning it as sinful neither could he rationally pray to God as his Father or that God would assure him of that Love that he doth not think to be true Do but grant that it is the Nature of saving Faith thus to resist and struggle with slavish Fears of Wrath and doubting of our own Salvation and you grant in effect that there is and must be something of Assurance of our Salvation in Saving faith whereby it resisteth Doubtings and you are in effect of the same Judgment with me in the Assertion however strange my Expressions seem to you If this that I have said concerning our Imperfection in Assurance as well as in other Graces were well considered this ancient Protestant Doctrine would be freed much from Prejudice and gain more Esteem among us Fourthly In the last place let it be well observed that the Reason why we are to assure our selves in our Faith that God freely giveth Christ and his Salvation to us particularly is not because it is a Truth before we believe it but because it becometh a certain Truth when we believe it and because it will never be true except we do in some measure perswade and assure our selves that it is so We have no absolute Promise or Declaration in Scripture that God certainly will or doth give Christ and his Salvation to any one of us in particular neither do we know it to be true already by Scripture or Sense or Reason before we assure our selves absolutely of it yea we are without Christ's Salvation at present in a state of Sin and Misery under the Curse and Wrath of God Only I shall prove that we are bound by the Command of God thus to assure our selves and the Scripture doth sufficiently warrant us that we shall not deceive our selves in believing a Lie but according to our Faith so it shall be to us Matth. 9.29 This is a strange kind of Assurance far different from other Ordinary kinds and therefore no Wonder if it be found weak and imperfect and difficult to be obtained and it be assaulted with many Doubtings We are constrained to believe other things on the clear Evidence we have that they are true and would remain true whether we believe them or no so that we cannot deny our Assent without rebelling against the Light of our Sences Reason or Conscience but here our Assurance is not impressed on our Thoughts by any Evidence of the thing but we must work it out in our selves by the Assistance of the Spirit of God and thereby we bring our own Thoughts into Captivity to the Obedience of Christ None but God can justly require of us this kind of Assurance because he only calleth those things that are not as tho they were Rom. 4.17 He only can give Existence to things that yet are not and make a thing to be true upon our believing it that was not true before He only can make good that Promise What things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them Mark 11.24 Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not Lament 3.37 Therefore this Faith is due to God only and greatly redowndeth to his Glory Men will often require a Believing something like it as when one says I will forgive your Offence
and be your Friend if I can find that you believe it and that you take me for a Friend but their fallible Word is not sufficient ground to make us perswade our selves absolutely that we shall have their promised favour The Faith of Miracles gives us some light in this matter Christ assured them on whom they were wrought and who had Power given them of working them that the Miracles should be wrought if they believed without doubting of the Event Mark 11. And there is a Reason for this Resemblance because the end of working Miracles was to confirm the Doctrine of the Gospel of Salvation by Faith in Christ's Name as the Scriptures clearly shew and indeed the Salvation of a Sinner is a very great Miracle It is reported that Wizards do often require those that come to them that they should believe that they shall obtain what they desire of them or at least that they are able to fulfil their Desires whereby the Devil the Master of those Wizards sheweth himself to be God's Ape and that he would fain have that Honour and Glory ascribed to himself that is due to God alone Having thus explained the Nature of that Assurance which I have directed unto I shall now produce several Arguments to prove that there is and must necessarily be such an Assurance or Perswasion of our Salvation in saving-Saving-Faith it self First This Assurance of Salvation is implyed in the Description before given of that Faith whereby we receive Christ and his Salvation into our Hearts I described Faith to be a Grace of the Spirit whereby we heartily believe the Gospel and also believe on Christ as he is revealed and freely promised to us therein for all his Salvation and I shewed in the Explanation that believing on Christ is the same with resting relying leaning staying our selves on Christ or God through Christ for our Salvation It may be some will like that Description the better because Faith was there described by Terms that are ordinarily used even by those that deny the necessity of Assurance but those ordinary Terms do sufficiently include Assurance in the nature of Faith and they cannot stand without it and this sheweth that many hold the Doctrine of Assurance implicitly and profess it though they think the contrary Believing on Christ for Salvation as freely promised to us must needs include a Dependance on Christ with a Perswasion that Salvation shall be freely given as it is freely promised to us Believing with a divine Faith grounded on the infallible Truth of the Free-promise if it did not in some measure exclude a mere Suspence and wavering Opinion or Conjecture were not worthy to be so called Some may be so absurd as to say that Faith is only a believing that we shall be saved by Christ if we perform such Conditions as he requireth and then indeed it will leave us where it found us as to any certainty of Salvation until those Conditions be performed but I have already prevented such an Absurdity by shewing that this believing on Christ is it self not only the Condition of our Salvation but also the Instrument whereby we actually receive it Believing being the proper Act of Faith must needs have the same contraries to it as staggering Rom. 4.20 Wavering Heb. 10.29 Doubting Matth. 14.31 Fear Mark 5.36 These contraries do much illustrate the nature of Faith and do shew that believing must have some Confidence in it else it would have doubting in the very nature of it for what Man that understandeth the Preciousness of his immortal Soul and his Danger of loosing it can ever avoid Fear Doubting and Trouble of Heart by any believing whereby he doth not at all assure himself of his Salvation The other Terms of trusting and resting on Jesus Christ c. whereby Faith is often described by orthodox Teachers must include Assurance of Salvation because they signifie the same thing with believing on Christ the Soul must have its sufficient Support to beat it up against Oppressing Fears Troubles Cares Despair that it may thus trust and rest The right manner of trusting and hoping in the Lord is by assuring our selves against all Fears and Doubtings That the Lord is our God and he is become our Salvation I trusted on thee O Lord I said thou art my God Psal 31.14 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer my strength in whom I will trust Psal 18.2 Behold God is my salvation I will trust and not be afraid Isa 12.2 O my soul hope thou in God who is the health of my countenance and my God Psal 42.16 True hope is grounded on God only that he will bless us that it may be an anchor for the soul sure and stedfast Heb. 6.17.18 19. If you trust relie and stay your selves on Christ or hope in him without assuring your selves at all of Salvation by him you make no better use of him than if he were a broken reed and if you would stay your selves on the Lord you must look on him as your God as the Prophet teacheth Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God Isai 50. 10. If you will rest in the Lord you must believe that he dealeth bountifully with you Psal 116.7 or else for ought you know you make your Bed in Hell and you will shew little regard of Christ and of your own Soul if you dare to rest under the Wrath of God without any Perswasion of a sure Interest in Christ People may please themselves with such a trusting or resting c. when they are at ease but in time of Temptation it vanisheth away and appeareth to be no true Faith but is turned into Shame The Soul that liveth in such wavering and doubting concerning Salvation doth not stay it self nor rest at all but is like a Wave of the Sea driven with the Wind and tossed he is a double minded man unstable in all his ways Jam. 1.6 If you continue in meer Suspence and Doubtfulness of Salvation by Christ your Desire to trust is but a lazy woulding without any fixed Resolution and you dare not yet venture to trust on him stedfastly If you call it only your desire to trust and relie on Jesus Christ I may answer that you cannot do thus much in a right manner except you desire and venture to perswade and assure your selves of your Salvation by Christ notwithstanding all the Causes that you have to doubt and fear the contrary If it be objected that we may trust on Christ only as a sufficient means of Salvation without any Assurance of the Effect I shall acknowledge that the sufficiency of God and Christ is a good ground for us to rest on but we must understand by it not only a sufficiency of Power but also of Good-will and Mercy towards us For what have we to do more with the Sufficiency of God's and Christ's Power than fallen Angels without his Good-will towards us and if
we are the children of God and if children then heirs Rom. 8.15 16. Gal. 4.6 And the Apostle tells the Ephesians that after they believed they were sealed with the Holy Spirit which was the Earnest of their Inheritance Eph. 1.13 14. i. e. They were sealed from the same time that they believed for the original Words are in the same Tense If this Witness Seal and Earnest of the Spirit had not been Ordinary to Believers it would not have been sufficient to prove that they were the Children of God and such manner of arguing might have driven some to despair that wanted this Witness Seal and Earnest Let us enquire now whether the Spirit beareth witness that we are the Children of God and enables us to cry Abba Father by the direct Act or by that which they call the Reflect Act of Faith for we must not think that it is done by an Enthusiasm without any ordinary means nor can we reasonably imagine that no true Believers can call God Father by the Guidance of the Spirit but only those few that are so sure of their own Sincerity that by reflecting upon it they can ground an Act of Faith concerning their own Interest in Christ no surely therefore we may judge rather that the Spirit worketh this in us by giving us saving Faith it self whereby all true Believers are enabled to trust assuredly on Christ for the Enjoyment of the Adoption of Children and all his Salvation according to the Free Promise of God and to call God Father without reflecting on any good Qualifications in our selves and by the direct Act of it For the Spirit is received by the direct Act of Faith Gal. 3.2 And so he is the Spirit of Adoption and Comfort to all that receive him They that assert that the Spirit witnesseth our Adoption only by assuring us of the Sincerity of our Faith Love and other gracious Qualifications and by the reflect Act of Faith do teach also commonly that you must again try whether the Spirit thus witnessing be the Spirit of Truth or of Delusion by searching narrowly whether our inward Grace be sincere or counterfeit so that hereby the Testimony of the Spirit is rendred so hard to be discerned that it standeth us in no stead but all our Assurance is made at last to depend on our own certain Knowledge of our own Sincerity There are several other Evidences to shew That Believers generally were perswaded of their Salvation in the Apostles times they loved and waited for the coming of Christ to judge the World 1 Cor. 1.7 2 Tim. 4.8 They loved all the Saints for the Hope that was laid up for them in Heaven Col. 1.3 4. The Corinthians that were very carnal and but Babes in Christ were perswaded that they should judge the World and Angels and that their Bodies were Members of Christ and the Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.2 3 15 19. The very first coming of the Gospel to the Thessalonians was in the Holy Ghost and much Assurance so that they received it with much Affliction with Joy of the Holy Ghost when as yet they had no Considerable time to get Assurance by reflecting on their good Qualifications 1 Thess 1.5 6. Likewise the believing Hebrews when they were illuminated at their first Conversion took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods knowing that they had in Heaven a better and more enduring Substance and this was their Confidence which they were not to cast off because the Just liveth by Faith and therefore it appeareth that this Confidence belonged necessarily to justifying saving Faith Heb. 10 32 34 35 38. Now let those that alledge the Examples or Experiences of many modern Christians to disprove all that I have asserted and consider well whether these are fit to be laid in the Ballance against all the Scripture Examples and Experiences that I have produced out of the Old and New Testament I confess that Assurance of Salvation is more rarely professed by Christians in these times than formerly and we may thank some Teachers for it that have deserted the Doctrine of former Protestants in this Point and vented against it several Errors such as have been already named and now would take Advantage to confirm the Truth of their Doctrines from those Doubtings in Christians that have been chiefly occasioned by it But however the nature of saving Faith is still the same and I assert that in these Days as well as formerly it always hath in it some Assurance of Salvation by Christ which doth and will appear at least in resisting and condemning all Doubtings and praying against them and endeavouring to trust assuredly and to call God Father except in extraordinary Desertions by which our Gase must not be tried We are not to trust the Judgment of many concerning themselves they will judge falsly that they have no Assurance at all because they know not yet by Marks and Signs that they are in a state of Grace already or because they think that there is no Assurance when there are many Doubtings and because it is so weak and so much oppressed with Doubting that it can hardly be discerned as Life in a fainting Fit but if their Judgments be better informed they may be brought to discern some Assurance in themselves We are also to take heed of mistaking those for true Believers that are not so and of judging this Point by their Experiences which is a vulgar Error The blind Charity of some moveth them to take all for true Believers which are full of Doubts and Troubles concerning their Salvation though it may be they only be convinced of Sin and brought to some Zeal of God that is not according to the Knowledge of the way of Salvation by Christ and they think it Duty to comfort such Ignorant Persons by perswading of them that their state is good and their Faith right though they have no Assurance of Salvation Thus they are brought to judge falsly concerning the nature of Faith out of their blind Charity to such as are yet in Ignorance and Unbelief and instead of comforting such they rather take the direct way to harden them in their natural state and to divert them from seeking Consolation by Saving Faith in Christ and to ruine their Souls for ever Fifthly The chief Office of this Faith in its direct saving Act is to receive Christ and his Salvation actually into our Hearts as hath been proved which Office cannot be rationally performed except we do in some measure perswade our Hearts and assure our selves of the Enjoyment of him as the Body receiveth things into it self by the Hands and Mouth So the Soul receiveth these things to it self and layeth actual Hold on them by the Faculty of the Will making choice of them and embracing them in a way of present Enjoyment and Possession as it doth by the Faculty of the Understanding see and apprehend them thus the Soul receiveth Comfort from outward things As a righteous
Person cannot receive inward Comfort from outward things as from worldly Estate Wife Husband Friends c. except it chuse them as good and count them his own by a Right and Title This is the only rational way whereby the Soul can actively lay hold on Christ and take actual Possession of him and his Salvation as he is freely offered and promised to us in the Gospel by the Grace of Faith which God hath appointed to be our great Instrument for the receiving of him and closing with him If we do not make choice of Christ as our only Salvation and Happiness or if we be altogether in a slate of Suspence and doubting whether God will be pleased to give Christ to us or no it is evident that our Souls are quite loose from Christ and have no Holdfast or Enjoyment of him They do not so much as pretend to any actual receiving or laying hold or choosing of him neither are they fully satisfied that it is lawful for them so to do but rather they are yet to seek whether they have any good Ground and Right to lay hold on him or no. Let any rational Man judge whether the Soul doth or can put forth any sufficient Act for the Reception and Enjoyment of Christ as our Saviour Head or Husband while it is yet in Doubt whether it be the Will of Christ to be joyned with us in such a near Relation can a Woman honestly receive any one as her Husband without being assured that he is fully willing to be her Husband The same may be said concerning the several Parts of Christ's Salvation which are to be received by Faith It is evident that we do not aright receive the Benefit of Remission of Sins for the purging of our Consciences from that Guilt that lyeth upon them unless we have an assured Perswasion of God's forgiving them we do not actually receive into our Hearts our Reconciliation with God and Adoption of Children and the Title to an everlasting Inheritance until we can assure our selves that God is graciously pleased to be our God and Father and take us to be his Children and Heirs We do not actually receive any sufficient Strength to encourage our Hearts to Holiness in all Difficulties until we can stedfastly believe that God is with us and will not fail nor forsake us Hence then we may firmly conclude that whoso seeketh to be saved by Faith and doth not seek to have Assurance or Confidence of his own Salvation doth but deceive himself and delude his Soul with a mere Fansie instead of saving Faith and doth in effect seek to be saved in his corrupt Natural state without receiving and laying actual hold of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Salvation Sixthly It is also a great and necessary Office of Saving Faith to purifie the Heart and to enable us to live and walk in the Practice of all holy Duties by the Grace of Christ and by Christ himself living in us as hath been shewed before which Office Faith is not able to perform except some Assurance of our own Interest in Christ and his Salvation be comprehended in the nature of it If we would live to God not our selves but by Christ living in us according to Paul s Example we must be able to assure our selves as he did Christ loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 We are taught that if we live in the Spirit we shall walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 It would be high Presumption if we should endeavour to walk above our natural Strength and Power by the Spirit before we have made sure of our living by the Spirit I have shewed that we cannot make Use of the comfortable Benefits of the Saving Grace of Christ whereby the Gospel doth engage and encourage us to an holy Practice except we have some Confidence of our own Interest in those saving Benefits If we do not assuredly believe that we are dead to Sin and alive to God through Christ and risen with Christ and not under the Law but under Grace and Members of Christ's Body the Temple of his Spirit the dear Children of God it would be Hypocrisie to serve God upon the Account of such Priviledges as if we reckoned our selves to be Partakers of them he that thinks he should doubt of his Salvation is not a fit Disciple for this manner of Doctrine and he may reply to the Preachers of the Gospel if you would bring me to Holiness you must make Use of other more essectual Arguments for I cannot practice upon these Principles because I have not Faith enough to believe that I have any Interest in them some Arguments taken from the Justice and Wrath of God against Sinners and his Mercy towards those that perform the Condition of sincere Obedience would work more powerfully upon me O what a miserable worthless kind of saving Faith is this that cannot fit a Believer to practice in a Gospel manner upon the most pure and powerful Principles of Grace but rather leaveth him to work upon Legal Principles which can never bring him to serve God acceptably out of Love and as such a Faith faileth wholly in the right manner of obeying upon Gospel Principles so it faileth also in the very matter of some great Duties which are of such a nature that they include Assurance of God's Love in the right Performance of them such are those great Duties of Peace with God rejoycing in the Lord always Hope that maketh not ashamed owning the Lord as our God and our Saviour praying to him as our Father in Heaven offering up Body and Soul as an acceptable Sacrifice to him casting all our Cares of Body and Soul upon him Contentment and hearty Thanksgiving in every Condition making our Boast in the Lord triumphing in his Praise rejoycing in Tribulation putting on Christ in our Baptism receiving Christ's Body as broken for us and his Blood as shed for us in the Lord's Supper committing our Souls willingly to God as our Redeemer when ever he shall be pleased to call for us loving Christ's Second Appearance and looking for it as that blessed Hope when we fall into any sudden Doubting whether we are in a state of Grace already when we are called to any present Undertaking as to partake of the Lord's Supper or any Duty that requires Assurance to the right Performance of chem we must relieve our selves by trusting confidently in Christ for the present Gift of his Salvation or else we shall be driven to omit the Duty or not to perform it rightly or sincerely can we judge our selves already in a state of Grace by the reflect Act of Faith if we do not find that we perform these Duties at least several of them sincerely or if we do not find that we have such a holy Faith as doth enable or incline us to the Performance of them And can we be thus enabled and inclined by any Faith that is without some true Assurance of
our Salvation Therefore I conclude that we must necessarily have some Assurance of our Salvation in the direct Act of Faith whereby we are justified sanctified and saved before we can upon any good ground assure our selves that we are already in a state of Salvation by that which they call the Reflect Act. Give me such a saving Faith as will produce such Fruits as these No other Faith will work by Love and therefore will not avail to Salvation in Christ Gal. 5.6 The Apostle James putteth thee upon shewing thy Faith by thy Works James 2.18 And in this Trial this Faith of Assurance cometh off with high Praise and Honour When God calleth his People to work outward Miracles by it all things have been possible to them and it hath frequently brought forth such Works of Righteousness as may be deservedly esteemed great Spiritual Miracles from hence hath proceeded that Heroick Fortitude of the People of God whereby their absolute Obedience to God hath shined forth in doing and suffering those great things which are recorded in the holy Scriptures and in the Histories of the Church And if we be ever called to the fiery Trial as Protestants formerly were we shall find their Doctrine of Assurance to encourage us in suffering for the sake of Christ Seventhly The contrary Doctrine which excludeth Assurance out of the Nature of Saving Faith bringeth forth many evil Fruits it tendeth to bereave our Souls of all Assurance of our Salvation and solid Comfort which is the Life of Religion by placing it after sincere universal Obedience whereas if we have them not first we can never attain to this Obedience and to any Assurance that dependeth on it as hath been proved and this as far as it prevails makes us subject to continual Doubtings concerning our Salvation and to tormenting Fears of Wrath which casteth out true Love to God and can produce no better than slavish hypocritical Service It is one of the principal Pillars whereby manifold Superstitions in Popery are supported as their Monkish Orders their Satisfactions for Sin by Works of Penance Bodily Macerations Whippings Pilgrimages Indulgences trusting on the Merits of Saints c. When once Men have lost the Knowledge of the right way to assure themselves of Salvation they will catch at any Straw to avoid Drowning in the Gulph of Despair There is no way to administer any solid Comfort to the wounded Spirits of those that see themselves void of all Holiness under the Wrath and Curse of God dead in Sin not able so much as to think a good Thought you do but increase their Terror and Anguish if you tell them they must first get Faith and Obedience and when they find they have done that they may perswade themselves that God will receive them into his Grace and Favour Alass they know that they cannot believe nor obey except God prevent them with his Grace and Favour and what if they be even at the Point of Death strugling with Death's Pangs so that they have no time or leisure to get good Qualifications and examine the Goodness of them you must have a more speedy way to comfort such by discovering to them the Free-Promises of Salvation to the worst of Sinners by Faith in Christ and by exhorting them to apply those Promises and trust on Christ confidently for Remission of Sins Holiness and Glory assuring them also that God will help them to believe sincerely on Christ if they desire it with all their Hearts and that it is their Duty to believe because God commands it Several other Evils are occasioned by the same Doctrine Men are unwilling to know the worst of themselves and prone to think their Qualifications better than they are that they may avoid Despair others please and content themselves without any Assurance of their Interest in Christ because they think that is not necessary to Salvation and that but few attain to it and in this they shew little Love to Christ or to their own Souls some foster Doubtings of Salvation as Signs of Humility though they will hypocritically complain of them many mispend their time in poring upon their own Hearts to find out some Evidence of their Interest in Christ when they should rather be imployed in receiving Christ and walking in him by a confident Faith Some are troubled with Doubts whether they should call God Father and what Apprehensions they should have of him in Prayer and are offended at Ministers that in their Publick Prayers use any Expressions that the People cannot joyn in as if they do own God as their God and Father and Christ as their Saviour and upon the same Account they are offended at the Publick singing of many of David's Psalms and avoid partaking of the Lord's Supper because they are not satisfied about their Interest in Christ Though true Believers have some Assurance of Salvation in Saving Faith it self yet it is much weakned in many by this contrary Doctrine and assaulted with many Doubtings and then other good Qualifications must needs be low and weak together with it and so obscure that it is very hard to discern them how hard a thing then will it be for true Believers to assure themselves by the certain Knowledge of their own Sincerity that they are in a state of Grace already which is the only Assurance of Faith Some prescribe Marks and Signs to distinguish Sincerity from Hypocrisie that Believers cannot sufficiently try themselves by them except they have more Knowledge and Experience than Ordinary Thus many Believers walk heavily in the Bitterness of their Souls conflicting with Fears and Doubtings all their Days and this is the Cause that they have so little Courage and Fervency of Spirit in the ways of God and that they so much mind earthly things and are so afraid of Sufferings and Death And if they get some Assurance by the Reflect Act of Faith they often soon lose it again by Sins and Temptations The way to avoid these Evils is to get your Assurance and to maintain it and renew it upon all Occasions by the direct Act of Faith by trusting assuredly on the Name of the Lord and staying your self upon your God when you walk in Darkness and see no light in any of your own Qualifications Isa 50.10 I doubt not but the Experience of many choice Christians will bear witness to this Truth DIRECT XI Endeavour diligently to perform the great work of believing on Christ in a right manner without any delay and then also to continue and increase in your most holy Faith that so your enjoyment of Christ Vnion and Fellowship with him and all holiness by him may be begun continued and increased in you EXPLICATION HAving already discovered to you the powerful and effectual means of an holy practice my remaining work is to lead you to the actual Exercise and Improvement of them for the immediate attainment of the End and I think it may be clearly perceived by the
foregoing Directions That Faith in Christ is the Duty with which a holy Life is to begin and by which the Foundation of all other holy Duties is laid in the Soul It is before sufficiently proved That Christ himself with all Endowments necessary to enable us to an holy practice is received actually into our hearts by Faith This is the uniting Grace whereby the Spirit of God knitteth the knot of mystical Marriage betwixt Christ and us and maketh us Branches of that noble Vine Members of that Body joyned to that excellent Head living Stones of the spiritual Temple built upon the precious living Corner-stone and sure Foundation partakers of the Bread and Drink that came down from Heaven and giveth Life to the World This is the Grace whereby we pass from our corrupt natural State to a new holy State in Christ also from Death in Sin to Life in Righteousness and whereby we are comforted that so we may be established in every good Word and Work If we put the Question what must we do that we may work the works of God Christ resolveth it That we believe on him whom he hath sent Joh. 6.28 29. He putteth us first upon the work of believing which is the work of God by way of eminence the work of works because all other good works proceed from it The scope of the present Direction is to put you upon the performance of this great work of believing on Christ and to guide you therein for which end you are to consider distinctly four things contained in it 1. The first is you are to make it your diligent endeavour to perform the great work of Believing on Christ Many make little Conscience of this Duty It is not known by Natural Light as many moral Duties are but only by supernatural Revelation in the Gospel and it is foolishness to the natural Man These are sometimes terrified with apprehensions of other sins and will examine themselves concerning them and it may be will write them down to help their Memories and Devotion but the great sin of not believing on Christ is seldom thought of in their self-examinations or registred in the large Catalogues of their sins and even those who are convinced that Believing on Christ is a Duty necessary to Salvation do neglect all diligent endeavours to perform it Either because they account that it is a motion of the heart which may be easily performed at any time without any labour or diligent endeavour or on the contrary because they account it as difficult as all the works of the Law and utterly impossible for them to perform by their most diligent endeavours except the Spirit of God work it in them by its mighty power And that therefore it is in vain for them to work until they feel this working of the Spirit in their Hearts Or because they account it a Duty so peculiar to the Elect that it would be presumption for them to endeavour the performance of it until they know themselves to be elected to Eternal Life through Christ I shall urge you to a diligent performance of this Duty notwithstanding all these Impediments by the following consideration It is worthy of our best endeavours as appeareth by the preciousness excellency and necessity of it already discovered If the Light of Nature were not darkned in the matters of Salvation then it would shew us that we cannot of our selves find out the way of Salvation and would condemn those that despise that Revelation of the way of Salvation that God hath given us in the Gospel declared in all the holy Scriptures The great end of Preaching the Gospel is for the Obedience of Faith Rom. 1.5 that so we may be brought to Christ and all other Obedience yea the great end of all revealed Doctrines in the whole Scriptures is to make us wise to Salvation by Faith that is in Christ Jesus 2 Cor. 3.15 The end of the Law given by Moses was for Righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 and Christ was that end for Righteousness The moral Law it self was revealed in order to our Salvation by believing on Christ or else the knowledge of it had nothing availed fallen Man that was unable to perform it Therefore they that slight the Duty of Believing and count it foolishness do thereby slight despise and villisie the whole Counsel of God revealed in the Scripture The Law and the Gospel and Christ himself are become of none effect to the Salvation of such the only fruit that such an one can attain to of all the saving Doctrines of the Scripture is only some hypocritical moral Duties and slavish performances which will be as filthy rags in the sight of God in the great day However many mind not the sin of unbelief in their self-examinations and write it not in their Scrouls yet let them know that this is the most pernicious sin of all All the sins in their Scrouls would not prevail to their Condemnation yea they would not prevail in their Conversation were it not for their unbelief This one sin prevailing maketh it impossible for them to please God in any Duty whatsoever Heb. 11.6 If you will not mind this one main sin now God will at last mind you of it with a Vengeance For He that believeth not on the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3.36 The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire taking Vengeance on those that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes 1.5 2. Believing on Christ is a work that will require diligent endeavour and labour for the performance of it we must labour to enter into that rest lest any man fall by unbelief Heb. 4.11 we must shew diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end that we may be followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherited the promises Heb. 6.11 12. It is a work that requireth the exercise of Might and Power and therefore we have need to be strengthned with might by the Spirit in the inward Man that Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Eph. 3.16 17. I confess it is easie pleasant and delicious in its own nature because it is a motion of the heart without any cumbersome bodily Labour and it is a taking Christ and his Salvation as our own which is very comfortable and delightful and the Soul is carried forth in this by Love to Christ and his happiness which is an Affection which maketh even hard works easie and pleasant yet it is made difficult to us by reason of the opposition that it meeteth withall from our own inward Corruptions and from Satans temptations It is no easie matter to receive Christ as our happiness and true Salvation with true confidence and lively affection when the guilt of sin lyeth heavily upon the Conscience and the wrath of God manifested by the Word and terrible Judgments especially when we have been
long accustomed to seek Salvation by the procurement of our own works and to account the way of Salvation by Free Grace foolish and pernicious when our Lusts encline us strongly to the things of the flesh and the World when Satan doth his utmost by his own suggestions and by false Teachers and by worldly Allurements and Terrors to hinder the sincere performance of this Duty Many works that are easie in their own nature prove difficult for us to perform in our Circumstances To forgive our enemies and to love them as our selves is but a motion of the mind easie to be performed in its own nature and yet many that are convinced of their Duty find it a hard matter to bring their hearts to the performance of it It is but a motion of the mind to cast our Care upon God for worldly things and rich Men may think that they can do it easily but poor Men that have great Families find it a hard matter That easie comfortable Duty which Moses exhorted the Israelites to when Pharoah with his Chariot and Horse-men overtook them at the Red Sea Be ye not afraid stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord which he will shew you this day Exod. 14.13 was not easily performed The very easiness of some Duties makes their performance difficult as Naaman the Assyrian was hardly brought to wash and be clean because he thought it to be too slight and easie a Remedy for the Cure of his Leprosie 2 Kings 5.12 13. even in this very case people are offended at the Duty of Believing on Christ as too slight and easie a remedy to Cure the Leprosie of the Soul they would have some harder thing enjoyned them to the attainment of so great an end as this everlasting Salvation The performance of all the moral Law is not accounted work enough for this end Mat. 19.17 20. However easie the work of Believing seemeth to many yet common Experience hath shewed that Men are more easily brought to the most burdensome unreasonable and inhumane Observations as the Jows and Christian Galatians were more easily brought to take upon their Necks the Yoke of Moses's La w which none were able to bear Acts 15.10 The Heathens were more easily brought to burn their Sons and their Daughters in the Fire to their Gods Deut. 12.31 The Papists are brought more easily to the Vows of Chastity and Poverty and Obedience to the most rigorous rules of Monastick Discipline to macerate and torture their Bodies with Fastings Scourgings and Pilgrimages and to bear all the excessive Tyranny of the Papal Hierarchy in a multitude of burdensome superstitious and ridiculous Devotions They that slight the work of Faith for its easiness shew that they were never yet made sensible of innumerable sins and terrible Curse of the Law and Wrath of God that they lye under and of the darkness and vanity of their Minds the corruption and hardness of their Hearts and their bondage under the power of Sin and Satan and have not bin truly humbled without which they can't Believe in a right manner Many sound Believers have found by experience that it hath bin a very hard matter to bring their Hearts to the Duty of Believing it hath cost them vigorous struggles and sharp conflicts with their own Corruptions and Satans Temptations It is so difficult a work that we can't perform it without the mighty working of the Spirit of God in our Hearts who only can make it to be absolutely easie to us and doth make it easie or suffer it to be difficult according as he is pleased to communicate his Grace in various degrees unto our Souls 3. Tho we cannot possibly perform this great work in a right manner until the Spirit of God work Faith in our Hearts by his mighty Power yet it is necessary that we should endeavour And that before we can find the Spirit of God working Faith effectually in us or giving strength to Believe We can perform no holy Duty acceptably except the Spirit of God work it in us and yet we are not hereby excused from working our selves but we are the rather stirred up to the greater diligence Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. The way whereby the Spirit works Faith in the Elect is by stirring them up to endeavour to Believe and this is a way suitable to the means that the Spirit useth i. e. The Exhortations Commands and Invitations of the Gospel which would be of no force if we were not to obey them until we find Faith already wrought in us Neither can we possibly find that the Spirit of God doth effectually work Faith or give strength to Believe until we Act it for all inward Graces as well as all other inward Habits are discerned by their Acts as Seed in the Ground by its Springing We cannot see any such thing as Love to God or Man in our Hearts before we Act it Children know not their Ability to stand upon their Feet until they have made trial by endeavouring so to do so we know not our spiritual Strength until we have learned by Experience from the use and exercise of it neither can we know or assure our seives absolutely that the Spirit of God will give us Strength to Believe before we Act Faith for such a Knowledge and Assurance if it be right is saving Faith it self in part and whosoever trusteth on Christ assuredly for strength to believe by his Spirit doth in effect trust on Christ for his own Salvation which is inseparably joyned with the Grace of saving Faith Tho the Spirit worketh other Duties in us by Faith yet he worketh Faith in us immediately by hearing knowing and understanding the Word Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10.13 And in the Word he makes no absolute Promise or Declaration that he will work Faith in this or that unbelieving Heart or that he will give strength to Believe to any one in particular or begin the work of Believing in Christ for Faith it self is the first Grace whereby we have a particular Interest in any saving Promise It is a thing hidden in the secret Counsel and Purpose of God concerning us whether he will give us his Spirit and saving Faith until our Election be discovered by our Believing actually Therefore as soon as we know the Duty of Believing we are to apply our selves immediately to the vigorous performance of the Duty and in so doing we shall find that the Spirit of Christ hath strengthned us to Believe tho we knew not certainly that it would do it before-hand The Spirit cometh undiscernably upon the Elect to work Faith within them like the Wind that bloweth where it lists and none knoweth whence it cometh and whither it goeth but only we hear the sound of it and thereby know it when it is
us God hath promised that the wayfaring Men tho Fools shall not err in the way of Holiness and that he will teach sinners in the way the Meek will he guide in Judgment and the Meek will he teach his way Psal 25.8 9. and he commandeth them that lack Wisdom to ask it of God in Faith nothing doubting Jam. 1.5 6. But however we are to know that God guideth us only according to the rule of his Word and we must endeavour to learn the right way of Believing out of the Word or else we are not able so much as to trust rightly on God for guidance and direction in this great Work To help you herein I have given you before in this Treatise a Description of saving Faith and have shewed that it containeth two Acts in it the one is Believing the Truth of the Gospel the other is Believing on Christ as revealed and freely promised to us in the Gospel for all his Salvation Now your great endeavour must be to perform both these Acts in a right manner as I shall shew concerning each of them in particular In the first place you are highly concerned to endeavour for a right belief of the Truth of the Gospel of Christ that so you may be well furnished disposed and encouraged to Believe on Christ as revealed and promised in the Gospel hereby you are to remove all discomfortable thoughts and objections of Satan and your own Conscience and to overcome all corrupt Inclinations that hinder a chearful embracing of Christ and his Salvation It is found by experience that when any fail in the second Act of Faith the reason of the failing is commonly some defect in this first Act. There is some false imagination or other in them contrary to the belief of the Truth of the Gospel which is a strong hold of Sin and Satan that must be pulled down before they can receive Christ into their Hearts by Believing on him If they knew the Name of Christ as he is discovered in the Gospel and judged aright of the Truth and Excellency of it they would not fail to put their Trust in him And we are in great danger of entertaining such false Imaginations and to account many Truths of the Gospel strange Paradoxes yea foolish and pernicious because of our Ignorance Self-conceitedness guilty Consciences corrupt Affections and manifold Errors wherewith our Judgments are prepossessed in matters of Salvation and because Satan laboureth to beguil us as he did Eve through his subtilty to corrupt our minds from the simplicity of the Gospel that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.3 I shall therefore give you some particular Instructions that are of greatest moment to prevent such defects as we are most lyable to in the first Act of our Faith 1. You must Believe with a full perswasion that you are a Child of Wrath by Nature as well as others fallen from God by the sin of the first Adam dead in Trespasses and Sins subject to the Curse of the Law of God and to the power of Satan and to insupportable misery to all Eternity And that you cannot possibly procure your reconciliation with God or any spiritual Life and Strength to do any good work by any endeavouring to get Salvation according to the terms of the Legal Covenant and that you cannot find any way to escape out of this sinful and miserable Condition by your own Reason and Understanding without supernatural Revelation nor be freed from it except by that infinite power that raiseth the Dead We must not be afraid as some are to know our own vileness and sinfulness neither must we be willing to think our selves better than we are but must be heartily desirous and glad to know the worst of our own Condition yea when we have found out the worst that we can of our selves Yea we must be willing to believe that our Hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked beyond all that we can know and find out Jer. 17.9 This is all necessary to work in us true Humiliation Self-despair and Self-loathing that we may highly esteem and earnestly seek the Salvation of Christ as the one thing necessary It maketh us sick of sin and sensible of our need of the great Physician and willing to be ordered according to any of his prescriptions whatsoever we suffer rather than to follow our own Wisdom Mat. 9.12 It was for want of this Humiliation that the Scribes and Pharisees were not so forward to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as the Publicans and Harlots Mat. 21.31 2. You are to believe assuredly That there is no way to be saved without receiving all the saving benesits of Christ his Spirit as well as his Merits Sanctification as well as remission of sins by Faith It is the ruin of many Souls that they trust on Christ for remission of sins without any regard to Holiness whenas these two Benefits are inseparably joyned in Christ So that none are freed from Condemnation by Christ but those that are enabled to walk holily i. e. not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8.1 It is also the ruin of Souls to seek only remission of sins by Faith in Christ and Holiness by our endeavours according to the terms of the Law whereas we can never live to God in Holiness except we be dead to the Law and live only by Christ living in us by Faith That Faith that receiveth not holiness as well as remission of sins from Christ will never sanctifie us and therefore it will never bring us to heavenly Glory Heb. 12.14 3. You are to be fully persuaded of the All-sufficiency of Christ for the Salvation of your self and of all that believe on him that his blood cleanseth from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 tho our sins be never so great and horrible and continued in never so long yet he is able to deliver us from the body of Death and mortifie our Corruptions be they never so strong We find in Scripture that abominable wicked persons have bin saved by him Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Covetous Drunkards Extortioners c. 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Such as have sinned against the Light of Nature as the Heathen and the Light of Scripture as the Jews such as have denied Christ as Peter and persecuted and blasphamed him as Paul many that have fallen into great sins are ruined for ever because they do not account the Grace of Christ sufficient for their Pardon and Sanctification when they think they are gone and past all hope of recovery that their sins are upon them and they pine away in them and how shall they live Ezek. 33.10 This despair works secretly in many Souls without much trouble and horror and maketh them careless of their Souls and true Religion The Devil sills some with horrid filthy blasphemous thoughts on purpose that they may think their sins too great to be forgiven tho commonly such thoughts are the least of the sins of those that are pestered
promised to us in the Gospel for all his Salvation The Spirit of God doth habitually dispose and encline our Hearts to a right performance of this act by enabling us to perform the first Act according to the former instructions by believing assuredly those great things of the Gospel whereby we are delivered into a form of doctrine Rom. 6.17 which we are to obey from our hearts and to follow as our pattern in the manner of our Acting Faith in Christ for Salvation Therefore I need only to exhort you briefly to Act your Faith in Christ according to that form and pattern in which you have bin already so largely instructed You are to believe in Christ as alone sufficient and all-sufficient for your Happiness and Salvation despairing altogether of any attainment of Happiness by your own Wisdom Strength works of Righteousness or any fleshly worldly Confidences whatsoever We must be as dead People to all other Confidences and account them to be loss for Christ according to the example of the blessed Apostle Phil. 3.3 7 8. We must not be grieved that we have nothing to trust upon besides Christ for our Salvation but rather we are to rejoyce that we need nothing else and that we have a sure foundation to rely upon incomparably better than any other that can be imagined And we must resolve to cast the burden of our Souls wholly on Christ and to seek Salvation no other way whatsoever becomes of us If the Cripple lay not the whole weight of his Body upon a strong Staff but part of it on a rotten one he is like to receive a fall If the Swimmer will not commit his Body wholly to the Water to bear him up but catch at Weeds or struggle to feel out Ground he may sink to the bottom Christ will be all our Salvation or nothing if we seek to be saved by any other ways as the Galatians did by Circumcision Christ will profit us nothing Gal. 5.2 You are also to receive Christ meerly as a free-gift given to the Chief of sinners resolving that you will not perform any Conditions to procure your selves a right and title to him But that you will come to him as a lost sinner an ungodly Creature trusting on him that Justifieth the ungodly and that you will buy him without mony and without any price whatsoever Rom. 4.5 Isa 55.2 Look not on your own Faith or Love or any good Qualifications in your selves as the ground of your trusting in Christ but only to the free Grace and loving-kindness of God in Christ How excellent is thy loving-kindness O God! therefore the Children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy Wings Psal 30.7 For if you make your Faith Love or good Qualifications to be your first and principal Foundation and you build Christ upon them instead of building all upon Christ you invert the order of the Gospel and Christ will profit you nothing Another thing to be observed diligently is that you must come to Christ for a new holy Heart and Life and all things necessary thereunto as well as for deliverance from the wrath of God and the torments of Hell You must also come to him with an ardent Love and Affection to him and esteem him better than a thousand Worlds and the only excellent Portion loathing and abhorring your self as a vile sinful and miserable Creature and accounting all things Dung in comparison of his Excellency that you may be able to say from the bottom of your Heart Whom have I in Heaven but thee c. Psal 73.23 Lastly You must endeavour to draw near with full assurance of Faith Heb. 10.22 trusting on Christ confidently for your own particular Salvation upon the account of that general promise That whosoever believeth on Christ shall not be ashamed Rom. 9.33 You must check your selves for all doubtings fears staggerings concerning your own Salvation by Christ saying with the Psalmist Why art thou cast down O my Soul c. Psal 42.11 The third thing contained in the direction is The avoiding of all delay in the performance of this great work of Believing in Christ Until we have performed it we continue under the power of Sin and Satan and under the wrath of God and there is nothing betwixt Hell and us besides the Breath of our Nostrils It s dangerous for Lot to linger in Sodom lest Fire and Brimstone come down from Heaven upon him The Man-slayer must flee with all haste to the City of refuge lest the avenger of blood pursue him while his Heart is hot and slay him Deut. 19.5 6. We should make haste and not delay to keep Gods Commandments Psal 119.60 and flee for refuge to the hope set before us Heb. 6.18 And God commandeth us to flee thus by Faith without which it is impossible to please God in other Duties The work is of such a nature that it may be performed as soon as you hear the Gospel As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me Psal 18.44 As soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her Children Isa 66.8 We have many examples of those that received the Word by Faith at the first hearing of it Three Thousand were added to the Church on the very same day wherein Peter first published the Gospel in Jerusalem Acts 2.41 so many Jews and Gentiles were converted at the first hearing of the Apostle Paul at Antioch Acts 13.43 The Jaylor with all his house believed and were baptized the same Night wherein Paul first preached to them Acts 16.33 34. The Gospel came at first to the Thessalonians not in Word only but in Power and in the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1.5 6. If God open the Hearts of his People to attend diligently they may be instructed in the knowledge of the Gospel by one brief Sermon sufficiently to begin the practice of saving Faith and when they know their Duty God requireth immediate performance without allowing us the least respit in the state of Unbelief When Satan cannot prevail with People to reject wholly the Duty of Believing his next attempt for the ruin of their Souls is to prevail with them at least to delay and shift off the performance of it from time to time by several false reasonings and imaginations which he putteth into their minds the most ignorant and sensual are easily prevailed with to defer this Duty until they have taken their fill of the pleasures profits and honours of this World and are summoned to prepare for another World by Infirmities Age Sickness praying and hoping that a large time of Repentance will be granted unto them before they dye But such delays shew that they are really unwilling to Repent and Believe until they are forced by necessity and that they prefer the pleasures prosits and honours of the World above God and Christ and their own Souls Thus they unfit themselves more and more for this great Duty by their customary walking in sin and by
mis-spending the precious time of their Health and Strength which is most meet for the performance of this great Work They highly provoke God never to give them Time or Grace to Repent hereafter Others imagine that after they have heard the Gospel of Salvation by Christ they may lawfully defer the Believing of it until they have sufficiently examined the Truth of some other different Doctrin or until God be pleased to afford them some other means to assure them fully of the Truth of the Gospel Thus they that are called Seekers mis-spend the day of Grace ever learning but never coming to the knowledg of the Truth 2 Tim. 3.7 But the Truth of the Gospel doth so clearly evidence its self by its own Light That if People do not wilfully shut their Eyes or blind themselves by their own Pride and love of their Lusts they would easily perceive that it is the Truth of God because the Image of his Grace Mercy Power Justice and Holiness appears manifestly engraven upon it It is a sign People are Proud when they consent not to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 If they were humble and sincerely inclined to do the Will of God they would know whether the Doctrine be of God or no Joh. 7.17 They would quickly be persuaded of the Truth by Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles spoken to them in the Scripture and if they will not hear them neither will they not be persuaded tho one rose from the dead or whatever other Miracle be wrought to confirm the Divine Authority of the Gospel Luke 16.31 Another sort of People there are that delay the great work of Believing to the ruin of their Souls upon the outward means of Grace and Salvation instead of any endeavours to receive Christ by Faith tho they be convinced of the Truth of the Gospel This they call waiting upon God at the doors of his Grace and Salvation in the use of Means appointed by him and sitting under the droppings of the Sanctuary But let them know that this is not the right waiting on God required in Scripture it is rather disobedience to God and to the Name of his appointment which requires that we should be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving our selves Jam. 1.22 and that we should come in to the spiritual Feast Luke 14.23 and not only stand at the door or sit under the droppings of the House of God lest Christ repute us no better than eve-droppers That holy waiting on the Lord commended to us in Scripture is ever accompanied with Believing and Hoping in the Lord and dependeth thereon I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living Psal 23.13 14. It is good that a Man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. 3.26 What is it that these deluded ones wait for before they perform the Duty of Believing Is it for more knowledge of the Gospel The way to encrease thy Knowledge as well as any other Talent is to make use of what thou hast received already Believe heartily on Christ for all thy Salvation according to that little knowledge of the Gospel which thou hast and thou wilt have an interest in the promise of knowledge contained in the New Covenant They shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them saith the Lord Jer. 31.34 Is it for the appointed time of thy Conversion that thou waitest then thou waitest as those impotent folk lay at the Pool of Bethesda waiting for the Season when the Angel would come down and move the Water know then that if thou enter into Christ now by Faith thou shalt find in him Waters of Life and the Spirit moving them for the Healing and Quickning of thy Soul God hath appointed by his Word that it shall be thy Duty to endeavour that the present time should be the time of thy Conversion as the Holy Ghost saith To day if thou wilt hear his Voice harden not thy Heart Heb. 3.7 8. and thou shalt never know at what time God hath purposed in his Secret Counsel to give Faith to thee until thou dost actually believe Dost thou wait for any Manifestations or Flowings in of Gods saving Love to thy Soul Then the way to obtain it is to believe that the God of Peace may sill thee with all Joy and Peace in Believing Rom. 15.13 Thou hast sufficient Manifestation of Gods Love to thy Soul by the free Promises of Life and Salvation by Christ do but trust on the Name of the Lord and stay upon thy God when thou walkest in Darkness and seest no Light of sensible Comforts any other way Otherwise thou waitest for Comfort in vain and this thou shalt have at the Lords hand thou shalt lye down in Sorrow Isa 50.10 11. Dost thou wait for any Qualifications to prepare thee for the work of Believing If they be good and Holy Qualifications thou canst not have them before Faith but they are either included in the Nature of Faith or they are Fruits of it as hath been largely proved If they be bad and Sinful it 's strange that any should wait for them and yet no more strange than true Some foolishly wait to be terrified with the Sense of Gods Wrath and despairing Thoughts and these they call the Pangs of the New Birth tho in their own Nature they are rather the Pangs of the Spiritual Death and bring forth Hatred to God rather than Holiness and therefore we should strive to prevent them by believing Gods Love in Christ rather than to wait for them It is true that God maketh these despairing Thoughts as well as other Sins work for good to them that are delivered from them by Faith in Christ they are moved thereby to hate Sin and to prize Christ the more and the Comforts of his Gospel and to loath and abhor themselves yet many are brought to Christ without them by Gods giving them the knowledge of their own Sins and of Christ's Salvation together several Examples of these were above mentioned who received the Word with Joy at the first hearing of it And we must not desire or wait for any evil of Sin such as these despairing thoughts are that good may come of it Neither should we expect to be worse before we be better when we may and ought to be better presently by believing on Christ 4. In the direction it is that we should continue and increase in the most Holy Faith and that we may we must not think that when we have once attained to the Grace of saving Faith and thereby are begotten anew in Christ our Names are up in Heaven and perfect we may lye in Bed till Noon but as long as we continue in this Life we must endeavour to continue in the Faith grounded and setled not moved away from the
hope of the Gospel Col. 1.23 and to hold the beginning of our Confidence and the rejoycing of hope stedfast to the end Heb. 6.14 and build up our selves in the most Holy Faith Jude 20. abounding therein with Thanksgiving Col. 2.7 Tho we receive Christ freely by Faith yet we are but Babes in Christ 1 Cor. 3.1 and we must not account that we have already attained or are made perfect Phil. 3.12 13. but we must strive to be more rooted and built up in him until we come to the perfect Man to the measure of the Stature of the fullness of Christ Eph. 4.13 If the new Nature be really in us by Regeneration it will have an Appetite to its own continuance and Increase until it come to Perfection as the New Born Babe 1 Pet. 2.2 And we are not only to receive Christ and a new Holy Nature by Faith but also to live and walk by it and to resist the Devil and to quench all his fiery Darts by it and also to grow in Grace and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God for we are kept by the mighty Power of God through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 as all our Christian Warfare is the good Fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6.12 All Spiritual Life and Holiness continue grow or decay in us according as Faith continueth groweth or decayeth in Vigour but when this Faith beginneth to sink by Fears and Doubtings the Man himself beginneth to sink together with it Matt. 14.29 31. Faith is like the Hand of Moses while it is held up Israel prevails when it is let down Amaleck prevails Exod. 17.11 this continuance and growth in Faith will require our Labour and Industry as well as the beginning tho we â—â—e to ascribe the Glory of all to the Grace of God in Christ who is the Finisher as well as the Author of it Heb. 12.2 The Church meeteth with great Difficulties in her marching through the Wilderness of this World to the Heavenly Canaan as well as in her first Deliverance from Egyptian Bondage yea we often meet with greater Difficulties in going to Perfection than we did in the beginning of the Good Work The Wisdom and Mercy of God so ordering it that we shall be exercised with the sharpest Dispensations of Providence and the fiercest Assaults of our own Corruptions and Satans Temptations after we have Grace given us to stand in the Evil Day You must therefore endeavour to continue and go on in the same â—ight manner as I have taught you to begin this great Work of Believing in Christ that your Faith may be of the same Nature from the Beginning to the End though it increase in Degrees for our Faith is imperfect and joyned with much Unbelief in this World and we had need to pray still Lord I believe help my Vnbelief Mar. 9.24 and therefore we have need to strive for more Faith that we may receive Christ in greater Perfection If you find your Faith hath produced good Works you should thereby increase your Confidence in Christ for Salvation by his meer Grace But take heed of changing the nature of your Faith from trusting on the Grace and Merits of Christ to trusting on your own Works according to the Popish Doctrin that our first Justification is by Grace and Faith only but our second Justification is also by Works Beware also of trusting on Faith it self as a work of Righteousness instead of trusting on Christ by Faith If you do not find that your Believing in such a right manner as I have described doth produce such Fruits of Holiness as you desire you ought not to diminish but rather to increase your Confidence in Christ knowing that the weakness of your Faith hindereth its Fruitfulness and the greater your Confidence is concerning the Love of God to you in Christ the greater will be your Love to God and to his Service If you fall into any gross Sin after the work is begun in you as David and Peter did think not that you must cast away your Confidence and expect nothing but Wrath from God and Christ and that you must refuse to be comforted by the Grace of Christ at least for some time for thus you would be the more weak and prone to fall into other Sins but rather strivo to believe more confidently that you have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and that he is the Propitiation for our Sins 1 Joh. 2.1 2. and let not the guilt of Sin stay at all upon your Conscience but wash it away with all speed in the Fountain of Christs Blood which is opened for us that it may be ready for our use on all such incident Occasions that so you may be humbled for your Sins in a Gospel way and may hate your own Sinfulness and be sorry for it with Godly Sorrow out of Love to God Peter might have been ruined for ever by denying of Christ as Judas was by betraying him if Peter's Faith had not been upheld by the Prayer of Christ Luke 22.32 If a Clould be cast over all your inward Qualifications so that you can see no Grace at all in your selves yet still trust on him that justifyeth the Ungodly and came to seek and to save them that are lost If God seem to deal with you as an Enemy by bringing on you some horrible Affliction as he did upon Job beware of demning your Faith and its Fruits as if they were not acceptable to God but rather say with holy Job Though he slay me yet will I trust in him but I will maintain mine own ways before him Strive to keep and to increase Faith by Faith i. e. by acting Faith frequently by trusting on God to keep and increase it being confident that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 DIRECT XII Make diligent use of your most holy Faith for the immediate Performance of the Duties of the Law by walking no longer according to your old natural State or any Principles or Means of Practice that belong unto it but only according to that New State which you receive by Faith and the Principles and Means of Practice that properly belong thereunto and strive to continue and increase in such manner of Practice This is the only way to attain to an acceptable Performance of those Holy and Righteous Duties as far as it is possible in this present Life EXPLICATION HEre I am guiding you to the manner of Practice wherein you are to make use of Faith and of all other effectual means of Holyness before treated of which Faith layeth hold on for the immediate Performance of the Law which is the great end aimed at in this whole Treatise And therefore this deserveth to be diligently considered as the principal Direction to which all the foregoing and following are subservient As for the meaning of it I have already shewed that our old natural
Conversation in the World not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God 2 Cor. 1.12 having or holding fast Grace that we may serve God acceptably labouring abundantly in such a manner as that the whole work is not performed by us but by the Grace of God that is with us 1 Cor. 15.10 By Grace therefore we may well understand the priviledges of our new state given to us in Christ whereby we ought to be influenced and guided in the performance of holy Duties 4. It is also signified when we are to put off the old and put on the new Man yea to continue in so doing tho we have done it in a measure already and that we avoid our former sinful Conversation Ephes 4.21 22 24. and to avoid sin because we have put off the old and put on the new Man Col. 3.9 10 11. I have already shewed that by this twofold man is not meant merely sin and holiness but by the former meant our natural Estate with all its Endowments whereby we are furnished only to the practice of sin and by the later or new Estate in Christ that whereby we are furnished with all means necessary for the practice of Holiness 5. We are to understand the same thing when we are taught not to walk after the Flesh but after the Spirit that we may be free from the Law of sin and that the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.1 2 3. and through the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the body and to be led by the Spirit because we live by the Spirit and have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 The Apostle doth shew by these expressions not only that we are to practise holiness but also by what means we may do it effectually By the Flesh is meant our old Nature derived from the first Adam And by the Spirit is meant the Spirit of Christ and that new Nature which we have by him dwelling in us We are said to walk after either of these Natures when we make the Properties or Qualifications of either of them to be the principles of our Practice So when we are taught to serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter that so we may bring forth fruits unto God The meaning is that we must endeavour to bring forth the fruits of holiness not by vertue of the Law that killing Letter to which the Flesh is married and by which the motions of sin are in us but by vertue of the Spirit and his manifold Riches which we partake of in our new state by a mystical marriage with Christ Rom. 7.4 5 6. and by vertue of such Principles as belong to the New State declared in the Gospel whereby the holy spirit is ministred to us 6. This is the manner of walking which the Apostle Paul directeth us unto when he teacheth us by his own Example That the continual work of our lives should be to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to his Death if by any means we may attain to the Resurrection of the dead and to encrease and press forward in this kind of knowledge Phil. 3.10 11 12 15. Certainly he meaneth such an experimental knowledge of Christ and his Death and Resurrection as effectually makes us conformable thereunto in dying to sin and living to God And he would hereby guide us to make use of Christ and his Death and Resurrection by Faith as the powerful means of all Holiness in Heart and Life and to encrease in this manner of walking until we attain unto perfection in Christ 2. The second thing proposed was to lay before you some necessary Instructions that your steps may be guided aright to continue and go forward in this way of Holiness until you be made perfect in Christ And seeing we are naturally prone to mistake this way and are utterly unable to find it out or discern it by our own Reason and Understanding we should the more diligently attend to these Instructions taken out of the Holy Scriptures And we should pray earnestly that God would give unto us the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that we may discern the way of Holiness thereby and walk aright in it according to that gracious promise The wayfaring men tho Fools shall not err therein Isa 35.8 1. Observe and consider diligently in our whole Conversation That tho you are partakers of a new holy state by Faith in Christ yet our natural state doth remain in a measure with all its corrupt Principles and Properties as long as we live in this present World our apprehension of Christ and his perfection in this Life is only by Faith whereas by Sense and Reason we may apprehend much in our selves contrary to Christ and this Faith is imperfect So that true Believers have cause to pray to God to help their Unbelief Mar. 9.24 Therefore tho we receive perfect Christ by Faith yet the measure and degree of enjoying him is imperfect and we hope still so long as we are in this World to enjoy him in a higher degree of perfection than we have done we are yet but weak in Christ 2 Cor. 13.4 Children in comparison to the perfection we expect in another World 1 Cor. 13.10 11. and we must grow still till we come to the perfect man Eph. 4.13 and some are less Babes than others and have received Christ in so small a measure that they may be accounted carnal rather than spiritual 1 Cor. 3.1 And because all the Blessings and Perfections of our new state as Justification the gift of the Spirit and of the holy Nature and the Adoption of Children are seated and treasured up in Christ and joyned with him inseparably we can receive them no further than we receive Christ himself by Faith which we do in an imperfect measure and degree in this Life The Apostle Paul proposeth himself as a pattern for all those that are perfect in the truth of Grace to imitate And yet he professeth That he was not yet made so perfect in the degree or measure of saving Endowments but that he did still press forward towards the mark of the prize of the high-calling of God in Christ Jesus labouring still to apprehend and win Christ more perfectly and to be found in him not having his own Righteousness but that which is of God by Faith and to gain more experimental knowledge of Christ and of the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his Resurrection being made conformable thereunto Phil 3.8 10. Believers are Justified already yet wait for the hope of Righteousness by Faith i. e. for the full enjoyment of the Righteousness of Christ Gal. 5.5 They have received but the first-fruits of the spirit and must wait for a more full enjoyment of it The Spirit witnesseth now to them that they are the Children of God and yet they groan
of the Flesh and to the Perfection of the New Man in Christ Yet it holdeth true also that our reception and enjoyment of Christ himself and all his Perfections is but in an imperfect measure and degree until Faith be turned into heavenly Vision and Fruition of Christ and therefore our old sinful State with the Evils thereof is not perfectly abolished during this Life The Kingdom of Heaven or the Grace of Christ within us is like leaven in Meal and doth not unite it self perfectly to the Meal in an Instant but by degrees until the whole be leavened Mat. 13.35 or like the morning Light that expelleth Darkness by degrees shining more and more unto a perfect day Prov. 4.18 This cannot be justly accounted any derogation to the Merits of Christ's Death or to the power of his Spirit seeing Christ never intended to bring to pass by his Death or by the power of his Spirit that we should enjoy his spiritual Blessings any further than we are in him and enjoy him by Faith or that we should be made holy or happy according to the Flesh by a Reformation of our natural State as hath been shewed Neither doth this diminish the Consolation of Believers in Christ for thereby they may know that they have the Perfection of Grace and Happiness in Christ and that they enjoy it in this World as far as they enjoy Christ himself by Faith and that they shall enjoy it in a perfect measure and be fully freed from their old Sins and miserable State when that frame of Nature which they received from the first Adam is dissolved by Death This Instruction is very useful to frame our Souls aright for the practising of Holiness only by those Gospel Principles and Means that belong to our new State which we are Partakers of by Faith in Christ And thus it is easily vindicated from another great Objection wherein the Papists and Quakers do much Triumph They appeal to Mens Conscience to answer this Question which Doctrin is most likely to bring People to the practice of true Godliness theirs which teacheth That perfect Holiness may be attained in this Life or ours which teacheth That it is impossible for us to keep the Law perfectly and to purge our selves from all Sin as long as we live in this World though we use our best Endeavours They think that common Reason will make the Verdict pass for them against our Doctrin as that which discourageth all Endeavours for Perfection and hardneth the Hearts of People to allow themselves in Sin because they cannot avoid it But on the contrary the Doctrine of Perfection hardens People to allow themselves in Sin and to call Evil Good as the Papists account That the Concupiscence of the Flesh against the Spirit is no Sin but rather good matter for the Exercise of their Vertues because the most perfect in this Life are not without it It also discourageth those that labour to get Holiness in the right way by Faith in Christ and maketh them to think that they labour in vain because they find themselves still sinful and far from Perfection when they have done their best to attain it It hindereth our Diligence in seeking Holiness by these Principles and Means whereby only it can be found For who will be Diligent and Watchful to avoid walking according to his own carnal Principles if he think that his own carnal State with it's Principles is quite abolished and is out of him so that at present he is in no danger of walking according to them Whatsoever good works the Doctrin of the Perfectionists may serve to promote I am sure it hindereth a great part of that work which Christ would have us to be employed in as long as we live in this World we must know that our old State with its evil Principles continueth still in a measure or else we shall not be sit for the great Duties of confesing of Sins loathing our selves for them praying earnestly for the Pardon of them a just sorrowing for them with a Godly Sorrow accepting the Punishment of our Sins and giving God the glory of his Justice and offering to him the Sacrifice of a broken and contrite Spirit being poor in Spirit working out our Salvation with fear and trembling Some have doubted how it can consist with our Justification by Christ that we should be still lyable to be punished for our Sins and obliged to pray for the Pardon of them because they have not well considered the twofold State of Believers in this Life and except we know this and keep it in Mind we shall never be sit to practise continually the great Duties that tend to the putting off the Old Man and putting on the New Man and mortifying the Deeds of the Body by the Spirit praying continually that God would renew a right Spirit in us and sanctify us throughout pressing forward to Perfection desiring the sincere Milk of the Word and the Enjoyment of other Ordinances Christ hath appointed that his Church on Earth should be employed in such works and Perfectionists either do or sain would account them needless for them and that they have no longer need of Christ himself to be their spiritual Physician and Advocate with the Father and Propitiation for their Sins Therefore they are not fit to be Members of the Church on Earth and are never likely to be Members of the Church in Heaven except they can make a Ladder and climb up thither before their time 2. Despair of purging the Flesh or Natural Man of its sinful Lusts and Inclinations and of practising Holiness by your willing and resolving to do the best that lyeth in your own Power and trusting on the Grace of God and Christ to help you in such Resolutions and Endeavours rather resolve to trust on Christ to work in you to will and to do by his own power according to his own good Pleasure They that are convinced of their own Sin and Misery do commonly first think to tame the Flesh and to subdue and root out its Lusts and to make their corrupt Nature to be better natured and inclined to Holiness by their strugling and wrestling with it And if they can but bring their Hearts to a full purpose and resolution to do the best that lyeth in them they hope that by such a Resolution they shall be able to atchieve great Enterprizes in the Conquest of their Lusts and performance of the most difficult Duties It is the great work of some zealous Divines in their Preaching and Writings to stir up People to this Resolution wherein they place the chiefest turning Point from Sin to Godliness And they think that this is not contrary to the life of Faith because they trust on the Grace of God through Christ to help them in all such Resolutions and Endeavours Thus they endeavour to reform their old State and to be made perfect in the Flesh instead of putting it off and walking according to
any present interest in Christ and shall never attain unto Holiness or Happiness until they learn a better way of Religion 4. Think not that you can effectually encline your Heart to the immediate practice of Holiness by any such practical Principles as do only serve to bind press and urge you to the performance of holy Duties But rather let such Principles stir you up to go to Christ first by Faith that you may be effectually enclined to the immediate practice of Holiness in him by Gospel Principles that strengthen and enable you as well as oblige you thereunto There are some practical Principles that do only bind press and urge us to holy Duties by shewing the reasonableness equity and necessity of our Obedience without shewing at all how we that are by Nature dead in sin under the wrath of God may have any Strength and Ability for the performance of them As for Instance the Authority of God the Law-giver our absolute dependance on him as our Creator Preserver Governour in whose hand is our Life Breath and all our Happiness here and for ever His All-feeing Eye that searcheth our Heart discerneth our very Thoughts and secret Purposes his exact Justice in rendring to all according to their works his Almighty and Eternal Power to reward those that Obey him and to punish transgressors for ever The unspeakable Joy of Heaven and terrible Damnation of Hell Such Principles as these do bind our Consciences very strictly and do work very strongly upon the prevalent Affections of Hope and Fear to pross and urge our Hearts to the performance of holy Duties if we believe them assuredly and work them earnestly upon our Hearts by frequent serious lively Meditation And therefore some account them most forcible and effectual means to form any Vertue in the Soul and to bring it to immediate performance of any Duty tho never so difficult and that the Life of Faith consisteth principally in our living to God in Holiness by a constant Belief and Meditation on them And they account those things that serve to mind them of such Principles very effectual for Holiness as looking on the Picture of Death or on a Deaths-head keeping a Coffin by them ready made walking about among the Graves c. But this is not that manner of living to God whereof the Apostle speaketh when he saith I live yet not I but Christ that liveth in me and the Life that I live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me If a Man make use of these obliging Principles to stir him to go to Christ for Strength to Act holily he walketh like one that hath received Christ as his only Life by Faith otherwise he walketh like other Natural Men. For the Natural Man may be brought to Act by these Principles partly by Natural Light and more fully by Scripture-Light without any true knowledge of the way of Salvation by Christ and as if Christ had never come into the World And he may be strictly bound by them and vehemently urged and pressed to holy Duties and yet all this while is left to his own Natural Strength or Weakness being not assured by any of these Principles that God will give him Strength to help him in the performance of these Duties and can do nothing aright until he get new Life and Strength in Christ by a more precious saving Faith There would be no need of a new Life and Strength by Christ if these Principles were sufficient to bring us to a holy Conversation Therefore this manner of practice is no better than walking after the flesh according to our corrupt state and a seeking to be made perfect in the flesh No question but Paul was very diligent in it while he was a blind Pharisee Yea the Heathen Philosophers might attain to it in some measure by the Light of Common Reason The Devils have such Principles as they do believe assuredly yet they are never the better for them It s a part of that Natural Wisdom whereby the world knew not God not that Wisdom of God in a Mystery discovered in the Gospel which is the only sanctifying Wisdom and Power of God unto Salvation VVhat can you produce but corruption by pressing with Motives to Holiness one that hath no soundness in him from the sole of the foot even to the head only wounds and bruises and putrified sores He that is made truly sensible of his own vileness and deadness by Nature will despair of ever bringing himself to Holiness by Principles that afford him no Life and Strength but only lay an Obligation upon him and urge and press him to Duty What are meer Obligations to one that is dead in sin While the Soul is without spiritual Life sin is the more moved and enraged by pressing and urging upon the Soul the Obligations of the Law and its Commands The motions of sin are by the Law and sin taking occasion by the Commandment worketh in us all manner of Concupiscence Rom. 7.5 7 8. And yet these obliging Principles are very good and excellent in this right Gospel use of them as the Apostle saith of the Law that it is good if it be used lawfully 1 Tim. 1.7 The humbled sinner knoweth well his Obligations but it is Life and Strength that he wanteth and despaireth of walking according to such Obligations until he get this Life and Strength by Faith in Christ Therefore these obliging Principles do move him to go in the first place to Christ that so he may be enabled to answer their End by the strengthning and enlivening Principles of Gods Grace in Christ Some there are that make use of Gospel-Principles only to oblige and urge to Duty without affording any Life and Strength for the performance as they that think that Christ dyed and rose again to establish a New Covenant of Works for our Salvation and to give us a pattern of Good Works by his own Obedience rather than to purchase Life Obedience and good Works for us Such as these do not understand and receive the Principles of the Gospel rightly but they pervert and abuse them contrary to their true Nature and Design and thereby they render them as ineffectual for their Sanctification as any other natural or legal Principles 5. Stir up and strengthen your self to perform the Duties of Holiness by a firm perswasion of your enjoyment of Jesus Christ and all spiritual and everlasting Benefits through him Set not your selves upon the performance of the Law with any prevailing thoughts or apprehensions that you are yet without an Interest in Christ and the love of God through him under the Curse of the Law the power of Sin and Satan having no better Portion than this present World no better strength than that which is in the purposes and resolutions of your own Free-will While such thoughts as these prevail and influence your Actings its evident that you
Likewise your Hearts will be purified to unfeigned love of the Brethren in Christ and you will walk toward them with all lowliness meekness long-suffering forbearing one another in Love if you maintain a stedfast belief and perswasion of those manifold Bonds of Love whereby you are inseparably joyned with them through Christ as particularly that there is one Body and one Spirit one hope of your Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Finally you will be able to abstain from all fleshly and worldly Lusts that war against the Soul and hinder all Godliness by an assured perswasion not meerly that Gluttony Drunkenness Letchery are filthy Swinish Abominations And that the pleasures profits and honours of the World are vain empty things but that you are Crucified to the Flesh and the World and quickned raised and set in heavenly places through Christ and that you have pleasures profits honours in Christ to which the best things in the World are not worthy to be compared And that you are Members of Christ the Temple of his Spirit Citizens of Heaven Children of the Day not of the Night nor of Darkness So that 't is below your State and Dignity to practise deeds of darkness and mind fleshly worldly things Thus I have given Instances enough to stir you up to acquaint your selves with the manifold endowments priviledges properties of your New State in Christ as they are discovered in the Gospel of your Salvation whereby the new Nature is fitted for holy Operations as the common Nature of Man is furnished with the Endowments necessary for those Functions and Operations to which it is designed and also to stir you up to make use of them by Faith as they serve to strengthen you either for Universal Obedience or for particular Duties And by this manner of Walking your Hearts will be comforted and established in every good Word and Work and you will grow in Holiness until you attain to Perfection in Jesus Christ 8. If you endeavour to grow in Grace and in all Holiness trust assuredly that God will enable you by this manner of Walking to do every thing that is necessary for his Glory and your own everlasting Salvation and that he will graciously accept of that Obedience through Christ which you are enabled to perform according to the measure of your Faith and pardon your Failings though you offend in many things and fall short of many others as to degrees of Holiness and high Acts of Obedience And therefore attempt not the performance of Duty in any other way though you cannot yet attain to do so much as you would in this way This is a necessary Instruction to establish us in the life of Faith that the sense of our manifold Failings and Defects may not move us eitheir to Despair or to return to the use of carnal Principles and Means for help against our Corruptions as accounting this way of living and acting by Faith to be in-sufficient for our Sanctification and Salvation The Apostle Paul exhorts the Galatians to walk in the Spirit though the flesh lusts against the spirit so that they cannot do the things that they would Gal. 5 10 17. We are to know that though the Law requireth of us the utmost perfection of Holiness yet the Gospel maketh an allowance for our Weakness and Christ is so meek and lowly in heart that he accepteth of that which our weak Faith can attain to by his Grace and doth not exact or expect any more of us for his Glory and our Salvation until we grow stronger in Grace God shewed his great Indulgence to his People under the Old Testament that Moses the Law-giver suffered them because of the hardness of their hearts to put away their Wives Though from the beginning it was not so Mat. 19.8 and also in tolerating the customary practice of Polygamy tho Christ will not tolerate the continuance of such Practices in his Church since his Spirit is more plentifully poured forth under the Gospel Yet he is as forward as ever to bear with the Failings of his weak Saints that desire to obey him sincerely We have another Instance of God's Indulgence more full to our present purpose in his commanding that the fearful and faint-hearted should not be forced to enter into the Battel against their Enemies but suffered to return home to their Houses Though sighting in Battel against Enemies without Fear and Faint-heartedness was a Duty that God did much exercise his People in at that time Deut. 20.3 8. So under the Gospel though it be an eminent part of Christ's Service to endure the greatest Fight of Afflictions and Death it self courageously for his Name sake yet if any be so weak in Faith that they have not sufficient Courage to venture into the Battel no doubt but Christ alloweth them to make use of any honest means whereby they may escape the hands of Persecutors with safety to their holy Profession He will accept them in this weaker kind of Service and will approve of them better than if they should hazard a denial of his Name by venturing themselves upon the Tryal of Martyrdom when they might have escaped it Peter came off with Sin and Shame by venturing beyond the measure of his Faith into the hands of his Persecutors when he went after Christ to the High Priest's Hall whereas he should rather have made use of that indulgent Dismission that Christ gave to him and the rest of his Disciples Let these go their way Joh. 18.8 Christ dealeth with his People as a good careful Shepherd that will not over-drive his Sheep He gathereth his Lambs with his Arms and carrieth them in his Bosom and will gently lead those that are with young Isa 40.11 He would not have his Disciples urged rigorously upon the Duty of Fasting when their Spirits were unfit for it because he knew that imposing Duties above their Strength is like putting a piece of new Cloath into an old Garment and new Wine into old Bottles which spoyleth all at last Mat. 9.14 17. That Precept of Solomon Be not righteous overmuch Prov. 7.10 is very useful and necessary if rightly understood We are to beware of being too rigorous in exacting Righteousness of our selves and others beyond the measure of Faith and Grace Overdoing commonly proveth undoing Children that venture on their Feet beyond their Strength have many a Fall and so have Babes in Christ when they venture unnecessarily upon such Duties as are beyond the strength of their Faith We should be content at present to do the best that we can according to the measure of the gift of Christ though we know that others are enabled to do much better and we are not to despise the day of small things but to praise God that he worketh in us any thing that is well-pleasing in his sight hoping that he will sanctify us throughout and
necessary to the very being there of because Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God and receiveth Christ as manifested by the Word as I have before proved Raab the Canaanite was justifyed by Faith before she had any visible Commuion with the Church in any of God's Ordinances yet not without the Word of God even the same Word for Substance which was written in the Scriptures and was then extant in the Books of Moses Though that Word was not brought to her by any Book of Holy Scripture nor by the Preaching of any Holy Minister but by the Report of the Heathens Josh 2.9 11. But here our great work must be to get such a Knowledge of the Word as is necessary and sufficient to guide us in receiving of Christ and walking in him by Faith You must not be of their Minds that think the Knowledge of the Ten Commandments to be sufficient to Salvation or that would have Mysteries to remain hidden from the Understanding of the Vulgar and nothing to be Preached to them but that they can readily assent to and receive by the Light that is in all Men of which Mind it may be some Ministers are who unwitingly agree with the Quakers in a Fundamental of their Heresie But you must endeavour chiefly to know the Mystery of the Father and the Son as it is discovered in the Gospel Wherein are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.2 3. Which to know is life eternal and the ignorance of it is death eternal Joh. 17.3 2 Cor. 4.3 You must know that Christ is the end of the law Rom. 10.4 and therefore you must endeavour to know the Commands of the Law not that you may be enabled by that Knowledge to practife them immediately and so to procure Salvation by your Works but rather by your Knowledge of them you may be made sensible of your Inablility to perform them and of the Enmity that is in your Heart against them and the Wrath that you are under for breaking of them and the Impossibility of being saved by your own Works that so you may flee to Christ for Refuge and trust only to the Free Grace of God for Justification and Strength to fulfill the Law acceptably through Christ in your Conversation And for this end you must endeavour to learn the utmost Strictness of the Commands the exact Perfection and spiritual Purity which they require that you may be the more convinced of Sin and stired up to seek unto Christ for Remission of Sin for Purity of Heart and spiritual Obedience and be brought nearer to the Enjoyment of him As Christ testified that the Scribel who understood the greatness of that Command of Loving the Lord with all the Heart and Soul was not far from the Kingdom of God Mar. 12.34 the most effectual Knowledge for your Salvation is to understand these Two Points The desperate Sinfulness and Misery of your own natural Condition and the alone Sufficiency of the Grace of God in Christ for your Salvation that you may be abased as to the Flesh and exalted in Christ alone And for the better understanding of these Two main Points you should learn how the first Adam was the figure of the second Rom. 5.14 How Sin and Death came upon all the natural Seed of the first Adam by his Disobedience in eating the forbidden Fruit and how Righteousness and Everlasting Life come upon all the spiritual Seed of the second Adam Jesus Christ by his Obedience unto Death even the death of the Cross You also should learn the true difference betwixt the Two Covenants the Old and the New or the Law and the Gospel that the former shutteth us up under the Guilt and Power of Sin and the Wrath of God and his Curse by its rigorons Terms Do all the Commandments and live and cursed are you if you do them not and fail in the least Point The latter openeth the gates of righteousness and life to all Believers i. e. the New Covenant by its gracious Terms Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and live i. e. All your Sins shall be forgiven and Holiness and Glory shall be given to you freely by his Merit and Spirit Furthermore you should learn the Gospel Principles that you are to walk by for the attainment of Holiness in Christ And here I shall mind you particularly that you would be a good Proficient in Christian Learning if you get a good Understanding of the 6th and 7th Chapters of the Apostle Paul to the Romans where the powerful Principles of Sanctification are purposely treated of and differenced from those weak and ineffectual Principles which we are most naturally prone to walk by I need not particularly commend any other Points of Religion to your Learning for if you get the Knowledge of these principal Points which I have mentioned and improve it to a right end which is to Live and Walk by Faith in Christ your own renewed Mind will covet the Knowledge of all other things that appertain to Life and Godliness And if in any thing you be otherwise minded than is according to saving Truth God shall reveal even this unto you Phil. 3.15 Yet let me caution you lest instead of gaining Christ by your Knowledge you rather lose him by putting your Knowledge in the place of Christ and trusting on it for your Salvation One cause of the Jews perishing was that they rested in a form of knowledge and of the truth in the law Rom. 2.20 and doubtless all that many Christians will gain by their Knowledge in the end will only be to be beaten with more Stripes because they place their Religion and Salvation chiefly in the Knowledge of their Lords Will and in their Ability to Talk and Dispute of it though it may be for the most part at the Tavern or Ale-Bench without preparing themselves to do according thereunto Luk. 12.47 much less are you to place your Religion and hope of Salvation in a daily Task of reading Chapters or repeating Sermons without understanding more than the Papists do their Lessons in the Latin Mass and Canonical Hours as sad Experience sheweth that many seemingly Devout and frequent Hearers of the Word do notwithstanding remain in lamentable and wonderful Ignorance of the saving Truth and in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Isaias That in hearing they shall hear and not understand and in seeing they shall see c. Mat. 13.14 15. 2. Another means to be used diligently for the promoting of the Life of Faith is Examination of our State and Ways according to the Word whether we be at present in a State of Sin and Wrath or of Grace and Salvation that if we be in a State of Sin we may know our Sickness and come to the great Physician while it is called to day And if we be in a State of Grace ws may know that we are of the truth and assure our hearts before God with the greater confidence by
the testimony of a good conscience 1 Joh. 3.19 21. that so our Hearts may be more strongly comforted by Faith and established in every good work and that if our ways be evil we may turn from them to the Lord our God through Christ without whom none cometh to the Father Lam. 3.40 Joh. 14.6 But your great care in this work of Self-examination must be to perform it in such a manner that it may not hinder and destroy the Life of Faith as it doth in many instead of promoting it Therefore beware lest you trust upon your Self-examination rather than upon Christ As some do that think they have made their Peace with God meerly because they have examined themselves upon their Sick-Bed or before the Receiving of the Lords Supper though they have found themselves Stark Naught and do not depend on Christ to make them better but on their own deceitful Purposes and Resolutions Think not that you must begin this Work with doubting whether God will extend Mercy to you and save you and that you must leave this a Question wholly under debate until you have found out how to resolve it by Self-examination This is a common and very pernicious Error in the very foundation of this Work which is hereby laid in the great Sin of Unbelief which as soon as it prevaileth doth by its great Influence Dash and Obscure all inward gracious Qualifications of Peace Hope Joy Love to God and his People before they be at all tryed whether they can give any good Evidence for their Salvation And it makes People willing to think their own Qualifications better than they are lest they should fall into an utter Despair of their Salvation and thus it wholly marreth the good work of Self-examination and maketh it destructive to our Souls For to them that are defiled and unbelieving there is nothing pure Tit. 1.15 You should rather begin the work with much assurance of Faith that though you find your Heart never so wicked and reprobate at present as many of God's choicest Servants do often find yet the Door of Mercy is open for you and that God will certainly save you for ever if you put your trust in his Grace through Christ I have formerly shewed that this confident Persuasion is of the nature of saving Faith and that we have sufficient Ground for it in the Free Promises of the Gospel when we walk in Darkness and can see no Light shining forth in our gracious Qualifications If we begin the work with this Confidence it will make us impartial and not afraid to find out the worst by our selves and willing to judge that our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked beyond what we can find out Jer. 17.9 And if we have any holy Qualifications this Confidence will preserve them in their Vigour and Brightness that they may be able to give clear Evidence that we are at present in a State of Grace Mark well the difference betwixt these Two Questions whether God will graciously accept and save me though a vile Sinner through Christ as before was said and whether I am already brought into a State of Salvation The former of these I say is to be resolved affirmatively by a confident Faith in Christ the latter only is to be inquired into by Self-examination Mis-spend not your time as many do in poring upon your Hearts to find whether you be good enough to trust on Christ for your Salvation nor to find whether you have any Faith before you dare be so bold as to act Faith in Christ But know that though you cannot find that you have any Faith or Holiness yet if you will now believe-on him that justifyeth the ungodly it shall be accounted to you for righteousness Rom. 4.5 And if you love Christ and your own Soul mis-spend not your time in examining whether you have committed the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost except it be with a full Purpose to assure your self more and more that you are not guilty thereof for any Doubtfulness in this Point will but harden you in Unbelief Remember well that the Question to be resolved is Whether you be at present in a state of Grace and to resolve it you must be willing to know the best by your self as well as the worst And you must not think that Humility bindeth you to overlook your good Qualifications and to take notice only of your Corruptions But your great work must be to find whether there be not some Drop of saving Grace in the Ocean of your Corruption And it will consist well with Humility to take notice of and own any Spark of true Holiness that is in you because the Praise and Glory of it belongeth not to you but to God Phil. 1.11 And you must try inherent Grace by the Touch-stone not by the Measure by its Nature not its Degree not denying any Lustings of the Spirit in you because of the strong Lustings of the Flesh against the Spirit nor denying that you are Spiritual in some degree and Babes in Christ because you find your selves carnal in a more prevailing degree and the old man bigger than the new Gal. 5.17 1 Cor. 3.1 Especially you are to examine and prove whether you be in the Faith for if you make sure of this you make sure of all the things that pertain to Life and Godliness and if you doubt of this you will certainly doubt of the Truth of any other Qualifications and will suspect them to be meerly Carnal and Counterfeit because it is a known Truth that to the Vnbelieving there is nothing pure and that all that have not truly received Christ by Faith are at present in an unregenerate State though they seem never so Pure and Godly 2 Cor. 13.5 Tit. 1.15 And let not the Issue of this Tryal depend at all upon your Knowledge of the time when or of the Sermon Conference or Place of Scripture by which you were first converted to the Faith though that is good to know too if it may be And some who have formerly lived in gross Ignorance or in a manifest Opposition to true Faith and Holiness may know such Circumstances of their Conversion and may reflect upon them comfortably as the Apostle Paul did who was turned of a suddain from his Persecuting Rage to be a Disciple and an Apostle of Christ yet others sincere Believers may be wholly Ignorant of them as John the Baptist who was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mothers Womb Luk. 1.15 and they that have been trained up religiously and known the Holy Scripture from their Childhood as Timothy 2. Tim. 3.15 Yea and many that are first turned from gross Ignorance and Profaneness to some external Reformation and then in process of time brought nearer to the Kingdom of Heaven by insensible Degrees before they be really new begotten by the Spirit of Faith There are also some that deceive their Souls by imagining that
soveraign Authority Omniscience perfect Holiness exact Justice the equity of his Law and reasonableness of our Obedience to it the unspeakable Happiness prepared for the Godly and Misery for the Wicked to all Eternity Meditation on such things as these is indeed very useful to press upon our Consciences the Strictness of our Obligation to holy Duties and to move us to go by Faith to Christ for Life and Strength to perform them But that we may receive this Life and Strength whereby we are enabled for immediate performance we must meditate believingly on Christ's saving Benefits as they are discovered in the Gospel which is the only Doctrin which is the Power of God to our Salvation and whereby the quickning Spirit is ministred to us and that is able to build us up and give us an inheritance among all them which are sanctifyed Rom. 1.16 2 Cor. 3.6 Act. 20.32 You must take special care to act Faith in your Meditation mix the Word of God's Grace with it or else it will not profit you Heb. 4.2 and if you set the loving kindness of God frequently before your eyes by meditating on it believingly you will be strengthned to walk in the truth Psal 26.2 and by beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord you will be changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 This kind of Meditation is sweet and delightful to those that are guided to it by the Spirit of Faith and it needs not the help of such artificial-Methods as the Vulgar cannot easily learn You may let your Thoughts run in it at liberty without confining them to any rules of Method you will find your Souls much enlivened by it and enriched with the Grace of God which cannot be effected by any other kind of Meditation though it be never so methodical and curiously framed according to the Rules of Art 4. The Sacrament of Baptism must needs be of great use to promote the Life of Faith if it be made use of according to its Nature and Institution because it is a seal of the righteousness of faith as circumcision was formerly Rom. 4.11 But then we must take heed of making it a Seal of the contrary Righteousness of Works as the carnal Jews did that sought to be justified by the Law of Moses and as many Christians do that transform the New Covenant into a Covenant of Works requiring sincere Obedience to all the Laws of Christ as the condition of our Justification into which new devised Covenant they think themselves to be entred by their Baptism I may say of Baptism thus perverted and abused as the Apostle saith of Circumcision Baptism verily profiteth if thou keep the Law but if thou be a Breaker of the Law thy Baptism is made no Baptism Rom. 2.26 If thou be Baptised so long as thou continuest in the abuse of that holy Ordinance Christ shall profit you nothing Christ is become of no effect to you Ye are all fallen from grace Gal. 3.2.4 Beware also of making an Idol of Baptism and putting it in the place of Christ as the Papists do who hold that it conferreth Grace by the very work that is performed in the Administration of it And as many Ignorant People do that trust rather on their Baptism than on Christ like to the Pharisees who placed their Confidence on Circumcision and other external Privileges Phil. 3.4 5. We are to know that God is not well pleased with many that are Baptised 1 Cor. 10.2 5. and the time will come when he will punish the Baptised with the Unbaptised as well as the circumcised with the uncircumcised Jer. 9.25 Beware also of advancing Baptism to an equal Partnership with Faith in your Salvation as some do who account all Baptism null and void besides that which is administred to persons grown up to years of Discretion and they that refuse to be re-baptized at those years are to be accounted Aliens from the true Church from Christ and his Salvation notwithstanding all their Faith in Christ If the Baptism of Infants were null and void yet the want of true Baptism would be no Damning matter to those that are otherwise perswaded Circumcision was as necessary as Baptism in its time and yet the Israelites omitted it for the space of forty years in the Wilderness without fearing that any would fall short of Salvation for want of it John 5.6 7. Many precious Saints in the Primitive times of Persecution have gone to Heaven through a Baptism of Suffering for the Name of Christ before they had opportunity to be Baptized with Water And in those ancient Times when the Custom of deferring Baptism too much prevailed we are not to think that none were in a state of Salvation by Faith in Christ that deferred that Ordinance or neglected it Take notice further that it is not sufficient to avoid the pernicious Errors of those that pervert Baptism contrary to its Institution but you must be also diligent in the improving of it to the ends for which it was instituted And here let me desire you to put the Question seriously to your Souls What good use you do make of your Baptism How often or seldom do you think upon it The vulgar sort of Christians yea it may be feared many sincere Converts do so little think upon their own Baptism and study to make a due improvement of it that its of no more profit to their Souls than if they never had bin Baptized yea their sin is the more aggravated by rendring such an Ordinance of none effect to their Souls through their own gross neglect Tho Baptism be administred to us but once in our Lives yet we ought frequently to reflect upon it and upon all Occasions to put the Question to our selves Into what were we Baptized Acts 19.2 What this Ordinance Seals What did it engage us to And accordingly we must stir up and strengthen our selves by our Baptism to lay hold on the Grace which it seals to us and to fulfil its Engagements We should often remember that we are made Christs Disciples by Baptism and engaged to hear him rather than Moses and to Believe on him for our Salvation as John baptized with the Baptism of Repentance saying to the People That they should believe on him that should come after him i. e. on Christ Jesus We should remember that our Baptism sealed our putting on of Christ and our being the Children of God by Faith in Christ and our being no longer under the former Schoolmaster the Law Gal. 3.25 26 27. And that it sealed to us the putting off the body of sin and our Burial and Resurrection with Christ by Faith and the forgiving of our trespasses Col. 2.12 13. Our being made Members of one Body of Christ and to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.12 13. We may find by such things as these which are more fully discovered in the Gospel
slavish fear in the full assurance of Faith in this as well as in other holy Ordinances and we are to rejoyce in the Lord in this spiritual Feast as the Jews were bound to do in their solemn Feasts Deut. 16.14 15. There are other Abuses of this Ordinance like to those of Baptism forementioned whereby it is rendred opposite rather than subservient to the Life of Faith Some put it in the place of Christ by trusting on it as a work of Righteousness for the procuring of Gods Favour or an Ordinance sufficient to confer Grace to the Soul by the very work wrought Others make it so necessary that they account that Faith is not sufficient without it and therefore they will partake of it if they can possibly tho it be in a disorderly manner upon their sick-Beds when they are in fear of Death as their Viaticum The Papists do horribly Idolize it by their figment of Transubstantiation and the Adoration of their Breaden God and their Sacrifice of the Mass for the sins of the Quick and the Dead We ought warily to conceive that the true Body and Blood of Christ are given to us with the Bread and Wine in a spiritual mysterious manner by the unsearchable Operation of the Holy Spirit uniting Christ and us together by Faith without any Transubstantiation in the outward Elements 6. Prayer is to be made use of as a means of living by Faith in Christ according to the New Man And it is the making our Requests with Supplication and Thankfgiving That it is to be used so as an eminent Means appears because God requireth it 1 Thess 5.17 Rom. 12.12 It is our priestly Work 1 Pet. 2.5 compared with Psal 141.2 and the property of Saints 1 Cor. 1.2 and God is a God hearing Prayer Psal 65.2 God will be prayed to by his People for the benefit that he is minded to bestow upon them when once he hath enabled them to pray though at first he is found of them that seek him not Ezek. 36.27 37. Phil. 1.19 20. that he may prepare them for Thanksgiving and make Benefits double Benefits to them Psal 66.16 18 19. and 50.15 2 Cor. 1.10 11. Though his Will be not changed by this means yet it is accomplished ordinarily and his Purpose is to accomplish it this way And therefore trusting assuredly should not make us neglect but rather perform this Duty 2 Sam. 7.27 Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant by which Justification and Sanctification are promised is also the Mediator for Acceptance of our Prayers Heb. 4.15 16. The Spirit that sanctifieth us begetteâ—h us in Chist sheweth the things of Christ to us is a Spirit of Prayer Zech. 12.10 Gal. 4.6 He is as Fire inslaming the Soul and making it to mount upward in Prayer to God Prayerless People are dead to God If they are Children of Sion yet they are but still-born dead Children that cry not Acts 9.11 not written among the living in Jerusalem Heathens in Nature though Christians in Name Jer. 10.25 It is a Duty so great that it is put for all the Service of God as a fundamental Duty which if it be done the rest will be done well and not without it and other Ordinances of Worship are Helps to it Isa 56.7 It is the great means whereby Faith doth expert it self to perform its whole Work and poureth it self forth in all holy Desires and Affections Psal 62 8. and so yeilds a sweet savour as Mary's Box of precious Spicknard Mark 14.3 John 12.3 And so the same Promises are made to Faith and Prayer Rom. 10.11 12 13. It is our continual Incense and Sacrifice whereby we offer our selves Hearts Assections and Lives to God Psal 141.2 We act all Grace in it and must act it this way or else we are not likely to act it any other way And as we act Grace so we obtain Grace by it and all Holiness Psal 138.3 Luk. 11.13 Heb. 4.16 Psal 81.10 Our Riches come in by it Israel prevails while Moses holds up his Hands Exod. 17. By Prayer Hannah is strengthened against her Sorrows 1 Sam. 1.15 18. Peace is continued Phil. 4.6 7. the disordered Soul set in order by it as Hannah 1 Sam. 1. Psal 32.1 5. Incense was still burnt while the Lamps were dressed Exod. 30.7 8. It is added to the Spiritual Armoury not as a particular piece of it but as a means of putting on all and making use of all aright that we may stand in the evil Day Eph. 6.18 It is a means of transfiguring us into the likeness of Christ in Holiness and making our spiritual Faces to shine as Christ was transfigured bodily whilst he prayed Luk. 9.29 and Moses his Face shone whilst he talk'd with God Exod. 34.29 Hence the frequent use of this Duty is commended to us Eph. 6.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on all Seasons and Opportunities and by the example of the Saints in publick with the Congregation Acts 2.42 10.30 31. Solemn continued Acts of Prayer should be Mat. 6.1 Yea several times as Morning and Evening Sacrifice Dan. 6.10 Psal 92.2 or Thrice Psal 55.17 besides special Occasions Jam. 5.13 and brief Ejaculations that hinder not other business Psal 129.8 2 Sam. 15.31 Nch. 2.4 Prayers should be solemn in our Closets Mat. 6.6 in Families Acts 10.30 31. And as Sacrifices were multiplyed on the Sabbath-days and days of Atonement and at other appointed seasons Numb 〈…〉 the continual burnt-offering so ought 〈…〉 In a word a Christian ought to give up himself eminently to this Duty Psal 109.4 without limits Psal 119.164 But the great work is to practise this Duty rightly for Holiness only by Faith in Christ Here we had need say Lord teach us to pray Luke 11.1 and that not only as to the matter but as to the manner both which are taught by Christ in some measure in that brief patern of Prayer which he taught his Disciples But for the understanding of it we must consult the whole Word 2 Tim. 3.16 17. And we have need of the Spirit of Christ to guide us in the Duty and therefore we are taught to pray by the Spirit i. e. the Holy Ghost Jude 20. Eph. 2.18 the Spirit of God only guideth and enableth our Souls to Pray aright and that you may do so take these Rules 1. You must pray with your Hearts and Spirits Isa 26.9 Joh. 4.24 where the Spirit of Christ and of Prayer principally resides Gal. 4.6 Eph. 1.17 with Vnderstanding 1 Cor. 14.15 16. for we are renewed in Knowledg Col. 3.10 2 Pet. 1.3 so that praying in Ignorance cannot Sanctifie And it must be with sincere hearty desire of the good things we ask in Prayer For God seeth the Heart Psal 62.8 Prayer is chiefly a heart-work Psal 27.8 God heareth the Heart without the Mouth but never heareth the Mouth acceptably without the Heart 1 Sam. 1.13 Your Prayer is odious Hypocrisie mocking of God and taking his Name
in vain when you utter Petitions for the coming of his Kingdom and doing of his Will and yet hate Godliness in your Heart This is Lying to God and slattering with your Lips but no true Prayer and so God takes it Psal 78.36 and you must have a sense of your wants and necessities and that God only can supply 2 Chron. 20.12 And fervency in those desires is required Jam. 5.16 And you must pray with attention minding your selves what you pray or else you cannot expect that God should mind it 1 Pet. 4.7 Watch to it Dan. 9.3 Set your selves to this Duty intently God seeth where your Heart is wandring when you pray without attention Ezek. 33.31 When you say never so many prayers without Understanding Attention Affection it is not praying at all but sinning and playing the Hypocrite as Papists mumble over their Latin Prayers upon the Beads by Tale prating like Parrots what they cannot understand And thus ignorant People say over their Forms of English Prayers and account they have well-discharged their Duty tho their Heart prayed not at all and were minding other things This is a meer Lip-labour and bodily Exercise offering a dead Carcass to God plain deceit Mal. 1.13 14. a form of Godliness with denying the Power 2 Tim. 3.5 whereby Popery hath cheated the World of the Power of this and all other Holy Ordinances They say God minds and knows what they speak and approves it I answer He doth so as to Judg them for Hypocrites and profane persons for not knowing minding and approving what they utter themselves He hath no pleasure in Fools Eccles 5.1 2. They would not deal so with an Earthly Prince 2. You must pray in the Name of Christ for the Spirit glorifies Christ Joh. 16. and leadeth us to God through Christ Eph. 2.18 As I have shewed that walking in the Spirit and walking in Christ is all one so praying in the Spirit and by and through Christ And as we are to walk in the Name of the Lord and to do all things in his Name as is commanded Joh. 14.13 14. It is not enough to conclude our Prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord but we must come for Blessings in the Garments of our elder Brother and must depend upon his Worthyness and Strength for all So also we must praise God for all things in his Name as things received for his sake and by him Eph. 5.20 We must lay hold on his Strength only and plead nothing and own nothing for our Acceptance but him We must not plead our own works arrogantly like the proud Pharisee Luk. 18.11.12 except only as Fruits of Grace and Rewards of Grace Isa 38.1 2. Praying in the Spirit is upon Gospel not legal Principles Rom. 7.6 with 2 Cor. 6.3 with great Humiliation and sense of Unworthyness Psal 51. with a broken Spirit with Despair of Acceptance otherwise than upon Christ's Account Dan. 9.18 If your Enlargements Struglings Meltings have been never so great yet without this all is Abominable 3. Hence you must not think to be accepted for the Goodness of your Prayers and trust on them as works of Righteousness which is making Idols of your Prayers and putting them into the place of Christ quite contrary to praying in the Name of Christ Thus Papists hope to be sav'd by saying their Tale of Prayers upon their Bead-Rows and they have Indulgences granted upon their saying so many Prayers and of such a sort Yea some ignorant Protestants trust on their Prayer as Duties of Righteousness and they think one Prayer to be more acceptable than another by reason of the Holiness of the Form if it were made by Holy Men especially the Lords Prayer which they use to help them in any Exigence or Danger how little soever they can apply it to their own Case they make an Idol of it And some use it and other places of Scriptures as a Spell or Charm to drive away the Devil And others think their Prayers more acceptable in one place than in another by reason of the Holiness of the place Joh. 4.21 24.1 Tim. 2.8 Others trust on their much speaking Mat. 6. which they call the enlarging of their Hearts They think to put off God and stop the Mouth of Conscience with a few Prayers and so to live as they list 4. Pray to God as your Father through Christ as your Saviour in Faith of Remission of Sins and your acceptance with God and the obtaing of all other things which you desire of him as far as is necessary for your Salvation Jam. 1.5 6 7. ch 5.15 1 Joh. 5.14 15. Mar. 11.24 Heb. 10.24 and Psal 62.8 and 86.7 and 55.16 and 57.1 2. and 17.6 This is praying in Christ Eph. 3.12 and by the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.16 Gal. 4.6 Without this Prayer is Lifeless and Heartless and but a dead Carcass Rom. 10.14 Psal 77.4 By this you may judge whether you have prayed rightly more than by your melting Affection or largeness in Expression Though you be not assured that you shall have every thing that you ask yet every thing that is good This Faith you must endeavour to act and therefore if any Sin lye on Conscience you must strive first to get the Pardon of it Psal 32.1.5 and 51.14 15. and Purisication from it by Faith that you may lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting 1 Tim. 2.8 The sin of wrath there is especially mentioned because that is contrary to Love and forgiving others Here lyes the Strength Life and Powerfulness of Prayer Set Faith on work and you will be powerful and prevail 5. You must strive in Prayer to stir up and act every other sanctifying Grace through Faith moving you thereunto Thus your Spikenards will yield their Smell as godly sorrow Psal 38.18 peace Isa 27.8 joy Psal 105.3 hope Psal 71.5 desire and love to God Psal 4.6 and love to all his commands Psal 119.4 5. and to his people out of love to him Psal 122. you must seek the Spirit it self in the first place Luk. 11.13 Psal 37.5 and all spiritual things Mat. 6.33 Praying only for carnal things shews a carnal Heart and leaves it carnal Pray for faith Mar. 9.24 and for such things as may serve most for the glorifying God 2 Chron. 1.11 12. and for outward things you must act in submission to his Will and thus Prayer sets you in a holy frame Mat. 26.42 Luk. 22.42 43. Hallowing Gods Name must be your aim Mat. 6. not your Lusts Jam. 4.3 6. Strive to bring your Soul into order by this Duty however disordered by Guilt Anguish inordinate Cares or Fears Psal 32.1 5. and 55.16 17 20 22. and 69.32 Phil. 4.6 7.1 Sam. 1. A Watch must be often wound up you must wrestle in Prayer against your Unbelief Doubting Fears Cares Reluctancy of the Flesh to that which is good against all Evil Lusts and Desires Coldness of Affection Impatience trouble of Spirit every
thing that 's contrary to an Holy Life and the Graces and holy Desires to be acted for your selves or others Col. 4.12 Rom. 15.30 Stir up your selves to the Duty Col. 2.1 2. Isa 64.7 Though the Flesh be cross and reluctant we must not yield but resist by the Spirit Mat. 26.41 And thus we shall find the Spirit helping our Infirmities Rom. 8.26 27. Though God seem to defer long we must not faint or be discouraged Luk. 18.1 7. The greater our Agonies be the more earnestly we are to pray Psal 22.1 2. Luk. 22.42 This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.12 Eph. 6.18 Thus you will find Prayer a great Heart-work and not such a thing as may be done while you think on other things and that it requireth all the Strength of Faith and Affection that you can possibly stir up Thus you may get a holy Frame 7. You must make a good use of the whole matter and all the manner of Prayer as ordinary and extraordinary Exigencies may require to stir up Grace in you by wrestling and to bring your Hearts into a holy Frame As in Confession you must condemn your self according to the Flesh but not as you are in Christ You must not deny that Grace that you have as if you were only wicked hitherto and now to begin again which hinders Praise for Grace received in those that are already converted In Supplication you must endeavour to work up your Heart to a godly Sorrow Psal 38.18 and a holy sense of your own Sin and Misery and lay before you the Aggravations thereof Psal 51.3 Psal 102. Complaint and Lamentation are one great part of Prayer as Lamentations of Jeremiah And you must add pleading to your Petitions with such Arguments as may serve to strengthen Faith and to stir up and kindle Affection Job 23.4 which pleadings are taken from Attributes Num. 14.17 18. Promises 2 Sam. 7.27 28 c. Gen. 32.9 12. the equity of our cause Psal 17.2 3. the advantage and benefit of the thing to the glory of God and our comfort Psal 115.1 2. Psal 79.9.10 13. Naked Petitions are not sufficient when the Soul findeth special cause of strugling and wrestling against Corruptions and Dangers and for Mercies Christs large Prayer is made up Joh. 17. of pleading and very few Petitions And we must make use also of Praise and Thanksgiving for to stir up Peace Joy Love c. Gen. 33.10 Psal 18.1 2 3. and 33.1 and 74.14 and 104.34 Especially be much in praising God for Mercies of the new State in Christ Eph. 1.3 and then you will the better give thanks for all benefits on his account Eph. 5.20 1 Thess 5.18 and plead those Benefits to stir up to Faith and Duty That brief Ejaculation Lord have mercy on me is very good to be used but it will not answer the end and use of the whole Duty of Prayer as some lazy carnal People would have it and so harden themselves in the neglect of the Duty Though the large Improvement and use of all the matter of Prayer at all times is not required but only as ordinary or extraordinary Occasions may require 8. You must not confine and limit your Prayers by any prescribed Form seeing it is impossible that any such Forms should be contrived as should answer and fit all the various Conditions and Necessities of the Soul at all times I do not condemn all Forms as that made by Christ the Lords Prayer though it were easie to shew that Christ never intended it for a Form of Prayer so as to bind any to the precise Form of Words and it 's plain the Spirit of God hath expressed it in different Words Mat. 6. Luk. 11. But better to pray by that Form or other Forms than not at all It is uncharitable to take away Crutches or Woodden Leggs from lame People yet none will look upon them but as dead helps I say it is utterly unlawful to bind our selves to any Form because none can answer the Duty fitly and suitably to particular occasions Eph. 6.18 Phil. 4.6 Joh. 15.7 1 Thess 5.18 Eph. 5.20 You must make the whole Scripture your Common-Prayer-Book as the Primitive Church did being the Language of the Spirit reaching all Occasions and Conditions and sittest to speak to God in And if you use a Form you must follow it by the Spirit further than the Form goes according as he shall guide you by the Word or else you quench the Spirit 1 Thess 5.19 If you know the Principles of Prayer and have a lively sense of your Necessities and hearty Desires of Gods Grace and Mercies you will be able to pray without Forms and your Affections will bring forth words out of the fulness of your Heart And you need not be over-solicitous and timorous about words for doubtless the Spirit who is the help to us in speaking to Men will also much more help us to speak to God if we desire it 1 Cor. 1.5 Mar. 13.11 Luk. 12.12 And God regards not eloquent Words nor artificial Composure neither need we regard it in private Prayer Isa 38.14 If you limit your self to Forms you will thereby grow formal and limit the Spirit 7. Another means appointed of God is Singing of Psalms i. e. Songs of any sacred Subject composed to a Tune are Hymns or Songs of Praise and spiritual Songs of any sublime spiritual Matter as Psal 45. and the Song of Solomon God hath commanded it Col. 3.16 Eph. 5.19 in the New Testament Though now in these days many question whether it be an Ordinance or no and there were many Commands for it under the Old Testament Psal 149.2 3. and 96.1 and 100. Moses and the Children of Israel sang before David's time Exod. 15. David composed Psalms by the Spirit to be sung publickly 2 Sam. 23.1 2. yea privately too Psal 40.3 2 Chron. 29.30 Psal 105.2 Other Songs also were made upon several Occasions and used whether they were parts of the Scripture or no as Solomon made 1005. 1 King 4.32 And they made Songs upon occasion which teacheth that it is lawful for us to do so so they be according to the Word Isa 38.9 14. The matter of Scripture may be sung Psal 119.54 Christ and his Disciples sang a Hymn Mat. 26.30 supposed to be one of David's Psalms and they were written for our Instruction as well as other parts of Scripture Rom. 15. and so to be used now in singing They speak of the things of the New Testament either figuratively or clearly and we may understand them better now than the Jews could under the Old Testament 2 Cor. 3.16 Col. 2.7 Christians heretofore practised this Duty as well as Jews Act. 16.25 Hence their Antelucani Hymni were noted by Pliny a Heathen These Songs or Hymns may be used at all times especially for holy Mirth or Rejoycing Jam. 5.13 But is not to be taken exclusively in Singing any more than in Prayer Psal 38.18 2 Chron. 35.25
revolt from Christ we must not follow it how ancient soever it be as the Israelitish Church was not to be followed when it persecuted Christ and his Apostles and many by adhering to that Church fell from Christ Phil. 3.6 Acts 6.13 14. 21.28 We are indeed to hear the Church but not every one that calls it self so nor none any surther than it speaketh as a true Church according to the Voice of the Shepherd Joh. 10.27 We must subject our selves to Ministers of Christ and Stewards of his Mysteries 1 Cor. 4.1 But must give up your selves first to Christ absolutely and to the Church according to the Will of Christ 2 Cor. 8.5 Our Fear must not be taught by the Precepts of Men Mat. 15. The Doctrins of any Men are to be tryed by Scripture whatever Authority they pretend to Acts 17.11 An unlimited following Church-guides brought the Church into Babylon and into all manner of spiritual Whoredoms and Abominations You are not Baptized into the Name of the Church but into the Name of Christ 1 Cor. 1.13 3. Do not think that you must attain this or that Degree of Grace before you joyn your self in full Communion with a Church of Christ in all Ordinances but when you have given up your self to Christ and learn't the Duty of Communion give up your self unto a Church of Christ though you find much Weakness and Inability For Church Ordinances of special Communion serve to strengthen you and how can you get Heat being alone The Disciples as soon as converted embraced all Fellowship Act. 2.42 And Churches that they may forward Holiness in themselves and others must be willing to receive Christs weak ones and to feed his Lambs as well as better grown Sheep and bear them on their sides Isa 66.12 how else shall Christs weak ones grow strong by that Nourishment that other parts supply They are very unreasonable that expect that Christians should grow out of Church Fellowship to as high a Degree of Grace as those that are in those Pastures of tender Grass and are unwilling to receive any that they are like to have occasion to bear with whereas bearing and long-suffering are great Duties of Church-Fellowship Eph. 4.2 3. Rom. 14.1 The Weakest have most need to be strengthened by Church-Communion and we are bound to receive them as Christ hath received us Rom. 15.7 We do not reject or separate the weaker parts of the Body 1 Cor. 12.23 24. but put more Honour and Comliness on them Admission into the Churches in the Apostolick times was gained upon Profession with a shew of Seriousness though Tares got in amongst the Wheat and many Scandals arose to the Reproach of the ways of Christ and the greatest Strictness will not keep out all Hypocrites yet the best care must be taken so far as not to hinder any that have the least truth of Grace 4. Keep Communion with a Church for the sake of Communion with Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 Zech. 8.23 Therefore you must keep Communion in Christs pure ways only and in them seek Christ by Faith that in the Enjoyment of those Advantages you may receive and act the Godliness and Holiness formentioned and aim at spiritual Flourishing and Growth in Grace Chuse therefore Fellowship with the most spiritual Churches judge of Churches and Men according to the rule of the new creature 2 Cor. 5.16 17. and try them Rev. 2.2 and 3.9 otherwise a Church may corrupt ye See that thy Communion answer its end tend to thy Edification not to Destruction which you ought to take all the Advantages of not only in the Church where you are a Member but by Communion with other Churches as occasionally Providence casts you among them For your Communion with a particular Church obligeth to Communion with all Churches of Christ in his ways as you are called thereto 1 Cor. 10.17 And it 's an Abuse to say we are Members of a Church in London and therefore refuse Fellowship with a Church in the Country seeing if we are Members of Christ we are Members of one another whether single Persons or Churches And endeavour to joyn in Fellowship with the Godly of the place where you live that you may have the more sequent and constant Communion Onesimus though converted at Rome must be one of the Church of the Colossians because he lived there Col. 4.9 compare with Philemon 10. The Union of the Saints together in distinct Societies according to the places where they lived was the Apostolick Practice and can't be violated without Sin Such can best Watch over one another Admonish Comfort and Edify each other which is the benefit of Communion and they indeed destroy Communion that seek a Communion where they can't have this Benefit I only add to this Head That Church-Fellowship without practising the ways of Christ is but a Conspiracy to take his Name in vain and a counterfeit Church-Fellowship of Hypocrites it is Impudency for such to invite others to their Communion Tyranny to compell them Every Christian is bound to seek a better Church-Fellowship by Reformation and those that do so are the best Sons of Christ's Church who enquire Is this the way to enjoy Christ a Church-way being appointed to enjoy Christ therein 5. Especially leave not the Church in Persecution when you need its Help most and are then most tryed whether you will cleave to it This is a sign of Apostasie Heb. 10.25 26. Mat. 24.9.10 12 13. We should cleave to one another as one Flesh even to Prisons and Death or else we deny Christ in his Members Mat. 25.43 DIRECT XIV That you may seek Holiness and Righteousness only by believing in Christ and walking in him by Faith according to the former Directions take Encouragement from the great Advantages of this way and excellent Properties of it EXPLANATION THis Direction may serve as an Epilogue or Conclusion by stirring us up unto a lively and chearful Imbracing these Gospel Rules forementioned by several weighty Motives As many are kept from seeking Godliness because they know not the way to it or the way that they think of seems Uncouth Unpleasant Disadvantageous and full of Discouragement like the way through the Wilderness to Canaan which wearied the Isralites and occasioned their many murmurings Num. 21.4 But this is a way so good and excellent that those that have the true Knowledge of it and desire heartily to be Godly can't dislike it I shall shew the Excellency of it in several Particulars but you should first call to mind what is the way that I have taught viz. Union and Fellowship with Christ and by Faith in Christ as discovered in the Gospel not by the Law or in a natural Condition or by thinking to get it before we come to Christ to procure Christ by it which is striving against the Stream But that we must first apply Christ and his Salvation to our selves for our Comfort and that by confident Faith and then walk by
that Faith according to the New Man in Christ and not as in a natural Condition and use all means of Holiness rightly for this end Now that this is an excellent advantageous way appears by the following desirable Properties of it 1. It hath this Property that it tends to the Abasement of all Flesh and Exaltation of God only in his Grace and Power through Christ and so it is agreeable to Gods design in all his Works and the end that he aimeth at Rom. 11.6 Isa 2.17 Ezek. 36.21 22.31.32 Psal 145.4 and a fit means for the attaining the end that we ought to aim at in the first place which is the Hallowing Sanctifying and Glorifying Gods Name in all things and is the first and chief Petition Mat. 6. and is the end of all our Actings 1 Cor. 10.31 was the end of giving the Law Rom. 3.19 20. God made all things for Christ and would have him have the Preheminence in all Col. 1.17 18. That the Father may be glorified in the Son Joh. 14.13 And this Property of it is a great Argument to prove that it is the way of God and hath the Character of his Image stamped upon it we may say that it is like him and a way according to his Heart as Christ proveth his Doctrin to be of God by this Argument Joh. 7.18 And Paul proveth the Doctrin of Justification and of Sanctification and Salvation by Grace through Faith to be of God because it excludes all boastings of the Creature Rom. 3.27 28. 1 Cor. 1.29.30 31. Eph. 3.8 9. This Property appears evidently in the Mystery of Sanctification by Christ in us through Faith For first It sheweth that we can do nothing by our natural Will or any Power of the Flesh and that God will not enable us to do any thing that way Rom. 7.18 however Nature be stirred up by the Law or natural Helps Col. 3.21 And so it serveth to work Self-loathing and Abasement and to make us look upon Nature as desperately wicked and past cure and to be put off not reformed by putting on Christ It remains wicked and only wicked after we have put on Christ 2. It sheweth that all our good Works and living to God are not by our own Power and Strength at all but by the Power of Christ living in us by Faith and that God enableth us to act not meerly according to our natural Power as he enableth carnal Men and all other Creatures but above our own Power by Christ united to us and in us through the Spirit All Men live move and have their Being in him and by his universal Support and Maintenance of Nature in its Being and Activity they act Heb. 1.3 So that the Glory of their Acting as Creatures belongs to God but God acts more immediately in his People who are one Flesh and Spirit with Christ and act not by their own Power but by the Power of the Spirit of Christ in them as closely united to him and being the living Temple of his Spirit so that Christ is the immediate principal Agent of all their good Works and they are Christs Works properly who works all our Works in us and for us and yet they are the Saints Works by Fellowship with Christ by whose Light and Power the Faculties of the Saints do act and are acted Gal. 2.20 Eph. 3.16 17. Colos 1.1 so we are to ascribe all our works to God in Christ and thank him for them as free Gifts 1 Cor. 15.10 Phil. 1.11 God inableth us to act not by our selves as he doth others but by himself The Wicked are supported in acting only according to their own Nature so they act wickedly Thus all are said to live move and have their being in God Acts 17.27 But God enableth us to conquer Sin not by our selves but by himself Hos 1.7 and the Glory of inabling us doth not only belong to him which the Pharisee could not but ascribe to him Luk. 18.11 but also the Glory of doing all in us and yet we work as one with Christ even as he works as one with the Father by the Father working in him We act as Branches by the Juice of the Vine as members by the animal Spirits of the Head and bring forth Fruit by Marriage to him as our Husband and Work in the Strength of him as the living Bread that we feed on he is all in the new Man Colos 3.11 and all the Promises are made good in him 2 Cor. 1.20 2. It hath this Property that it consisteth well with other Doctrins of the Gospel which contrary Errors do not and hence this is the way to confirm us in many other Points of the Gospel and therefore appears to be true by its Harmony with other truths and sit linking with them in the same golden Chain of the mystery of Godliness and evidenceth them to be true by their Harmony with it I have shewed that mens mistaking the true Way of Sanctification is the cause of perverting the Scripture in other Points of Faith and of declining from the Truth to Popish Socinian and Arminian Tenents Because Men cannot seriously take that for truth which they judge not to be according to Godliness But this Way of Holiness will evidence that those Gospel Doctrins which they refuse are according to Godliness and that those Tenents which a blind Zeal for Holiness moveth them to embrace are indeed contrary to Holiness However Satan appeareth to their natural Understandings as an Angel of light in such Tenents Whatever Men say its certain that Legalists are indeed the Antinomians I shall instance in some Truths confirmed by it 1. The Doctrin of original Sin viz. Not only the Guilt of Adam's Sin and a corrupt Nature but utter Impotency to do spiritual good and Proneness to Sin which is Death to God in all People according to nature Psal 51.5 Rom. 5.12 There is an utter Inability to keep the Law truly in any Point Many deny this Doctrin because they think that if People believe this they will excuse their Sins by it and be apt to despair of all striving to do good Works and leave off all Endeavours and grow licentious and they think it will be more conducing to Godliness to hold and teach either that there is no original Sin or Corruption derived from Adam or at least it is done away either in the World by universal Redemption or in the Church by Baptism and that there is free-will restored whereby People are able to encline themselves to do good that Men may be more encouraged to set upon good Works and their Neglect made inexcusable All this is indeed forcible against seeking and endeavouring for Holiness by the free-will and power of Nature which is the way of endeavouring which I directed you to avoid and if there were no new Way to Holiness since the fall original Sin might make us despair but there is a new Birth a new Heart a new Creature and
therefore we have directed to seeking of Holiness by the Spirit of Christ and willing good freely by a spiritual Power as new Creatures partakers of a divine Nature in Christ Yea it s necessary to know the first Adam that we may know the second Rom. 5.12 To believe the fall and original Sin that we may be stirred up to fly to Christ by Faith for Holiness by free Gift knowing that we cannot attain it by our own Power and Free Will 2 Cor. 1.9 Mat. 9.12 13. Rom. 7.24 25. 2 Cor. 3.5 Eph. 5.14 There were no need of a new Man or a new Creation if the old were not without strength and Life Joh 3.5 6 Eph. 2.8 But original Deadness cannot hinder Gods working Faith and Hungrings and Thirstings after Christ by the Spirit through the Gospel in those that God chooseth to walk holily and blamelessly before him in Love 1 Thes 1.4 5. Act. 26.18 And so we are made alive in a new Head and become Branches of another Vine living to God by the Spirit not by Nature 2. It confirms us in the Doctrin of Predestination which many deny because they say it takes Men off from Endeavours as fruitless by telling Men that all Events are predetermined This Argument would be more forcible against Endeavours by the power of our own Free Will but not at all against Endeavours for Holiness by the Operation of God giving us Faith and all Holiness by his own Spirit working in us through Christ we are to trust on Christ for the Grace of the Elect and Gods good Will towards Men Matt. 3.17 Luke 2.14 Psal 106.4 5. Election by Grace destroys seeking by Works but not by Grace Rom. 11.5 6. And we are here taught to seek for Salvation only in the way of the Elect and we may conclude that Holiness is to be had by Gods Will and not by our own and it may move us to desire Holiness by the Will of God Rom. 9.16 Psal 109.32 And seeing it appears by this Doctrin of Sanctification through Christ that we are Gods Workmanship as to all the good wrought in us Phil. 2.12 13. Eph. 2.10 We may well admit that he hath appointed his Pleasure from Eternity without infringing the Natural Liberty of our corrupt Wills which reacheth not unto good Works Acts 15.18 compare with 30. Mans Natural Free Will may well consist with Gods Decree as in Paradise Decretum radii contingentia 3. It confirms us in the true Doctrin of Justification and Reconciliation with God by Faith relying on the Merits of Christs Blood without any Works of our own and without considering Faith as a Work to procure Favour by the Righteousness of the Act but only as a Hand to receive the Gift or rather as the very Eating and Drinking of Christ actually than any kind of Condition intitling us to him as our Food This great Doctrin of the Gospel many hate as breaking the strongest Bonds of Holiness and opening a way to all Licentiousness for they reckon that the Conditionality of Works to attain Gods Favour and avoid his Wrath and the necessity of them to Salvation are the most necessary and effectual Impulsives to all Holiness and they account that the other Doctrin opens the Flood-gates to Licentiousness And truly this Consideration would be of some weight if People were to be brought to Holiness by Moral Suasion and their natural Endeavours stirred up by the Terms of the Law and by slavish Fears and Mercenary Hopes for the Force of these Motives would be altogether enervated by the Doctrin of Justification by Free Grace but I have already shewed that a Man being a guilty dead Creature cannot be brought to serve God out of love by force of any of these Motives and that we are not sanctified by any of our own Endeavours to work Holiness in our selves but rather by Faith in Christ's Death and Resurrection even the same whereby we are justified and that the urging of the Law stirs up Sin and that Freedom from it is necessary to all Holiness as the Apostle teacheth Rom. 6.11 14. and 7.4 5. And this way of Sanctification confirms the Doctrin of Justification by Faith as the Apostle informeth Rom. 8.1 For if we are Sanctified and so restored to the Image of God and Life by the Spirit through Faith it is evident that God hath taken us into his Favour and pardoned our Sins by the same Faith without the Law or else we should not have the Fruits and Effects of his Favour thereby to our eternal Salvation Rom. 8.2 Yea his Justice would not admit his giving Life without Works if we were not made Righteous in Christ by the same Faith And we cannot trust to have Holiness freely given us by Christ upon any rational Ground except we can also trust on the same Christ for free Reconciliation and Forgiveness of Sins for our Justification Neither can guilty cursed Creatures that cannot work by reason of their Deadness under the Curse be brought to a rational love of God except they apprehend his loving them first freely without Works 1 John 4.19 The great Objection and Reason of so many Controversies and Books written about it is because they think that Men will trust to be saved however they live But Sanctification is an Effect of Justification and floweth from the same Grace and we trust for them both by the same Faith and for the former in order to the latter And such a Faith be it never so confident tendeth not to Licentiousness but Holiness And we grant that Justification by Grace destroys Holiness by legal Endeavours but not by Grace So that there is no need to live a Papist and die an Antinomian 4. It confirms us in the Doctrin of Real Union with Christ so plentifully held forth in Scripture which Doctrin some count a vain Notion and cannot endure it because they think it worketh not Holiness but Presumption whereas I have shewed that it is absolutely necessary for the Enjoyment of Spiritual Life and Holiness which is treasured up in Christ and that so inseparably that we cannot have it without a real Union with him 2 Cor. 13.5 1 John 5.12 John 6.53 ch 15.5 1 Cor. 1.30 Col. 3.11 The Members and Branches cannot live without Union with the Vine and Head nor the Stones be part of the living Temple except they be really joyned mediately or immediately to the Corner-stone 5. In the Doctrin of certain final Perseverance of the Saints John 3.36 c. 6.37 5.24 1 John 3.9 1 Thess 5.24 Phil. 1.6 John 10.23 29. c. 4.14 They think this Doctrin maketh People careless of good Works I answer It maketh People careless of seeking them by their own Natural Strength and in a way of slavish Fear but careful and couragious in trusting on the Grace of God for them when they are brought by Regeneration heartily to desire them Rom. 6.14 Numb 13.30 setting upon the doing of them in that Grace 1 Thess 5.8
Applied ROM 3.23 24 25 26. 23 For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God 24 Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ 25 Whom God hath set forth for a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of Sins that are past through the forbearance of God 26 To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus THE Apostle having confuted and overthrown all Justification of either Jew or Gentile by Works in the foregoing Discourse is now proving what he Asserted ver 21 22. viz. that the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the Prophets even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference Shewing that now in the Gospel times there is no difference between Jew and Gentile but that in the justification of both the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested This he proveth by shewing what the Gospel teacheth concerning the way of Justification for the Gospel only reveals the Righteousness of God Rom. 1.16 17. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ ver 17. For therein is the Righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith So the Words are a declaration of the Gospel way of Justification by the Righteousness of God and that so clearly and fully and the benefit spoken of so great and glorious being the first benefit that we receive by Union with Christ and the foundation of all other benefits that my Text is accounted to be Evangelium Evangelii a principal part of the written Gospel as briefly and yet fully expressing this excellent point more then any other Text. Note in the words particularly 1. The Subject declared and explained viz. Justification of Persons or their being justified and the meaning of it here is to be cleared and freed from all Ambiguities and Mis-understanding Justification signifieth making just as Sanctification is making holy Glorification making glorious But not making just by infusion of grace and holiness into a Person as the Papists teach consounding Justification and Sanctification together but making just in trial and judgment by a judicial Sentence discharging of guilt freeing from blame and accusation approving judging owning and pronouncing a person to be righteous Use alters the signification from the Notation It is a Juridical word or Law Term and hath reference to Trial and Judgement 1. Cor. 4.3 4. It is with me a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment Yea I judge not mine own self For I know nothing of my self yet am I not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord. And it s so opposed to condemnation in Judgment Deut. 25.1 If there be a controversie between men and they come unto judgment that the Judges may judge them then they shall justify the Righteous and condemn the wicked And Mat. 12.37 By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned And it 's opposed both to Accusation and Condemnation Rom. 8 33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect ver 34. Who is he that condemneth And so Job 9.20 If I justify my self mine own mouth shall condemn me Job 13.15 I will maintain mine own ways before him ver 18. I have ordered my cause and I know I shall be justified ver 19. Who is he that will plead with me Here Justification is plainly opposed unto the Accusation or Fault and it 's as plainly opposed to the passing Sentence of Condemnation 1 Kings 8.32 Do and judge thy Servants condemning the wicked to bring his way upon his head and justifying the righteous to give him according to his Righteousness In this sence it is a sin to justify the Wicked Isa 5.23 Prov. 17.15 Job 27.5 Actions must be existent already and brought to trial that they may be justified Job 33.32 Isa 43.9 26. Justice or Righteousness consists not in the Intrinsick nature of an Action but in its agreeableness to a rule of Judgment So that Actions are called just and righteous by an Extrinsecal Denomination with relation to Gods rule of Judging and this Righteousness appears by trying the Action according to the rule and by making an estimate of it which estimate is either approving or disproving justifying or condemning finding it to be sin or no sin or breach of the Law so we may say of the righteousness of Persons with reference to such habits or actings And because Righteousness of righteous Persons appears when they are brought to trial and judgment therefore they are said then to be in a special manner justified as if they were then made righteous Viz. when their Righteousness is declared as Christ was said to be begotten the Son of God at the Resurrection Acts 13 33. because he was then declared to be the Son of God Rom. 1.4 and in the same sense we that are adopted at present are said to wait for our adoption i. e. the manifestation of it Rom. 8.23 And thus even God is said to be justified when we judge of his Actions as we ought to do and deem them to be righteous Job 32.2 Psal 51.4 Luke 7.29 though nothing can be added to the Infinite Righteousness of God And Wisdom is said to be justified by her Children Matth. 11.19 So Justification is not a real change of a Sinner in himself though a real change is annexed to it but only a Relative change with reference to Gods Judgment And thus the word is used in the Text and so also in matters of Judicature throughout the scripture yea some contend against the Papists that it is no where in Scripture otherwise except by a Trope borrowed from this as the proper sense And in the Text it 's beyond all doubt meant of being deemed and accounted just in the sight of God for such a Justification is here only treated of as appears in the Text and before ver 19 20. And I have been the longer Explaining the sense of the word because the mistaking of it by reason of its composition occasioned that popish error whereby the benefit signified by it is obscured yea overthrown so that we had need contend for the sense of the Word 2. In the Text we have First the Persons justified 1. Sinners 2. Such Sinners of all sorts that shall believe whether Jews or Gentiles 2. The Justifier or Efficient Cause God 3. The Impulsive Cause Grace 4. The means effecting or Material Cause The Redemption of Christ 5. The Formal Cause The Remission of Sins 6. The Instrumental Cause Faith 7. The Time of declaring The present Time 8. The End That God may appear just From hence therefore will arise several useful Observations all tending to explain the nature of Justification which shall
be laid down and cleared out of the Text and confirmed particularly and then I shall make use of them all together Observ I. They who are justified are Sinners such who are come short of the Glory of God i. e. of God's Approbation Joh. 5.44 of Gods Image of Holiness 2 Cor. 3.1 Eph. 4.24 Eternal Happiness 1 Thess 2.12 Rom. 5.2 2 Cor. 4.17 1. The Law condemns all Sinners and strikes them dead as with a Thunderbolt Rom. 3.20 and adjudgeth them to Shame Confusion and Misery instead of Glory and Happiness by the strict terms of it Rom. 2.6 9.11 12. which none fulfils neither can do Rom. 8.7 neither Jews nor Gentiles there is no hope if free Grace restore them not 2. Christ came only to save Sinners and died for this end Rom. 5.6 when we were yet without strength in due time Christ dyed for the Ungodly and 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am the chief Mat. 9.13 I am not come to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance Mat. 18.11 The Son of man is come to save that which is lost And God must be believed on to Salvation as a God that justifieth the Ungodlsy he must believe as one that worketh not on him that justifieth the Ungodly Rom. 4.5 Observ II. Sinners of all sorts without difference whether Jews or Gentiles that believe are the Subjects of this Justification This is the Scope of the Apostle to shew that whereas Jews and Gentiles were universally condemned by the Light and Law of Nature or the Law written so the Righteousness of God is upon them all that believe ver 21 22. without difference This was a great point to be defended against the Jews in the Apostles times who appropriated Justification to themselves in a legal way and such were Proselites to the Law and Circumcision and therefore the Apostle Paul vehemently urged it Rom. 10.11 12. and it was a point newly revealed to the Apostles that the Gentiles might be accepted without turning Jews and much prized as a very Glorious Revelation Act. 10.28 45. Eph. 3.4 5 18. Col. 1.25 26 27. and it is confirmed 1. Because notwithstanding the Jews priviledg of the Law by reason of breaking the law they had as much need of Free Justification as the Gentiles and no worthyness above the Gentiles by their works but rather greater sinners Rom. 2.23 24. and when there is equal need and worth God might righteously justify one as well as another Rom. 3.9 2. God is the God of the Gentiles as well as the Jews Rom. 3.29 as he promised Rom. 13.9 12. Gal. 3.8 Isa 19.25 Zach. 14.9 3. Abraham was justified before he was circumcised that he might be the Father of those that believe though uncircumcised that they might inherit the same Blessing Rom. 4.10 11 12. 4. This will appear further by shewing that Justification is only by Faith and without dependance upon the Law meerly by the righteousness of another and so Jews and Gentiles are alike capable of it Observ III. That the Justifier or efficient cause of Justification is God It 's an Act of God Rom. 8.33 It is God that justifieth he only can justify Authoritatively and Irreversibly 1. Because he is the Lawgiver and hath power to save and destroy Jam. 4.12 this Case concerns God's Law and can only be tried at his Tribunal he is the Judge of the World Gen. 18.25 It is a small worthless thing to be justified by Man or by our selves meerly 1 Cor. 4.3 4. 2. To Him the Debt of suffering for Sin and acting Righteousness is owed And therefore he only can give a discharge for payment or release of the Debtor Psal 51.4 Mar. 2.7 Observ IV. God Justifieth Souls freely by his Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely by his Grace one of these Expressions had been enough but this redoubling of it sheweth the Importance of the truth to quicken our attention the more Here is the Impulsive cause of Justification and his free manner of bestowing it accordingly And this signifies Gods free undeserved Favour in opposition to any works of our Righteousness whereby it might be challenged as a Debt to us Rom. 4.4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt Chap. 11.6 if by Grace then it is no more of works otherwise Grace is no more Grace but if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Work is no more Work Eph. 2.8 9. By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Not of works least any man should boast 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with an Holy Calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which he hath given us in Christ Jesus before the World began Ver. 10. But is now made manifest by the appearing c. Grace is mercy and love shewed freely out of Gods proper motion shewing mercy because he will shew mercy and loving us because he will love us Rom. 9.15 and this is confirmed 1. Because there was not nor is any thing in us but what might move God to condemn us for we have all sinned Eph. 2.3 Ezek. 16.6 2. Because God would take away boasting and have his Grace Glorified and Exalted in our Salvation He will have all the Praise and Glory though we have the Blessedness Eph. 2.7 9. that in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ and so Rom. 3.27 Observ V. God Justifieth Sinners through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth for a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood This is the effecting means or material cause of our Justification viz. Redemption and Propitiation through the Blood of Christ which is the Righteousness of God treasured up in him By Redemption is meant properly such a deliverance as is by paying of a Price and so the Words Redeem and Redemption are frequently used Exod. 13.13 Numb 3.48 49 51. Lev. 5.24 51 52. Jer. 32.7 8 Neh. 5.8 from this proper Signification it is borrowed to signifie a deliverance without Price Luke 21.28 Eph. 1.14 Chap 4.30 or rather by a Metonimy of the Cause put for the highest effect the state of Glory so that state of Glory is called Redemption as being the compleating and crowning effect of Christs Redemption therefore it 's called the purchased Possession By a Propitiation is meant that which appeaseth the wrath of God for Sin and wins his Favour and this Propitiation of Christ was two ways typified First in the propitiatory Sacrifices whose Blood was shed and the Mercy-seat which was called the Propitiation because it covered the Ark wherein was the Law and the Blood of the Sacrifices for Atonement was sprinkled by the High Priest before it and
God 3. They have no need to seek Salvation by Works of the Law and so are delivered from a Yoke that cannot be born from endless observances that Pharisees and Papists have heaped up from the continual frights doubts fears and terrors by the Law Act. 15.10 Rom. 8.15 from a Wrath-working Law Rom. 4.15 from a Sin irritating Law Rom. 7.5 from a killing Law a Ministration of Death and Condemnation 2 Cor. 3.6 7 9. Mount Sinai which gendreth to Bondage Gal 4.24 4. Hence they are delivered from a condemning Conscience which otherwise would still gnaw them as a Worm Heb. 9.14 If the Blood of Bulls and Goats sanctified to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works c. A guilty conscience is a foul conscience and it will make all his services and duties dead works unfit for the service of the living God it s the blood of Christ applied by Faith that takes off this foulness of guilt from the conscience therefore the blood of Christ hath the only efficacy this way to take off the conscience of Sin Heb. 10.1 2 3 4 c. Hence they come to have a good conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 void of offence toward God Act. 24.16 5. It is an everlasting Righteousness by which their standing in Christ is secured Heb. 9.12 It s an eternal Redemption that is obtained So Dan 9.24 Whereas by the Law those that were justified to day typically might fall under condemnation so far as to need another sacrifice for Sin they had no real purgation of conscience from sin by those Sacrifices and therefore could not have a lasting delivery of their consciences from guilt by them here it is far otherwise here is an effectual compleat and perpetual Redemption reaching the conscience of the Sinner and for the purging away all sins past present and to come 1 Joh. 1.7 6. It 's a Righteousness of infinite value because it is the Righteousness of one that is God and his Name is Jehovah our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 Heb. 9.14 It is therefore more powerful to save than Adams sin was to destroy or condemn Rom. 5. Christ is here the power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 thence we are powerful and conquer by Faith likewise there 's a marvelous plenty of Mercy and Grace that is brought to us by Jehovah our Righteousness plenteous Redemption Psal 130.7 it must be most plentiful because infinite though no creature could satisfie for sin yet Jehovah could do it abundantly and therefore in Christ Gods merey prevails high above our sins Psal 103.11 12. 7. Gods Grace and Justice is both ingaged on our behalf in this Righteousness Justice is terrible and seems to be against mercy and dreadful to Natural people but it is otherwise to Believers it 's pacified and appeased through this Righteousness it 's satisfied in Christ for our sins Justice becomes our Friend joins in with Grace and instead of pleading against us it 's altogether for us and it speaks contrary to what it speaks to sinners out of Christ Josh 24.19 20. We may also plead Justice for forgiveness through mercy in Christ Rom. 3.26 8. We may be sure of Holiness and Glory of delivery from the power and dominion of sin as well as the charge of it before God and guilt in our own consciences for this was the end of Christs death Tit. 2.14 Rom. 6.6 Rom. 8.3 4. ch 6.14 c. 8.30 Whom he hath justified them hath he glorified The Law was the strength of Sin for sin had its title to rule in us by reason of the Curse and thence Satan also rules but here is our deliverance from Sin and Satan yea from Death too Heb. 2.14 15. Hos 13 14. And by the same reason we are raised by this excellent Righteousness to a better State than we had in Adam at first for Christ died that we might receive the Adoption of Sons and the Spirit that we might be brought under a new Covenant and be set in the right way of Holiness serving out of Love Gal. 3.14 1 Joh. 4.19 Gal. 4.4 Heb. 9.15 Rom. 5.11 Mat. 22.37 38. Col. 2.13 9. We may be sure hence of a concurrence of all things for our good all things shall work for good through Grace to bring us to Glory because God is for us who is the Creator and Governor of all things Rom 8.28 31 33. God will never be wroth with us nor rebuke us in anger any more Isa 54.9 Rom. 5.3 10. Hence we may come before God without confusion of face yea with boldness to the Throne of Grace in Christs Name Joh. 14.13 14. and expect all good things of him Eph. 3.12 in whom we have boldness of access with confidence by saith in him Heb. 10.22 23. Let us draw nigh with full assurance of faith Christs blood pleads for us in Heaven Heb. 12.14 and we may and are to plead boldly a satisfaction on his account 11. We live in those times when this righteousness is fully revealed and Sin made an end of Rom. 3.21 22. this is our happiness above those that lived before Christs coming who were under Types and Shadows of this righteousness when as we have the substance in its own light and so we are not under the Law which they were under as a School-master we are not Servants but Sons called to liberty Gal. 3.23 26. 4 7. 5 13. The preaching of the old Covenant as a Church Ordinance to be urged now is ceased the Law is not to be preached now in the same terms as Moses preached it for Justification Rom. 10.5 6 7 8. 2 Cor. 3.6 7. Gal. 3.12 21. its contrary in terms to saith though it were subservient Vse II. For Examination whether we be in Christ and have received this Justification by faith with all our hearts 1. Consider whether you be made really sensible of Sin and your Condemnation by the Law this is necessary to make us fly to Christ and for this as one great end was the Law given Gal. 3.22 23 24. Mat. 9.13 Act. 2.37 without sense of sin no prizing of Christ or desire of Holiness but rather abuse of Grace to carnal security and licentiousness those that were stung with the fiery Serpents looked up to the brazen Serpent 2. Dost thou trust only upon free mercy for Justification in Gods sight renouncing all thy works whatever in this point as not able to stand in them before Gods exact Justice crying mercy with the poor Publican Perfectionists and Self-righteous persons have no share in this matter Luk. 18.13 14. and Paul notwithstanding all that the World might think he had to plead for himself yet he counted all but dung that he might win Christ and be found in him not having his own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is of the faith of Christ the righteousness which is