tells us could not make perfect the worshippers v. 1. which he proves v. 2. because they did never take away throughly and really Conscience of sin that is depths or distresses of conscience about sin But now saith he Jesus Christ in the Covenant of Grace hath for ever perfected them that were sanctified v. 14. providing for them such stable peace and consolation as that they shall not need the renewing of Sacrifices every day v. 18. This is the great mysterie of the Gospel in the blood of Christ that those who sin every day should have peace with God all their dayes Provided their sins fall within the compass of those infirmities against which this consolation is provided Thirdly There is provision made of Grace to prevent and preserve the soul from great and enormous sins such as in their own nature are apt to wound conscience and cast the person into such depths and intanglements as wherein he shall have neither rest nor peace Of what sort these sins are shall be afterwards declared There is in this Covenant Grace for Grace Joh. 1. 16. and abundance of Grace administred from the All-fulness of Christ. Grace reigneth in it Rom. 6. 6. destroying and crucifying the body of sin But this Provision in the Covenant of Grace against peace-ruining soul-perplexing sins is not as to the administration of it absolute There are Covenant Commands and Exhortations on the attendance whereunto the administration of much Covenant-Grace doth depend To watch pray improve faith to stand on our guard continually to mortifie sin to fight against temptations with stedfastness diligence constancy are every where prescribed unto us and that in order unto the ensurance of the Grace mentioned These things are on our part the condition of the Administration of that abundant Grace which is to preserve us from soul-entangling sins So Peter informs us 2 Ep. 1. v. 3. The divine power of God hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness We have from it an habitual furnishment and provision for obedience at all times Also saith he v. 4. He bath given unto us great and pretious promises that by them we might be partakers of the Divine Nature What then is in this blessed estate and condition required of us that we may make a due improvement of the provision made for us and enjoy the comforting influence of those Promises that he prescribes unto us v. 5 6 7. Giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity That is carefully and diligently attend to the exercise of all the Graces of the Spirit and unto a conversation in all things becoming the Gospel What then shall be the issue if these things are attended unto v. 8. If these things be in you and abound ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not enough that these things be in you that you have the seed and root of them from and by the Holy Ghost but you are to take care that they flourish and abound without which though the root of the matter may be in you and so you be not wholly devoid of spiritual life yet you will be poor barren sapless withering creatures all your days But now suppose that these things do abound and we be made fruitful thereby Why then saith he v. 10. If you do these things ye shall never fall What never fall into sin Nay that is not in the Promise and he that sayes when he hath done all that he hath no sin he is a Lyar. Or is it never fall totally from God No the preservation of the Elect of whom he speaks from total Apostasie is not suspended on such conditions especially not on any degree of them such as their abounding imports But it is that they shall not fall into their old sins from which they were purged v. 9. Such Conscience wasting and defiling sins as they lived in in the time and state of their Unregeneracy Thus though there be in the Covenant of Grace through Jesus Christ Provision made of abundant supplies for the souls preservation from entangling sins yet their Administration hath respect unto our diligent attendance unto the means of receiving them appointed for us to walk in And here lyes the latitude of the New Covenant here lyes the exercise of renewed Free-will This is the field of free voluntary obedience under the Administration of Gospel Grace There are extreams which in respect of the event it is not concerned in To be wholly perfect to be free from every sin all failings all infirmities that is not provided for not promised in this Covenant It is a Covenant of mercy and pardon which supposeth a continuance of sin To fall utterly and finally from God that is absolutely provided against Between these two extreams of absolute perfection and total Apostasie lyes the large Field of Believers obedience and walking with God Many a sweet heavenly passage there is and many a dangerous depth in this field Some walk near to the one side some to the other yea the same person may sometimes press hard after Perfection sometimes be cast to the very border of destruction Now between these two lye many a soul-plunging sin against which no absolute provision is made and which for want of giving all diligence to put the means of preservation in practice Believers are oftentimes overtaken withal Fourthly There is not in the Covenant of Grace Provision made of ordinary and abiding consolation for any under the guilt of great sins or sins greatly aggravated which they fall into by a neglect of using and abiding in the forementioned conditions of abounding actual Grace Sins there are which either because in their own nature they wound and waste conscience or in their effects break forth into scandal causing the name of God and the Gospel to be evil spoken of or in some of their circumstances are full of unkindness against God do deprive the soul of its wonted consolation How by what means on what account such sins come to terrifie conscience to break the bones to darken the soul and to cast it into inextricable depths notwithstanding the relief that is provided of pardon in the blood of Christ I shall not now declare that they will do so and that Consolation is not of equal extent with safety we know Hence God assumes it to himself as an act of meer Soveraign Grace to speak peace and refreshment unto the souls of his Saints in their depths of sin entanglements Isa. 57. 18 19. And indeed if the Lord had not thus provided that great provocations should stand in need of special reliefs it might justly be feared that the negligence of Believers might possibly bring forth much bitter fruit Only this must be observed by the way that what
We will then bring our guilty souls into his presence and attend the pleasure of his Grace what he speaks concerning us we will willingly submit unto And this sometimes proves an Anchor to a tossed soul which though it gives it not rest and peace yet it saves it from the rock of despair Here it abides until Light do more and more break forth upon it Thirdly Faith dealing about forgiveness doth commonly eye in a peculiar manner its relation to the mediation and blood of Christ. So the Apostle directs 1 John 2. 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins If any one hath sinned and is in depths and entanglements about it what course shall he take how shall he proceed to obtain deliverance why he must unto God for pardon but what shall he rely upon to encourage him in his so doing saith the Apostle consider by faith the Attonement and propitiation made for sin by the blood of Christ and that he is still pursuing the work of Love to the suing out of pardon for us and rest thy soul thereon This I say most commonly is that which faith in the first place immediately fixes on Fourthly Faith eyes actual pardon or condonation So God proposeth it as a motive to further believing Isa. 44. 22. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins return unto me for I have redeemed thee Actual pardon of sin is proposed to faith as an encouragement unto a full returning unto God in all things 2 Sam. 23. 5. And the like may be said of all the other particulars which we have insisted on There is not any of them but will yield peculiar relief unto a soul dealing with God about forgiveness as having some one special concernment or other of forgiveness in wrapped in them Only as I said they do it not exclusively but are the special doors whereby believing enters into the whole And these things must be spoken unto afterwards Let us now take along with us the end for which all these considerations have been insisted on It is to manifest that a real discovery of Gospel Forgiveness is a matter of greater consequence and importance than at first proposal it may be it appeared unto some to be Who is not in hopes in expectation of pardon Who thinks not that they know well enough at least what it is if they might but obtain it But men may have general thoughts of impunity and yet be far enough from any saving acquaintance with Gospel mercy Forgiveness discovered or Revealed only to Faith Reasons thereof For a close of this Discourse I shall only add what is included in that Proposition which is the foundation of the whole namely that this discovery of forgiveness is and can be made to faith alone The nature of it is such as that nothing else can discover it or receive it No Reasonings no enquiries of the heart of man can reach unto it That guess or glimpse which the Heathens had of old of somewhat so called and which false Worshippers have at present is not the forgiveness we insist upon but a meer imagination of their own hearts This the Apostle informs us Rom. 1. 17. The Righteousness of God is in the Gospel revealed from faith to faith Nothing but faith hath any thing to do with it It is that Righteousness of God whereof he speaks that consists in the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Christ declared in the Gospel And this is revealed from the faith of God in the Promise to the faith of the Believer to him that mixes the Promise with faith And again more fully 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him The wayes whereby we may come to the knowledge of any thing are by the seeing of the eye or the hearing of the ear or the Reasonings and meditations of the heart but now none of these will reach to the matter in hand by none of these wayes can we come to an acquaintance with the things of the Gospel that are prepared for us in Christ. How then shall we obtain the knowledge of them that he declares v. 10. God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit Now it is faith only that receives the Revelations of the Spirit nothing else hath to do with them To give evidence hereunto we may consider that this great mysterie 1. Is too Deep 2. Is too Great for ought else to discover and 3. That nothing else but faith is suited to the making of this discovery First It is too deep and mysterious to be fathomed and reached by any thing else Reasons line is too short to fathom the depths of the Fathers Love of the blood of the Son and the Promises of the Gospel built thereon wherein forgiveness dwells Men cannot by their rational considerations launch out into these deeps nor draw water by them from these Wells of Salvation Reason stands by amazed and cryes how can these things be it can but gather Cockle shells like him of old at the shoar of this Ocean a few Criticisms upon the outward letter and so bring an evil report upon the Land as did the Spies All it can do is but to hinder faith from venturing into it crying spare thy self this attempt is vain these things are impossible It is among the things that faith puts off and layes aside when it engageth the soul into this great work This then that it may come to a discovery of forgiveness causeth the soul to deny it self and all its own Reasonings and to give up it self to an infinite fulness of Goodness and Truth Though it cannot go into the bottom of these depths yet it enters into them and finds rest in them Nothing but faith is suited to rest to satiate and content it self in mysterious bottomless unsearchable depths Being a soul emptying a Reason denying Grace the more it meets withal beyond its search and reach the more satisfaction it finds This is that which I looked for saith Faith even for that which is infinite and unsearchable When I know that there is abundantly more beyond me that I do not comprehend than what I have attained unto for I know that nothing else will do good to the soul. Now this is that which really puzzles and overwhelms Reason rendring it useless What it cannot compass it will neglect or despise It is either amazed and confounded and dazled like weak eyes at too great a light or fortifying of it self by inbred pride and obstinacy it concludes that this preaching of the Cross of forgiveness from the Love of God by the blood of Christ is plain folly a thing not for a wise man to take notice of or to trouble himself about So it appeared to the wise Greeks
of old 1 Cor. 1. 24. Hence when a soul is brought under the power of a real conviction of sin so as that it would desirously be freed from the galling intanglements of it it is then the hardest thing in the world to perswade such a soul of this forgiveness Any thing appears more rational unto it any self Righteousness in this world any Purgatory hereafter The greatest part of the world of convinced Persons have forsaken forgiveness on this account Masses Penances Merits have appeared more eligible Yea men who have no other desire but to be forgiven do chuse to close with any thing rather than forgiveness If men do escape these Rocks and resolve that nothing but pardon will relieve them yet it is impossible for them to receive it in the Truth and power of it if not enabled by faith thereunto I speak not of men that take it up by hearsay as a common report but of those souls who find themselves really concerned to look after it When they know it is their sole concernment all their hope and relief when they know that they must perish everlastingly without it and when it is declared unto them in the words of truth and soberness yet they cannot receive it What is the Reason of it What staves off these hungry creatures from their proper food Why they have nothing to lead them into the mysterious depths of eternal Love of the blood of Christ and Promises of the Gospel How may we see poor diseased souls standing every day at the side of this Pool and yet not once venture themselves into it all their dayes Secondly It is too Great for any thing else to discover Forgiveness is a thing chosen out of God from all Eternity to exalt and magnifie the glory of his Grace and it will be made appear to all the world at the day of Judgement to have been a great thing When the soul comes in any measure to be made sensible of it it finds it so great so excellent and astonishable that it sinks under the thoughts of it It hath dimensions a length breadth depth and height that no line of the rational soul can take or measure There is exceeding Greatness in it Eph. 1. 19. That is a great work which we have prescribed Ephes. 3. 19. Even to know the Love of Christ that passeth knowledge Here I suppose Reason will confess it self at a stand and an issue to know that which passeth knowledge is none of its work It cannot be known saith Reason and so ends the matter But this is faiths proper work even to know that which passeth knowledge To know that in its power vertue sweetness and efficacy which cannot be throughly known in its nature and excellency to have by believing all the Ends of a full comprehension of that which cannot be fully comprehended Hence Heb. 11. 1. It is said to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things not seen their subsistence though in themselves absent yet faith gives them a present subsistence in the soul. So it knows things that pass knowledge by mixing it self with them it draws out and communicates their benefit to the soul. From all which is evident what in the third place was proposed of faiths being only suited to be the means of this discovery so that I shall not need farther to insist thereon Discovery of Forgiveness in God a great supportment to sin entangled souls Particular Assurance attainable There yet remains a brief confirmation of the Position at first laid down and thus cleared before I come to the improvement of the words especially aimed at I say then this discovery of forgiveness in God is a great supportment for a sin entangled soul although it hath no special perswasion of its own particular interest therein Somewhat is supposed in this Assertion and somewhat affirmed First It is supposed that there may be a gracious perswasion and Assurance of faith in a man concerning his own particular interest in forgiveness A man may many do believe it for themselves so as not only to have the benefit of it but the comfort also Generally all the Saints mentioned in Scripture had this Assurance unless it were in the case of depths distresses and desertions such as that in this Psalm David expresseth his confidence of the Love and favour of God unto his own soul hundreds of times Paul doth the same for himself Gal. 2. 20. Christ loved M E and gave himself FOR ME 2 Tim. 4. 8. There is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Judge shall give me at that day And that this boasting in the Lord and his Grace was not an enclosure to himself he shewes Rom. 8. 38 39. Nothing can be more vain than what is usually pleaded to remove this Sheat Anker of the Saints Consolation namely that no mans particular name is in the Promise It is not said to this or that man by name that his sins are forgiven him But the matter is far otherwise To think that it is necessary that the names whereby we are known among our selves and are distinguished here one from another should be written in the Promise that we may believe in particular every one for himself is a fond conceit The new name of every Child of God is in the Promise And believing makes it very legible to him Yea we find by Experience that there is no need of Argumentation in this case The soul by a direct Act of faith believes its own forgiveness without making inferences or gathering conclusions and may do so upon the Proposition of it to be believed in the Promise But I will not digress from my work in hand and therefore shall only observe one or two things upon the Supposition laid down First It is the duty of every Believer to labour after an Assurance of a Personal interest in forgiveness and to be diligent in the cherishing and preservation of it when it is attained The Apostle exhorts us all unto it Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near in full Assurance of faith that is of our Acceptance with God through forgiveness in the blood of Jesus This he plainly discourseth of And this Principle of our faith and confidence he would have us to hold fast unto the end Chap. 3. 14. It is no small evil in Believers not to be pressing after perfection in believing and obedience Oft-times some sinful indulgence to self or the world or sloth is the cause of it Hence few come up to Gospel Assurance But yet most of our Priviledges and upon the matter all our comforts depend on this one thing A little by the way to encourage unto this duty I shall desire you to consider both whence this Assurance is produced and what it doth produce what it is the fruit of and what fruit it bears First It is in general the product of a more plentiful communication of the Spirit than ordinary