peculiar work it 's not all who hear Paul preach whose Hearts are opened but it 's the Heart of one Lydia 4. It 's in the nature of it a real work that makes a real inward change on her 5. It 's an immediate work for the Lord not only enlightens her Judgment but goes down to the Heart and opens it and works a change in it immediatly Paul indeed by his preaching opens the way of Salvation to all that heard him from which though many go away with their Hearts unopened yet the Lord hath a secret mysterious real inward work on her Heart which is evidenced by the effect for He not only enlightens her Mind but makes her willingly yield to the call of the Gospel by opening of her Heart In the second place To speak a little for confirmation of the Doctrine we would consider these four or five Grounds or Reasons to shew that there is such a work of the Spirit wherever Faith is begotten and that most intelligibly in them that are at Age. 1. It 's clear from these places of Scripture where there is an express distinction and difference put betwixt the outward Ministry of the Word and this inward powerful efficacious work of Grace on the Heart and wherein the great weight of Conversion is laid on this inward work and not on the outward Ministry of the Word as Deut 29.4 where the Lord by Moses tells the People how many things they had seen and heard and yet says he The Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day They had the outward Means in plenty when they wanted in the mean time the inward Power The gift of a spiritual Life and the making them spiritually active to exerce it was with-holden and therefore they did not savingly perceive see nor â—ear Joh. 6.44 Murmure not among your selves no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him It 's written in the Prophets and they shall be all taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me where there is very clearly a distinction put betwixt the outward teaching and the Father's drawing betwixt the Ministers teaching and God's teaching It was one thing to be taught outwardly by Christ as the Prophet of His Church and another thing to be drawen and taught inwardly of the Father This inward teaching is called drawing to shew that it is not external Oratory or Eloquence consisting in words to perswade that can effect the business but a powerful draught of the Arm of the Lord reaching the Heart There are several other Scriptures full and clear to this purpose as Psal 110.3 and Acts 11.21 A second Ground of kin to the former Is from the many and various expressions that are used in the Scriptures for holding forth this work of the Spirit of God in Conversion that point out not only an Hand working and an work wrought but an inward powerful way of working and bringing about the woâ—k as Jeâ— 31.34 I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Ezek. 11.19 I will give them one heart I will put a new spirit within them and will take away the stony heart out of their flesh Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart will I give unto you and a new spirit will I put within you c. Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear in their heart that they shall not depart from me It 's called the Father's drawing John 6.44 as I shew In the Saints Prayers as Psal 51. it 's called even as to further degrees of this work or restoring of lost degrees creating of a clean heart and renewing a right spirit within And many moe the like expressions there are which shew not only Mans impotency and inability to convert or savingly to change himself but also that to his Conversion there is necessary an inward real peculiar efficacious powerful work of the Spirit of Grace 3. It 's clear and may be confirmed from the Power of God which He puts forth and applys in the begetting of Faith and in working Conversion It 's not a mediate work whereby He only perswades congruously as some love to speak but an immediate and efficacious work whereby with mighty Power He works Conversion It is God saith the Apostle Phil. 2 13. that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure and as he not only perswadeth but effectually worketh so he not only works on the Judgment to the enlightning of it but on the Will to encline and determine it by curing it of its crookedness and perversness backwardness obstinacy and rebellion and the Power whereby He worketh this great work is said Eph. 1.19 To be that same mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead that ye may know saith the Apostle what is the exceeding greatness of his powâ—r to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand c. It is such a Power that works Faith and so exercised in the working of Faith as it was in the raising of Christ from the Dead Now could there be use for such a Power if there were no more requisite to Conversion but an objective swasion or a bare proposal of the object with external perswasion to embrace it wherein the Soul is left to it self to choise or refuse as it pleaseth certainly if there were no more considering our natural enmity at God â—nd His Grâ—ce the Devil and Corruption would have much more influence and a far greater stroak upon the Heart to closing up of the same in Unbelief then any outward perswasion would have as to the opening of the Heart and the begetting of Faith therefore His Power is necessarily called for and the Lord addeth it in converting Sinners else the work would for ever ly behind and if Men be spâ—ritually dead in Sins and Trespasses as all Men by Nature are as real a Power must be exerced in raising and quickening of them as there is exerced in raising and quickening of the Dead 4. It may also be cleared from some in whom this Power is exerced as some Children some deaf Persons and others whom we cannot deny to be reached by the Grace of God and yet there can be no other way how thâ—y are reached but by this effectual efficacious and immediate powerful work of the Spirit they not being capable of reasoning or perswasion by force of Argument We shall only add two Reasons further to confirm and some-way to clear why it is that the Lord works and must work thus distinctly inwardly really powerfully and immediatly in working Faith and converting of Sinners The first is drawen from the exceeding great deadness indisposition averness perversness impotency inability and
were frustrate of his design no such matter It 's because the Power of Jesus Christ is revealed but to few and we take this the rather to be the meaning of these words because when Christ is preaching and many take offence and stumble Joh. 6.43 44. he says Murmure not among your selves no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him there must be an effectual work of the Grace of God put forth on the Heart else none will believe on me So it s said Joh. 12.37 38. that they believed not on Him that the saying of Isaias might be fulfilled which he spoke Lord who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed therefore they could not believe because that Isaias said again He hath blinded their eyes c. he speaketh not so to appologize for or to excuse their Unbelief but to shew the connexion that is betwixt these two the not revealing of the Arm of the Lord and their not Believing even so here the Lord shews the connexion that is betwixt the efficacy of the work of Grace and believing or turning to God that where the powerful and effectual work of His Grace goeth not forth with the preached Gospel there will be then no believing nor conversion no saving change of the Person from Nature to Grace That which we would say from these words may be drawn to three Doctrines which I shall first propose and then clear and apply them for use The first is That in the work of Conversion and begetting of Saving Faith there is requisite and necessary beside the preaching of the Word a distinct inward peculiar real immediate efficacious and powerful work of the Spirit of the Lord on the Hearts of as many Hearers as are converted by this Gospel 2. That it is but few of many Hearers in whom the Lord thus efficaciously and effectually works by His Spirit and the Power of His Grace it 's but here one and there one a very few who are thus wrought upon and converted 3. That there is a necessary and inseparable connexion betwixt this inward and efficacious work of the Spirit and Faith or Conversion Where this work of Grace is not there cannot be Faith and where it is Faith necessarily must be otherways these two could not be commensurable of equal extent and reciprocal Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed He is not neither can be a Believer to whom it is not revealed and he is and cannot but be a Believer to whom it is revealed For the first We say there is in the work of Conversion and begetting of Faith beside the preaching of the Gospel a distinct inward peculiar real immediate efficacious and powerful work of the Spirit of the Lord requisite and necessary for Conversion and begetting of Faith to convince of Sin and to humble for it to enlighten the Mind in the Knowledge of Christ to renew the Will and Affections and to perswade and enable the Soul of the Sinner to embrace and receive Jesus Christ as He is offered in the Gospel We shall first take notice of and clear some words in the Doctrine and then confirm it First For clearing of some words in the Doctrine we say 1. It is a distinct work of the Spirit distinguished and separable from the Word though it goes along as He pleaseth with the Word yet it is not as if there were some Power infused into the Word and went always and necessarily along with the Word which is the foolish and groundless conceit of some for albeit it accompany the Word yet it 's from a distinct Agent working and a distinct work and is separable as I said from the Word though it be wrought on the Heart of the same Sinner to whose Ear the Word is preached 2. It 's an inward work of the Spirit for beside the outward and external preaching and calling by the Word there is an inward powerful effectual work and calling of the Spirit in the conversion of a Sinner which speaks to the Heart as well as the Word speaks to the Ear so that this work of the Spirit that goes along in Conversion is much more then any external perswasion of the preached Word can produce 3. We say it 's a peculiar work to difference it from what is common to the Hearers of the Gospel for it 's a work that is peculiar to them whom the Lord converts and is applied to none other but to those in whom He works Faith and whom He effectually calleth by His Grace It 's a peculiar work then and not common for if it were common to all the Hearers of the Gospel and not peculiar to some these two could not go together and be commensurable as we said Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed 4. We say it 's a real work as well as powerful A real work of the Spirit that is not only able and powerful to produce the effect and to convert the Sinner but real and powerful in producing and bringing of it about and to pass by a real influence of the Spirit actually renewing the Will infusing and creating the habits of Grace particularly the very habit of Faith amongst others in the Soul which is quite an other thing then the supposing and saying that a Man hath power to Believe and be Converted that there is no more requisite to his Conversion but to perswade him to put forth that Power or Strength which he hath into Exercise or Practice It 's a real work of the Spirit and a powerful bringing about of the conversion of the Sinner in a physical way as they say in the School 5. We say it is an immediate work of the Spirit on the Heart to difference it from a mediate perswasion or moral swasion as it 's called as if there were no more requisite in Conversion but God's enlightening of the Mind and by that perswading the Will to close with Jesus Christ without any immediate work of the Spirit on the Will it self In this Doctrine we take in all these according to the Scripture in opposition to the several Errors vented by Men of corrupt Minds anent the work of Conversion and of Saving Faith God's Arm and Hand must be revealed the work and power of His efficacious Grace must be put forth for moving and enclining the Heart and Affections and for determining the Will it self We might farther clear and confirm all these from that famous instance of Lydia Act. 16.14 where Paul preaching to some Women it 's said of her Whose heart the Lord opened that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul where we find these things differenced 1. The Lord 's powerful work on her heart from Paul's preaching to her Ear the Lord opened her Heart 2. It 's an inward work for it 's on the Heart 3. It 's a
is enough in God and in His Grâ—ce to do their turn How is it then or what can be the reason that we in our Hearts do draw the just contrary conclusion to that which the Spirit of God draws here from this ground when we have the offer of Grace and hear of the power and efficacy of it it should as to our part provoke us to be more busie reasoning thus with our selves that though our Corruption will soon overcome us yet it wi l not it cannot overcome Grace and though the exercise of Faith be above our reach yet it is not above the reach of Grace though we be weak yet Grace is strong and therefore we will work it out And upon the other side we ought to conâ—inue humble and in fear and trembling work it out bâ—cause it 's not we but Grace that doth the work If Grace were well considered there is nothing that would more strâ—ngthen Folks hands to work and upon the other hand there is nothing that would make Folks more watchful and to walk in holy fear considering that we are poor Beggers and thorow our unwatchfulness or conceit and presumption may mar the outlettings of His Grace especially if we grow secure and ungrately forget what we receive from Him 2. I come now to some steps or particular directions implied in this Use because it will be asked What then should Folk do And before I touch on particulars take these two Caveâ—ts in the entry to them 1. That we can propose nothing to be done by you nâ—ither can ye do any thing of your selves that is a gracious act or deed 2. That we understand not that any thing can be done by Men in their Natural state that doth infer or procure and far less deserve the giving of Grace to any but seing God hath given direction to us how to walk in order to the working out of our Salvation we say 1. That it 's safe to us to walk in the way He hath directed us to walk in and in the use of the Means He hath prescribed and much more safe then to lay them aside 2. That there is greater suitableness betwixt the use of the Means and the finding of Grace then there is betwixt the neglect of Means and the finding of it 3. That it aggrees well with Gods way in bringing about the Conversion of Sinners to bring them piece and piece forward sometimes bringing them to the use of external Means and to the performance of outward Duties sometimes convincing them of Sin and letting them see their need of Christ sometimes discovering the worth that is in Christ and bringing them to fall in love with Him ere they actually close with Him and making them in their practice to follow any peep or glimmering of light that is let out to them and to go the length that light discovereth the way and makes it plain as to their duty Now for particular Directions we would 1. Bid you study to be fixed and established in the Faith of these general Truths that relate to Mans Sinfulness and Misery and Insufficiency in Himself that in us that is in ouâ— flâ—sh dwelleth no good thing that naturally we are dead in Sins and Trespasses and cannot quicken our selves and in the Faith of the necessity and powerfulness of Grace and that it 's Christ that must give and work Faith and that Grace can do the turn and prevail where it is put on work ye would also consider and believe the great hazard of missing Grace and the advantage that cometh by it ye would meditate on these things and on the Scriptures that hold them out and on the experiences of the Saints that confirm them that ye may not only have a glance and transient view of them but may be confirmed in the Faith of the truth of them 2. Content not your selves with a general Faith of the truâ—h of this Doctrine but labour to be suitably affected with these things that ye believe and though every affectedness be not special Grace yet I speak to them that are ready to lay the blame and fault on the Grace of God and yet were never affected with their own gracelesness Ye would study to be affected with the gracelesness of your Nature and let it put you to some sanctified disquiet and trouble till with Ephraim ye be made to smite upon your thigh and till ye be put to a holy deliberation and consultation about your own condition a Man that is under the hazard of a civil penalty will think on it again and again it will affect him and he will not be at rest till he be without the reach of it much more should ye be with the hazard that your Souls are in through Sin ye are not excusable so long as ye come not this length 3. Add to this Diligence in the use of all outward Means and Duties whereby and wherein the Lord useth to communicate His Grace abounding always in the work of the Lord as the Apostle exhorteth 1 Cor. 15.58 Be diligent in secret Prayer Reading Meditation Conference Self-examination Hearing keeping good Company and the like which indeed Hypocrites may do yet they cease not for that to be Duties 4. Be sincere and serious in the use and performance of these Means and Duties that which I mean is a moral sincerity and seriousness such as a Man will readily have in a civil Cause that he hath depending before a civil Judge or in hearing of News or the like which is a thing that may be and is often found in Men that are void of a principle of Grace and yet Folk are very often defective in this and make themselves exceeding guilty before God because they come not this length 5. Take heed and beware of entertaining any thing that holds and bars out Grace or of doing any thing that may mar or quench the working or moving of Grace If ye cannot get Christ entertained in your Heart as ye should be sure to give it to no other if ye cannot get Corruption thrust out nor mortified watch against the rising or harbouring of that which ye know to be Corruption and against the incoming or rising of such evils as ye know will keep or put away the Beloved guard also against the neglecting of such Means as by the neglect whereof ye may grieve His Spirit 6. Study and seek after a composed frame of Spirit in your ordinary walk and especially in Duties of Worship Carnal Mirth and Jollity loose Company and suffering the Heart to go a whoring after the things of the World do not only provoke Christ as they are sins but indispose us for Duty and mar the exercise of Grace where it is and keep it back where it is not therefore the wise man saith Eccles 7.3 that sorrow is better then laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better carnal Sorrow is not to be commended but sober sadness or a
assert your Faith when there are scarcely any characters of Unbelief but ye have them or what can be your advantage in keeping your selves carnally Secure when the strong Man in the mean time is in the House and to shut your Eyes and make your Necks stiff and to resolve as it were not only to ly still but to die in your Unbelief I perswade my self that many of you ere long will be made to wonder that ever ye thought your selves Believers and will be galled when ye think upon it that what ever was said to you ye would needs maintain your presumptuous Faith When we bid you suffer the Conviction to sink let none put it from themselves to others but let every one take it Home to himself although we would not have any of you casting loose what is indeed made fast and well secured nor overturning a slender and weak Building though it were to speak so but of two Stone height if it be founded on a right Foundation on the Rock but we speak to you that cannot be brought to suspect your selves when ye have just reason to do so sure this Challenge and Charge belongs to some yea to many and we would ask what ground have ye to shift it how can ye prove your Faith more than others that have none at all that ye hope ye have Faith will not do your turn that 's no solid proof ye cannot come to Christ except made suitably sensible of your distance and of that ye have never been convinced as yet do ye think to roll your selves on Christ sleeping and ye know not how certainly when the Pins of your Tabernacle come to be a loosing ye shall find that your fancied Faith shall not be able to keep out a Challenge ye could never endute to think your selves to be Christ's Enemies or that ye wanted Faith but when Death comes Conscience will awaken and the Challenge will needs be in upon you whether ye will or not many of you think that ye get wrong when your Faith is questioned or reproved as if it were an odd and rare thing to be Graceless or to be living as Members of the visible Church and yet want Faith and it irritats you to be expostulated with in private for your lying in Unbelief But suffer this word now to take hold of you I bâ—seâ—ch you and if ye could once be brought to suspect yourselves and to think thus with your selves What if I be one of those many that Believe not I fear I be in hazard to be mistaken about my Faith and from that put to follow on to see how ye will be able to ward off the Challenge and to prove your Believing to be sound we would think ye were fair on O if ye had the Faith of this Truth that among the many Hearers of the Gospel there are but few that Believe and were brought thereby to examine and try your selves there is no Truth that Christ insists more on than this that strait is the Gate and narrow is the way to Heaven and that but few find it and that there are few that Believe and few that be Saved If ye did once in earnest look on your selves as in Hazard and were brought to reflect on Matters betwixt God and you it might be the Lord would follow the Conviction we desire Him to do it and to Him be Praise SERMON VII ISAIAH LIII I Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed IT 's a sad matter and much to be lamented when the carrying of such good News as is the Report of Jesus Christ in the Gospel becomes unprofitable to them that hear it and thereby burdensome to them that carry it Folks would think that such glad Tydings as make the Heavenly Host of Angels to sing would be very joyful and welcome News to Sinners and also most heartsome to them that carry them and where the former is there the latter will be also where the Word becomes useless and unprofitable to Hearers it is burdensome as to the concomitant and effect to honest Ministers that speak it though Isaiah brought these News in a very plain powerful pleasant and sweet manner to the People he preached to and that frequently yet in the midst of his sweet Prophesies he breaks out with this Complaint who hath believed our report he is carrying glad Tydings yet taking a look of the Unbelief of his Hearers now and then he complains of it to God in his own name and in name of all the Ministers of the Gospel that should come after him We shew that it was a very ordinary thing where the Gospel comes in greatest Plenty and Power for the Hearers therof to meet it with much Unbelief a Truth that was verified in Isaiah his time and that he foresaw would be verified in the Days of the Gospel and therefore it 's our Report not only is it the Report of Isaiah but it is the Report of Christ and of Paul who make the same Complaint and Cite the same words of Isaiah and need we doubt of the truth of it when Isaiah in the Old and Paul in the New Testament thus complain Not to speak of their and our Lord and Master who came to his own and his own received him not and of whom when He came they said this is the heir come let us kill him need we I say doubt of the truth of the Doctrine or to think it strange to see it so in our Time and that we have the same Complaint when the Means at least the Instruments are incomparably far below what they were then though it be still the same Gospel The Prophet's scope is to give Advertisement and Warning to the Hearers of the Gospel for the Time to come of this rise Evil even the abounding of Unbelief in them that hear it 1. That he may prevent the Scandal of the unfruitfulness of the Word where it comes 2. That he may add a Spur of excitement to the Hearers of the Gospel to endeavour to make use of it and not to rest upon Means how powerful and lively soever they be but to press forward to the End they aim and shoot at 3. That he may put Folks to the Tryal and that they may be brought to look in upon themselves whether they be or be not in this black Roll of them that receive not the Report and we think if any thing put Folks to be suspitious of themselves and to commune with their own Hearts about their Souls estate this should do it especially when they consider how this Evil agrees to all Times and yet more especially to the Times of the Gospel and how it is an Evil that abounds not only among the Prophane but among these who are Civil and Zealous too for the Righteousness of the Law it should make them put themselves to the Tryal and not to take every thing to be Faith that they
had hearkened unto my voice there is no Sin the Lord complains more of than of this and it 's the great complaint of all His Servants Secondly Bâ—hold how the Lord threatens this Sin and punishes for it see Psal 95.7 and Heb. 3.7 and Heb. 4.8 where He swears in His Wrath against Unbelievers that they shall not enter into His Rest Adultery and Murther do not more certainly keep Men from Heaven than this Sin of Unbelief doth yea they are classed together Rev. 21.8 see also Luk. 12.46 where the severest Judgment that is executed is upon Unbelievers and in the Man that had the offer of Christ and did not receive it and put on the Wedding Garment Mat. 22.12 13. see it also in the words that are pronounced against Chorazin Bethsaida and Capernaum Matth. 11. and our blessed Lord Jesus loves not to speak so to pronounce woes but to bless His People yet when they have the offer of Life through Him and will not receive it He pronounces woe after woe upon them and of what sort were they even beyond these that came upon Tyrus and Sidon upon Sodom and Gomorrah we think such Threatnings as these should make Folks not to think Unbelief a light or little Sin and that there is no ground of quietness so long as they are in a Self-righteous-condition and have not their Peace made with God through Christ Thirdly Look further to the greatness of this Sin in the strange names that the Lord puts upon it 1 John 5.11 He that believes not hath made God a liar and is there any Sin that hath a grosser name or effect than this for it receives not the Report which He hath given of His Son He tells Folk that Happiness is to be gotten in Him only and they think to be Happy though they take another way they believe not the Report for if they believed it they would receive Christ as their Life See further what names are given to it Heb. 6.6 and Heb. 10.20 which though they be there given with other Aggravations of sinning wilfully with despite c. with respect to the unpardonable Sin yet who are they that live under the Gospel and Believe not but in a great measure they will be found capable of most of them at least It 's called a crucifying of the Son of God afresh a putting Him to an open shame c. and who are they that do this and on what ground it's Unbelievers through their Unbelief they think not Christ worth the having and reject all that is spoken of Him and cry away with Him as the Jews did and as to their particular Guilt they crucifie Him for they cannot refuse Him without affronting Him and can there be such an affronting of Him as when He condescends so very low to think so little of Him Fourthly Consider the Expressions under which He sets out His being affected to say so with this Sin He was so affected with it Mark 3.5 that it 's said He was grieved for their unbelief He had many Sorrows and Griefs and suffered many things but this grieved Him someway more than they all did and it 's said Mark 6.6 that He marvelled because of their unbelief it 's not said that He marvelled at their Adulteries and their gross Sins but that when He was taking such a convincing way to demonstrate to them His God-Head yet they would not Believe on Him He marvelled at that so Luk. 19.41 it 's said that when He came near to Jerusalem He weeped over it and why the following words tell us O that thou had known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace that is O that thou hadst believed and received the Gospel at least in this thy day though thou did it not before when thou wert and art so plainly and powerfully called to this Duty and ye may know that it behoved to be some great thing that made Him to weep when all that the Devil and Pontius Pilate and the Jews could do made Him not to weep It 's said Mat. 11. that He upbraided these Cities that He had preached much in on this ground sure when He that gives liberally and upbraids none does upbraid for this Sin it shews how much He was pressed with it and Luke 14.21 it 's said of this Sin that it angered Him and He is not easily angered Sinners need not fear to anger Him by coming to Him but when they come not He is angry it 's said Matth. 22.7 He was wroth at this Sin and it 's on this ground that Psal 2.12 we are bidden kiss the Son lest He be angry that is to exercise Faith in Him for if we do it not He will be angry and we will perish There are other Aggravations of this Sin which we leave till we come to the Application Use 1. Is there not as much here though Folks had no more but their Unbelief as may make them know it 's an evil and bitter thing and as may make them skar at it and flee from it and to fear lest they be found under the Guilt of it when called to a reckoning especially when Unbelief is so rife that but few suspect themselves or fear it there is hardly any ill but ye will sooner take with it then with this of Unbelief and there is no Duty nor Grace that ye more readily think ye perform and have then this of Faith and it is come to that height that Folks think they Believe always and know not what it is to misbelieve do ye think that this presumptuous and fancied Faith will be counted for Faith or that Christ who sifts Faith narrowly will let it pass for Saving Faith no certainly Use 2. Is there not here ground of Advertisement wakening rousing and alaruming to many that think themselves free of other Challenges if the Spirit were coming powerfully to convince of Sin it would be of this because they believe not as it is John 16.9 and we are perswaded many of you had need of this Conviction that never once questions your having of Faith or care not whether ye have it or not Put these two Doctrines together That Unbelief is an abominable Sin and that it is notwithstanding a very rife Sin and let them sink deep into your Hearts and they will put you to other thoughts of Heart if this plain Truth of God prevail not with you we know not what will do it but the time cometh when ye shall be undenyably convinced of both that Unbelief is a great Sin and that it is a very rife Sin and of this also that it is an abominable and loathsome thing and very prejudicial and hurtful to you Use 3. And therefore as a third Use If it be so let us ask this Question How comes it to pass that so many in trying their State and in grounding of it lay so little weight on Faith and think so little of Unbelief I am speaking to the
in seeking any ground of boasting to themselves yet they would seek to be so far distinct and clear anent their spiritual Case and Condition as they may know how to speak suitably to it and how to speak of it to God that they may say as they have ground for it that in such a Place among such a People a great door and effectual was opened unto us as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 16.8 And in such another Place and among such a People Who hath believed our report as here the Prophet doeth It 's said Luk. 10.17 and Mark 6.30 the Disciples returned and with joy told Christ all that they had done and how the Devils were subject to them they made acccount what success they had in their Ministry so it 's necessary that a Minister know what success He hath among a People that he may know 1. How to carry before God in reference to them what to Praise for what to Lament for and what to Pray for 2. It 's necessary as to the People that he may carry right to them for the gaining of Strangers to God and helping forward these who are entered into the Way and that he may know what report to make of them 3. It 's necessary for a Minister himself though noâ— simply as to his Peace for that depends on his faithful discharge of his Office yet as to his Joy and Rejoycing to know when he labours in vain and when not among a People We would not then as a passing word of Use have you to think it curiousity though something be said now and then and asked at you that some of you may possibly think impertinent For it becomes a Physician to seek to know the state and condition of these whom he hath under his Hand and Cure and ye would not take it ill though after observation we now and then speak and tell you what we conceive to be your condition Observ 2. The second Observation is That it is most sad to a tender Minister and will much affect him to see and observe Unbelief and Unfruitfulness among the People that He hath preached the Gospel to This must be a certain and clear Truth if we consider what it was that put Isaiah to this even to cry Who hath believed our report Though a Minister should have never so great exercise of Gifts never so much countenance and respect among a People if he be tender he will be more grieved and weighted with their Unbelief and Unfruitfulness then with Stripes and Imprisonment there will be no suffering to this in his esteem nothing so sad a ground of Complaint This makes the Prophet Mic. 7.1 to cry alace and wo is me I am as these who have gathered the summer-fruits as the grape-gleanings after the vintage there is no cluster to eat the good man is perished and there is none upright among men and he insists in this Complaint How often was our Lord Jesus the most excellent tender Preacher that ever preached put to this Complaint All the Affronts and Reproaches He met with grieved Him not so much as the Unbelief and Hardness of Heart that were in the People It 's said Mar. 3.5 that He looked round about on them with anger and was grieved for the hardness of their hearts And it 's said Mar. 6.6 that He marvelled because of their unbelief yea it so affected Him that Luk. 19.42 it 's said that when He came near the city He wept over it saying O that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace There is a fourfold Reason of this that hath a fourfold Influence on the sadning of a serious and tender Minister of the Gospel 1. Respect to Christ Jesus his Master in whose stead he comes to bespeak and woo Souls to Christ What would an Ambassadour think of personal Respect and Honour if his Master were reproached and his Message rejected and despised and can an honest and faithfull Ambassadour of Christ look on and his Heart not be wounded to see the Gospel Fruitless the Lord's pleasure as it were Marred and the work of Gathering in of Souls Obstructed in his hand and his Lord and Master Affronted and Slighted 2. The Respect that a Faithful Minister hath to the Peoples Souls hath influence on this A tender Shepherd will watchfully care for and wish the Sheep well and be much affected when they are in an evil condition and where the relation is of a more Spiritual nature and the Flock off far very far greater worth and concernment what wonder the Shepherd be more affected as Paul bespeaks the Galatians 4.19 My little children of whom I travel again in birth till Christ be formed in you To be travelling and bringing forth but Wind cannot but prick and wound an honest Minister of the Gospel at the very Heart so 2. Cor. 11.29 Paul saith Who is offended and I burn not The very hazard of a Soul will be like a Fire burning the Heart that is tender and zealous of the spiritual good of Souls 3. The respect that a Faithful Minister hath to the Duty in his Hand hath influence on this for such a one loves to neat his Duty and to go neatly and lively about it and the Unbelief and Unfruitfulness of the People clogs him in his Duty and makes him drive heavily hence it 's said Mat. 13.58 and Mark 6.5 that our Lord could not do many mighty works there or among that People because of their unbelief Unbelief straitens and shuts the Door and makes Preaching become a very Burthen to a Faithful Minister therefore the Apostle exhorts Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you and watch for your souls that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you A necessity lyes upon Ministers to go about their Work but when the Word does no more but buff on them so to speak it makes them to cry as this same Prophet doeth Chap. 6.11 How long Lord And 4ly This also hath influence on their being so much weighted even the concern of honest Ministers own Joy and Comfort It is true as we hinted before that neither a Faithful Minister's Peace nor his reward of Grace doeth depend on it simply I have spent my strength in vain says Isaiah chap. 49.4 yet my labour is with the Lord and my reward from my God As to that there is no necessary connection and it 's of Grace it is so yet as to a Minister's Satisfaction and Joy there is a connection as we may see Philip. 2.16 where Paul saith That I may joy in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain and laboured in vain And from his expostulation with the Galatians chap. 4.9 10 11. I am affraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain I shall not prosecute the Use of this neither only see here that it is no marvel though sometimes
were put to make a report of you as we will be put to it what could we say we are afraid to speak our apprehensions O! how little is this Gospel as to it's Fruit and Success upon the growing hand among you We shall therefore forbear to speak of that which we think hath deep Impressions on our selves concerning you but we would have you to look thorow Matters how they stand betwixt God and you and if we may humbly lay claim to any measure of the judgement of Discerning may we not ask where is there a Man or a Woman amongst most of us that hath a Conversation suitable to this Gospel If we begin at the great Folks that have the things of the World in abundance it 's their work for most part not to be Religious but to gather and heap up Riches and to have somewhat of a Name or a piece of Credit in the World this is the farthest that many of such design And if we come and take a look of the way of the Poorer sort they live as if they were not called to be exercised to Godliness and this is the condition of the Generality to live as if God were not to call them to a reckoning ye will say we are poor ignorant Folks and are not Book-learned but have ye not Souls to be saved and is there any other way to be saved then that royal Way wherein Believers have walked But if we should yet look a little further through you how many are there that have not the very form of Godliness who never studied to be Christians either in your fellowship with others nor when alone or in your Families There are some O! that I might not say many who are hearing me that will not once in the Year bow their Knee to God in their Families many of you spend your time in Tipling Jeasting Loose-speaking which are not convenient yea I dare say there are many that spend more time in Tipling Jeasting and Idle-speaking then in the Duties of Religion either in publick or in private what report shall we make of you Shall we say that such a man spent three or four Hours every day in going up and down the Streets or in Tipling and Sporting and would not spend half an Hour of the Day on God and His Worship and further how many are yet ignorant of the first Principles of Religion a fault that is often complained of and yet we would be ashamed to have it heard of that such Ignorance should be under half a Years preaching of the Gospel that is in this Place under many Years preaching of it and this not only among the Poorer sort but even amongst those who hold their Heads very high and are above others who can guide and govern their own Affairs and give others a good counsel in things concerning the World yet if we come to speak with them of Repentance or of Faith in its Exercise of Convictions and Challenges for Sin of Communion with God of the working of God's Spirit in the Regenerate or of the Fruits of the Spirit they have not a Mouth to speak a word of these things and if they speak any thing O! but it looks wersh tasteless and thieveless like Put them to discourse of Religion it hath no gust to say so it relishes not they have no understanding of it at least that is experimental doeth this look like Folks that have heard and received the Gospel let me say it the Wisdom of this World and the Knowledge of Christ are far different things and if some of you go that length as to get the Questions of the Catechism which is well done in it self if we put you but to express them in other words ye cannot which says plainly that ye are not Masters of your Knowledge And what shall we say of others of whom we cannot say but we get respect enough from them yet how do Selfishness and Worldly-mindedness abound in them and how Graceless and Christless are they found to be when put to the tryal We would also say to you that there is great difference betwixt Civility and Christianity Fairfashions will never pass in Christ's account for the suitable Fruits of the Gospel and will never hinder us from having a just ground of Complaint against you How many have a Form of Religion and want the Power of it who think themselves something when they are indeed nothing and their Profession is so thin and holled to speak so that their Rottenness and Hypocrisie may be seen thorow it Though these things be but general yet they will comprehend a great many of you that are here in this Assembly and if so is there not just ground of Complaint of and Expostulation with you as a People among whom this Word hath no suitable Fruit And as for you that live Prophanely and Hypocritically what shall we say to you or how shall we deal with you we bring the Word to you but ye make no more use of it then if ye had never heard it no more Religion sheweth it self in you then if ye lived among Heathens Shall we say to God the Fruit of the Gospel is there Dare we be answerable to God or can we be faithful to you to flatter you over as if all were well with you and must not our Complaint then rather be this Lord they have not believed our report though we be feckless and though there be ground of Complaint of us yet the Word is His Word and will take hold of you I know that Folks do not readily digest such Doctrine well and it may be some think that few Ministers are better dealt with then we are but we say that that is not our Complaint we confess if we look from the beginning of the World to this Time there will be few Ministers of the Gospel found to have been better dealt with as to outward and civil things but alace should that stop our Mouth yea rather ought it not to be the more sad to us to be so dealt with and to live in civil Love with Men and Women who yet do not receive the Gospel nor deal kindly with our Master Do not think that we will take external respect to us for the Fruit of the Gospel as we have no cause to complain of other things so let us not be put to complain of this but receive Christ in your Heart let Him and His precious Wares have Change and go off amongst you make use of Him for Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption and go not for the fashion about the Means that should bring you near Him but be in good earnest and this would satisfie us much and prevent Complaints Lastly I would ask you what will come of it if we shall go on in Preaching and ye in Hearing and yet continuing still in Unbelief will there not be an account craved of us and must we not make a report and if ye
every thing whereof ye are said to be shorâ— Though ye live and should die Carnal and Unrenewed yet ye think stil ye have an honest Mind or Heart for all that and what I pray is your honest Mind but a rotten and prophane Heart that vails your Hypocrisie with a pretext of Honesty Would ye think that Man honest spoke of Isa 44.19 who with one part of the Tree warmed himself and with another part made a god and fell down and prayed to it and yet in your Sense he hath an honest Mind for he followeth his light which is but darkness and the deceit of his Heart carrying him away from God though he cannot see it he discerns not because he considers not that there is a lie in his hand and that a deceived heart hath led him aside so it is with you and if many of you saw what is latent under that honest Mind and Heart there would be nothing that would make you loath your selves more a little time will convince you that that which ye looked for most good from was your greatest and most traiterous Enemy He that trusts in his own heart is a fool saith Solomon Prov. 28.26 it supposes that Folks are ready to lippen to their Heart and to hearken to the language of it concerning their Spiritual Estate but it says also that they are Fools that do so for it betrayes them and there is no folly comparable to that whereby a Man betrayes his own immortal Soul and that he doth who trusts in his own Heart A seventh Reason is from the deceitfulness of our Heart and the natural Corruption that sticks to us There is naturally in us Pride and Self-conceit we are disposed and given to think any thing that is our own though it be but a shew is as good as others reality to think our own Light and Knowledge our own other Parts and Gifts to be as good as those of any others whosoever they be And with Pride there is joined Self-love we dow not abide to think evil of our selves or to suspect our selves Though this Self-love be indeed Self-hatred and is but love to our Corruptions and makes us that when we live in hatred of God to think that we love Him so that we cannot be induced to think that we love Him not for we know that love to God is good and we love our selves so well that we cannot endure to think that we want it hence it 's said of some in the last Times 2 Tim. 3.2 3. That they shall he covetous proud boasters blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers c. having a form of godliness and denying the power of it and the founâ—ain of all is Self-love for saith he men shall be lovers of their own selves And as Self-love is the fountain of much Evil so it 's the fountain of Self-deceit and keeps out any thing that may make Men question their own Condition so that if a word come in and say thou hast no ground for thy Faith the Heart will be ready to answer and say it cannot be that I am a Self-deceiver and Self-love as a partial Judge will offer to vindicate the Man and so makes him shift the Challenge Now when all these are put together you may see how many Grounds Folks have to go wrong upon and Men having Hearts disposing and inclining them to go wrong and little pains being taken to discover the deceit of them is it any wonder that they think they Believe when indeed they Believe not and be empty and toom-handed having little or nothing to rest upon while they think they are Rich and want nothing These are not fancied and far fetched things but obvious and at Hand and may easily be gathered from your daily Practice In all which it 's our design and scope to bring you to try your long unquestioned Peace do not therefore think that it is impossible to be thus perswaded as many of you are and yet to be mistaken which is another Ground of Folks deceit for Laodicea was very confident in thinking her self to be rich and encreased in goods and to stand in need of nothing when she was in the mean time poor blind miserable wretched and naked and the Galatians as we may see chap. 5.8 had a perswasion which was not of God As there may be a perswasion of a point of Doctrine as being right which yet is an errour so there may be a perswasion of a Man's Spiritual State as being right and which he will stoutly maintain to be so while in the mean time that perswasion is not of God that calleth him but a strong Delusion If all that be Faith that ye call Faith then certainly the way to Heaven is much broader then the Scripture hath chalked it out and Ministers needed not say Who believes our report for all should thus believe it It will then and must then turn to this that your perswasion is not of Him that calleth you and if a deceit may ly and lurk under this perswasion of yours ye have certainly so much the more need to put the business to tryal And this is the last Use which we cannot now insist on That seeing so many think they Believe who Believe not and that there are but few that believe the Report and indeed rest on Christ for their Salvation as He is offered to them in the Gospel it is of your concernment to endeavour to put your selves without the reach of this Complaint and to make it sure that ye have believed and received the Report Is there any thing of concernment if this be not even to makâ— your Calling and Election sure and that cannot be made sure as to you till your Faith be made sure If we could prevail this far with you we would count it a blessed Fruit of this and of many other Preachings even that some of you who have never quâ—stioned your Faith might be engaged first seriously to close with Christ and then to put your selves to the tryal that on distinct grounds ye might be able to say I know in whom I have believed and that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day There are many of you that talk of Faith and yet cannot only not assert your Interest in Christ distinctly but cannot so much as give any solid grounds of your Believing and should not this think ye put you to try it Is there not a Day coming wherein ye will all be tried whether your alledged Faith was true Faith or but Presumption and wherein the Conscience which is now quiet and which it may be never keeped you from an hours Sleep shall awake and put forth its Sting and shall bite and gnaw and ye who shall continue under the power of this Delusion will be put to gnaw your Tongues for pain and horrour under the gnawings of your Conscience Ye that
never knew all along your life what these things mean'd had need to stand the more in awe and to be affraid when ye come near Death Though it be a sad matter that when we should be Preaching and would fain preach the Doctrine of Faith it should by reason of your Delusion be the great part of our work to be thus digging you out of your Presumption and overturning your carnal and ill-grounded Hope yet we have the greater confidence and the more peace to speak to and insist in these Truths because they ly so near to the great design of the Gospel and to your immortal Souls Salvation and though we were able to preach more plausible and sweet things to you yet if these Doctâ—ines profite you not these would not Sâ—ing therefore they are so profitable we should not weary to speak and ye should not weary to hear them spoken of Would to God ye were seriously â—nd sincerely aiming to be clear and through in the matter of Believing and that ye stood in need and were more capable of more pleasant Truths if so we might have more comforâ—able though we will not say more profitable Doctrines to insist upon to you SERMON XII ISAIAH LIII I Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed WE have spoken at several occasions to this first part of the Verse and before we leave it there is one Use several times hinted at already to which there is good ground to speak it being the design and purpose of these words to hold forth of what great concernment Believing is and of what great difficulty it is and so many being to the ruine of their Souls mistaken about it there is ground to draw this Use of Exhortation from it to wit That then all the Hearers of this Gospel would be exhorted to advert well to this that they make Faith sure in it self and that they make it sure to themselves seing as I said so many are mistaken about it and beguile themselves The more pressingly that the Gospel calls for Faith in Christ and the more weightily the Lord expostulates with the Hearers of the Gospel because of their Unbelief they are doubtless so much the more concerned to receive it in its Offer and also to look well that they content not themselves with guessing at Faith and that they never think that things are well with them except they can give good proof and warrand that they are so and that it is Saving Faith that they have seing there are so many that satisfie themselves as being Believers when yet so few are Believers indâ—ed The sâ—d mistake and disappointment of many should have so much influence upon us as to put us to more watchfulness and to a more narrow tryal of our own state and condition that we may know how it is with us All that we have spoken to the Doctrines of this first part of the Verse may be as so many Motives to stir you up to both these and would to God we could be perswaded to this as the Use of so many Preachings once to admit and take it for granted that it is the Truth of God that there is a necessity an absolute necessity for us to be really rolled and casten over upon Jesus Christ by Faith for attaining of Life through Him Though this be a very common Doctrine and ye would think a very common Use of it yet it is the great thing that God requires in the Gospel and the neglect of it or not receiving His Son the very contest and quarrel that God hath with the Hearers of it and the cause of the ruine of so many Souls that perish under the Gospel We shall therefore propose to you some Considerations that may stir you up to this and briefly answer a Question in each of these two branches of the Use And first For stirring you up to this receiving of Christ by Faith 1. Consider if there be not a standing Quarrel and Contraversie betwixt God and you for Sin and if there be as no doubt there is consider how that Contraversie is to be removed is there any other possible way but by Faith in Christ If we were Preaching to such as had never sinned and were never under the hazard of the. Wrath of God there might possibly be a difficulty to perswade to a receiving of Christ But when ye have all this in your Conscience that there is Sin and a Curse following Sin and that there is no other way for removing that Curse but by Jesus Christ is there not reason to expect that ye should receive this Truth will any of you think to stand and bide it out against God and if not then there is sure a necessity of Believing in Jesus Christ or of lying under the Wrath of God for ever 2. Consider that this Gospel and Word of Salvation is preached to you in particular When we speak of Salvation we do not say that Christ was once preached to the Jews or that in such a far-off Nation there is a door opened for Salvation in the Gospel but we would turn over the words of the Apostle Acts 13.38 to you and say to you in his words Be it known to you therefore men and brethren that through this man to wit Jesus Christ is preached to you remission of sins c. and this brings the Gospel near you even to your door it lays before you the way of access to God by Christ and puts it so closs and home to you that Christ must either have a refusal or a welcome from you The first consideration of your own Sinfulness and Misery might put you to seek after a Saviour though he were at a great distance but this other brings Him to your Heart and Mouth and is it fit think ye to neglect such a fair occasion and will it be wisdom when Salvation follows you and crys after you and Wisdom lifts up its voice in the Streets saying O ye simple ones how long will ye love fooâ—ishness c. to stop your ear or to turn away from Christ and to run upon your destruction Do ye think that this Gospel will be silent always or that your Conscience will be deaf and dumb always There are many Nations that have not the Gospel so near them and it 's hard to know but the day may come when ye would be content to buy an offer of the Gospel at a dearer raâ—e and when there shall not be a Tryster nor a Dâ—ys-man to be had between God and you and these days will then be remembred with horrour which now ye securely slip over 3. Consider what will come of this if ye do not believe the Gospel Know ye not that many perish that hear the Gospel and that upon this same very ground that they did not receive Christ and Salvation through Him offered to them therein and whereof they are now deprived Are there not many this
conjectures about this Matter and the greater their Security be they perswade themselves the more that they have Faith This is as sad as any of the former when they grant all that Folks should make their Calling and Election sure and should endeavour to be sure of their Faith but in the mean time take Peace with the Devil and Peace with their Lusts for Peace with God and a Covenant with Hell and Death for a real Bargain with God This is as true as this Word of God is that there are many that put by all Challenges by this and never suspect their Faith they hope that all shall be well and they must always Believe as if that were the whole Duty of Faith to keep down all Challenges A fourth sort is even of the generation of them that have some thing of God in them who scar in a manner to make all sure and think it is a piece of Humility and of holy and tender walking to maintain Doubâ—ing even as others think it Faith to maâ—â—tain Presumption They are always complaining as if all things were wrong and nothing right in their Case and so foster and cherish Misbelief There is such a thing as this that marreth even serious Souls in their endeavours to make their Calling and Election sure and as long as this is they cannot win to the suitable discovery of this excellent Grace that God calls them to Exercise even Faith in the Lord Jesus Need we make use of Motives to press you to this tryal of your Faith and to this giving of all diligence to make it sure who have especially hitherto neglected it If ye knew any thing of the vexation that Unbelief hath with it and what horrour in Conscience from the sense of distance from God were ye would think it a great matter to be clear in this thing and if it were known and believed how this delusion and unsickerness of Faith destroys the most part of Men in the World even of the visible Church Durst Men ly in their Security as most do without all endeavours to make it sure on good ground that they do indeed Believe Durst they ly still under God's Curse if they thought themselves to be really under it and did not foolishly fancy that it is otherways with them Durst Men treasure up Wrath to themselves if they thought not that the Hope they had were good enough O! but Presumption beguiles and destroys many Souls and particularly this same Presumption of Folks thinking themselves right when they are wrong hath destroyed and doeth destroy and will destroy moe Members of the visible Church then Prophanity Drunkenness Whoredom Theft Desperation or any other of these gross and much abhorred Evils do This is the thing that locks Folk up in their Sin even their Presumption when they say on the matter We shall have peace though we walk in the imagination of our own heart It 's this that makes Men without fear Steal and Lie and commit Adultery c. that they say Is not the Lord among us Is not this the thing that keeps many of you that ye never tremble at the Word of God we have Faith in God say ye we lippen and trust in Him therefore seing Presumption is so rife have ye not need to try your Faith If there were so much counterfeit Money in the Countrey that it were a rare thing to get one good and upright piece of Money ye would think your selves greatly concerned and obliged to try it well lest ye were cheated with base and counterfeit Coyn Is there not need then yea infinitely much more need for them that would be so wise as not to be beguiled about the salvation of their Souls to search and try whether their Faith will abide God's tryal or not Ye will readily move this Question What then are the Characters or Evidences of a solid and sicker Faith that will abide the tryal by which the pretended Faith that is among the Men of this Generation may be examined and put to just tryal I shall first name some direct Scriptures holding out somethings essentially accompanying Faith and then shall add others having more condescending Characters for the more particular differencing of this helping to the decision of this great Question The first Mark whereby ye may try your Faith is The ground and rise of it or that whereby it is begotten and cherished Faith comes saith the Apostle Rom. 10.10 by hearing Doctrinal Faith comes by the preaching of the Gospel and Saving Faith is wrought instrumentally by the same Word of God it being the power of God to salvation it being this Word that is the very ground of our Faith I would ask you where from your Faith comes and what hand the Word of God hath in it There are many that have a sort of Faith not only without but contrary to the Word of God whereby they believe that they will get Heaven while in the mean time the Word of God does directly exclude them Get ye your Faith maintained without ever knowing the necessity of a Promise for that effect Can ye maintain your Peace and not have so much as any foundation in the truth and faithfulness of God to build it upon Love never that Faith that hungers not after the Word that is supposed to be lively without being ever fed by the Word that cannot claim either its rise and original or its growth from the Word I will not say from this or that word in particular or at this or that time read or heard but from the Word of God the Word is the very foundation that Faith builds upon If we look to what either accompanieth or followeth Faith there are some plain Scriptures that will make that clear as Acts 15.9 and put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by faith there was indeed once a great difference between Jews and Gentiles but now when he hath brought both to believe in Christ the difference is removed There is an efficacy in it to circumcise the Heart to purifie it and to banish Lusts out of it for it closes and unites with Christ and so brings him home to dwell in the Heart and where Christ dwells He commands and so whatever opposes Him is banished Faith gives Christ welcome and will give nothing welcome to dwell with Him that 's opposite and displeasing to Him Faith improves Christ for the subduing of its Lusts and mortifying its Corruptions whereas before there might be an fair outside of a Profession and something clean outwardly and much filthiness and rottenness within but when Faith is exercised on Christ it purifies from all filthiness of the Spirit as well as of the Flesh it applys the Promises for that end even to get the inside made clean as well as the outside yea it s main work is to have the inside the Heart purified that being the fountain of all the pollution that defiles the Man and brings
the Apostles and yet when he is Preaching Acts 28.25 and some believed and others believed not before he dismisses the multitude he adds this one word Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the Prophet unto our fathers saying Go unto this People and say Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and not perceive c. where he expressly differenceth his external Preaching from God's inward working and tells that so long as there was a judicial stroke on the Hearts of the People untaken away no external Preaching could do the turn as to their Conversion and bringing of them to Believe which he also does to guard against any offence that might be taken at the unsuccesfulness of his Ministry by any who would be ready to say what aileth these Folk that they will not receive the Gospel to whom he answers Isaiah long before told the reason of it to wit that there is a Plague on their Hearts and Minds which God must remove ere they can receive it 2. To these plain and clear instances we may add two or three Grounds or Reasons As 1. The exceeding greatness of the work of Conversion O how great and difficult is it Therefore it 's set out by the similitudes and expressions of raising the dead creating a new heart of removing the stony heart and the like all tending to set out the necessity of an omnipotent Power or a powerful work of Grace in the begetting of Souls to Christ and if it be so great a work what can the outward Ministry do if the Power of God be not added or what can the Man himself do here can a Mâ—n quicken raise creat or beget himself it's true these comparisons are not to be extended and and applied in every respect yet they hold out that Man being naturally dead can no more contribute to his own quickening and raising and to the bâ—getting of spiritual life in himself then a dead Mâ—n can contribute to his own quickening and raising to his natural life for which cause the Holy Ghost hath made choice of these expressions even to hold out the exceeding greatness of the work 2. Consider the condition that Mâ—n are in when this work is wrought and we will see they can contribute nothing to it thâ—t they have no aptitude for it except that they are subjects capable to be wrought upon being as it is Eph 2.1 dead in sins and trespasses being as to their Souls estate and as to their Spiritual condition like Adam's Body before the Lord breathed in it the Breath of Life and made him a living Soul as his Body could not move stir nor act till then no more can the Natural Man stir or act in the ways of God till a new principle of Spiritual Life be put in him To clear it further we would consider that the Scripture speaks of these three in the Natural Man 1. Of an utter inability and deadness as to that which is Good Dead in Sins Eph. 2.1 We are not sufficient saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.5 of our selves as of our selves to think any thing not so much as a good thought 2. The Scripture holds him out not only as unable for good but perverse and bent to every thing that is Evil Col. 1.21 Alienated and enemies in our minds by wicked works the carnal mind being enmity against God Rom. 8.7 it 's plainly opposite to any thing that is Good and so to the way of Faith 3. Man's Mind is not only naturally perverse and stuffed with Enmity but in an incapacity to be healed while it remaineth such Rom. 8.7 It is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be and therefore in the work of Conversion there is not only an amending but also a renewing of our Nature called for there is more requisite then the rectifying of something in the Man even the creating of new Habits and the infusing of the Principles of Spiritual Life and Motion into the Soul It is true in some Sense the whole Image of God is not absolutely removed the faculties of the rational Soul still remain for Man hath an Understanding and a Will and some sort of Reason but without any tendency to Spiritual Life or to any action for God he hath an Understanding but it 's wholly darkened he hath a Will but wholly perverse and not in the least enclined to Good he hath Affections but wholly disordered and corrupted and set wholly upon wrong Objects so that it 's with Man's Soul as to Good as it is with spoiled Wine Wine when wholesome serves to cheer and refresh but when it 's spoiled it 's quite another thing not only not conducing to Health but it 's noisome and hurtful It 's just so we say with Man's Soul it 's by the Fall quite spoiled and corrupted it is not indeed annihilated or made to be nothing for it retains the same faculties still it hath to speak so the same quantity still but as to it's qualities it 's utterly corrupted and carried closs contrary to God it 's not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be and renovation by Grace is the taking away of the corrupt qualities in part in this Life and wholly in the other Life and the bringing in of new qualities for recovering the beauty of that Image of God which Man hath lost 4. Consider the end that God hath in the administration of His Grace and the Glory that He will needs have it getting in every gracious work and more especially in the work of Conversion and the silence as to any boasting that He will have all put unto that shall partake of it His end in the administration of His Grace is to bring down Pride to stop all Mouths and to remove all grounds of boasting from the Creature that He only may have the glory of Conversion that when ever that question is proposed What hast thou O man but what thou hast received and if thou hast received it why doest thou boast who made thee to differ from another the Soul may answer it was not external Preaching nor my own Free-will nor any thing in me but the power of God's Grace I have nothing but what I have received It is on this ground that the Apostle Phil. 2.12 13. presseth and encourageth Christians to their great work Work out saith he your own salvation in fear and trembling for it's God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure the Lord leaveth not to Man the working of the Will in himself and of him saith the same Apostle 1 Cor. 30.31 are ye in Christ Jesus who is made of God unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord as he said before vers 29. that no flesh should glory in his presence there is one ground of boasting that the Lord wiâ—l have removed in a Sinner's Justification and
obtaining the Pardon of Sin by the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ but there is another ground or matter of boasting that Man might have if he could reach out the Hand to believe and receive that Righteousness and so put difference betwixt himself and another which in Effectual Calling the Lord puts to silence and quite removes that Man may hâ—ve it to say I have not only Pardon of Sâ—n but Grace to Believe freely bestowed upon me God made me to differ and He only He opened my Heart as He did the Heart of Lydia Thus the Lord will have all the weight of the whole work of our Salvation lying on His Grace that the Mouths of all may be stopped and that His Grace may shine gloriously that we may have it to say with the Psalmist Psal 57.2 It 's the Lord that performs all things for me and with Paul 1 Tim. 1.13 14. I obtained mercy and the Grace of God was exceeding abundant towards me The Uses are these 1. It writes to us in great and legible Letters the great emptiness and sinfulness of all Flesh who not only do not good but have sinned themselves out of a capacity to do good all Men and Women have brought themselves thus lamentably low by Sin that now if Heaven were to be had by a wish sincerely and singly brought forth yet it is not in their power to perform that condition and though it now stands upon the streatching forth of the hand of Faith to receive Jesus Christ yet of themselves they cannot even do this how ought then Sinners to be deeply humbled who have brought themselves to this woful pass I am afraid that many of you do not believe that ye are such as cannot Believe nor do any Good till His Grace work effectually in you 2. It teacheth you not to idolize any instrument or mean of Grace how precious and promising soever No Preaching if it were of a Prophet or an Apostle yea of an Angel will do the turn without Grace come with it there is a necessity of the revelation of God's Arm and of the assistance of His Grace not only to your Conversion but to every duty ye go about Ye should therefore fear and tremble when ye go about any Ordinance lest the Arm of the Lord be not put forth in it 3. It should make you more serious in dealing with God for His effectual blessing to every Mean and Ordinance seing without that no Ordinance can profite you 4. It serves to reprove and repress Pride 〈◊〉 to promove Humility in all such who 〈◊〉 â—â—tten good by the Gospel Have ye Faith or any measure of Holiness what have ye but what ye have received from whence came your Faith and your Holiness ye have them not of your selves these are not Fruits that grow upon the Tree of Nature or in its Garden but on the Tree and in the Garden of Free-Grace and ye have not your selves to thank for them 5. The main Use of it is for confirming and establishing you in the Faith of the Truth proponed in the Doctrine and for confuting and overturning the contrary Error that as it were in contempt of the Grace of God exalts proud Nature and gives Man's Free-will so great a hand in the work of Conversion That the main thing that makes the difference shall not be attributed to the Grace of God but to the Free-will of the Creature which of it self choised the Grace of God offered when another rejected it It may indeed seem strange that the Devil should so far have prevailed with Christians that profess the Faith of Original Sin and of the necessity of a Saviour as to make them look at Grace as useless in this prime step of Conversion and renewing of a Sinner that when the Grace of God and Man's Free-will come to be compared Man's Will should have the preference and preheminence the highest place and commendation in the work and that the great weight of it should ly there and that proud Nature should be thus bolstered up that it shall stand in need of nothing for the Man's Conversion but the right use-making of what it hath in it self And yet it 's no wonder that the Devil drive this design vigorously for what shorter cut can there be taken by him to ruine Souls then to make them drink in this Error that Nature and Free-will will do their turn and so take them off from all dependance on Free-Grace and on Jesus Christ and give them ground of boasting in themselves for when it is thus of necessity they must ruine and perish this should sure make you loath this Error the more And we are perswaded that the day is coming wherein the Truth opposite to this Error shall be confirmed on the Souls and Consciences of all the Opposers of it and wherein the maintaining of this Error shall be found a confirmation of Mans Enmity at Gods Grace which is not subject to His Law nor indeed can be But there are three Questions that may be moved here to which we would speak a word 1. If the Preaching of the Gospel cannot beget Faith without the powerful work of Gods Graâ—e what is the use of the Gospel or wherefore serves it 2. If Men cannot Believe without the work of Grace which the Lord soveraignly dispenseth why doth He yet find fault and expostulate with Men for their not Believing 3. If Grace perform all and Men can make no mean effectual nor do any good without it what then should Men do to come by Believing and this work of His Grace For the first We shall not say much unto it only seing the Lord hath made choice of the Gospel to be the ordinary external Mean of Grace and of the begetting of Faith there is no reason to say that it 's useless for though it be not the main and only thing that turns the Sinner but the Lord hath reserved it to Himself as His own Prerogative to convert and change the Heart of a Rebel-sinner yet he hath appointed it to be made use of as He hath appointed Baptism and the Lords Supper for many good and notable ends uses and advantages that are reached and come by the preaching of it As 1. By it the Righteousness of God is manifested that before lay hid Ye may by the preaching of the Gospel come to the knowledge of the Covenant of Redemption and of the great design that the Lord hath laid down for bringing about the Salvation of lost Sinners Rom. 1.17 Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith 2. By it the Lord revealeth the Duty He calleth for from Men as well as His Will concerning their Justification and Salvation He lets them know what is wrong what is right what displeaseth Him and what pleaseth Him Yea 3. By the preaching of the Gospel He holdeth out what Mens ability is or rather what is their inability and by His external Calling gives
the Gospel on the Lord 's manifesting His Arm so that where it is not manifested this work of Faith is not brought forth and where it is manifested necessarily it is brought forth This being a Doctrine concerning the Efficacy of God's Grace which ought not to ly hid from the Lords People we shall a little first clear it and then secondly confirm it to you First For clearing of it's Meaning 1. Ye would not take up our meaning in it so as if we made every common work that lively means may have on the Hearers of the Gospel to be Conversion The preaching of the Word will sometimes make Folks tremble as we see in Felix and will waken Convictions and Terrors in them and put them into an amazement and yet leave them there for all these Convictions may be and often are resisted as to any Saving Fruit at least which we conceive to be that which Stephen points at Acts 7.51 while he saith Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye and what he means by this is explained in the words following Which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted c. even their contending with the Word of the Lord in the mouths of His Servants Yea in that same place where it 's said that they gnashed upon him with their teeth it 's insinuated that they came over the belly of the cutting Conviction which his Preaching had upon them Nor do we 2. mean That every common operation of the Spirit whether illumination of the Mind or a touch on the Affections such as may be in Temporaries and Apostates as is clear Mat. 13.20 21. Heb. 6.4 and downward is Conversion There is a great difference betwixt a common work or gift of the Spirit which in a large Sense maâ— be câ—â—â—ed Grace because freely given anâ— the â—â—vâ—ng work of Grace which before 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—eâ— a peculiar work And oft-times tâ—â—t câ—mmon operation of the Spirit is quenched and pâ—t out therefore the Apostle 1 Thess 5.19 exhorteth thus Quench not the Spirit 3. When we speak of an effectual bringing forth of Faith by this Grace of God we would not have you thinking that we suppose no reluctancy to be in the Man in so far as he is unrenewed for though where Grace effectually worketh Faith follows necessarily yet Corruption being in the Man it 's disposed and apt to thwart with and to oppose Grace and the Will hath its aversness to yield But the meaning of the Doctrine is this That though there be such a strong power of Corruption in the Man to whom Grace comes and on whom it is put forth yet the power of Grace is such that it powerfully masters and overcomes Corruption and wins the Heart to believe in and to engage with Christ though to speak so there be something within that strives to keep the door shut on Christ yet when it comes to that Cant. 5.3 He puts in his fingers by the holl of the lock and makes the myrrhe to drop the Heart is prevailed with so as it is effectually opened as the Heart of Lydia was to receive the Word that Paul preached Thus notwithstanding of Corruptions opposition Grace gains its point and the Lord never applys His Grace of purpose to gain a Soul but he prevails 4. When we speak of the power and effectualness of Grace in conquering and gaining the Heart and Will of the Sinner to believe in Jesus Christ we do not mean that there is any force or violence done to the Will or any exerting of a coactive power violenting the Will contrary to its essential property of freedom to close with Christ But this we mean that though Corruption be in the Heart yet Grace being infused and acted by the Spirit the pravity in the Will is sweetly cured and the Will is moved and made to Will willingly and upon choice by the power of the Spirit of Grace taking in that strong hold This great work is wrought by an omnipotent swavity and by a sweet omnipotency and it needs not at all seem strange for if Man in Nature be by the power of habitual Corruption made necessarily to will Evil so that notwithstanding he doth freely and willingly choose Evil why should it be thought strange oâ— absurd to say that when a principle of the Grace of God is infused into the Soul and acted by the Spirit of God If hath that much influence power and efficacy as to prevail with the Will it keeping still its own freedom to make it willing to embrace Jesus Christ and yet not at all thereby wrong that essential property of the Will sure Grace is as powerful as Corruption and the Lord is as dextrous a worker and can work as aggreeably to the nature of the Creature in this gracious work as the Creature can in its own sinful actings So then we say when the Lord is pleased to apply the work of His Grace to convert a Sinner that work is never frustrated but it always hath necessarily the work of Faith Renovation and Conversion following on the back of it Secondly We shall a little confirm the Doctrine and the grounds of Confirmation are these The 1. whereof is The express Scriptures wherein this Truth is asserted as John 6.44 45. It is said in the 44. Verse No man can come to me except the Father draw him and on the contrary it is as expressly set down vers 45. It is written in the Prophets they shall be all taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me and this being contradistinguished to external Preaching and being that which is called drawing v. 44. he knits Believing to it and makes Believing called coming a necessary effect of it that to whomsoever God gives that inward Lesson they shall come which confirms the Doctrine that whomsoever the Lord teaches and schools by His Grace and calls effectually they do necessarily Believe Another passage we have Phil. 2.12 13. Work out the work of your salvation in fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure where the Apostle makes the work of Grace not only to work ability to will and to do but to work also to will and to do actually and Grace never worketh to will and leaves the Man unwilling but necessarily supposeth the Man's closing willingly with Christ with whom He worketh thus A 2. Ground of confirmation is drawen from these Expressions whereby this work is set forth and the Promises comprehending it in God's Covenant wherein it 's called the giving of a new heart a heart of flesh the writing of the law in the heart the putting of his Spirit within his people and causing them to walk in his statutes c. Jer. 31.33 Ezek. 36.26 27. and it is impossible to conceive aright of the fulfilling of these
flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory c. Use 1. It serves to be a prop and foundation to our Faith We may say of this truth as the Apostle speaking of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 1.15 sayes If Christ he not risen then our Preaching is vain and your faith is vain If Christ were not Man our Preaching and your Hearing were in vain 1. By this we have an evidence that our Lord is the true Messiah who was to become Man 2. By this we see a clear way how he was lyable to our debt and how his satisfaction is communicable to us And 3. In this also we see a main and most attractive Argument to draw sinners into Christ for the actual application of his purchase Our Lord Jesus is Man our Brother and made of a Woman made under the Law O! this puts a sweetness and loveliness on the Mediator to commend him to sinners for the ingaging of their hearts to him And therefore as a second Use of it seing there is a Man-Mediator 1. We pray you Men and Women neglect not such a Salvation as is to be had by his becoming Man but let this Argument prevail with you to make use of him that he is a true Man And we may say when this Son of Man comes in the Clouds to Judge the World it will be one of the greatest aggravations of the sin of unbelievers that he came thus low as to be a Man for the good of men and yet was not made use of by them 2. Sinners that would be at him may on this ground be confident and chearful The Steward of Grace is a Friend he is a Man their Brother and claims Kindred to them that honestly aim to do the will of his Father whosoever shall do the will of my Father saith he Mat. 12. The same is my brother sister and mother Sinners wrong Christ and themselves oft-times when they scar at this Cordial Consolation that by Christs becoming Man is allowed on them Indeed if we were immediatly to go to God who is a consuming fire it were no wonder that we stood at a distance but when God is in the Mediator Christ God Man to reconcile the World to himself as the word is 2 Cor. 6. Let us as the Apostle saith Heb. 4. ult come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need O! make this use of it because he is a friend that sits on the Throne 2dly Observe That our Lord Jesus did not only become Man but a Man in an exceeding low and afflicted condition It had been much to the Son of God to have come in the shape of man though he had been Emperour of the whole World but he thought not that meet for since it was his errand in his first coming not to judge but to save the World He came not to be ministred unto but to minister And therefore Joh. 13.12 He washeth the feeâ— of his Disciples We may take both the branches of the Doctrine together our Lord Jesus not only became Man but He was a Man without all worldly grandour and pomp in a low and mean condition And not only did he want that grandour but he had much affliction shame and sorrow in the place of it Need we to prove this Any who are acquainted with the History of the Gospel know it He was for the whole tract of his life not only in a low condition but a man of sorrows griefs and afflictions under much persecution contempt and reproach We might instance this 1. In His Birth 2. In His Life And 3. In His Death The meanness and lowness of his condition and the afflictions he met with appear clearly in all these wherein ye may behold the glory of grace and of truth For the more low he became the more doth the glory of grace shine and the more also doth the glory of truth in that he fulfilled all righteousness 1. Then for his low condition And that 1. In his birth he was not born of any of the greatest Queens However the birth of Mary was Noble yet she was in a mean condition for the time espoused to a Carpenter He was not born in a great Palace but in a common Innes which too being taken up with Guests His Mother was thrust out or constrained to betake her self to a Stable where our blessed Lord is brought forth and laid in a Manger Crib or Stall out of which the Beasts eat their meat for his Cradle There the Lord and Heir of all things is laid and hath no other Cradle neither was the Room hung with rich Hangings and Tapestry as the Rooms of great ones use to be 2. In his life he was low for no sooner is he born but his Mother is forced to flee away with him to Egypt He dare not be seen And when he returns he co-habits with and serves his supposed Father and his Mother was obedient to them ran their errands and wrought their work Therefore he is called Mark 6. the Carpenter There is no outward nor worldly pomp and grandour here And thus he was for the space of 30. years And then when he came to his publick Ministry he hath no great folks for his followers and Disciples but a few poor Fisher-men over and above whom he exalts not himself loftily but humbles himself to wash their feet and to serve them And to hold forth this a little further ye may take notice of some Scripture-expressions to that purpose as namely that of Luk. Chap. 9.58 Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head That of John Chap. 1.10 11. He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not He came unto his own and his own received him not Though he could have made a thousand Worlds at a word yet so low was he that he had not a foot of ground to lay claim to or to lean his blessed head on And if we look to Luke 8. we will find that he was provided for in his necessity by some few Women such as Mary Magdalen Joanna Susanna and others who ministred to him of their substance He lived upon the charity of others And yet 2 Cor. 8. By his poverty he made many rich And when he went from place to place his diet was often a-seeking neither do we read of any great cheer he had but of some Barley Cakes and Fishes And often the Disciples were sent to seek for meat to him And 3. when it comes to his death O! How very low is he brought there When he is crucified they hang him up betwixt two thieves as the most notorious Malefactor of the three And he could hardly come under greater reproach then was cast upon him at his death And as a dead man being really dead he is laid in the
on this Satisfaction even such a way as procures Justificatâ—on and Healing to them And for your confirmation consider in general if it be possible that this Covenant of Redemption the Sufferings of the Mediator and the Promises made to Believing can be for nought did the Father pursue the Cautioner so hotly for nothing or did the Cautioner pay such a Ransom for nothing no certainly if it had not been to communicate Pardon and Peace with Healing by his Wounds anâ— Stripes to them who were lyâ—â—le to Condemnation and under the dominion of Sin neither of these would have been And therâ—fore for grounds of your Faith more particularly see here 1. A full Satisfaction God hath made way to Sinners Peace with himself by satisfying himself fully in Christ the Mediator for the sins of elect Believers so that a sinner that in the sense of sin betakes himself to him needs not to fear any back-accompts because what ever might make for our Peace was fully said on him so that we may with holy and humble boldness say that we are not come to the mount that might not be touched nor to blackness and darkness tempest and the sound of a trumpet but we are come unto mount Sion the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling Our invitation therefore to you is not to bid you come and compt for your own Debt your selves but to come and accept of Christs payment of it and of his Satisfaction whereby Justice is compleatly satisfied 2. See here as another ground of Faith the Justice of God not with respect to us but to the Bargain betwixt the Father and the Son who are the principal Parties and we to speak so but Parties accidentally in this Covenant the Covenant being primarly and mainly betwixt God and the Mediator the Justice of it appears in this that it hath respect to a Covenant which is fulfilled on all sides and therefore the Elects believing and taking hold of the Mediators Satisfaction cannot but be accepted as if he had payed the the Debt himself the Father to speak so had the carving of the Bargain and what satisfaction his Justice was to receive to his own mind and as it was Justice on the Sons side to satisfie according to his undertaking so it 's Justice on the Fathers side to pardon and be at peace with the Sinner that by Faith flies unto Jesus Christ 3. See in this Bargain not only Justice but Mercy as its just so it s a graciously free Bargain which is wonderful and may seem somewhat strange if not paradoxal yet it s nothing inconsistent with the way of Grace it 's just that the Cautioner should pay the Debt and yet that Debt is most freely and frankly pardoned as to us it 's Justice in the height as to the Mediator but free Grace as to us in the height we come to it freely and without price though it cost him dear And that is one of the Mediators Undertakings that it should be free to his Seed Joh. 6.40 This is the will of him that sent me that he who seeth the Son and believeth on him should have eternal life 4. Consider the reality and sureness of the Bargain it is such as it cannot fail having such Pillars to lean on the Faithfulness of God engaged on just and equal terms and the glory of God as the end and having a most necessary and câ—rtain effect to wit Healing to all to whom this soveraign Medicine is applyed This stability and sureness of the Covenant flows from Gods engaging to the Mediator and the Mediators engaging to God from the Mediators satisfying and the Fathers accepting of his Satisfaction which being confirmed by the Blood of the Testator it becomes a Testament which cannot be annulled nor altered or changed And if all this be so let me put the question is there not good ground here to exhort the Hearers of the Gospel to believe in Christ and on Believing to look for Life through him and a most solid ground laid down whereupon to build the hopes of Eternal Life and therefore seing this is the up-shot of all that Life is to be gotten freely by Faith in Jesus Christ improve this way of Salvation for making your Peace under no less certification than this even as ye would eshew reckoning with Divine Justice in your own Persons for the least Farthing of your Debt If it be objected here by any 1. We are at enmity with God and cannot satisfie I answer This Text tells you that satisfaction is not sought from you but from the Mediator who hath already given it and the Father hath accepted it for all such as shall by Faith plead the benefit of it 2. If ye shall say we know not how to win at God we are such as cannot step on foot forward and so very sinful and miserable that we know no such Transgressors and Wretches I answer Was it not for such that the Mediator transacted even for such as we Transgressors Rebels Despisers of him and such as judged him to be smitten and plagued of God If he had been Caution only for righteous Folks there had been some reason for such an objection but it is for Sinners for most hainous Sinners Nay this way of reasoning and pleading says on the matter that Christ needed not have laid down his life 3. If it be said We are so sinful and backsliding so filthy and polluâ—ed that we think we are not within the reach of healing I answer This reasoning would if it held turn in effect to this that ye are not within the reach of Gods Grace and for Christs Satisfaction which is not only injurious but even blasphemous to the Grace of God and to the Satisfaction of the Mediator if your sin be ugly and horrible he suffered horrible Wraâ—h he was wounded bruised chastised c. 4. If it be said further We can do nothing for our selves we cannot come to Christ we know not what it is to Bâ—lieve or if we win to do any thing alace all our Goodness is as the morning Cloud and early Dew that soon passeth away I answer The Covenant is not transacted betwixt God and you but betwixt God and the Mediator and the ground of your Peace as to the procuring cause depends on the Mediators performing his part of the Covenant in your name And further as for your Believing it is a piece of the Fathers engagement to the Mediator and must certainly be made as effectual as the Father must keep his word to the Son according to these Promises of the Covenant I will put my law in their hearts and write it in their minds they shall all know me and they shall be all taught of God And thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power and the like All these Promises were in the Covenant betwixt the Father
counsel and fore knowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain The Lords hand was supream in the businesse and we may gather the Supream and Soveraign Iâ—fluence of the Lords hand in these three respects in Christs Pufferings 1. In respect of His appointing them It was concluded in the Counsel of God what He should Suffer what should be the Price that Jehovah would have and the Sâ—crifice that he would accept of from His hand 2. In respect of the Ordering and Over-ruling of His Sufferings when it came to the execution of His Ancient Decree He who governs all the Counsells Thoughts and Actions of Men did in a special manner govern and over-rule the Sufferings of the Mediator though wicked men were following their own designe and were stirred and acted by the Devil who is said to have put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ yet God had the ordering of all who should betray Him what death He should die how He should de pierced and yet not a bone of Him broken 3. In respect of His having had a hand actively in them and as he was the chief Partie that pursued Christ it was He that was exacting the Elects Debt of Him therefore the Lord looks over Pilat and Herod to Him and sayes to Pilat thou couldest have no power over me except it were given thee from above and to His Father Father take this cup from me and my God my God wby hast thou forsaken me He was pursued as standing Cautioner in our room in which respect it is said Rom. 8. He that spared not his own Son He spared Him not when He cryed but would have Him drinking out the Cup and Zach. 13.7 Awake O sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow smite the shepherd The Message comes from Him and He gives the Sword a charge and orders it to smite Him In all which respects it 's said The Lord bruised him and he hath put him to grief It was this more then Sword or Naills or Speir or Whipe that made Him cry out another and a higher hand brought his sinless Soul to more bitterness then all the Sufferings He endured from Men. Use This leads us in to the vendicating of the Soveraign and Holy Providence of God in that wherein Men have a most sinful hand and are most unexcusable though Judas that bettayed and Pilat that condemned the Innocent Son of God acted most sinfully yet the Lord himself hath an active over-ruling Hand in carring on His own design and what Judas and Pilat with other wicked Men did was so far from being by guess that they were the executions of His Ancient Decrees and He is most Pure and Spotless in venting and manifesting Grace Holiness and Justice when men were venting their Corruptions Impiety and Injustice most Therefore the Holy Providence of God mixeth n more as to any sinless participation with mens sin in their sinfull and wicked actings than the Covenant of Redemption mixed it self with the sinfulnesse of them that crucified Christ Nay this is a principal Diamond in His Crown that He cannot only govern all the natural second Causes that are in the World in their several Courses and Actings and order them to His own glory but even Devils and wicked Men and Hypocrites their most corrupt and abominable Actions and make them infrustrably subservient to the promoving of His own holy ends and purposes and yet be free of their sin for which they shall count to Him And as it was no excuse to Judas nor to Pilat that they did what before was decreed of God so it shall be no excuse to any Man in a sinful course that God hath a hand in every thing that comes to passe who yet is just and holy in all It may also stay our hearts when the Devil and his Instruments as it were are runing mad that they can do no more then what God permits â—ay some way commissionateth them to do The Devil could not so much as touch a tail of one of Job's sheep without leave â—sked and given O! the deepth both of the knowledge and of the wisdom of God how unsearchable are his wayes and his judgments pasi finding out 3. As we may see here the concurrence of the Persons of the blessed Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost the concurrence of Jehovah with the Mediator for carrying on the same design the work of Mans Redemption for it pleased them all So taking the Lord Jehovah essentially as comprehending all the three Persons we may Observe That the Lord is well willed to and hath delight in prosecuting the work of Redemption though even to the bruising of the second Person of the God-head considered as became Man and Mediator not that He delighted in the Sufferings as such of His Innocent Son for he affects not willingly the children of men but considering the end and the effects that were to follow to wit the Seed that He should beget ro Eternal Life and the Captives whom He was to redeem In that respect it was not only against His will but it pleased Him well or as the word is in the New Testament It was his good pleasure alluding as â—â—is like to this of the Prophet Hence when Christ speaks of the work of Redemption He calleth it the Fathers will and work the Fathers will when He sayes I came not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me The Fathers work while He sayes I have finished the work thou gavest me to do And here it is called His pleasure for there was nothing without Himself to move Him to it when He might have suffered all fallen Mankind to lye still in their forlorne condition It pleased Him to give His Son of His own good will to redeem several of them Use If we put these Doctrines together they affoord us wonderful matter of Consolation 1. That we have an able Saviour that hath given a sufficient ransome for us a price that cannot be overvalued 2. A willing Mediator that gave himself no man took His Life from Him but He laid it down of Himself and took it up again 3. A willing Jehovah contriving and taking pleasure in contriving the Redemption of Elect Sinners through the Death of His own Son Which reproves and gives check to the wonderfully strange mistakes that are often found with some poor Souls concerning the way of Peace as some will be ready to say if Câ—rist were as willing to take me as I am to take Him as willing to welcome me as I am to come to Him But is not this a proof of His willingnesse that He was content to be bruised and put to grief about the work of your Redemption others have a secret apprehension that if God were as willing to receive and save them as Christ is they would have more confidence but sayes the Prophet here that it pleased the father
with you either think on the right way which is by putting Christ in in your Room and laying of Religion to the heart in sad earnest or dream not of coming to Heaven A 2d Sort are they who are not altogether so prophane as the others but will condemn them as indeed the practice of many is loathsome they will it may be Pray in their Families and will not be Drunk neither will they Swear nor Lye and they will walk blamelesly and upon these grounds they promise Heaven to themselves very confidently and yet they come not through the sense of their sinfull and cursed State by Nature to close with Christ by Faith and to make use of His Sacrifice such err on the other hand Oh! when shall we be at this not to neglect the study of Holiness and yet not to rest on it to the prejudice of this one Offering This were a a practice suitable to and worthy of Professors of the Gospel to be seriously aiming at all Duties of Holiness that are called for and yet to be building all their expectation of any good from God on the Sacrifice of Christ alone never coming to God without bring it along with them and looking through it to be accepted before Him there n eds no more and no other thing that we can bring will do our turn nor be taken off our hand if this be neglected The Lord Himself teach us this way SERMON XXXVII ISAIAH LIII X Vers 10. When thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sin He shall see his seed He shall prolong his dayes And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand WHat ever the Men of the World think of it it is not an easie matter to get the Justice of God Satisfied for Sin and to get the Wrath and Curse that Men by Sin have drawn on themselves removed Offerings of Bullocks and Goats thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyl will not do it the Redemption of the Soul is so precious that it ceaseth for ever that way and by all such Means Therefore the Lord in His wisdom hath found out the Means and in His Grace and Love hath Condescended that His own dear Son His Fellow shall as a Lamb without Spot be a Sin-offering to take away the Sins of His Elect World and this is the great Consideration under which we should take up the Death of Christ as making Himself therein an Offâ—ring for Sin and interposing Himself to satisfie Divine Justice that forgiveness might be made forthcoming to us The Doctrine which we proposed to be spoken to the last day was this That Jesus Christ is the only Sin-offering by which Sin can be taken away and God so Satisfied as to forbear the Punishment of the Sinner and to admit him to Peace and Friendship with Him If we would Enumerat all things imaginable and Invent Wayes and Means without number to remove Sin or to make a Sinners Peace with God there is no other Means but this that will do it As we have it Heb. 10. Christ Jesus by his once offering up of himself perfects for ever these who are sanctified and Act. 4. There is no other name given under heaven whereby sinners can be saved but the name of Jesus The Use is To Commend and to Demonstrat to us all the necessity of the Use making of this one Offering of Christ if He be the one Offering to take away Sin and if no other will be accepted then there is a necessity that He in His Offering of Himself be made use of If all be under Sin and if by the Law Sin and Death be knit inseperably together as it is said the wages of sin is death and if Freedom from Sin and Wrath and Peace with God be necessary then there is a necessity that Sinners be serious in this matter to get a Title to and Interest in this one Offering and Sacrifice of Christ In the prosecuting of the Use we shall speak a little to these four things 1. To some Grounds or Reasons to shew the Necessity of Sinners use making of Christ's Sacrifice or Offering 2. To this what it is to make use of this Offering 3. We shall give a Word of Advertisement as to some mistakes that are about it 4. We shall give some Differencing Characters or Evidences of a Person that is making right Use of this Offering for obtaining of Pardon and for making of this Peace with God For the First That is the Reasons to evince the necessity of it The 1. of them is that which we hinted at just now If Men were not lying under Sin and obnoxious to Wrath and if there were any other Sin-offering or any other Way or Mean to escape the Curse and Wrath of God due for Sin there were no such necessity But seing that all Men are under Sin and under the Curse of God and His Wrath because of it and seing there is no other thing that can take away Sin then there is an absolute necessity seriously to make use of and to have an Interest in this Sin-offering 2. Consider that the great part of Men in the World and even of them that hears this Gospel do not indeed make use of this Offering though they be some way under the Conviction that they are Sinners and that this is the only Sin offering to take away Sin and we suppose if ye were all put to it ye could not deny but ye are Sinners and that nothing can take away Sin but Christ's Offering up of Himself as a Sacrifice to satisfie Justice Though some be that grosly ignorant that they will speak of some other thing yet generally these that own and maintain the Truth of the Gospel are under a Conviction that no other thing can take away Sin and yet even amongst these there are many that never make use of Christ and of His Sacrifice to take away their Sins to remove Wrath and make their Peace with God There were many Jews who by the dayly Sacrifices which Typed forth this one Offering of Christ were taught that there was no other way to come by Pardon and Peace with God but there use making of it and yet the most part of them in going about these Sacrifices were slighters of this one Sacrifice Therefore the Apostle sayes of them Rom. â—0â— â—3 That being ignorant of Gods righteousness they went about to establish their own righteousness and did not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God It is as certain that many that hear this Gospel and professe Christ to be the only Sin-offering will be disowned of Him on this account Therefore many are brought in saylng Luk. 13. did we not hear thee preach in our streets have we not eaten and drunken in thy presence to whom He will say depart from me I never knew you ye workers of iniquity Because as if He had said what ever ye profesied ye never made Peace with God through
own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree And when He had Offered up Himself as a Sacrifice he sat down on the right hand of majesty on high He is the alone Sacrifice that comes properly in the Room of Elect Sinners 2. As there behoved to be One to Offer the Sacrifice so Christ Jesus is the Priest that Offered up the Sacrifice of Himself He is not only the Sacrifice but the Priest And in this He differed from other Priests Heb. 7.26 Such an high Priest became us who is holy harmless seperat from sinners and made higher then the heavens and then follows who needs not dayly as these high priests to offer up sacrifices first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people for this he did once when he offered up himself There are three things ordinarly Attributed to Christ as to His Sacrifice to wit That He was the Sacrifice the Altar and the Priest 1. He was the Sacrifice in respect of His Humane Nature which we are not so to look upon as Abstracting and Dividing it from His Divine Nature For though He Suffered in the Flesh yet it was the same Person that was God that Suffered 2 He was the Altar by which His Sacrifice received a speciall Efficacy Vertue Value and Commendation As it 's said The Altar sanctifies the offering So Christ Jesus according to His God-head was the Altar which did put an special excellency on His Sufferings and made them to be of such Worth and Value Therefore Heb. 9.14 It 's said that he through the eternal spirit offered up himself without spot unto God It was the Suffering of the Person that was God that made the Sacrifice to be accepted 3. He was the Priest and that according to both His Naturs each Nature concurring and that joyntly as in one Person to the making of the Sâ—crifice Offered up to God acceptable 3. We have in Him a reall destruction but do not mistake the Word It is not so to be understood as if He were annihilated or had been utterly destroyed and undone but the meaning is this That He was Killed or put to Death and His Soul seperat from His Body in which respect He ceased to be what He was before for a time having been really Slain Dead and Buried And 4. All this was according to God's prescription and appointment in the Covenant of Redemption This commandement saith He John 10.18 have I received of my Father to wit that I should lay down my life for my sheep And most emphatically He says John 14.13 as my Father gave me commandement even so mark even so most exactly in conformity to the Commandement do I It was all as to every circumstance ordered according to the good pleasure of God who was pleased thus to bruise Him and to put Him to Grief The 1. Use of it serves To teach us how to Conceive and Consider of Christ's Death and Sufferings rightly to wit even as a Sacrifice designed by God to come in the Room of Elect Sinners and how to look upon His Death not as the ordinary Death of ordinary or meer Men who by necessity of Nature Die but to look on it as being appointed of God to be a Sacrifice properly so taken for the Sins of His People 2dly This serves to clear some Truths concerning our Lord Jesus His Sacrifice For we must consider it as satisfying to Justice and Meritoriously procuring the escaping from Wrath and Salvation of them for whom He Interposed It is from the gross Ignorance or from the wicked denyal of this ground that the damnable denyers of Christ's Satisfaction do also deny the Propriety of His Sacrifice on Earth and bound it to Heaven whereas it is bounded to His Death though by vertue of this One Offering He continues to interceed for us in Heaven 3dly It teaches Sinners what is the native Use which they should make of this Sacrifice They should look upon it as the only Sacrifice to prevent Eternal Death and the Curse of God anâ— so it demonstrats to us that either Jesâ—s Christ must be received by Faith and His Sacrifice rested on or we must resolve to meet with Wrath and the Curse of God our selves in our own Persons 4ly It serves to clear us anent the Way and Tract of Grace to wit how it came to passe that our Lord who was innocent and without Sin was so bruised and put to grief He came to be a Propitiâ—tion for the Sins of His People and sisted Himself in our Room as our Cautioner as a Sin-offering for us It would doubtlesse gnash many Questions and Doubts that arise in the Hearts of Believers if it were well understood They may say we should have been in such and such a sad condition this and that terrible thing would have come on us if He had not Interposed never enough can these words be spoken and thought of that we have 2 Cor. 5. ult He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 5ly It serves for notable Consolation to Believers who have betaken themselves to Christ and have many Challenges for Sin to buckle with That His Death was to be properly a Sacrifice for Sin and was so accepted of God in their Room So that ye see the right uptaking of Christs Death is a matter of no little moment Christ crucified being the very Substance of the Gospel It helps much to keep alive the Impression of our Sinfulness and of the Goodness of God and gives us Direction how to escape Wrath by puting Him in our Room There is nothing wherein Folks more readily miscarry in making of their Peace with God then in not making the right use of Christ and of His Sacrifice and Death Some praying for Pardon of Sin from Him and not for Him or for His sake when they know not what they are saying as we hinted at before Some praying for strength from Him for Dutie that they may do for themselves not considering that we are Justified by His Interposing in our Room and by Faith's closing with Him under that consideration as fisting Himself at the Bar of Justice and as being content to be a Sin-offering and the Lord accepting of Him in the Room of Elect Sinners This being well considered gives to Faith much clearness how to take Him up when the Soul honestly aims to partake of the benefit of His Sufferings 2ly For clearing this a little further we would know That there are as Divines observe Four or Five wayes how the Death of Christ is to be considered or how Christ in procuring by His Death Redemption Peace and Pardon to Sinners is holden forth in Scripture 1. He purchases Redemption and Pardon of Sin Meritoriously or He Merits it by His Death this Respects the Value of Christ's Sufferings and Satisfaction So that if we consider Christ in Himself and the Elect in themselves His Death
the Believer and that the Believer may feed sweetly and delicately on them till the time come that the Vail of Similitudes betaken away and they be brought to see Him as He is even Face to Face and that thereby they may be helped to win to read their advantages and priviledges which they have in Him What can be the reason then that so few think and esteem suitably of the Excellent and Desirable Condition of Believers and that words of this kind relish not Here is the Reason He of whom they hold all these Priviledges and by whom they are put into this Notable and Non-such Condition is not suitably Esteemed of and accounted Precious Therefore Believers in Him are thought the less of Our hearts should melt in love to Him and in sorrow for offending Him at the Reading and Hearing of such expressions wherewith the Scriptures of God are stuffed full 2ly Are there any that would have a Good and Happy Condition summed up and compended Here it is even to have our Lord Jesus to be a Father and to be His Seed to come in as Sons and Daughters to Him I appeal to you all if any Condition can be put in the Ballance with this Is there any Honour and Dignity like it or comparable with it Who can claim to be come of such a Parent as is He who is King of kings and Lord of lords the Prince of the kings of the earth The Father of Glory His eldest and only begotten Son by an Eternal and unspeakable Generation who in all things hath the preheminency What is your Pedegrie who will say and boast that ye are of such a Laird's or Lord's House and of such an Ancient Family and Stock yea though ye were of Blood Royal what is it to this what will become of Mens Gentility or Nobility of Birth yea of Royalty of Birth in that Day when Christ shall set His Throne in the Clouds To have this Relation to Christ will be more Valuable and Honourable in that Day then to have been great Commanders Lairds Lords Marquesses Dukes Princes and King's who will all in that Day stand upon the same Level with the Poorest Peasants and when all Honours and Dignities which are now so much thought of and thirsted after will be laid in the Dust Therefore learn to think of this as the Noblest Birth and Descent which is through Faith in Christ Jesus And Covet and be holily Abitious to have the Qualifications of His Children Look to the Qualifications Parts Induements and Aâ—complishments that use to accompany or â—olâ—ow any Houses of the Braven of Natural Men Are there any of them comparabâ—e to the Qualifications of Bâ—lievers Is there a Stock or Race of People in all the World so truely Generous and Noble as Believers are who are come of Christ and are made valiant through the exercise of Faith in Him against all occurring difficulties Regardlesse of worldly things And taken up with aâ—d bussied about high and noble Projects and Designs even to have Heaven and Glory and God Himself who undervalue and holily disdain the things of the World which earth-worms so much seek after Their Qualifications kyth especially in this that their designs are Heavenly their minds elevated to and set on the best things and that they have a truly magnanimous and a valerous way of prosecuting them by studying the mortification of Sin and conformity to God when others cannot endure to cast out with and abandon a lust They holily scorn and account it below them to have their Peace standing or falling with the ebbing and flowing of Creature Comforts which the Men of the World place their happinesse n Their study is to be Pure as Christ is Pure O! is there any Porâ—ion like theirs many or you think but little of it now but ye will think more of it in that Day when the Earth and all things in it shall be burnt up with Fire What will the Earth-portion signifie then Ye that now have your variety of Fine and Delicat Meats with your Ale and Wine at every Meal who shall be found out of Christ shall not get a Drop of cold Water to cool your Tongue under â—our exquisit and Hel ish Torments when the Poor Body that believed and had a hard Life of it here shall be in Abrahams Bosome and with Christ at His Table yea and on His Throne with Him And it is upon the account of their having a Title to Christ that they come to all that Glorie and Happiness O! is there any Right and Title like the Believers which is founded on Christ's Right and Title which is or may be called the Original Right of the Believer who is keeped by the power of God through faith unto salvation If these be the true and faithfull sayings of God what is the reason that Men think so little of them Why is an Interest in Christ to undervalued Believe ye that such and so much good is to be gotten by being Christ's Seed and Children If ye say that ye believe it how comes it to pass that so few have it for their Design and that your Designes are so much for this and that in a present World and that this is so much slighted and that there is so much boasting and glorying in other things and so little holy Boasting and Glorying in this There are two or three Marks which we may gather from the Words that may help to shew when this Claim is warrantably made and which may evidence the groundlessness of the Claim of many And 1. Christ's Seed have another Original then that which they bring with them into the World There is in them a change oâ— the ground of their hope And that on a new account Folk comes into the World sinful Chi dren of sinfull Parents but when they come to be Believers they get a new Life which Men cannot give and this new Life hath new Actings and Fruits Ah! How many dream of a Right to Christ who know no other Birth or Being but that which is Natural 2. They who are Christ's Seed carry alâ—â—g with them the impression of an Obligation to and an acknowledgement of Him in whatever good they have gotten they think themselves much oblidged to Christ and they acknowledge Him for their Life As it is Malachi 1. If I be a father where is my honour and if a Master where is my fear a son honours his fathe c. A natively and Genuinly disposed Child acknowledgeth his Father As his Father and reverenceth and loveth his Father as his Father But there are many that pretend to a Being from Christ who think not themselves in His Debt and Common for it and who know not what is is to walk under the Conviction of their Obligation to Christ for their supposed spiritual Life and Being 3. They who are Christ's Seed have in them a likeness to Him as they did once bear the image of the earthly so
trust in Him SERMON XLIV ISAIAH LIII XI Vers 11. He shall see of the travell of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shalâ— my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be made perfect throughly furnished unto all good works and that His People may be made wise unto salvation Yet these Scriptures wherein our Lord Jesus is holden forth more clearly are eminently usefull He being the Foundation and Ground of all To whom the Law and the Prophets bear witness and they are only profitable to us in the Estate wherein we are in so far as they relate to to Him and point Him out to us And we may further say that these Scriptures wherein His Sufferings and Death are holden forth in the Richness and Fruitfulness of them are singularly so that being the very Life of the Covenant and the very Door by and through which we step from Death to Life And whatever they be to others sure they have a speciall Sweetnesse in them to sensible Sinners And therefore the Sum of the Gospel and of Saving Knowledge is by the Apostle 2 Cor. 2.2 Compended in the knowledge of Christ and of him crucified which unfolds His very Heart and Bowells to us The Prophet hath been pointing out this in severall Verses and hath hinted at the effects of His Sufferings in the former verse And now in these Words he puts a new Title on them calling them the travel of Christ's soul Not only to set out the exceeding greatness of them but with respect to thâ— foregoing Words wherein it 's said He shall see his seed Which is repeated here when it 's said He shall be satisfied So that as a Mother is in Travell for bringing forth of a Child So sayes he shall Christ be put to Soul-travell for bringing Life and Immortality to the Seed given to Him to be saved by Him And seing He is put to Travell He must needs bring forth and see his seed Here we may allude that of Isaiah 66.9 Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth saith the Lord shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb saith thy God We have spoken of the Nature and Greatness of these Sufferings Now ere we proceed to any moe Observations we would speak a Word further to the Use of this It being indeed an Eater out of which comes Meat and a Strong out of which comes Sweet These pangs having calmed and quieted the Pangs and Showres to speak so of many Travelling Souls and brought forth a Birth at last And therefore beside what I spake to in the Use the last day I would add this That we would endeavour to have the solid Faith not only of His Sufferings but of the Greatness of His Sufferings imprinted deeply on our hearts That I say the Sufferings of a Dying Blood-sweating Christ Wrestling and Strugling even to His being in an Agony with the Wrath of God and puting up strong Cryes with Tears may be born in on our hearts and that we may throughly be perswaded of the greatness of the Work of Redemption and that it was a most Dear and Coastly Bargain to Christ For it was not Gold nor Silver it was not Kingdoms nor visible Worlds nor Angells that were given as a Price for Elect Sinners but it was the precious Blood of the Son of God Nay it was the bitter and sharp Soul-travell Sâ—dness Sorrow and Agony of our Lord Jesus which to speak comparatively was beyond the shedding of His Blood And what a Price do ye think this to be That He that made all and preserved all in their Being and was before all things should come thus low as to be a Man and a mâ—an sorrowfull suffering and dying Man yea to be a cursed Man and to go out of â—his Life as being under a Curse yet being alwayes the beloved Son of the Father And being even then when at His lowest the Prince of the kings of the earth and shining forth gloriously in the Powâ—r and Riches and Freeness of His Love and Grace sure this wonderfull low stooping and humbling of Himself Preaches out the Love that straitned and constrained Him to run upon that which was His own Death there being no hands that could have taken away His Life had He not willingly laid it down which He did with delight Could we make use of this there is much here to be said for our use We shall draw what we would say on it to these four heads 1. To something for Instruction 2. To something for Consolation 3. To something for Exhortation 4. To something for Reproof and Expostulation I say 1. It serves for Instruction and ye would from it be Instructed in several things 1. How to think aright of the great Severity of the Justice of God and of the Horrour of Wrath and of the dreadfull Consequ nts of Sin which it will most certainly have following on it May it not make your Souls to tremble to think upon and consider that our Lord Jesus was brought to such a pass as to be in such an Agony to be so exceeding sorrowfull and even amazed To be so troubled in Soul that he was thereby made to sweat great drops of blood and to be wrestling with somewhat that His holy Humane Nature had a scarring at O! the desert and wages of Sin is dreadfull when the Law pursues its Controversie and when Justice exacts what a broken Covenant deserves Alace The most of men believe not this but it s here that may convince us whâ—â— an evil thing Sin is and what a dreadfull thing it is to fall into the hands of an angry God O! that ye would think upon it that ye may beware of Sin by all means and may alwayes be minding that Word which our Saviour hath If these things be done in the green tree what shall be done in the dry If it was so done with Him who in the Action if I may so call it was performing His Fathers will and giving an admirable proof of His respect to the Honour of God What wiâ—l He do to the dry Sticks the Damned Reprobat who have slighted the offer of His Grace despised the Sufferings of a Mediator and disdained to be reclaimed Hear it and tremble and be perswaded that the Horror that Sin shall bring upon the Sinner when God comes to reckon with him is inexpressible 2. Be Instructed and see here how great the difficultie is of making peace with God when once His Law is broken A thing that is little believed by most who are disposed to think that they will get God sooner pleased and pacifiâ—d thâ—n they will get their Neigâ—bour or Master pacified and pleased which sayes That either they they think nothing or but very little of His
be necessarily performed and fulfilled 5. See here how the Salvation of Elect Sinners depends on the ingadgement betwixt God and the Mâ—diator Their Redemption depends on Hâ—s paying of the Price and their attaining the benefit of it depends on God's ingadgement to the Mediator Therefore we are said 1 Pet. 1. To be keeped by the power of God through faith unto salvation It serves withall to clear the Soveraignity of God and the Freenesse of His Grace when Sinners cannot pretend to have any hand in the Work to mar the Beauty and Efficacy of Grace that shine therein Use 2. There is here 1. something for the incouragement of such as would fain believe in Christ And 2. Somewhat for Comfort to and for Confirmation of them who have betaken themselves by Faith to Christ 3. It serves withall to incourage them who would be at believing and find difficulty in the way while they are breathing after Him It 's certainly promised that He shall have a seed and shall see of the fruit of the travel of his soul such therefore may expect that they shall come speed who would fain be at that which is the fulfilling of Gods ingadgement to the Mediator for it was Transacted in the Covenant of Redemption that His Suffering should be for the good of Elect Sinners and that the Father should make Application of His Purchase made thereby to them I say 2dly It serves to Comfort Incourage and Confirm such as are fled to Christ and find their own difficulty how to win through for they haye a good Cautioner to make out their Faith and what concerns their Salvation Gods Promise to the Mediator shall not be for nought nor in vain but shall have it's accomplishment if poor sinners were leâ—t to their own guiding the bargain should never take effect nor be made out but it may incourage and comfort the poor Believer though it should also humble him that the business is put in another and better hand then his own This hath strengthened the wavering hearts of many Believers before that both sides of the Covenant as to their forth-coming and performance depend on the Father and on the Mediator the Mediator undertaking the payment of their Debt and the Lord Jehovah undertaking to draw them in to the Mediator and by His Power to bear them through till they get all that the Mediator hath Purchased for them conferred on them 2dly Observe That all the benefits and advantages that any have ever gotten or shall get that lead to Life Eternal and which concurr to promove the Work of their Salvation are the Fruits of Christ's Purchâ—se by His Soul travel is a Sinner brought to Bâ—lieve I 's a Fruit of His Suffering iâ— a Siâ—neâ— Glorified It 's the Fruit of the same And therefore when in the one woâ—d it is said He shall see his seed It 's â—aid in the next word He shall see of the fruit of the travel of his soul To shew that a Souls ingadging to Christ by Faith wherebâ— the Person becomes one of His Seed flows from His Suffering and is a Fâ—uâ—t of the Travel of His Soul As it is 2 Cor. 5. ult He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God thâ—ough him or in Him Where our righâ—eousness and what conduces to our Juâ—â—ification is derived from His being made Sin or a Sin-offâ—ring for us And Gal. 3.13 It ' said that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us that the blessing of Abraham might come on us gentiles Whatever is comprehended under that Bâ—essing as taking in both the l nd aâ—d Meâ—ns by which we come by it flows from His being a curse for us and from His being brought under sad Suffering and sore Soul-travel for us In this Doctrine ye would consider something for clearing of it or rather take the Doctrine it self several wayes and it will help to clear it elf 1. Then when we speak of the Fruit of Ch ists Sufferings we mean not only tâ—at our Justification the Pardon of ouâ— Sins and our entry into Heâ—ven are Fruâ—ts of it But that our Believing Repenâ—ance Holâ—ness and every thing that leads thereunto are Fruits of it also Therefore it 's promised to Christ Psal 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power And that these that are given to Christ shall come is a Promise â—s well as it 's a Promise that these that come shall be Justified and the one foâ—lows upon Christs Ingaging and performing of the Ingagement as well as the other 2. If we take the Doctrine thus That there is nothing thaâ— a Sinner gets that leads to Life and Salvâ—tion but it 's a Fâ—uit of Christ's Purchase We get neither Repentance nor Faith nor Holiness nor any other such thing but on the account of Christs Satisfaction Or 3dly Take it thus Whatever is needfull for compleating of them that are Châ—ists Seed whom He hath Purchased whatever they want or stand in need of whether Righteousness Holiness Repentance Faith Hâ—pe c. All are purchased by Him and are the Fruits of His Death and Souâ—-travel This riseth clearly from the Words He shall see of the fruit of the travel of his soul That is He shall see Sinners believing on Him and repenting for sin as well as Hâ— shaâ—l see them Glorified which will be clear if we consider these two Reasons 1. The nature of the Covenant wherein all the Promises concerning Sinners Salvation are comprehended there being but one Covenant of Redemption and that being a Promise of this Covenant to circumcise the heart to love God and to writ his law in it as well as to pardon Sin and all the Promises of the Covenant depending on Christs Sâ—ipulation and these things in the Promises flowing from the Covenant betwixt God and the Mediator Sinners can have no Right to any thing that is Promised but by a. Covenant neither can they have any access to them but through Christs Suffering 2. It 's clear from the End of the Covenant that whatever Sinners have need of they must be in Christs common for it now if we had Faith or Repentance or any other Grace from our selves or on our own account we should not be in His Debt and Common for all that we need as indeed we are according to that 1 Cor. 30 31. He is made of God unto us wisdom to be our Guide and Teacher righteousness to be our Justifier and the meritorious Cause of it sanctification To be the Worker and the Procurer of it and in a Word compleat Redemption and this is subjoyned as the Reason of all That he that glories or rejoyces may glorie or rejoyce in the Lord that is Whether there be a looking to Faith or Repentance or any other Grace there may be no cause to be Vain or Proud of it but that knowing these to be from Christ and
Souls these are special seasons for putting Him to exerce His Office in Justifying of them and this day this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears and ye should let it sink in your hearts that Our Lord Jesus is pursuing His Commission and performing His Service keeping up the Treaty and inviting and perswading Sinners to come to Him that the pleasure of the Lord may prosper in His hand And therefore know assuredly that this is it that Christ is imployed in and taken up with even to get sinners fred from the Guilt of Sin and from Wrath by His Righteousnesse It is not only nor mainly to get them brought to the Church and to His Supper or to get them made Formal and to abstain from Cursing Swearing and Profanity though these will follow of will but it is to get them brought in to Himself and Justified And we have these two Words to say to you further in this matter 1. There is here good ground of encouragement to a poor Soul that would fain make Use of Christ for Pardon of Sin This is even it that Christ is intrusted with It is for this end that He is Legated and Commissioned of the Father And will He not thinks thou do that which He is intrusted with and for which He is mainly sent This is saith He John 6.39 the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him should have everlasting life and that I should raise him up at the last day Which is in Sum That by his knowledge many should be justified And it 's added For he shall bear their iniquities To anticipat and answer an objection For a sensible Sinner might say how can I be justified that have so many Sins Here is a Solution of that doubt He shall satisfie for them All these Words are as it were big with Child of Consolation being the very Heart and Life of the Gospel as any thing that comes so near to Christs Commission and unfolds so much of it is A 2d Word is this That ye mistake Christs Errand Work and Service very far who think to content Him and put Him off with this who would give Him the Name of a Saviour and yet would be at the saving of your selves without Him who would complement Him as it were with fair Generalls but will have none of His Phisick or of His Cures nor will renunce your own Righteousness and make use of His for your Justification This says one of these Four Either that He is not Commissionated and Trusted for this end or that He is not meet for that Trust or that He is not Faithfull in it Or else that ye can do your own turn without Him and that there is no need of His Office And which of all these can abyde the Tryal before God And yet it shall be upon one of these that ye shall be found to have cast at Christ and to have refused to permit Him so far as ye could hinder and abstruct to do His Fathers business and if ye Just not accompts with Him there will be a most dreadfull Reckoning betwixt God and you 2dly Observe That this particular Trust anent the Justifying of Sinners Our Lord Jesus doth most Righteously Diligently Dextrously Tenderly and Faithfully Discharge It was His Fathers will that He should be Baptized and fulfill all Righteousness and more especially that He should Justifie many in this He is very Skilfull and Faithfull and it is on this account He is called The good shepherd and that He is said to lay down his life for his sheep That He is called a faithfull high Priest and is said to be one that is able to save to the uttermost these that come unto God through him and that He is Holy harmless and separat from sinners fit to make Peace betwixt God and Sinners another sort of Priest than Aaron was or any that were before Him He is in a word such a high Priest as became us and as we stood in need of who needed not to Offer Sacrifice for His own Sins He had no more to do but to Satisfie for us The Prophet Isaias Chap. 40.11 Tells how tender he is in bringing Souls to Heaven He gathers the lambs with his arme he carries them in his bosome and gently leads those that are with young And Chap. 42.3 That a bruised reed he will not break and the smoaking flax he will not quench And it is said 1 John 2. If any man sin we have an advocat with the Father and who is he Jesus Christ the righteous Righteous in the Faithfull managing of His Trust by making Sinners Peace with God Would ye know then in what respects or on what account it is that Christ is called Servant We answer in these Respects 1. Though we have failled and broken the Law yet He hath not and God will not look down on Him 2. In this Respect That He pleads for no Sinners Pardon but He can fully pay their Debt and hath done it if He seek one thing from God He yeelds in another and according to the Covenant of Redemption exactly proceeds For He is a propitiation He seeks nothing but he payes for it and wrongs not him in the least who hath Trusted him the Lord Jehovah is not a lâ—ser but hath His Honour restored by Him 3. In respect of His keeping Faith to the Persons that have need of Him for whom He hath undertaken He is not only faithfull to the Master but to the Children and Servants He owns and acknowledges them when they come to Him under their necessities and is forthcoming to them every way suitable and answerable to His Place and Trust in doing good to Sinners Use Had we sensible Sinners to speak to Sinners groaning under a Body of Death with pricked hearts crying out What shall we do for the wrongs that we have done to God Sinners under holy fear to spoil and mar the Bargain and to hazard their own Souls had we I say such Sinners to speak to There are good news here to them the Trust of saving Souls is committed to a Faithfull Shepherd it is not committed to your selves for so it had been a dolefull Trust but it is committed to Him that hath gotten the Sheep by Name given to Him to be kept by Him and He will not suffer them to miscarrie nor to go quite wrong And what more would ye have A salvation and a Price is much but it is more to have a Saviour to make the Application of His Purchase a Bishop of Souls to Justifie and carrie Sinners through to make it sure before God and to make it out the Sinner may sleep sound which in the sense of Sin hath betaken himself to Him to be Justified by His Righteousness and to be in His Debt and Common for obtaining of Pardon and for making the Application of what by His Sufferings He hath Purchased We can say but little to
being in themselves blind may come to Him for light being poor may come to Him for Gold to inrich them being â—â—ked may come to Him for garments to cloath them being ungodly may come to Him that He may Justifie them But alace People are for the most part sensless and regardless of their Sin and misery and therefore He gets no imployment from them Many sit very brave and fine here and have no Legal Bar on them to keep them from the Communion who yet have sleepy and sensless Souls and are ruining and destroying themselves This we assure you is the condition of many of you who never knew to make use of Christ and of His Righteousness and yet will boast of your Faith and of your good heart to God Away with your old presumptuous Faith take with your unbelief and presumption Say not ignorantly that ye shall do as ye can though ye cannot do as ye would ye are unsound at the heart mistaken about your spiritual state and know that the Devil by a deceitful heart is speaking out of you such language For it's enemies we are Commissioned to reconcile and it 's lost Sinners that Christ came to seek and save and ye see not your selves to be such and therefore ye care not for such offers of Grace But ah many of you if Grace prevent not will get a cold welcome from Christ at that Day and will be made sadly to smart for the slighting of many Precious Opportunities which God did put in your hand and whereof to make use ye had no heart SERMON LI. ISAIAH LIII XI Verse 11. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many c. THere hath been much spoken from this sweet Scripture of Our Lord Jesus His Sufferings and somewhat also of the Promises made to Him that His Sufferings should not be for nought in these Words we have a compendiouâ— explication of the Effects that â—â—ow from them by which He shall be Satisfied for them all which ye may take up in these Four 1. The great benefit it selâ— that is holden out here and that is Justification 2. These to whom it shall come it is many so that His having a Seed spoken of v. 10. Is exponed here by this that many shall be justified 3. The way how this is derived to them by his knowledge which we shew is to be understood of Faith in Him 4. The ground from which this flows and on which it is built and that confirms it For he shall bear their iniquities And as it 's in the following v. He bare the sin of many And therefore they must be Justified it being but reason that these many whose iniquities He bears and whose Debt of Sin He payes should be Justified We may speak more particularly to the Explication of each of these as we come to them we shall then first expone and give the meaning of this Word Justification or to Justifie ere we come to the Doctrine because it will serve to clear it and will make way for it and so much the rather as it is the very hing of the Gospel and that on which our Salvation depends though yet but very little and very ill understood there being many that cannot tell what it is though there be not many Words more frequently mentioned in the Scripture and though it be that whereby a Person is translated from the State of Enmitie into the State of Friendship with God As for this Word To Justifie or Justification then there are three senses given of it Two whereof are Erronious and the last only is according to the mind of the Spirit of God speaking in the Scripture which we shall Clear and Confirm 1. Some take this Word Physically as if it were to make Just by the infusing of habitual Grace or by a Physical and Reall Change and so taken it is the same with that which we call Sanctification but in all the Scripture we know not one Place where necessarily the Word is so to be understood Although this acceptation of the Word is the great rise of the Popish Error in that Controversie concerning Justification 2dly Others take it for Gods Revealing Manifesting or Declaring the way how a Guilty Person comes to be Just and so to Justifie is for Ministers to teach the way to People how they may live holily As it is said Dan. 12.3 They that turn many to Righteousness c. By whâ—ch sense some Wickedly and Blasphemously detract from Christs Satisfaction as if His Justifying were no more but a teaching of Sinners the way how to be Juâ—â—â—fied to wit by living holily and justly But the Word that follows in the Text For he shall bear their iâ—iquities Cuâ—s the Throat of that Exposition for it is by Christs bearing of the punishment of the Elects Iniquities and for paying of their Debt that they come to be Justified Therefore the one is given for a Reason of the other 3dly Considering the Word according to the meaning of it in Scripture we take it for a Legal forensick or Court Word borrowed from mens Courts wherein a Person arraigned for such a Cryme is either Condemned or Absolved And when he is Absolved and Declared to be acquitted or made free from that which is laid to his Charge he is said to be Justified so is it before God and in His Court Justification is the freeing of a Sinner from the Charge that the Law giveth in against Him and the absolving and declaring of him to be free from the Guilt of Sin and from the punishment thereof which by the Sentence of the Law is due to Him The former two senses run to the making of a man to be inherently holy or without a Fault Which is as if a Guilty Man or a Criminal being sifted before a civil Court of Judicature were declared to be Innocent But this true meaning of the Word sets out a Man arraigned before Gods Tribunal and charged with Guilt and found Faulty but Absolved and Acquitted not because he wants Sin but because his Debt is payed and his Sins Satisfied for by a Cautioner Even as a Man that is called before a Civil Court for such a Sum of Money and is found lyable to the Debt but his Cautioner coming in and paying the Debt for him there is both in Reason and in Law just ground why that Man should be absolved and declared free of the Debt So is it here Christ Jesus taking on and satisfying for the Debt of the Elect and procuring Absoluâ—ion for them for whom He payed the Price there is Reason and ground in Law that they should be Justified and Absolved All these Opinions agree in these two 1. That Men naturally have Sin and that they must compt for it 2. That this Jusâ—ification whatever it be where it is doth fully Absolve and Acquit the Sinner and makes him free of Sin as to the Guilt the Punishment and Consequents of it Death and the
not a Day of Judgement and a reckoning will ever close with Christ and lippen to His Righteousnesse I fear there are but few hearers of the Gospel that come the length of Devils in believing and yet all will needs be counted Christians we would here upon the one hand disclaim the Popish Error that plâ—ceth all the essence of Faith in the understanding which is somewhat strange seing they scarce think Knowledge of the thing to be believed necessary The reason is because they know or at least own nothing more of the concurrence of Faith in Justification then is obedience to a Commandement they think it 's a duty obedience to a Commandment to assent to any Truth therefore they take this general historical Faith to be the only Faith as they take Holinesse to be the only ground of their Peace when they are called to an accompt and thus Faith as a part of their Holinesse comes in but they admit of no particular respect to Faiths taking hold of Christs Righteousnesse as the immediat ground of their Peace Upon the other hand we would seclude the vain Faith of many Professors who some way believe all that 's in the Bible so as they question nothing herein They know no other Faith but this yet if this were Justifying Faith the Devil should have it For they believe and tremble They believe there is a God that Christ is the Son of God that they that believe shall not perish that God is Faithful c. But this Historical Faith is not enough 1. Because as I just now said it may be in Reprobats and Devils 2. Because the Scripture expresly differenceth this sort of Faith from saving Faith many were called Believers to whom Christ would not commit himself as it is John 2.24 For though they believed it to be truth which He spake yet they rested not on Him So in the Parable of the Sower Math. 13. There are three grounds that receive the Seed which imports in two of them at least a kind of Believing but the fourth ground is only good 3. Because this Faith Acts upon every revealed Truth alike and assents to all Passages recorded in the Bible alike as one and to that Paul left his cloak at Troas and the like as it Acts on that this is a faithful saying that Christ came into the world to save sinners and such like But according to the ground formerly given Faith as it Justifies Acts on Christ only and therefore this bare assent to the Truth of the Word cannot be Justifying Faith because it Acts no otherways on Christ then it doth upon other things ye would therefore know a difference in your practice betwixt these two The crediting the truth of a thing and your actual receiving and resting upon that Truth As for Example a man proposeth Marriage to a woman and she believes that he is in earnest and not in scorn yet there is a great difference betwixt that and her actual consenting to marrie him So it is here the man may believe that Christ doth really make offer of Himself to him and yet be far from cordial receiving of Him or take it in the example made use of before suppose that some of the Rebells we spoke of believe the Proclamation to be a Truth yet thinking it hard to be under the bands of Government they do not embrace it If it be Objected here That the Scripture often calls Justifying Faith a believing that Christ is the Son of God which is no more then this assent of the Judgement or Historical Faith For Answer it would be considered of whom the Scripture there speaks 1. It is of Jews for the most part who had the Faith of the Messiah generally among them and no question the Believers of them such as the proselyted Eunuch Martha and Mary had the Faith of the Messiah satisfying Divine Justice and of their Justification through His Satisfaction But the great question of the Jews was whether Jesus the Son of Mary was the Messiah or not and it being revealed and believed that he was the other followed they rested on Him of will to say so as the Messiah 2. Believing of Christ to be the Son of God doth not exclude but include their consenting to the receiving of Christ but it holds forth also their assent to and perswasion of that Truth that was then debated that He was indeed the promised Messiah and the Son of God For the Devils confessed Him to be the Son of God and none will say but there was more in their believing Him to be the Son of God then in the Devils believing it who never believe unto Salvation as they did 3. Consider that as sometimes Knowledge is put for Faith so this assent may be put for Faith where yet more is implyed in it especially considering that Rom. 10. Faith is called Faith of the heart with the heart man believeth Now believing with the heart being an Act of the will these Testimonies setting out Faith to be a believing Christ to be the Son of God must imply a lippening to Him following upon it we are therefore never to look on these places as comprehending a bare assent only but as including also and carrying alongst with it the cordial receiving Him and of resting upon Him For the 3. to wit the receiving Act of Faith which differs from the former as we shew in the examples hinted at before It looks to the Covenant of Redemption betwixt Jehovah and the Mediator it accepts of the Terms of the Covenant as they are proposed in the Gospel and consents to the bargain and as God proposes the Righteousnesse of Christ it submits to the same which Paul 1 Tim. 1. calls a saying worthy of all acceptation to be welcomed and believed as such and the Believers mentioned Heb. 11. are said not to have received the promises but to have seen them afar off and to have embraced or saluted them This receiving is no Physical or Natural Act as if we were to receive such a thing by the mouth or bodily hand It 's an Act of Faith in the heart proportioned and suited to this Spiritual Bargain or Marriage proposed in the Covenant of Grace and it 's like a mans consenting to a civil bargain or like a womans consenting to marry a man As when it is said to Sinners ye are naturally dead in Sins and trespasses and under Gods Curse But be it known to you that we preach Remission of Sins to you through the Blood of Christ Faith considers this offer accepts of and welcomes it The 4th and last Act is a resting on him which is still the same Faith but another Act of it Not as if there might be a receiving and not a resting or a resting and not a receiving or as if we were to difference them in respect of time but Faith is said to receive as it respects the Gospel offer of Christ and his Satisfaction and it
Devil is put from the Throne and gets not violence â—cted he turns about and falleth on another waâ— and â—peâ—â—s out this flood of errour to devour the Woman and her Child But our Lord hath a voce here also Afâ—er the persecution of the Heathens is over Revel 7.1 2. John sees an Angel ascending from the east the great Lord Keeper or Chancellour of the Fathers Council the supream Deputy over all unâ—er Officers that hath the keeping of the great Seal of the living God and there is nothing relevant nor valid till it be sealed by him And mark the time when he appears It 's when the winds are holden and ready to blow as v. 1. but he cryes with a loud voice Hurt not the earth nor the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the Servants of God in the foreheads Stay saith he a little ere these winds blow that will take the most part off their feet ere that delusion go forward there are some servants of God that must be marked and put without the reach of the hazard and then the wind shall get leave to blow what reason then of anxiety is there or could be here if the solid and lively faith of this Intercessour and Advocat his being in heaven and thus interceeding were in our hearts 2dly As to the particular times and occasions when the people of God should more especially make use of this ground of consolation and comfort themselves in it I speak not of Christs Intercession simply but of the consolation that flows from It 1. In their most languid and lifeless conditions when the body of death comes in on them like a wave of the Sea and is ready as it were to drown them they ought to comfort themselves in this that they have an intercessour that can rebuke that when tentation is violent and a person fears he be undone he hath a grip here to hold himself by Jesus Christ is intercessour He prayes that my graces sail not That my Faith and Patience be not undone that the Devil get not his will of me the man would be desperat if he were not in heaven and interceeding but he gathers confidence from this ground and sayes I shall not die but live and see the salvation of God For he is able to save to the uttermoâ—t all that come unto God through him Seeing he evee liveth to make intercession for them And therefore although I cannot win out of the grips of this tentation yet he can rebuke it and break the force of it And hence is that comfortable word Heb. 2. last For that he himself suffered and was tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Sometimes it will not meet with Believers condition that Christ suffered but this doth when he comes on and finds that he was tempted It 's true there was no corruption in him and tentations had no sinful influence on him and the more comfort to us He is the stronger to overcome in us yet he was set on and assaulted by the tentation he was tempted and that is a consolation when Joshua the high Priest is in his dutie Zech. 3. And the Devil is at his right hand to resist him and mar him in it and he can do or say little himself he boasts him with authority from marring his servant in his work A great consolation it is when the tentation is strong and we weak when the Devil is violent and we are dispairing to resist him that there is a high Priest at hâ—nd whole office is to do it A 2d time is when challenges are very fresh when the charge of ones Debt given in is long and large and the Law iâ— severe in exacting and Justice in pressing and pressing hard and the conscience cannot deny nor resist and the man hath nothing to pay his Debt and he â—s ike to be dragged to the Prison and there is none to undertake for him There comes in that word 1 John 2.1.2 I writ these things to you that ye sin not I give â—oot a dispensation to sin but if any 〈◊〉 sin we have an Advocat with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous And this is the grâ—â—â—d of Pauls triumph so often mentioned Rom. 8.34 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifies c. Though the charge should be given in what is the matter there is a way to be fred of it there is an Advocat at the right hand of God in heaven who became Cautioner for and payed the Elects Debt and is now interceeding for them and who can loss the cause when he pleads it and here he quiets and comforts himself giving a defiance to challenges and all that can be lybelled against him A 3d. time and occasion is under a Cross-condition when Christians have the world in their tops and their is confusion in publick things and there is darkness and indistinctness in our private condition It ought to comfort us that we have an Advocat in heaven who pleads our cause and will not dispise the suite of the poor and needy A 4th time is when we our selves cannot interceed for our selves when we pray but our prayers are much mangled and little worth and we think shame to look upon them we would then look on what accompt our prayers are put up If on the accompt of Christs Intercession a sigh a groan a broken word nay a breathing will be accepted the Intercessour hath his own incense to perfume it with and it 's accepted on the weight that it hath from him and though our prayer be but as the shaddow of a prayer if there be honesty in it it 's a comfort it will be accepted on that account Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name I will do And Revel 8. He accepts the prayers of all Saints the weakest as well as the best for the best goes not up but by his censer and incense and the weakest goes up that same way And there is in some respect no distinction of Believers and of their fervent or not fervent prayers there if honest the fervour of Christs Intercession and the favour of his incense makes all go up and be accepted because the reason of Gods hearing of our prayers is not in us else he should hear none of them but it 's in his intercession which is of equal worth and extent to all honest prayers of sound Believers He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through him though there be no ability nor worth in themselves because he lives for ever to make intercession for them but the two last things will clear this yet more 3dly Though this may seem strange like yet it is true if we consider the grounds warranding us to make use of his Intercession and to draw this Consolation from it And they are Four 1. That his Intercession suppons a defect in us a libel and charge given