rather And if you tell the humble Soul that they that Sin against the Holy Ghost never heartily repent of it and no Man in this Life can certainly conclude himself reprobated because for ought any knows he may repent and turn to God He will yet object Object 6. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that are deeply and kindly humbled for their Sins and full of the Spirit of mourning and 't is Mercy indeed if he will save such But I have an hard heart and an uncontrite Spirit I cannot grieve for Sin to any purpose though I know my self to be one of the chief of Sinners All these and many more such Objections will be unanswerable if the Soul considers only the absolute Mercy of God For God may indeed be merciful and gloriously merciful in saving Sinners though he should only save some of the most restrained and least provoking the soonest yielding and most signally humbled and mourning Sinners and so the Soul that judges worse of himself can have no hope of his Salvation But the Mercy of God in Christ is such as that he freely offers his Salvation to all even the worst of Sinners to whom the Gospel is preached inviting and commanding them to accept it and rely upon him for it And this answers all Objections The worst the Soul can say against himself exempts him not from the number of Sinners and Salvation is freely offered to all Sinners in general He is one of them let him make as bad of himself as he can And though he thinks it never so unreasonable for him to hope for Mercy yet no reason in the World can have any force against the Command of the most High God which requires him to repose his hope and trust in Christ for his Salvation Thus 't is evident that the ground of a Christian's hope or that which he relies and rests upon in his hope of Salvation is the free Mercy of God in Christ And therefore is Faith commonly in Scripture called a trusting or believing in Jesus Christ because the Satisfaction which he has given to the Law and the free tender of Salvation which he makes in the Gospel to Sinners in general is the only sufficient ground that any Soul has to stay and rest upon in hope of his Salvation John 3.15 16 18 36. John 6.35 1 Pet. 2.6 Acts 11.17 Acts 16.31 and many other places Faith is a believing in God But 't is a believing on him looked upon and considered as he is in Jesus Christ The Soul cannot believe or trust in God for Salvation but as he trusts in Christ 1 Pet. 1.21 Who by him believe on God who raised him from the dead c. It is a trusting or hoping in the Mercy of God Psalm 15.5 Psalm 147.11 But 't is a trusting in Mercy only as 't is expressed displayed and offered to Sinners in Jesus Christ It is a trusting or hoping in the Word Psalm 119.42 74. in as much as it declares and propounds that Mercy of God in Christ on which alone the Soul may rest it self in hopes of Salvation Thus have we seen the Sinner brought by the several Steps of Consideration Conviction Humiliation c. to a fiducial Faith or believing on Jesus Christ And now is he in the state of Effectual Calling or Conversion 1 Thess 2.13 Then Men are called and converted when they believe in Jesus Christ as 't is fully proved in Rom. 1.16 with 1 Cor. 1.24 Now is the Soul set safe from Condemnation and therefore is this Faith called Justifying Faith Rom. 5.1 Now is the Soul adopted and entitled to everlasting Life And therefore is Faith called saving Faith or believing to Salvation Heb. 10. Yea now the Soul is by the work of the Spirit possessed of all Graces necessary to qualify and prepare him for Heaven the heart being purified by Faith Acts 15.9 and taken up by the Lord Jesus for his Habitation Ephes 2.22 with Ephes 2.17 where-ever there is Faith in Christ there is also Love to God Obedience Patience Humility Self-denial and all other Graces in which the Law is written on renewed Hearts The Exercises and Encreases whereof come next to be considered The Sum of all is 1. The Sinner takes the estate of his Soul into serious Consideration Ezek. 18.28 He considereth and turneth away from his Transgression 2. He finds himself to be in a lost and perishing Condition Luke 15.17 I perish for hunger 3. The sight of himself in this estate affects his Soul with deep Sorrow and distressing Trouble Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pierced at the heart 4. This distress puts him upon a studious consultation and enquiry for a Remedy of his Estate And they said Men and Brethren what shall we do 5. Upon this enquiry God directs him to a serious and heedful attention to the Gospel Acts 11.14 Send for Peter he shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy House shall be saved And Acts 10.33 We are all c. 6. Thus attending the Gospel he comes to understand and believe the Doctrine therein contained and to receive it for certain truth upon God's Testimony Acts 2.41 They that gladly received his word were baptized John 6.45 They shall be all taught of God Every one therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me 7. Upon the belief of the Doctrine of the Gospel he proceeds to an hearty reliance on the free Mercy of God in Christ in hope of his Salvation For Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Christ Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ 1. Believing the Gospel he is informed of the excellency of Christ's Salvation and so desires it earnestly for himself 2. Believing the Gospel he sees this Salvation is freely offered to Sinners in general and so conceives hope that he may have it 3. Believing the Gospel he sees that Salvation is procured and granted only through the Mercy of God in Christ and therefore he rests only upon that Mercy in hope of his Salvation PART II. Of the Progress of a Believer from his Conversion to his Perfection under the work of Sanctification 1 PETER II. 2. As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby THE Text is an Exhortation to an earnest desire after the Word Where note first 1. The Persons exhorted they are lately converted Christians compared to new-born Babes so young and incompleat Christians are called 1 Cor. 3.1 And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ Babes in Christ because the work of Sanctification had gone on but a little way in them they being hitherto very Carnal 2. The matter of the Exhortation a desire after the Word Where note First First The object of this desire
Life Rev. 22.17 and that asking of which our Saviour speaks John 4.10 If thou hadst known the gift c. thou wouldest have asked God makes the humble Soul in the former act of Faith to know his Gift and to believe the worth and goodness of it and therefore now he earnestly desires and asks it And here we see at the very entrance how far Men are from saving-faith and hope in Christ that do not earnestly desire after God and Holiness A Man can never hope for that which he desires not and to desire after God and not hate Sin and all Unrighteousness is utterly impossible as for a Man to desire to be in the light and yet not be out of love with darkness No wicked Man while he continues so has any true desire after the Salvation of God in Christ Freedom from punishment he may desire but Holiness and Union with God he desires not nor can he have any good affection towards it yea he says to God Depart from me I desire not the knowledge of the most High Job 21.14 Now the knowledge of the most High is Life eternal John 17.3 So that wicked Men whatsoever Profession they may make of Faith and Hope in Christ for Life eternal do not so much as desire Life Eternal No you will say Is there any that doth not desire Eternal Life God that knows the Language of their hearts and will not wrong them in the interpretation of it gives us this account of what is said by Wicked men in general within themselves We desire not the knowledge of the Almighty We desire not his acquaintance no communion with him They had rather starve than go and dwell in the Father's House to eat bread there and live 2. As the belief of the Gospel makes the humbled Soul earnestly desire the Salvation of God so it gives him a persuasion that he may attain it and this makes his desire an hopeful desire i. e. it gives it the nature of Hope A man that rightly understands and believes the Gospel and earnestly desires the Salvation propounded in it must needs apprehend a possibility at least of his own Salvation while he remains under the dispensation of the Gospel For says the Soul if the Salvation of Christ be freely offered to all to whom the Gospel is preached i. e. If it be the good pleasure of God that whosoever accepts this Salvation should have it and if he invites and commands all to accept it without any other condition or any exception then there is fair probability that I may have my part in it I am sure I desire it more than any thing in the world and though I be never so unworthy yet the gift is free And though the Law condemns me yet Christ has so answered the Law that God may with honour save me if he will Who knows then but even I may attain everlasting Life by Jesus Christ under this persuasion now the humbled Soul earnestly desires the Salvation of Christ and this is Hope So the Prodigal as he hungrily desired to eat of his Father's Bread so he had a good persuasion that at his Father's House he might have entertainment that his Father would not shut the Doors against him but receive him and in this hope he went The Merchant Matth. 13. had not only a desire to be Owner of the Pearl but a persuasion that selling all that he had he might certainly entitle himself to it So he that comes to the water of Life comes not only in a thirsting desire after it but under an hopeful apprehension that he may take and have it freely for his own refreshment that his Soul may live This is very amply expressed in those words of the Apostle Gal. 2.16 We 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 Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ 1. They knew and believed the Gospel that Justification pardon of Sin and so Salvation is to be attained only through Jesus Christ 2. This Justification or Pardon and Salvation they earnestly desired else they would not have prosecuted it 3. They had a persuasion that they might possibly attain it as well as others and so they believed in Jesus Christ that they might actually attain it This persuasion is utterly wanting in Devils and despairing Sinners though they should be never so earnest in desire of Salvation yet they have no persuasion that they shall or may obtain it The former having no Gospel for it the latter no right understanding nor true belief of the Gospel and therefore they have no hope no trust in Jesus Christ And as this Persuasion grows stronger and stronger in him that sincerely hungers and thirsts after Christ so his Hope gets up to better measures and degrees In these two things we see the Father's drawing of Souls to Jesus Christ John 4.44 It is a work done by the Gospel 1. Men hear the Gospel 2. Hearing it they learn it i. e. they believe it with an assenting Faith They believe 1. The Excellency of Salvation as propounded in the Gospel and so they desire it 2. They believe the free offer and grant that is there made of it to poor Sinners without exception and so they get a persuasion that they themselves may attain it and thus they come to him for it they come to him in their hopeful desire of his Salvation Thus much of the end of Faith which is Salvation and the tendency of Faith to that end in a way of hope Thirdly The next thing to be considered is the ground or foundation of this Hope The free mercy of God in Jesus Christ In all hope the expecting Soul has somewhat to rest and bear upon as the foundation and basis of its hope and that resting and leaning is the formal proper act of a fiducial Faith The lame man Acts 5. hoped that the Apostles would give him Money and grounded that hope in their supposed Liberality So he trusted in their Liberality in hope of an Alms. The Governour Acts 24.26 hoped for a Bribe and grounded that hope upon the love 't is likely which he supposed Paul's Friends had for him So he trusted in the interest that Paul had in his monied Friends in hope of a Bribe Thus Believers hope for the Salvation of God propounded in the Gospel and ground their hope on his free Mercy in Christ i. e. They trust on the free Mercy of God in Christ in hope of Salvation As in Faith of assent there is a persuasion of the truth of the Doctrine contained in the Gospel and a resting on the Testimony of God in that persuasion So in Fiducial Faith there is an hoping for Salvation propounded in the Gospel and a resting on the Mercy of God in Christ in that hope Now that the mercy of God in Christ is the proper Ground whereon the Soul
rests it self in the Act of Saving Faith may thus appear 1. Man being an Offender and guilty of Death Eternal cannot be saved but in a way of Pardon which is an act of Mercy And thereforefore he can have no hope of Salvation from God but as he is a merciful God He that 's bound over to the punishment of Eternal Death must either suffer it or be forgiven it Now nothing forgives but Mercy Look upon God as Almighty and it speaks terror to the guilty Soul Power makes him able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Look upon him as Just and Justice speaks terror as that which makes him hate Sin and punish Sinners But consider him as he is merciful and pitiful to poor Creatures in their misery and there you have some ground of hope Hope can never find whereon to rest the sole of its foot till you come to a sight of God as merciful God be merciful to me a sinner Luke 18.13 He could light on nothing in all the World to stay his Hope upon but Mercy The poor Leper Matth. 8. urged our Saviour with his power to make him clean but if he had not had some hopeful conceit of his willingness to relieve poor Supplicants in such a case he would never have asked him for the cure He that expects a Debt may trust in the Justice of him that owes it But he that expects an Act of Grace must rest on the mercy of him from whom he expects it or he has nothing to trust to Obj. You will say a Believer hopes in the Faithfulness of God and the infallible Truth of his Word as well as in his Mercy Ans I grant it A believer hopes in the Truth of God but 't is only as his Truth and Faithfulness doth assure the Soul of his Mercifulness God professes and declares himself merciful the Soul believes that he is so and will approve himself so because it judges him faithful and therefore hopes in Mercy so declared So the Soul relying on Mercy relies upon the Power of God but only as Mercy turns and uses it to the saving of Sinners otherwise he is true to punish according to his Threatnings as well as he is true to save according to his Promise So he is mighty to destroy as well as to save Yea the Soul relying on Mercy relies also on the Justice of God as he is just in shewing mercy But all this while Mercy lies at the bottom as the foundation of a Believer's Hope Let God be never so mighty never so wise never so faithful never so righteous all this speaks no encouragement to the poor humbled Sinner but all against him till Mercy be discovered and then some ground appears for him to build his hopes upon And now the other Attributes of God give their assistance and bear up Expectation 2. But yet no man can safely hope in the absolute Mercy of God for Salvation but only in the Mercy of God consider'd as he is merciful in Jesus Christ i. e. as he is merciful so as to provide and accept a satisfaction to Justice in the Death of his Son and so to offer Salvation freely to Sinners or in the words of Scripture As loving the world so as to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life For 1. If the humbled Sinner considers Mercy absolutely Justice presently comes in and damps his hopes of Salvation For as it is not to be expected that God though he be Almighty should do any thing which his Wisdom doth not allow of because he is infinitely Wise as well as Almighty so neither can it be hoped though he be infinite in mercy that he should do any thing in a way of pity to a Sinner which his Justice will not bear because he is just as he is merciful Now Justice requires that the Law should proceed and that the Soul that has sinned should die Gal. 3.10 Deut. 27.26 But God in giving his Son to die for Sinners has so satisfied the Law that Justice has nothing at all to plead against the Salvation of any one Sinner whom God will please to save Rom. 3.25 26. By this means God has so ordered it that he is highly just in shewing mercy to the Sinner as having laid the punishment which belonged to him upon his own Son And therefore Mercy thus considered is a sufficient ground of hope but not otherwise as Heb. 9.21 Without shedding of blood there is no remission no hope of Pardon and Salvation but through the Death of Christ though God be never so merciful Secondly If the humbled Soul considers Mercy absolutely he can have no Assurance of the Terms on which he will save Sinners supposing that he will save any of them and so the Soul may object against his own hopes of Salvation Obj. 1. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have not broken out into gross wickedness but have restrained themselves to some bounds of fairness and morality And 't is great mercy if he will save such But I have exceeded in Sin and done evil with an high hand Obj. 2. It may be he will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have sinned out of ignorance as being uninformed and unconvinced of the evil of the things wherein they have offended and 't is great mercy if he will save such But I have rebelled against the light and sinned against knowledge and the express dictates of my own Conscience Obj. 3. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that accept the first or second call that he gives them to Repentance and close with offered Grace betimes and 't is great mercy if he will save such Sinners But alas I have withstood many gracious Invitations and neglected Salvation when it has been offered to me God knows how many times and so my day may be expired It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have not signally contradicted their Professions in the course of their lives who as they have not practised Godliness so have never much pretended to it and 't is great mercy if he will save such or some of them But I have dissembled with him and lived the life of the Ungodly under the profession of Godliness yea I have given up my Name to Christ and yet have given my hand to Satan and my own Lusts Object 4. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that have not sinned against the Holy Ghost and 't is great Mercy if he will vouchsafe to save some of them But I fear I have sinned the Sin that 's never to be pardoned Object 5. It may be God will save some great and eminent Sinners but they are such only as are within the eternal purpose of Election and he shews great mercy in saving them but I fear I am under the decree of Reprobation
converting pardoning and renewing Grace and the Person returns unto union with God that is into Life and this Life once begun by Jesus Christ is Eternal Thus Christ's Salvation is set forth in plain terms Act. 3. God sent Christ to bless men to bless them i. e. to save them and make them happy to save them from the Curse which they are under by Nature by turning them from their iniquity that they may receive remission of sin and an Inheritance among them that are sanctified Act. 26.18 By which 't is evident That as men cannot be saved without pardon which frees from punishment so neither can they be saved by pardon without being turned from Sin it self Let Pardon go as far as it can without Holiness and the Person is miserable still and dead still because separated from God This is the Salvation which the Gospel treats of and which is freely offered to all Sinners without exception To offer a thing freely is to say Here 't is Take it and it shall be thine So the Gospel offers Salvation by Jesus Christ as appears if we consider these two things First It is the good pleasure of God that whosoever accepts this Salvation shall have it that whosoever will take of the Water of life should have it without Money and without Price Rev. 21. Isa 55.1 To as many as receive Jesus Christ he gives power to be called the sons of God John 1.12 2. He invites and commands all to accept it without condition or exception Whosoever will let him take c. Ho every one that thirsteth come c. That word that thirsteth is no limitation at all It is but every one that listeth or is heartily willing And acceptance cannot be against or without the Will As when a man offers Meat at a Table to all that have an Appetite 't is all one as to offer it to all So rest is promised to the weary Matth. 11. i. e. to all that will come for it So the grant of Salvation in the Gospel is absolute and unconditional unless you will as some do call Acceptance it self the Condition And so 't is a question whether any Gift can possibly be unconditional and certainly no Gift that is given oblatively by way of offer can be without Condition Thus we see the Summe of the Gospel that must be understood and believed to Salvation Secondly The humbled Soul seriously attending the Doctrine of the Gospel not only understands what is the summe and substance of it but also discovers the Authority of God imprest upon it and perceives his Voice in it and so receives it for certain truth upon his Testimony and this gives form and being to the faith of Assent viz. An humble and reverential Acquiescency in the Testimony of God for the infallible certainty of the thing that is affirmed 1 John 5.10 He that believeth not God has made him a liar because he believeth not the testimony that God hath given of his Son which implies immediately that he that doth believe the Testimony believes God in it and grounds upon his Veracity and never-failing Truth Believing is grounded on the Veracity of him whom we believe and consequently to deny belief is to deny or question at least the veracity of the Speaker John 3.33 When we heartily assent to the Doctrine of the Gospel and are fully persuaded that 't is certain truth and that Persuasion is grounded on the truth of God because we receive it as from his mouth who cannot deceive us this is believing the Gospel And this is the Sixth Step or degree of this great Work of Salvation When God by making the Soul heedfully attend to the Doctrine of the Gospel causes him so to understand it and comprehend the substance of it and so to apprehend and perceive the very Voice and Authority of God in it that he threupon sits down concluded in it as undeniable and undubitable because God affirms it See 1 Thess 2.13 The man had often heard the Gospel before it may be and knew the Contents of it and did not deny the truth of them but let them pass for things as commonly received for truth in the place where he lived maintained by Learned Men and delivered down from Generation to Generation so that it would have been matter of shame to him to have called them into question But now he has another sense and relish of the things themselves than he had before and is strongly persuaded of the certain truth of them by the invincible Authority of God from whom as his Oracles he receives them The Seventh Step or degree of this great Work is Fiducial Faith A resting or trusting on the Mercy of God in Christ in hope of his Salvation tendred to Sinners in the Gospel These two Graces if indeed they be two Faith and Hope are so nearly united and conjoined that the one can neither be nor be defined without the other Rom. 4.18 Abraham believed in hope and Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance or subsistence of things hoped for Hope is the Intention of the Soul to that good which a man is persuaded he may attain Faith fiducial is a man's resting or trusting in that thing or Person by means or help or favour whereof he hopes to attain the good which he intends as Act. 3.5 the impotent man expected to receive an Alms from the Apostles and trusted in their supposed Liberality So Rom. 4.18 Abraham hoped to become a Father of many Nations and trusted in the Alsufficiency and Faithfulness of God So all Hope is grounded in fiducial Faith and all fiducial Faith exerts it self in Hope Hope looks at the end which is intended and Faith at that by means and help whereof it is to be attained D. Ward de fide Justificante But notwithstanding this distinction It is commonly observed that the Scripture oft-times expresses both Faith and Hope by one and the same word and refers Hope as well to the means as to the end As when we read of Hoping in God hoping in Christ and hoping in mercy which is certainly all one with trusting in God and trusting in Christ and trusting in Mercy c. as the Learned Dr. Ward observes Again Trusting is commonly referred to the End as well as to the Means as Psal 22.8 He trusted in God that he would deliver him He trusted that God would deliver him there is that which is distinctly called Hope and he trusted in God there is that which is more precisely called Faith So Phil. 2.24 I trust in the Lord c. whereas in v. 19. 't is I hope in the Lord as the original word signifies And besides our English Translation commonly renders the word hope by trust as Rom. 15.24 1 Cor. 16.7 2 Cor. 13.6 c. Plainly implying that there is no absurdity in taking them both for one and the same act of the Soul which as 't is referred to the end is called Hope and as referred