sense before either Justification or Pardon but that mighty Rays and Beams of each must be broken out to the Soul before it enters into the Beginnings of Eternal Life by Faith and Repentance is very hard to understand except Faith and Repentance are ascrib'd to Man as the Products of his own Power and Will If they are from God his Justifying Righteousness and Pardon are come near when-ever where-ever he gives Faith and Repentance And as it may be most necessary in some regards to Preach Faith and Repentance as in order to Pardon and Justification so is it no less necessary to be as Free and Large that without graciousest Approaches of the Righteousness of God and Christ brought near Faith and Repentance lye for ever dead that every unconverted Person may gasp up to God and Christ for that Grace that is abundant in Him The intention is not that Pardon or Justification can be without Faith or Repentance but whether Justification doth not draw and excite its own Faith and Pardon it s own Repentance So that they are rather before Faith and Repentance than Faith and Repentance before them And which Preaching is most to be preferr'd in the Nature of Things without respect to the Present Necessity and for the Time Being That which is most abundant in ascribing to the Principal or in pressing the Less Principal and Subordinate I make no doubt the Singing the new Song before spoken of Rev. 14. will in a short time determine And yet I defer all that ought to be deferr'd to those whose Spirits are both enlarg'd and enabled to offer to the Souls of Men the things wherein God appears as the Rector of the World offering Faith and Repentance in order to Justification and Pardon while the Secret Springs of his Justifying and Pardoning Grace give the very Faith and Repentance required But surely great respect may be had to what is to be without violating what is even as Sacrifices are debas'd Esa 1. in foresight of their final removal by Christ Head 13. Sinners have much to do to be saved Conciliation Even the Righteous arc scarcely saved For with Men it 's impossible but with God all things are possible I can do all things through Christ strengthening me My Yoke saith Christ is easie my Burden is light I will run the way of thy Commandments when Thou shall enlarge my Heart The Joy of the Lord is Strength His Delight is in the Law of the Lord Faithful is he that hath Promised and will Perform it to the Day of Jesus Christ Great and Precious Promises are given whereby we are made Partakers of the Divine Nature We can do nothing againstst the Truth but for the Truth All these with innumerable more of the like shew the Certainty and the Easiness of the Salvation of God's Elect. And yet as we look to Man and his Motion and Action these Things are impossible For there is no doubt Holiness and New Obedience are the Paths wherein though with many Imperfections Falls and weaknesses in the present state God carries his Elect to Life and Salvation And the Way is narrow and the Gate strait and require striving to Enter But God is their strength who keeps their Foot from being taken that they walk in their way safely and their Steps are not straitned He makes their Feet as Hinds Feet and sets them on High Places They that wait on the Lord run and are not weary They walk and faint not He girdeth them with strength By him they leap over a Wall Head 14 15. I joyn these Two together The Gospel hath Threats and Promises Holiness and Good Works are necessary to Salvation Conciliation As upon the gracious Councels of God before All Worlds Began so upon this very Point among all the Disposes of God in time the Hinge of these Points turns For if the Gospel be a Law full of all Holy and Righteous Precepts to which Faith and Repentance introduce us arm'd with its Promises and Threats and so setled as a Covenant that who of himself accepts the Terms of it by Faith and Repentance under the Assurance of the Assistances of the Divine Spirit are accepted and shall have All the Benefits of it and whoever will not shall be Damn'd and his Judgment shall be more intollerable because he refuses such gracious Terms offerr'd This doth I confess perfectly overthrow Dr. Crisp's Scheme For then Christ comes in as a Law-giver and having all Judgment committed to him and there is a Mediatorian Law and Covenant in the Hand of the Mediator of more gracious condescention than that of the Covenant of Works but the last result of all is into the free Will of Man and his Action in compliance with this Covenant Thus of the Law and the Covonant of Works as the First Law there is a Perfect Abrogation as a Law but as the Holiness and Righteousness of it are transplanted into this New Law so here is as to that Law a perfect Antinomianism and all Mankind are only under this Law and Justification Salvation or Death and Condemnation are according to Obedience or Disobedience to this Law or Gospel-Covenant of which the Conditions are Faith and Repentance But if the Gospel in the Supreme Intention of it and in the Propriety of its Nature be a Covenant of Grace wherein God is pleas'd to be from his own free purpose of Grace the Soveraign Covenantee and his Elect bear the Analogy or part of Covenantees as at the other Extreme and Jesus Christ the Mediator Surety and Testator pass between both that all may be perform'd Mediating with God for his efficacious Grace in giving the Divine Dispositions promised in this Covenant as if perform'd by the Covenantees So bringing every thing in effect from God to us and from us to God and by his Death having right as a Testator to bestow the very things upon All given to him by God to give Eternal Life to them John 17. 2. Then shall the Gospel or New Testament be supremely a Ministration of the Spirit of Righteousness of Life according to 2 Cor. 3. And in its Subordinate Nature it shall be a Publication of the Divine Grace and Love to Mankind in general upon the Terms of Faith and Repentance The Law all this time stands in its own place as the Eternal Sanction of Holiness and Righteousness and can never be abrogated because it is Eternal Righteousness but it is as a Covenant so far mitigated as to accept the Satisfaction it requires from a Mediator and so it is in the Hand of a Mediator Gal. 3. 19. Towards whom it commands Faith and Repentance or return to God by him even as it is a Law of Eternal Righteousness Requiring Faith and Obedience to all Manifestations from God sufficiently testified to be from him and as these Manifestations of Grace are the only possibility left to a fallen Nature to return into a State of Agreement with God Hereupon the Law
Good Works to the Eleventh Hour or that he fits them not to such Abundant Services Eminency and Exemplariness therein as he doth other of his Saints He hath an Infinite Fund to supply them out of viz. the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ and Power of Grace to Accomplish them to their Measure Head 16. Our Good should be intended by Good Works Conciliation Our Good should be intended by them as they are Manifestations of the Grace of Christ in us and suitable to that Law he influences his Servants by his Spirit according to In the want of which we have great reason to Mourn as giving Fear and Suspition Christ is not in us of a Truth and that he leaves us to do the things very displeasing and offensive to his Holy Nature and the Rule of Life and Action his Grace governs his Servants by but yet they are not of themselves our Title but our Evidences only of our Title which is Christ alone and if we are his we shall certainly be born up to what He as our Mediator Surety and Testator hath thought necessary to our Salvation and will accept and supply the want of by himself Yet all is and ought so to be carried that we may be urg'd and press'd to our Duty as under the Holy Rectory of God and Christ and according to all the Rules of his Word Head 17. Assurance is by Gospel-Marks and not by a Voice within us Conciliation Marks are according to Scripture yet so that they are but few of any of the Servants of God but have reason to fly to the Witness of the Spirit and its Voice crying Abba Father and to appeal to Infinite Grace seeing in the midst of our Falls Failings and Imperfections we cannot otherwise discern where Sincerity and Perfect Obedience divide one from another and what is enough in our many Corruptions to constitute Sincerity Besides seeing our Staple-hold is the Righteousness of Christ without us our Supreme Testimony depends upon his Spirit witnessing within us indeed yet from what is without us viz. Free Grace Head 18. God charges Sin on Men and they should repent for Repeated Pardons Conciliation This is among the Wise Holy and Gracious Methods of God and Christ in this present Low State of the Redemption appearing until its Glory in the Kingdom of Christ that Sin is charg'd and Pardon repeatedly begg'd in Daily Prayers But all notwithstanding is secur'd in the unchangeableness of Electing Love of Justifying Grace of the daily Issuing Pardon of the New Covenant immediately ready and thus express'd as if it issued out upon the very Sin I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses and their Sins and Iniquities I will remember no more Heb. 8. 12. Before David had said any more than this I have sinned against the Lord Nathan said from God The Lord hath put away the Iniquity of thy Sin Thou shalt not Dye 2 Sam. 12. 13. The Grace of the Covenant went forward therefore in him as in all Saints to the Composure of his Heart to that great Penitential Psal 51. So that in a way of Consolation of Saints and Encouraging of all to Come into Christ there may be great Freedom of Expression us'd in which some Things may need Review and Correction as Humane and yet the main Scope and Intention preserv'd as consistent with sincere Design to promote Holiness most livelily flowing from the Grace of the Covenant and the Death of Christ into the Hearts and Lives of Believers there being hence much more hope both in Conversion and Renewed Repentance than in any thing within Men themselves whenever they have fallen into Sin after conversion or while in an unconverted estate Head Sin may hurt Believers and God afflicts for Sin Conciliation While we look down to the present State and to God's present Government of the World this must be acknowledg'd and yet when we lift up our Hearts to the Consideration of the Supreme Grace of God in Jesus Christ the very hurt Sin does Believers or even the Elect is made to serve the Triumphs of Grace and all their Afflictions for Sin are Salutary Dispensations All which must needs be granted on close reasoning these Points and will bear out many Amplifications of this Grace in Discourses declararatory of it tho' on the other side a very different way of speaking of them must be submitted to in this Atmosphere this Dark and Foul Place of the Apostacy we are yet in and it is born out by a very general way of Scripture-speaking Head 19. Sincere Holiness is not Dung nor does the Apostle include such Holiness in that so great Scripture concerning Evangelical Righteousness Philip 3. 7 c. Conciliation For the clearing of that great Scripture and the Points dependent upon it I must first take the freedom to assert That the Apostle doth in that Context lay down at full and at large the two great Points of Justification and Sanctification In that of Justification he rises to the heighth and so in that of Sanctification and these are both handled so distinctly that they cannot be confounded For the Apostle had fallen severely upon the Concision by whom he most probably means those who compounded the Profession of Christianity with the Works and Ritualisms of the Law as if Christ were not enough without them for Acceptance with God for Righteousness in Justification and Holiness in Sanctification and therefore he calls them not The Circumcision meaning Pure and Perfect Jews but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Concision as a Peculiar Brand of Reproach upon Them and calls Himself and Sincere Christians The Circumcision viz. The Spiritual Circumcision who Worship God in Spirit who hold the True Righteousness of Faith of which it was the Seal Rejoyce in Christ Jesus alone and have no confidence in the Flesh that is in Creature Righteousness In the same sense Flesh is taken Rom. 4. 1. What shall we say that Abraham our Father hath found according to the Flesh viz. according to his own Righteousness not only Ceremonial but Moral For if Abraham were justified by Works c. So But if he had no other way but to believe on him that justifieth the Vngodly It is evident it was not Ceremonial Ritual Works the Apostle discoursed of but Substantial Works of Righteousness opposed to Vngodliness Thus the Apostle reckoning up his own Priviledges first gives indeed those which were External and Ritual but adds Moral in those words According to the Righteousness of the Law which was not only Ceremonial but Moral He was Blameless which words may be expounded by those I have liv'd in all good Conscience before God to this day Acts 23. 1. Now upon all this he sits as an Accountant with his Tables before him and what had been Gain or Riches in his Account he now writes it All Cypher And then by way of Triumph and in a mighty Elevation of his Discourse he adds Yea doubtless I count not only
Yet speaking in the Language of Eternity he calls them Vessels of Mercy Vessels unto Honour And indeed whatever is looked upon as only a Motion or Ordination of Time must needs arise from our selves For all Acts of Grace are Eternal in their Spring and Fountain Time therefore genders only to a Covenant of Works I know not therefore but why as the generality of Preachers enlarge most upon the one as to unconverted Elect There may not be some stirr'd up and enabled of God to triumph in the Savour of the Knowledg of Christ made known by them in the other while they Center upon the Eteral Election of God demonstrating it self in Calling Conversion Sanctification But they only can do this who have receiv'd it as a peculiar Talent But I doubt not the Spirit of it will within short time be pour'd out more abundantly and that it shall not turn to Licentiousness but overflow with Holyness and Purity as also Efficacy of Conversion The third Head I Transpose into the second Place as being more Congenial or of a kind with the first and will joyn the second with the fourth and those following to Head 8th Head 2. The laying the Sins of the Elect upon Christ is not their Discharge from their Sins This is oppos'd to what Dr. Crisp hath said All the Weight and all the Burden of Sin the very Sin it self is long ago laid upon Christ and that laying it on him is a full Discharge and Release to that c. The Conciliation To an Eternal Being there must needs be an Eternal Justification because there is no new thing to him The Apostle therefore makes the whole Chain of Salvation of an Eternal old Style whom he Foreknew he Called he Justified he Glorified Rom. 8. 30. All in the Time pass'd not in the Style of Time but of Eternity But when we speak in new Style Style of Time there is not an actual Discharge of Sin or a Justification of a Sinner by Election but according to the order of things fix'd by God in Time Even so if we consider Sins lay'd upon Christ even the Sins of all the Elect in the Fulness of Time as the Apostle styles it That Fulness of Time may be very well supposed to collect into it self all Time And as the Sins that were past were Recollected so the Sins to come were Forepriz'd into it And all this issues into the Fulness of Times that is of all Time in the Kingdom of Christ For as Christ dyed in the Fullness of Time so the Glory of his Redemption appears in the Fulness of Times Eph. 1. 10. of All Time when all Things in Heaven and Earth shall be Recapitulated in him which yet we know they are not The Offering of Christ therefore is an Offering once for all and it is one Offering that forever Perfects and Jesus Christ is Yesterday and to Day the same forever As then all Time is gather'd into that Fulness of Time So that Fulness of Time redounds upon all Time and Flows out upon it till it Flows into that Fulness of Times Now as the Lord of Time offered Himself in the Fulness of Time he expiated all Sins in that Fulness and what was expiated in the Fulness can never be charged in the Retail of Time for then it was not expiated Although therefore when we are spoken of and unto as not the Lords of Time but the Subjects of Time we are oblig'd to measure it out by Parts as being Inferiors to it and below the Hill to it we see the Approaches of its Events one after another only but the Lord Paramount of it being so high above it sees all at once we are Creatures but of the Parts of it so indeed we are not Discharged from Sin in the Discharge of Christ But from hence to conclude we are not in highest Sense Discharg'd but that if the Elect dye before Faith and Repentance they are lost for ever is to make supposition of Impossibilities it is to set Time the small outlet of Eternity to rise up and Encounter and lead Captive Eternity even the Eternity of Election and that the parts of Time may be set in Battel Array and subdue the Fulness of Time But this can by no serious Considerer be allow'd I find not then but as there is just Reason to represent to Men that till they find within themselves the Efficacies of the Death and Redemption of Christ by Faith and Repentance they stand in the sight of their own Consciences as Persons who have no Interest in that Death in that Redemption And that this is proper on one side representing God and Christ therein as the Rector and Governor of the World to move them to Repentance and it is that which Scripture does very largely and frequently insist upon So on the other side it is most true That the Foundation of God stands sure and cannot shake nor totter even under this very Seal single and alone That the Lord knows who are his and that his Election shall break out with all the mighty Effects he hath pitch'd upon as most suitable and Connatural to it So that it shall produce in all its own the Derivative Stamp Let him that nameth the Name of Christ depart from all Iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. And that Christ is in all Senses the Certain and Infallible Sanctifier of his People by his Blood That he not only as a Judge and a Law-giver but as a Prince gives Repentance and Remission of Sins This may be as hopeful to move the Spirits of Men and be as gracious a Conveyance of the mighty Efficacy of the Divine Grace and Spirit For as these are rich Truths of Scripture so they have an admirable mooving Stroke upon the Hearts and Minds of Men And he that Ministers them is a Minister far more immediately of the Spirit that giveth Life of that without which the Evangelick Law is a Letter that kills Head 3 to Head 8. I put these Heads together because there cannot be any difference in the main Notions but only in the different ways of Expressions and what each part may think will most lively illustrate and make the deepest imprint of the great Scripture-truths upon the Heart I say there can be no difference in the main Truths between Persons sober and Reverent of God and of Christ for who can think the filth of Sin transacted on Christ in such a sense as that Christ should be defiled by it But now there must needs be a Moral Impurity in every Sin as it is a Recess from the Holiness of God from the Righteousness of the Divine Law there is a Dishonour a Blot a Stain and Blemish a Deformity a loss of Beauty and Honour and Happy Conformity to Goodness and Righteousness This is intended by Reatus Culpae another thing from the Reatus Poenae or a meer Obligation to Punishment I demand then What becomes of this Obliquity the Guilt of the very
as Assurance Yet these Thunders being scal'd now near again to be unseal'd It flatted again as now we see And this is the Reason the Discourses of Assurance as so essential to Faith are almost as Portentous as the Doctrin of the Kingdom of Christ in such a near appearing Glory and any Aspiring to it as presumptuous Head 10. Prevailing Enmity is no hindrance to our Interest in Christ Conciliation This may be apprehended three ways and be very great truth 1. The Elect Sinner in the midst of the most prevailing Enmity hath such Interest in Christ that his Rescue from Sin Hell and Death is so secur'd and deposited by the Divine Decree for him in Christ that the very height of Enmity shall not disinterest him but Christ will break through that Enmity and seize upon him even when it is most Boiling up and Raging Thus Paul Acts 9. being a chosen Vessel even while he had a Knife in his hand to murther Christ had yet such an Interest in Christ by that Electing Grace that his Conversion Faith Repentance and Apostleship lay treasur'd up in Christ and Christ had such an Interest in him That an Everlasting Arm was about him and he was Appreprehended by Chrst for that very Thing that in Due Time he might by Faith Apprehend Christ. And surely this is an Interest of no mean account 2. At the very height of Enmity the chiefest Sinner hath that Interest in Christ that he may come and apprehend Christ by Faith and receive all the Benefits of Christ and the very first of those Benefits shall be the Healing him of that Enmity He hath a Right to come If it be said Enmity and Coming connot consist it is true But his present Enmity does not disinterest him in a Right to come if he would But it hinders his being willing to come Yet in the moment the Grace of Christ Abounds to the Elect Person at the Appointed Time with Faith and Love which are in Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 1. 14. Present Enmity is no more hindrance to an Interest in Christ but that as in Paul it falls flat in what moment that Grace pleases 3. To win upon Sinners to come to Christ it may be said to them while in the Preaching of the Gospel there is a Probing or Endeavouring to Find out the Elect and Bring them to Christ It may be I say said to them Come though you have the highest Enmity That is no hindrance to your Interest in Christ supposed you come For in that very moment you turn to come to Christ your Enmity shall drop off from you It is a Hindrance to the present Application of Interest not to the Interest it self that is secur'd in Electing Grace and the Free Promises of the Gospel intended and design'd for all the Elect. And this the Gospel gives right to the Preachers of it to declare But the doubt whether this or that particular Person belongs to that Election while he is in Enmity and the certainty of Enmity ceasing in the very coming is as a drawn Sword between a claim of Interest in Chrisâ— and perservering Enmity If it be said There must be Humiliation Wearinâ—ss Sight of Sin and Sorrow for it The Methods of Electing Grace that it hath prescribed to it self will take care for all and so that all such Affections and Acts shall be rais'd up excited and carried on in the Sinner himself and even by himself under the Efficacy of that Grace And thus understood as it must be except he that speaks so be a person void of all Holy Sense or so much as Sober and such Dr Crisp was not in the Judgment of Mr. Williams as appears in the last Lines of the Preface They must therefore be understood to be spoken by way of earnest perswasion to come to Christ and to Essay upon Men by proposing the Largest and Freest Terms So the Ministers of Christ as Fishers spread the Net to Catch Men As Scripture says he hath received Gifts for the Rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell among them Psal 68. 18. And as Abraham is said to Believe on Him that Justifies the Vngodly Why may not the most expatiating Expressions be used in so good a Sense and with so good a Design seeing Scripture hath us'd such And why may not as good an Effect be hop'd for from this way of Speaking seeing Scripture hath us'd it as from the severer ways Scripture hath also us'd according to the variety of Gifts and Motions of the same Spirit and both be blessed by God giving effect through Christ Head 11. The Elect are not united to Christ without Faith Upon Believing only we are related to Christ as all the Metaphors of Union import Conciliation The being chosen in Christ before the World began being predestinated to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself cannot be without Union The first Powers of Regeneration Conversion Softness of Heart Contriteness of Spirit Faith Repentance which the Apostle expresses by Wisdom or Calling in Christ Jesus cannot be without Union And yet it is true that setled Union of Communion or Union of Communion cannot be till Christ be received by the Faith of God's Elect nor can the Elect be at all known to themselves from the Non-Elect So that as there is need of all the Forcible and Right Words of Scripture to shew without Faith Repentance Holiness there can be no Union of Communion with Christ or of the Consolation arising from it even according to the Eternal Counsel of Him that worketh all Things after the Counsel of his own Will So on the other side there is Authority and Warrant to Declare that Inseparable Union between the Head of the Adoption and all that are Predestinated to the Adoption of Children in Him that it may be acknowledg'd to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace who hath laid his Foundation so sure And it may be also Declar'd by way of Invitation and Encouragement in coming to Christ that Sinners who look towards him may be begotten an effect wherein they are wholly passive to a living Hope through his Grace who does it of his own Will and yet by the Word of Truth in all parts of it as a subordinate Ministry and that they may be invited to look towards him and that they may be encourag'd to expect Grace from Christ for Union of Communion flowing from the Union of the Predestinated Adoption in Him at the just time appointed by God for it Head That of Justification before Faith hath been already spoken to but I will add something to it on the next Head Head 12. Repentance is necessary to Pardon Conciliation Seeing Justification and Pardon include necessarily the Removals of the Wrath and Displeasure of God in all the dreadful Effects of it and also connote as necessarily the Breaking out of his Favour in the most gracious Effects of it how Faith or Repentance can be perfectly or in full