instruitur ad peccandum Orig. mostly warneth against for they are knit to Christ It is the very argument pressed for prevention of scandals 1 Cor. 8. v. 9 12. Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak For as it followeth v. 12. When ye sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience ye sin against Christ How against him Why not only against the word and commandment of Christ which is hereby contemned so all sins are against him not only against the work of Christ which you hereby oppose Christs work is to save these weak Christians and what in you lieth by your scandals you put an obstacle in the way of their salvation But you sin especially against Christ because they are his members knit unto him and made one with him So that my brethren the matter of scandalizing and offending the meanest of the Saints of the most High is not of such trivial concernment as many persons would make it When they are pressed with an argument drawn from this Topick of offending the servants of God they turn it off with a wet finger as if it were a matter hardly worth the mentioning But Sirs is it nothing to sin against Christ the Mediator Is it nothing to destroy those for whom he died and who are in him sure I am that our Saviour himself putteth much weight upon it and reckons it amongst the sins that he will severely punish Mat. 18.6 Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea 2. Do not reproach or speak evil of the people of God Dare not to vent a contemptuous or malicious word against them for they are one with Christ and so whatsoever is spoken against them doth not only reflect upon him but is accounted as spoken against him Jude 15. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly amongst them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him How do they speak against him Not only when they openly blaspheme the name of Christ and utter despiteful words against the person of Christ But when they reproach his people and vent their hatred in evil words against his Saints This is reckoned as done against Christ because of their near relation unto him and union with him Commonly their hard speeches are immediately directed against Believers Many that pretend a love to Christ or that will not be so profane as to speak reproachfully of him will be often lashing at his followers and taking all advantages to smite them with the tongue and to cast dirt upon their profession But mark it Sirs how little soever you think of it this is to strike at Christ and to wound him through their loyns And in the day of accounts he will convince you of these hard speeches he will make you to know to your eternal sorrow what an evil it was thus to wrong his people For it is for the Son of mans sake that the godly are reproached and their name is cast out as evil And besides he dwelleth in them and they are one with him Luk. 6.22 So that you should be afraid to speak evil of them As the Lord said to Aaron and Miriam Num. 12.8 Wherefore were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses q. d. He is my servant one of my family and what he doth is in my name I the Lord employ him in the work that he hath undertaken and could you imagine that I would not take his part or that I would not stand up in his vindication and defence So may the Lord Jesus say to you in this respect This people whom you despise and trample upon are my people you account them as the dung of the earth and the off scouring of all things and at every turn are ready to cast dirt in their faces But they are of my retinue they belong unto me nay they are mystically one with me and could you think I would not rise up in their behalf Wherefore were you not afraid to speak a word against them you do thereby east dishonour upon Christ and load him with your reproaches for they are his members 3. Have not the least hand in persecuting or actually opposing the people of God Do not hinder their progress in the wayes of holiness nor be a means to bring them into sufferings upon that account Remember They are one with Christ the Saviour and if he shut the door of heaven against you who can open it for your admittance He hath the key of David that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth They are united to Christ the Judge and what favour can you expect at his hands if you set your selves in defiance against him But you will say we do not meddle with Christ far be it from us to act in the least against him We only punish and set against a company of inconsiderable people that walk in a way contiary to the rest of the world who have a path by themselves and would be deemed more holy than their neighbours If Christ were upon earth we would honour and serve him But Sirs be not deceived God is not mocked If you hate believers for their holiness you would much more have hated Jesus Christ whose holiness is unspeakably more than theirs and you would persecute him if he were within your reach for he walked more precisely and strictly than any of the poor Christians whom you oppose and in a far greater contradiction to the world Besides what you do against them is interpreted as done against Christ himself because they are one with him Act. 9.4 5. Saul Saul why persecutost thou me And he said who art thou Lord And the Lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest Saul thought he had only hunted the poor Saints at Damascus a company of humorous people that would not conform to the customs and traditions of the Elders a few despicable persons who were contemned on every hand But he is arraigned as an enemy to Christ and found guilty of persecuting the Lord Jesus When he breathed out threatnings and slaughters against the Disciples of the Lord it is accounted as if he had sought the destruction of Christ himself as if his rage and madness had been directly bent against the Son of God Why persecutest thou me q.d. I esteem their affliction as if I were afflicted and their sufferings as if my self suffered And what reason hast thou to set thus furiously against me Is this my requital for coming down from heaven to open a door of salvation for lost sinners Is it not the greatest folly in the world to provoke
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
may be ready at hand upon all occasions for your guidance and direction in the way to heaven If Truth as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. one saith is of the number of the greatest gifts which the God of heaven could confer on the children of men or they are capable of receiving from the Lord of glory And if those Truths are most worthy of all acceptation which are in their own nature and tendency of the greatest weight and importance Then I hope I may justly expect your loving Reception and diligent Perusal of these Divine Instructions Especially when I call to remembrance your fervent mind and more than usual respect which many of you have formerly expressed towards me If I detain you longer than is customable by way of Preface impute it wholly to the earnestness of my desires of being useful to the promoting your everlasting salvation For I can truly say that since my removal from amongst you I have had you frequently in my thoughts much in my affections and fervently in my Prayers Give me leave to be your Remembrancer That you are a people under manifold Obligations and Ingagements to serve the Lord and to stick fast unto his testimonies 1. You have some of you for a long time made a Profession of Godliness and openly avowed your selves to be the servants of the most High And will you not labour to walk answerably to that Vocation wherewith ye are called If the Principles you own be good they ought to be practised And if they be evil why are they professed When King Alexander had a cowardly Souldier of his own name he is reported to have called him aside and thus to have spoken to him Friend either change thy name or leave thy cowardise The like may be fitly said to Professors of Religion Either sh w forth the power of godliness in your lives or do not take upon you the profession of Godliness Why call ye me Lord Lord if ye do not the things which I say Luk. 6.46 2. You are many of you I am apt to think a people under convictions The clear light of the Gospel which hath shined amongst you hath left at least such impressions on your spirits That you cannot but approve the things that are excellent You cannot but acknowledge the wayes of God to be right and the service of sin to be abominable Ask your consciences to whom I appeal in this case if it be not thus So that I may speak to you as the Apostle Paul to the King Act. 26.27 King Agrippa Believest thou the Prophets I know that thou believest My brethren Do you believe the absolute necessity and incomparable worth of Holiness Do you believe That the fear of the Lord is the best wisdom and the favour of God the chiefest portion That Godliness is great gain and ought to have the supremacy and preheminence above all worldly enjoyments Do you believe that the pleasures of sin are folly and madness and will end at length in everlasting destruction I am perswaded many of you believe it Now Sirs it is a dreadful thing to sin against convictions to disown that in your conversations which you subscribe to in your consciences Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth Rom. 14.22 To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Jam. 4.17 3. You are most of you a people of low estate and poor in the world And will you not secure an interest in the true riches If you have little or no treasures upon earth should it not quicken you to be the more industrious to lay up treasures in heaven that you may not be poor in every respect When Bishop Hooper as I remember was led to his Martyrdom there came to meet him a poor boy that was blind but had received the knowledge of the truth To whom the Martyr spake to this effect See to it that you continue to serve the Lord and that you lose not the knowledge of God for then thou wouldest be blinde both in soul and body So let me say to those of this rank amongst you Well is it if you have chosen the good part which cannot be taken away if you have in heaven an enduring substance else you are poor both in this world and in relation to that which is to come Study to shew your selves men and women approved of God that it may appear you are of the number of those whom the Apostle James makes mention of Chap. 2.5 Whom God hath chosen the poor of this world but rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him 4. You are all of you a people of signal and eminent mercies And if the mercy of God rise up in judgment against you what will be able to plead for you If mercy condemn you how sore will be your condemnation Will ye trample upon the bowels of the compassion of God And tread under foot his loving kindness Deut. 32.6 Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is he not thy father that hath bought thee Hath he not made thee and established thee I will not multiply the mention of Particulars only there are two mercies principally come at present into my thoughts which I would have you never to forget 1. Remember the dayes of old consider the years of some generations at the least Ask your Fathers and they will tell it your Elders and they will shew it That you have been remarkably blessed with Gospel-priviledges and advantages for attendance upon God and communion with him You have had for some good while together a succession of faithful and painful Ministers who rightly divided the word of Truth When some other places were comparatively in darkness you dwelt in Goshen a place of light Keep therefore an holy suspicion and jealousie over your hearts and lives lest you be found guilty of receiving the grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6.1 And to that end let me beseech you often to read and meditate with seriousness and self-application upon these awakening Texts Mat. 11.20 21 22 23 24. 2 Cor. 4.3 4 5 6. 2. Consult your late experiences of the goodness of God That was a special preservation which I would have you to keep fresh in your Memories and constantly to retain the sense of it upon your hearts When it pleased the Lord in the late dreadful year to contend with the Nation by the destroying Pestilence you were as a fire-brand pluckt out of the burning You were exposed to the contagion as well as other places where it violently raged Nay more upon several accounts than some other Towns which it laid almost desolate And the Lord was pleased only to give you thereby an awakening call to Repentance and to suffer the destroying Angel to proceed no further One house amongst you was infected and it swept away all that dwelt therein
And a stop was immediately put to the further progress of it Correcting providences and gracious deliverances have both of them a Teaching vertue They are the voice of the Lord whereby he crieth aloud unto the children of men Mic. 6.9 Amos 4.10 11. And this dispensation which I am calling back to your remembrance being a Judgment allayed with the mixture of abundant mercy seemed in my apprehension to speak thus much unto you As if the Lord had said This people are in the way of declining apace from me and begin to lose the sense of the Gospel doctrines wherein they have been taught And therefore I might justly break in upon them in wrath and consume them with a sore destruction But how shall I give them up to utter ruine and desolation How shall I lay them waste and make them as Admah and Zeboim My bowels are turned within me my repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will yet grant them some deliverance I will wait upon them a while further that I may be gracious unto them I will see what their end will be what use they will make of this eminent deliverance My Brethren I question not but there are many amongst you that truly fear the name of the Lord And of the rest I speak not to shame or accuse But as my dearly beloved friends I warn and admonish And I expect your pardon for dealing thus plainly for if you would have me for your Friend you cannot rationally expect that I should be * Idem non potest esse amicus adulator your Flatterer Take heed therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken of by the Prophet Esaias Chap. 5.4 5 6. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wilde grapes And now Go to I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the wall thereof and it shall be troden down And I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up bryars and thorns I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it You may now expect to be dismissed But before I conclude this Epistle give me leave to press upon you a few general Scripture rules The Lord cause them to work efficaciously upon your spirits 1. Take heed of resting in a formal course of Religion and of fancying to your selves an easie way to salvation But get through convictions upon your hearts of the necessitie of making it your very business to walk with God and of acting with vigour and industry in laying hold on eternal life Lazy wishes and faint desires an empty name and profession and a bare keeping the round of some outward duties will never bring you into the glorious presence of God Formality and lukewarmness will no sooner get to heaven than downright Atheism and profaness If you will be saved you must not only seek but strive you must put your selves as it were into an Agony with striving * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to enter in at the strait gate Luke 13.24 You may be brought into those streights that if you will keep a good conscience you shall keep nothing but a good conscience And if ye will save your souls you shall save nothing but your souls Mark 8.34 35. And can this be done with a wet finger Is it an easie thing to bring your hearts into a willingness to forsake all that you have for Christ If you will enter into life you must walk in a contradiction to the generality of the world 1 Joh. 5.19 Rom. 12.2 You must watch and stand fast against all sorts of sollicitations unto sin 1 Cor. 16.13 You must not content your selves with the external performance of duties but be spiritual and servent in the performance of them Isa 64.7 Jude 3. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence Mat. 11.12 And every man presseth into it i.e. Every one that doth savingly close with it every one that gets a real interest therein every one that will not fall short of the grace offered thereby Luke 16.16 So that if you will work out your salvation successfully you must act forcibly The height of security and wickedness in the heart of a sinner usually entereth in at this door of slightness and formality in the service * Nemo repente fit turpissimns of God When persons are negligent and superficial in duty they will quickly make no conscience of duty and at length forget that there is a God to be served or immortal souls to be regarded Prov. 19.15 2 Tim. 3.13 2. If you will act to purpose in working out your salvation you must set upon the prosecution of that design with the full purpose of your hearts If you will follow the Lord fully you must walk resolvedly That 's the way to resist the devil that he may flee from you and to break through all impediments and aversions that they may not turn you aside A double-minded man is both unstable and slothful in all his waies 'T is a setled resolution that strengthens the spirit under pressures fortifieth the soul against difficulties and makes it unmoveable as a Rock that nothing shall prevail to the alteration of his course Let me give you the exhortation of Barnabas Act. 23. That with purpose of heart you cleave unto the Lord. Say every one of you as Joshua Chap. 24.15 As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. The God of heaven we will adore and his Statutes we will keep His Ordinances we will observe and the wayes of holiness we will own whatever cometh of it To this end consider often the absolute necessity of making your peace with God and walking before him in the integrity of your hearts If you trifle in this business you are undone for ever And bethink your selves how obstinately the wicked are bent upon the satisfaction of their lusts and will not you be as peremptorily fixed upon the saving of your souls That 's an excellent Copy to transcribe in your practise Mic. 4.5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever 3. Be sure to get your understandings and judgments rightly principled with distinct knowledge of the mysteries of the Gospel As there can be no saving grace in the heart without a competent knowledge of the principles of Religion So it is hardly to be imagined what abundant mischiefs do arise as to errors in the mind disorders in the conversation and deprivement of comfort in the soul for want of a distinct knowledge of those principles Ignorance is vertually any evil whatsoever The understanding is the gate of entrance into the soul and the other
See Rev. 2. â— The Christians were at first reckoned by the Heathen as Jews vid. Suet. in vita Claud. Judaeos imgulsore Christo assidue tumultuantes Roma expulic So that the Christians seem to have goâ—e under that name and to haâ—â— been banished with them by the decree mentioned Act. 18.2 though they were no savingly instructed nor taught the truth as it is in Jesus yet they had some knowledge of the mind of God and were convinced of the truth and excellency of the Law of the Lord so as to subscribe to it and to own and approve it as such This made them Christ's people at large by way of profession And this must needs be one of the ligatures of that Union for such as avowedly reject the fundamental doctrines of Christianity are not so much as Christ's seeming friends but open enemies to his crown and dignity 2. There must be an external subjection to the Ordinances of Christ so as to afford their presence at them and outward compliance with them and attendance upon them For Sirs Gospel Ordinances are the badges of Christ's followers Sacramenta ut alia insti uta divina sunt figna piotestativa fidei as well as means to convey his grace into their souls And if a people belong to him at all they must at least wear his livery So that when persons live in the open neglect or contempt of the Ordinances and Institutions of the Lord Jesus or think they are arrived at so high a pitch as to be above Ordinances they do thereby declare themselves to be so far from the truth of grace that they are not arrived to a serious prosession Above Ordinances and below Christianity Such have not so much as Christ's livery upon them for this is one of the bonds of a common union Thus Simon Magus was baptized into Christ and for a while held fellowship with the Disciples and so in a sort did belong to Christ till afterwards he apostatized and discovered his rottenness Act. 8.13 So far the lowest rank of hypocrites ordinarily go It is true they have no spiritual communion or fellowship with Christ in his Ordinances but they are many times pretty-constant in attendance upon Ordinances So those carnal Israelites whom God owneth in this respect to be his people Isa 58 1.2 And therefore the Apostle calls men off from trusting in this to mind the grace of Regeneration and Conversion upon their hearts for these priviledges avail not to a saving union with Christ but a new creature Gal. 6.15 3. There is usually some common workings upon their hearts and spirits as now convictions in the conscience of the evil of sin sometimes an inclination upon their souls to give up themselves to be the Lords only a beloved lust hindereth the performance of it Possibly many common graces of the Spirit are conferred upon them in which respect they are said to be made partakers of the holy Ghost for so far a carnal Professor may arrive Heb. 6.4 5. The holy Ghost may strive with a professed enemy to the Kingdom of Christ There are some Converts external from the world to the Church who yet stick in their naturals and are not in the sense of sin fled unto Christ for refuge nor converted from nature to saving grace Dicâ—â—s but when he shall moreover work some remarkable effects upon a sinner as terrors in apprehension of the wrath of God desires to be sheltered under the wings of Christ that he may escape that wrath so that he joyneth himself outwardly to his people then he becometh a seeming friend though he proceed no further 4. The last bond which I shall mention of this common union with Christ is some degrees of reformation in the life and practise When persons live and lie weltering in gross pollutions of the world they do apparently belong unto the world they do openly proclaim themselves to be the very children of the devil If a man belong to Christ but by profession there must be some measure of reformation wrought there must be an actual abstaining from those wickednesses whereby the name of Christian is openly contradicted As real holiness and closs walking with God is essential to the being of a Disciple indeed so a cleansing of the outside of the cup and platter as our Saviour calleth it is required to make a man a Disciple but in appearance And thus far they commonly go 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. They retained their doggish and swinish nature still as is evident from their Apostacy v. 12. The dog is turned to his vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire and yet they escaped the pollutions of the world and that through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ v. 20. Although the doctrines of the Gospel had not a saving effect upon their souls yet they had a real effect though their natures were not transformed yet their lives in some particulars were reformed their conversations were cleansed from gross and scandalous abominations That 's the first Position touching this matter 2. Pos 2. It is a very great priviledge and mercy considered in it self for a man or woman to be taken thus neer unto Jesus Christ and in this sense to be united to him namely by way of external adhaesion To be separated from the Heathen to be his people and to be made to differ from the profane world and the notoriously wicked who do avow their sins openly in the face of men and declare themselves subjects unto the prince of darkness Though it be not the best of priviledges yet it is a great priviledge though it be not a mercy to be rested in yet it is a mercy thankfully to be acknowledged it is no way to be slighted and undervalued The Apostle speaketh of it as such Rom. 3.1 2. What advantage hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision that is what benefit doth arise by being a member of the Church of Christ what profit is it to be a Jew outwardly a Disciple by profession into which relation circumcision did give them solemn entrance it was the Ordinance for initiation Is this nothing or is it a priviledge of a low nature No in no wise saith the Apostle do not thus esteem it It is an eminent mercy there is much advantage by it every way You will say wherein lieth the advantage of being thus in Christ Answ In four things especially 1. Chiefly and primarily because hereupon they are set under the means of grace and tenders of salvation They have eternal life set before their souls and upon the terms of the Gospel offered unto them Hereby they do enjoy the word of Christ the Oracles of God and the Ordinances which are the places wherein the Lord Jesus himself is to be found of them that seek him and which are the conduit-pipes through which he doth use to convey spiritual grace and blessings to such
as thirst after them The remainders of the light of nature are enough to leave a sinner inexcusable in his condemnation when he doth not live up to that light but they can proceed no further they can make no discoveries of the path of salvation But now persons in the visible Church have these things revealed before their eyes they have Christ set forth that they may know him and his excellencies displayed that they may love him So that it is a merciful priviledge in this respect Nay if the fault be not in themselves it may bring them to Christ in a saving way Psal 147.19 20. He sheweth his word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them Praise ye the Lord. q. d. Here is matter of praise and abundant thanksgiving See also Rom. 9.4 and Ezek. 20.11 12. 2. Hereby persons do enjoy communion with such as are real Saints and servants of Christ in sincerity which may be of excellent use to provoke them to emulation and so to save their souls They have the benefit of the society of the godly to be an incouragement unto them to serve the Lord indeed and the advantage of their example as a copy for imitation Multum resert quibuscum vixeris They are under their counsel for admonition and many times partakers of their provoking conferences to incite and stir them up to become such as they are They have a share in their inspection and watchfulness over them whereby oftentimes they are restrained and kept in due bounds And so it is a signal mercy in this respect As by fellowship with the wicked and contracting friendship with them men learn their wayes and get a snare unto their souls so by communion with the Saints persons are in a capacity of learning their ways and saving their souls Psal 141.4 5. Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyl which shall not break my head Nihil tutius amico monitore that is by an usual Meiâ—sis it will abundantly tend to my spiritual good and to the promoting and carrying on my eternal welfare As coals are kindled by other burning coals so are the ungodly many times by hearty counsel and holy walking and the like made instrumental to quicken and inflame such as have fellowship with them Jam. 5.19 3. From hence it is that they do in a sort partake of that special care which God taketh of his Church and receive some drops of those blessings which Christ doth showr down upon his Church You know that although God by a general providence doth mind and govern the whole creation he feeds the ravens when they cry and gives meat to the beasts of the field yet he hath a special inspection into the affairs of his Church he maketh peculiar provision for them reserving his dainties in store for them Now by this external adhaesion unto Christ and being in the visible Church a person may have a share in those mercies and the out-skirts of those blessings may fall down upon their heads As one that is but a sojourner in a family and no stated fixed member of it may taste of many good things which the good man of the house prepared for his own children And therefore a people are said upon this kind of neerness to have God himself nigh unto them that is to be under his special care even the body of the people though multitudes of them went no further than profession Psal 148.14 The children of Israel a people neer unto him Deut. 4.7 For what Nation is there so great that hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all that we call upon him for And it seemeth to be mentioned as a priviledge of the whole visible Church Isa 4.5 That the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion and upon her assemblies upon the Church of Christ whereof Zion was a type and upon all the particular Congregations thereof a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night The meaning is this God will in a special manner be a guide unto them and undertake for their safeguard and protection He will lead them and preserve them as he did the children of Israel in their travels out of Egypt when he went before them in a cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night So Isa 31.5 As birds flying so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem defending also he will deliver it and passing over he will preserve it As birds flying that is swiftly and speedily at the cry of his people he will come as in an instant before the adversaries are aware Or as a bird doth hover over the nest to preserve her young ones so will the Lord watch over his people to secure and deliver them These and such promises are made to the Church in general and even carnal Professors by vertue of their station in the Church may have a share in this security these deliverances As when the godly joyn in confederacy with the wicked they may be made to smart under the judgments that are sent upon the wicked so Professors by their fellowship with the godly may taste of the blessings imparted unto them 4. It is a great priviledge because hereby men are often restrained from venting many corruptions that otherwise would have prevailed from turning aside into such sins and abominations wherein others wallow And so they are prevented and kept from contracting much guilt which otherwise would be contracted by them And this is no small advantage Restraining grace is a mercy though sanctifying grace is an higher And God doth make use of this neerness to Christ as a restraint or bridle to stop sinners in their carier hereby they are purged from their old sins 2 Pet. 1.9 That 's the second Position 3. Position 3. When men and women are only thus united unto Christ by way of visible profession or external adhaesion though they may abide with him for a time and seemingly cleave unto him yet at last there will be made a separation betwixt them and this union will be dissolved and broken asunder As it is a dissoluble Union for the nature of it Quomodo ergo Zizania sunt in regno Dei Putres pisces in reti Evangelico carena veste nuptiali in nuptiis Christi ita in Chricto est qui non sert fructum nomine tenus stilicer secundam externam 〈◊〉 tantum non antem verâ— fiâ—e Quare telluntur isti tandem velut resecti arefactique pelunites gebennae addiciottur Bucer so in the event it will actually be dissolved sooner or later by one means or another When a soul is in Christ by a spiritual implantation he shall never be parted from Christ but this common union will be
and salvation is annexed He that thus hath the Son hath life And peace be to all them that are thus in Christ Jesus 1 Pet. 5.14 This is it which we are enquiring into wherein the nature of it consisteth which I shall now enter upon the unfolding of in the second answer to the question propounded By way of description CHAP. IV. Union with Christ described and the parts of the Description opened 2. HAving thus cleared our passage by the aforementioned distinction come we now to lay down a brief description of this great priviledge or grace of Union with the Son or having the Son which I shall endeavour to explicate in the several branches of it Take the description thus Union with Christ is that special relation which believers have to the Lord Jesus as Mediator of the Covenant of Grace arising from their closs and intimate conjunction with him whereupon they are accounted as one with Christ their spiritual state is fundamentally changed and the benefits of redemption are effectually applyed unto their souls In which Description that we may handle it methodically and so the more understandingly you have these five branches into which it may be divided that need each of them a little explanation 1. The general nature of this grace or priviledge It is a persons relation to the Lord Jesus 2. A note of difference whereby it is distinguished from other relations It is that special relation which they have to Christ as Mediator 3. The subjects of this Union unto whom it doth appertain and they are believers It is the special relation of Believers to the Lord Jesus 4. The foundation of this Union whereupon it is bottomed and whence it doth arise Why it ariseth from their intimate conjunction with Christ 5. The blessed consequents that flow from it or the great effects which are produced by it And they are three 1. Hereupon they are reckoned as one with Christ 2. Their spiritual state is fundamentally changed 3. The benefits of redemption are effectually applyed 1. The general nature of this grace or priviledge of Union with Christ It is a persons relation to the Lord Jesus So as I conceive it may be most properly stiled that mutual habitude or reference which is between them or which Christ and his people have one to the other Vnio hat est spiritualis illa relatio hominum ad Christum quâ jus acquirunt ad omnâ—s illas benedictiones qua in ipso praparantur Ames med It is called in the Text an having the Son and it is frequently set forth by a being espoused or married to the Son 2 Cor. 11.2 For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chast virgin to Christ. Rom. 7.4 That ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead Elsewhere it is called A belonging to Christ Mar. 9.41 And a being his Gal. 5.24 You know though there is a very neer conjunction and oneness thereupon between the Husband and Wife that are married together yet it is but a relative oneness their individual properties remain distinct notwithstanding Such is this Union of a sincere Christian with the Lord Jesus they are contracted and married together and so become united For by such umbrages taken from external things God is pleased to set forth this high mystery that it may be better apprehended by us that it may be easier let into our understandings Under this Head I shall intreat you heedfully to mind and observe three things 1. That this Union of the Saints with Christ is not a transformation of either into the essence or substance of the other Nostra ipsius Christi conjunctio nec miscet personas nee confundit substantias Sed affectus consociat confoederat voluntates either of Christ into theirs or of Believers into his essence They are not so made one as as if there were a substantial alteration or commixtion therein as if their persons or natures were so contempered together as to be made up into one A sincere convert is one with the person of the Mediator but they are not thereby made one person as some have vented their blasphemies that they are Christed with Christ and Godded with God and such like expressions that would make the heart of a sober Christian to tremble and his ears to tingle at the mention of them This oneness is not to be understood grosly and carnally as the Capernaites mistook it but in a spiritual sense as Christ himself doth interpret it Joh. 6.56 63. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him How is this to be understood Mark v. 63. Loquituâ— non de externo ac â—ranseunte verborum istorum sonitu sed de sensu illorum Ac significat se non carnaliter de carnall carnis suae esu in quo vita non est sed spiritualiter de spiritus vivificatoris virtute in qua vita est loquutum esse Muscul in loc It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak they are spirit and life As if he had said these things are to be taken in a spiritual sense and not after a carnal manner Indeed it is so undeniably evident that it is not to be meant of a corporal union that I shall not need to insist upon arguments for the confutation of such uncouth notions Christ and a believer are not so made one but that they retain their natures distinct and their personal properties distinct notwithstanding that union they have different places properties and employments Christ is corporally in heaven the heavens must contain him till the time of the restitutions of all things and many of the members of his mystical body are still militant upon the face of the earth He is the Redeemer and they are the redeemed Act. 3.21 To the Lord Christ doth justly and deservedly appertain all worship and homage All ye Angels of God worship him Heb. 1.6 But it were monstrous and hateful idolatry to give it unto the Saints who are our fellow-creatures Rev. 22.9 Acts 14 13 14 15. The Lord Jesus is ordained and constituted to be the Judge and Believers are a part of the persons to be judged It is true they shall fit as Assessors with Christ in passing sentence upon the wicked but first they must stand themselves before the Judgment-seat and receive their acquittal Act. 17.31 Rom. 14.10 I might multiply passages of this sort if it were needful So that this Union is not a perfonal or corporal oneness with Christ but it consisteth in the neer relation which they have unto him 2. Hence it followeth plainly by way of consectary that it is a gross mistake of such persons who would gather from a Believers oneness with Christ that they are perfectly freed from all remainders of sin Sirs Christ is holy and pure a Lamb without spot and blemish he never
and thou hast corrupted thy self He made man upright but he hath sought out many cursed inventions and made himself achild of the devil Besides this is none other ground than the devils may have to expect salvation Thus they are related to Christ For by him were all things created that are in heaven and in earth visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalâ—ties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things consist Col. 1.16 17. 2. There is the relation of men to Christ as the Son of man As he humbled himself to take the form of a servant and to assume our nature and not the nature of Angels And indeed such a one it was necessary our Med ator should be As it was requisite he should be God that his obedience and sufferings might be of value sufficient to content and satisfie the demands of the justice of God so likewise that he should be man that he might be capable of subjection unto the Law and undergoing the penalty of the Law Gal. 4.4 Heb. 10.5 As it was necessary he should be God that he might be able to vanquish and subdue our spiritual adversaries so also that he should be man that he might taste death for the children of men which was the way appointed for that conquest to be made Heb. 2.14 As it was needful he should be God that he might be a prevalent high Priest so likewise that he should be man that he might be a merciful high Priest Si enim homo non vicisset inimicum hominis non justè victus esset inimicus Rursus autem nisi Deus donasset salutem non firmiter haberemus eam Et nisi homo conâ—unctus fuisset Deo nostro non potuisset particeps fleri incorruptibilitatis Opertuer at enim Mediatorem Dei hominum per suam ad utrosque domesticitatem ad amicitiam concordiam utrosque reducerâ— facere ut Deus assumeret hominem homo se dederet Deo Iraen adv haeres touched with the feeling of our infirmities Heb. 2.17 And from hence doth arise a relation to him a kind of identity or oneness with him as between beings of the same nature Thus the Apostle saith they are one specifically one in respect of his humane nature Heb. 2.11 16. For he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one That is of the same stock and linage the children are partakers of flesh and blood and he took part of the same For v. 16. Verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but he took upon him the seed of Abrahaem But still this is a relation which is common to the just and the unjust to them that fear the Lord and to them that despise him Indeed the benefit of it redoundeth only to such as are sanctified For what advantage is it to thee that Christ was the Son of man if thou liest still in the gall of bitterness and art a slave to the devil But the relation it self extends to all the generations of mankind They are the children of men and Christ was found in fashion as a man Phil. 2.7 8. they are of the humane nature and so was Christ being the seed of the woman according to the flesh Gen. 3.15 16. 3. There is a peculiar relation of Saints and sincere Christians to Christ as the Mediator and Redeemer God and man in one person as members are related to the Head or the Spouse to the Husband A saving relation to him whereby they have a right and title to what Christ hath done and suffered and an interest in the mercies procured thereby such a relation is this Union we are speaking of The Apostle doth evidently puâ— a difference betwixt this and the former Col. 1.16 17.18 By him were all things created c. and in him all things consist And he is the head of the body the Church q. d. It is true Christ is the Lord and Soveraign of the whole Creation men and Angels and devils but his own people have a peculiar neerness unto him he is the head of the body the Church And the beloved Disciple mentioneth it as a differencing priviledg 1 Joh. 5.19.20 We know that we are of God dear children and the whole world lieth in wickedness And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understâ—nding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ Mark it we are in him others are not we who are born of God have a share in this signal mercy whereof the rest of the world are not sharers This leadeth us to the third branch of the description which is 3. The subjects of this Union to whom it doth appertain why to believers It is the special relation which believers have to the Lord Jesus that is sound believers which are made partakers of the faith of God's elect such as are Israelites indeed and Christ's Disciples and followers in good earnest Col. 1.2 To the Saints and faithful brethren in Christ You know there are Disciples of Christ in appearance and others who are such in truth who have not only the shew but the substance of Religion that do not only call themselves servants of Christ but are stedfast and faithful with him Rev. 17.14 And these are the persons who are in him It is for them only he prayeth that they might be one with him and therefore unto them peculiarly doth this priviledge belong Joh. 17.20 21. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe in me through their word That they all may be one as thou father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Mark it it is affixed to Believers that they may be one in us How are Believers the subjects of this union I answer on a fourfold account 1. Solely and exclusively 2. Universally and comprehensively 3. Entirely and undividedly 4. Formally under that respect as Believers 1. Believers are the subjects of this Union solely and exclusively It is a part of the hidden Manna which none taste of but Gods hidden ones as believers are called Psal 83.3 Carnal Professors have no lot nor portion in this matter they may enjoy great advantages by having their station in the Church but only real Saints and luch as are regenerate are ingraffed into Christ the head of the Church God doth give forth some spiritual mercies promiscuously indifferently to the good and bad to the righteous and wicked but there are other priviledges peculiar unto the righteous and this of implantation into Christ is one of them whereby he doth manifest himself unto his own and not unto the world How can this be saith Judas not Iscariot How is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not
are no more forreiners and strangers that 's the state of alienation from the Lord but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of faith this is that of friendship and communion with God That is the first thing to be noted as to this matter 2. These two estates as to matters of salvation and condemnation are comprehensive of all the posterity of mankind without exception of any They do take in the whole compass of the children of men My meaning is this that there is no middle condition there is not a man or woman upon the face of the earth but must of necessity fall under one of these two ranks Either he is a Saint and servant of God or a vassal and slave to the devil either he is an heir of heaven or a firebrand of hell And pray Sirs let us apply it diligently unto our selves and often say in our hearts One of these two is the condition of my soul if I am not a child of God and in covenant with him it will necessarily follow that I am a child of the devil for there is no third estate If I be not sanctified and called to be a Saint it cannot otherwise be but that I am in the gall of bitterness and if I die in this condition I drop immediately into hell As there are but two places into which all nations shall be sent at the end of the world that is heaven and hell the place of eternal life and that of everlasting punishment so there are but two states in which all are comprized during their abode in the world either they are Gods friends or his adversaries still in their sins or delivered from their sins 1 Joh. 5.19 And we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness The whole world that is all other persons besides us of what rank and quality soever And that is a pregnant Text Eccl. 9.2 All things come alike unto all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the good and to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Mark it all people in the world are cast by the holy Ghost into two ranks or companies either they are righteous or wicked clean or unclean good or sinners There is no middle condition or state of neutrality upon a spiritual account And indeed there is strong evidence of it from the reason and nature of the thing because the distinction which is between these two estates is such as we call a difference of contradiction in some respect such as is between the negation and affirmation of the same thing which cannot possibly admit of any third or middle estate whatsoever * If you will rather say they are privative opposita yet the argument holds good for such admit not a middle in subjecto capaci Oppositorum duorum privativè cum unum non inest necesse est alterum inesse susceptibili Aquin. Privatio euim est circa certum genus contradictionis Alex. de Ales Joh. 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Mark it here is a difference of contradiction betwixt believing and not believing You cannot possibly pitch upon a man but either he believeth on the Son and so is in the state of grace or he believeth not on the Son and remains in the state of wrath They who are regenerate and converted have the promise of salvation and such as are unregenerate and not converted shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven Here is a kind of difference of contradiction between converted and not converted And so I might instance in other qualifications That is the second thing to be noted as to the change of a mans spiritual state 3. Observe in the third place That these two estates upon a spiritual account are utterly incompatible and inconsistent one with the other and cannot upon any hand stand together Plainly thus they cannot both appertain to the same person at the same time It is altogether impossible that a man should be in the favour of God whilst he is in league of amity with his corruptions that he should be in the kingdom of Christ and under the prince of darkness together This is a truth so plain and obvious at the first view that one would think it should be needless to press it But I insist upon it the rather because there are secret workings in the hearts of the children of men to the contrary Their inward thoughts are that they may serve the Lord and be subjects of the devil together that they may be vain and earthly and sensual and follow the course of the world and yet be the people of God notwithstanding That they may drink and revel and be wanton and the like and be in the state of salvation too You shall find these are the secret thoughts and imaginations of mens spirits Mic. 3.10 11. They abhor judgment and pervert equity they build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity The heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for mony Yet they will lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord amongst us They flatter and sooth up themselves that they were servants of Jehovah the God of heaven although they served divers lusts and pleasures and turned aside into crying wickednesses that the Lord was on their side and they belonged to him though they openly espouse the interest of sin But alas Sirs it can never be these imaginations are vain and sottish Mark how peremptorily our Saviour asserteth the contrary backing that assertion with forcible argument Mat. 6.24 No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon q.d. It is a sottish thing to entertain such a fond conceit as if you could join both interests together The Laws of Christ and the commands of sin are diametrally opposite one to the other if the affections run towards the one they must of necessity be withdrawn from the other nay set against the other for they are directly contrary And besides where God accepteth of the heart he will have the whole heart where he is served truly he must be obeyed entirely and universally with the whole soul So that never dream of such a thing as making a commixtion of these two It is as easie to joyn together light and darkness heaven and hell as to make a conjunction between righteousness and unrighteousness between Christ and Belial The words of Joshua are very pertinent to this purpose when the people seemed to promise so affectionately
and resolvedly that they would serve the Lord Jos 24.19 And Joshua said unto the people ye cannot serve the Lord for he is an holy God he is a jealous God he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins that is unless you forsake your corruptions you cannot except you detest and cast off your idols you cannot whilst you are in confederacy with sin and before you have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty you cannot be the Lord's servants He is an holy being who will have no communion with the workers of iniquity Perhaps you will walk in sin and hope to make amends for all by crying to God for forgiveness you will swear and curse and ly and defraud and commit adultery and profane the Sabbath and cry God forgive me But Sirs be is a jealous God and will not forgive you as long as you go on in a course of impenitence he will never pardon your transgressions Possibly you will walk as the generality do in the vanity of your minds and wallow in all sorts of uncleanness and filthiness and then call upon God to have mercy on you Alas poor souls be not deceived He will not be merciful to any wicked transgressor Psal 59.5 So that whilst you serve sin you cannot serve the Lord. That 's the third thing to be noted 4. Remember this withal That the state of all persons by nature as they are in themselves and as they came into the world is an accursed estate a state of utter estrangedness from God and of liableness to the indignation of the Almighty Mark I say this is the condition of all persons whether Jews or Gentiles bond or free learned or unlearned whatever priviledges they enjoy and wheresoever their lot is cast this is their state by nature to be under sin Rom. 3.9 What then are we better then they No in no wise for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin q.d. Is this the sad condition of the heathen and of the infidel world only to be under the guilt of sin and the curse of the Law No it is the condition of every Son and daughter of Adam Are the Jews we that are visible members of the Church in a better state than others in this respect No we are all involved in the same wretched condition There is not a person amongst us but may lay his hand upon his heart and appropriate it to himself and say this was my condition and if I have nothing to plead for my exemption besides my birth priviledge the name of Jew or Christian and the like this is my condition to be under sin Not only to betainted with sin but under sin i. e. under the guilt of it and under the condemnation due to it All the posterity of mankind are by nature condemned persons in a damnable estate and if God should take them away in that condition they would be actually damned and perish for ever Sin would lie upon them and they would fall under it and so it would sink them irremediably into destruction O my brethren how infinitely doth it concern us to prove that we are renewed and born again for as we came into the world this is the estate of all of us to be under the curse both of my soul who speak and of thy soul that hearest or readest these things Certainly if any man upon earth could have freed himself from being involved herein it might have been Paul who had as much to plead as any Phil. 3.5 6. He was circumcised the eighth day that is according to the ordinance of God he was solemnly admitted into the visible Church Of the stock of Israel to whom pertained the adoption and the Covenant and the giving of the Law and the promises He was of the tribe of Benjamin not of one of the ten tribes who fell away so grosly to idolatry but of them who retained the true worship of God when the others apostatized An Hebrew of the Hebrews that is both his parents were Israelites he was not descended of Proselytes on either side but of native Jews without any mixture of Gentiles in his linage * He that was born of a Proselyte either by Father or Mothers side was termed Ben-ger the Son of an He-proselyte or Ben-gera the Son of a Shâ—proselyte But he who had both parents Israelites was an Hebrew of the Hebrews Godwin Moses and Aaron Touching his profession He was a Pharisee he was of the strictest Sect amongst the people of those who held fast many of the great truth of Religion which the Sadduces and other Sects rejected he was more Orthodox than some others Lastly for his practise he was blameless touching the righteousness of the Law that is in the sight of men they could lay nothing to his charge they could not say black was his eye And yet he includeth himself as wrapped up amongst others in this cursed estate he acknowledgeth himself to be a child of the devil and led captive by him till he got into Christ Eph. 2.1 2 3. Amongst whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as others This is the fourth thing to be noted That the state of all men by nature is a state of wrath 5. For the conducting of a sinner to everlasting life and glory in the prefence of God and to make him for ever blessed in the enjoyment of God this state must be changed They must be taken out of this condition and put into another namely into the state of grace As there must be a physical change wrought upon the heart so there must be a relative change in the state For indeed Sirs it will be the principal matter of Christ's enquiry at the day of accounts in what state men are He will divide the persons that come before him into companies according to the state they are in â— and pass sentence upon them answerably thereto Mat. 25.31 32 33. When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory And before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats And he shall set the sheep on his right hand but the goats on the left Mark it here is the great matter of enquiry whether they are sheep or goats righteous or wicked in the state of grace or still abiding in the state of nature It is true the Lord Christ will make an exact scrutiny into mens ways and carriage he will bring every work in to judgment and render to every one according to his deeds But those works will be lookt into as an evidence of their state and the nature and quality of the actions do much depend upon
quodam modo conceditur non electis Ames When he doth take salvation in the offers of it and lay it before the conscience and doth press an acceptance of it upon the heart and doth strive with men and women in order to a closure with it upon Gospel-terms This is sometimes called a knocking at the door of the soul Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me By the door understand the heart of a sinner whereby entrance is made into the whole person and possession took as a man entreth into an house by the door the heart which is naturally shut against Christ nay barred and bolted against him by vain thoughts and vile affections and carnal reasonings by pride and prejudice and love of sin and the world Now to this door Christ cometh by the Spirit who acteth in his name and knocketh at the door that is he doth argue and reason the case with mens souls by his internal motions that they would accept of salvation as it is offered He doth expostulate with them why they will be so foolish as to spend their time and strength in seeking after that which is not bread and cannot satisfie And in order to move them to turn to God he doth set salvation before them and assureth them of the enjoyment of it if they will submit to the government of Jesus Christ If any man open the door I will come in unto him c. This I call an internal-conditional application because it is an inward work of the Spirit treating with the heart of a sinner And pray mind it Sirs as it is a common thing so it is a very dangerous thing to stand out against this application of eternal life When the holy Ghost hath been dealing with a mans heart convincing him of the necessity of closing with Christ and he doth break through such convictions God doth many times withdraw the very strivings of his spirit from such a sinner and never dealeth with him further in order to his conversion Prov. 1.23 Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you It is the speech of Christ the eternal Wisdom of God inviting sinners to repentance q.d. I do not only call upon you by my Word but I will send the holy Ghost to treat with you He shall speak over to your consciences what the Minister preacheth in your ears And what is the issue of rejecting this work of the holy Ghost See v. 24. and onward Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsels and would none of my reproof I also well laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind That is when judgments which you were afraid of shall actually seize upon you and make you desolate when the wrath of God shall fall down upon you suddenly in a dreadful and terrible manner When distress and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me How is this to be understood seeing God is alwayes found of such as seek him in sincerity Why the meaning seemeth to be this God will withdraw his spirit and deal with their hearts no further and then they will grow hard and impenitent and though they cry in their afflictions yet it will only be the cry of hypocrities such as the Lord will have no manner of regard unto O my brethren let this dreadful Scripture and these awakening expressions sink deep into your ears that you may not dare to resist the holy Ghost or to send him grieved away from you 3. There is an effectual saving application of the benefits of redemption when they are so applyed to us as to be made ours so that we may say this promise is a part of my heritage and the other mercy is that which I have an interest in And this is effected upon our union with Christ When the holy Ghost doth not only shew us his excellency and propound unto us salvation through his righteousness but doth also mightily prevail upon us to come unto Christ and we get into him then we have a right to all that he hath to bestow upon the sons and daughters of men First we must have the Son and so a right to the inheritance by the Son 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption Mark it Then he is made so to us when we are in him It is one thing for Christ to be made wisdom and righteousness c. i.e. to be set apart as the store-house of all these spiritual good things and it is another thing for him to be made so to us By vertue of God's commission and the qualifications poured out upon the Lord Jesus and that active and passive obedience undertaken and performed by him he is made wisdom and righteousness and fanctification and redemption he is delegated to be God's high-steward or Treasurer for the giving out of these mercies he is become the source and fountain of all saving grace But when we are in him he is made wisdom to us and righteousness to us and sanctification to us and redemption to us so that we are actually made partakers of them These four things seem to comprehend the whole of the provisions made to conduct a sinner to glory 1. Wisdom for the revelation of the mind of God to us 2. Righteousness for our acceptation with the Lord. 3. Sanctification for inabling us to walk as a peculiar people and for carrying on the work of holiness to perfection 4. Redemption for our full deliverance from misery and compleating our happiness And all these are made over to us by vertue of our union with him our mystical oneness with Christ So much for opening the several branches of the Description and for the second general Head concerning the nature of this Union wherein it doth consist CHAP. V. The manner how Christ and a Believer are united cleared up in eight gradual Propositions Six of them insisted on 3. COme we now to the third principal Head propounded to be handled touching the manner of this Union how it is brought about The question is Qu. How is this Vnion wrought and accomplished After what manner is this conjunction made up whereby Christ and his people become one Ans I shall return answer to this question by laying down and enlarging upon eight distinct and gradual Propositions To which I must intreat your heedful and diligent attendance 1. Propos 1. The first Proposition is this That all the children of men
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
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
faith or faith as it is a spiritual act and work not the works of faith that justifie a sinner in the sight of God yet that faith which giveth him a title to the righteousness of the Mediator by whom alone he can be justified must be an operative and working faith such as purgeth the conscience from dead works and bringeth the soul into subjection unto Christ's Laws and Government To this purpose the words of the Apostle James are observable Cap. 2.14 What doth it profit my brethren if a man say he hath faith and have not works can faith save him It is not said though he have faith and have not works for where there is faith in the heart there will be new obedience in the life but if he say that he hath it if he be a pretender to it can such a dead lifeless pretended faith save him Christ is held forth in the Gospel not only as a Redeemer but as a Lord and a Law-giver and these are inseparably connected and knit together He that presumeth to divide between what God hath joyned together that will accept of Jesus as a Saviour but not as a Soveraign doth not indeed receive the Christ of God but an idol stamed by his own heart Whom he doth save he will rule and govern Heb. 5.9 He became the Anthor of eternal salvation unto all them that obeyed him I shall not need to trouble you with controversal points as whether faith quà justifying under that very notion or consideration doth receive Christ as a Lord This is acknowledged on both hands that the faith which justifieth doth receive Christ in al his offices as a Prophet to instruct and guide us in the ways of God as a King to exercise rule and dominion over us and as a Priest to reconciâ—e and make intercession for us If we come to Christ for salvation we must take his yoke upon us Mat. 11.28 29. For a dividing faith is a false hypocritical faith to whom Christ giveth remission of sins he giveth repentance also He saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost So that if we receive him as a Saviour we must have him as a Sanctifier for he saveth by sanctifying and conducteth sinners to eternal peace by guiding their feet in the ways of peace Thus I have ended together the mystical union betwixt believers and the Lord Jesus which I mainly drove at and intend when I shall speak of it afterwards as the foundation of our communion with Christ and receivings from him as also the sixth Proposition laid down to open the manner of the Conjunction between Christ and his people and their oneness thereupon There are two Propositions more yet behinde which I come now to insist upon that I may finish my answer to the third General Head 7. Propos 7. From this mystical union of a Believer with Christ or being ingraffed into Christ there doth flow another sort of union between them whereof love is the bond which may be well improved as an evidence of the former and it is usually called a moral union Such an oneness as there is between the dearest friends whose hearts are linked together in the bond of amity and mutual affection We say sometimes of intimate friends they are so nearly conjoyned as if they were but one as if the same soul did animate both in their bodies * Amor non est desiderium aut appetitus ut ab omnibus bactenus traditum Nam cum potimur amatâ re non manet appetitus Est igitur affectus quo cum re amatá aut animur aut unionem perpetuamus Scalig. Exerc. 301. Anima est ubi amat potiùs quam ubi animat Deut. 13.6 Thy friend which is as thine own soul So are the Lord Jesus and his peculiar people knit together He hath a very dear and inflamed affection to them He loves them that love him Prov. 8.17 His delights are with the sons of men Prov. 8.31 And on the other hand he is in their hearts so as to live and die together It is the greatest pleasure believers have in the world to be contemplating the excellencies of Christ and conversing with him it is that which doth yield them the most solid content and satisfaction and they are still hungry and thirsting after the further enjoyment of him as if they could never have enough of fellowship and society with him John 21.17 Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time lovest thou me And he said unto him Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee He could hardly bear it to have his love to Christ called in question This union is notably set forth in the Song of Solomon You have many passages for it I will transcribe a few of them See the workings of their hearts towards Christ Cap. 2.3 4 5.6 7. As the apple-tree amongst the trees of the Wood so is my belâ—ved amongst the sons I sate under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste He brought me to the banquetting house and his banner over me was love Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me I charge you O ye Daughters of Jerusalem by the Roes and by the Hinds of the field that ye stir not up nor awake my love till he please as if the Church had said O take heed of displeasing the Lord Jesus there is nothing will cut me so deeply to the heart as if you despise him and sin against him He is the life of my life and the strength of my soul it is acquaintance with him that putteth sweetness into all my accommodations they would be comfortless comforts were it not for Christ I am never better then when I am in communion with him Again cap. 3.1 2 3 4. By night on my bed I sought him when my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and go about the City in the streets and in the broad wayes I will seek him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not The watchmen that go about the City found me to whom I said saw ye him whom my soul loveth It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him into my Mothers house and into the Chamber of her that conceived me as if the soul of a believer should say how much doth my Spirit long after Christ My thoughts are not onely upon him by day but my meditation is concerning him in the night season And if he doth hide his face I have no rest in my Spirit I make use of all means to recover the light of his countenance I pray and seek and cry and watch I converse with this Christian
love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment that is as I take the meaning of the Apostle to be in the day of mans judgment when we are called before mens tribunal seats for the profession of Christ and required to give an account of our faith in Christ then we that are true believers will do it boldly we are not ashamed to own him for our Lord and Master Why Because we love him and this is the top of our love to make us stick fast unto him in times of tryal Or this is the perfection of our love the putting it to its proper use it was one of the ends for which this grace was planted within us that it might cause us to abide with Christ and not to shrink away from him when we are brought before mens judgment seats * The latter clause of the 17. v. Because as he is so are we in this world is rendred in the Syriack in the time past Because as he was so are we in this world As if the meaning were this Why should not we be bold to stand to the cause of Christ If we suffer for him it is but what he did for our sakes We are thereby rendred conformable unto him He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and shall we not willingly partake of his sufferings Vide Marian. in loc I am the rather confirmed in this interpretation from the following words v. 18. There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear as if he had said if persons love Christ sincerely which is Evangelical perfection if they love him really and in good earnest they will not be terrified with the threatnings of men but they will acknowledge him for their Master in the midst of an adulterous and sinful generation and though they should be dealt with for it even as they dealt with Christ Why Because they dearly love him and that love keepeth under their carnal fear and causeth them to go on with courage amidst all oppositions * The Gnosticks whom as some think the Apostle here confutes held that Christians in danger might to save their lives deny Christ outwardly Provided that they owned him in their-hearts To confute which devillish opinion St. John asserts the necessity of confessing Jesus v. 15. answerable to Matth. 10.32 33. And here he sheweth that denying Christ for fear of death was utterly inconsistent with love to him For many waters cannot quench love neither can the flonds drown it Cant. 8.7 And therefore when Peter had denyed his Master once and again for fear of danger what is the question that our Saviour puts to him after his Resurrection See Joh. 21.15 16 17. Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me He said to him the third time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me as if Christ had said haste thou not cause to question the integrity of thy love towards me Should not thy love have kept thee from disowning thy Lord even in the High-Priests-Hall though in times of danger Is there not reason for thee to search into the reality of thy love where was it at that time when thy carnal fear did so prevail 3. That love of Christ which will be evidential of our ingrafture into him must be a superlative love When we give the Lord Jesus the top of our affections and the uppermost seat in our hearts and place nothing above him or in competition with him When persons plead that they love Christ and it is pity he should live will some carnal people say that doth not love the Lord Jesus but they love the world better they love the Son of God but they have more love for their lusts and the pleasures of sin this is indeed to reject and despise him For Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or danghter more than me is not worthy of me Luk. 14.26 If any man come to me and haâ—e not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple If he doth not hate them that is if he have not a lesser affection for them than for me which in comparison with a greater love is a kind of hatted if he be not ready to cast them away even with detestation and to trample them under his feet when they come in competition with Christ as we are wont to do that which we hate and abhor he cannot be my disciple saith our Saviour For a Believers love to Christ must be a superlative love so as to account all things but loss and dung for Christ's sake and to part with all things to win Christ And to this purpose you must be much in studying the worth of Christ and be careful to get an insight into his excellency For as in secular negotiations men will never part with a great price for a commodity except they know the worth of that commodity so in spiritual affairs you will never be willing to sustain any great loss for Christ unless you know the excellency of him As your apprehensions of Christ's worth are such will be your readiness to venture and lose for Christ's sake Unless the Merchant had been acquainted with the preciousness of the pearl he would never have sold all that he had to buy it Mat. 13.45 46. 4. It must be a love of complacency and satisfaction when there is an holy acquiescence of the soul in Christ and a sweet contentment that ariseth from the enjoyment of Christ When it is the joy and rejoycing of a mans heart to be conversing with him * Amor est delectatio cordis alicujus ad aliquid propter desiderium in appetendo gaudium perfruendo Per desiderium cürrens requiescens per gaudium Else when persons say they love Christ but perhaps think not a serious thought of him from one end of the day to the other seldom or never have him in their meditations care little for any spiritual intercourse with him that is but a pretended love If a man love the Lord Jesus indeed he will long after converse with him it will be as marrow and fatness to his soul to be in his society Psal 63.1 2 3 8. O God thou art my God early wil I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is c. And v. 8. My soul followeth hard after thee It is love to Christ which maketh Believers so prize the Ordinances wherein they are wont to meet with him that is the reason why they take it so heavily to be deprived of those priviledges and that they can hardly bear the withdrawment of his presence but their spirits are ready to sink within them See what effect it had upon the Spouse Cant. 5.6
derived namely from the Lord Jesus Christ who hath the fulness of the Spirit and is still following his people with fresh influences thereof Grace was poured forth into Adam as water into a cistern or vessel which being not carefully lookt to was by the heat of temptation dried away but it is issued forth into the hearts of Believers as a stream that cometh from a living fountain and is fed continually thereby as a spring from the Ocean whose current is never stopped and therefore cannot be drawn dry Joh. 7.38 He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water But this he spake of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive Joh. 4.14 Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst that is Not with a thirst of emptiness and indigence He shall thirst the more with a thirst of desire * Satietas ista non desiderio sed tantâ—m siccitati opponitur and earnest breathings after further communications thereof but he shall never thirst as a person deprived of it he shall have constant daily and continued supplies until his desires be swallowed up in full fruition and satisfaction For as it followeth The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into ever lasting life This is the first thing for the clearing of this property of our union with Christ to wit the inseparableness of it By shewing you the firm foundations whereupon it is built 2. For the further confirmation and strengthning of this point consider That as for those things which are most likely in the apprehensions of man to make a separation and disjunction between Christ and a Believer the holy Ghost hath expresly intimated concerning them that they shall in no case be able to do it And therefore certainly it is an indissoluble union * Si quod magis videtur posse nou potest tum quod minus videtur posse non poterit For if any thing could disunite them a man would think it should be one of these six things Either 1. The remainders of sin 2. The violent assaults of the devil 3. The allurements of the world 4. False teachers the devils instruments 5. Troubles and persecutions for the sake of Christ 6. Death which is the great separating providence 1. The first thing that is most likely to disunite a Believer from the Lord Jesus is the remainders of sin and that by way of provocation There are many corruptions left in the hearts of the children of God and thereupon frequent infirmities and failings in the course of their obedience sometimes foul miscarriages committed in their lives For although grace doth ever act like it self sin cannot grow upon that root yet a gracious man doth not alwayes act like himself Now the question may be Will not these pollutions provoke the Lord Christ to abandon their society Will he hold any intercourse and fellowship with them that are thus defiled May not they justly expect that this should separate between them Why mark it Sirs sin in the godly shall never come so high as to make a separation between them and their Redeemer It may somewhat interrupt their communion and hinder them from tasting that usual sweetness that is to be tasted in fellowship with Christ but it shall never break asunder their union with him For the power and dominion of sin over them when they lay we tring in their blood would rather have hindred the making them one at first than the presence of sin shall dissolve that union when it is made If Christ sent forth his Spirit to sanctifie them when they were slaves of the devil that he might dwell in them certainly he will not utterly reject them because of their infirmities when they are sanctified and become the children of God If he had mercy upon them when they were in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity and knit them unto himself surely he will not cast them off now they are members of his body The Apostle presseth it as a forcible argument Rom. 5.8 9 10. God commendeth his love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life As if he had said Undoubtedly our state of enmity against God would rather have prevented our reconciliation than the remainders of sin can now prevent our salvation There is nothing can be imagined to come in now as an obstacle in the way of our salvation but would have much more proved an obstacle to impede our conversion If we were ingraffed into Christ through the superabundant love of God notwithstanding our former walking in a course of sin without controversie we shall abide in Christ he will never withdraw from us because of some unallowed failings And besides remember that when Christ married believers unto himself and gave up himself unto them he did it in judgment He did not act rashly and in considerately but he knew well enough their frame what creatures they were to what failings they were subject and what remainders of corruption would still abide in them Hos 2.19 I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness and in mercies And that promise is observable Psal 89.30 31 32. If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments then will I visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take away from them nor suffer my faithfulness to fail Mark it God doth own them as the children of Christ notwithstanding their manifold infirmities Though he may correct them in his fatherly displeasure for their sins yet he will never wholly forsake them The continuance of his love being not bottomed on their absolute perfection in the faith but upon his own faithfulness 2. A second thing which is most likely but shall not be able to prevail to dissolve this union is The violent assaults of the devil by way of temptation He is a potent and cunning adversary and will be ready to put forth all his strength and subtlety against the children of God to make them lose their hold of Christ and if it were possible to separate betwixt them and the Lord Jesus And this is the very ground of the despondency of poor afflicted spirits When they are strongly buffetted by Satan from without and find their lusts stirring within they are apt to yield up the cause and to say in their hearts We shall one day perish by the hands of Saul we shall never be able to hold out against
only that we may be provoked thereby to live in a constant dependance upon God for further grace to help in the time of need but likewise that we may be stirred up to give all the glory of There is Actual 1. Exciting grace 2. Co-operating grace 3. Resisting grace 4. Supporting grace 5. Restoring grace 6. Increasing grace 7. Stablishing grace 1. There is Exciting grace whereby the principle of holiness is awakened and stirred up and put into a readiness unto that which is good For although there are habits of grace alwayes resident in the hearts of the godly yet those habits are not alwayes in a present aptness and preparedness unto the matters of godliness What a listlessness and heaviness is oftentimes upon the heart of a sincere Christian So that he hath grace to seek when he is called to the exercise of it he is not in a readiness to bring it forth into act And therefore we have need frequently to quicken our hearts and to awaken and stir up the grace of God that is within us It was the complaint of the Lord against his people that they did not stir up themselves to take hold of him Isa 64.7 There needeth exciting grace and assistance to stir us up unto practical holiness that our loyns may be girt and our lamps burning and our selves in procinctu in a readiness to every good work as the exhortation is Luk. 12.35 Tit. 3.1 How much is David in prayer that God would quicken him Psal 119.37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way Psal 80.18 Quicken us and we will call upon thy name Psal 86.11 Vnite mine heart to fear thy name q. d. Gather the forces of my soul together that they may conspire as 〈…〉 be wandring and out of the way when I have use for them then they are to seek O Lord call them in and put them into a readiness Now this exciting influence proceedeth from Christ and is given forth unto them that are ingraffed into him It is he that knocketh at the door of the heart to awaken believers out of their security and to put them into a posture that they may be ready to follow him whithersoever he shall lead them Cant. 5.2 2. There is Co-operating grace or assistance to do the will of God whereby the new creature is set on work and inabled to walk in the way of Gods commandments For Sirs herein lieth a vast difference between the principles of sin which are naturally seated in the soul and the habits of holiness which in the new birth are introduced into the soul The principles of sin can work of themselves without any forreign assistance to reduce them into act If there were no devil to tempt us unto ungodliness the corrupt heart of man would be a tempter to it self Jam. 1.14 and would rush on into wickedness of its own accord But the habits of grace cannot act of themselves there must be renewed strength imparted to set them on work which we may fitly call co-operating grace Psal 119.35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein do I delight Though David had a spirit of new life within him yet he could not actually walk in the path of God's precepts till by an additional force he was set a going Cant. 4.16 Awake O North wind and come thou South-wind blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out By the garden understand a sanctified soul and by the spices in this garden may be meant the 〈…〉 〈…〉 sistance of the Spirit it is educed into act And this co-operating assistance is in Christ and issued forth unto them that are one with him 2 Tim. 2.1 Thon therefore my Son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus That is Get assistance from him out of his fulness to strengthen thee to the discharge of the work of the Lord. 3. There is resisting grace to oppose temptations unto sin and to vanquish and overcome the assaults of the devil Although in the first work of conversion there is a secret antipathy set up in the spirit against sin yet if you would be actually free from the taint of it there must be further strength to help you in grapling with temptations unto sin And this also is in Christ to be communicated unto his members Eph. 6.10 The Apostle doth exhort us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Not to enter the lists in our own strength but to put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil And the spiritual combate maintained by a child of God is called The fight of faith because sin is especially opposed by the exercise of faith and the victory obtained through faith in Jesus by which fresh supplies of strength are fetcht down from him 1 Tim. 6.12 4. The fourth sort of actual strength is supporting grace for the bearing such burdens as are laid upon us Strength to inable us with an holy quietness and submission to endure afflictions and hardships 〈…〉 thy to suffer in his cause and you have ability miniffred to carry you through sufferings to keep your hearts from sinking in the day of tribulation and adversity As you are called to suffer so through the supplies of Christ's Spirit you are impowered and fortified thereunto 5. Restoring grace To recover us out of that deadness into which we are apt to fall and to call us back from those decayes unto which believers are subject For though habitual grace shall never be quite lost yet the vigour of it may be much abated in which respect a Believer may be said to lose his first love Rev. 2.4 And though grace remain yet in this sense it may be said to be ready to die Rev. 3 2. Now for the restoring of a mans soul to its former life and activity and reviving upon the new man its ancient lustre and beauty there must be fresh strength communicated Which reviving strength is stored up in the Son and given forth to them that have the Son It is by the fresh beams of the Sun of righteousness that the clouds are dispelled and the mists are driven away and the soul of a Christian is made to look forth as the morning according as it is expressed Cant. 6.10 6. There is increasing grace for augmentation of the principle of holiness that the new man may artive at his full growth and stature unto which he is appointed And it is by grace which is in Jesus Christ the head and by fresh influence out of his fulness that the body maketh increase unto the edifying of it self Eph. 4.16 7. Lastly establishing and confirming grace whereby Believers are fixed and settled unto the end And this likewise is from Christ by vertue of union with him It is in Jesus Christ we are preserved Jude 1. Being rooted in him we become established in the
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
â—and and be made perfectly blessed in the fuil enjoyment of him unto all eternity And this by vertue of their union with the Son of God and because they are so neerly related unto him Joh. 17.22 The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Who are these of whom our Saviour speaketh Why such as are in Christ and in God the Father through Christ v. 21. And again v. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me So that all sorts of blessings are conveyed in this way from the leading mercy of forgiveness of sin to the very consummation of a believers happiness First God doth unite his people unto Christ and then he doth bless them with all subsequent blessings in Christ from the acceptance of their persons to the very crown of righteousness So much shall suffice to be spoken unto the fifth general head of enquiry touching the signal benefits that flow from our union with Christ and for evincing the necessity thereof CHAP. IX The special similitudes made use of in the Scriptures for illustration of this Mystery of Union with Christ. 6. THere is yet one question more to be answered before I come to the Application and practical improvement of the Point The question is this Qu. What are the special similitudes or resemblances which the holy Ghost is pleased to make use of for illustration of this mystery of a believers union with the Lord Jesus Christ Answ I answer There are principally four Which I shall not handle at large as if I designed to shew you in all particulars that might be reckoned up wherein the proportion holds Only I will select a few things under each of those similitudes which will be most obvious and apposite to our purpose and of greatest use for giving us light into this mystery and priviledge A Believers union with Christ is illustrated by comparisons taken from the 1. Natural 2. Corporal 3. Conjugal 4. Artificial Union that there is between the 1. Head and members of the natural body 2. Vine and branches graffed into the vine 3. Husband and Wife married together 4. Foundation and building erected thereupon 1. The first similitude which I shall open for the further illustration of the grace of union with Christ is taken from the head and members of the natural body The Lord Jesus the Mediator is the head of the Church and his people are his body and every individual Saint is a member of that body so they are compacted and knit together Thus the holy Ghost doth condescend in compliance with our weakness to shadow forth heavenly things under the figure of earthly Col. 1.18 And he is the head of the body the Church who is the beginning the first born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence The Church here is compared to a vineyard that bringeth forth fruit unto God and the Lord himself hath undertaken the charge and custody of it So that if you get into Christ you need not be troubled at events what may befal you you may cast your care upon him who is the keeper of Israel and will take the care of you He will destroy the little foxes that spoil the vines as his care is set forth Cant. 2.15 He will root up the errors that endanger the faith of his people and pluck up the Schisms that tend to the destruction of their peace further than may be fit to exercise them for their good and to make manifest such as are approved He will weed up the corruptions out of the hearts of his people and in due time put a stop to the rage of persecutors and whatever is noxious and prejudicial shall be averted and taken out of the way 3. He is the head of the Church In respect of influence and vertue derived from him upon it As from the head are derived the animal spirits for motion and sensation in the body and by it vigour and activity is put into the body So Christ doth minister unto the supply of his Church and people on all occasions By him the Spirit is sent down from above and all their vacuities are filled up Phil. 4.19 My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus That 's the third respect of his headship 4. In respect of his completion and perfecting by the Church The head is not compleat without the body Every part and member thereof doth help to the perfection of the whole Thus doth the Lord 〈…〉 himself imperfect till his body be filled up And therefore the Church which is his body is called The fulness of him that filleth all in all Eph. 1.23 In his person he is compleat without the least taint of an imperfection As to his Godhead he is infinite he filleth all in all But as he is the head of his Church he accounts himself to be defective till all his people are gathered unto him 5. Christ is the Head of the Church upon the account of their neer relation to him and intimate union with him They are as clesly knit together as the body is to the head And this is true not only of the Church in general but every particular Christian is united unto the head and partaketh of the influence of it 1 Cor. 12.27 Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular That 's the first thing to be noted under this similitude 2. In pursuance of this comparison observe further That the way wherein a Believer is knit unto Christ it is by being quickned through the Spirit of Jesus Christ For wherein lieth the conjunction between the head the body Why principally in this that they are both animated with the same soul There is nothing properly and strictly a part of the body unless it partake of life with it So the Saints are quickned by the Spirit of the Son thereby he joyneth them to himself and inableth them to take hold of him and cleave unto him * Ut Christus similitudinem capitis naturalis gerit Ecclesia coporis naturalis ita elect orum tantum Rex caput Christus est quia in â—os tantum vi 〈…〉 electi seli sunt quia soli Christo tanquam à capite naturali spiritualiter vegetantur Parâ— de Pol. Eccles Christus non aliter caput est quam ut Ecclesiae vitam praebet Whitak Eph. 2.5 Even when we were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickned us together with Christ with the same Spiâ—it wherewith 〈…〉 Ghost which is poured forth upon him And if we are alive unto God it is through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 3. According to the tenour of this resemblance If we are made one with our Lord Jesus we must of necessity give up our selves in subjection to him and be ready to follow his conduct The members of
the body are subject to the head As the head dictates and commands so the hands work and the feet walk and the rest of the body is ordered Such an authority must Christ have over us and we must be in a readiness to close and comply with his directions and counsels Or else it will be evident that we stand not in the relation of members to him as our Head Rev. 14.4 These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these were redeemed from amongst men being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb that is These who are the redeemed of the Lord are a people wholly dedicated and consecrated unto the service of Christ and to the worship of God in Christ as the first fruits were set apart unto the Lord and devoted unto him As the first fruits were but an handful in comparison of the whole crop so they were consecrated unto the most high and thus are God's redeemed ones They are ready prest to be at Christ's beck and to follow his guidance See Eph. 5.23 24. Christ is the head of the Church and the Saviour of the body and therefore the Church is subject unto him 4. This Metaphor taken from the head and 〈…〉 hold forth that unity and concord which Christians should maintain amongst themselves and that mutual love tenderness which they ought to entertain one towards another They are members of one body whereof Christ is the Head and therefore it is unseemly nay it is unnatural for divisions to be amongst them If one member be weak will the other enter into contest with it and be filled with indignation against it Doth not the whole body suffer with one member that suffereth And do they not mutually rejoyce at each others welfire So should sincere Christians be kindly affectionated one towards another with brotherly love the weak should rejoyce with the strong and the strong bearing with the infirmities of the weak should help them and not be filled with wrath and bitterness amongst themselves It is an argument often pressed to this purpose Eph. 4.3 4. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of reace There is one body and one spirit q. d. Is it not a shame for you to fall out by the way Why you are brethren nay members of the same mystical body animated by the same Spirit made partakers of the same workings of the Holy Ghost and under the conduct of the same head see to it that there be no contentions amongst you that you live at peace and amity between your selves This consideration is largely insisted on to this purpose 1 Cor. 12 13. to 25. v. 5. As our Lord Jesus the Mediator of the Covenant of peace and reconciliation hath a peculiar relation of Headship unto the Church so he is made the head of all things for the good and benefit of the Church He is the Head of his own people in 〈…〉 and providential disposal of affairs he is the Head of all things for their good This is a matter of wonderful comfort to Believers Art thou an Israelite indeed a Disciple of Christ in reality Be not afraid there is nothing in the world can hurt thee or hinder thy salvation For that Jesus unto whom thou art joyned is ordained of God to be the head of all things and that unto this very intent that he might guide and govern them in a subordination to the good of his servants * Quemadmodum Christus similitudinem capitis Politici gerit ita quoscunque in Ecclesia externè regit non electos soâ—um Quid minus Cum gentium caput etiam sensu isto à Patre Christus constitutus sit Psal 18.44 Et Angelorum qui nedum de Ecclesiâ redemptâ sint Col. 2.10 imò singularum personarum sive de Ecclesia sint vel non sint 1 Cor. 11.3 Parker de Pol. Eccl. So I understand that Text Eph. 1.22 He hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church which is his body Mark it in a peculiar sense he is the head of the Church which is his body but in point of rule and authority he is exalted as head over all things to the Church i.e. with respect to his peoples good that he may dispose and manage them for their best advantage according to that Joh. 3.35 The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hands And Col. 2.10 Ye are compleat in him who is the head of all principality and power This is the first similitude for illustration of this mystery taken from the head and members of the natural body 2. The second great similitude which the Spirit of God hath made use of for the elucidation and setting forth of this Mystery of a Believers oneness with Christ is taken from that Vnion which is betwixt the vine and the branches graffed into the vine Or betwixt the root or stock and the sience inserted into the stock Believers are trees of righteousness in God's vineyard but they do not grow upon their own root The Lord Jesus is the root whence all their sap is derived An hypocrite bringeth forth fruit unto himself and he groweth upon his own root If he have any adhaerance to Christ it is but external But now a Saint indeed is graffed into Christ and there is a coalescency betwixt them into one Joh. 15.5 I am the vine ye are the branches He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit As if Christ had said This is the comparison wherewith I may fitly compare my neer relation to you my Disciples and such as you are I have had occasion already to touch upon this similitude and therefore at present I will but lightly pass over these four things 1. That the whole dependance of Christians in every respect as to the matters appertaining to life and godliness is upon the Lord Jesus and they cannot subsist one moment without him If they have spiritual life Saintship it is from Christ if they are upheld and maintained in that estate it is by Christ and if they have strength and ability to work the works of God it is imparted through him For they are branches in him and he is the vine So that we have no cause to boast of our selves nor is there any ground for self-confidence or trusting in our selves But the whole life that we live should be by faith on the Son of God All our fresh springs are in him Separate the branches from the vine and they quickly decay and perish and are fit for nothing but the fire so doth the soul of a man or woman if separated from Christ Rom. 11.18 If thou boastest thou bearest not the root but the root thee Let this saith the Apostle keep down the pride of your hearts do not glory in your selves for you have nothing from thence If a man glory set
him glory in the Lord for all the sap and juice cometh from the root The branch hath nothing of its own but what is received from thence All your support is by vertue of the root so that walk humbly with God in the sense of your own emptiness and utter insufficiency And if you would live the life of God indeed have your constant recourse unto the Lord Jesus and be drawing nourishment from him for thou standest by faith Rom. 11.20 2. The similitude imports That the union of a Believer with the Lord Jesus is a very closly compacted and intimate union that they are very firmly and entirely knit together The branch when it is graffed becometh thereby incorporated into the vine so in a spiritual sense there is a kind of concorporation of Christ and his people together and therefore it is represented under the notion of being graffed into him There is a deep and inward connexion between them so deep and intimate that they are called by his Name 1 Cor. 12.12 As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ i. e. so is the company of Believers Christ mystical who are so knit closs unto Christ as if they were the same as if they were consolidated into one 3. From this resemblance we may observe That a person cannot possibly be united unto Jesus till he be taken off from all other dependances whatsoever First there must be a cutting on the 〈…〉 stock in which it naturally groweth before it can be graffed into another First there must be an abscission before there can be an insition A branch may grow neer to the vine without being cut off from its old root but it must be wholly cut off ere it can be graffed into the vine Sirs By nature we grow in the wild olive tree we are rooted in the old Adam sin and self for when men are convinced of sin presently they have recourse unto self as a Saviour to deliver them from their sins But if you would get into Christ you must be taken off from these As you have it in the continued metaphor or allegory Rom. 11.25 For if thou wert cut off out of the olive tree which is wild by nature and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree Mark it first cut off from the one before capable of being graffed into the other 4. Learn in the last place from this similitude That the glory and excellency of a Christian doth lie in practical holiness or in being fruitful and abundant in the work of the Lord. You know The worth and excellency of a branch doth not consist in its beautiful outside or in the fair leaves and blossoms which it may bear but in bringing forth much fruit When there are fair clusters of grapes hanging upon it this doth content the Husbandman and prevents the pruning-hooks cutting off such a branch for the fire So herein is the excellency of a Believer when he is active for God in his place and calling and filled with the fruits of righteousness This is acceptable unto God and well pleasing in his sight This commends the root as a juicy sappy root when the branches are fruitful Joh. 15.8 Herein is my Fathor glorified that ye bear 〈…〉 fruitful you will be taken away and burnt the unprofitable servant shall be cast into outer darkness But then you will honour me indeed and be like to enjoy the comfort of your relation towards me when you express the power of godliness in your conversations This is the second resemblance 3. The third similitude setting forth the relation of a Believer to Christ is drawn from the â—uptial conjunction which is betwixt the husband and wife Christ and his people are joyned together in a conjugal union He is married unto them and they are his Spouse whom he hath betrothed unto himself When a man and woman are joyned in marriage according to the Institution and Ordinance of God they become one flesh so the Lord Christ and true Believers are one spirit Eph. 5.31 32. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joyned to his wife and they two shall be one flesh This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the Church It is as much as if the Apostle had said If the husband and wife are one by vertue of their marriage-covenant or nuptial contract much more intimately are Christ and his people one by their spiritual marriage the other is but a shadow of this Union Here is a mystery indeed for of this spiritual union you must understand me I speak concerning Christ and the Church Cant. 5.1 I am come into my garden my sister my spouse And throughout that book of the 〈…〉 1. When the 〈…〉 together into one It is according to the will and pleasure of the Father and a matter very pleasing and acceptable in his sight When marriages are regularly made it is with consent and approbation of parents on either side Now God is the parent on both hands in this spiritual conjunction and they have his consent to their espousals 1. He giveth his Son to the Church to be an husband Isa 49.6 I will give thee to be a light unto the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation to the end of the earth Gal. 4.4 When the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son c. Joh. 3.16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son 2. Upon the other hand he taketh the Church to be a Wife or Spouse unto his Son and giveth Believers unto him Joh. 17.6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world thine they were and thou gavest them me Heb. 2.13 Behold I and the children whom thou hast given me So that this is the Father's will that sinners should come unto Christ and be united unto him And pray observe it the rather because there is a proneness in the heart of man to question the Fathers good will Sometimes sinners have good thoughts of Jesus Christ as one that minds their salvation and came down from heaven to accomplish it but they are full of doubts and jealousies touching the Father they question whether he be willing to accept them Why mind it Sirs What the Lord Jesus 〈…〉 〈◊〉 doth is by God the Fathers appointment and approbation It was he that sent him about his work and giveth lost sinners into his hands to be saved This is mentioned as an incouragement to believe in Jesus for if you do so the Father will receive you graciously and you shall in no wise be rejected See the words of our Saviour Joh. 6.37 38 39. Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise east out For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me And this is the
Christ's mind is placed and act in the like manner as his acteth Their hearts must be moulded into the same frame with his heart and so I might instance throughout the whole man Christ must be formed in them Gal. 4.19 And Phil. 2.5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus They must be so clothed with his divine qualities that it may be said they have put on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13.14 2. There must be conformity to the sufferings of his death in a spiritual sense As Christ died for sin so Believers must die unto sin As our Lord Jesus was put to a painful lingring and ignominious death in like sort must their corruptions be mortified and killed For Mark it Sirs The death and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus is not only the meritorious cause through which sin is mortified and a strong evangelical reason why it should be mortified but it is also the pattern and exemplar according to which it is done In the very same way and manner as Christ was put to death for us so are our lusts and corruptions to be crucified within us Hereby we are rendred conformable unto his death Phil. 3.9 and planted together into the â—â—keness of his death Rom. 6.5 3. There must be conformâ—y to the Lord Jesus in his resurrection and ascension into heaven As he rose again from the dead and went up into heaven never to return to corruption any more so must the hearts of believers be raised unto spiritual objects and their affections set upon things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Col. 3.1 Their hearts must be withdrawn from sin and the world never to be ingaged upon them any more but they must live as persons that are revived and made partakers of a new life Rom. 6.4 As he was raised from the dead by the glory of the father even so must we also walk in newness of life 4. Believers must be made conformable unto Christ in the holiness of his conversation They must tread in his steps doing the same work as he did and acting upon the same principles and motives as he acted upon and carrying on the same designs as Christ carried on and serving the Lord in the like manner with cheerfulness delight and alacrity as he served him Eph. 5.2 Walk in love as Christ also loved us And Rom. 15.1 2 3. We ought not to please our selves but every one his neighbour for his good to edification for Christ also pleased not himself c. 5. They must expect to be made conformable to Christ in the troubles and persecutions that befel him upon the earth Therefore it is called a suffering with him that is the same things and in like manner as he suffered Rom. 8.17 If we will be faithful unto Christ we must look to meet with the like usage as he met with and to go through many tribulations into the Kingdom of God This is the second thing to be noted under this comparison 3. According to the purport and tenour of this similitude taken from the foundation and the building Our faith which is the uniting grace is a resting upon Christ and his righteousness The stones are joyned to the foundation by being laid upon it and there resting So when we lay the stress of our salvation upon Christ and cast our burden upon him and there stay our selves as upon a rock thereby we are united unto Jesus and made one with him By nature we are as rough unpolished stones in a quarry without any relation to Christ Now the work of conviction may be compared to the unsettling of these stones and humiliation and legal terrors upon the heart are the hewing of these stones By the first they are removed out of the Quarry and by the other their ruggedness is pared away The grace of conversion is as the fitting and polishing the stones for the building and faith is a putting them upon the foundation and their resting upon it As by the cement of love the stones are coupled one to another so by faith they are knit unto the foundation By the Spirit they are brought unto Christ and so stay upon him Isa 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant and walketh in darkness and hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God Rom. 9.33 Behold I lay in Sion stumbling stone and rock of offence and whosoever believeth on him shall not be confounded Mark it As Christ is a foundation to his people so he is a rock of offence to them that are disobedient they split themselves against this rock they stumble and fall and are broken in pieces If you would be saved by him you must by faith rest upon this foundation For whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded 1 Pet. 2.4 5. To whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house c. See likewise Eph. 2.21 22. This is all that I shall speak under the sixth general Head for the illustration of this Mystery of Union with Christ by those similitudes which the holy Ghost hath made choice of to this purpose That which remains further is the Application of the Point CHAP. X. Inferences drawn from the Doctrine of Union with Christ The excellency and dignity of Believers The peculiarity of the providence of God towards them The miserable estate of Christless sinners FOr Application or practical improvement of this Doctrine I will manage it under these three Heads By way of 1. Information 2. Examination 3. Exhortation 1. By way of Information What are the practical Inferences which may be deduced from this Point of a Believers union with the Son of God and the necessity thereof I will not aim at the ingrossing of all that might be taken in upon this fruitful and spiritual subject Only I shall select these three Inferences which naturally arise from what hath been delivered 1. If believers are united unto Christ and made one with him in order to their salvation then hence I gather That they are the most honourable and most excellent persons upon the face of the earth Why Because they are united unto the Son of God and accordingly they should have the greatest esteem of us and be most precious and lovely in our eyes It is the character of a man that shall see the Lord in Sion that he contemneth a vile person but he honoureth them that fear the Lord Psal 15.1 4. Now here is that which maketh them right honourable above all their fellow-creatures they are intimately joyned unto Christ So that the Saints which are in the earth are the excellent of the earht Psal 16.3 more excellent than their neighbours than all that dwell round about them Prov. 12.26 You know the excellency or worthlessness of any
and pearls and diamonds but the finest coloured earth yet these bags have a bottom and will be emptied But a Believer hath a mine a treasure without a bottom like the widows vessel of oyl that will not be emptied The best state of a worldling is but in lease for a tearm of years Let men boast what they will of having such or such an inheritance for ever the truth is the best Free-holder in the Land is but tenant for life death will as by a Lease of Ejectment thrust him out of his possessions Psal 49.16 17. But a Believers inheritance is for ever and ever Prov. 8.18 19. Riches and honour are with me saith Christ the eternal wisdom of the Father yea durable riches and righteousness My fruit is better than gold yea than sine gold and my revenue than choice silver And v. 21. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance and I will fill their treasures All the riches in the earth are but a shadow and fancy like the apples of Sodom that crumble into ashes between the fingers They can never fill a mans heart A person may be glutted and surfeited with worldly profits and pleasures but never satisfied But spiritual blessings are substantial riches that give satisfaction to the soul Rev. 3.18 3. We put a value upon men according to their imployments and callings As a Physitian or Lawyer is esteemed above others that are in meaner places and imployed about more servile work and the like Now the imployment of a Christian is of the highest rank He is called to be an attendant of an infinite Majesty He spends his time in converse with the mighty God and is one of his intimate acquaintance He driveth a trade for heaven and in pursuit of a crown an incorruptible crown whereas others are bufied about the trash and dung of the earth Phil. 3.20 For our Citizenship so the word imports * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in heaven i.e. We are members of that corporation and trade in heavenly merchandise and drive on our designs for the enjoyment of that everlasting Kingdom 4. Men are usually prized according to their endowments and inward accomplishments of the mind As now If a man have a quick understanding and a strong memory and abundance of learning if he be of great parts and have a deep reach into affairs such a one is honoured and admired and persons of a mean capacity are little set by in comparison Why mind it Sirs A truly godly man is the best learned man He hath the highest accomplishments and the greatest insight into matters And no marvel for he hath been trained up in the School of Christ and none teacheth like him He hath had his breeding in the Court of the great King he hath knowledge of those mysteries that puzzle the understandings of the greatest Doctors and which the wisest Philosophers could never attain unto The greatest Statesman and wisest Counseilor upon earth is but a fool a very dolt in comparison with the meanest of those that are upright in heart * Quanto magis foras es sapiens tanto magis stulius efficeris Si in omnibus es prudens circa te ipsum insipiens Bern. For if men reject the wâ—rd of the Lord what wisdom is in them as the questiâ—n is put Jer. 8.9 All their knowledge is but madness and that which they boast of as wisdom is but the shadow of it They are cunning to pursue a feather to hunt after a thing of nought and neglect the substance and is this to be wise It is the greatest wisdom in the world to please the Lord and the highest point of knowledge to see into matters that concern * Vide miser homo quia totum est vanitas totum stultitiâ— totum dementia quicquid facis in hoc mundo praeter hoc solum quod propter Deum facis Bern. our eternal peace Prov. 1.7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledg So that unregenerate persons are but Abecedarians they have not gotten the first elements of true knowledge Psal 119.99 100. I have more understanding than all my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation I understand more than the ancients because I keep thy precepts Multitude of dayes should teach wisdom and such as instruct others should be well skilled Yea but saith David I have out-stript them all for I am a servant of God anâ— have respect to his word 5. The last ground of honour I shall mention 〈◊〉 mens high extraction and Parentage their great kindred and alliances Such a person we highly account of He is Son to an Earle or Marquess or Duke he is neerly allied to personages of worth or the like But now a Believer is a child of the Almighty Eternal and Incomprehensible God he is of neer alliance to the Lord Jesus the Mediator He is closly knit to him and made one with him which is the highest pitch of dignity which a creature is capable of to be united unto the Creator the Lord of glory This is it which a godly man may glory of and be thereby able to out-boast all his fellow creatures all other the children of men whosoever Psal 87.4 5 6. I will make mention of Rabab and Babylon to them that know me Behold Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia this man was born there And of Sion it shall be said this or that man was born in her and the highest himself shall establish her The Lord shall count when he writeth up the people that this man was born there As if the Psalmist had said Men are apt to brag of their high birth and parentage they will boast of their Country and kindred I am a Citizen of Babylon will one say a famous City I saith another was born in Tyre a renowned place and have such personages of my kindred I can reckon my descent from Rahab saith a third a place of eminent remark and am allied to this or the other Prince and Potentate Well but a Believer can out-boast them he can go a step higher May he say I have God for my Father I was regenerate and born in Sion where the great King dwelleth I am married to the Son of God and so have a place in his family * Discamus sanctam superbiam sciamus nos esse illis meliores Hier. These are the people which God maketh the greatest reckoning of When he taketh a view of the world and the inhabitants thereof he puts an asterisk at the names of such He writeth them down with a note of remark Here is a man of royal descent indeed Here is a person that is of neer alliance to the King of heaven that is united to Jesus Christ who is King of kings and Lord of lords And mark how in the midst of the genealogy the holy Ghost setteth a note upon Jabez 1 Chron. 4.10 And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren And Jabez
called upon the God of Israel saying O that thou wouldest bless me indeed c. q.d. Here is a man of renown we must not pass him by without a note of memorial stamped upon him He hath outstript all the rest of his brethren for he is acquainted with God and in communion with him This is the first Inference 2. If Believers are united to the Son of God and made one with him then hence it will follow That the people of God may comfortably expect that God will take a special care of them and their concernments and have a peculiar regard unto them in the exercise of his providence For they are one with Christ and God loveth them with the same love for kind and substance though not for measure and degree wherewith he loveth the Lord Jesus and therefore certainly he will take a special care of them When the Lord is pleased at some times to appear gloriously in the preservation or deliverance of his Church and people it maketh the by-standers amazed and often filleth the wicked themselves with astonishment What are these people above others that God should bear such a gracious respect unto them You read the very Heathen could not but take notice of Gods handy-work in this particular Psal 126.2 Then they said amongst the Heathen the Lord hath done great things for them And Psal 48.5 They saw it and so they marvelled It was a matter of astonishment in their eyes that the Lord should be so mindful of them above others * Viderunt senserunt occultam vim numinis pro Israelitis propugnantem Et commoti sunt ipsâre Sim. de Muis in loc Why Sirs Here is the reason of it they are in Christ brought nigh unto God through Christ and no marvel that he hath a principle regard unto such You know That is a common distinction and it is a very comfortable distinction whereby the providence of God is branched forth 1. Into his general providence over all creatures So he feedeth the young ravens when they cry and provideth meat for the beasts of the field he disposeth and ordereth whatsoever doth concern any of the work of his hands 2. His special providence towards his own people he hath a special eye upon them and respect unto them As it is with a Magistrate of the City or Countrey If he be faithful in his place he hath a regard to the affairs and government of all that are under his jurisdiction but he hath a more than ordinary regard unto his own family and houshold So the Lord is especially mindful of the godly and here is the ground of it They are his family united to his Son and so his children by vertue of that union We have this distinction and the reason of it Mat. 6.26 30. Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly father feedeth them Are not ye much better than they Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe you O ye of little faith Mark it If he mind other creatures he will much more regard his people How doth that appear Why because they are his children married to his Son He is a Creator unto others but he is a Father to them He that feedeth the fowls of the Air saith Christ is your heavenly father And therefore doubt not but he will exercise a peculiar providence over you Wherein doth this peculiarity of the providence of God manifest it self towards them For answer I will take notice of it in four things besides what hath been spoken of the peculiar Covenant-blessings which are conferred upon such 1. It doth appear in the special cognizance he taketh of their condition and concernments When the Lord looketh down from heaven upon all the inhabitants of the earth and taketh a view of the transactions in the world he doth it to this purpose that he may manage them in a compliance with the welfare of his children and make them subservient to their good He maketh an exact enquiry into the state of his Saints and observeth other things to this very end that they may be disposed of to their advantage and benefit That is a precious Text 2 Chron. 16.9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him He maketh an inspection into all the world that he may not miss any occasion of doing good to his little flock but may take all manner of advantages to shew kindness to them 2. This peculiarity of providence doth appear in the special support which he ministers unto the spirits of his people to bear up their hearts under such pressures wherewith others are over whelmed For although there is no visible difference alwayes made in the acts of providence towards the righteous but it happens unto them according to the works of the wicked Yet there is a remarkable difference to be observed by a discerning spirit in the support which is ministred unto their hearts When the wicked are at their wits end and filled with terror on every side then Believers can lift up their heads with confidence and not be troubled at any amazement God is graciously pleased to send them love-tokens at every turn to be a relief unto them which the world knoweth not of So that they can sing with joy of heart under those very dispensations when the wicked cry for forrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit Isa 65.13 14. Do but observe their confidence in the midst of troubles Psal 46.2 We will not fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea that is though all things be in commotion and combustion on every side Our hearts are settled under the most shaking providences 3. It doth eminently appear in Gods overthrowing all things that stand in the way of the welfare of his people and prove hindrances to the advancement thereof Sirs The Lord will have no regard to thousands of others that stand in the way of the good of one of his chosen He will overturn the thrones of the greatest Emperors if they are impediments to the good of the meanest of his Saints So that it is a dangerous thing to resist the proceedings of the most high when he awaketh to the deliverance of them that are upright in heart Isa 43.3 4. I gave Egypt for thy ransom Ethiopia and Seba for thee Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life * Hinc generalis doctrina colligenda est Sic Domino curae esse pios omnes ut pluris ipsos quam universum orbem faciat Et nullum fore
way for your â—ture getting into Christ It is less dangerous for a â—an to be a stranger unto Christ and know that he is so â—an to be in that condition and not to know it This I â—dd to remove the main impediment that hindreth â—ens setting about the work of self-examination â—or I am verily perswaded herein lâ—eth a principal â—stacle They are loath to search themselves lest â—ey should find the worst by themselvs Just as some â—reless Shop-keepers that are run much behind â—nd they cannot endure to look into their books 〈◊〉 to cast up their accounts lest they should be â—quainted with their own poverty and see in â—â—at a low condition they are But mind it Sirs it â—better to trie and know that you are under the guilt of your sins and children of the wrath of God then to continue such and not to know it It is the knowledge of a sinners perishing condition will cause him to hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ and make him restless in his spirit till he get into Christ These are the people to whom Christ is sent to bring deliverance such as find they are sinners and are heavy laden under the burden of sin Isa 61.1 2 3. They are such lost sheep which the great Shepherd of souls will seek after that is such as are sensible of their lost condition Ezek. 34.16 I will seek that which is lost and bring again that which was driven away and will bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick But I will destroy the fat and the strong and feed them with judgment And it is ignorance of mens misery and wretchedness which is the devils great engine whereby he carrieth sinners blindfold and headlong into the pit of destruction As the knowledge of the disease is the first part of the cure so it is the knowledge of a mans damnable condition which is one of the first steps unto his conversion and salvation This is all I shall speak to the second head under the Use of Trial By way of motive and provocative thereunto 3. Let me close this Use with some special directions to guide you in the discharge of this work of self-examination That you may come to a right conclusion and resolution of the case Whether you are spiritually ingraffed into Christ and be such as have the Son and life through him or not And here I might give you a catalogue of Scripture-marks and evidences for trial upon this account But I shall not multiply particulars we will only insist upon the principal matter to be enquired into for proof of your union with the Son of God And a little to direct you in the method of your proceeding herein that it may be done effectually and successfully you must diligently heed and observe these following Rules of advice wherein I will proceed by way of gradation the better to help both your understandings and memories Direct 1. For the examination and trial of your selves and in order to the passing a righteous sentence upon your selves whether you are united to Christ You must firstly and fundamentally enquire if the grace of regeneration hath been poured out upon you and a sound conversion wrought within you This is the foundation evidence of a mans having the Son and other marks are made use of for discovery of this and in a subserviency to the manifestation hereof And the reason of it is obvious Because in the day of conversion this union is made up By the spirit of regeneration Christ doth take possession of sinners for himself and by a living faith which is one of the graces then planted in their souls they do receive Christ and embrace him as theirs and so are knit unto him as hath been largely opened By a through conversion the Lord Jesus doth cull out a people from the world and gather them unto himself So that this is primarily and chiefly to be sought into whether you are truly converted and made partakers of the renewing grace of the holy Ghost For if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Here is the grand question Are we new creatures Is there a through change wrought upon our spirits Is corruption mortified in us and the power of it subdued and a new principle of holiness put into and ingraven upon our hearts Thus it will be if you are one with Christ Except you are converted you are strangers to him and have no saving interest in him Rom. 8.10 If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness The body is dead that is the body of corruption is mortified and the force of it is taken away whereby it exercised dominion over you As before you were dead in sin so now you are dead unto sin and quickned and made alive unto righteousness Here is the failure of many and the occasion of their being deceived in this point of their belonging to Christ They sometimes look into the actions of their lives but never seriously consider whether the grace of conversion be shed abroad into their hearts They rest in a civil moral conversation and do not throughly weigh whether they are made partakers of the spirit of regeneration Whereas this is the fundamental evidence of our union with Christ 1 Joh. 4.13 Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit And Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his That is If he have not those gracious qualifications which are infused into the soul by the spirit in the work of conversion If he have not his heart moulded anew and fashioned aright by the holy Ghost If he have not the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord which was the spirit that rested upon Christ he is none of his Isa 11.2 This is firstly and fundamentally to be enquired after whether the work of conversion be wrought upon us and the grace of regeneration be formed in us Direct 2. If a person would be inabled to take cognizance of himself and to pass a right judgment upon himself whether he be converted and so knit to Jesus He must of necessity in order thereunto be well instructed in the nature and quality of conversion My meaning is this He must rightly understand wherein a sound and sincere conversion lieth and what a change it maketh upon the soul and what effects it produceth that so he may not mistake a feigned conversion for a true and a slight work upon the spirit which is common to the wicked for the grace of regeneration which is peculiar to the people of God For mark it Sirs There is a false conversion as well as a true and counterfeit grace as well as that which is grace indeed and in
reality As there is a feigned faith and formal worship and hypocritical obedience so there is a counterfeit conversion Jer. 3.10 Her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart but feignedly saith the Lord. There is much deceit and treachery in this work there may be a turning from sin when it is done in falshood there may be an inward work upon the heart that doth not amount to a saving change or sanctifying of the heart As for instance 1. There may be a kind of abhorrence and forsaking of some wicked wayes to cleave the faster unto others A sinner may shake off some kind of pride to feed his covetousness and in compliance therewith He may leave his profaneness and become an Idolater or superstitious As it was in the case of Micha Judg. 17.2 5. When his mother cursed and bann'd for her money that was stollen this startled his conscience and made him vomit up the sweet morsel which he had swallowed down But the man Micah had an house of Gods an made an Ephod and a Teraphim A sinner may leave his worldliness and become loose and wanton He may cast off his open debauchery and become a secret opposer of the power of godliness For as sin is contrary to grace and striveth against it so there are corruptions which are contrary to one another and fight one against the other Jam. 4.1 2. There is a kind of conversion from sin to civility When a person leaveth his swearing and drunkenness and revelling and the like and becometh a civil man and of an ordinary external demeanour but proceedeth no further Mat. 23.27 28. 3 There may be an abandoning and casting away many miscarriages in the practise when yet the heart still hankereth after them and were it not for some restraints of providence would quickly rush into the actual commission of them What could have been spoken more like to a convert than that of Balaam Numb 24.13 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord to do either good or bad of mine own mind but what the Lord saith that will I speak When yet he loved the wages of unrighteousness and fain would have cursed Israel 2 Pet. 2.15 4. There may be a kind of conversion from sin for the present with a secret purpose of the heart to return to it again in convenient season A sinner may fall out with his lusts and be filled with dislike of them for some present mischief they have done him when he is corrected for them with an outward judgment and yet the heart intend no total divorce or separation Just as friends may fall out in a fit of passion but when they are come to themselves they are easily reconciled again As it was in the case of the Jews Jer. 34.9 10 11 15 16 17. When the King of Babylons army fought against Jerusalem and the Princes and people were in great distress they turned and did that which was right in the sight of the Lord But when the distress was over they returned back again to their sins as fast as ever So it is with many carnal people when they are on their sick beds O how hot are they then against their sins and what a cry will they make as if none were more filled with hatred against sin But when once the sickness is over they quickly repent of their repentance See how far the people went in time of a destroying plague when they were every hour in jeopardy of their lives Psal 78.34 35 36. When he slew them then they sought him that is they prayed to him and they lamented after the Lord they poured out their supplications in the time of chastisement And they returned that is they left their sins and promised amendment and possibly made solemn vows Covenants never to return to them again if God would deliver them but this once they would serve him for ever And they enquired early after God that is earnestly and affectionately as if they were eagerly set upon regaining his favour and nothing would satisfie them without it They enquired after him as if they had been ready to do whatsoever he should command them And they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their redeemer So that this was not only a sudden flash of their spirits but a matter done upon some kind of deliberation they were convinced that it was best for them to serve the Lord and they cast off their sins upon that conviction And yet all was done but in hypocrisie as it followeth v. 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their lips and they lied unto him with their tongues For their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant Now if persons be not rightly instructed in the nature of a true conversion and where the difference is betwixt it and this counterfeit work it is impossible they should rightly judge if themselves are truly converted If they be not rightly informed of the nature of saving grace they cannot rightly determine whether they are partakers of it I am perswaded that this is the original of the presumption and self-deceit of many They presently conclude themselves to be godly because they are not well instructed in the nature of godliness They think that they have repented unto salvation because they know not wherein such repentance doth consist they take the form of godliness for the power of it and a legal repentance for evangelical If they find some convictions and trouble in their spirits for sin they are presently willing to believe it is a conversion from sin If there be found in their hearts some slight affections to the word they apprehend themselves to be savingly wrought upon by the word If in their conversations they leave some old sins and turn over a new leaf they imagine themselves to be new creatures Whereas a saving conversion is another kind of matter it maketh a change in the whole nature of the sinner It is not limited and confined to any particular faculties of the soul but extendeth it self to the renovation of the whole man Jer. 24.7 It doth not only set a man free from some grosser acts of iniquity which a natural conscience will startle at but setteth up a standing enmity in the soul against every false way whether greater or lesser whether they be sins of the flesh or of the spirit Psal 119.104 And this enmity is a lasting irreconcileable enmity such as shall never be rooted out again It is not as the damming up of a stream with mounds and banks which when they are broken it runneth the same way with as great a violence as ever but it is as the cleansing of the fountain and turning the water into another channel Jer. 3.19 A sound conversion doth not only turn the soul from sin but causeth him to return unto the Lord even unto
perfected hereby we know that we are in him Direct 4. In the examination of your wayes and works as a proof of your conversion and union with Christ thereupon this must be carefully minded That it is not the external discharge of some particular duties will evidence a sincere conversion unto God but a diligent search must be made into the main bent of your spirits as to the wayes of holiness and the whole tenour of your conversations must be considered upon that account It must be observed whether you make religion your business and if it be the great design you drive on to study to please the Lord and to be accepted of him It is not the workings of your spirits in a fit of affection when your hearts are warmed by the word or you are under the call of some awakening providence that will prove you to be converts indeed but the general scope and tendency of your lives when godliness is the trade that you follow and holiness the high way wherein you travel As the expression is Isa 35.8 9. And a high way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for those the way-faring men though fools shall not erre therein No Lion shall be there nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereupon it shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there Mark it Sirs Holiness is the high way where the servants of Christ take their journey They do not only now and then make an excursion into some acts of piety and godliness when they are under convictions and the like But they spend their very life time in walking with God As holiness is a plain way wherein the meanest Christian may go on directly to heaven without danger of miscarrying Though he be of never so low parts and endowments yet if his design be to fear the Lord and to be blessed in the enjoyment of him God hath chalked out the way so clearly that he that runs may observe it And as it is a safe way wherein the Lord hath undertaken for the protection of travellers against all dangers and evil occurrents So it is the great road wherein all the redeemed ones travel from one end of the week to the other My brethren such as are Christians in good earnest do not take up a garb of Religion for the Sabbath and then lay it aside the six dayes following as men put on and off their best apparel They do not put on a kind of seriousness in spiritual exercises and live as Atheists and worldlings in their secular negotiations and affairs They do not enter upon the performance of some particular duduties only to stop the clamours of an awakened conscience and when that turn is served return to their vanity and wickedness But they make the Lord their constant companion and take holiness as a clew of thread that runs through all their undertakings and concernments Zech. 14.20 21. In that day there shall be upon the bells of their horses Holiness to the Lord and the pots in the Lords house shall be like the bowls before the Altar yea every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts In that day that is when God doth pour out plentifully of the spirit of grace and wash sinners in the fountain set open for sin and uncleanness then they shall endeavour to be spiritual in the very common and ordinary actions of their lives and to be holy in all manner of conversation As it is not some particular acts of sin into which a man falleth through weakness and the violence of temptations that will prove the person offending to be wicked and unconverted but when he liveth in a course of sin and any ungodliness is the way wherein he goeth So it is not the performance of some particular duties of Religion unto which a man is carried by the force of a natural conscience will prove his conversion but when holiness is the high way wherein he travelleth and the very business which he prosecuteth This was Noah's evidence that he was righteous and perfect in his generation He did not only obey the voice of the Lord in some particulats but he walked with God Gen. 6.9 And Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God for he walked with him for hundreds of years together from one end of the year to the other Compare Heb. 11.5 with Gen. 5.22 Direct 5. That obedience which will evidence that you are regenerated and converted by the Spirit of Christ and so knit unto him must not only be right for the matter wherein it doth consist but rightly qualified also for the manner how it is discharged and tendered unto the Lord. It is not barely the work done opus operatum but principally modus operationis * Bonum oritur ex causis integris malum ex quolibet defectu the manner of the performance that will prove a principle of grace to reside in the heart of that man or woman by whom it is done As the sinfulness of sin doth lie chiefly in the manner how it is committed as when men sin wickedly and presumptuously against light and knowledge and break through convictions to the perpetration of evil So doth the excellency and evidencing vertue of the acts of obedience lie especially in the manner how it is performed An hypocrite may do the same external work which a believer doth and which for the matter of it is good Therefore the Lord doth expostulate with that sinful people who trusted in their outward duties concerning their defectiveness in the manner of the performance of them Isa 58.3 5. They had fasted and sought unto God but Is it such a fast as I have chosen saith the Lord v. 5. Mark it Sirs In the trial of your obedience to prove that you are sanctified you must not only mind the substance of the work what is done but likewise examine the suchness of it how it is done Possibly thou prayest often and readest the Scriptures frequently and givest alms to the poor and the like and from thence art confident of thy being in the state of grace But man is it so praying as God requireth And such a studying of the word to which the blessing is annexed Is it such a giving of alms as hath the promise of acceptance It is a good thing to run in the way of God's precepts But do you so run that ye may obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 This is the fifth Rule of Direction That in the examination of your obedience for the clearing up your conversion and union with Christ you must not only look into the matter what is done but strictly enquire into the manner how it is done and whether it be rightly qualified according to the purport and tenour of the Covenant of grace Direct 6. For the right qualifying and modification of our obedience to
God that it may prove a certain evidence of conversion and consequently of our union with Christ Jesus It must of necessity have these six properties and each of them must be enquired after in the business of self-examination It must be 1. Spiritual 2. Vniversal 3. Evangelical 4. Sincere 5. Thriving 6. Stedfast obedience 1. It must be spiritual obedience answerable to the nature of that God whom we wait upon and whose servants we are His essence is spiritual and such must our obedience to him be if we will serve the Lord acceptably and make it appear that we are of the number of his peculiar people Bodily exercise and a meer external devotion will strike a great stroke in making up the form of godliness but the power of it consisteth in that which is spiritual Joh. 4.23 The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him These are the true worshippers that is such as are so in Gods account whom he will graciously receive and own in their performances When people serve him in a bare external bodily manner he reckoneth them as his greatest enemies their service is but a piece of dissimulation which hath only the shadow of worship For the substance lieth in what is spiritual And such the Father seeketh to worship him i.e. such worship he commandeth and his soul is well pleased with Although it seemeth to be spoken here with a peculiar reference to instituted worship yet it holds strongly as to natural worship also even of all the parts and particulars of his service For the reason which is rendred v. 24. is comprehensive of all Because God is a Spirit So that our obedience if it prove us a chosen generation whom God hath set apart for himself must be spiritual And that in a threefold respect In respect of the 1. Principle from whence it floweth 2. Extent how far it reacheth 3. Subject whereon it is terminated 1. In respect of the principle from whence it proceedeth It must be such obedience as cometh from the heart and wherein the soul and spirit is ingaged Not an honouring him with the lips and drawing neer to him with the mouth when the heart is removed far from him Not a serving him only by a kind of compulsion under some terrible apprehensions of the judgments of God not in a slothful careless and lukewarm manner as if Religion were a weariness to us and we had no mind to our work But when we serve him aright our hearts must be ingaged to approach unto him Jer. 30.21 22. we must be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 And our inward parts must be employed in the works of holiness When a mans tongue doth speak forth the praises of God and his heart joyneth with him in the business when his hands do act in the works of piety and his spirit concurreth in the action and carry him on thereunto this is to serve the Lord with the Spirit Although he calleth for the body also to be imployed in his service as indeed he deserveth the whole man yet not as a picture or image without life and soul but as animated by the heart Prov. 23.26 My son give me thine heart and let thine eyes observe my wayes q.d. A slave will give me his hands and feet and the strength of his body an hypocrite will offer up the outward man but if thou be a son I must have the heart and spirit 2. It must be spiritual obedience in respect of the extent of it how far it reacheth Such as sets us in opposition against spiritual sins as well as fleshly such as causeth us to fight against secret pride and envy and earthliness and unbelief and malice and double-mindedness and the like as well as to obstain from rotten communication and gross outward pollutions It must be such obedience as is exercised in spiritual duties as meditation on the word of the Lord and frequent contemplation of the excellencies of God adoring his Majesty and admiring his works and setting the affections on things above as well as in pleading the cause of holiness and openly walking in the profession of it It must carry us to such works as are performed in the secret recesses of the Spirit and sets us a striving against such corruptions as are forged and fabricated in the spirit which no eye can observe but God and our own consciences 2 Cor. 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves from all the filthiness both of the flesh and spirit Rom. 8.5 They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit Psal 73.1 Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are clean of heart See further Psal 24.3 4. Mat. 6.21 3. In respect of the subject whereon it is terminated It endeth in the further renewing and purifying the spirit and getting more degrees of habitual grace into the heart When we are not only contented to be kept free from the acts of sin but do mourn and lament under the principle of sin and labour to deaden that principle When we do not think it enough to do much for God but fain would have our spirits transformed every day more and more into the image of God Thus it will be if you are converted If a carnal person resist the temptation he thinks his work is done and is apt to glory in himself as if the whole business were dispatched But a convert layeth the ax to the root of the tree he followeth the corrupt stream to the poysonous fountain whence it is derived and nothing will satisfie him but cleansing the fountain and taking revenge upon his lusts that lodge within him Rom. 7.23 24. Paul's actual sins cause him to have an eye upon his heart by which he was turned aside I see saith he another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity unto the law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death This is the first qualification It must be spiritual obedience 2. If you would prove your conversion and consequentially your union with Christ by your obedience It must be universal obedience Not a partial and restrictive serving of God but a following him fully as far as the whole circuit of holiness reacheth As it is said of Caleh Num. 14.24 He followed the Lord fully and that proved him to be a man of another spirit and of a gracious temper indeed sanctified by the holy Ghost because his obedience was universal There is a threefold universality must go to the right qualifying our obedience that it may be evidential of a converted estate It must be universal in relation to the 1. Agent or person obeying 2. Rule of obedience 3. Times and seasons of the performance 1. In relation to the agent or person
me to wrath who am able to break thee in pieces like a potters vessel Think of it Saul as if Christ had said it is a dangerous way which thou art in it is a miserable imployment thou spendest thy pains about thou art but kicking against the pricks contending with one * Sententia est proverbialis à bobus out equis sumpta qui dum stimulis punguntur calcitrando nihil proficiunt nisi quod stimulis altius infixis malum duplicant that is too strong for thee for it is Jesus whom thou persecutest 4. Do not neglect to give believers what help and furtherance you can in their pilgrimage Be ready to shew them any kindness that lieth in your way to shew them and to contribute what relief and assistance soever you are able to minister upon any occasion for they are united unto Christ intimately acquainted with him and neerly related to him So that the Lord Jesus will take it kindly at your hands whatever friendship you shew to his people Art thou a Lawyer Plead their cause Art thou a Magistrate Protect their persons against the Sons of violence Break the jaws of the wicked and pluck the spoil out of their teeth Art thou a private person and hearest the godly traduced and their profession bespattered Endeavour to vindicate them and what in thee lieth to clear up their innocency Art thou a man whom God hath intrusted with wealth and riches Why then as thou hast opportunity do good to all but especially to the houshold of faith For they are members of Christ and thou shalt in no wise lose thy reward Christ hath all the blessings in the world put into his hauds to distribute and in the distribution of his doles of bounty be sure he will not forget such as have shewed kindness to his servants he will recompence them to the full the smallest courtesie done to the Saints shall not be forgotten Mark 9.41 Whosoever shall give you a cup of cold water to drink in my name because ye belong to Christ verily I say unto you he shall not lose his reward He hath promised to reward those that feed their enemies when they are hungry and give them water to drink when they are thirsty and will he not much more reward such as relieve and shelter his own Saints and people Prov. 25.21 22. They are united to him what kindness is shewed unâ—o them is reckoned as if it were shewed to our Lord Jesus Christ A little to press home these Exhortations let me intreat you to consider these four moving considerations Cons 1. Holy men and women who study to please the Lord and to walk in integrity before him are the very pillars of a Nation by which it is upheld They are the main props and supporters of the places where they live of the families wherein they dwell It is for their sakes that mercies are continued unto a people or kingdom and judgments are kept off from falling down upon them to their utter desolation and ruine So that it concerns you to seek their good and to incourage them in their holiness as you tender your own welfare Were it not for the servants of Christ you would quickly be in a miserable case And therefore when God doth gather his own people unto himself it is usually the forerunner of some sore calamity Isa 57.1 The righteous is taken away from the evil to come Plainly intimating that it was their presence which staved off vengeance for a time and when they are called home then the floud-gates of wrath are set open It is upon their account that God doth restrain the wickedness of men that they are not as monsters and devils one to another and that he doth with-hold the pouring out his wrathful indignation You know what he saith in relation to Sodom whose sin was grievous and the cry of it was great and went up to heaven yet if there had been ten righteous persons in it the place had been spared for their sakes And however nothing could be done against it till righteous Lot was gone forth Gen. 18.32 Gen. 19.22 23 24. Indeed sometimes the wickedness of a place is so excessively heinous that it is beyond the prayers of the godly The most eminent persons in holiness shall not prevail for the sparing it Though Noah Daniel and Job were in it they shall deliver but their own souls by their righteousness Ezek. 14.13 14. Yet in many cases they are instrumental by their presence and prayers not only to deliver themselves but to keep off vengeance from others And will you root them out who are the means of your preservation You think they are these precise persons who speak so much of Religion and are more strict than others that hinder your mirth and jollity What brave times of pleasure should you have were it not for these Precisians who are as thornes in your sides and rubs in the way of your rejoycings and merriment But Sirs if you believe the Scriptures it is evident that were it not for the godly amongst you you might soon expect to fall under the saddest dispensations and to have the sluces of the fury of the God of heaven set wide open upon you As soon as Noah was arkt the floud swept away the world of the ungodly As soon as Lot was lodg'd in Zoar it rained fire and brimstone as it were hell from heaven upon Sodom and Gemorrah And mark what our Saviour speaketh of Gospel-times Mat. 24.22 Except those dayes should be shortened there should no flesh be saved But for the elects sake those dayes shall be shortened Were it not upon the account of the servants of God who are converted and such as hereafter are to be converted the tribulation would prove like a sweeping rain that leaveth nothing behind it So that it concerns you in point of wisdom to love and cherish the Saints and to take heed that they be not wronged For they are the best subjects in a Kingdom the best neighbours in the places where they abide the best relations and servants you can get into your families they bring the blessing of heaven along with them Gen. 30.27 Gen. 39.5 They are the best friends you can have for they will be friends to your souls So that I may allude to that passage of the Lord to Abimelech Gen. 20.7 Restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and shall pray for thee and thou shalt live Shew kindness to the godly for they are favourites in the Court of heaven intimately acquainted with God yea united to Christ the Son of God They will pray for thee and be instrumental to avert and turn away judgments from thee and to bring down blessings upon thy head if not to save thy precious and immortal soul Cons 2. It is a shrewd sign that you are persons intended for uttâ—r extirpation and ruine when God doth make use of you as scourges to afflict his Saints and
to persecute his own peculiar people There is hardly a more sure token of the destination of men or any party of men to utter destruction than this that they are Gods rod for the whipping of his chosen servants For this is the usual method of his proceedings in that case First he correcteth his children and then the rod is thrown into the fire Isa 10.5.12 Possibly he may grant them a little outward prosperity for a while but at length he will break in upon them as the breaking in of mighty waters and will take them away as a whirlwind both living and in his wrath It is a shrewd sign that God hath determined to destroy them who devour his people and consult against his hidden ones See what dreadful threatnings are denounced against Edom upon this very score Obad. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. Thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger neither shouldest thou have rejoyced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction neither shouldest thou have spoken prondly in the day of their distress c. And then it followeth v. 15. As thou hast done so shall it be done unto thee thy reward shall return upon thine own head For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain so shall all the Heathen drink continually yea they shall drink and swallow down and they shall be as though they had not been But upon mount Zion there shall be deliverance and there shall be holiness and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions And the house of Jacob shall be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame and the house of Esau for stubble and they shall kindle in them and devour them and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau for the Lord hath spoken it Read also Zech. 12.2 3 4 5 6. and Isa 34. the whole Chapter Paul indeed was pluckt as a firebrand out of this burning he was converted unto the Lord in the very heat of his opposition but it is mentioned as a wonderful act of grace as exceeding abundant mercy 1 Tim. 1.13 14 16. Do you be incouraged by his example to submit to the terms of mercy whilst it is offered and not to go on to kick against the pricks Cons 3. This is a special matter which Christ will enquire into in the day of accounts how you have carried your selves towards his members And if you have set against them or neglect to seek their good he will avenge it upon you as if you had despised himself See how he makes their case his own Mat. 25.42 43 44 45. I was an hungry and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and ye clothed me not sick and in prison and ye visited me not Pray mind it Sirs What answer could you make against such a charge in the great and notable lay of the Lord What apology could you plead for your selves that you opposed Christ and neglicted to give him relief What reason could you produce why you should not be sentenced to hell for it If Christ should say I walked in the way of holiness and you hated me for it I was much in prayer and converse with the godly and you turned it into my reproach I durst not run as others to excess of riot and you were filled with rage and madness against me What defence could you make to acquit your selves from this charge Perhaps you would deny the charge and say we never set against Christ far be it from us to despise the Lord Jesus we love him and honour him with all our hearts only we now and then trampled upon a few hot-spirited people who were more nice than wise and more strict than they needed and cried out against out sins and corruptions But when did we spurn at Jesus Christ When did we see the Son of God and did not minister unto him Why Sirs this is the very plea which the reprobates will make at that day but see how our Saviour will reject and over-rule their plea upon this very ground Because he and his Saints are united and what is done unto them is as if it were done personally unto Christ v. 45. Then shall he answer them saying Verily I say unto you in as much as ye did it not unto one of the least of these ye did it not unto me Your despising them is a despising Christ So that consider what will be the end of all your contempt and oppressions of the godly but to perish for ever For mark the dreadful sentence Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels q.d. Now you serve the devil herein and hereafter you shall have your portion with the devil and his angels This is for the first Exhortation to the wicked in relation to the godly 2. In reference unto the wicked themselves let me direct unto such a twofold word of Exhortation 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively 1. Negatively If Union with Christ be of such absolute necessity in order to salvation through him Be exhorted to take heed that you do not build your hopes of eternal life upon any priviledge or attainment that falleth short of this grace of oneness with the Son or that may belong to a person which hath not the Son For except you have the Son you cannot possibly have an interest in the possession that he hath purchased He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life So that if you bottom your hopes upon that which may consist without union with Christ and may be found in such as are not ingraffed into him it will certainly prove but a sandy foundation and not able to support the fabrique which you reject upon it My brethren It is a matter which neerly concerns us to make a diligent enquiry into the reason of our hopes of eternal life and to see what are the foundations upon which they are bottomed whether they are built upon the sand or upon a rock Many poor souls are undone for ever for want of making this enquiry they have strong hopes and expectations of being saved but are able to produce no reason of their hopes or else they build their confidence upon such rotten grounds as will not minister a sufficient reason for cherishing such hopes and so they go on securely till they drop into hell ere they are aware of it Now therefore for the prevention of self deceit in the entertainment of your hopes see that you do not swerve from this general Rule That there is no priviledge which may be separated from the grace of union with Christ or that is to be found in any persons which have not the Son that can be a sufficient ground for hopes of eternal life All such foundations are but sandy
being unsearchable as himself for his compassions are himself He is a God of mercy his nature and essence is made up of it Psal 62.12 Hast thou multiplyed thine abominations above what can be reckoned Why his compassions are more than can be numbred Let the wicked for sake his wayes and the man of iniquity his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will multiply to pardon Isa 55.7 But can it ever enter into the heart of a man to think that God will ever pardon such a wretch as I have been may the sinner say Mind what followeth v. 8. He is God and not man his mercies are not to be measured by our scantling For my thoughts are not your thoughts nor your wayes my wayes saith the Lord For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my wayes higher than your wayes and my thoughts than your thoughts 2. The death and sufferings of Jesus Christ which he underwent for satisfaction of the justice of God are of infinite value and have given plenary content and satisfaction and he is at the right hand of the Father to plead that satisfaction in the behalf of lost sinners So that there is no ground of despair in this respect as if they might be greater offenders than the blood of Jesus could purchase acceptance for He is able to save to the uttermost Heb. 7.25 and there is nothing beyond the uttermost If you perish for ever it is not for want of merit in the death of Christ for it was the death of that person who is the eternal God Act. 20.28 It was the death of the man who was God's fellow Zech. 13.7 The Father hath accepted of the price that he paid In him he is well pleased fully contented as to all the demands of his justice Mat. 3.17 Eph. 5.2 So that if you address your selves unto Christ and to God by him you may come with a full assurance of faith without doubting of acceptance though your sins have been never so great and your condition never so deplorable Heb. 10.19 22. That 's the second thing to be observed 3. As our Lord Jesus is able to save the most heinous sinners that come unto him in sincerity so he is as willing to receive them when they come and he will in no wise cast them out As he is mighty in strength so he is tender of heart his arms are open for the entertainment of such as come to him upon Gospel terms and will subject themselves unto his government So that there is no reason to despair of Christ's willingness to become thy Redeemer Here is that at which poor sinners are apt to stick Alas will they say We question not the sufficiency of his merit but will he ever vouchsafe to undertake the patronage and salvation of such a rebel as I have been Nay but O man art thou willing to accept him for thy Saviour and Master and to follow his conduct and to become his Disciple indeed Why he is abundantly more willing to receive thee into his protection He beseecheth sinners to come unto him and therefore surely he will not reject them when they do come 2 Co◠5.20 Yea but I have been a very rebel against heaven will the sinner say for many years together will not this hinder my acceptance Why mark that precious Text Psal 68.18 He hath received gifts for the rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell amongst them Oh but never was there a sinner in such a case as I am will the soul be apt to urge against himself Yet if thou comest unto Christ he will in no case cast thee on t Put the case that thou hast been guilty of the most horrid transgressions put the case that thou hast ran to all excess of riot yet mind that comprehensive word of promise which proceeded out of Christ's own mouth who is the Amen the faithful and true witness Joh. 6.37 All that the father giveth me shall come unto me and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out It is an asseveration strengthned with a double negative in the original * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if our aviour had said I will not cast him out whosoever he be that cometh unto me Do you question it I tell you I will not You may build upon it with the greatest confidence As he hath elsewhere confirmed the promise of not forsaking those that are in him I will never never never never leave thee nor forsake thee * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 13.5 So here he hath strengthened the promise of not refusing such as come unto him I will not reject them I assure you saith Christ I will not So that nothing can stand in the way of mans salvation to hinder the accomplishment of it but his own wilful impenitence and unbelief These are the cases wherein there is not the least ground of desperation in any broken-hearted sinner whomsoever the Gospel hath provided plentiful remedy against it 4. Note in the fourth place That the high-way which leadeth the children of men to this damnable despair and so to give up themselves to commit iniquity with greediness is not doctrines of terror to the impenitent but presumptuously sinning against the Lord. When persons will walk contrary to the light of their own consciences and the clear dictates of the word of God and suffer their vile affections to suppress and stifle the convictions wrought upon their hearts this is the direct path that tends to desperation I pray mind it Sirs Poor ignorant people are very much deluded in this particular When they hear doctrines of wrath and judgment to come and everlasting destruction prepared for the workers of iniquity they presently cry out against the Ministers These are Preachers of damnation they would drive us to despair Nay but O vain man those doctrines tend to shew you the necessity of Christ and getting an interest in him and to cause you to despair in your selves which is a good step to salvation It is rebelling against the light and sinning against knowledge which make way for damnable despair What made Cain despair but because he had wickedly and wilfully departed from the Lord and trampled the commandment under his feet What brought Judas to despair but forcing down the dictates of his own light and conscience And you read of the people in Isaiah They roared like Bears in the agony of their Ipirits because they had gone on to sin against knowledge Isa 59.10 11 12. 5. But then in the last place There are four cases wherein I would quicken you to despair and to press such arguments upon your hearts as may be influential to incline you thereunto And without such kind of despairing you will never effectually mind the working out your salvation 1. You must despair of ever coming to the kingdom of heaven hereafter unless
the God of heaven Their tongues will make mention of the praises of his name and sing aloud of his righteousness Psal 149.6 Their hearts will be filled with an holy admiration of his greatness and majesty and wonderful goodness in their redemption 2 Thes 1.10 He will be glorified in his Saints and admired in them that do believe Their lives also will be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Phil. 1.11 2. God is glorified upon believers in more of his attributes and excellencies Peculiarly in his free grace and tender mercy which is the attribute that he delighteth to magnifie and taketh singular pleasure in the exercise of Mic. 7.18 God doth shew forth his truth and justice and declare his power and holiness in the ruine of the ungodly but there are no prints or footsteps of his free grace and compassion Their portion is wrath without mixture Rev. 14.10 But what saith the Prophet of them that are saved Mark that notable Text Isa 63.7 8. I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed upon us and the great goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses For he said surely they are my people children that will not lye So he was their Saviour Here is a discovery of grace rich inexpressible grace herein is manifest the goodness of God nay the great goodnesses of the Lord here is mercy and loving-kindness yea a multitude of mercies loving-kindnesses 3. In some of his attributes God is more transcendently glorified viz. in his wisdom and power It was a work of infinite skill and wisdom to find out a way to redeem lost sinners from the jaws of eternal death to execute vengeance upon the transgression and yet to save the transgressors O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Rom. 11.33 It is a work of greater power to pull a soul out of the hands of the Devil than to give him over to the will of Satan Eph. 1.19 20. Nay the very justice of God is better satisfied by believers through their surety than in the damnation of such as perish in their unbelief Here the price paid is the death of a creature but there the precious bloud of the Son of God as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1.18 The wicked that perish are ever satisfying and have never given full satisfaction for the wrong which they have done their debt is paying as it were by driblets But in the behalf of believers the work is compleated and finished the utmost farthing was paid together upon the nail and there is nothing further to be demanded For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 Now if God be more glorified in the salvation of such as are in Christ undoubtedly he is willing that you should come unto Christ and is ready to receive you when ye come So much for the third direction Direct 4. To stir you up to a closure with this advice and diligent prosecution of this work of getting into Christ Often revolve in your thoughts and lay seriously to heart this following consideration viz. That if you perish for ever in a separation from the Lord Jesus and for want of being in him that you may partake of his righteousness it will wholly proceed from your own default and your bloud will be upon your own heads And what anguish and horror will this bring to thy conscience in the day of accounts to bethink thy self thus I might have been saved by the bloud of the covenant but I would not and now I must lie bound for ever in the chains of darkness For it is a sinners willful rejecting of the tenders of mercy upon the terms of the Gospel which is the cause of his falling short of the mercy tendred Although it is Gods free grace and not mans free will that doth conduct believers un o the kingdom of heaven yet it is the perverseness and obstinacy of the will of unbelievers which hindereth their deliverance from the damnation of hell Jo. 5.40 Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life Hos 5.4 They will not frame their doings to turn unto the Lord Ezek. 18.31 Why will ye die O house of Israel q. d. If you are destroyed for ever you may thank your selves you are the blame-worthy cause of your own eternal ruine by refusing the terms on which salvation is offered And I pray think of it often what an unspeakable torment it will be to thy spirit for ever to reflect upon this very thing I have been wooed and intreated to lay down the arms of my rebellion and to submit to the government of Christ that I might be saved and I would not How often hath the spirit of God strived with me and I still resisted the Holy Ghost The word of God hath called upon me and I have broken through the convictions of the word With what confusion wilt thou be filled when the Lord Jesus shall say unto thee how often would I have gathered thee into the number of my servants and thou wouldest not be gathered and now depart from me thou accursed wretch into everlasting fire Mat. 23 37. Thus I have ended the first head of exhortations directed unto the wicked who are yet strangers unto Christ 2. Let me speak unto the godly who are through rich mercy and grace ingraffed into Christ and made partakers of this priviledge of union with the Son Be exhorted 1. To be much in blessing the name of God for his signal saving and differencing mercy Adore him for advancing you to this high dignity Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon you that you should be called the sons of God! Nay that he should take you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ and intimately knit you unto him 1 Jo. 3.1 Will you bless God for temporal mercies and not be ravished with the contemplation of this super-eminent blessing Certainly my brethren eternity itself will be little enough to admire the wonderful and unsearchable grace of the Lord. 2. Be exhorted moreover rightly to improve the consideration of this unspeakable gift And that especially in these six cases 1. Improve it in case of transgressions to humble you and to fill you with an holy shame and self-abhorrence in the sense of your miscarriages Not only to fill you with hatred against sin but with a loathing and detestation of your selves because of sin Let your thoughts be set on work in this Evangelical manner Hath God advanced me to this high dignity and shall I be so unworthy as to rise up against him Am I a person closely joyned unto Christ and in covenant with God through Christ
and shall I walk contrary to his commandments O the vileness and baseness of this heart of mine which hath thus drawn me to sin against such a gracious Lord and Redeemer This is the great aggravation of sin and thus will the kindness of God work upon you if you have any principles of ingenuity As Lemuel's Mother pleads with him Prov. 31.2 What my Son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows Give not thy strength unto women c. So may the Lord plead with his own people when they turn aside unto folly What you my children whom I have taken so near unto my self You that I have called out of the world and marryed to my only begotten Son What you that are in Christ the men of my covenant and my intimate acquaintance will you thus rebel against me Is this a good requital of all the love that I have shewed you and the great things which I have done for you See how this consideration melts the hearts of believers into Evangelical sorrow and causeth them to lie down in their shame Ezek. 16.62 63. And I will establish my covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God 2. In case of temptations Improve it to strengthen you and to make you resolute in opposing all sollicitations unto sin Say within thy self Am not I knit unto Jesus Christ and shall I follow the guidance of the prince of darkness Shall I defile my soul with the pollutions of sin who am taken into oneness and fellowship with my Lord and Savior Far be it from me to close with this motion to commit any of these abominations * Sicut exultatis de nobilitatis vestrae titulo ita discere debetis quid agendo unusquisque vestrum fiat Rex Quod vobis ita breviter definiam Regem te omnium esse facit si Christus regnet in te Rex namque regende dictus est Si ergo in te animus regnat corpus obtemperat Si concupiscentias carnis sub jugum imperii tui mittas si vitiorum gentes sobrietatis tuae fraenis arctioribus premas merito Rex diceris qui te recte regere noveris Orig. hom 6. in cap. 5. Jedic Let the swine wallow in the mire and the dogs return to their vomit shall I stain my garments which have been washed in the bloud of the Lamb Should such a man as I flee said Nehemiah cap. 6.11 So shouldest thou argue the case with thine own heart Shall such a one as I turn aside unto sin and follow after lying vanities I am dead to sin and marryed to my Redeemer and how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Romans 6.2 3. In case of wants and necessities Improve this consideration to support you Surely you shall not fail of every thing that is for your good if you are knit to Christ for thereby you have a right to all things And will the just God with-hold from you that which is your right Take therefore no thought and be not of a doubtful mind Is not the Lord Jesus a greater gift than food and raiment and other outward conveniencies Hath God knit you to his Son and thereby secured your everlasting welfare and will he deny you the necessaries for your present subsistence Hath he united you to the Captain of your salvation to guide you to heaven and will not he give you enough to bear the charges of your journey thither Let no such distrustful thoughts enter into your hearts for if he hath given Christ for you and implanted you into him certainly he will with-hold no good thing from you See but with what confidence the Apostle teacheth us to reason Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all How shall he not with him also freely give us all things q.d. It cannot be otherwise If you have a right to Christ God will deny you nothing that is beneficial for you How can you imagine the contrary Do you think he will suffer them that are members of his dearly beloved Son to lack any thing which he knoweth to be fit for them Why your heavenly Father knoweth what you have need of So that be careful for nothing with an anxious heart-dividing * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dividendâ distrahendâ mente Animum nunc huc nunc dividit illuc rapit in partes varias Virgil. or distrustful care but i◠every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God Phil. 4.6 Trust in the Lord and do good So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed Psal 37.3 4. In case of sore afflictions Improve it to comfort you Make use of it as a cordial against fainting fits in the day of tribulation and adversity For if you are knit to Christ be sure that the Lord will lay upon you no more than you shall be inabled to bear Christ himself will see to it that you be not hurt by your distresses for you are his members And do you think he will suffer any thing that is evil to befall the members of his own body further than he knoweth it will conduce to their greater advantage Why In all your afflictions he himself is afflicted and he tenders your concernments as his own for you are one with him Isa 63.8 9. 5. In case of doubts of Christs forsaking you Improve it to keep under and silence your unbelieving surmises Did the Lord Jesus take you into such nearness unto himself and will he now you are near unto him leave you destitute of his loving kindness Will he suffer his members to be torn from him It is a matter cannot be supposed So that see to it that thou be indeed in Christ and then fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame c. For thy maker is thine husband the Lord of hosts is his name and thy redeemer the holy one of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called Isa 54.4 5. 6. Improve it to quicken you to holiness of conversation Make use of it as an argument to inlarge your hearts in running the steps of Gods commandments and to make you strict and diligent in your obedience unto him Live above the world walk not as the generality of people walk Put on the Lord Jesus Labour to be like unto him for you are one with him Let no difficulties move you from your course of godliness Say often within your selves Hath God vouchsafed to give his Son to me and shall I think any thing too dear to part * Qui gratus futurus est statim
dum recipit de reddendo cogitat Sen de Benef. with for his sake Hath the Lord Jesus taken me into such a neer relation unto himself and shall not I love him and serve him with all my strength Surely to this precious Saviour I will cleave and his pleasure I will do and nothing shall separate betwixt my soul and him Take the exhortation in the words of S. Paul Col. 2.6 7. As ye have therefore received Jesus Christ the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving 3. Let me add but a few particulars by way of advice and exhortation to all and so we will conclude our discourse upon this subject If in order to the salvation of sinners by Christ they must be united to him and ingraffed in Christ Then be exhorted all of you 1. To learn the spiritual lessons which are from this point to be learned 2. To practise the duties that are hereupon to be practised 1. Learn the lessons which are from this doctrine to be learned And they are principally two which I shall commend unto you besides what I gave you under the use of information 1. Learn from hence The necessity of regeneration in order to eternal life Except you are persons born again of the Spirit you cannot enter into the kingdom of God Except you be quickned by the holy Ghost it is impossible you should be blessed in the presence of the Lord. Why Because you must have the Son you must be knit unto Christ and it is in the day of regeneration that the knot is tyed whereby the Lord Jesus and a Christian are joyned together It is the grace of regeneration and conversion that removeth a sinner from his own bottom and buildeth him upon the Mediator as upon a sure foundation as hath been largely opened So that believe this point and work it powerfully by meditation and prayer upon your own hearts That no regeneration no salvation It was the doctrine wherewith our Saviour began his Sermon to Nicodemus and he speaketh of it as a matter of great concernment to be studied Joh. 3.3 Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Mark how the assertion is strengthned with a double asseveration to note how hard a thing it is to convince a sinner effectually of this matter and how neerly it doth concern us to be thus convinced It is as if Christ had said The children of men are apt to think otherwise they hope to get into heaven upon the account of their notional knowledge and common priviledges and moral righteousness and the like But it cannot be I tell thee it cannot be take it upon my word Do your hearts question it Verily it cannot be verily it is impossible that any man should be saved except he be sanctified Whence you will say doth arise this absolute necessity of a man's being born again I answer It doth arise from these four things 1. From the stedfastness and unalterableness of the purpose of God Whom he hath predestinated unto life he hath determined to lead thither through the gate of regeneration So that if ever you get to heaven without partaking of this grace it must be by the change of the decree and purpose of God which is in its own nature unchangeable for the counsel of the Lord standeth fast for ever And observe the tenour of his purpose touching the way of life 2 Thes 2.13 God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit Although God doth not elect or save any of the children of men for their holiness yet he doth elect them unto holiness that they may be saved 2. The absolute necessity of regeneration doth appear from the infinite holiness and purity of the God of heaven who will never maintain any converse or fellowship with such as lie dead in their sins nor indeed is it possible they should have communion with God till they are washed and sanctified An unsanctified mind cannot behold him an unholy will cannot enjoy him and unholy affections can take no delight or complacency in him My brethren when persons are called into the state of the favour of God they are called also unto fellowship with him Now what communion hath light with darkness What friendly intercourse can there be betwixt a God of incomprehensible purity and such whose spirits are nothing but sinks of filthiness First you must be made again after the image of God and so fitted for acquaintance with the most high for God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and he hateth all the workers of it Hab. 1.13 Psal 5.4 5. 3. Without a principle of grace planted in the heart there can be no fruits of new obedience brought forth in the life which are of indispensable necessity to our getting safe to heaven Such as are saved by the Lord must be serviceable unto him for Christ will judge us hereafter according to our conversations here As a man soweth that he shall also reap Rev. 2.23 Gal. 6.7 8. Now except you be regenerate you cannot walk in a course of new obedience First there must be a good treasure in the heart before it can be productive of what is good in the life As the principles are so the practise will be Mat. 12.33 34 35. Besides God doith judge of mens works and deeds by the frame of their hearts in the doing of them He doth search the heart and try the reins that he may give to every man according to his wayes and according to the fruit of his doings Jer. 17.10 4. The indispensable necessity of regeneration doth arise from the influence it hath to unite a sinner unto Christ without having of whom there is no partaking of life through his bloud The day of regeneration is the day of espousals between the Lord Jesus and his people It is that which helpeth to make the marriage betwixt them For if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 This is the first Lesson I would from hence commend to your study and meditation 2. Learn from this point of a Believers union with Christ What is the influence of faith in the justification of a sinner or in what sense it is said to justifie us in the sight of God Not by any inherent worth and vertue in it self but because it is the bond that knitteth a sinner to Christ by the imputation of whose righteousness we are made righteous If we are justified it is freely by the grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Only the grace of faith is the instrument to bring us unto Christ and the bond of our union with him that so we may partake of that redemption * Sicut olim in deserto serpens aeneus in ligno punctis à serpentibus medebatur