all Christians but if God doe set it home particularly unto any soule that man receives this gift of God it is made his own first he beleeveth this Promise of free grace and then afterward come other Promises that doe bear witnesse unto the right application of that Promise unto the soule but I am first buâ—… upon a Promise of free-grace or else there is no true closing with Jesus Christ Well then being thus united unto Christ from this Union with Christ do flow all other blessings and benefits of the Covenant of grace and from hence springeth Communion with Christ in all spirituall blessings that the Lord hath wrought for us in him and they are two of them Relative blessings as they are called by Divines and two of them Positive blessings The two former are laid up in Gods owne hand and are not created in us as the other two are 1 For the Relative blessings they are 1 Adoption 2 Justification And they spring immediately simul semel from the former Union with Christ for as soon as ever the spirit of God is in our hearts and hath wrought faith that we doe not spurne against Jesus Christ now is the Divine nature of Christ in us and we are now become the Sons of God as Christ himselfe is Look as in a mans first naturall conception as soon as ever Adam doth live there is an heir of Adam even so soon as the soul liveth So it is in this new spirituall birth as soon as the Holy Ghost cometh and hath wrought this faith now is the seed of God in us and the life of Christ and the Spirit of God and now are we the Sons of God Jo. 1.12 Immediately upon this Union with Christ we are Sons by Adoption and as we are Adopted so likewise our sins are now imputed unto Christ and his righteousnesse unto us and so our persons are justified For how and when was Adams sin imputed unto us Psa 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity c. so soon as ever there was life it was the life of Adam now the imputation of Adams sin falleth immediately upon the soule So when we doe receive Christ by this living faith having the life of Christ in us we have the righteousnesse of Christ also imputed to us for what doth the Child in the womb though it doth neither good nor evill but is meerly passive yet sinfull it is and a Child of Adam So also in this our Regeneration the soule acteth not but onely receiveth Christ by that faith which the Lord hath wrought in it whereby also it is made capable of the priviledge of Adoption and so the Lord accounteth us his Children and imputeth the righteousnesse of his Son unto us whereby we are justified These things doe dwell in Gods bosome and the meaning of them is afterward revealed unto the soule but communicated they are both that of Adoption and this of Justification by the gift of faith wrought in us but we are still upon the first worke of Conversion wherein a Christian is onely passive and receptive and truly it must needs be so in the first work of God upon us 2 Now for the Positive blessings that are wrought in us they are 1 Sanctification 2 Glorification When we are called then are we sanctified then are we glorified 1 Cor. 1.2 As in our naturall conception as soon as ever the Child liveth Adams sin is first imputed and then there is a pronenesse in it to carry it captive unto sin and to make it backward unto any goodnesse so when the life of Christ is dispensed unto the soule now the Lord cometh to convey with it Justification and in it pardon of sin and then there is a pronenesse in a justified person to be lively in duty If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit and by faith our hearts come to be purified Acts 15.9 and the same Spirit quickneth us unto holy duties so that we live yet not we but Christ liveth in us yea the Spirit sanctifying draweth us into an holy Confederacy to serve God in family Church Common-wealth and this sanctification groweth and encreaseth more and more for as corruption of Nature springeth from the imputation of Adams unrighteousnesse so doth sanctification spring from the imputation of Christs righteousnesse and thence floweth a pronenesse unto that which is good and a backwardnes unto that which is evill this is Sanctification 2 The other Positive gift is Glorification which we read of Rom. 8.30 This the Apostle Peter mentioneth 1 Pet. 5.10 as that whereunto we are called and in truth he hath begun the work from the time that he first began to call and sanctifie us 2 Tim. 1.9 From the very first time that God worketh upon the soule gratiously there is a glorious work in that soul and others may see it though himselfe seeth nothing that he hath received Thus we see the second branch of the Doctrine opened how the Lord doth receive Abraham and his seed unto himselfe preparing them by a spirit of bondage and of burning and then savingly by the inhabitation of the blessed Spirit the same Spirit begetting Faith we are alive in Jesus Christ and so come to be adopted and justified in him Afterwards the same Faith which at first onely receiveth Adoption and Justification doth now begin to stir a little and to breath forth into gratious desires and some holy mourning and beginneth now to put forth such works as the Holy Ghost carryeth the soul an end in working all our works in us and for us Now for the third and last part of the Doctrine the Lord took the chiefest of Abrahams seed to be the Mediator of this Covenant unto whom all the Promises were made Gal. 3.16 Quest If the Lord gave him to be Mediator how did he constitute him so to be Answ By a double Act First by receiving Jesus Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary to be one person with the second in Trinity hereby laying a ground of a firm Mediation between God and us for now cometh Jesus Christ to be of Gods Nature and therefore he wil be faithfull unto God and of our nature and therefore he wil be compassionate towards us And here is the Root of all the life and power of this Mediation to wit this personall Union betweene Jesus Christ and the Father which maketh up a firm and everlasting communion between God himselfe and Jesus Christ Secondly by Gods giving him to be a Covenant Isa 42.6 I will give thee for a Covenant of the people c. That is to be a Mediator of this Covenant 1 To receive from God all the Offices and gratious gifts whatsoever is requisite to a King Priest and Prophet all things he receiveth from the hand of the Father Col. 1.19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullnesse dwell thus he becometh a plentifull Redeemer And as the Lord gave him
duty as Prayer or Conference or the like for I will not limit the Holy One of Israel yet usually it is done in the Ministry of the Gospel and though the Lord doth not limit himselfe yet he doth limit us to attend upon the means which he usually worketh by but whatsoever the way be this is the manner of Gods working he doth universally come into the soul in some word or other of his grace as for instance that in 2 Cor. 5.19 or that in 1 Tim. 1.15 In some such word of his grace he cometh and putteth life into the soule and maketh it somwhat quies and causeth it to see that there is hope in Israel and the Lord is able and there is riches enough in Christ to save me By such kind of work it is that the Lord bringeth the soules of his servants effectually to Christ and now hath God the Father given us unto him and untill now thou never camest unto him savingly This is the second Act whereby God the Father giveth himselfe unto the soule The third act or work followeth both these as soone as ever the Lord hath given this selfe-denying spirit unto the soule and hath made it like unto a bruised Reed or like a Traveller that is out of his way and willing to take any man by the hand that will lead him into his way againe when the soule is in such a frame the Lord cometh with a third act of Reconcilement The first work was of Conviction the second of Prostration the third of Reconciliation This is the third work of the Father though there is in all these works a concurrence of the whole Trinity yet some are more proper unto each Person as our Catechismes teach us and we are not wont to scruple such expressions in them God the Father created us and we cannot expound it but as God the Father created us at the first so he doth again create you or else if we acknowledg it in the one and not in the other we do wrong unto God even to the Father Well he is then reconciled unto us having given unto us the Spirit of his Son now he doth pronounce us reconciled unto him this is the work which is spoken of Rom. 5.10 and this is the work of God the Father according to that was before alledged 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world c. Now there are two acts of God as fruits that follow hereupon and both of them done at once upon the soule 1 The first is Adoption whereby he maketh us his Children as Gal. 4.4,5,6 John 1.12 So that now we are the Brethren of Christ and the Sons of the Eternall God Adoption is properly the work of the Father but Christ being the naturall Son of God we must be knit unto him before we can be accounted Sons 2 The second is Justification Rom. 8.33,34 This is the Fathers work and it is principally attributed unto him to forgive our iniquities and to make reconciliation in Christ Jesus And look as it is in our naturall Being so soon as ever we have received naturall life from Adam we become the Sons of Adam and his sin is imputed unto us so it is in the new birth as soon as ever the life of Christ is shed abroad into our hearts so soon are we Heires of Christ and the righteousness of the second Adam is imputed unto us now to our Justification as the sin of Adam before was to our Condemnation Vse 1. The Doctrine it selfe is but an Use but I desire that we may all of us apply it unto our selves It will be a help to us for our Instruction to Teach us how we came to saving fellowship with God in Jesus Christ and wherein lieth our spirituall union with Christ and how it is wrought and obtained and this is necessary for as it hath been observed by others so we may now gather it from what we have heard that there be 4 sorts of men that fall short of this union with Christ 1 You have some that blesse themselves in their naturall estate it may be they are rich and honourable among men well they blesse themselves in that estate and will never goe any further 2 There is another sort that are convinced of the danger of their naturall estate they dare not rest there and hereupon they fall upon Reformations and so to duties of Humiliation and such like wherein they find as they conceive such a blessed change and so much comfort as doth satisfie them And indeed God doth comfort men in their Reformations for God will have no man lose by him Mat. 6.2,5 Hypocrices have their reward for their Aime and for their Prayers Herod when he heard John reformed many things and heard him gladly Mark 6.20 Here was a great change and doubtlesse much comfort in that gladnesse yet these men never had the work of God the Father to burn up all that they had received by any strength of their owne 3. A third sort goe a step beyond these they have been convinced that they went forth â—o Reformation in their owne strength they plainly see it and discerne it and therefore they know that it is impossible to be saved by the righteousnesse of the Law and that it is not of works neither of one kind nor of another they are convinced that Faith onely must doe the deed and upon this ground they will take up Faith to believe in Christ for salvation and that Faith which formerly they have pitched upon their good duties they will now pitch upon Christ but still it is the same Faith for the root is not yet burnt up the old corruption still remaineth in them and so here is your old faith still translated from one object to another it was fastned before upon your duties and reformations and now upon Christ though by creature-strength and now a man is ready to plead and say If God had not loved me he would never have set me upon such reformations nor have enlarged me with such comforts if he had not been well pleased with me in Jesus Christ And though I have been sometimes burnt up touching my hope in reformation yet I have translated my Faith to Jesus Christ but how came you to doe that Why I saw my hopes in my owne reformation would not serve my turne and therefore I believed in Jesus Christ and now shall nothing draw me from him nor pull me from my confidence for I have built upon some word of God and some Promise of his made unto such reformation as I have set upon and is not this true Faith in Jesus Christ This is far from true Faith it is no other but a strong fallacy whereby the Devil doth cheat men and in truth this Faith is but a Faith of a mans owne making that I may so speak it is no more than a spirit of Burning at the best that hath burnt up his confidence in