then is it to plead that they can do good if they will when their Minds and Will it self is enslaved to Sin A fourth Property is Subjection to the power of the Devil who is the God of this world that hath blinded the minds of all that believe not 2. Cor. 4.4 And will certainly conquer all that he sighteth with upon his own Dunghill that is in a natural State And from all these Properties we may well conclude that it hath the Property never to be good to be stark dead in Sin Ephes 2.1 according to the Sentence denounced against the first Sin of Mankind in Adam in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 For you can no more bring it to Holiness by any the most vehement Motives and Endeavours then you can bring a dead Carcase to Life by chafing and rubbing it You can stir up no strength or fortifying Grace in the natural Man by such Motives and Endeavours because there is no Strength in him to be stirred up Rom. 5.6 Tho' you do all that lieth in you to the utmost while you are in this Flesh you can do nothing but sin for there is no good lying in you as the Apostle Paul sheweth by his own Experience I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 Sixthly We have no good ground to trust on Christ to help us to will or to do that which is acceptable to him while we continue in our natural State or to imagine that Freedom of Will to Holiness is restored to us by the Merit of his Death For as it hath been already shewed Christ aimed at an higher end in his Incarnation Death and Resurrection than the restoring the Decay and Ruins of our natural State He aimed to advance us to a new State more excellent than the State of Nature ever was by Union and Fellowship with himself that we might live to God not by the Power of a natural Free-will but by the Power of his Spirit living and acting in us So we may conclude that our natural State is irrecoverable and desperate because Christ the only Saviour did not aim at the Recovery of it It is neither holy nor happy but subject to Sin and to all Miseries as long as it remaineth Even those that are in a new State in Christ and do serve the Law of God with their Mind do yet with their Flesh serve the Law of Sin Rom. 7.25 As far as it remaineth in them it lusteth against the spirit Gal. 5.17 And it remaineth dead because of sin even when the spirit is life to them because of righteousness Rom. 8.10 And must be wholly abolished by Death before we can be perfected in that Holiness and Happiness that is by Faith in Christ After God had promised Salvation by Christ the Seed of the Woman he placed Cherubims and a flaming Sword to keep Man out of Paradice thereby teaching him that his first State was lost without Hope and that the Happiness intended for him was wholly new Our old natural Man was not revived and reformed by the Death of Christ but crucified together with him and therefore to be abolished and destroyed out of us by virtue of his Death Rom. 6.6 It is like the part of a Garment infected with the Plague of Leprosie which was to be rent off as incurable that the Garment might be clean Levit. 13.56 If Christ be not in us we are reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 i. e. we are in a State which God hath rejected from partaking of his Salvation so that we are not to expect any Assistance from God to make us holy in it but rather to deliver us from it Seventhly This doth not at all discharge those that are in a natural State from Obligation to Holiness of Life nor render them excusable for their Sins at the Tribunal of God's Justice For God hath made man upright but they sought many inventions Eccles 7.29 Observe well the Words of this Text and you will find that all they who have sought out many Inventions rather than upright walking are comprehended in Man that was at first made upright And Man in the Text signifieth all Mankind the first Adam was all Mankind as Jacob and Esau were two nations in the womb of Rebecca Gen. 25.23 God made us all in our first Parents according to his own Image able and inclined to do his Law and in that pure Nature our Obligation to Obedience was first laid upon us and the first wilful Transgression whereby our first Parents bereaved themselves of the Image of God and brought upon themselves the Sentence of Death was our Sin as well as theirs For in one man Adam all have sinned and so death is passed upon all Rom. 5.12 Because all Mankind were in Adam's Loins when the first Sin was committed even as Levi may be said to have paid Tithes in Abraham before he was born because when his Father Abraham paid Tithes to Melchizedeck he was yet in his Loins Heb. 7.9 10. That Promise of God that he will not charge the Iniquities of Parents upon their Children is a Promise belonging to the New Covenant confirmed in the Blood of Christ and it is Yea and Amen to us only in Christ in whom we have another Nature than that which our Parents conveyed to us so that we cannot justly claim the Benefit of it in our old natural State Jer. 31.29 30 31. 2 Cor. 1.20 Those that account their Impotency a sufficient Plea to excuse them or others shew that they were never truly humbled for that great wilful Transgression of all Mankind in the Loins of Adam Inability to pay Debts excuseth not a Debtor that hath lavished away his Estate neither doth Drunkenness excuse the mad Actings of a Drunkard but rather aggravates his Sin And our Impotency consisteth not in a meer want of an executive Power but in the want of a willing Mind to practice true Holiness and Righteousness Naturally we love it not we like it not but lust against it Gal. 5.17 and hate the light John 3.20 If Men in a natural State had an hearty Love and Likeing to true Holiness and a desire and serious endeavour to practice it out of hearty Love and yet failed in the event then they might under some pretence plead for their Excuse as some do for them that they were compelled to sin by an inevitable Fate But none have just cause to plead any such thing for their excuse because none endeavour to practice true Holiness out of hearty Love to it until the good Work be begun in their Souls and when God hath begun he will perfect it Phil. 1.6 And will in the mean time accept their ready Mind though they fall short in Performance 2 Cor. 8.12 How abominable then and filthy is man that drinketh up iniquity us water Job 15.16 That cannot practise Holiness because he will not This is their just Condemnation that
we may infer that our Fellowship with God and Christ doth include particularly our having Light and walking in it holily and righteously There are other Texts that reach the Proof of the whole Direction fully shewing not only that our holy Endowments are made ready first in Christ for us and receiv'd from but that we receive them by Union with Christ Col. 3.10 11. Ye have put on the new man which is renewed after the image of him that created him where Christ is all and in all 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Gal. 2.20 I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me 1 Joh. 5.11 12. This is the recerd that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Can we desire that God should more clearly teach us that all the fulness of the New Man is in Christ and all that spiritual nature and Life whereby we live to God in Holiness and that they are fixed in him so inseparably that we can not have them except we be joyned to him and have himself abiding in us Take heed lest through Prejudice and Hardness of Heart you be guilty of making God a Liar in not believing this eminent Record that God hath given to us of his Son Secondly God is pleased to illustrate this mysterious manner of our Sanctification by such variety of Similitudes and Resemblances as may put us out of doubt that it is Truth and such a Truth as we are highly concern'd to know and believe I shall endeavour to contract the chief of these Resemblances and the force of them briefly into one Sentence leaving it to those that are Spiritual to enlarge their Meditations upon them We receive from Christ a new holy frame and nature whereby we are enabled for an holy Practice by union and fellowship with him in like manner as Christ lived in our nature by the Father Joh. 6.57 As we receive original sin and death propagated to us from the first Adam Rom. 5.12 14 16 17. as the natural Body receiveth Sense Motion Nourishment from the Head Col. 2.19 As the Branch receiveth its Sap Juiceand fructifying Virtue from the Vine Jo. 15.4 5 As the Wife bringeth forth Fruit by Virtue of her Conjugal Union with her Husband Rom. 7.4 As Stones become an holy Temple by being built upon the Foundation and joyned with the chief corner-stone 1 Pet. 2. 4 5 6. As we receive the nourishing Virtue of Bread by eating it and of Wine by drinking it Joh. 6.51 55 57. Which last Resemblance is used to seal to us our Communion with Christ in the Lords Supper Hear are seven Resemblances instanced whereof some do illustrate the Mystery spoken of more fully than others all of them do some way intimate that our New Life and Holy Nature is first in Christ and then in us by a true proper Union and Fellowship with him If any should urge that the Similitude of Adam and his Seed and of married Couples do make rather for a Relative than a real Union betwixt Christ and us let them consider that all Nations are really made of one Blood which was first in Adam Acts 17.26 and that the first Woman was made out of the Body of Adam and was really bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and by this first married Couple the mystical Union of Christ and his Church is eminently resembled Gen. 2.22 23 24. with Ephes 5.30 31 32. And yet it supposeth both these Resemblances in the nearness and fulness of it because those that are joyned to the Lord are not only one Flesh but one Spirit with him Thirdly The end of Christ's Incarnation Death and Resurrection was to prepare and form an holy Nature and Frame for us in himself to be communicated to us by Union and Fellowship with him and not to enable us to produce in our selves the first Original of such an holy Nature by our own Endeavours By his Incarnation there was a Man created in a new holy Frame after the Holiness of the first Adam's Frame had been marred and abolished by the first Transgression and this new Frame was far more excellent than ever the first Adam's was because Man was really joyned to God by a close inseparable Union of the divine and humane Nature in one Person of Christ so that these Natures had Communion each with other in their Actings and Christ was able to act in his humane Nature by Power proper to the divine Nature wherein he was one God with the Father The words that he spake while he was upon Earth he spoke not of himself by any meer humane Power but the Father that dwelt in him he did the Works Joh. 14.10 Why was it that Christ set up the fallen Nature of Man in such a wonderful Frame of Holiness in bringing of it to live and act by Communion with God living and acting in it One great End was that he might communicate this excellent Frame to his Seed that should be born of him and in him by his Spirit as the last Adam the quickning Spirit that as we have born the Image of the earthly Man so we might also bear the Image of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15.45 49. in Holiness here and in Glory hereafter Thus he was born Emanuel God with us because the fulness of the Godhead with all Holiness did first dwell in him bodily even in his humane Nature that we might be filled up with that fulness in him Mat. 1.23 Col. 2.9 10. Thus he came down from Heaven as living Bread that as he liveth by the Father so those that eat him may live by him Joh. 6.51 56. By the same Life of God in them that was first in him By his Death he freed himself from the Guilt of our Sins imputed to him and from all that innocent Weakness of his humane Nature which he has born for a time for our sakes And by freeing himself he prepared a Freedom for us from our whole natural Condition which is both weak as his was and also polluted with our Guilt and sinful Corruption Thus the corrupt natural State which is called in Scripture the Old Man was crucified together with Christ that the Body of Sin might be destroyed And it is destroyed in us not by any Wounds that we our selves can give to it but by our partaking of that Freedom from it and Death unto it that is already wrought out for us by the Death of Christ as is signified by our Baptism wherein we are buried with Christ by the Application of his Death to us Rom. 6.2 3 4 10 11. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh for Sin or by a Sacrifice for Sin as in the Margent condemned Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the Flesh but
continue without it for some considerable time Ephes 2.12 And though some may have the Spirit of Faith given to them from their Mothers Womb as John the Baptist Luke 1.15.44 yet even in them there is a natural Being by Generation before there can be a Spiritual Being by Regeneration 1 Cor. 15.46 Hence ariseth the Consideration of two States or Conditions of the Children of Men in Matters that appertain to God and Godliness the one of which is vastly different from the other Those that have the Happiness of a New-birth and Creation in Christ by Faith are thereby placed in a very excellent State consisting in the Enjoyment of the Righteousness of Christ for their Justification and of the Spirit of Christ to live by in Holiness here and Glory for ever as hath already appeared Those that are not in Christ by Faith cannot be in a better State than that which they received together with their Nature from the first Adam by being once born and created in him or than they can attain to by the Power of that Nature with any such help as God is pleased to afford to it This latter I call a Natural State because it consisteth in such things as we have either received by natural Generation or can attain to by natural Power through Divine Assistance as the Scripture calleth Man in this State the natural Man 1. Cor. 2.14 The former I call a new State because we enter into it by a new Birth in Christ and I may call it a Spiritual State according to the Scripture because it received from Christ the quickening Spirit and the Natural and Spiritual Man are opposed 1 Cor. 2.14 15. though some call both these States Spiritual because the everlasting Weal or Woe of the Soul or Spirit of Man is chiefly concerned in them It is a common Error of those that are in a corrupt natural State that they seek to reform their Lives according to the Law without any thoughts that their State must be changed before their Lives can be changed from Sin to Righteousness The Heathen that knew nothing of a new State in Christ were urged by their own Consciences to practice several Duties of the Law according to the Knowledge they had by the Light of Nature Rom. 2.14 15. Israel according to the Flesh had a Zeal of God and Godliness and endeavoured to practice the written Law at least in external Performances while they were Enemies to the Faith of Christ and Paul attainted so far that he was blameless in these external Performances of the Righteousness of the Law while he persecuted the Church of Christ Phil. 3.6 Some are so near the Kingdom of God while they continue in a Natural State that they are convinced of the Spirituality of the Law that it bindeth us principally to love God with all our Heart Soul Mind and Strength and to love our Neighbour as our selves and to perform universal Obedience to God in all our inward Thoughts and Affections as well as in all our outward Actions and to do all the Duties that we owe to our Neighbour out of this hearty Love Mark 12 33 34 And they struggle and labour with great earnestness to subdue their inward Thoughts and Affections to the Law of God and to abstain not only from some Sins but from all known Sins and to perform every known Duty of the Law with their whole Heart and Soul as they think and are so active and intent in their devout Practice that they overwork their natural Strength and so servent in their Zeal that they are ready even to kill their Bodies with Fastings and other Macerations that they may kill their sinful Lusts They are strongly convinced that Holiness is absolutely necessary to Salvation and deeply affected with the Terrours of Damnation and yet they were never so much enlightened in the Mystery of the Gospel as to know that a new State in Christ is necessary to a new Life therefore they labour in vain to reform their natural State instead of getting above it in Christ And some of these when they have mispent many Years in striving against the Stream of their Lusts without any Success do at last fall miserably into Despair of ever attaining to Holiness and turn to wallowing in the mire of their Lusts or are fearfully swallowed up with horrour of Conscience There are several false Opinions whereby such ignorant Zealots encourage themselves in their fruitless Endeavours Some of them judge that they are able to practice Holiness because they are not compelled to sin and may abstain from it if they will To this they add That Christ by the Merit of his Death hath restored that Freedom of Will to good which was lost by the Fall and hath set Nature upon its Legs again and that if they endeavour to do what lieth in them Christ will do the rest by assisting them with the Supplies of his saving Grace so they trust upon the Grace of Christ to help them in their Endeavours They plead further That it would not consist with the Justice of God to punish them for Sin if they could not avoid it and that it would be in vain for the Ministers of the Gospel to preach to them and exhort them to any saving Duty if they cannot perform it They produce Examples of I leathens and of such as had the name of Christians without any acquaintance with the Faith that I have described who have attained to a great Excellency in religious Words and Works My Work at present is to deliver those ignorant Zealots from their fruitless tormenting Labours by bringing them to despair of the Attainment of Holiness in a natural State that they may seek it only in a new State by Faith in Christ where they may certainly find it without such tormenting Labour and Anxiety of Spirit For this end I shall confirm the Truth asserted in the Direction and fortifie it against the forementioned false Opinions by the ensuing Considerations First The Foundation of this Assertion is firmly laid in the Directions already explained and confirmed by many Places of Scripture For if all Endowments necessary to enable us for an holy Practice be to be had only in a State of Union and Fellowship with Christ by Faith and Faith it self not by the natural Power of Free-will but by the Power of Christ coming into the Soul by his Spirit to unite us with himself who seeeth not that the Attainment of true Holiness by any of our most vigorous Endeavours while we continue in our natural Condition is altogether hopeless I need add no more were it not to shew more sully what abundance of Light the Scripture affordeth to guide us aright in this part of our way that those that wander out of it by following any false light of their own or others corrupted Judgments may find themselves the more inexcusable Secondly It is evident that we cannot practice true Holiness while we continue in
that Faith according to the New Man in Christ and not as in a natural Condition and use all means of Holiness rightly for this end Now that this is an excellent advantageous way appears by the following desirable Properties of it 1. It hath this Property that it tends to the Abasement of all Flesh and Exaltation of God only in his Grace and Power through Christ and so it is agreeable to Gods design in all his Works and the end that he aimeth at Rom. 11.6 Isa 2.17 Ezek. 36.21 22.31.32 Psal 145.4 and a fit means for the attaining the end that we ought to aim at in the first place which is the Hallowing Sanctifying and Glorifying Gods Name in all things and is the first and chief Petition Mat. 6. and is the end of all our Actings 1 Cor. 10.31 was the end of giving the Law Rom. 3.19 20. God made all things for Christ and would have him have the Preheminence in all Col. 1.17 18. That the Father may be glorified in the Son Joh. 14.13 And this Property of it is a great Argument to prove that it is the way of God and hath the Character of his Image stamped upon it we may say that it is like him and a way according to his Heart as Christ proveth his Doctrin to be of God by this Argument Joh. 7.18 And Paul proveth the Doctrin of Justification and of Sanctification and Salvation by Grace through Faith to be of God because it excludes all boastings of the Creature Rom. 3.27 28. 1 Cor. 1.29.30 31. Eph. 3.8 9. This Property appears evidently in the Mystery of Sanctification by Christ in us through Faith For first It sheweth that we can do nothing by our natural Will or any Power of the Flesh and that God will not enable us to do any thing that way Rom. 7.18 however Nature be stirred up by the Law or natural Helps Col. 3.21 And so it serveth to work Self-loathing and Abasement and to make us look upon Nature as desperately wicked and past cure and to be put off not reformed by putting on Christ It remains wicked and only wicked after we have put on Christ 2. It sheweth that all our good Works and living to God are not by our own Power and Strength at all but by the Power of Christ living in us by Faith and that God enableth us to act not meerly according to our natural Power as he enableth carnal Men and all other Creatures but above our own Power by Christ united to us and in us through the Spirit All Men live move and have their Being in him and by his universal Support and Maintenance of Nature in its Being and Activity they act Heb. 1.3 So that the Glory of their Acting as Creatures belongs to God but God acts more immediately in his People who are one Flesh and Spirit with Christ and act not by their own Power but by the Power of the Spirit of Christ in them as closely united to him and being the living Temple of his Spirit so that Christ is the immediate principal Agent of all their good Works and they are Christs Works properly who works all our Works in us and for us and yet they are the Saints Works by Fellowship with Christ by whose Light and Power the Faculties of the Saints do act and are acted Gal. 2.20 Eph. 3.16 17. Colos 1.1 so we are to ascribe all our works to God in Christ and thank him for them as free Gifts 1 Cor. 15.10 Phil. 1.11 God inableth us to act not by our selves as he doth others but by himself The Wicked are supported in acting only according to their own Nature so they act wickedly Thus all are said to live move and have their being in God Acts 17.27 But God enableth us to conquer Sin not by our selves but by himself Hos 1.7 and the Glory of inabling us doth not only belong to him which the Pharisee could not but ascribe to him Luk. 18.11 but also the Glory of doing all in us and yet we work as one with Christ even as he works as one with the Father by the Father working in him We act as Branches by the Juice of the Vine as members by the animal Spirits of the Head and bring forth Fruit by Marriage to him as our Husband and Work in the Strength of him as the living Bread that we feed on he is all in the new Man Colos 3.11 and all the Promises are made good in him 2 Cor. 1.20 2. It hath this Property that it consisteth well with other Doctrins of the Gospel which contrary Errors do not and hence this is the way to confirm us in many other Points of the Gospel and therefore appears to be true by its Harmony with other truths and sit linking with them in the same golden Chain of the mystery of Godliness and evidenceth them to be true by their Harmony with it I have shewed that mens mistaking the true Way of Sanctification is the cause of perverting the Scripture in other Points of Faith and of declining from the Truth to Popish Socinian and Arminian Tenents Because Men cannot seriously take that for truth which they judge not to be according to Godliness But this Way of Holiness will evidence that those Gospel Doctrins which they refuse are according to Godliness and that those Tenents which a blind Zeal for Holiness moveth them to embrace are indeed contrary to Holiness However Satan appeareth to their natural Understandings as an Angel of light in such Tenents Whatever Men say its certain that Legalists are indeed the Antinomians I shall instance in some Truths confirmed by it 1. The Doctrin of original Sin viz. Not only the Guilt of Adam's Sin and a corrupt Nature but utter Impotency to do spiritual good and Proneness to Sin which is Death to God in all People according to nature Psal 51.5 Rom. 5.12 There is an utter Inability to keep the Law truly in any Point Many deny this Doctrin because they think that if People believe this they will excuse their Sins by it and be apt to despair of all striving to do good Works and leave off all Endeavours and grow licentious and they think it will be more conducing to Godliness to hold and teach either that there is no original Sin or Corruption derived from Adam or at least it is done away either in the World by universal Redemption or in the Church by Baptism and that there is free-will restored whereby People are able to encline themselves to do good that Men may be more encouraged to set upon good Works and their Neglect made inexcusable All this is indeed forcible against seeking and endeavouring for Holiness by the free-will and power of Nature which is the way of endeavouring which I directed you to avoid and if there were no new Way to Holiness since the fall original Sin might make us despair but there is a new Birth a new Heart a new Creature and
after the Spirit Rom. 8.3 4. Observe here that though Christ died that we might be justified by the Righteousness of God and of Faith not by our own Righteousness which is of the Law Rom. 10.4 5 6. Phil. 3.9 yet he died also that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us and that by walking after his Spirit as those that are in Christ Rom. ibid. He is resembled in his Death to a Corn of Wheat dying in the Earth that it may propagate its own nature by bringing forth much Fruit Joh. 12.24 to the Passover that was slain that a Feast might be kept upon it and to Bread broken that it may be Nourishment to those that eat it 1 Cor. 5.7 8. and 11.24 To the Rock smitten that Water may gush out of it for us to drink 1 Cor. 10.4 He died that he might make of Jew and Gentile one New Man in himself Ephes 2.15 and that he might see his seed i. e. such as derive their holy Nature from him Is 53.10 Let these Scriptures be well observed and they will sufficiently evidence that Christ died not that we might be able to form an holy Nature in our selves but that we might receive one ready prepared and formed in Christ for us by Union and Fellowship with him By his Resurrection he took Possession of Spiritual life for us as now fully procured for us and made to be our Right and Property by the Merit of his Death and therefore we are said to be quickned together with Christ even when we were dead in sins and to be raised up together yea and to be made to sit together in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus as our Head while we continue upon Earth in our own Persons Ephes 2.5 6. His Resurrection was our Resurrection to the Life of Holiness as Adam's Fall was our Fall into spiritual Death and we are not our selves the first makers and formers of our new holy Nature any more than of our Original Corruption but both are formed ready for us to partake of them And by Union with Christ we partake of that spiritual Life that he took Possession of for us at his Resurrection and thereby we are enabled to bring forth the Fruits of it as the Scripture sheweth by the Similitude of a Marriage Union Rom. 7.4 We are married to him that is risen from the Dead that we might bring forth Fruit unto God Baptism signifieth the Application of Christ's Resurrection to us as well as his Death we are raised up with him in it to newness of Life as well as buried with him and we are taught thereby that because he died unto sin once and liveth unto God we should likewise reckon our selves to be dead indeed unto Sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.4 5 10 11. Fourthly Our Sanctification is by the Holy Ghost by whom we live and walk holily Rom. 15.16 Gal. 5.25 Now the Holy Ghost first rested on Christ in all fulness that he might be communicated from him to us as was signified to John the Baptist by the Similitude of the descending of a Dove from the opened Heavens resting on Christ at his Baptism Joh. 1.32.33 And when he sanctifieth us he baptizeth us into Christ and joyneth us to Christ by himself as the great Bond of Union 1 Cor. 12.13 So that according to the Scriptural Phrase it is all one to have Christ himself and to have the Spirit of Christ in us Rom. 8.9 10. He glorifieth Christ for he receiveth those things that are Christ's and sheweth them to us Joh. 16.14 15. He giveth us an experimental Knowledge of those spiritual Blessings which he himself prepared for us by the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of Christ Fifthly The effectual Causes of those four principal Endowments which in the foregoing Direction were asserted necessary to furnish us for the immediate Practice of Holiness are comprehended in the fulness of Christ and treasured up for us in him and the Endowment themselves together with their Causes are attained richly by Union and Fellowship with Christ If we be joyned to Christ our Hearts will be no longer left under the Power of sinful Inclinations or in a meer indifferency of Inclination to good or evil but they will be powerfully endued with a Power Bent and Propensity to the Practice of Holiness by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and inclining us to mind spiritual things and to lust against the Flesh Rom. 8.1 4 5. Gal. 5.17 And we have in Christ a full Reconciliation with God and an Advancement into higher Favour with him than the first Adam had in the State of Innocency because the Righteousness that Christ wrought out for us by his Obedience unto Death is imputed to us for our Justification which is called the Righteousness of God because it was wrought by one that is God as well as Man and therefore it is of an infinite value to satisfie the Justice of God for all our sins and to procure his Pardon and highest Favour for us 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 1.19 And that we may be perswaded of this Reconciliation we receive the Spirit of Adoption through Christ whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 Hereby also we are perswaded of our future Enjoyment of the everlasting heavenly Happiness and of sufficient Strength both to will and to perform our Duty acceptably until we come to that Enjoyment For the Spirit of Adoption teacheth us to conclude that if we be the Children of God then we are heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ And that the Law of the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus maketh us free from the Law of Sin and Death and that nothing shall be against us nothing shall separate us from the Love of God in Christ but in all opposition and difficulties that we meet with we shall be at last more than conquerours through him that loved us Rom. 8.17.23 35 37 39. Furthermore this comfortable Perswasion of our Justification and future Happiness and all saving Priviledges cannot tend to licentiousness as it is given only in this way of Union with Christ because it is joyned inseparably with the Gift of Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ so that we cannot have Justication or any saving Priviledge in Christ except we receive Christ himself and his Holiness as well as any other Benefit as the Scripture testifieth that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 Sixthly Whereas it may be doubted whether the Saints that lived before the coming of Christ in the Flesh could possibly be one Flesh with him and receive a new Nature by Union and Fellowship with him as prepared for them in his fulness we are to know that the same Christ that took our Flesh was before Abraham Joh. 8.58 and was fore-ordained before the Foundation of the World to be sacrificed as a Lamb
us God hath promised that the wayfaring Men tho Fools shall not err in the way of Holiness and that he will teach sinners in the way the Meek will he guide in Judgment and the Meek will he teach his way Psal 25.8 9. and he commandeth them that lack Wisdom to ask it of God in Faith nothing doubting Jam. 1.5 6. But however we are to know that God guideth us only according to the rule of his Word and we must endeavour to learn the right way of Believing out of the Word or else we are not able so much as to trust rightly on God for guidance and direction in this great Work To help you herein I have given you before in this Treatise a Description of saving Faith and have shewed that it containeth two Acts in it the one is Believing the Truth of the Gospel the other is Believing on Christ as revealed and freely promised to us in the Gospel for all his Salvation Now your great endeavour must be to perform both these Acts in a right manner as I shall shew concerning each of them in particular In the first place you are highly concerned to endeavour for a right belief of the Truth of the Gospel of Christ that so you may be well furnished disposed and encouraged to Believe on Christ as revealed and promised in the Gospel hereby you are to remove all discomfortable thoughts and objections of Satan and your own Conscience and to overcome all corrupt Inclinations that hinder a chearful embracing of Christ and his Salvation It is found by experience that when any fail in the second Act of Faith the reason of the failing is commonly some defect in this first Act. There is some false imagination or other in them contrary to the belief of the Truth of the Gospel which is a strong hold of Sin and Satan that must be pulled down before they can receive Christ into their Hearts by Believing on him If they knew the Name of Christ as he is discovered in the Gospel and judged aright of the Truth and Excellency of it they would not fail to put their Trust in him And we are in great danger of entertaining such false Imaginations and to account many Truths of the Gospel strange Paradoxes yea foolish and pernicious because of our Ignorance Self-conceitedness guilty Consciences corrupt Affections and manifold Errors wherewith our Judgments are prepossessed in matters of Salvation and because Satan laboureth to beguil us as he did Eve through his subtilty to corrupt our minds from the simplicity of the Gospel that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.3 I shall therefore give you some particular Instructions that are of greatest moment to prevent such defects as we are most lyable to in the first Act of our Faith 1. You must Believe with a full perswasion that you are a Child of Wrath by Nature as well as others fallen from God by the sin of the first Adam dead in Trespasses and Sins subject to the Curse of the Law of God and to the power of Satan and to insupportable misery to all Eternity And that you cannot possibly procure your reconciliation with God or any spiritual Life and Strength to do any good work by any endeavouring to get Salvation according to the terms of the Legal Covenant and that you cannot find any way to escape out of this sinful and miserable Condition by your own Reason and Understanding without supernatural Revelation nor be freed from it except by that infinite power that raiseth the Dead We must not be afraid as some are to know our own vileness and sinfulness neither must we be willing to think our selves better than we are but must be heartily desirous and glad to know the worst of our own Condition yea when we have found out the worst that we can of our selves Yea we must be willing to believe that our Hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked beyond all that we can know and find out Jer. 17.9 This is all necessary to work in us true Humiliation Self-despair and Self-loathing that we may highly esteem and earnestly seek the Salvation of Christ as the one thing necessary It maketh us sick of sin and sensible of our need of the great Physician and willing to be ordered according to any of his prescriptions whatsoever we suffer rather than to follow our own Wisdom Mat. 9.12 It was for want of this Humiliation that the Scribes and Pharisees were not so forward to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as the Publicans and Harlots Mat. 21.31 2. You are to believe assuredly That there is no way to be saved without receiving all the saving benesits of Christ his Spirit as well as his Merits Sanctification as well as remission of sins by Faith It is the ruin of many Souls that they trust on Christ for remission of sins without any regard to Holiness whenas these two Benefits are inseparably joyned in Christ So that none are freed from Condemnation by Christ but those that are enabled to walk holily i. e. not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8.1 It is also the ruin of Souls to seek only remission of sins by Faith in Christ and Holiness by our endeavours according to the terms of the Law whereas we can never live to God in Holiness except we be dead to the Law and live only by Christ living in us by Faith That Faith that receiveth not holiness as well as remission of sins from Christ will never sanctifie us and therefore it will never bring us to heavenly Glory Heb. 12.14 3. You are to be fully persuaded of the All-sufficiency of Christ for the Salvation of your self and of all that believe on him that his blood cleanseth from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 tho our sins be never so great and horrible and continued in never so long yet he is able to deliver us from the body of Death and mortifie our Corruptions be they never so strong We find in Scripture that abominable wicked persons have bin saved by him Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Covetous Drunkards Extortioners c. 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Such as have sinned against the Light of Nature as the Heathen and the Light of Scripture as the Jews such as have denied Christ as Peter and persecuted and blasphamed him as Paul many that have fallen into great sins are ruined for ever because they do not account the Grace of Christ sufficient for their Pardon and Sanctification when they think they are gone and past all hope of recovery that their sins are upon them and they pine away in them and how shall they live Ezek. 33.10 This despair works secretly in many Souls without much trouble and horror and maketh them careless of their Souls and true Religion The Devil sills some with horrid filthy blasphemous thoughts on purpose that they may think their sins too great to be forgiven tho commonly such thoughts are the least of the sins of those that are pestered
within themselves waiting for more full enjoyment of Adoption Rom. 8.23 Now seeing the degree and measure of our Reception and Enjoyment of Christ with all the Blessings of our new state in him in this Life is imperfect it followeth clearly that our contrary natural state with its Properties remaineth still in us in some degree and is not perfectly abolished so that all Believers in this World do in some degree partake of these two contrary states Believers have indeed put off the old man and put on the new man where Christ is all and in all Col. 3.10 11. yet they are to put the old Man off and the new Man on more and more because the old Man remaineth still in a measure They are said to be not in the flesh but in the spirit because their being in the Spirit is their best and lasting state as denominations are usually taken from the better part but yet the Flesh is in them and they find work enough to mortify the deeds of it Rom. 8.9.13 Therefore several things which are contrary to each other are frequently attributed to Believers in the Scripture with respect to these two contrary States wherein one place seems to contradict another and yet both are true in divers respects Thus holy Paul saith truly of himself I live yet not I Gal. 2.20 because he did live to God by Christ living in him and yet in another respect according to his natural State he did not live to God Again he professeth that he was carnal sold under Sin and yet on the contrary that he allowed not Sin but hated it he sheweth how both these were true concerning himself In diverse respects he saith in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing And I delight to do the Will of God according to the Inner-Man With my Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of Sin Rom. 7.14.15 John saith He that saith he hath no sin deceiveth himself and is a Lyar 1 Joh. 1. and also that it 's true that whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed i. e. Christ's the new spiritual Nature remaineth in him and he can't sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 3.9 It is true that we are weak and nothing and yet strong and able to do all things 2. Cor. 12.10 11. Phil. 4.13 It 's true that Believers are dead because of Sin but alive because of Righteousness Rom. 8.10 and that when they dye by a natural Death they shall never dye Joh. 11.25 26. They are Sons that have the Inheritance by their Birth-right and yet in some respects may differ nothing from Servants and so they may be under the Law in a sense and yet under Grace and Heirs according to the free Promise at the same time Gal 4.1 2. They are redeemed from the Curse of the Law and have forgiveness of Sins and a Promise that God will never be wroth with them nor rebuke them any more Gal. 3.13 Eph. 1.7 Isa 54.9 And yet on the contrary the Curse written in the Law is sometimes poured out upon them Dan. 9 11. and they have need still to pray that God would deliver them from their Guiltiness and forgive their Debts Psal 51.14 Mat. 6.12 and they may expect that God will punish them for all ther Iniquities Amos 3.2 These contrary things asserted concerning Believers in Scripture do sufficiently manifest that they partake of two contrary States in this Life and this is a plain and easie and ready way to reconcile these seeming Contradictions whatever other ways may be used to reconcile some of them And what reason is there to question that the old Sate remaineth in Believers in some degrees seeing all sound Protestants acknowledge that the sinful Depravation and Pollution of our Natures commonly called Original Sin which is one principal part of this old State doth remain in all as long as they live in this World Now though some penal Evils may be said to remain in us yet we can't suppose that this original Pollution is continued in us and considered in Christ But as considered in our old State derived from the first Adam therefore the first sin of Adam is imputed in some respect even to those that are justifyed by Faith and they remain in a measure as aforesaid under the Punishment and Curse denounced Gen. 2.17 in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye and on this account the same original Guilt and Pollution is propagated to the Children of believing Parents as well as others by natural Generation and if such a great and fundamental part of the natural State continue in Believers as subjection to the Guilt of the first Sin and original Corruption which is one great part of the Punishment and Death threatned and by which we are prone and inclined to all actual Sins why should we not judge that other parts of the same State do likewise continue in them as well as the guilt of their own actual Sins and subjection to the Wrath of God and the Curses and Punishments denounced against them in the Law and why should we not judge that all the Miseries of this Life and Death it self are inslicted upon Believers at least in some respect as Punishments of Sin It may be objected that this Doctrin of a twofold State of Believers in this Life doth much derogate from the Perfection of our Justification by Christ and from the fulness of all the Grace and spiritual Blessings of Christ and from the Merits of his Death and the power of his Spirit and that it greatly diminisheth the Consolation of Believers in Christ But it may be easily vindicated from this Objection if we understand it rightly for notwithstanding this twofold State it still holdeth true that Believers while they are on Earth have all Perfection of spiritual Blessings Justification Adoption the Gift of the Spirit Holiness Eternal Life and Glory in and with Christ Eph. 1.3 in the person of Christ who is now in Heaven the Old Man is perfectly crucifyed they are dead to Sin and to the Law and its Curse and they are quickned together with him and raised up with him and made to sit in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.6 7. and Believers do in their own persons receive and enjoy by Faith all these perfect spiritual Blessings of Christ as far as they receive and enjoy Christ himself dwelling in them and no further Thus far they are in a new State free from the Guilt Pollution and Punishment of Sin and so from the Wrath of God and all Miseries and Death it self while they are in this World Yea all the Guilt Pollution and Punishments of Sin and all Evils whatsoever which they are subject to according to their natural State do them no harm according to this new State but work for their good and are no Evils but rather Advantages to them tending to the Destruction only
the new State in Christ They trust on low carnal things for Holiness and upon the acts of their own Will their Purposes Resolutions and Endeavours instead of Christ and they trust to Christ to help them in this carnal way whereas true Faith would teach them that they are nothing and that they do but labour in vain They may as well wash a Blackamoor white as purge the Flesh or Natural Man from its evil Lusts and make it pure and holy It is desperately wicked past all cure It will unavoidably lust against the Spirit of God even in the best Saints on Earth Gal. 17. its mind is enmity to the Law of God and neither is nor can be subject to it Rom. 8.7 They that would cure it and make it holy by their own Resolutions and Endeavours do act quite contrary to the design of Christ's Death for he dyed not that the Flesh or Old Natural Man might be made holy but that it might be crucifyed and destroyed out of us Rom. 6.6 and that we might live to God not to our selves or by any natural power of our own Resolutions or Endeavours but by Christ living in us and by his Spirit bringing forth the fruits of Righteousness in us Gal. 2.20 and 5.24 25. Therefore we must be content to leave the Natural Man vile and wicked as we found it until it be utterly abolished by Death though we must not allow its Wickedness but rather groan to be delivered from the Body of this Death thanking God that there is a Deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our way to mortify sinful Affections and Lusts must be not by purging them out of the Flesh but by putting off the Flesh it self and geting above into Christ by Faith and walking in that new Nature that is by him thus the way of Life is above to the Wise that he may depart from Hell beneath Prov. 15.24 Our willing resolving and endeavouring must be to do the best not that lyeth in our selves or in our own power but that Christ and the power of his Spirit shall be pleased to work in us for in us i. e. in our Flesh there dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 we have no ground to trust in God and Christ for help in such Resolutions and Endeavours as in things that are agreeable to the design of Christ in our Redemption as to the way of acting and living by Faith It is likely that Peter sincerely resolved to dye with Christ rather than to deny him and to do all that he could by his own power for that end but Christ made him quickly to see the Weakness and Vanity of such Resolutions and we see by Experience what many Resolutions made in Sickness and other Dangers mostly come to It is not enough for us to trust on Christ to help us to act and endeavour so far only as Creatures for so the worst of Men are helped he is the Jehovah in whom they Live Move and have their Being Act. 17.28 and it 's likely the Pharisee would trust on God to help him in Duty as he would thank God for the performance of Duty Luk. 18.11 and this is all the Faith that many make use of to a holy Practice But we must trust on Christ to enable us above the strength of our own natural power by vertue of the new Nature which we have in Christ and by his Spirit dwelling and working in us or else our best endeavours will be altogether sinful and meer Hypocrisie notwithstanding all the help for which we trust upon him We must also take heed of depending for Holiness upon any Resolutions to walk in Christ or on any written Covenants or any Holiness that we have already received for we must know that the Vertue of these things continue no longer than we continue walking in Christ and Christ in us They must be kept up by the continual Presence of Christ in us as Light is maintained by the presence of the Sun and cannot subsist without it 3. You must not seek to procure forgiveness of sins the favour of God a new holy Nature Life and Happiness by any works of the Moral Law or by any Rites and Ceremonies whatever but rather you must work as those that have all these things already according to your new state in Christ as such who are only to receive them more and more by Faith as they are ready prepared and treasured up for you and freely given to you by your spiritual head the Lord Jesus Christ If we walk as those that are yet wholly to seek for the procurement of such enjoyments as these it is a manifest sign that at present we judge our selves to be without them and without Christ himself in whose fulness they are all contained And therefore we walk according to our own Natural State as those that are yet in the Flesh and that would get Salvation in it and by our carnal Works and Observances instead of living altogether on Christ by Faith This practice is according to the tenour of the Covenant of Works as I have before shewed And we have no ground to trust on Christ and his Spirit to work Holiness in us this way for we are dead to the Legal Covenant by the Body of Christ Rom. 7. And if we be led by the Spirit we are not under the Law Gal. 5.18 When the Galatians were seduced by false Teachers to seek the procurement of Justification and Life by Circumcision and other works of the Mosaical Law the Apostle Paul rebuketh them for seeking to be made perfect in the flesh directly contrary to their good beginning in the Spirit for rendring Christ of none effect to them and for falling from Grace Gal. 3.3 and 5.4 And when some of the Colossians sought perfection in the like manner by observation of Circumcision holy-meats holy-times and other Rudiments of the World The same Apostle blameth them for not holding the Head Jesus Christ and as such as were not dead and risen with Christ but living merely in the World Col. 2.19 20. and 3.1 He clearly sheweth that those who seek any saving enjoyments in such a way do walk according to their own Natural State And that the true manner of living by Faith in Christ is to walk as those that have all fulness and perfection of Spiritual Blessings in Christ by Faith and need not seek for them any other way to procure them for themselves In this sense it is a true saying That Believers should not act for Life but from Life They must act as those that are not procuring Life by their Works but as such who have already received and derived Life from Christ and act from the Power and Vertue received from him And hereby it appears that the Papists and all others that think to Justifie Purisie Sanctifie and save themselves by any of their own Works Rites or Ceremonies whatever do walk in a carnal way as those that are without
on thy sin and misery and Christs excellency that so thou may'st be inclined in thy heart to believe Song 1.3 Gal. 2.16 Ps 9.10 for this is the way God useth to beget faith Isa 55.3 But if thou hast a desire and inclination to fly from thy self to Christ in the bent of thy heart so that thou preferrest Christ above all then the spirit hath begun and will carry on the work so that now thou mayst pray confidently for faith Cant. 1.4 Luk. 11.13 Mar. 9.24 Obj. III. But without holiness no Man shall see God Heb. 12.14 And how shall I do to get holiness And I cannot sanctifie my self and this confidence you speak of may slacken my diligence A. If thou hast Righteousness in Christ God will make thee holy and this confidence is the only way to get Holiness because of that Righteousness Rom. 5.21 The new Covenant is confirmed in him which promiseth a new Heart if sin be forgiven thou shalt be delivered from the power and quickned by the same Death and Resurrection of Christ whereby thou art Justified Col. 2.12 13. Exhort III. It Exhorteth them that are justified by Faith 1. To walk humbly as nothing of themselves to acknowledge themselves Enemies to God by Nature and acknowledge sins in the greatness and heinousness of them that they are saved freely by a Righteousness of another not by their own yea so far fallen that the Justice of God would have been against them if it had not been satisfied Psal 71.16 Rom. 3.27 but now see that Christ hath satisfied and his Righteousness is above their Sins Ezek. 26.31 2. To praise and glorifie God through Christ for this Grace Oh! what abundant grace and love appears in Gods washing and cleansing us by his Sons blood Rev. 1.5 Gal. 2.20 and in making his Son Sin and Curse for us Rom. 5.5 8. 1 Joh. 4.9 10. Ch. 3.16 2 Cor. 8.9 and what a glorious excellent Righteousness hath God given us in Christ Isa 61.10 3. To walk comfortably upon the account of this Righteousness Isa 40.1 2. Triumph over Sin and Affliction Rom. 8.33.39 Be confident in expecting great things from God Heb. 10.22 for though you be unworthy and grace will shew you your own unworthiness yet you stand upon the Righteousness of Christ glory in the hope of Gods glory for if Christ died to reconcile you when you were Enemies much more will he save you by his life now you are reconciled Rom. 5.3 10. Ask boldly for what you want for God is in Christs Manhood as the Mercy-seat when ever Sin stings you and objections trouble you look to the Brazen Serpent confess Sin and trust for Pardon meditate on Christs Righteousness and the abundance of grace in him Rom. 8.32 If you find never so much Ungodliness no good qualifications yet Christ is at hand for your comfort Isa 50.10 2 Thes 2.16 17. In all your Sins apply your selves to this Fountain Zach. 13. 1 Joh. 1.7 If Sin lye on conscience it weakens peace and spiritual strength lye not under guilt with a slavish fear you have a Righteousness to deliver you from it applying it by Faith that you may have no more conscience of Sin as condemning Heb. 10.2 Psal 32. you have a better Righteousness than any Perfectionists can have Exhort IV. Hold fast this way of Justification notwithstanding all the noise that is made in the World against it for the Devil will strive to scare you out of it or steal it from you as he did from the Jews from the Galatians the Papists and many Protestants Gal. 1.6 And the Apostle reckons it 's by a Spiritual bewitchery he will strive to get you to trust on Works and tell you it is for the promoting of Holiness and to trust on Works to get Christ and to lay Works lowest in the foundation If you lose this Righteousness of Christ under any colour or pretence whatever you lose all Gal. 5.2 3. Do not so dishonour Christ as to think of procuring that by Works which you have fully in Christ think not that the Gospel requires another Justification to gain this for the Gospel is no legal Covenant but a Declaration of the Righteousness of Faith and we being Justified are Heirs by Adoption and Promise Gal. 3.25 This is the Doctrine which glorifieth God and abaseth the Creature which is a great mark of its truth Beware therefore of carnal reason which will go quite contrary and make Christs righteousness a stumbling Stone to thee 1 Pet. 2.8 Rom. 9.32 â—3 V. Walk as one that enjoys the favour of God in Christ Let him have the honour of it walk therefore in Holiness knowing by what price you are redeemed 1 Pet. 1.17 18. 2 Cor. 5.14 15. 2 Pet. 1.5 11. 1 Cor. 6. last Love God that hath loved you first 1 Joh. 4.19 Psal 116.16 Believe that God will inable to Holiness Rom. 6.14 Particularly walk in Love to the Saints exercise forgiveness to your Enemies sense of your own Sins and Gods forgiving you will cause you to pity and forgive others else you cannot pray or trust for forgiveness of your own Sins upon reasonable grounds Eph. 4.31 32. Mat. 6.14 15. Mat. 18.21 Desire grace may be exalted upon others and wait patiently for the full Declaration of Justification at the great day Gal. 5.5 Act. 3.19 for here your Justification is known only by Faith but in outward things you are dealt with as a Sinner then your Righteousness shall appear openly and you shall be dealt with according to it FINIS