are the very ingredients of his promises the promises are nothing else but the good will and purpose of God transcribed and copied out for us 3. Who is faithful Hebr. 11. 11. Sarah judged him faithful who had promised and what is it for God to be faithful in his promises but in his own good time to do what he speaks and to give what he promiseth to give Faithful is he who hath called you who will also do it saith the Apostle 1 Thes 5. 24. Mark to do what he promiseth this was to be faithful 4. God hath promised all of them to all his people in Covenant to all that are God hâ—th promised all of them to all his people brought into Christ to all who have chosen him for their God and give up their hearts and lives unto him to all who can call him Father and are become his children as the blessings promised are distributed into greater and lesser some are spiritual some are corporal so the heirs of blessings some of them are stronger some are weaker but this makes no difference as to the claim and title the weakest Believer in Christ the weakest childe of God is an heir of all the spiritual blessings which God hath promised Use 2 Hath God promised all spiritual blessings as well as temporal unto all his people in Covenant then you who are the people of God Mark what concerns you Mark what conceâ—ns you under the sense of your wants under the sense of any spiritual wants Do not complain any longer and do not charge God foolishly and do not give up your conditions as desperate do not say there is no help nor hope and do not hearken to what Satan saith nor to what your perplexed hearts do say but regard and mark what God saith in his promises He saith that he will give grace and glory and he will give all the matters of Justification and of Sanctification and therefore do you take that course for the enjoyment of them which God directs you unto and likewise encourages you unto Quest What course is that What course we should take for this enjoyment of sâ—iâ—itual bâ—essiâ—â— Pray for spiritual blessings Sol. It is this First You must humbly pray unto him to give unto you all those spiritual blessings which you do need and which he hath promised Object Pray unto him will you say if he hath promised to give them what need we to pray for them Sol. Yes promises on Gods part and prayers on our part are not contradistinct but subordinate therefore remember 1. Though God promiseth to give all these spiritual blessings yet he expresly calls for prayer from us unto himself to bestow them on us Ezek. 36. 37. Thus saith the Lord God I will yet be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them Jer. 29. 11. I know the thoughts that I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end Ver. 12. Then shall you call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you Ver. 13. And ye shall seek me and finde me when ye shall search for me with all your hearts 2. As he calls for prayer so he adds a new engagement of promise to give even spiritnal blessings upon prayer Luke 11. 13. Your heavenly Father will give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Secondly You must act faith you must believe on his Word and trust on Act faith him as a faithful God to performe c. Psal 62. 8. Trust in him at all times ye people poure out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us Selab Isa 26. 4. Trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Isa 57. 2. I will cry unto God most High unto God which performs all things for me Hebr. 11. 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Jam. 1. 6. But let him ask in faith O Sirs this is one of the greatest reasons why notwithstanding your many tears and prayers you have so small portion in spiritual blessings because you do not trust on God for them you do not believe that he will deal with you according to his Word you do not give him the glory of an all-sufficient and faithful God still you are questioning him and reasoning against him But will he make good his Word of promise and can he do this or that the Lord humble our hearts for this we think not of it as a sin or else but a small sin but indeed it is an exceedingly provoking sin and an eternal dishonour to the God of truth and mercy thus by our unbelief to charge a lye or a doubtfulnesse upon him Object But have we not reason to doubt what he will do when we are so unworthy Sol. No our unworthinesse is no sufficient reason to question the goodnesse and faithfulnesse of Gods promise because 1. He never indents with us upon terms of our worthinesse 2. He professeth that he doth us good not for our sakes but for his own sake Thirdly If need be you must wait upon God for the performance of those spiritual Wait upon God for performance blessings promised unto you Isa 36. 18. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgement he knows what and when is best blessed are all they that wait for him Three things 〈◊〉 to enable you to wait c. 1. Any spiritual blessing is worth a waiting for the least of them being of more worth and more consequence to the soul than a whole world 2. God will oft times try your hearts whether indeed you would be thus blessed or can be satisfied and give over without enjoyment 3. The promise of them is very sure God who cannot lye hath promised Tit. 1. 2. He will not fail you in these spiritual blessings though many times he doth deny you some temporal desires Vse 3 Are spiritual blessings and mercies promised by God to all that are in Covenant with him in what a case then are all obstinate and perverse sinners who will The sad condition of Impenitent â—â—nners hold fast their sins and walk in their own ways and hate to be reformed and will not be brought into the bond of the Covenant with God if there were no other misery for them but this that they shall not partake of spiritual blessings this were misery sufficient You read of those in Luke 14. who excused themselves and refused to come to the Supper prepared Christ saih of them ver 24. None of those men shall taste of my Supper truly this was judgement and punishment enough never to partake of any benefit or good by Christ In like manner this is
support and encourage you against all the temptations of Satan and fears of your own spirits God himself is your God and God himself for whom nothing is too hard and who is faithful in Covenant he it is who undertakes to find out and give out unto you every mercy for soul and body which you do or shall need Vse 2 Do not only believe this truth but also make use of it i. e. in the sense of all your wants whether spiritual or temporal Go unto God with boldnesse unto Make use of this truth his Throne of grace that ye may finde grace and mercy to help in time of need Remember that of the Apostle in Phil. 4. 6. Be careful in nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God Do not vainly perplex your selves O it is impossible ever to get this sinful heart changed and this hard heart broken and those sins pardoned but â—â—nsider seriously 1. What is that which you finde promised in the Covenant Do you not expresly find the renewing of the heart promised there and the taking away of the hard heart promised there and the forgivenesse of all sins promised there 2. Who is it that undertakes to give these things promised Is it not God himself who can do it because he is Almighty and will do it because he is faithful it is not what strength and power you have for these things but what the sufficiency and fidelity of God is who undertakes to give them Object But he expects great matters from us before he will give them unto us Sol. 1. I will tell you what he expects from you he expects three things from you 1. That you acknowledge your own unworthinesse and his graciousnesse 2. That you come and pray unto him and intreat him to do these things for you 3. That you trust upon him as able and willing to help you according to his Word 2. And this which he expects from you if he hitherto hath not given them unto you yet he promiseth to give them unto you for praying Zach. 12. 10. I will poure upon them the Spirit of supplication for trusting Zephany 3. 12. I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the Name of the Lord. Object But we must bring something or other and undertake something else God will not do all for us Sol. 1. What would ye bring to a Covenant of Grace or what should you bring but your hearts to receive what is promised in the Covenant of Grace to be given 2. All the finding and giving work belongs to God that is it which himself undertakes forgivenesse righteousnesse holinesse love joy and peace and these himself undertakes to give unto us The fountain is full and runs freely take your care only for a Vessel to receive and take in the waters which flow out of it Vse 3 Doth God himself undertake to give all the blessings of the Covenant to his people What a comfort is this unto all his people this God himself is your God Comfort to the people of God and your Father and he loves you above all the people in the world and binds himself by promise and oath unto you that in blessing he will blesse you If you were to make your choice of one to undertake your good in whose hands you would have your all to lie you would pitch on one 1. Who loves you as a friend as a father and as a near relation 2. Who is sufficient and able 3. Who is mindful and faithful 4. Who is knowing and wise 5. Who is like to live long Now First Doth not God love his people I have loved thee with an everlasting love God loves his people Jer. 31. 3. I am a Father to Israel and Israel is my first born Ver. 9. Is Ephraim my dear son I remember him still my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy on him Ver. 20. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Isa 49. 15. Secondly Is he not able to do you good he is the All-sufficient and Almighty God is able to do you good God nothing is too hard for him he is able to do above all that we are able to ask or think and can do whatsoever he pleaseth in heaven and in earth is it not be who stretcheth out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth Abraham was fully perswaded that what God had promised he was able to performe Rom. 4. 21. Thirdly He knows all your distresses and wants your groans are not hid from He knows all your distresses him and all your tears are in his bottle he is mindful of his people Psal 115. 12. The Lord hath been mindful of us he will blesse us he is mindful of 〈◊〉 Covenant Psal 111. 5. He hath given meat to them that fear him he will be mindful of his Covenant Psal 105. 8. He hath remembred his Covenant for ever Fourthly He is the faithful God Deut. 7. 9. Know that the Lord thy God He is the faithful God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his Covenant to thousands of generations Heb. 10. 23. He is faithful that promised Fifthly He is the wise God God only wise Rom. 16. 27. Wise in heart Job He is the wise God 9. 4. And therefore will proportion and season out proper and peculiar mercies unto his servants Sixthly He is the unchangeable God there is not so much as the shaddow of Change in him Jam. 1. 17. The living God Jer. 10. 10. The Lord is the true He is the unchangeable God God he is the living God and an everlasting King Dan. 12. 7. liveth for ever 〈◊〉 If I do understand this Assertion aright it may suffice to take off all your fears and to draw on all your hearts to come unto your God with confidence who himself undertakes to give unto you all the good of his Covevant Can more be desired or can any thing else conduce further or better to your salvation Object We confess that here is enough in respect of God but that which makes us to fear is something in respect o ourselves our unworthiness against which God may take exception and for which he may deny to give unto us the good things which he hath promised Sol. This is the greatest doubt which still sticks with us and it is the strongest exception of our unbelieving hearts and unto which I shall endeavour to give a full resolution in the last General Proposition which now comes to be handled viz. SECT IV. Doct. 4. THat all these blessings which God doth promise to give unto his people All the blessings which God promiseth to his
will make much moan for Christ and all that moves him unto this is his self-love he loves his life and he loves his safety but yet all this while doth not love Christ for Christ nor holy Duties as ways to glorifie God but where renewing grace is in a man the principle which sets him a work for Christ is faith and which draws him out is a love of godliness and a love of the glory of God c. Thirdly In the end or aim which in works done upon the sole account of In the end a troubling conscience is only self-ease and quietness and calmness of conscience as the distemper lies only in trouble so the remedy lies only in ease Oh if the wrath of God were off in the feeling of it but the poor wretch doth not think of removing the wrath of God in the state of it and O if the painful terrors of conscience were off that and this he aims at directly if he thinks of Christ if he prays if he hears if he confers if he reforms all tends to this viz. the removing of sensible evil of penal evil of terrors and troubles and that his conscience may be quiet and hold its peace and speak bitterly no more unto him but where the heart is renewed by grace the conscience should trouble yet it is not that only nor that principally which the person looks at to be removed but it is the cause of that trouble O Lord take away iniquity O Lord heal my soul O Lord subdue my sin O be thou my sanctifying God as well as my pardoning God my sins trouble my soul O let me no more trouble thee by my sins c. Fourthly In the event or issue Let the troubled sinner who appears now with such a great change let him I say be taken off the Rack let him get respite In the event let him get deliverance from his fears and from his terrors and from his distresses There are four things which will appear in him 1. He will quickly abate and grow remiss in all these duties will not be so serious so earnest so constant 2. He will give way to contemplative evil and will be venturing upon the occasion of sin again 3. He will return in love to his sinful practices and with the dog will return again to his vomit 2 Pet. 2. 22. 4. His latter end is worse his conscience from being a troubled conscience will now become an hardned conscience and seared 2 Pet. 2. 20. But thus it never is with an heart renewed by grace which turns us from evil to good and from good to better and still increaseth in the soul a greater hatred of sin and fear to sin and the more that renewing grace abounds in the soul the more is tenderness abounding in the conscience Thus have you heard by way of Use 1. A conviction that many persons are still in their old sinful conditions and never bad this new heart given them 2. That there is a possibility to be deceived about the fruiton of this newness of heart and wherein that deceit may be SECT IV. Vse 3. I Shall now proceed to a Use of Discovery wherein I will propound For discovery unto you some Characters by which you may know whether God hath indeed bestowed upon you this new heart and new spirit which he hath promised to give unto all his people in Covenant The Signs and Characters are these ten Ten Characters of a new heart 1. A New Sight and Feeling 2. A New Judgement and Opinion 3. New Cares and Requests 4. New Principles 5. A New Combate and Conflict 6. New Abilities and Powers 7. New Works and Obedience 8. New Delights and Satisfactions 9. New Society 10. New Rules First To whomsoever God doth give a new heart unto him he doth give a A new sight and feeling new sight and feeling of their spiritual condition before the Lord renews the heart by grace there were two qualities predominant in it One was ignorance or blindness an unregenerate man is a dead man Ephes 2. 1. and an ignorant man he understands not he knows not what he is nor what he doth nor what his condition of soul is We were never in bondage said they in Joh. 8. 33. The way of wickedness is as darkness they know not at what they stumble said Solomon Prov. 4. 19. Another was hardness and unsensibleness a wicked man hath a wicked heart but he is not sensible of it and his heart is desperately wicked but he is not sensible of it He is ignorant and proud and impenitent and malicious and serving divers lusts and under the curse and wrath of God but he is not sensible of it His sin abounds in heart and life and rules and bears sway and he is a slave unto them but he is not sensible of this but when the Lord renews the heart by grace there is presently a spiritual life and presently a spiritual sense the man sees that in himself which he never saw before and experimentally feels that in himself which he never felt before Alas saith he What a wretched creature am I and what a sinful heart is here full of wickedness desperately evil here is no good dwelling in me here is that sinfulness abounding in me here is that ignorant vain worldly stubborn sensual rebellious unbelieving hardened heart of which the Lord speaks and which the Lord threatens and the man groans under this burden of his sinful heart and life Psal 38. 4. and exceedingly complains of it Rom. 7. 24. and now loaths himself in his own eyes Ezek. 36. 31. and bewails his condition with trouble of heart Secondly To whomsoever the Lord gives a new heart he doth give unto A new judgement and opinion them a new judgement and opinion before the Lord renews a mans heart he hath a corrupt and false judgement Partly of himself in respect 1. Of his estate that he is alive that he is righteous that he needs no Repentance that he stands in need of nothing 2. Of his own ways that they are the wisest for safety and best for delight and profit Partly of Gods commands and ways that of all other they are most unequal and most burdensome and most undelightful and for the most part needless what needs a man to trouble himself so much for his sins and what needs a man presently to set upon the practice of Repentance and what needs a man to make so sure of Christ and mercy and grace and heaven But when the Lord gives a man a new heart his judgement is rectified and he hath now another opinion than formerly he had his judgement is divers from what it was in respect of himself and his ways As the Apostle spake I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7. So before renewing grace came into the heart a man thinks high thoughts of himself and
the times of the New Covenant which excels the other It is to me a very considerable Mystery that the Jews who were if I may so expresse my self the Original people of God the first fruits of the creature That they should have the largest time How should we Gentiles blesse the Lord who are reserved for the times of the new Covenant under the Old Covenant And we who are Gentiles that came in as it were at second hand should have all our time under the New Covenant That they by unbelief were so quickly broken off and the Gentiles have been for so many hundred years graffed in whatsoever the mystery of this dispensation may be certainly we who are sinners of the Gentiles have wonderful cause to blesse our God who hath given us so long a day in the day of his grace and have singular cause to improve such a mercy with fear and trembling As we may see the greatness of the freeness of Gods grace and the exceeding riches thereof to us so should we both lay hold on the grace revealed and walk with more faith and humility not be high-minded but fear for we stand by faith Remember saith Paul to the Ephesians Chap. 2. 12. That at that time ye were without Christ being Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world But verse 13. now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. CHAP. VI. Isaiah 55. 3. And I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David I Have now discoursed of the Covenant of Grace as it stands in The condition of the Covenant opposition to the Covenant of Works and I have discoursed of the Covenant of Grace as to the vital nature of it what it was and I have discoursed of the Covenant of Grace as to the Properties and Adjuncts of it Now I shall proceed unto a fourth General consideration of this Covenant of Grace and that is the condition of it The Covenant of Grace herein agrees with all other Covenants that it is a mutual obligation God bindes himself and his people binde themselves there is something which he will do and there is something which we must do I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant Ezek. 20. 37. and surely theâ—e is a condition in that Bond. God hath his part in the Bond and we have our part in the Bond If you trace the Covenant from Abraham even unto Christ successively you shall all along finde a condition expressed and annexed unto the Covenant Abraham he believed Gen. 15. 6. And he was to walk uprightly Gen. 17. 1. and the many Rites in Moses time took in a condition of faith and obedience and so it did in Davids time and the like with the people of Israel in and after the Babylonish Captivity and so in Christs and the Apostles time SECT I. Object I Know there is a great dispute How any condition can be allowed in a Covenant of Grace And some are very eager against it and think that if any condition be admitted then presently we are Legalists and are setting up a Covenant How any condition can be allowed in the Covenant of Grace of works instead of a Covenant of Grace Sol. But I humbly conceive that there is no need of such heat nor fear of such an inconveniency in this Point if parties would but patiently hear one another and calmly consider the matter Therefore first I think it necessary to distinguish of that word condition which may be taken in a three-fold sense Distinguish of the word condition No such condition as to work any one grace in our own hearts 1. For such an Act which we may or may not perform according to the power and pleasure of our own free will without the preventing or determining grace of God And truely in this sense I know no godly Christian who doth or dare to thrust in a condition to the Covenant of Grace as if there were something to be done by us that is by the sole power of our free wills upon the drawing out of which a Covenant is made up and accomplished twixt God and us 2. For the doing of some work which hath in it a meritorious reason on our part either for the acceptance of our persons with God or for the performance of No such condition as merit and self-worthiness his promises unto us so as wages are due to a workman no such condition as merit and self-worthiness Neither in this sense dare we admit of a condition in the Covenant of Grace for the thirsty drink of the water of life freely and the poore buy without mony and without price Both our graces and our rewards are only of the grace of God in Christ 3. For some qualifications in the sinner not wrought in him by his own power but by the sole power of Gods grace without which he cannot stand in an actual relation But a qualification wrought by God without which we cannot stand in Relation to God unto God as his God nor can apply the promises of pardon and salvation by Christ unto himself In this sense we do hold a condition in the Covenant of Grace namely That something there is required of us which yet God doth promise to work in us and which he doth work effectually in the hearts of all the Elect in time therefore Faith is called the operation of God Col. 2. 12. and the work of his power 1 Cor. 2. 5. without which they cannot look on God as their God nor can apply the Promises of forgiveness and eternal life and which when they do finde wrought in themselves by the power of Gods grace they can and may apply both unto themselves In this sense there is a condition Look as to make up a conjugal Relation there is something required on either party The woman must be willing to take and receive the man for her husband as well as the man is willing to take the woman for his wife So it is in the making up of the Spiritual marriage which is the Covenant twixt God and us as he is willing to be our God so must we be willing to be his people And as be therein takes us to be his people so do we therein take him to be our God Only with this difference That in the civil Covenant of marriage our own will leads us to that but in the Spiritual God doth by his Such a condition as it is simply necessary so it is expresly deteâ—mined in Scripture Spirit work in us that will which is a condition necessary to make the Covenant between himself and us 2. A condition as thus interpreted as it is simply necessary to the Covenant of Grace being a mutual compact and not a meere promise so it is expresly determined in
mercy grace joy peace salvation in him 7. This union 'twixt us and Christ by faith it is a firme and inseparable union A firm and inseparable union An union that can never be bâ—oken asunder and herein it goes beyond all other unions which are used to illustrate this union every one of them is soluble it may be broken off the Head and the body may be severed the Foundation and the House may be separated The Branches may be cut off â—rom the Vine The Husband may be taken away from the Wife and the Wife from the Husband Yea the soule and body may be disunited by death But the union 'twixt us and Christ remaines for ever There is not only a continuation of it all our life but also in death itself your very bodies sleeping in the the dust are even then in union with Christ I grant that the sense and apprehension of this union may in this life be much interrupted and many times be wholly darkned but the substance of the union still remaines and I grant that the substance or nature of this union may be exceedingly assaulted by Satan yet neverthelesse it continues and abides for ever For Christ will never part with the believer and the believer will never part with Christ And moreover as no power in the world is sufficient to over-power the Spirit of Christ which on Christs part makes union so no power whatsoever shall be able to conquer faith which on our part also makes the union This faith of union as it is produced by no lesse power than that of God so it is preserved and upheld by the same power to the end Neither God nor Christ nor the Holy Ghost nor the heart of a believer will break this union and neither Satan nor the world nor sin can do it 5. If your faith be indeed the faith of union this will appear by these influences The influences and effects which do attend this union and effects which do alwayes attend that union which faith works between us and Christ When we are by faith united to Christ then upon this union there follows a communion betwixt Christ and us in which Christ communicates or imparts somethings of his unto us And we likewise do communicate and impart some thing in us unto him Upon this union there follows such a communion twixt Christ and us as that we do partake of and have fellowship in the most excellent things of We have fellowship with Christ Christ We have fellowship with him 1. In the same Spirit Rom. 8. 9 11. and 1 Cor. 6. 17. And by the same Spirit are we reconciled and sanctified though not in the fulnesse and measure as In the same Spirit Christ himself was and changed by him into the same image of Christ 2 Cor. 3. 18. 2. In the same life As he that hath the Son hath life 1 Joh. 5. 10. so he that In the same Liâ—e hath the Son hath the same life which the Son hath I live yet not â— but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. The Head and the body the Tree and the branches partake of the same life 3. In the same Righteousness His Righteousnesse is our righteousnesse He is the Lord our righteousnesse Jer. 23. 6. and we are made the righteousnesse of God In the same Righteousness in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. 4. In the same Relation So that as he was the Son of God by eternal Generation In the same Relation in like manner are we the sons of God by adoption so that he is not ashamed to call us brethren Heb. 2. 11 12. 5 In his victories In all these things we are more than conquerors through In his victories Christ that loved us Rom. 8. 37. 6. In his glory The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they In his glory may be one even as we are one All these things are most certainly imparted unto every believer upon his union with Christ Jesus Christ communicates unto him his own Spirit his own Holinesse his own Righteousnesse c. And hence it is apparent that they never were united by faith unto Christ in whom nothing of communion with Christ can be found Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature c. 2. Upon this union with Christ there is yet another part of communion in respect of us and there are two things especially which we do impart to Christ one We impart to Christ is love the other is subjection for by â—aith we are united to Christ as the Wife to the Husband which is an union of love and also to Christ as members of the body to the head which takes in an union of subjection 1. If saith hath united us to Christ then do we love Christ every Believer Love loves Christ Saw ye him whom my soule lâ—veth so the Church Cant. 3. 1. 2 3. Lord Thou knowest all things Thou knowest that I love thee So Peter Joh. 21. 17. Whom having not seen ye love so the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. 8. And how doth the true believer who is united to Christ love Christ How the believer loves Christ 1. He loves his Christ with the Love of friendship he loves Christ for Christ himself 2. He loves his Christ with a love of complacency O how sweet and lovely is this Christ 3. He loves his Christ with a love of satisfaction Christ is enough he is my center in whom I rest 4. He loves his Christ with a love of sincerity Christ and nothing that is contrary to Christ 5. He loves his Christ with a love of excellency nothing so much nothing so well as Christ 6. He loves Christ with a love of extremity he is sick of love for Christ he so loves Christ that he thinks he never loves Christ as Christ deserves to be loved 7. He loves Christ with a love of fidelity so as nothing can quench that love nor break off that love 8. He loves his Christ with a love of benevolence O how much prosperity doth he wish to Christ 9. He loves his Christ with a love of beneficency what would not he do for Christ what would he not suffer for Christ 10. He loves his Christ with a love of sympathy what Christ doth love he doth love and what doth please Christ that doth please him and what doth grieve and trouble Christ that doth grieve and trouble him O Sirs uniting faith sees so much in Christ and findes so much from Christ it makes us partakers of such a Christ and of such a love from Christ that it is impossible but that soule must love Christ which by Faith is united to Christ 2. If your faith be the faith of union with Christ then it will certainly cause in Sujection unto Christ you a subjection unto Christ
the Gospel this is clear in Ephes 1. 13. In whom you also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the Gospel of your salvation So Rom. The Gospel is the means of faith 10. 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God The Gospel is therefore called the door of Faith Acts 14. 27. and the word of faith Rom. 10. 8. and the power of God Rom. 1. 16. and the word of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 19. The Gospel is the meanes of faith in three respects 1. In that it is set apart and ordained by God himself for that end and purpose to call sinners to Christ It is set apart for that end As it is blessed of God with the presence of his Spirit 2. In that it is blessed of God with the presence of his Spirit to work and implant faith There God reveales his arm and puts forth his power Some men do fancy wayes of their own to get faith And why not another way as well as by the Gospel I will tell you why Because God hath not ordained and sanctified any other way but this When the Lord commanded the brasen Serpent to be set up for the healing of the people and that they should look on it and be healed they might as well demand and why a Brasen Serpent and why not another brasen Serpent as well as this to heal us No none but this for this only was ordained of God and sanctified for that purpose So the Gospel that and that only is the means ordained and sanctified by God and which hath his promise of presence and blessing to go along with it to beget faith in our hearts 3. In that it is the most apt of all ministrations whatsoever to raise and perswade It is the most apt of all ministrations for this end the heart to believe For there only is the relation of the grace of God and love of God and kindness of God and of the mercy of God in Christ and therein is Christ made known and the righteousnesse of Christ and a sinners salvation in and by Christ and therein are held forth all the encouragements to winne the heart to Christ and all the answers and resolves to whatsoever may breed fears and doubts and discouragements in the heart from coming to Christ and all promises by which this faith is raised 3. Consider what concerns your selves in reference unto God who only gives faith Câ—nsider what concerns us in reâ—erence to God and the Gospel and in reference to the Gospel which is the only meanes by which this faith is wrought Supposing only three things already formed in you viz. 1. An apprehension that you are lost and separated from God by sin 2. A conviction that you stand in extream need of Christ 3. An earnest desire at least to enjoy Christ I would propound four things for you to do that so at length you may Four things to be done attain unto this uniting faith 1. Diligent application of your selves to the hearing of the Gospel joyning Diligent application of our selves to the hearing of the Gospel for this end thereunto a serious and reverent attention come and hear and come and hear for this very end if peradventure God will give you this faith if peradventure his Spirit will accompany the Gospel with power unto your hearts that so you may be able to believe Come as the impotent man came to the poole to be healed Lydia took this course and her heart was opened to believe Acts 16. 14. So did they in Acts 2. 37. 41. Act. 13. 48. When the Gentiles heard this they glorified the word of the Lord And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed 2. Serious meditation upon first the relation of the Gospel 2ly The offers Serious meditation of the Gospel 3ly The terms of the Gospel 4ly The promises of the Gospel 5ly The instances or examples in the Gospel 1. The Gospel Revelations of Jesus Christ given sent sealed set forth by God Of the revelations of the Gospel to be a Redeemer a Saviour a Mediatour a Peace a Propitiation a Reconciliation a life for sinners Now seriously meditate on all this you whose hearts are broken with the sense of your sins The Gospel in the Word of truth what it reveals and declares unto us that same is certain and infallibâ—e and the Gospel is the Word of Salvation whatsoever concerns our salvation that same is manifested unto us by the Gospel And this Gospel doth reveal and declare unto us the exceeding love of God the Father in that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life It doth also declare unto us hiâ— Son Jesus Christ who was God and in time was made man that so he might reconcile and unite man to God And it doth declare him in the union of his Natures and excellencies of his Person and in the glories of his Offices and in the accomplishment of all the work of Redemption and salvation for sinners and willingnesse to save them So that from the very Gospel-revelation of Jesus Christ a distressed sinner may gain thus much 1. As not to despaire 2. As to have some hope 3. As to have some desires O here is a Christ for sinners A Christ given by God the Father to save sinneâ—s why should I then despaire and here is a Christ such a Christ of such infinite worth and merit given to make satisfaction and peace and why should not I hope Am I excluded At least his Person and Offices and Works may serve thus far to beget hope and to work a desire that I may enjoy him in whom alone salvation is to be found and who came into the world to save sinners 2. The Gospel offers this Christ to distressed and poor sinners Acts 13. 26. Vnto Of the offers of the Gospel you is the Word of this Salvation sent verse 38. Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of your sins This Evangelical offer of Christ it is The Evangelical offer is A good offer 1. A good Offer It is an offer of a Saviour of Mercy Peace Life and of Salvation itself This day is Salvation come to thy house 2. It is a serious Offer Heb 12. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speak th A seâ—â—ous offer 2 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Hearken unto me and your soules shall live Isa 55. 3. Believe and thou shalt be saved Acts 16. 31. These are serious offers and commands 3. It is a personal Offer the Lord Jesus means you in particular You I say A personal offer who are heavy-laden you who are poor you who hunger and thirst unto you is the word of this salvation offered and sent 4. It is a very tender Offer 2 Cor. 5. 20. As though God did beseech you by us A
man can clear out unto himself that he is one of the people of Christ or one of the sheep or one of the friends of Christ or one of the body of Christ or one of the Church of Christ he may thereupon certainly conclude that he is one for whom Christ dyed and really intended to save by his death Object You will say Here lies all the difficulty to evidence to our selves that we are within the number of these Sol. I confesse it doth yet this must be evidenced if you would certainly know that Christ effectually dyed for you and upon diligent inquiry it may be evidenced forasmuch as Christs people and sheep and friends and body and Church have such signal characters and differences stamped upon them by which they may be known to be his indeed I will give some instances to help you in this They are the people of Christ his people who are given unto him of the Father and His people bought by him with a price and rescued by his power unto himself and brought into Covenant by him with the Father and do stand in a near and choice relation unto himself as their Head and Lord of these people it is said in Scripture that they are 1. A willing people in the day of his power Psal 110. 3. i. e. when the Gospel is preached unto them there goes with that Gospel such a power from Christ upon their hearts that they are overcome and perswaded and willingly leave their former station and relation to sin and to the world and to Satan and as willingly become Christs hearkening unto his call and falling into relation with him 2. A peculiar people Tiâ—â—s 2. 14. That he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people His people are a peculâ—ar people in a twofold respect One because they are purged from those sins and iniquities under which other people do lye and with which they are defiled Another because they are beautified and adorned with those excellencies of grace which other people do want and attain not unto and therefore in 1 Pet. 29. An holy Nation and a peculiar people are joyned together These things being thus opened it will not now be so difficult for any mans conscience to say whether he be any one of the people of Christ yea or no for two things will plainly testifie it One is the willingnesse of his heart to become Christs and the other is the choicenesse or excellency of his nature both these are in all the people of Christ and in none but the people of Christ and if you finde these upon your hearts then are you the people of Christ and if you be his people then assuredly he dyed to save you from your sins They are the sheep of Christ his sheep for whom he did lay down his life His Sheep who do hear his voice and follow him thus doth Christ himself describe his sheep John 10 27. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me And Ver. 28. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish Well then hence a man Hence a man may conclude Negatively may conclude both Negatively and Affirmatively I do not hear the voice of Christ â—or do I follow him I disregard his voice and disobey his voice therefore as yet I am none of his sheep and consequently I cannot assure my self that Christ did lay down his life for me And on the contrary one can say I do hear the voice of Christ and I do follow Affirmatively him His voice saith Come unto me Matth. 11. 28. and I come unto him his voice saith Open the door Revel 3. 20. and receive me and my heart is open unto him and I do receive him his voice saith Be converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 2. 19. and I do repent and am converted his voice saith Hearken unto me and your souls shall live Isa 55. 2. and I do obey this voice of Christ I hearken unto him and yield up my self to the service and obedience of his will Why hence I can conclude I am therefore one of the sheep of Christ and being so I am sure that Christ did lay down his life for me Again Jesus Christ saith that he layes down his life for his friends And in His friends that very place he gives two Characters of such who are indeed his friends One on their parts Joh. 15. 14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you The other on his part Ver. 15. I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you The meaning is As betwixt friends there is a reciprocal love so there is between Christ and his friends Christ loves them and they love Christ That they love Christ as friends indeed appears by their readinesse to do whatsoever Christ shall be pleased to command they are ready to take up his will and are chearfully at his command That Christ loves them as his friends appears by the manifestation and communicating unto them the secrets of his Father he tells unto them the love and minde of his Father in the great concernments of salvation which he doth not effectually make known to every man So now this stands as a firme and unmoveable ttuth that Christ did effectually lay down his life for his friends And secondly that they are the very friends of Christ who first are at the command of Christ And secondly unto whom Christ doth in a more special and familiar way make known the minde of his Father in the matters of salvation Therefore if you do experimentally finde an heart readily and chearfully affected to all the will and command of Christ What wilt thou have me to do his commands are not grievous I delight to do thy will then are you sure that you are one of the friends of Christ and if so then are you sure that Christ laid down his life for you And if you do experimentally finde such impartings of Christ to you from the Father which the men of the world know not in the sense of his love and taste of his mercy and fruits of his grace and efficacies of hâ—s Spirit thence you may certainly conclude that you are his friends for Christ effectually makes these known only to his friends and if you be his friends then undoubtedly Christ dyed for you he laid down his life to save you To this purpose might I go over the other instances of the body and of the Church of Christ but I have said enough unto this choice distinction 2. Secondly One may know that Christ dyed for him in particular by the quality of those persons who in Scripture have been able to say upon sure grounds that Christ dyed for them and redeemed them and unto whom the benefits of his death have been applied in particular It is a true rule Parium est par
who is the Donor or Giver of all It suits best with God the Donor of all It doth suit best 1. With his will and pleasure Who in this Covenant will appear and be known to be the Lord the Lord merciful and gracious abundant in goodnesse and truth Exod. 34. 6. 2. With his glory and praise which questionably devolves on himself alone seeing all our blessings come only out of his Treasury and from no reason or merit of ours but only from his own graciousness free gifrs redound unto the praâ—se of the giver only Thirdly This way of gracious giving suiâ—es best with us the receivers of blessings It suits best with us the receivers from God For consider us eiâ—her 1 As meer sinners We have no hope or plea from any thing in our selves we are a company of lost people who have undone our selves and are both insufficient to help our selves and also unworthy that God should help us 2. As made believers Faith can finde no ground to plead with God to challenge him to rely on him to expect anything from him but his promise to give and to give graciously A believer neither may nor can rest on any work or worth of his own all is but drosse and dung he trades only with a gracious God in Christ 3. As Petitioners thus also it suites best with us Gods graciousness is the best ground for us to ask upon O save me for thy mercies sake Psal 6. 4. Answer me in thy truth the surest ground to speed Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4. 16. The most fixed and invariable ground God is for ever the Lord merciful and gracious you will quickly finde a want of worthiness in your selves but you shall never find a want of goodness and graciousness in God Vse 1 Are all the blessings which are in the Covenant given by God unto his people not upon the account or reason of their worthiness but of Gods graciousness A threefold error censuâ—ed Then behold a three-fold error worthy to be censured and shunneâ— First Of the Papists who boast so impudently of their meritorious good Of the Papists works merita de Congruo before men are in the state of grace merita de condigno being in the state of grace They can take up all sorts of merits for soul aâ—d bâ—dy nay heaven itself and eternal glory upon the account of their own merits Hear what Bellarmine saith opera nostra propriè merentur faelicitatem de Lib. 5. de 〈◊〉 cap. 16. 17. congruo Hear what Vashquiz saith opera nostra nâ—n habent dignitatem à persona Christi sed à persona à qua procedunt Hear the Anathema of the Council of Trent against all who deny that the works of justified persons do vere mereri vitam In 1. 2. Tom. 2. Disp 214. c. â— N. 44. Aeternam but against this we may oppose the Scripture Not by the works of Righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us saith Paul Tit. 3. 5. Enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified saith David Psal 143. 2. How holy a man was Job and how abundant in good works see Chap. 31. 16 17. and yet saith Job Chap. 9. 15. Though I were righteous I would not answer him but I would make my supplication to my Judge and ver 20. If I justifie my self mine own mouth shall condemn me If I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse Paul how strict was he and as touching the righteousness which is in the Law how blameless And yet he will be found in Christ Not having his own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3. 9. Secondly Of the ordinary sort of Protestants who set out something of their Of the ordinary sort of Protestants own as reasons why God should bless them and save them they mean no body any harm and they serve God devoutly and keep their Church and pay every one their due and say their Prayers and their Belelief and their ten Commandements and cry God mercy when they sin and will not all this deserve heaven and a few blessings on earth Thirdly But most of all to be blamed and that with pity are poor broken-hearted Of poor brokenhearted sinners sinners who discern so much sinfulness and unworthiness in themselves and yet are so difficult to place their hopes in the graciousness of God and are hearking extreamly after something of worth in themselves something in themselves for which God would hear and help them if once they could reach unto it It is a great work to break a hard heart It is a greater work to make a broken heart to look up and trust for mercy It is the greatest work to make such an heart to believe for itself that all mercies and blessings are to be had upon the sole account of Gods graciousness Whether this may arise from our exceeding Guilt which fills us with exceedingâ—â—â— slavish fear or from the pride of our hearts which would be something or from the greatness of Gods kindnesse which is so unusual with man or from the particular genius of unbelief which is gone and hath nothing to say more when once we come to acknowledge Gods graciousness for the sole reason of all our blessings and possessions or from all these conjunctively I will not now dispute but sure I am that the broken-hearted sinner is hardly brought off from boasting on himself and is hardly brought on to commit or venture all his hopes and confidences on the graciuosness of God as the entire cause why God should pardon accept blesse and save him And this is a principal cause why his soule dwells so long with fears and tears and sadnesses Doth God dispence all the blessings of the Covenant unto his people not upon the account of their worthiness but only of his own graciousness Then under the Under the sense â—f unworthinesse let us go to God and trust on him sense of all our want yea and of all our unworthinesse let 's go to God and pray to him and trust upon him to do us good for his own Name sake Here is water said the Eunuch to Philip what doth hinder me to be baptized So say I God promiseth to give all blessings unto his people and he promiseth to give them graciously now what should hinder you from going to God and beseeching and trusting of him to perform his good Word unto you You are grieved for your sins what should hinder â—ou to believe the free forgiveness of them You would fain have your hearts sanctified what should hinder you from going to God and trusting on him freely to make them holy You would have
of sin maketh formally no change in the person forgiven for it is a work without him indeed there is a relative change upon forgiveness the person forgiven is in a state of life and not of death but there is no inherent change of qualities in the person by it no more than there is in a Malefactor pardoned or a Debtor forgiven both of them may be diseased notwithstanding their pardon but this could not be if remission of sin consisted in the extinction or deletion of the stain of sin It is true that when God forgives the sin he doth likewise change the heart of the sinner nevertheless the forgiving of sin is one thing and the giving of a new heart is another thing c. Fourthly If remission of sin consist in the outward deletion of sin Then the troubled conscience could never come to rest and peace in the assurance of pardon of sin why because in this life the person shall never find in himself such an utter deletion of sin and consequently no remission of sins and if no remission of sin then no rest nor peace because from the knowledge and assurance of that doth the rest and peace of conscience come and flow 2. Forgiveness of sins hath a peculiar respect to the guilt of sin and removal It hath a peculiar respect to the guilt of sin of that when the Lord forgives a man he doth discharge him of that obligation by which he was bound over to wrath and condemnation Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Ver. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth Ver. 34. Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed Beloved the Lord is a holy and just God and he reveals his wrath from heaven against all unrighteousnesse and there is a curse threatned to every transgression of the Law and when any man sinneth he is obnoxious unto the curse and God may inflict the same upon him but when God forgives sins he therein doth interpose as it were between the sin and the curse and between the obligation and the condemnation q. d. by reason of your sinning you are now fallen into my hands of justice and for your sinning I may according to my righteous Law condemn and curse you for ever for by your sinning you are worthy of death Rom. 1. 32. but such is my mercy to you in Christ that for his sake I will spare you and that curse and condemnation which you have deserved it shall never light upon you I will deliver and free your souls from going down into the pit Object But may some say Is not guilt inseparable from sin can sin be without guilt and can guilt be without the desert of wrath and condemnation Sol. I answer there is a two-fold guilt there is reatus simplex and reatus efficax absolute guilt hath in it a worthiness or desert of condemnation and this can never be separated from sin for though sin be pardoned and condemnation removed from the sinner yet his sin is worthy of condemnation but when God pardons sin he doth it not by making the sin not to be worthy of condemnation but this is it which God doth he doth remove that condemnation that it shall never effectually or actually fall upon the sinner although he for his sinning be worthy thereof e. g. When a thief or murderer is pardoned amongst us this pardon doth not make the theft or murder no sin or in themselves not worthy of death by the Law but it relieves the pardoned persons thus far that the death deserved by these sins is taken off and shall never be inflicted on the offenders 3. Forgiveness of sin takes off all punishments properly so called for sin there It takes off all punishment properly so called belongs unto us temporal punishment and eternal punishment you do not consider what a depth of merit there is in sin what plagues and curses it can pull down in this life and what an hell hereafter but when God forgives sins you are then released and for ever acquitted from any after-reckonings with the justice of God Divine justice hath no more to say or do against you for remissa culpa remittitur poena if the fault be forgiven then also is the punishment forgiven nay let me speak with an humble reverence God cannot in his justice punish when he hath pardoned Why will you say First He forgives upon a satisfaction made to his justice already by Christ so that he cannot in justice punish us again for satisfaction Secondly When he forgives he releases the guilt and the fault and the sin in now by this act of his merciful grace as if it had never been committed so that the proper cause and reason of punishing being utterly removed there can no punishment issue out from Divine justice against you Object But will some say are not justified and pardoned persons many times punished in this life Was not David punished for his sin were not the Corinthians punished for their unworthy receiving of the Lords Supper Sol. I answer that word Punishment may be taken either 1. Largely for any affliction or chastisement which doth befall us from God as a Father in this sense I grant punishment incident to justified or pardoned persons for Hebr. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth And Ver. 7. If you endure chastisement God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he whom the Father chastneth not 2. Strictly for those miserable evils issuing out from the Court of justice and falling upon us from God as a wrathful Judge and as yet unsatisfied and unreconciled these kinds of punishing are wholly and utterly removed from justified or pardoned persons by the blood of Christ and Gods gracious forgiveness 5. A fifth thing considered in the description of forgiveness of sins is this It is Gods act of oblivion that forgiveness of sins is if I may so express it Gods act of oblivion and as it were an eternal cancelling of all our sinful bonds and debts so that there is now a full end of all controversies between God and us Object We many times are possessed with fears like Josephs Brethren that notwithstanding the peace and assurance which he gave them of passing by their injurious dealing with him yet at length they feared that he would remember them and be avenged of them such thoughts have we of God also sometimes we do perceive his great love and rich mercy towards us in the forgiveness of our sins yet at other times we have fears lest God will call us unto account for all our sinful offences and question us and judge us as if the granting of pardoning mercy might be revoked and called back by the Writ of Error and the old suit be prosecuted again by Divine justice which seemeth to be taken off and silenced
ye can do nothing Joh. 15. 5. We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves saith the Apostle in 2 Cor. 3. 5. And we are dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2. 1. Secondly There is in every natural man a resistance a contrariety and opposition to the work of holinesse Rom. 8. 7. The carnal minde is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Ephes 4. 18. Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them Jer. 13. 27. Wo unto thee O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean Secondly That no creature can make another holy we may wish holiness to N◠〈◊〉 can make another hoâ—y others and we may pray the Lord to sanctifie others and we may direct others to the wayes of holinesse but make them holy we cannot For 1. No man can impart any of his own grace unto another he cannot divide the grace which he hath as he can the earthly estate which he hath amongst his children The actings of his grace may extend to others but the habit or quality of his grace he can no more impart to others than he can his own soul or life 2. All that we can do for others to work grace in them is but in a moral way of counsel and exhortation and entreaty and reasoning but we cannot open their ears to hear that counsel nor their hearts to receive that grace unto which they are by us exhorted nor can we expect that our exhortations should have more power to prevail with men than Gods exhortations yet these alone were not sufficient to change any sinner without some inward workings of his Spirit upon the spirits of men 3. Besides to change the heart of a sinner by grace is a work proportionable This is a work of Omnipotency with Creation and with the resurrection of the dead so the Scripture stiles our conversion or sanctification for which Omnipotency must put forth it self to sanctifie us God can do it Secondly God can sanctifie or graciously change the heart of a sinner which may thus appear 1. He hath dominion and power over the heart he can turn and command and rule it as he pleaseth 2. He hath dominion over all grace he can give it and work it in the heart of men by his Almighty Spirit and Power If he will say to the dead Live the dead shall live if he will say to the blind See the eyes of the blind shall be opened and they shall see If he will say to the deaf Hear the ears of the deaf shall be opened and they shall hear If he will say to the most wicked heart Be thou changed it shall be changed and healed for by his Spirit he can infuse that grace into the heart and with that power and with that efficacy as shall be sufficient to beat down and subdue all the resistances of sin and to renew and alter the whole soul Thirdly God doth undertake this sanctifying work in promise for his people God undertakes this work 1. That they may know that be alone is the Original and Author of all their Spiritual good No Fountain of mercy but their God of mercy and no Fountain of grace but their God of grace no Fountain of peace and salvation and comfort but their God of peace but their God of salvation but their God of comfort 2. That their hearts might be supported under the sense of their sinfulness and under the sense of their want of holiness and under the sense of their own insufficiency and inability to give themselves any holiness Though they cannot though no creature can help their hearts to holiness yet their God can and will for he hath promised it to them and he is able to perform what he hath promised and is also able and will do it 3. That he might have the glory that we may glory in him and not in our selves for what have we that we have not received Let no man take this work upon him upon a confidence of his own strength 1. Vse Doth God himself undertake to sanctifie the hearts of his people Then let none take upon him this work upon a confidence of his own will and power and sufficiency will you take the work of God out of his hand When Rachel said to Jacob Give me children or else I dye he said Am I in Gods stead Gen. 30. 1 2. So when the King of Syria sent Naaman to the King of Israel to heal him of his leprosie said he Am I God to kill and make alive that this man doth send to me to recover a man of his leprosie 2 Kin. 5. 7. So will you be in Gods stead will you be Gods to yourselves that you take on you to change and sanctifie your own hearts and yet men are frequently presumptuous in this they will change their hearts and they will become new men Is not this a presumptuous nay is it not an impossible work will you create will you quicken the dead Object But doth not God bid us Make unto your selves a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 18. 31. Sol. The Precepts of God in this kind 1. Shew our impotency and convince us thereof they do not imply our power 2. He commands us this for this very end that we should seek unto him to work this 3. That we might apply our selves to the means through which he will work this 2. Vse In the sense of want of holiness be not discouraged give not up the work Be not discouraged in the sense of the want of holiness as impossible say not I shall never see a change in my heart my sins are so strong and my power is nothing but go to God remember that he hath undertaken to sanctifie Master If thou wilt thou canst make me clean said the poor Leper said Christ I will be thou clean Remember five things in this that God himself undertakes to give grace or holiness by promise First He intends to give what he promiseth in any Particular Secondly He is able to work it nothing is able to stand against his promise nothing can hinder it all the power of hell and of thy sinful heart cannot hinder him from the healing and sanctifying according to promise Thirdly He doth put thee but upon coming and asking and trusting He will give hiss holy Spirit to them that ask Luke 11. 13. Believe only and thou shalt be saved and thou shalt see his power Fouthly You cannot put up a request that doth more concern his own glory Lord let me not dishonour thee any more grieve thee any more sanctifie and change my heart that I may bring thee glory Fifthly He never denied any heart that was serious and fixed in desires of holinesse Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you c. I Now come
a dart Spira longing for death rather than life c. if the Lord should let fall any of these judgements upon thee what would become of thee Fourthly Meditate on the patience of God and on the goodness of God Of the patience of God 1. On the patience of God who hath been so long provoked by thy hard heart and yet hath spared thee held off his hand from striking of thee hath all this while born with thee and forborn to judge thee 2. On the goodness of God both to thy body and soul thou who hast so Of the goodness of God much hardned thy heart against him hast yet every day tasted of his bounty and blessings yea and that he is treating with thy soul sends Ministers deals with thee in a Gospel way calls on thee to repent offers thee Christ and mercy and heaven and assures thee if thou wilt yet hearken thy soul shall live 2ly Practical Actions and they are these Practical actions Come and hear First Come and hear 'T is true an hard heart cares not to hear the Word yet because thou hast a power to come and hear the Word as well as to go to any other place or work use thy power rather to come and hear the Word and that Word which is most convincing piercing humbling Moses rod made the waters to come out of the Rock The Word of God is able to save a soul and therefore certainly it is able to convert and soften the soul The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live Joh. 5. 25. All who have got the cure of hardness of heart they have found it at the Word and by the Word which is the Sword of the Spirit and the power of God Secondly Go and pray beseech the Lord himself to circumcise thy heart he Go and pray only can cure the stone in the heart he only can take away the stony heart out of the flesh nothing is too hard for him Lord Lord leave me not to the hardness of my heart Lord open mine eyes make me sensible over-power my stiffe and rebellious and gain-saying heart Object O but my heart is so hard that I cannot pray Sol. 1. Pray as thou mayst at least grieve 2. And sigh under the burden of thy hard heart cry out O that I were made sensible and that I could pray to God to be cured 3. And go to them that can pray beseech them to beseech the Lord for thee O Sirs be sensible of one who is not sensible of himself pray for me who cannot pray for my self Thirdly Look a little on Jesus Christ whom thou hast pierced that thou mayst Look on Jesus Christ mourn Zach. 12. 10 Look on him and what thy hard heart hath done unto him thy hard heart it was which crucified him which pierced him which shed his precious blood And now hearken what Jesus Christ saith unto thee O hard-hearted sinner thy sins have put my soul to grief thy sins have drawn tears from mine eyes and blood from my heart Thou hast been very cruel to me I will not be so to thee lo I offer my self unto thee and my blood unto thee it shall wash thee from all thy sins it shall make thy peace it shall save thy soul if yet thou wilt no more harden thy heart but forsake thy sins and receive my offers Methinks this cannot but bow and melt thee if this doth not what will if the love of Christ if the blood of Christ will not nothing will They say that the blood of the Lamb is that which can soften the Adamant if any thing will work on will melt an hard heart it is the blood which came from the heart of Christ Fourthly If at any time the power of God appear on thy heart in meditation or hearing or praying or affections or secret workings of his Spirit that it begins to yield to hearken and consider to relent to soften 1. Do not dash and quench these by sinning by unbelief or by wicked security 2. But cherish them work with these workings keep them up raise them up Quest 3. How may one know that he is cured of a stony and hard heart at the How may one know that he is cured least that the cure is beginning Sol. The resolution of this question hath reference unto the second Proposition viz. that God promiseth to take away the heart of stone from his people but to speak unto the question as it now falls First When hardness of heart is cured or curing there is instantly wrought a By a spiritual sensation spiritual sensation such a sight and such a feeling as the poor sinner never had the like in all his life Simile As when a man is delivered from a deadly palsie he begins to feel and complain of the benummedness and heaviness of his limbs saith he What ails my arms and my feet I can hardly stir them there is scarce life in them nor sense nor motion So when the Lord is curing any sinner of the hardness of his heart he begins to see and feel and complain O saith he What a hard heart have I what a sinful and wretched heart I have heard of a proud and stout heart of a careless and unbelieving heart of an hard and rebellious heart of an impenitent and obstinate heart alas my heart hath been and it is all this O what an untoward heart do I feel in my self to any good what an unyielding heart to any thing which God commands and an unwilling heart to part with sin what a gain-saying heart to stoop to Christ this my heart I now feel to be like the flint the Iron the Adamant no man hath such an insensible hard heart as I. This is the first evidence of the cure of an hard heart viz. the sensibleness of the unsensibleness and hardness of the heart Secondly When hardness of heart is cured or curing then the sinner will By judging of himself and sins in another manner judge of his â—â—ns and of himself so as he did never before He looks on his sinful heart as on a root of gall and wormewood and he looks on his sinful ways and doings as vile and cursed and wonders at himself what he meant to be so forward to sin and to be so obstinate in sinning and to be so desperately profane as to contend with God in slighting the knowledge of him in refusing to hearken unto him in opposing of his Word in rejecting all the gracious and saving offers of Christ O my madness and folly O my pride and misery to forsake my meâ—cies for lying vanities to pitch on hell rather than heaven to love darkness rather than light O how jâ—st were it with God to reject me who have rejected him and never to hear me calling upon him who have so often turned away my ears from hearing him when calling upon me I am the chiefest of sinners
and powerful Spirit and he puts forth a wonderful power in all them unto whom he is given e. g. First he raiseth every one of them from the dead what the Lord spake of the people of Israel touching their civil estate Ezek. 3â— 13 14. I have opened your graves O my people and brought you up out of your graves and will put my Spirit within you and you shall live That is true in a spiritual sense of all the people of God unto whom the Spirit of God is given Though before the donation of the Spirit they were dead in trespâ—sses and sinnes yet when the spirit is given unto them they are by the operation of that spirit quickned made alive and raised from that dead estate Ephes 2. 1. You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins they have the life of God and Christ in them O what a power is put forth in the raising of a dead man and yet there is a greater power of the spirit put forth in the raising of a dead sinner Secondly He enables them both to perceive and also to receive the things of God to perceive the glory and excellency of them and to receive the goodness and sweetness of them 1. To perceive them Mat. 13. 11. It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God but to them it is not given And 1 Cor. 2. 6. We speak wisdom amongst them that are perfect Ver. 7. The wisdom of God in a mystery Ver. 8. Which none of the Princes of this world know Ver. 14. Which are foolishnesse unto the natural man and which he cannot know q. they are spiritually discerned Compare these places together and you shall find two differences 'twixt them who have the Spirit and them that have not the Spirit concerning the things of God viz To the one they are wisdom yea and wisdom of God but to the other they Who have and have not the Spirit are foolishness When we preach Jesus Christ and the things of salvation the new creature self-denial living by faith in Christ promised c. and make offers of him unto a people some make light of him and regard not the offer at all they see no beauty at all in him that they should desire him Yet others see in him the glory as of the only begotten of the Father and do admire at that infinite mercy and goodness and love and life in and by him the reason is because the one knows him not but to the other it is given to know him and to discern the mystery of salvation in him 2. To receive hiâ— Joh. 1. 11. He came amongst his own and his own received him not Ver. 12. But as many as received him c. And who were these that received him See Ver. 13. Such as were born not of blood nor of the will of the the flesh nor of the will of man but of God So Acts 2. 41. They that gladly received the Word were baptized But 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God If Christ be offered the natural man will not receive him If Christ saith He that is my Disciple must deny himself This is a hard saying who can bear it Joh. 6. 60. And take up his cross and follow me the natural man will not receive this If the Word saith Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. The natural man will not receive this nor will he receive that truth in Matth. 7. 41. Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life c. But every one who hath the Spirit of God as he hath a power given to perceive or discern the mysteries of the Kingdom of God and all the wayes and rules belonging thereunto so he hath also an heart given to close with the Kingdom of Christ and with every part and path of it Thirdly The Spirit enables them to pray and under the sense of their wants and troubles to come unto God as their Father and to open their conditions unto him with judgement affection and confidence Rom. 8. 15. We have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Ver. 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Here you see that they who have the Spirit of Adoption have received the Spirit of supplication every son of God is able to call God Father and to cry unto him as his Father and that the Spirit of God is in this work of Prayer by making intercession for them appears 1. By enabling them to make requests for themselves with groanings which cannot be uttered 2. With fervency and earnestness of heart Object But will some reply This cannot be a distinguishing sign that we have the Spirit because many wicked men do pray and so do many hypocrites Isa 26. Whether the Spirit of Prayer be a sure sign of a child of God 16. Lord in trouble have they visited thee they have poured out a Prayer when thy chastening was upon them Ergo c. Sol. I answer First By way of Concession granting three things unto wicked men and hypocrites viz. 1. They may and do in their distresses put forth natural desires for help as the very beasts do under their burdens and wants 2. They may and generally do satisfie themselves with a form of Prayer which they read or hear read unto them which is another thing from the Spirit of Prayer 3. They may have the gift of Prayer or an ability to pray by the strength of gifts and parts and upon hearing of others to gather up some good expressions and fragments and â—utter them as if they did pray Secondly By way of Negation Notwithstanding those three Concessions I deny that any man hath the spirit of supplication who hath not the Spirit of grace because the spirit of supplication is given with the spirit of adoption which is proper to the sons of God Every one who hath the Spirit of Prayer he can come unto God and call him Father which none can do but such as are in Christ in whom he becomes our reconciled God and Father To pray with the Spirit of Prayer is to pray with a special My soule is sore troubled Psal 6. feeling of our wants and of our I am not worthy to be called thy sonne unworthiness and the desires of our soul c. with my whole heart and my soul follows hard after thee with affectionate earnestness of heart and with I believe therefore I have spoken confidence towards God in the name of Christ that he will give unto us the good things which he hath promised to us in his Covenant 2 Sam. 7. 27. Thou hast revealed unto thy servant saying I will build thee an house therefore thy servant
new born babes as the Apostle calls them 1 Pet. 2. 2. The graces of the Spirit are sometimes in so weak and so low a ebb that they are compared to a bruised reed and to smoaking flax and to the dawning of of light in the morning and to a grain of mustardseed and to a little leaven in the lump Now here I would shew you three things 1. How one may know that he hath as yet but a very weak measure of the Spirit of grace 2. How one may know that the weak measure of grace is not false but true grace 3. That no Christian should discourage himself because his grace is weak but rather encourage himself because grace is sound although it be weak How to know our grace to be weak 1. Quest How one may know that he hath as yet but a very weak measure of the Spirit of grace Sol. This may be known In our first conversion First By the time of the implantation of it this is a truth that grace begins in weakness if a man be but newly converted his grace cannot be but weak Simile The Christian at first is but as a plant newly set and but as a sick man newly recovered or as the Sun newly risen although it may seem much unto him and he may find many stirrings in his spirit and in his affections yet this grace is but weak it hath but little strength in it Simile As a prisoner who hath been long in captivity and bondage when he is delivered his rejoycing may be great and yet his body may be very weak so when the Lord converts a man and so delivers him from the bondage of sin his heart may exceedingly rejoyce in his mercy that he is translated from death to life and yet his Spiritual strength of grace is very weak in him Secondly By the strength of corruptions The stronger that any mans corruptions By the strength of our corruptions are this is a sign that his graces are but weak I call those sinful corruptions strong which do often prevail upon us and lead us captive which are able to hinder us from doing what is good and to drive and force us to do that which is evil nor are we able to withstand this why this ariseth from weakness of grace Simile When it is with us as with a little Child who is ready to stumble and fall at every straw as we speak at every stone at every chip is not this the weakness of the Child So when every temptation every occasion every strong motion of sin is apt to shake us and stagger us and to surprize us is not grace very weak within us If this be a truth that sin grows weak as grace grows stronger Simile that the darkness is less when the light is clear then this also holds true that grace is weak when sin is strong Simile when grace is like a little light in the mid'st of much darkness By the proportions of actings Thirdly by the proportion of actings Every true grace of the Spirit is of an active nature it is apt to put forth itself Simile in this respect it is like all true fire and light which in the least degrees are apt and do put forth themselves but they have their different proportions in acting a little fire acts but little and a great fire acts much so weak grace hath but a weak operation and strong grace stronger operations weak grace acts most in desires and most in the will and most in tears and most in sighs and groans O that I could believe Lord help my unbelief answered the father of child with tears O that I could mourn that I could obey To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not Rom. 7. 18. Fourthly By the mixture of contrary workings a little of grace and much of corruption a little of faith and much of doubtings a little of hope and By the mixture of contrary workings much of fear a little of sorrow and much of hardness a little of prayer and much of distraction a little of zeal and much of flatness a little that is done and much that is undone a little of knowledge and much of ignorance a little heavenly-mindedness and much of earthliness a little fire and much smoak a little going and much halting c. Fifthly By the aptness to live not by faith but by sense when God draws up all our helps and hopes into his promises and puts us now to fetch all our supplies By aptness to live by sence and comforts from his good and faithful Word Here is my Word that I will pardon your sins and here is my Word that I will subdue your iniquities and here is my Word that I will answer your prayers and here is my Word that I will supply your wants and I will never leave you nor forsake you O but because we feel not the assurance of pardon and because we find not victory over our sins and because we do not see the answet of our prayers and because we cannot discern the means and wayes how our wants may be supplyed therefore our hearts fail us and we are troubled and perplexed and sad thoughts do arise in our hearts and they are much cast down within us If it be thus with us certainly our graces are weak very weak the lesse able are ye to trust an All sufficient and faithful God in his promises but you must have the portion in your own hands you must see or else you will not believe you cannot so stedfastly believe that Gods Bond is sufficient c. Simile The child is but weak which must still be held by the hand c. Sixthly By the prevailing of discouragements If we be apt to be offended By the prevailing of discouragements and discouraged this shews weakness of grace there are discouragements taken from Gods dealing with us as when he delayes our suits and denies some of the requests and tries and exercises us with smart afflictions and suffers temptations to abide on us From the wayes of Christianity the strictness of them and the danger by them and the greatness of them From men that wicked men do so vex and trouble us that good men are so strange and unkind unto us From ouâ— selves that we go on so slowly and exactly and uncomfortably and others get so far before us and attain so much Discouragements from any of these shew that there is in us but small knowledge little faith much fear and weak grace Seventhly By the presence of censoriousness of strife and contentions and envyings 1 Cor. 3. 3. For ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among By the presence of censoriousness you envying and strife and division are you not carnal and walk as men 2. Quest How may one know that the weak measure of grace is not false but true grace and the very effect of
Ten things concerning the goodness of God to his people ibid. Twelve things may assure you that God will be kind to his people 51 Gods Eternity 52 It gives confidence to live upon God as long as we live 53 If God be your God then Christ is your Christ 54 Comfort to the people of God in Covenant 339 God would have the hearts of his people fixt on him alone 348 God doth confine our prayers to himself alone ibid. God gives all needful good assuredly 349 All the blessings which God promiseth to his people in Covenant he gives only upon account of his graciousness 353 God doth not enjoyn nor expect any worthiness as a reason of his blessings 354 God will have us acknowledge our selves unworthy 356 Under the sense of unworthiness let us go to God and trust in him 358 Arguments to demonstrate God is great in mercy 441 God brings great sinners into Covenant in a perfect league of love and peace ibid. God makes use of great sins to humble men 442 They are no small matters that God doth for us ibid. God takes away the ground of despair 443 The people of God may be guilty of great sins 444 God will be praised for Christ 469 God himself undertakes to sanctifie his people 493 God doth not expect that you should bring but receive 108 Difference betwixt restraining and renewing grace 506 Why such as have grace should labour to grow in it p. 635 I but I am under much weakness of grace and many wants Ans 215 H. H … ness OF the kinds of hardness in men 529 Some are sensible of their Hardness 538 Remove what breeds this Hardness ibid. God takes away hardness of Heart from his people 544 A difference betwixt the hardness remaining in the best and that in the wicked 547 Resist hardness returning ibid. They who partake of this mercy should beware of hardning themselves again 550 Of the judgements of God upon hardned sinners ibid. Three sorts of hardned sinners ibid. When we make most Haste we shall hardly finish all we have to do 685 A new Heart is a changed heart 497 God gives a new Heart and a new Spirit to his people in Covenant 496 Ten Characters of a new Heart 511 Why God gives a new Heart 501 Then many are not Gods people they have their old hearts still 502 Exhortation to use the means to get a new Heart 522 The misery of an old Heart ibid. The necessity of a new Heart 523 Hearken not to the prejudices of your old Heart 524 The way to get a new Heart 525 There is a stony Heart in every man 527 Why called a stony Heart 528 Comfort to those that have a new Heart 519 Of the evil of an hard Heart 540 Why God takes away the stony Heart and that by promise 546 The means how God takes hardness of heart away ibid. Labour to be cured of this hard Heart 534 The effects and fruits of a hard Heart 536 Means to cure a hard Heart ib. They are none of the people of God whose hard heart is not removed 548 Keep up the tenderness of heart 554 Search your Hearts often ibid. All the people of God have a softned heart given them 555 What a heart of flesh is A fourfold softness 556 Characters of a heart spiritually soft and tender 567 This tenderness of Heart appears towards â—od 557 Why God gives a heart of flesh 559 Tryals whether we have a tender Heart 560 Bless God for this Heart of flesh 549 Convictions that many deceive themselves in a false softnesse of Heart 564 Get newness of Heart 583 Cet Hearts to love the Lord ib. How the tender Heart is affected in case of Gods honour 574 The workings of a tender Heart in case of Gods dishonour 575 The misery of persons destitute of softness of Heart 566 The benefits of a tender heart 579 How to know which is true humiliation 598 The carnal heart counts any one common and burthensom 668 Our helps are more then our work 693 Six things affirmed of Holiness 33 Why men look after mercy and not holiness 492 Be not discouraged in the sense of the want of holiness 495 The nature of holiness 136 How true holiness may be known ibid. The Author of this Covenant commands holiness 132 What the sin against the holy Ghost is 385 No creature can make another holy 494 What is to be done that we may be holy 137 I. Jesus JEsus the Mediator of the Covenant p. 222 Whilst we live we are imperfect 676 A threefold intercession in Scripture 274 How sad is their condition who have no part in Christs intercession 276 The Popish Doctrine of other Intercessors confuted 275 Idolatry the greatness of that sin 440 Every justified person hath cause of rejoycing 442 The difference between Justification and Sanctification 489 Wonder not to see little good done upon many by private Instructors 532 Its a great judgement not be accepted with God 664 K. Knowledge HOw Knowledge contributes to obedience 655 Without Knowledge obedience is not practical ibid. Some more slow in point of Knowledge some in point of practice 684 Get a clear Knowledge of the wayes of God 698 L. Laws THe observation of Gods Laws belongs to all that are in Covenant with him 643 How Gods people being not under the Law are bound to obedience 646 How the Moral Law never ceaseth ibid. How we are said to be under the Law 647 What is Legal obedience 652 A Legal obedience is indeed impossible 670 In what cases God leaves his Servants 710 Love is not the only rule of our obedience 658 M. Mediator WE cannot serve a better Master then God 696 God is the best Master and why ibid. God is no hard Master 707 Of the Mediator of the Covenant 225 What is a a Mediator ibid. Christ the Mediator betwixt God and us ib. There is a necessity of a Mediator betwixt God and us 226 There cannot be a New Covenant without a Mediator 227 Jesus Christ and he only is the Mediator ibid. Three conditions in a Mediator agree only to Christ 228 How Christ is to be considered as being a Mediator as God-man ibid. A Mediator must be a middle person twixt differing parties ibid. This Mediator undertakes all betwixt God and us 231 According to which Nature in Christ he is a Mediator 132 The works of Christs Mediation were such as no person could effect except he were both God and man 229 There is in us an unworthiness of any mercy 355 That God is a God of infinite mercy 431 Though your sins be great yet there is hopes of mercy 445 What is to be observed about mercies and blessings 662 N. Newness A Natural man can of himself do no good 706 Try our selves what newness is in us 504 O. Obedience HOw to please God in our obedience 664 Progressive Obedience is true Obedience 676 Three things in Christs obedience for our imitation 677 P.
time he gives faith and Christ and Justification and Sanctification all at once as soon as the person believes he is united to Christ and hereupon justified and sanctified And others of them are of a comfortable consequence as assurance joy peace c. God doth not give these blessings first of all but after he hath given the former Ephes 1. 13. In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise mark the sealing follows the believing 1 Pet. 1. 8. In whom believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory here rejoycing follows believing Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God peace with God follows justification and therefore is it a preposterous course for any troubled souls to presse God or to expect from God the comforts and joys and assurances promised before they have faith and are in Christ for though God doth promise these things yet he promises to give them in an orderly way the graces first and then the comforts of grace faith and union with Christ first and then the joys and peace depending upon that union 5. When God undertakes to give all blessings unto his people in Covenant this He gives according to the proportions and measures he knows best for us in our places and conditions must be understood according to the proportion and measure which he knows best for us in our places and conditions There is a measure of apprehension of Christ and of our justification by Christ and of our salvation by Christ God gives a greater and clearer and more fixed measure of the apprehension or reflexive knowledge of these to some of his people then he doth to others of them And there is a measure of holinesse some have higher and some have weaker degrees of grace now in Gods undertaking to give all spiritual blessings you must not think that God intends to give every measure or degree of grace at once nor yet the like degree of grace unto every one nor yet the like measure of comfortable evidences or apprehensions of interest in Christ and remission and salvation by him no but God will give all Covenant-blessings unto all his people in such a proportion and measure in this life as may conduce most to his glory and may most fit them in their private and publick conditions for his better service Vse 1 Strive to believe and acknowledge this truth that God himself doth undertake to give all the blessings of the Covenant which do concern his Believe and acknowledge this truth people Object Why will you say no man doubts it or scruples it but it belongs to God and to him alone to give all c. Sol. I wish that â—â—me were true but if indeed this were so then 1. Why do not we in all our wants and necessities make our prime applications unto God Why do we think least of him and last of him we run to this creature and to that creature set up one friend and look upon another try all the powers and abilities here below as if God were least of all concerned in the donation of our mercies and blessings if we did indeed believe that God himself undertakes all blessings for us then our first addresses would be unto him our first work and our great work would be with himself alone to do us good 2. Why do our hearts go and come rise and fall according to the presence and absence of visible means and helps in the prevalence of them our hearts are raised up with hopes and in the absence of them they are distracted and cast down with fears Would it be thus with us if we did indeed believe that God himself undertook to give us all our blessings certainly we place our hopes and expectations below and besides God himself when inferiour causes have such a command and such an influence upon our hearts If we did believe that God himself that he alone were sufficient and faithful it would be all one to us whether the creatures smile or frown incline toward us or fall from us 3. Why do we not only for temporal supplies but also for spiritual mercies undertake for our selves and as it were discharge God from undertaking for us How often do we undertake the spiritual charge of our hearts and to make our own hearts to repent and to believe and to subdue our own sins and to do such and such commands of God by our own free-will and by our own strength if we did believe that God himself undertakes for all these and that it belongs unto him alone to give them would we presume upon our selves thus would we take his work out of his hands 4. Why dare we not in our exigency commit all unto him and quietly rest on him but when our helps and hopes are reduced only unto him so that unlesse he himself appears we can cast Anchor nowhere else and although in such cases he doth plainly appear in his Covenant graciously undertaking and faithfully promising to help and blesse us yet this is nothing to us it doth no way affect or support us assuredly either we do not know this God aright or else we do not believe that he himself doth undertake for us or else that he will performe and Not to believe and acknowledge this truth is a great sin Wherein the sinfulnesse of it lies make good what himself hath undertaken Beloved Consider what I say this is a very great sin thus to fall short in the belief and acknowledgement of this truth for 1. You deny God to be God in the Covenant you do as it were shut him out from being a party there and concerned there though indeed he be the confederating party and we are the confederated party yet you include him and deny him to be so when that you believe not that it belongs to him to be the suscipient party and your selves to be the recipient party only for I beseech you what will you make of Gods covenanting with you more than a cypher if you do not grant and acknowledge him therein as engaging himself to give us all the good which we do need What other work is there which can or doth concern him 2. And you do hereby deny all homage unto him for how can you 〈◊〉 unto him for any one good that you want or trust on him for any one â—â—â—cy if you do not acknowledge this truth that he himself undertakes to give all blessings and mercies unto you and where will you put your mite of thankfulnesse for all your receits of blessings if God himself did not undertake to give you the blessings what ground have you to undertake to give him the praise of them Therefore earnestly strive by faith to assent unto this truth which I have delivered it is of more consequence than you are aware of it is that which gives life unto you in all your dealings with God and which may