darkness what an eternal prison must I be sent amongst devils and damned spirits But a sincere Christian can cheerfully welcom it under this consideration also He knoweth it is but a messenger sent from his heavenly Father to conduct him home to his mansion place and to bring him into neerer fellowship with his Redeemer It puts an end to all sin and temptations and troubles of every sort and opens a door of entrance into unspeakable joyes that shall never end O Sirs what a priviledge is this to be able to triumph over death It is that unto which we are subject every moment * Quotidie morimur quotidie enim demitur aliqua pars vitae Et tunc quoque cum crescimus vita decrescit hunc ipsum quem agimus diem cum morte dividimus Sen. Epist 24. and what is that which will sweeten the passage and remove the fears which are usually attendant upon the contemplation of it Why It is our interest in Christ and union with him He drank that bitter cup yea the very dregs of it that he might sweeten it unto such as are in him 1 Cor. 15.53 54 55. O death where iâ— thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength â—f sin is the Law But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Christ tasted an accursed death that it might be made a blessing to his members Rev. 14.13 And I heard a voâ—ce from heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. It is not a being called Christians which will render the day of death a blessed day nor an outward attendance upon Christ but getting into him Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. 9. A believers union with Jesus Christ is a sure inlet unto a glorious resurrection out of the dust of the earth when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality And therefore observe it Sirs Although the wicked shall be raised at the last day as well as the godly yet not by the same means through which the godly are raised The wicked shall be raised by the power of Christ as a Judge but Believers shall rise again by vertue of their oneness with Christ and neer relation unto him 1 Cor. 15.22 23. For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive But every man in his own order Christ the first fruits afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming Such as sleep in Jesus shall awake by vertue of their being in him and thereupon their vile bodies shall be changed and fashioned like to his glorious body * Rom. 8.11 He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by or because his Spirit that dwelleth in you Vivificari in hac sententia significat resurrectionem gloriosam quae similis est Christi resurrectioni propria bonis in quibus inhabitat spiritus Illud autem Propter inhabitantem spiritum ejus ad Christum refertur non ad Deum Et in hoc est argumenti efficacia quia enim spiritus hic Dei qui in nobis habitat etiam Christi est Sicus Christum ut homo à Patre suscitatus est ita nos suscitabimur qui eundem cum Christo spiritum habemus Tolet. in loc To which that passage of the Prophet Isaiah may be fitly referred which though it primarily be intended of outward deliverance and the wonderful restauration of the Church out of such a forlorn desperate estate as that they were as dead yet it may extend also to the last resurrection of which that eminent deliverance was but a shadow and resemblance Isa 26.19 Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall give up her dead This is another blessing which floweth from this fountain 10. Our union with Christ Jesus will minisâ—er boldness at the bar of Judgment and cause us to lift up our faces without spot or confusion at that great and notable day of the Lord. How will the wicked be ashamed to look Christ in the face at that day seeing that now they despise him and trample his blood under their feet seeing that now they slight his word and contemn his Ordinances and his people Then the Kings and the chief Captains and the great men and the mighty men and every bondman and freeman I mean all impenitent sinners of what rank or quality soever Will be ready to call upon the rocks to fall upon them and the mountains to cover them from the presence of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Then what would not a man give to be able to assure his heart before Christ at his appearance and to be of the number of Christ's followers that shall stand at his right hand when the ungodly are trembling at the left Why It is not all the substance of a mans house can purchâ—se this priviledge It is not all your prayers and tears at that day that can do it though you should cry out your heart blood if you are unconverted sinners But it depends wholly upon your union with Christ 1 Joh 2.28 And noor little children abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming 1 Thess 4.14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Mark it He will summon the wicked before him but such as are members of his body he will bring with him i. e. in his train and company under his own shelter and protection Christ himself will undertake the patronage of their cause and to silence all the accusations of Satan which are brought in against them Well may they exult and be glad for it will be the day of the consummation of their marriage with their Redeemer If now they are espoused and contracted then they shall be married with the greatest solemnity in the presence of God and of his holy Angels Then will that vision be most notably fulfilled Rev. 21.2 3 4. I John saw the holy City new Jerusalem coming downfrom God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband This is the tenth mercy which depends upon our union with Christ 11. Lastly It is our having the Son or being united unto the Son which will give us actual admission into the kingdom of glory and possession of the inheritance prepared for the Saints When the wicked are sent into everlasting punishment then shall the righteous inherit eternal life When the ungodly are thrust together into hell then shall believers dwell in the presence of God for ever and drink of the rivers of pleasures which are at his right
you will undoubtedly fall short of the righteousness of Jesus Christ you do quite put your selves from under his shadow If you rest upon the works of the Law never think to receive benefit by the death of the Mediator of the covenant of peace and reconciliation Christ is become of none effect unto you Now Sirs justification by works is mans natural element upon which his soul is fixed and where he delights to dwell Although the Law is disabled to minister relief unto fallen sinners yet there is a proness in them to follow after it still and to rest their souls upon that foundation This is plain from the pains the Apostle Paul taketh in his Epistles to unsettle men from this bottom to take them off from leaning upon this broken reed especially in his Epistles to Rom. and Gal. Besides you read expresly of mens desires to be under the Law Gal. 4.21 Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law q. d. I perceive that hitherward your spirits have a tendency there is a natural inclination in you to split your selves upon this rock as there is in a stone to deseend downwards towards its center As the Law is a rule of life so it is written upon the heart of a Believer but unregenerate persons cleave to it as it is a covenant of works they make use of it so as to seek justification from thence And this mostly ariseth from that monstrous pride which is fast rooted and rivered in mens hearts they would fain advance something of themselves and are loath to give the glory of their salvation to another It is an harder thing to close with the grace of God and to glorifie free grace in salvation than most persons imagine This is the second Proposition That unconverted sinners are not only separated from Christ but actually joyned unto such objects as are utterly incompatible with their being in Christ 3. Propos 3. Hence it clearly followeth as a third Proposition That the first work which is wrought upon the spirit of a man in order to his conjunction and oneness with the Lord Jesus it is the separation or withdrawment of his soul from these objects unto which he is joyned in opposition unto Christ Till this work be done the finner is not in a neer capacity of having the Son of God of being joyned to the Redeemer First a bill of divorcement must be written and the former husbands put away before the soul can be married to another husband to him that is raised from the dead For Sirs Christ will not be a sharer with another if he have the soul at all he will have it altogether if persons have the Son really they must have him only So that first the soul must be wrought upon to renounce those things which stand in competition with the Lord Jesus that they may be in a preparedness to be knit unto him Psal 45.10 11. Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine car forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty They are words spoken of the mystical marriage betwixt Christ and his Church * Hoc de Ecclesiâ quam ut Christi regis uxorem depingit Vides de Christo esse sermonem qui enim de Solomone diceret Quoniam ipse est Dominus Deus cuus Marian. in loc and they amount to thus much q. d. If you will have Christ you must forsake all things for Christ if you will be joyned unto him you must be parted from all besides him as a virgin that will be espoused to an husband must forsake father and mother and cleave to her husband First you must be broken off from the old stock if you will be ingraffed in the true vine This is a special part of that self denial which is required in the followers of Jesus Mar. 8.34 Whosoever will come after me let him deny himself He must den◠his carnal self and say to his corruptions get ye hence he must deny his legal self by renouncing all confidence in the flesh in his own righteousness as to justification in the sight of God he must be dead to sin and the Law if he will be married to the Son of God See the proof of each 1. He must be dead to sin Gal. 5.24 They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts * Carnens pro radice posuit concupiscentias pro fructibus Caro enim est ipsa naturae corruptae vitiositas unde mala omnia prodeunt Calv. in loc Such as are united to his person must be planted together into the likeness of his death as he died for sin so must they be dead unto sin as Christ was crucified in the flesh so must their corruptions be crucified in them The principle or body of sin must be subdued and the lustings and workings of it must be set against else it will be in vain to pretend that they are knit unto Christ 2. He must be dead to the Law because it is impossible for a man to be coupled to both together It was a defectiveness herein which was the cause of the utter undoing of the carnal Israelites they were fast joyned unto the Law and they could not be taken off from seeking life upon those terms and therefore though they followed after righteousness yet they did not attain it they fell short of righteousness How came it to pass that they fell short of what they sought after Why Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9.31 32. That 's the third Proposition The first work that is wrought upon the spirit of a man in a tendency to his conjunction and oneness with Christ is the separation of his soul from sin and the Law to which he is naturally joyned in opposition to Christ 4. Propos 4. The divorce and separation of a sinner from his iniquity which is of indispensable necessity to the reception of Christ and union with him is principally accomplished by a fourfold act 1. The eyes of the understanding are opened to see the evil of sin 2. The heart is awakened to consider the consequents of that evil 3. The spirit is made to tremble in apprehension of the danger of continuing in sin 4. The grace of mortification is poured out for the subduing of corruption and a secret antipathy put into the soul against it When this work is wrought then the sinner is set free from bondage unto his lusts and is at liberty to be married to another I will briefly touch upon these four steps or acts of the holy Ghost whereby tho divorce is made 1. There is an act of Conviction whereby the eyes of the understanding are enlightened to see the evil of sin and that with application to a mans self and his own transgressions and iniquities For indeed general notions of the evil of sin will never have a
of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my father When he came to himself that is when he entered into debate with his own spirit * Ut nemo tenat in se descendere Per. sat when he communed with his own heart touching his deplorable condition then he quickly resolveth to abide amongst the swine no longer he will feed no more upon husks he will rather be as the meanest servant in his fathers house a door-keeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of wickedness Before that time he gave up himself in subjection to his lusts and did not consider what he was doing he did not bethink himself as the expression is 1 Kings 8.47 If they shall bethink themselves and repent This is the second act in order to a divorce from sin An act of Consideration 3. There is a work of Humiliation and Compunction whereby the spirit is made to mourn and â—ament in the sense of sin and withal to tremble in apprehension of the danger of it This is that pricking to the heart which is the usual forerunner of conversion Acts 2.37 Now when they heard this they were pricked to the heart and they said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles men and brethren what shall we do Now their consciences are wounded and they mourn in reflection upon their evil wayes They are as an heavy load and burden uptheir spirits What shall we do q.d. We are utterly ruined and undone except the grace of God step in for our recovery Can you shew us any way to escape we are ready to close with any directions prescribed When God doth bless mens souls in turning them from their iniquities he doth first cause them to grieve and be in bitterness for those iniquities and stirreth up in them a dread and fear of his judgments * Quos non expugnat ratio eos mansuefacit motui For mark it Sirs although it be love unto God and sense of the love of God which have a mighty influence to cause a converted person to cleave unto the Lord yet it is a dread and fear of wrath and judgment which bringeth a sinner in the first conversion unto God Thus you know the Jaylor came in trembing Acts 16.29 30. And when Christ doth shoot out his sharp arrows into mens hearts then the people fall down under him Psal 45.5 It may well be understood of these arrows of compunction and terror * Haec dicuntur typicè de evangelicâ administratione Christi Malv in Psal 45. Cordaque vulâ—ificis figens inimica sagittis Sponte sibi cogis valides precumbere gentes Buchan The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred shall fall down may well be be meant of an act of adoration So it is used in Deut. 9.25 in Chald. Dan. 2.46 Dan. 3.7 whereby the perversness of mens hearts is overcome and subdued of enemies they are made friends and brought into to a ready subjection unto his government That 's the third work 4. The grace of Repentance is poured out upon the soul whereby the heart is crucified unto sin and the reigning power of sin is removed and a standing aversness and antipathy put into the spirit against it When this is done then the divorce is compleated and the sinner is set at liberty from his corruptions that he may be joyned unto Christ For it is not all the arguments and perswasions in the world that can effectually prevail upon a man to cast off his iniquities and bring him from under the power of sin until the Spirit of God doth set home those arguments and doth deaden sin in the heart * Alii partes formales regenerationis duas constituunt mortificationem veteris vivificationem novi hominis Et haec illam necessario praesupponit à qua non re sed ratione tantum distincta est Wend. Syst majus Restraints of providence may keep a man from the outward acts of sin but still the heart is glewed to it As Balaam durst not comply with Balaack actually to curse the Israelites but fain he would have done it his heart followed the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2.15 But now the spirit of Repentance taketh down the dominion of sin and breaketh * I distinguish between the grace of Repentance in the first workings of it upon the heart and the exercise of Repentance in the further mortifying and subduing of sin the bonds of the Covenant whereby the sinner was held fast in subjection to it and then he doth say What have I to do any more with my idols Therefore believers are said to be dead to sin Rom. 6.1 2. and to have their old man crucified with Christ that they may no longer serve sin Rom. 6.6 Thus they are set free from sin that they may be united to Christ and become the servants of God through Christ Rom. 6.22 This may serve for opening the fourth Proposition 5. Propos 5. To deaden a person unto the Law and to take him off from seeking justification by the Law that he may be united or married to the Lord Jesus God doth especially make use of two means 1. The Law it self 2. The body of Christ that is the sufferings which he underwent in his body For this you have the Scripture express Gal. 2.19 For I through the Law am dead to the Law q. d. by studying the Law it self I see it can never avail to give me acceptation with the most high Whatever expectations I have formerly had that way I now utterly renounce them and the Law it self hath sufficiently instructed me in this Lesson 2. For the sufferings of Christ that place is obvious Rom. 7.4 Wherefore my brethren ye are also become dead to the Law * Mori legi est illi renuntiare ab ejus imperio manumitti ita ut nihil habeamus in eâ fiduciae Ne offenderet Judaeos verbi asperitate si dixisset legem esse mortuam deflexione usus est dicens nos legi esse mortuos Non ergo bene vivendi regula quam lex praescribit abrogata est sed qualitas illa quae libertati per Christum parta opponitur Nempe dum summam perfectionem requirit quia non praestamus constringit nos sub aternae mortis reatu Calv. by the body of Christ that ye should be married to anther even to him that is raised from the dead q.d. This instruction God hath given us from Golgotha that by the works of the Law no flesh can be justified indeed our hearts have been hankering after that way of life and acceptance nay we have ben closely linked thereunto but the body of Christ hath made a separation between them The body of Christ i. e. the passion of Christ in his body The doctrine of Christ's death and crucifixion if rightly improved will shew a man the Law 's utter insufficiency to give a
righteousness wherein we may appear before the God of heaven I know many understand it of the Law of sin to which the death of Christ doth deaden us but the Apostle speaketh evidently in the former verses of the cap. of the Law of God See v. 1. I speak to them that know the Law that the Law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth And so in the subsequent verses v. 5. The motions of sin that were by the Law that corruption which took occasion from the commandment to carry us into sin with the greater violence Parallel to v. 8. And v. 6. Is the Law sin God forbid that is Can we justly charge the Law of God with our transgressions far be it from you to imagin such a thing only our hearts pervert it and suck poyson from that which in it self is excellent And why may we not understand it in the same acception in v. 4 I will open this Proposition by shewing you the influence of each of these means or instruments apart to take off a mans heart from seeking justification by the Law 1. The first special means is the Law it self That if we hearken diligently to the voice of it will loudly proclaim its own insufficiency to save us If the question be put where is righteousness to be had As the light of nature will say it is not in me so the Law will answer it is not in me And therefore saith the Apostle Gal. 4.21 Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law do not you hear the Law If you did but hearken to it it would speak enough in this case of it self there would need no further testimony to be produced * Lex verè percepta nos sibi mori cogit Id. Do but carefully and strictly examine it and you will quickly find even from it self that there is no standing before the Lord in the righteousness which is of the Law For mark it Sirs the reason why sinners seek justification by the Law is their ignorance of and unversedness in the Law A little serious study of it would soon dispel those mists of ignorance There is a threefold ignorance of the Law which is the occasion of mens resting upon it for acceptance and seeking justification thereby 1. Ignorance of the terms of the Law upon which life is promised therein and eternal happiness made over thereby unacquaintedness with the conditions that are required to put us under the verge and compass of justification by it Men think to come up to the terms of the Law because they do not mind and consider wherein those terms do consist upon which it promiseth justification nor of what extent and latitude they are A little search into the Law would rectifie this error If a man will answer the demands of the Law he must be able to produce a personal perfect and everlasting obedience Mark it I say 1. It must be personal obedience that is produced the Law doth not admit of a surety to supply our defects and to do that fo◠us which we cannot do of our selves 2. There must be perfect exact and spotless obedience not only sincere and upright but in every particular the command must be filled up If there be a failure in the least action or in the minutest circumstance of an action the Law still not acquit us 3. It must be perpetual and everlasting obedience to the very end and period of our course This is an argument of its inability to justifie drawn from the Law it self Gal. 3.10 As many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse How prove you that why it will undeniably appear if you mark the terms of the Law For it is written Cursed is every is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of Law to do them * Vis argumenti Maledictus est qui non servat totam legem at nemo id facit nec potest Ergo Marian in loc 2. The hankering of a mans heart after justification by the Law doth proceed from ignorance of the spiritualness of it If it were studied in this property it would sufficiently manifest its own inability to save us for the Law requireth holiness in our persons as well as rectitude in our lives it is the rule of mans nature what he should be as well as the rule of his practise what he should do The Law condemneth us for the native pravity and pollution of our hearts and spirits within us and not only for the actual miscarriages in our demeanour so that which of the posterity of fallen man can stand before it The Law injoyneth an absolute rectitude and purity in the thoughts and affections and first motions of the soul as well as integrity in the outward carriage so that it is not a civil conversation which will bring you off from the curse denounced by it If you could suppose a man that had walked all his life-time blameless that no man could charge him with guilt upon any account that no one could say black was his eye as the self-justiciaries boast is yet the Law will pronounce him accursed and send him to hell for the least vain imagination for the least rising of a proud thought or an envious thought or an unbelieving thought or the like for the smallest inordanateness in the affections nay for the corruption brought with us into the world as well as for the grosser pollutions perpetrated and committed in the world And the reason is because the Law is spiritual it is exceeding broad as the Psalmist expresseth it Psal 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfections but thy commandment is exceeding broad It is as extensive as the workings of the whole soul of a man in any part or faculty of the same it is as broad as the person it reacheth to the nature it is a discerner of and giveth prescriptions unto the very thoughts and intents of the heart Thus our Saviour doth vindicate it from the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees whereby they did narrow the commandment and enervate the force of it Mat. 5.21 22. Ye have heard it was said by them of old time thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be indanger of the judgment But I say unto you that whosoever is engry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say unto his brother Racha shall be in danger of the council but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire It is as much as if our Saviour had said Your teachers of old in their interpretations of the Law confined the prohibition to the external act but I tell you the Law is spiritual the least groundless anger is murder in Gods account and deserveth the wrath of God as well as actual killing if there be hatred of his brother in a mans heart he is a
murderer much more if he express that anger or hatred in any contemptuous and provokin words The like you have in the case of adultery Mat. 5.27 28. Now if this spiritualness of the Law were but throughly studied it would take off mens hearts from resting thereupon For it condemneth us for the first rising or ebullition of sin within us as well as for the gross outward acts of impiety It speaketh a man accursed for the defects and imperfections in his obedience as well as for the neglect and omission of his obedience It leaveth him under the wrath of God for the original corruption of his heart For as the Apostle speaketh Rom. 7.7 I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust or concupiscence except the Law had said thou shalt not covet And therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his God 's sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sin as the argument is pressed Rom. 3.20 3. A third ground of a mans trusting in his legal righteousness is ignorance of the rigour and severity of the Law It requireth exact conformity the precepts thereof but administers no strength or assistance to help us in the observation of those precepts * Lex jubet gratia juvat It calleth for exact performance of what is required and leaveth no room for repentance pardon upon any failings whatsoever nor doth it promise acceptance upon our repentance The Law Sirs or Covenant of works doth not know what a pardon meaneth Inceed upon supposal of sin it injoyneth repentance but doth not accept repentance in any case The Law is such a severe task-master that when it hath appointed our work there is no relaxation to be expected it will not make any abatement in the least Rom. 10.5 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law that the man which doth those things shall live by them Mark it not he that repenteth for his neglect of what is not done but he that doth them not he that is humbled for his imperfections and failings but who so never faileth in the least particular And if this were well considered the Law it self would knock us off from dependance on the Law and would thereby prove as a Schoolmaster to drive us unto Christ You have many carnal people when conscience galleth them for sin and their hearts smite them for their abominations they will mourn and lament a little under the sense of it they are filled with trouble and perplexity and a great deal of legal sorrow upon that account and here they take up their rest Surely think they God will pardon and accept of us for we have grieved and repent of what we have done Why mind it Sirs As this doth proceed from ignorance of the nature of repentance the repentance of Judas carried him thus far True Evangelical repentance doth doth not only humble a man for sin but turneth him from it even unto God and is mingled with faith in the blood of Christ so it proceedeth from ignorance of the law If thou art not in Christ but standest on the old bottom of legal righteousness there is not one word in that Covenant for admission of repentance that is a priviledge brought to light by the Gospel a part of the purchase of the death of the Mediator of the Covenant of grace who can have compassion on the ignorant and such as are turned out of the way The Covenant of works knoweth nothing of forgiveness of sin upon our repentance it speaketh not a syllable of comfort unless we had kept undefiled in the way without the least aberration or wandring out of it Christ Jesus is the Author of repentance and of acceptance therein Acts 5.30 31. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins This is the first instrument that God maketh use of to take off mens hearts from seeking justification by the law that they may be united unto Christ viz. the Law it self And indeed it is delivered to that end not that persons might rest upon it but might see the utter impossibility of being saved by it that it may shew us the necessity of Christs righteousness and lead us unto him It was published as a Covenant of works upon this very design that it might lock men up under guilt and bind them over to the wrath of God and make them to see their miserable and remediless condition in themselves that so they might be necessitated to run for refuge unto Christ Rom. 3.19 What things soever the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law To what end Why that every month may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God Rom. 10.4 Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth The end of the law that is say some of all the shadows and ceremonies of the law they had a reference to Christ and did typifie and prefigure the Lord Jesus I would not exclude this sense but I think it may be meant of the publication of the law as a Covenant it was to this end that sinners might see more clearly into the weakness of the law to justifie them and so might have recourse â—nto Christ and be justified by faith The law it self doth bear testimony of itself how unable it is being become weak through the flesh and therefore Christ is the end of it to bring in everlasting righteousness such a glorious righteousness as abideth for ever 2. The second special means to divorce men from the law or to deaden them unto the law that they may be married or united to the Son of God is the body of Christ the sufferings of Christ in his body the cursed death which he underwent for the sake of sinners The death of Christ doth not enervate or exauctorate the law of God as it is a commandment for guidance of our wayes or as it is a rule of life * Christus est legis finis perficiens non interficiens Aug. so the sufferings of Christ are the great Evangelical argument to quicken us unto the conscientious observance of it shall we not obey his voice that died for us shall we sin against him who shed his precious blood for our sakes shall we think any thing too hard to be done at his injunction who thought it not much to humble himself unto the death even the cursed death of the Cross that our souls might live * Rom. 6.10 11. In that he died he died unto sin once c. Likewise reckon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reason or argue your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God Why the love of Christ doth constrain us not to live unto our selves but to serve him to
the uttermost 2 Cor. 5.14 Do we make void the law through faith God forbid yea we establish the law Rom. 3.31 But now as it is a Covenant of life and doth promise justification unto the observers of it so the death of Christ doth deaden us unto the law it is of notable force and efficacy to take off a man from building and bottoming upon his own legal performances For this very topick the Apostle argueth with the Galatians cap. 3.1 O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you Mark it the great matter wherein the Galatians fell from the truth of the Gospel was by adhaering to the law and seeking righteousness therein Now saith the Apostle a man would have thought the doctrine of Christ's death and crucifixion might have been a strong fence against that error unless you had been under a kind of fascination and witchcraft upon your spirits Hath the great fundamental principle of the death of Christ been so plainly and faithfully preached unto you and set forth amongst you in such lively colours as if he had been crucified before your eyes and are you still so foolish as to rest upon the law Certainly this is an argument of abundant sottishness and madness or else you have quite forgotten the doctrine of Christ's death and neglect to make a due improvement thereof The death of Christ will be of notable use to deaden a man to the law by making a threefold discovery 1. By discovering the sinfulness and damnableness of the evil of sin or transgressionof the law of God in that it could be expiated at no lesser rate than by the crucifying of the Son of God It is not any corruptible thing as silver and gold could make satisfaction for sin but the precious blood of the Son of God and therefore certainly it is an evil of a very heinous nature Thus my brethren a real sight of the greatness of the evil of sin would sooner convince a man of the insufficiency of all his legal righteousness to satisfie for the wrong that is done unto God by it If men think to recompence the Lord by any obedience of their own for the sins whereof they are guilty it is because they have low and slight thoughts of the evil of their sins Now the death of Christ may serve to rectifie such thoughts and to set forth the damnableness of the nature of sin And indeed it was one of the ends which God aimed at in the death of Christ as to save the sinners so to damn the sin Rom. 8.3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh He condemned it that is he made it thereby to appear what a deadly destructive and damnable nature it is of how odious and abominable a thing it is in his sight * He condemned it of that capital crime that it was the meritorious cause of the death of Christ who was most innocent Engl. Annot. By what way was this made to appear Why because nothing could appease his wrath but the crucifying of the Lord Jesus Undoubtedly it must needs be a very accursed thing for which Christ himself was made a curse 2. The death of Christ is of use to deaden a sinner to the law by making discovery of the inexorableness of the justice of God of his severity and strictness in requiring the utmost farthing that is due for satisfaction He did not spare his own Son when he had iniquity laid upon him but he was put to a painful cursed ignominious and reproachful death so that let not the children of men ever expect to be spared if they lie under the guilt of the least ungodliness God the Father did not abate his own beloved Son any part of the punishment surely he will never make abatement unto his adversaries And this was another end of Christ's death to set forth the exactness and inexorableness of the justice of God that he will by no means clear the guilty Rom. 3.25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus * Deus justitiam suam dicitur oftendisse quia non aliter remisit peccata hominum quam pretio iusto redemptionis accepto non ab ipsis hominibus sed a Christo pro nobis satisfaciente Justum ergo se Deus exhibuit in nostro justificatione liberalem seu gratiosum Justitia fuit relatione ad Christum gratia vero relatione ad nos Tolet in Rom. 3. Lastly the death of Christ will serve to take off a man from seeking justification by the law by making a full discovery that there is no other way imaginable to make reconciliation for sin and to deliver sinners from the wrath to come but the death of Christ only For Sirs if there had been any other way could have been found out undoubtedly God would have spared the dearly beloved of his soul he would never have striken and bruised his only begotten Son For as the Apostle argueth If there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law Gal. 3.21 q. d. Had that way been sufficient to save men and women from everlasting destruction God would have taken that way and prevented the sorrows and sufferings of his Son He would never have sent him into the world in such a low and despicable condition nor have brought him into such strairs and agonies as made him sweat drops of blood not would he have poured out upon him the vials of his wrath for the accomplishment of that which might have been otherwise accomplished So that to test for justification upon the law is in effect to frustrate and make void the grace of God in the death of the Mediator For if righteousness come by the law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2.21 Thus much for the fifth Proposition touching the way of a sinners union or conjunction with the Lord Jesus 6. Propos 6. The way of the actual conjunction between Christ and his people when they are thus divorced from sin and deadned to the Law may be conceived thus The Lord Christ by his Spirit taketh possession of them and dwelleth in them and Believers through faith of the operation of the Spirit take hold of Christ and get into him and so they are knit together and become one For this conjunction you must understand is a mutual conjunction * Abide in me and I in you And again He that abideth in me and I in him By which
as he is pure 1 John 3.3 3. By the grace of Regeneration the Lord Christ is said to take up his abode in us because the Holy Ghost in that work doth act in his name as purchased by Christ and receiving commission from him and being sent by vertue of his Prayer and Intercession John 16.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive In the transactions of the everlasting Covenant our Lord Jesus undertook to sanctifie and comfort and to quicken and stablish his people and by the Spirit of truth he doth accomplish that undertaking By his death the Spirit was purchased and in his name he is sent 4. The grace of Regeneration may be stiled Christ dwelling in us from the tendency of it which is to bring sinners in subjection to the Government of Christ and to make them ready to obey the Laws of Christ Hereby we become his Servants and possession is taken of us to his use and behoof that we may cleave unto him and be followers of him Col. 3.24 For ye serve the Lord Christ Mat. 19.28 Ye that have followed me in the Regeneration c. that is in your regenerate condition in the exercise of that grace which was bestowed upon you in your New-birth for so it may be well understood The grace of Regeneration plucketh sinners out of the Kingdom of Satan and seizeth on them for the service of Christ carryeth us out to him and maketh us obedient to his Laws and Dominion This may suffice to be spoken to the first branch of that Vnion which is between Christ and Believers or the first sort of Conjunction betwixt them 2. There is a legal Conjunction and oneness thereupon arising from a Believers reception of Christ closing with him and getting into him Such an Union as there is between the principal Debtor and the Surety who hath paid the debt for him and made over that payment unto him The Law reckoneth them as one what payment the Surety hath made for the Debtor in his name and firmly made over unto him the Law accounts it as if the Debtor himself had paid it and dischargeth him thereupon as if it had been his own personal Act and Deed because of that intimate relation or oneness that is betwixt them in the estimation of the Law Such an union there is between Christ and his people and therefore we call it a legal union because it hath a special reference unto the Law of God which acquitteth the person thus united to Christ by vertue of the sufferings and satisfaction of Jesus Christ as fully and firmly as if the party himself had suffered and satisfied And likewise we call it a legal union because of the analogy it beareth unto the proceedings of Law in Courts of Judicature amongst men The bond of this union is a saving faith whereby Believers receive Christ and take hold on him As by the Spirit of Regeneration Christ doth take hold of their souls so by a living faith of the operation of the Spirit they are inabled to take hold of the Lord Jesus and so they are compacted and knit together You know faith is set forth by such expressions a receiving of Christ and taking hold of him John 1.12 But to as many as received him to them he gave power to be the sons of God even to them that believe on his name Mark it we receive Jesus Christ and take him home to our selves by believing on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ As under the Law when a man q. d. ran for refuge and protection to the Altar he was wont to lay hold upon the horns of the Altar so by faith a sinner betaketh himself for shelter and security unto Christ and layeth hold upon Christ Heb. 6.18 That we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us * We who to flee from deserved wrath have taken our course towards Jesus in hope to get the Salvation offered to us in him Dicks in loc that is upon Jesus Christ the object of our hope and confidence who is set before us in the Gospel as the person in whom we are to trust and upon whom to rely and place our hope By faith we lay hold upon him and by this laying hold on Christ a Believer is joyned unto Christ and made one with him By faith we are in him and put on his righteousness Phil. 3.9 That I may be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith It is of God he provided it for us and it is made over to us and becometh ours by faith in the Mediator This is the Second Branch of the mutual conjunction between Christ and a Believer and the union thereupon the bond whereof is faith in Christ Concerning which I will propose onely these four things to your serious perusal and meditations 1. That the Holy Ghost in the writings of the Scriptures doth distinctly speak of a fourfold faith There is 1. An Historical Faith 2. A Temporal Faith 3. A Faith of Miracles 4. A saving and justifying faith in Christ which is the bond of our union with the Lord Jesus As this is an ordinary School-distinction so it is a Scripture-distinction which hath its warrant from the word and its foundation in the word of God 1. There is an Historical Faith whereby we believe the Scriptures and the matters therein contained to be Divine Truths and to have proceeded from God * This is by some called a dogmatical faith such a faith the Apostle supposed to have been in Agrippa in respect to the writings of the Old Testament Acts 26.27 King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets I know that thou believest q.d. I am confident thou art perswaded of the truth of those things Agrippa being a Jew and always conversant in Judea could not be ignorant of the Scriptures and Paul takes it for granted that he who owned their Original to be of God and that in them was discovered nothing but the truths of God I know that thou believest I am well assured thou darest not deny their Divine Authority This we call an Historical Faith because it assenteth to the truth of the History of the Bible as it is a Narrative of things done and containeth Predictions of things to be done as it comprehends matters of fact mentioned to be performed Doctrines asserted Prophesies and Promises to be fulfilled and the like And pray mark it Sirs this faith is diversifyed according to the different testimony on which it is bottomed * Quia testes quibus fidem adhibemus ex lege ordine communi sunt homines vel Deus idcirco sicut testimonium sic etiam fides distinguitur in
till you have secured your deliverance 4. An unregenerate sinner must needs be in a state of death because out of Christ who is the fountain of life and that in respect of condemnation or liableness to eternal death As we say of a malefactor when verdict is brought in against him and sentence is passed upon him to be executed He is a dead man dead in law and assoon as a writ for execution cometh forth to the Sheriff he will be actually put to death In this sense every unconverted sinner is dead legally dead that is He is condemned to be sent into everlasting burnings So that as the Egyptians said of themselves when their first-born were slain We be all dead men Exod. 12.23 The like sad message may I bring to every impenitent person amongst you Thou art a dead man or woman Verdict is past upon thee as guilty and sentence is gone forth against thee to be sent into the chains of darkness only thou art reprieved for a few moments and hitherto there hath been a respite of execution But let me tell thee if God should send a providence to take thee hence in this condition as for ought thou knowest he may do this night thou wouldest as certainly drop into hell and there lye for ever as now thou art upon the land of the living See a full proof of it Joh. 3.18 He that believeth not is condemned already Mark it although he be not actually damned yet he is already condemned and if he go on in his way it is impossible he should escape the damnation of hell How is he condemned already Why the Law of God hath pronounced sentence against him to be cast into prison till he have paid the uttermost farthing which will never be paid The sinner hath wronged and rebelled against an infinite Being and the Law doth sentence him to make a proportionable satisfaction Now seeing he cannot render a satisfaction infinite in worth and valuation he is condemned to torments infinite in duration This is the sentence passed upon the wicked and by reason of their unbelief this sentence stands unrepealed It remaineth in its full force and vigour against them they cannot plead the Gospel pardon for their discharge because that pardon is procured through the blood of Christ and given forth to none but such as are united to him If men were duly sensible hereof how would it disturb their carnal peace and cause their hearts to tremble They would not enjoy a quiet hour till they had made sure their acquital from this dreadful sentence They would not eat in quiet lest the next bit of bread they swallow down should stop their breath and prove as God's executioner to drag them into prison They could not sleep in quiet lest before the light of the morning their souls should be required and sent into the bottomless pit of destruction If this point were believed and laid to heart surely it would fill many closets and families full of complaints and cryings out more than if they were under the sorest temporal scourge How would mens retired chambers be filled with prayer and earnest desires after God to pluck them as fire-brands out of the burning What pains would they take to sue out their pardon in the blood of Christ What welcom entertainment would they give unto the Son of God when he cometh to offer life and salvation to them Exod. 12.30 There was a great cry in the land of Egypt for there was not an house where there was not one dead O my brethren If this doctrine were throughly weighed what a great cry would be heard in many places and Parishes where perhaps there are few houses wherein there are not several persons dead sentenced to be sent into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death How would mens bowels earn with pity towards their carnal relations who spend their dayes in rejoycings and are every moment in danger of dropping into hell What mad men should we reckon ungodly persons to be that go on in mirth and jollity or spend their time in heaping up the dross and rubbish of the earth when in the mean time they are persons dead in Law condemned to hell How many do hardly think a serious thought of eternity from one end of the week to the other when yet there is but a step between them and everlasting burnings But if this were considered how would they run from one Minister to another and from one Christian to another with that question What must I do to be saved I am a condemned person can you give me directions how to get the sentence repealed The Lord cause these things to sink deep into your hearts And a little to drive home this nail of doctrine I will mind you further of these two things 1. As Christless sinners are already condemned so the very glory of God is concerned in their damnation or in the execution of the sentence past upon them if they abide in that condition And that is a matter very dear unto him whereof he is exceeding tender and wherewith he will never part Isa 42.8 God made all creatures for his own glory and he will have it from them one way or other If you do not glorifie his free grace by closing with Christ and submitting unto him he will glorifie his justice and severity upon you in your everlasting banishment out of the presence of Christ It is observeable what is said in the case of Nadab and Abihu when they offered up strange fire which God commanded not and they were consumed in a dreadful manner with fire from heaven Lev. 10.3 Then Moses said unto Aaron this is that the Lord said I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified It is as much as if he had said This I am resolved upon that I will have glory from you one way or other If you do not honour me by a due observance of my word I will vindicate mine honour upon you by pouring down the vials of mine indignation So may I say in this case If you do not glorifie God actively in your conversations he will be glorified upon you in your confusion for this is that which he hath determined to have one way or other If you do not give glory to God by submitting to the terms on which salvation is offered you must of necessity be cast into outer darkness and God will glorifie his righteousness and truth and power and holiness in your utter destruction for by one means or other he will be glorified Rom. 9.22 23. 2. As impenitent sinners are dead in Law sentenced to hell and eternal death so if they go on still in their sins the infinite mercy of God will never save them from that sore ruine and desolation This is the constant refuge unto which they have recourse Be it that the Law condemneth them yet God