thou requirest of me so Paul Oh that God would so manifest himself to every one of your hearts this day that he would shew himself come up close to you look you in the face and say I am Jesus you could not withstand this mighty presence of God in Christ Jesus O speak Lord 't is but thy saying to each of us I am Jesus and we shall all be made to know the Lord from the least to the greatest I hope the quickning voice of the Son of God is now sounding in the Ears of your Faith while I am speaking to you and that you do receive the Word not as the word of Man but as it is indeed the Word of God quick and powerful sharper than a two-edged Sword in every one of your hearts The knowledge of the Truth as 't is in Jesus Eph. 4. 21. is one thing and the knowledge of the Truth as 't is in Ink and Paper is another they are the same Truths but as they are in the Scriptures they lie in the dead Letter as they are in Christ they are seen in their living root and principle from whence they spring meer Scriptural Knowledge is but Historical we look upon the things we read and hear rather as notions than realities till God fills up all expressions of Scripture concerning himself with a Divine Presence answerable thereunto we believe nothing that is said of him but such a presence of God in his Word captivates our hearts to the belief of it we must believe him to be such a God as the Word declares him to be before we shall count all his sayings true we must fetch strength from the name of God Rev. 2. 13. to support our Faith in all its actings upon any part of his revealed will and we never deny any Truth plainly revealed but we deny his name Rev. 3. 8. and question his Attributes some Truths bare more upon one Attribute some more upon another but all are founded in God and in the essential properties of his Nature from whence they have their verification and accomplishment so that till God appear and shew himself to the Soul all that is said to us out of the Scriptures in the name of an unknown God affects us not because it wants that which is the ground of its Credibility no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 3. he cannot say so and think so he cannot say so and believe what he says till the Father reveal his Son in him Paul by the Light of that Revelation of Christ in him knew all Gospel Mysteries and without such an inward spiritual manifestation of God to our Souls giving us a sight of him who is invisible 't is impossible we should ever be throughly convinced of the Divinity of the Scriptures all Divinity springs from God leads to him nay it looks him directly in the Face and can't be considered apart from him there is but one God and one Faith God must be in the view of our Faith whensoever we really act it Neither can we have that inward testimony of the Spirit convincing us of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures without this special Appearance of God in the Soul as a witness to the Truth of his Word While we are hearing the Word God has invisible wayes of access to our hearts he conveys himself through his Truth to our Souls his Divinity leads the way without some appearance of this the contents of the Word would have no place in our hearts but coming with so great a presence in so great a name and with so strong an impression God himself writing them upon the heart we cannot but receive his Testimony the Word comes into our Hearts suddenly before we are aware and seises them for God we cannot but think speak act and judge as God does the sense of the Word is the sense of our Souls so far as the Word is written in our hearts we read it without the least variation the Copy answers the Original Hence arises that habitual disposition or inclination to believe God creates this new heart I say this infused habit or principle of faith is antecedent to all acts of faith put forth by us and is in it self the sole act of God upon us in our first Conversion it is from this supernatural principle thus infused that the natural powers and faculties of the Soul of Man viz. the Understanding and the Will are enabled to take in things purely Spiritual and Divine Nature never acts above its sphere those inbred common Notions that are the Standards and Measures of Natural Truths in all their consequences will never lead us to grant or admit that which is supernatural when we do this 't is always from some higher Principle when we see men acting above themselves we may conclude they are acted by something higher than themselves which is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them This special Appearance of God with those inward effects of it upon the Soul which I have been speaking of may be known to Believers they discern it in others Acts 11. 17 18. and do when they give a true reason of their faith see it in themselves that all springs from the Fathers revealing his Son in them they can give no other reason why they believe in Jesus 't is God that opens the door of Faith and makes it effectual Acts 14. 27. We are apt to be taken with any appearance of Man in a Sermon this we look after what words of Mans Wisdom how Man acquits himself in reasoning of this or that Point 'T is true there is some skill required in Planting and Watering but all the encrease comes from God your Faith consists not in the Wisdom of Man but in the power of God if God himself do not appear as a witness to his own Truth as the great undertaker of all that he has promised what we say will prevail little your faith must terminate in God himself and in that Ability that is in him to perform his word this was the ground of Abrahams faith Paul knew him whom he believed 2 Tim. 1. 12. and so must you if ever you believe to the saving of your Souls Did you go out of the Congregation after every Sermon you hear under a sight and sense of this appearance of God in his Word speaking to you from Heaven and shewing himself to your souls in some spiritual resemblance suited and adapted to that Word you are hearing how could you reject such a Word so full of God so exactly corresponding to what you see in God himself you must yield and cry out each of you who am I that I should withstand God This is the first way that God takes to work Faith in us by our hearing the Word Preached to us Secondly Faith is wrought by opening the heart enlightning the mind and perswading the will to a through closure with Christ upon Gospel Terms
Among grown persons if you take the day of Conversion more largely as the Scripture often does for the day of their Lives for the day of their outward Callings generally termed the day of Grace i. e. of outward Grace so they all agree in the day of their Conversion they are brought home to Christ within that time or never tho they do not all come in at the same hour of the day But more of this by and by when I come to speak of the time of our Regeneration which to avoid all coincidence of matter I shall comprehend under this Head of the manner of Regeneration which the Scripture gives us some light into we may know something of it The Manner of Regeneration 1st That a marvellous work is wrought in us and upon us We see a great difference between what we now are and what we formerly were even in our own remembrance Whereas I was blind now I see Such were some of you but you are washed Remember that ye being in time passed Gentiles in the flesh but now in Christ Iesus Called out of darkness into his marvellous light This is something of the manner of Regeneration which all Saints have some experience of the change is so great so universal in every part and faculty of the Soul All things are become new that it cannot be altogether hid from a considering Christian he cannot resolve the Cause and Reason of it into any thing but the Power of God 't is his doing wonderful in our eyes He that is born of God knows and loves him that begat him does naturally cry Abba Father from the Spirit of Adoption received in Regeneration being born of the Spirit he breathes and prays in the Spirit ever after his heart is instructed and quickned by the Spirit to call God Father The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. 2dly Regeneration does not only shew the wide difference between the two states the Regenerate and Unregenerate but it comes in a different manner upon the Regenerate themselves I say a different manner for there is no difference in the nature of the thing it self That is the same in substance essence and principle in all who are Regenerate yet there are some circumstances attending Regeneration sometime wherein one Regenerate person may greatly differ from another even in the first moment of Regeneration e. g. Some may be Regenerated and Converted into higher degrees of Grace in the first moment of their Conversion than some others tho as truly Regenerate as they may attain to all their days all in Regeneration do receive one and the same spirit of Grace but not in the same measure Paul was converted into an eminency in Grace he was never a babe in Christ but was born a strong Man in Christ the very first moment of his Conversion God had present use of Paul he had designed him for eminent service which he was immediately to enter upon and therefore God furnishes him accordingly Let not weak Saints question the truth of their Regeneration because they are not presently raised up to such degrees of actual Grace as they see in others Another Reason I conceive of this difference between Saint and Saint in their first Conversion may arise from the different circumstances Grace finds them under in respect 1. Of their Years 2. Of their Temptations 3. Of their Employments and Callings 1st In respect of their Years Some may be Regenerated in their Infancy as was at first granted they are capable only of habitual Faith of the seed and principle of Grace A Man is no further capable of Grace than he is of Reason 't is Reason that makes a Man a subject naturally capable of Grace and Grace usually comes in in a degree proportionable to the strength of our rational faculties Where there is but a principle of Reason there may be a principle of Grace brought into that Soul and where there is an actual understanding there may be actual Faith proportionable to our actual Understandings I shall not speak of Infants who are but habitually rational and therefore can be but habitually gracious But I shall begin with those who are next to Infants newly come to the use of Reason some are more early Converts than others Mr. Cotton in his Exposition of 1 Iohn 2. 13. says that Children may act Grace as soon as they act Reason may be made to know their Heavenly Father as soon as they do their natural Parents This is early indeed yet I doubt not but so it may be only let me put in this Observation by the way viz. Observe The nearer our second birth lies to our first the more undisernable it is In its first rise and original here Grace seems to grow up with Nature Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual but that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual The Apostle applies it to the Resurrection of the Body and I may as fitly apply it to the Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul in Regeneration so that you see the new creature is still the youngest Man if compared to the old Man. The new creature is of a later extraction an after birth or a second birth But every man in his own order Should Grace come in with our first being the first introduction of it could not be called Regeneration God does proportion his gifts of actual and efficacious Grace according to the strength and ripeness of our active faculties tho all Converts have the same principle of Grace yet the younger sort in their tender years are not capable of acting so distinctly as others may who are of full Age and have their Senses better exercised by reason of use 'T is said of Iohn That the child grew and waxed strong in spirit So of Christ himself tho he was fill'd with internal habitual Grace at his first conception yet proportionably to his Age his Grace did actually and more powerfully manifest it self So 't is with all young Christians Grace in the active part of it keeps peace with Nature and does not offer violence to it Grace may elevate and quicken our rational faculties and bring them sooner to maturity But it always takes our Understanding and Will along with it in every act we put forth Faith is a rational Grace an understanding Grace a wise Grace there is much of the strength of a Man's rational Soul goes out in every act of Faith. Tho Faith be above Reason yet Faith can give a Reason why we should believe things above Reason and so one way or other Faith doth deal with Man's Reason even when it lifts up Man above Reason This may be one ground of the different degrees of actual Grace among some at their first conversion I say actual Grace because that only is capable of degrees A principle of Grace is the same in all but variously
believe as Christ is gone before you as surely escape Hell and overcome Death as Christ is risen from the dead and the only way to get an Interest in Christ is to attend to the word of Faith that is preached ver 8. when once that prevails and brings you to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead you shall be saved ver 9. this proved out of Isa. 28. 16. Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed whether Iew or Gentile ver 11 12. and because Prayer is the principal part of that outward Confession made with the Mouth and the best indication of Faith in the Heart he concludes ver 13. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Whence Observe Observ. The chiefest thing we should now pray for is that we may have an Interest in Christ and his Righteousness desiring to be found in him c. Having spoken so much of the Righteousness of Faith he does in a certain gradation shew the way and means of attaining it it is not a Righteousness that is to be done by us to be wrought out with our own hands but prepared for us by another freely promised and given to us therefore it must be askt it must be earnestly pray'd for we must beg hard of God to impute it to us v. 13. the Law propounds the work of Righteousness to be done by us the Gospel Rom. 5. 17. propounds the Gift of Righteousness to be pray'd for and thankfully received v. 14. there can be no Prayer without Faith no Faith without Hearing no Hearing without a Preacher no Preachers unless they be sent from all which he draws this Conclusion viz. that the next immediate Cause of Faith is Hearing There is much Preaching and much Hearing in this City but what comes on 't Truely if Faith does not come nothing comes that will turn to any good Account to you The Apostles in the Primitive times so spake that many believed Acts 14. 1. with that evidence and power their words had a special Accent in the Ears and Hearts of those that heard them God gave a signal testimony to the word of his Grace than fear came upon every Soul Acts 2. 43. Those who were not savingly wrought upon were greatly astonished at the Doctrine of the Gospel 't is otherwise now how little of this astonishment does appear in our Assemblies where is this fear that came upon every Soul 't was short of Faith yet I am perswaded when Faith comes in some open eminent Conversion that the whole Assembly is usually struck with some present fear the Word comes like a mighty rushing Wind into the Congregation shakes all when 't is about to Convert one something like this may be observed in the Acts of the Apostles and other passages in the New Testament it is sit that Grace should be solemnly attended when it goes forth to the publick Conversion though but of one Soul If God intend the coming of Faith into any of your hearts this day he 'l come along with his Work he will prepare the way he 'l bless your hearing and speak something inwardly to you from himself that shall incline your hearts to believe the Gospel though God speaks by the Ministry of man yet his voice is distinct from ours and begins where that ends carrying the Word from the Ear to the Heart there leaving it under those mixtures of Faith that make it work effectually Hear I beseech you with diligence least you obstruct the coming of Faith by not attending to what shall be spoken to you in the name of the Lord. So then faith cometh by hearing c. Doct. Hearing the Word of God Preached to us is the ordinary means of begetting faith in us First What are we in a more special manner to understand by Faith here in the Text. The general Object of Faith is the whole Doctrine of God laid down in the Scriptures the special object of Saving Faith is the Free-promise of Grace in Christ Jesus this supports the former we must believe the Divine Narrative of the whole Will of God revealed in the Bible before we can pitch our Faith in any suitable actings upon any part of it 't is one thing to assent to the Truth of the Word in General a further and indeed another thing to apply the Promises he believes a Promise who do's fiducially rely upon it this is properly Trusting we believe something in reference to our selves living in a comfortable Hope and Expectation of it respecting not only the Truth of the thing but also the Goodness of it in reference to our selves under that possibility probability or certainty of obtaining it which our Faith according to its various Degrees may represent unto us Faith in the Righteousness of Christ for justification is here principally intended Secondly Why must this Faith come by hearing Hearing is alwayes antecedent to Faith though Faith be not always the consequent of Hearing ver 16. 18. all Hearers are not believers though all Believers are first Hearers I shall evince the necessity of Hearing in order to Faith from these following grounds I. Hearing is Sensus Discipline the Sense by which all Knowledge is let into the Soul. There is a two-fold Knowledge belonging to Faith one leading to it the other found in it arising from it and is the same with Faith it self The First is Litteral or Historical 't is rather notitia then cognitio a notice or particular information given us of the Contents of the Bible especially of the report which the Gospel makes of the way of Salvation by Christ we must know what we are to believe before we can be supposed to believe any thing How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher Words are the proper Object of this Sense of Hearing where nothing is spoken nothing can be heard the sound of Words must reach the ear before the sense of those Words can enter into the Understanding This Historical Knowledge do's not lye in Learning the Scriptures by roat without any Rational Knowledge of the Litteral Sense and Meaning of those Propositions of Truth that are contained therein this would be only Memory without any Understanding A Natural Man does not dis-believe the Scripture because he has not a Rational Conception of the common Notion of things spoken of there but because he has and finding them so uncouth so seemingly contrary to Humane Reason he rejects them as Foolishness The Second Is a Knowledge more than Historical and is of the Essence of Faith all one with it it is that which we call a Saving Knowledge it lies in the Use and Application of Gospel Truths to our own Souls when we shape our selves to a real Conformity to the Call of God in every Gospel Truth acting in a way of Duty what the Word of God
our Understandings and Knowledge he hath appointed Faith as a fit means by which the soul not only doth the thing but also le ts in a sense of what is done upon the soul and therefore saith the Apostle it is of faith that it might be of grace God will be understood in all the acts of his Grace towards us Now that there might be in us a sense of reception of so great a benefit God resolves to put it into the hand of Faith which hath a natural sutableness in it and fitness to receive what free Grace tenders to it and so it doth when it is in any strength Christ and our Souls would never meet were it not for Faith. There is no letting down any thing spiritual and supernatural into the soul but by Faith Faith is our modus habendi it is the way the means by which we come to have God and Christ and an Interest in the things of Heaven We have what we have from Christ by Faith and we hold it by Faith. Faith and Repentance as acted by us and reflected upon are very good Evidences of our Justifications for it is in that reflection only that they do give evidence of themselves and of any thing produced from them Therefore I say as they are reflected upon they have retrospection to our Justification of which they are very good and evident proofs but they have no antecedent causality to produce the thing signified because they signifie it as a thing already done past and perfect 3. And lastly Justification is frequently set down in Scripture without any relation to these acts of Grace in us to shew that it wholly flowes from Christ and that by our believing we add nothing to our Justifying Righteousness but do only apply it as wholly derived from Christ alone 1 Ioh. 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath life they that are in Christ there is no Condemnation to them Rom. 8. 1. Now because we cannot admit sinners to be in Christ but by faith therefore what flows from Christ is attributed unto faith which is I say our modus habendi but still the real cause of our Justification that which makes us just in the sight of God is our being in Christ and our having the Son. There is no mention made of having any thing else but faith is our modus habendi we cannot have the Son but by faith nor be in Christ but by Believing Therefore God speaks to our Understanding and hath attributed that to the act of faith which is only derivable from the Object I shall now shew you the weakness of those grounds and reasons they go upon who differ from us in this point 1. They speak much of a Charge of Infidelity Impenitency and Unholiness to be drawn up against us at the last day and therefore it concerns us to muster up all our good works all our acts of Grace and every part of our inherent Righteousness that we may be in a readiness to answer to this Charge and clear our selves A specious Argument enough to amuse the World and fright men back into the Popish Doctrine of Justification by Works Brethren I do not deny that unbelieving impenitent and ungodly Persons shall be charged with infidelity impenitency and ungodliness and be condemned but to talk of a charge of Infidelity against a Believer at the last day I say it is a groundless unscriptural Notion I do not deny that the faith of the Saints that draws them to Christ and its efficacy afterwards in all its fruits will be taken notice of by Christ when they are admitted into the Kingdom Mat. 25. 34. Come ye blessed and when that blessedness is fixed Christ doth not put them upon the proof of their faith but helps them himself to understand the former actings of their faith and love to God which they were ignorant of before When saw we thee an hungred and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink c. In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these ye have done it to me I see more Grace in you saith Christ than ever you saw in your selves so and so appearing in your lives Come ye blessed Brethren Good Works are good Evidences to us to make out the Truth of Grace in us but the All-knowing God needs no such Evidences for his Information he knows what is in man and needs not that any should tell him He searches the Heart Though we see Grace only in the Fruit yet God sees it in the Root and Principle Besides I conceive the last Judgment is not to prove who is and who is not in a state of Grace but rather to pronounce the Sentence according to the state that every one shall appear in at the Resurrection There will be no doubting of any mans state at the Resurrection the method and manner of the Resurrection will decide it Christ himself will separate the Sheep from the Goats and he will do this before the Judgement Mat. 25. 32 33. You shall know a Believer then by his Station at the right hand of Christ by his Company among the Sheep The Angels are sent forth Mat. 24. 31. to gather up the Elect from the four Winds from the one end of Heaven to the other They will ransack every corner of the World to find out every Saint not only the Ninety and Nine but the whole Hundred shall be presented to God not one missing we shall all stand together Now after they are thus ranked by Christ and the Angels have declared them to be Sheep to be true Believers must they come under a charge of infidelity Who must draw up this charge and manage this false Indictment Either God or good Angels or Conscience or the Devil God he hath justified them here sealed them by the Spirit of Adoption to the day of Redemption and he will never reverse his judgment The judgment of God at the last day will be pursuant to the judgment already past by his Word and Spirit in the Hearts and Consciences of Believers here Good Angels are imployed to gather up the Elect and consequently they have a true discerning who they are Our Consciences are sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus and have an answer in readiness by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead And the Devil will have something else to do in that day when he stands at the head of the wicked to receive his sentence with them the time of his torment being then come Though he be now the accuser of the brethren day and night before God he must then Eternally be cast down True he is now our accuser and we must labour to overcome him by the Blood of the Lamb as Rev. 12. 10 11. that is by Arguments drawn from the Blood of Jesus yet I say fear him not after death The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death saith the Apostle and must we have an after rancounter with
A DISCOURSE OF REGENERATION FAITH and REPENTANCE Preached at the Merchants-Lecture in Broad-street BY THOMAS COLE Minister of the GOSPEL in London LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market MDCLXXXIX THE PREFACE TO THE READER WHAT hath been already published in the hearing of many by Preaching is now put into private hands by Printing and because 't is easier to please many Hearers than one Reader Let me whoever thou art bespeak thy Candor in a few words Readers should be Courteous there is a Civility due to Books as well as Persons 'T is not Manners to interrupt a Man in the middle of his Discourse and to censure a Book before you have read it our is much the same He that answereth a matter before he heareth it it is folly and shame unto him Prov. 18. 13. If what is here delivered fall not in with your thoughts I can only say this That my design was to write down my own Thoughts and not other mens submitting all to the Judgment of the Scriptures every one knows best what he thinks what he believes and is persuaded of A plain proposal of the Grounds and Reasons of our present Judgment leaving 'em to their own weight in every Man's Conscience is to act like men one towards another and the best way to communicate Light to those who are willing to learn. We cannot differ about the Conclusion when once we agree in the Premises but to resolve upon Conclusions first is the ready way to put a Cheat upon our selves whilst we don't seek so much to find out Truth as to make good our own Inventions To be born again was a hard saying Nicodemus could not receive it knew not how to make sense of it Had Christ intended only an outward reformation of Life and not an inward renovation of Nature he would not have explained our being Born again by being Born of Water and the Spirit Verse 5. which are Evangelical terms of a much higher signification and do imply a deeper change than that of Manners which at best reduces us but to a practical conformity to those inbred Moral principles belonging to our first birth as men this is still but a state of Nature we are in the same Spirit and Principle that ever we were Where is the new Nature that Spirit which is born of the Spirit those supernatural Principles that are above all our natural Notions carrying us out directly to God in Christ 'T is Faith that gathers up these supernatural Truths out of the Gospel and sets 'em home upon the Conscience with power subjecting the Soul to the Divine Authority of the Word without consulting flesh and blood about these high mysteries Revealed Truths are strange things to a natural Man and will never find acceptance with him till his mind be suited to them by a supernatural irradiation Heavenly things cannot be seen but by a Heavenly Light when God shines in our hearts then we are transformed into the very Image of those Truths which that Light discovers to us and do experimentally know what that renovation of the Spirit is which the Word speaks of Such Gospel Truths are put into our inward parts as were never there before this enables us to understand the Scriptures to Read 'em with pleasure we delight in the Law of God in our inward Man This Man within a Man this hidden Man of the heart is the new creature the genuine birth of the Spirit of God. If thou art such a Man thou art a true Christian Reader indeed willing to receive the witness of Christ who speaks what he knows and testifies that which he hath seen Ioh. 3. 11. I have written this following Discourse to you not because you know not the truth but because you know it and that no lie is of the truth 1 Joh. 2. 21. If any who may be yet spiritually unborn shall take up this Book and Read it they may see what they are not how short they come of that Character the Gospel gives of new-born Souls There are more Nicodemusses than one who cannot unriddle the mystery of Regeneration they will understand nothing by it but what they can bring ' emselves unto by an outward Baptism there is no Reasoning with these men while they live in one Nature and talk of another they say they know not what 't is impossible to have a real feeling of that Nature that is not in us He is a Skilful Limner who draws to the Life tho Life it self can never be drawn some resemblances of Life there may be the Cast and Colour of a Living Face but no breath like Painted Fire without heat or the Picture of a Man running without any actual Motion he is fixed in his first step you will always find his feet where your Pencil left them standing still in a running Posture Thus it is with many Professors they are as Pictures hung upon a Wall dressed up in all the outward Formalities of Religion you would take 'em to be real Saints they have a name to live but are indeed dead without any inward living Principle of Grace to animate and quicken those forms filling them up with true real Holiness Acts flowing from a living Principle within do carry their own evidence along with 'em giving a pleasing sensation of their Truth and Reality as the genuine off-springs of the heart which nothing that is forced or counterfeit can do The heart flows out with those actions that come from it but secretly turns away as unconcerned in every thing that doth not correspond to the inward Sense and Inclination of the Soul This will help us to judg of our Regeneration by observing the consent of our Minds to those outward acts of Religion we pass thorow what Complacency and Delight we have in them or what secret aversion to them which we must needs be privy to all mere imitations of Nature are defective somewhere this is more easily discernable when we practise upon our selves seeming to be what we are not as Actors upon a Stage under a Disguise who know we are not the Persons we go for When the New Nature comes into us how kindly are the motions of our Hearts towards Christ How welcome is he to us We are never more in our own Element than when we are in closest Communion with him our Joy is then full because we have the very desire of our Hearts we are where we would be we have what we longed for Every unregenerate man in the very height of his outward Profession be-lies his own Sense and Experience and says that of his Heart which he knows he doth not speak from his heart When a humbling overwhelming Sense of Original Sin comes upon us discovering the Universal Pravity of our Degenerate Nature how is the glory of all flesh stained How vile and mean a thing is Man born of a woman he may well lye down in his own shame
repent He calls them a generation of Vipers tells them of the wrath of God and preaches the Baptism of Repentance for the remission of sins He points to Christ Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world that was Iohn's subject Peter converted the Iews by Preaching Christ and Remission of sin in his name the remedy must not be concealed Though Peter denounces a heavy Judgment against Simon Magus yet he lays down some ground of comfort had he had Grace to consider it we must keep back nothing God would have spoken to sinners we must not be always affrighting your consciences with Legal Terrours 't is necessary sometimes to draw the Sword of the Law that sinners may see their danger but we must tell them also whither they must fly for refuge else we preach not the Gospel we don't know how far the Sword of the Law may enter how deep it may cut into the Conscience of a convinced sinner it may be dangerous to leave the wound bleeding one night without applying some Gospel-Lenitive pouring in some oyl our first Faith in Conversion sometimes takes more after the Law sometimes more after the Gospel as the Spirit sets it a work either for Terror or Comfort we must not limit the Spirit of God in one or the other we must not say such a one shall be humbled to such a degree shall lie so long under Terrours of Conscience before comfort be spoken to him the Spirit is the best judge of this and knows our frame better than we do and what way of procedure is most suitable to the inward sense and feeling of such a one's Soul this must be left to God to speak Comfort or Terror when and in what degree he pleases We who are Ministers must lay down the ground of both in our Preaching and insist upon one or t'other as we see occasion But God may do as he will. If I see a broken humble sinner a little revived under a sense of Mercy and Pardon I would not check his comfort nor seek to bring him under terrors again but if I see a hardened impenitent sinner going on in his sins I would lay the Law before him in the most terrible manner I could and shew him the dreadful consequence of a Course of sin persisted in that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all such who do not repent and turn to God that they may find Mercy we cannot Preach the Gospel but we must refer to the Law the Gospel shews how we may be delivered from the curse of the Law and therefore must needs mention it and I am sure we ought not to Preach the Law alone without any discovery of Gospel Grace 6. We must not limit the Spirit of God in converting sinners to such or such degrees of humiliation contrition or terror as we think necessary for we are not competent Judges in that matter so much Contrition of sin as causes a loathing of sin a desire to leave it and to obtain Mercy of God in the Pardon of it is sufficient for conversion God may carry on this Humbling work farther or farther to a higher or lower degree as he thinks fit as the present frame of our hearts may require Saving Conviction is the first thing in order belonging to Conversion but that conviction to such a degree of Repentance Humiliation and Terror should always be a fixed constant Preparatory work antecedent to all beginings of true Conversion is not so evident That all true Converts are convinced of their Sin and Misery by Nature I no way doubt and that the Law is of excellent use to work and heighten these Convictions is not to be denied and that many be under meer Legal Convictions and Terrors who may or may not be afterwards converted is not disputed neither the Spirit of God may improve a common work those terrors or any other afflicting providences to lead a sinner to Christ but it does not therefore follow that such Legal Terrors must always go before Conversion no more than such or such awakening Providences made use of by God to Convert some should necessarily befall all who are converted Saving Gospel Conviction of sin includes in it all that is in a mere Legal Conviction with this difference that under a Gospel Conviction of sin we see the folly of it as well as the danger and always have an eye to Christ which does alleviate the sinking overwhelming Terrors of a meer Legal Conviction only which is as the nethermost Hell a dark dungeon indeed without the least cranny for any beam of Gospel light to shine in upon a poor distressed Soul trembling under a sence of eternal vengeance It is not the design of Christ that any so concluded under wrath by Law should be left one moment without any tender of Gospel grace which if they do reject and despise God may and does sometimes judicially give them up to a final Tormenting despair We cannot rationally urge upon sinners that which is the consequence of final unbelief till we have first Preached the Gospel to them and then at their peril be it if they believe it not Some Convictions of sin that issue in Conversion will be found to have their beginning with it i. e. some Convictions that issue in a visible Conversion may have their beginning in an inward latent and yet invisible Conversion to us that does not at present appear under that name To our discerning the Soul may be in travel some time before the New Creature appears before we can say such or such a one is born of God and yet the Converting act of the Spirit of God may be truly passed in that Soul before it is manifest to us in the sensible effects of it Let us not separate saving Conviction from true Conversion and look upon it as only Antecedaneous and Preparatory to it when indeed 't is a real part of it and essentially belonging to it A true Gospel saving conviction of sin is a higher work of the Spirit of God in a regenerate Soul than a meer Legal Conviction of sin is in a Natural man let it run up into never such Frights Fears and Terrors There are some common lower works of the Spirit that may be and are sometimes mistaken for saving grace and there are some special saving works of the Spirit that go but for a common work with some Common works are not always in the intention of God so much as Preparatives for Conversion it may be said to be finis Operis but not Operantis God not giving them Grace to improve their Legal Convictions either they wear off or else they sink under them into despair The Law may terrifie a sinner but till his heart comes to be affected with the love and mercy of God he will never turn from sin but then his Soul melts within him he looks unto him whom he has pierced and is
commands There is no Saving Knowledge of Gospel Truths but the Knowledge of Faith and no other Reason for Faith in the highest Misteries of the Gospel but the bare Word of God. That Faith is Knowledge I prove thus Because in Scripture 't is opposed to Folly Blindness and Ignorance Acts 17. 23 30. Ioh. 17. 3. Ier. 31. 34. Isa. 9. 1 2. Besides it has all the effects of Knowledge in the Soul it gives full satisfaction to the Mind of a Man removes all doubts establishes the Heart in a full perswasion of the Truth of the Word of God Humane Knowledge is liable to many Mistakes but a Divine Faith admits of no Falshood therefore Faith perfects mans Understanding because it brings in nothing but Truth no mans Errors do proceed from Faith he may err in matters of Faith but 't is not from his Faith but his Unbelief therefore Faith is Knowledge unerring Knowledge we believe and are sure we may be so if we rightly understand our selves in an act of Believing no demonstrations of Reason do give that Evidence of Truth as Faith do's as mans Understanding is too low to take in Divine Truths so Gods Understanding is too high for man to comprehend therefore we are called to yield the obedience of faith to his revealed Will God governs man rather by giving him the knowledge of his Will then lifting him up into his own Infinite Understanding that is above our Capacity our Duty lies not in knowing what God knows but in doing what God commands who gives no account of his matters to us only commands us to believe his Word and to look upon that as a sufficient ground and reason of our faith when we hear it preached to us II. Because God has appointed hearing the Word as a necessary means of faith he will not immediately speak to our hearts by his Spirit but has appointed his Word to be first spoken to our Ears and promis'd that way to let it down into our hearts thus Faith comes by Hearing Quest. How should Hearing of things above our Reason contribute any thing to our believing them One would think the oftner we hear them the more absurd we should count them to be and reject them with greater Indignation having so often tried them by the Touchstone of our own reason and pronounced them unintelligible Answ. Hearing alone will not let in these Divine Mysteries into our Understandings Isa. 6. 9 10. God must inwardly Teach us and reveal them to us by his Spirit before we can believe them which brings me to the third head viz. III. How faith is wrought by our hearing the Word 1. By a special Appearance of God to the Soul. 2. By opening the Heart enlightning the Mind and perswading the Will to a thorough closure with Christ upon Gospel Terms To these two heads may be referred all that falls under our discerning and experience of the work of the Spirit in begetting faith in us 1. Faith is wrought by a special appearance of God to the Soul what this appearance of God is how it rises out of the Word in what manner 't is let into the Soul I shall endeavour to open to the experience of those who know what it is to hold Communion with God in hearing his Word there is some co-incidence in the particulars above-mentioned yet not without some distinction which I leave to your own observation the less of Art or Method there is in handling experimental points the better they come with most power to the Conscience in their own simplicity therefore I shall in a joynt Discourse run the matter close together looking sometimes on one side and sometimes on t'other till I have viewed it round that I may present the whole Truth to you in so great and necessary a point we can have no saving knowledge of God but in and by his word we must look through that Glass upon him and that appearance of God we meet with there is the beginning of all Religion the Word never comes with power to our Consciences till God appear in it How that is I am now to shew Whilst we are hearing his Word we see God standing forth in his own words declaring himself to be the Author of it this draws in our attention adds that weight and authority to the Word that we cannot but receive it as the Word of God and set our Seals to the Truth of it we see sufficient grounds for our Faith in God from this manifestation of himself to our Souls Thus God wrought faith in Abraham Gen. 17. 1. by appearing to him several times as God Almighty and All-sufficient that Abraham might not doubt of any thing that such a God should promise to him and therefore 't is said Rom. 4. 3. that Abraham believed God being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to perform ver 21. Thus God appeared to Samuel revealing himself to him by his Word 1 Sam. 3. 21. So Christ appeared to Paul by a voice and a Light from Heaven I am Jesus Acts 9. there are spiritual appearances of God now to our Souls under the Preaching of the Gospel answerable to these Visions of Old. God lets himself down into our Hearts through the apprehensions of our faith which frames in our hearts a right image of God answerable to that Character he gives of himself in the Word he shines through the Word in all his Glory when he spake of Old to the Patriarchs by an articulate voice the unwritten word then was accompanied with such convincing signs of his Presence that they could not but believe it and so is the written Word now as capable of representing God to us when he has a mind to be seen by us as that was then the Letter of the Word is but a Creature but the Truths contained in it are Eternal and do all center in God himself who is the Essential Word thus God rises out of the Word and looks a man in the Face tells him thus saith the Lord I am that Lord God Almighty who now speaks unto you he leaves no Objection unanswered shews what sure grounds of faith we have in him shall God say and not do 't is impossible for God to lie it must be so as God saies it can't be otherwise Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass away than one Tittle of the Word be broken thus in God we praise his Word Psal. 56. 4. 10. Consider the Word out of God 't will puzzle Men and Angels to make out the meaning of it to think the things spoken of possible or likely to come to pass but all things are possible with God and to those who believe in God they stick at nothing they are sure Omnipotency knows no difficulties the Counsel of the Lord must stand his thoughts shall come to pass a Soul thus struck with a sense of Gods Presence yields immediately I believe Lord with all my heart am ready to do whatever
is it What have we to do to repent of the punishment We can't reverse it 't is Gods part to repent of the punishment to turn from his wrath to cease from his anger which he will do when we repent of the sin that occasioned it To repent of the punishment is in effect to be sorry that God is so just that he so severely animadverts upon sinners we wish he would let them go unpunished that we might more securely go on in our sins the only way to escape vengeance is to acknowledge the sinfulness of sin and to repent of our great folly in committing it such a frame of Spirit bears some proportion to the Holiness of God argues true Godly sorrow which worketh Evangelical Repentance unto Salvation 2 Cor. 7. 10. 4. Legal Repentance is before Faith without Faith may never issue in saving Faith as in Cain Saul Iudas but Evangelical Repentance does alwayes accompany saving Faith and of this I am now to speak under the second head shewing you Secondly The nature of Evangelical Repentance what it is in its first rise and original upon what 't is founded It came in with the Gospel the Law never intended any such thing the sinner was to be cut off by Law to die without Mercy in the day thou eatest thou shalt die says the Law unless ye repent says the Gospel here is an exception put in in case of repentance against the peremptory Sentence of the Law. I say repentance comes in with the Gospel I will put enmity c. Gen. 3. 15. Repentance rises out of this Enmity This seems to point particularly at the Conversion of Eve who by Faith in the promised Messiah should turn against the Serpent I will put enmity between thee and the woman this woman whom thou hast deceived shall become thy Enemy and bring forth a seed that shall break thy head thou shalt bruise his heel but his Death shall be thy overthrow Repentance is a Gospel Priviledge purchased by Christ 't is an act of Grace in God to injoyn us Repentance as his leaving men in an impenitent hardened frame is an act of his Justice and Wrath. The Law in its Original Constitution does not intend the amendment of the sinner but his utter Destruction the Law can kill the sinner but cannot mortifie the sin Damnation makes no man better but concludes him Eternally under sin and wrath the Justice of God is not obliged to turn a sinner from his sins but to turn him into Hell for his sins That which makes it a just and righteous thing with God to forgive the sins of Believer is Christs Merits and his own Promise 't is Justice in God to make good his own Promises Rom. 3. 25 26. 2 Thes. 1. 6 7. he is a debtor to his own promise he cannot deny himself 2 Tim. 2. 13. he owes the performance of his Promise to his Faithfulness and Truth 't is an act of Justice to himself to keep his Promise God offers Mercy to sinners not because they do repent but that they may repent Repentance is not the Cause but the Effect of Pardon God always intends Pardon to those whom he effectually calls to repentance he gave no such call to the Angels that fell there was no Gospel preached to them No fallen Angel was saved because no Elect Angel fell but there are many of Gods Elect among the fallen Sons of Adam to whom promises of Salvation were made upon their believing in Christ this being published to all in the Gospel all who hear the Gospel do put in for their share in this Salvation and that they may render the attainment more easie and feazable to them they deny absolute Election bring in Universal Redemption assert the liberty of Mans Will to believe if he please and supposing it to be in their own power to believe they conclude they may be saved as well as others and this is the ground of all that security that is among common Professors Having spoken thus much of Evangelical Repentance as it implies a real hatred of sin as sin and a real turning to God as the chiefest good from an inward change of nature renewed after the Image of God I shall now shew you 1. That such a Repentance can never be wrought in any by the Law alone the Gospel has a principal hand in this Why not by the Law. Because in the Law there are not sufficient motives and inducements to Repentance nothing that encourages to it that renders it available to mans Salvation the law cannot give life to a sinner upon his repentance the Gospel can but the Law cannot could a man under the Law Repent suppose that What would he get by it he must to Hell after all the Law as a Covenant of Works does not seek to bring a sinner to Repentance but to Punishment the Law cannot give Repentance unto Life because it cannot give Life upon our Repentance You 'l say then is the Law against Repentance I don't say so neither for take Repentance as 't is a just equitable thing as a holy disposition of mind so the Law is not against it where ever it may be found as it is not against any other act of Moral Righteousness as such that a man may do and yet for all this 't will condemn a man for his sin and all his righteousness shall not be remembred though the Law be not against Repentance yet it will not accept of repentance as a satisfaction for past sins but the Gospel provides full satisfaction for the Law and promises sufficient and effectual Grace to the sinner to bring him to repentance having rescued him from the Curse of the Law enables him to walk worthy of the blessing of the Gospel if those who are justified were not sanctified they would live to the scandal of the Gospel The Law cannot contradict it self having already pronounced a peremptory sentence of death upon the sinner 't is impossible the Law should ever gier repentance unto Life the Law insists upon the Execution of its own Judgement and will not be satisfied till that be done in this the Gospel yields to the Law to have execution done upon man for sin and provides a man on purpose the man Christ Iesus who bore our sins in his own body upon the cross 3. This Evangelical Repentance implies real Sanctification but the Law sanctifies no man because it can't convey its own Holiness to another can't alter the Nature of a Man but only shew him what mischief his sin has done him shews him his sin in this or that instance to his great terror but if he happen to out-live those terrors and not die in the fit as Iudas his evil heart will encline him as strongly to sin as ever it did before his former Convictions they made him give a present start backwards but he will quickly recover himself and return to his wretched course he cannot cease from sin though he