sanctification so far as the Scriptures do as a lower motive and more carnally mixed and uncertain way of perswasion and assurance of justification But a little to note to you two sides sadly mistaking one another in points of this nature The one cryes out against the other as if they held we were justified partly from our being sanctified or from our works the other on the contrary cry out that such would cast out all sanctification Now such opinions are in neither of them Justly in them I mean in those of both that can spiritually judge But there are some expressions on both parts which make the one passe for legal Teachers and the other for Antinomians The one giving too much in their Sermons and Books to Faith and Works in an unwarrantable jealousie lest holinesse should be sleighted some other lesse then is fit lest free-grace should lose her due and both in an unwarrantable jealousie And indeed the latter I must prefer before the former For if I must erre I had rather cry down men to exalt Christ then Christ to exalt men though I would do neither but let both have their place and order In this point I hope in the Lord to keep from dashing against the Scriptures either way the Spirit of the Lord lighting my candle The Doubt Because I feel not my self sanctified I fear I am not justified The Doubt being thus I shall lay down these particulars 1. If you suppose that God takes in any part of your faith repentance or new obedience or sanctification as a ground upon which he justifies or forgives you you are clear against the Word For if it be of works it is no more of grace otherwise work is no more work 2. It must then be onely the evidence of your being justified that you seek for in your sanctification And these two things premised I now proceed 1. We must allow any to take in any thing of their sanctification to help their assurance which the Word allows as the Spirit and the fruits of it repentance mortification of sin new obedience c. But then it must be done in the Scriptures own cautions and way 2. The Scriptures lay down these following things 1. Christs sanctification to ours or his true holinesse 2. Faith about our own sanctification 1. As first Christ is revealed to be our sanctification Christ is made unto us righteousnesse sanctification I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Ye are Christs but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus He hath quickned us together with Christ We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith That new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones And be found in him not having my own righteousnesse I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me That we present every man perfect in Christ Jesus But Christ is all and in all Your life is hid with Christ in God See Heb. 13.20 21. All these Scriptures set forth Christ the sanctifiâ—ation and the fulnesse of his the all in all Christ hath beleeved perfectly he hath repented perfectly he hath sorrowed for sin perfectly he hath obeyed perfectly he hath mortified sin perfectly and all is ours and we are Christs and Christ is Gods 2. The second thing is faith about our own sanctification We must beleeve more truth of our own graces then we can see or feel which the Lord hath in his infinite wisdom and dispensation so ordered that here our life should be hid with Christ in God that we should walk by faith and not by sight So as we are to beleeve our repentance true in him who hath repented for us our mortifying sin true in him through whom we are more then conquerours our new obedience true in him who hath obeyed for us and is the end of the Law to every one that beleeveth our change of the whole man true in him who is righteousnesse and true holinesse And thus without Faith it is impossible to please God This is the Scripture-assurance for a childe of God or beleever to see every thing in himself as nothing and himself every thing in Christ Faith is the ground of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen Heb. 11.1 All other assurances are rotten conclusions from the Word and such things as true legal Teachers have invented not understanding the mystery of the Kingdom of Christ The Scriptures bid you see nothing in your self or all as nothing These Teachers bid you see something in your self so as the leaving out Christ in sanctification is the foundation of all doubts fears and distractions And he that looks on his repentance on his love on his humility on his obedience and not in the tincture of the Blood of Christ must needs beleeve weakly and uncomfortably But now to propose some questions to you Quest You say you feel not the change of the whole man Answ Yea. Quest Then I must prove your sanctification to you not your justification Answ Yea for they that are justified are sanctified too which I cannot finde in my self Quest Will you say a thing is not there because you feel it not there Answ But I do not know it to be there Quest But will you conclude it is not there because you know it not to be there Answ Nay Quest You say well for David cryed out in the bitternesse of his soul that his sin was ever before him and then his sanctification was out of his sight and that God had forgotten to be gracious But I said says he this is my infirmity You know in a house when it is dark all things are there that were before but you see them not till the candle be brought in The womans groat in the Parable was in the house but she found it not till she had lighted her candle Therefore you must say as David Light my candle O Lord and the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord Answ But I feel corruption more violent which would not be if it were mortified Quest You are mistaken in that it is from life in you and spirit in you that you feel corruption if you were dead in sins and trespasses you could feel nothing no more then a dead man These oppositions in you shew a twofold law within you A law in your members with the law of your minds Two natures in you of flesh and spirit the flesh lusteth against the spirit nor is the light of a meer natural conscience or a soul commonly enlightned such a strange opposer and complainer against the law of sin in the flesh as you seem to have in you besides John saith If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves But I dare not carry you on too far by signs
we are but dying to sin in that spiritual mortification of our sinful nature in this life And therefore let not any particular acts of sin discourage any considering they are more excellently dead or mortified in Christ nor let such an excellent and glorious way of mortification tempt any to a neglect of mortification of sin in the body no more then the free-grace of God in forgivenesse of sins ought to tempt any to take liberty to sin Some Scriptures concerning falling away interpreted BUt for all this there are certain Scriptures which have a sound of much terrour in them against back-sliders as in Heb. 6.4 5. For it is impossible for those that were once enlightned c. And in 2 Pet. 2.20 21. For it had been better for them not to have known the way and some others of this sort Now these places are much misinterpreted for these concern not true beleevers but such as fall from the common enlightning as in Heb. 6.8 2 Pet. 2.22 and form of Profession which never had the power of God and the spirit in it but so far as to bring them into the number of beleevers or Church of visible Saints of which sort John speaks on They went out from us because they were not of us yet the Apostles write this to the Churches because they should know that a form of Profession meerly cannot secure any unlesse there be the power and these Cautions which do more immediately and directly belong to Apostates and false Professors yet have their use upon true beleevers and Saints too as of quickning and watchfulnesse and close walking with God and of praise that they whom the Lord preserves from such Apostacy may be more awakened to glorifie his free-grace upon themselves that stand as appears in Heb. 6.9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. In which places the Apostle raises up their thoughts into the immutability of the Covenant in which they now stand and that they cannot fall away now God having assured it by an Oath Yet if any shall object further But these places shew how fair a Profession one may make and how far one may go in the way of Christ and then fall off And here the soul may doubt and say But O am not I one of this kinde because I am faln back But I answer No soul can make any such application in true a Gospel-sense unlesse it fall or apostate from the Faith of Christ which is here spoken on and meant and not of particular sins or failings committed But against the power of these and all other places which Satan would interpret to the wounding of a spirit we must know the onely remedy is beleeving as Abraham did in hope against hope and that can never fall away that can beleeve and no sin can damn it if it will but beleeve the pardon of that sin which every beleever ought to do This is the Commandment that ye beleeve 1 Joh. 5. Not considering sins singly and by parts but considering himself a righteous person in Christ and justified when Christ rose for our justification For the consideration of the pardon of sin in this sense that our Divines have commonly taught and preached it not minding the spiritual Analogy of the Word concerning the righteousnesse of a beleever breeds all this distraction for some delt out Christs blood as the Pope his pardons for one sin after another never stating a beleever in the righteousnesse of Christ and so in a fully pardoned condition Ephes. 5.27 Revel. 1.5 CHAP. IV. The Party after such openings of the frame of their spirit is now discoursed with upon certain particular Questions Quest LEt me know now in order what your doubts are which you think if you were satisfied in your soul could be at peace Answ I question whether I am in Christ Quest What grounds have you to question your being in Christ Answ 1. My falling back into sin 2. I do not finde that change in the whole man 3. I cannot beleeve Quest Doubt 1. This is then your first Doubt That you are not therefore beloved of God or in Christ because you fell back again into your sin so as you did Suppose I prove to you that no sin can make one lesse beloved of God or lesse in Christ Answ Then I shall conclude that sin cannot hinder the love of God to my soul Quest I shall prove that no sin can make one lesse beloved of God or lesse in Christ 1. The mercies of God are called sure mercies his love an everlasting love his Covenant an everlasting Covenant I am perswaded saith Paul that neither death nor life nor principalities nor powers c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord So then to whom he is once merciful he is ever merciful whom he once loves he ever loves whom he once takes into Covenant he is ever theirs I am the Lord I change not 2. Whom the Father loves he loves in the Son in whom he is well pleased and his Son is alwayes alike beloved of him the same yesterday and to day and for ever and whom he loves in his Son he accounts as his son he is made unto us righteousnesse sanctification and redemption So as we being not beloved for our own sakes but for the Sons nothing in us can make God love us lesse because he loves us not for our selves nor any thing in our selves but in and through his Son in whom he is well pleased 3. If God should love us lesse or more as we are lesse or more sinful then he should be as man and as the Son of man and if beleevers stood upon these terms with God then how are these Scriptures true He rose again for our justification who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect Who shall condemn There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus The Foundation of God standeth sure He ever liveth to make intercession for them So as God is ever the same that loves and his love is as himself ever the same and Christ in whom we are beloved ever the same Doubt 2. Your other doubt is this You finde not a change in the whole man What mean you by this change in your own sense Answ I mean not a perfect change but a newnesse in all the powers and parts of soul and body which I suppose to be sanctification Quest Is the end which you propound to your self in finding out this change of the whole man for grounding any assurance on of Gods love and your being in Christ Answ Yea because they that are in Christ are so changed and there is such a work wrought all things are become new and old things are passed away Now I finde not this Quest The scope of your doubt then is that because you feel not your self sanctified you think you are not justified I shall allow you your
acceptation That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of which I am chief 1 Tim. 1.15 As if he should say doth any of your hearts tell ye you are sinners Let not that be any ground at all to keep you from Christ let not any despaire because of that I my self was thus and thus a blasphemer a persecutor nay as if that were not enough I was the chief of sinners or the sinner in chief the grand and supreme sinner as if there could not well have been a greater and I says he obtained mercy So as here the Spirit hath laid in answers to the objecting or doubting soul If the soul should object If I were not such a sinner as I am I could beleeve the Spirit answers Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners As if he should say to save even just such as thou art If the soul should object further but there is not such a sinner as I am the Spirit answers yea But here is one greater then thou here is the chief of all sinners the Prince of sinners obtaining mercy of which I am the chief So as none can be such a sinner to whom Christ and the blood of Christ may not be tendered and offered and that upon these grounds 1. From the order of Gods decree he loved us and gave Christ for us when we were sinners God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son John 3. 2. The offering the Gospel and Jesus Christ to a sinner as a sinner is but the bringing out this glorious love of God in time and dispensation it is but the offering that love which God loved them with from everlasting Neither is it any more to offer Christ to a sinner then to manifest God in his first love when he gave Christ for sinners in his own decree 3. It exalteth grace more and sheweth as a gift indeed what can be more of grace then that Jesus Christ should receive a sinner one who hath no money nor price no works nor righteousnesse to bring for him 4. It is the right lifting up Jesus Christ as Moses lift up the Serpent in the Wildernesse not for the healed to look upon but the stung and wounded 5. It leaves men without all excuse and brings the greater condemnation for when Christ is brought home to the very soul and the blood offered at every ones door for receiving then there can be no objecting Lord had I been thus and thus fit and prepared then I should have received thee but I was a foul sinner at that very time so and so guilty O will the Lord answer I come therefore to pardon thee and to wash thee in my blood because thou wert so foul and that is no excuse 6. It is most agreeable to the Gospel-way of dispensation and Christs own preaching The whole need not a Physitian but they that are sick I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance 7. All that ever received Christ in the Gospel received him in a sinful condition the many beleeving Jews in the sin of crucifying Christ all the Churches of Corinth Ephesus and Colosse Such were some of you but ye are washed c. And ye were sometimes darknesse but are now light in the Lord Ephes. 5. Ye who were dead in trespasses and sins and were enemies in your mindes by wicked works yet now hath he quickned Coloss. 1. So as to offer Jesus Christ to sinners as sinners is but 1. To offer him in time as God gave him before all time God gave him to us because we were sinners and now he is but offered as he was given 2. There is more of grace in it to offer him to a sinner as a sinner that where sin hath abounded grace may abound much more 3. There is a clearer lifting up Christ as Moses for the wounded to look on as well as the whole 4. Men are left without excuse because when he is held out to sinners as sinners all are in a condition for him sin and a saviour are most suteable 5. It is as Christ himself did who both calls sinners and converses with sinners with Mary Magdalen an harlot and with the Publicans and with the woman of Samaria who lived in uncleannesse when the pure Messiah preached himself to her 6. It is as all that ever received him both in Jerusalem Corinth Ephesus c. who had they not been foul had never been washed had they not been darknesse had never been light in the Lord But you will tell me of conditions in the Gospel of faith and repentance c. and certain legal preparations before Christ should be offered and brought to the soul Yea but that ye may not be puzzled as many are In the Gospel-way or dispensation faith and repentance is to be preached but Jesus Christ still with it Beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ And you are not to consider repentance from beleeving nor beleeving from repentance nor either from Jesus Christ nor Jesus Christ without them and yet neither of them as bringing in Christ to the soul but Christ bringing in them and working them more and more in the soul and that upon these grounds 1. Christ is not ours by any act of our own but Gods God imputing and accounting To make Christ ours is an Almighty work not the work of any thing created So as Christ is ours without faith by a power more glorious and infinite but we cannot here know him to be ours but by beleeving nor partake of him as ours but by beleeving 2. If faith should give us our interest in Christ then as our faith increases our interest should increase and we should be more and more justified and forgiven which none allow calling these other acts of faith faith of assurance and acts of manifestation and if faith be thus in its other degrees of working why not in its first It is the evidence of things unseen Heb. 11. 3. If Christ should be ours by faith in this sense then when faith ceases shall we cease to be justified Shall faith begin our interest here and not be able to continue it hereafter 4. Can a sinner be too foul for a Saviour and too wounded for a Physitian to heal and too filthy for a fountain opened to wash 5. He that offers Christ offers all the conditions in him both of faith and repentance For Christ is exalted to give repentance c. And faith is called the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 6. It is no more to offer Jesus Christ then any grace of Christs or gift of Christs to a sinner for a sinner is as unprepared and unfit for the one as the other equally in sin and pollution to both 7. This spiritual work is a new creation and so works of preparation are not so proper in that We
are as bad as the rest as these in the prison who are as very theeves in the dungeon as they that are robbing by the high-way But further there would be something of our sanctification which we might call righteousnesse and so in time be as confident as they that will not lose the merit of their own works I speak here you see to further and advance a Gospel-mortification or a dying to sin in the power and life of Christ as well as the spiritual nature or new man But I would not have the power of mortification and conversion from sin mistaken to be in the not acting such or such a particular sin which was acted before or meerly in the particoloured change or inchoative sanctification onely we know what an overvaluing of that hath brought because such a mortification is too low and legal for pure beleevers but in that implantation and mystical ingrasting the soul into the glorious fellowship of Christ his death c. As for instance We put not a mans living and excellency of reason in an outward motion of the body or some one or two reasonable words spoken but in the life and soul and glorious spirit within him We put not the glory of the light in the Windows or panes of Glasse where it shines and cleerly too but in the body of the Sun the Fountain of light below So pure and spiritual mortification is radically or principally in our fellowship and union with him who killed sin in our nature in the body and thus we are spiritually and mystically dead to sin and that corruption which is within us will not be able to live long under the power of such a spiritual death and nature as Christs is but will waste and die daily though still pure mortification consists not principally in the not indwelling of corruption but in our implantation into fellowship with Christ for if such dying of corruption were true mortification then they that are dead in the Grave and can sin no more actually or they that are on their sick bed and disabled to former sins were mortified persons No it is an higher mystery to be mortified to sin then to not sin or not act corruption or to be spiritually changed by the spirit or spiritual nature within nor can any interpret as if they that were thus spiritually mortified need not strive against sin or the strength or the growing of it in the flesh or nature No that were a contradiction and is an impossibility for the cherishing corruption and fomenting or nourishing sinful nature will no more stand with such â—spiritually mystically mortified beleever then liberty to sin will stand with assurance of pardon for sin in the fame Childe of God Shew me any taken into the fellowship of Christs death that can make such provision for sin I speak not of some particular acts and that is the reason we read in Scriptures of so little conversation in sin or continuing in sin in the Saints former beleevers nor do the Scriptures put the form of sin or wickednesse upon particular acts of sin calling David an evil man for his uncleannesse or Job for his passions or Moses for his unbeleef or Peter for his denial but upon sinful and unregenerate nature as in Cain Esau Jeroboam Ahab Judas such are wicked men in the Scriptures account who are wicked by nature not from any particular action A Tree is not evil because it bears evil fruit but because it is naturally an evil Tree The sum of the mystery of mortification of sin in a beleever In a word to gather up this mystery of mortification of sin into a few plain words that it may be more clear both to the comforting weak beleevers that are wounded for sin and to help all beleevers more powerfully against sin in the mortifying of it 1. First let this be considered That mortification of sin is not in the not committing a sin for then children and civilly-moral men were mortified persons 2. That the fountain of sin or sinful nature is not wholly taken away by the spiritual nature begun in regeneration or the new birth 3. That pure mortification of sin is not in the meer absence of the body of sin for then dead or sick men were mortified persons 4. That the pure spiritual and mystical fountain of the mortification of sin is the being planted together in the likenesse of Christs death our old man being crucified with him Rom. 6.6 Our union with Christ our head our righteousnesse our Vine Now from these things thus considered we may raise up this consideration concerning mortification of sin That they who are mystically and spiritually planted into Christ are partakers of the power of his death which that highest purest and most mystical mortification that any have and with this there goes a spiritual power transforming and changing the whole man from former lusts this latter is called a putting on of the new man and a being renewed in spirit and in minde and a putting off the old man which is corrupt Eph. 4.22 23. Coloss. 3.10 Now that power wherein we are perfectly mortified is our union with Christ our being planted in the fellowship of his death c. and that wherein we are imperfectly or in part mortified is in that transformed nature or spiritual nature the body of sin being in a beleever more or lesse till he lay down this body and take it up a more glorious one So as a beleever is to consider himself dead to sin onely in the fellowship of Christs death mystically and to consider himself onely dying to sin in his own nature spiritually so as in Christ he is onely compleat and in himself imperfect at the best We are compleat in him saith the Apostle Coloss. 2.10 Yet there is such â— power and efficacy and mighty working in this mystical union and fellowship with Christ that he shall finde sin dying in him from this the spirit working most in the vertue of this this being like the spice or the spirit it in the wine that makes it powerful and quick Therefore we are said to be risen with Christ and to die with Christ and our life to be hid in Christ Coloss. 3.1 2 3. Christ being the life power vertue and energy of the spirit and the more of Christ we take against sin the greater and surer will our Victory against corruption and sin be And this would be well observed by those that are a little legally biassed or carried to mortifie sin by vows promises shunning occasions removing temptations strictnesse and severity in duties fear of hell and judgements scarce rising so high for their mortification as Christ Now these in themselves are but empty weak means of prevailing against sin like the mighty sails of a ship without either winde or tyde many of those do well in their place and order like Oares in a Boat which though it be carried with the tyde if well managed
they may help it to go the faster as that of shunning occasions strictnesse severity in duties and watchfulnesse But it is Christ crucified which is the power of all and in all it is Christ lifted up as Moses lifted up the Serpent which strikes in more soundnesse into the wounded beholder then any other meerly legal way or experiment wherein many beleevers have toyled and carnally fished all their time for power over some corruptions and like Peter and the rest have caught little or nothing because Jesus Christ was not in the company There is danger in putting too much upon the sin of relapsing or back-sliding in beleevers To conclude I would have men tender now they make conversion such a mortification to that particular sin or act which was the sin of the unregenerate condition lest while they lay down a law to prevent a sinning again or a second wounding by the same sin they make that sin if committed again as it may be wound the beleever more even to the danger of unbeleef then which there cannot be a greater to hinder true mortification because that any unbeleef keeps the soul and Christ as it were asunder and from closing in the souls own apprehension and all that time there can be little power brought home from Christ by Faith against that sin My reasons are these 1. Because that sinful nature is not wholly healed in this life so there remains a natural inclination to that particular sin as well as another nay rather because nature is more byassed towards it then any other 2. The wound pricking or sorrow that any soul enlightned by Jesus Christ feels for that sin is not of such an exceeding or rather infinite vertue as to abolish it or to lay in such a perpetual impression upon the soul that the soul should live under the image of that remorse and wound and so never dare or adventure to commit it again I finde no such lasting and continuing and firm or thorow work in the spiritual motions operations and impressions but by degrees Christ upbraided his Disciples how soon their hearts were hardned and we finde the spiritual affection and resolution of Peter wherein his soul was raised up on high wasting and flatting in his denial The gales and breathings of the spirit are like the winde Joh. 3. which makes a thing move or tremble while the power of the Air is upon it but as that slakens or breaths so doth it 3. There is no promise that I can finde for the present against the never committing again such a particular act or sin which he lived in in his unregenerate state I know there are differences made and certain works set down to know a sin by that is committed in a regenerate state before as the weaknesse and contrary dispositions or reluctancy in which it is committed 〈◊〉 Paul implies in Rom. 7. c. Though here some of these Divines may be puzzled in this way of their differences too for take a man in the strength of natural or common light living under a powerful word or Preacher by which his Candle as Solomon saith is better lighted then it was such a man shall sin against as seeming strong convictions as the other if not more But by the way I humbly conceive there are certain dampings of Satan and flesh and blood together with the withdrawings of the Spirit on Gods part that will puzzle the best that goes so exactly by marks and sense more then by Faith for the way of the spirit is not so grosse carnal discernible as the Divinity of former times and of some of this present age would make it It is as hard to trace and finde the impressions of the Spirit as the way of a bird as Solomon sayes in the Air The Spirit that is of God knows only the way of the Spirit And the Apostle speaks many things too as he says because of the infirmity of our flesh We must not therefore form up the things of the spirit too much for the feelings of flesh and blood And they that write so of a regenerate mans estate and set us down such infallible signes as we meet with commonly do take their experiences too low and carnally and mistaking the Allegory and way of the Word or Scriptures which speaks of things because of the infirmity of our flesh write upon spiritual workings as Philosophers upon Moral vertues and do bring down the spirit into the very Allegory and so allegorize and incarnate or make fleshly the things of the spirit And so do many both preach and write of regeneration as a work of nature though not a natural work 4. The restraints of the spirit or that Law of Jesus Christ in the soul is not made sure to the soul as concerning particular acts or sins but onely concerning the power of sinful nature in general and the weakning and destroying of that Neither are the particular Laws or Commandments in the Gospel always in their power upon the soul but when the Spirit of Christ doth take them and apply them and quicken them unto the soul and put a spiritual Majesty upon them The Conclusion concerning the mystical and spiritual mortification To conclude The experiences of the spirit in those that are spiritual are not all in one degree some more some lesse and the Law of the spirit in those that are spiritual will carry them against the law of sin and flesh because it is both contrary to the flesh and likewise of a spiritual and transforming nature and so gathers strength in us against the body of sin and is still working it self a greater part and dominion in us and fashioning us like unto Jesus Christ both in righteousnesse and true holinesse and the people of the Lord are very rarely found in the great sins of their unregenerate estate especially if they were grosse ones such as the light of their natural conscience abhors as well as the purer light of the spirit as adultery murder c. then they are doubly armed against them and so may more rarely commit them but if they be such particular acts or sins as are not so clearly condemned by nature as some kinde of lustings with hypocrisie passion lying c. they may the more easily be committed again because the light in nature is but faint or little thâ—â— opposes them or which takes part with the light of the spirit against them These things may be sufficient to let us see into the nature of back-sliding in the regenerate ones and to binde up the broken hearted that are faln as well as to shew a more excellent way to keep from falling in the strength of Jesus Christ And therefore let this be written upon the heart and on the palms of the hands of all both wounded and whole beleevers That we are compleatly or perfectly mortified or dead to sin by our being planted into Christ and the fellowship of his death And
former ages to walk in bondage though with the spirit of adoption and to make up their assurance much like the beleevers under the Law from their obedience and repentance and humiliation in themselves Christ being much in the dark to them and little seen then And much of the same darknesse covers this age we live in who are very dark in that mystery of glory which Paul speaks on in beleevers as sorrowing and yet alwayes rejoycing as dying and yet behold we live as having nothing and yet possessing all things But I pray what temptation had you concerning your not beleeving Answ I thought I was one of those that could not beleeve and that I being such a sinner it was not for me to beleeve Quest For your being one of those that could not beleeve I shall speak to it in these Questions 1. Is there any exception against you in particular in the whole Book of God As to say you such a one or such a one cannot beleeve you have no right to Christ 2. Can the counsels of God concerning the vessels of wrath be known Can any say I am not elected seeing his wisdom is unsearchable and his wayes past finding out 3. Are not some called at the eleventh hour of the day 1. The thief upon the Crosse at the hour of his death Is not this Satans temptation then to perswade you to conclude any thing for your condemnation before hand 2. For your other doubt of being such a sinner and therefore not daring to beleeve I shall put these Questions to you 1. Do not they that would beleeve onely if their sins were lesse or lesse hainous beleeve rather upon some ground in themselves then Gods command 2. Do not the promises belong to sinners as sinners Answ Yea but as repentant sinners Quest What were the Churches of the Corinthians Ephesians Colossians and what was Paul before Christ came to him Were they sinners or qualified And what were all that beleeved before they beleeved Answ They were sinners Quest Came not the promise to Adam even then when he was dead in sin Answ Yea. Quest Whether were not you in their condition or no that is a sinner according to your own apprehension Answ Yea. Quest Whether are not you then as free for Christ to come to as they were Answ Yea. Quest Whether are not the promises as free and open to you as to them You being all alike sinners and Gods will being revealed no more for ones election then anothers no more for their election then yours Answ Yea. Quest Whether are any promises made to any in Christ or out of Christ onely in themselves Is not Christ the onely qualified person for all promises And so through Christ derived upon all his we being said to be compleat in him Doth not all fulnesse dwell in him and all receive of his fulnesse And are not all the promises in him Yea and Amen These Conclusions then I shall draw forth 1. Election and condemnation being secret things belong to the Lord and were not revealed in the Word to the end to hinder any from beleeving for that were against Gods goodnesse and mercy revealed and they that make such use of them serve not the Lords ends but Satans for such an end is against the sweet simplicity of the Gospel of Christ 2. The onely ground for any to beleeve is the Word or Promise not any thing more or lesse in themselves This is the Commandment that ye beleeve on the Son of God 3. The promises of Christ are held forth to sinners as sinners not as repenting sinners or humble sinners as any condition in us upon which we should chalenge Christ for then it is no more of grace but of works Now we are freely justified by his grace 4. What ever promise there is which hath any condition in it it is ours in him that is in Christ who was the onely conditioned and qualified person for all promises all being in him Yea and Amen and all being compleat in him who is the fulnesse A short Preface HAving thus far discoursed occasionally upon these Temptations I shall adde a few Observations more for clearing the way of Salvation a little further and then I shall open the several wayes of Revelation that the Mystery of Godlinesse hath been received in and in what seekings and in what degrees Free-grace hath been enquired for in this present age I. Gods first revealing himself to man in Goodnesse and Free-grace GOD hath revealed himself under several notions and names and orders of working to man and in them we are to rest and not to form up Meditations beyond them for beyond them is infinitenesse and glory and we may sooner be dazled then discern any thing of God or the workings in himself There lie the depthes of the wisdom of God and the unsearchablenesse of his wayes and who can know the minde of the Lord or who hath been his counsellour God then that he might make himself out to the creature first reveals himself in goodnesse and makes man according to something in himself so as there is more Image of a God in him then in any other thing below For God said let us make man in our Image after our likenesse Gen. 1.26 And herein is the goodnesse of God that he gives any being to any thing but himself and any glorious being to man more then to any other For what is man that he regardeth him or the son of man that he visiteth him He hath made him a little lower then the Angels and crowned him with glory Psal. 8. Man being thus created must know himself to be but man and a creature and therefore hath a law given out to live by to order his obedience to him that made him But man being made meerly by the will of God is made onely to continue by the same will and not unchangeably good that the creature might consider the glory he had not to be his own but onely at the pleasure of him that made him which will and pleasure was revealed in the law of the Tree of life and executed upon the obedience and disobedience in the creature or man to this law And now man sins and disobeyes and by this is brought to see the power of him that created him who in this beginning of things revealed himself onely in glory power and dominion to the world and in no other form or notion to the creatures he made but of Lord or Creator or Law-giver I finde there was infinite wisdom of God appeared in the suffering the fall and disobedience of man for by this the creature came to see and acknowledge it self under the power of a law and in subjection and dependency to him that created it So as the glory of God was much advantaged by such a change which if the creature had never experienced could not have been so evident nor clear And hence it is that the Angels or spirits
God is said to be in Covenant with a soul A Soul is then properly actually or expresly in Covenant with God when God hath come to it in the promise and then when it feels it self under the power of the promise it begins onely to know it is in Covenant and yet to yeeld and obey as if it were but to enter into that Covenant which God hath made with it in Christ before it could do any thing so as they that beleeve do rather feel themselves in that Covenant which God hath made with them without any thing in themselves either faith or repentance c. X. A justified person is a perfect person A Person justified or in Covenant is as pure in the sight of God as the righteousnesse of Christ can make him though not so in his own eyes that there may be work for faith because God sees His onely in Christ not in themselves and if they were not in such a perfect righteousnesse they could not be loved of him because his eyes are purer then to behold iniquity or to love a sinner as a sinner XI Sin separates not his from God but from Communion with God NO sins can make God who loves for ever unchangeably love us lesse and yet a beleever will grieve for sin because it grieves the Spirit of his God and though he know sin cannot now separate from God yet because it once separated he hates it and because it separates still though not from God yet from Communion with God grieving the holy Spirit of God XII Christ in the flesh CHRIST in the flesh was God himself who that he might reveal his love to us made us partakers of the divine nature by fashioning our nature for his own glory to live in and by being both God and man amongst us and for us and herein is the mystery of reconciliation None but the nature of God could reconcile God and no nature but mans that had sinned could properly suffer for man therefore there is one Mediator betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus XIII Christs being in our nature CHRIST was love mercy and riches of free-grace manifested in the flesh and in our nature that they might slow out more abundantly upon our nature on the vessels of mercy chosen in this Christ before the foundations of the world XIV Christs love CHRISTS love must needs exceed all the love of the children of men for he was the very love of God clothed in flesh and blood This is he that was red in his apparel as he that treadeth in the wine-presse XV Christ doing and suffering for our sakes CHRIST came into the world that he might do what we could not do to the fulfilling of the Law and suffer what we could not suffer for the breach of the Law XVI Christs Mediatorship CHRIST standing now as a Person betwixt God and the children of men takes in the fulnesse of righteousnesse and sin from both natures righteousnesse from God and sin from men whereby all the sins of his people are fully done away by the infinite glory of that righteousnesse both from himself and us XVII The right general Redemption by the second Adam CHRIST is the second Adam in whom all are made alive as all in the first Adam were dead but not so as if all who were dead in the first Adam were made alive in the second but as the first Adam was the person in whom all that are dead did die so Christ is the second Adam in whom all that are alive do live for Christ is the common nature of the living mankinde who live unto righteousnesse as Adam was the common nature of the dead mankinde who die unto unrighteousnesse For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many are made righteous God hath concluded all under sin That the promises by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that beleeve Gal. 3.22 XVIII Christs love THe love of Christ exceeded in this that he gave himself to die for us when we were enemies to him and crucified him our selves who came to be crucified for us and could neither love him nor pitty him for what he did For while we were as yet sinners Christ died for us and greater love then this hath no man This is the mystery that man could not live in Christ till he had killed Christ first And thus he was wounded in the house of his friends O all ye that passe by the way behold and consider if ever there were mystery like unto this mystery XIX Christs blood THe blood of Christ was not the blood of man onely but the blood of the Son of God and therefore it was a price for sin the very power of the Godhead as it were bleeding for sin by which it is called The Redemption of his blood and the blood of the Son of GOD XX Christs Blood powred out THe Blood of CHRIST powred out wrought greater compassion in GOD towards men I speak as a man then the sufferings of all the men in the world could do because he being begotten of GOD himself and the expresse Image of his person though he could not suffer being so infinite a glory yet because that person suffered which was GOD and man or the Son of GOD in man the Father in an unspeakable way beheld the travel of his soul and was satisfied XXI Christs Vesture dipt in blood CHRISTS Garment which he was described in by the Prophets under the Law is of a colour to set forth love and suffering under the Gospel for this is he that came from Bozra with his garments died red XXII Christs comelinesse THe comelinesse of Christ in the Gospel is a most desireable comelinesse for the sons of men to love it is the glory of the onely begotten Son of God full of grace the â—weetest object for those in misery to delight in This is that beloved which is more then another beloved XXIII Christs beauty CHRIST hath both the form and power of love in him and therefore it is that his Spouse or His behold him as white and ruddy and the fairest amongst ten thousands white in the glory of his Godhead and ruddy in the sufferings of his Manhood and because of his sweet oyntments or powrings out of spirit the Virgins follow him for his hands drop myrrhe upon the soul even spiritual graces upon the handles of the Lock XXIV Christs names CHRIST will be known to His by no other names but names of love and grace a Lover a Bridegroom a Physitian a Saviour an Emmanuel or God with us an onely begotten Son of God the brightnesse of his glory a merciful and faithful high Priest a Sacrifice for sin a Mediator an Advocate for sin a Beloved and he brings a soul to the banquetting house of spiritual things and his banner over it is love XXV Christ and His CHRIST having adorned his in the riches of his
his from God but from Communion with God p. 130. 12. Christ in the flesh Ibid. 13. Christs being in our own nature p. 131. 14. Christs love Ibid. 15. Christ doing and suffering for our sakes p. 132. 16. Christs Mediatorship Ibid. 17. The right general Redemption by the second Adam p. 133. 18. Christs love p. 134. 19. Christs blood Ibid. 20. Christs blood powred out p. 135. 21. Christs Vesture dipt in blood Ibid. 22. Christs comelinesse p. 136. 23. Christs beauty Ibid. 24. Christs names p. 137. 25. Christ and His Ibid. 26. Christs love in Heaven to us or Christ exalted p. 138. 27. The Gospel is Christ revealed Ibid. 28. The mystery of Christ in the Gospel a mystery of love p. 139. 29. A beleevers glorious freedom p. 140. 30. All the sins of beleevers done away on the Crosse Ibid. 31. Christ offered to sinners p. 141. 32. A beleever must live in Christ not in himself Ibid. 33. How Christ and a beleever were one in sin and righteousnesse p. 143. 34. We must come before God as having put on Christ first not as sinners and unrighteous p. 144. 35. The Law is now in the Spirit and in the Gospel for a beleever to walk by p. 146. 36. Legal and Gospel-commands and duties p. 147. 37. The Gospel in the holinesse and grace of it p. 150. 38. The new Covenant further set forth to be meerly a promise p. 15â— 39. The way of assurance for beleevers p. 155. 40. The Gospel Ministration very glorious p. 157. 41. In what kinde the Gospel is glorious p. 160. 42. The form of the Gospel or way of dispensation p. 163. 43. Gospel promises p 164. 44. God under the Law and the Gospel legal and Gospel-worshippers p. 166. 45. God and His in Reconciliation p. 169. 46. The fears of weak beleevers and their remedies p. 171. 47. Remedies to each fear p. 175. 48. Legal conversion p. 177. 49. When the Spirit of adoption works not freely p. 179. 50. Opinions make men legal p 181. 51. Jesus Christ offered to sinners as sinners p. 184. 52. The simplicity of the Gospel salvation easie and plain p. 190. 53. Christ and every part of Christ to be studied and beleeved in p. 194. The several wayes of Free-grace and the general point searched p. 197. THe first way of Free-grace free without all conditions of Grace Ibid. A second way of Free-grace free onely with conditions p. 198 A third way of Free grace free onely upon condition p. 199. A fourth way of Free-grace free meerly in extent Ibid. Some Truths of Free grace sparkling in former Writers and in some famous approved men of our times in Testimony to what is in this Discourse of Free-grace p. 204. THe Law by the Preaching of it cannot reform but onely Faith Ibid. No preparatory works before Christ p. 205. Free-grace hath many enemies We should stand for Free-grace p. 206. Faith is no condition of the new Covenant of Grace Ibid. We have all in Christ p. 207. Christ is every thing to us p. 208. God was never an enemy to his p. 209. That we and those commonly called Antinomians differ little Ibid. Concerning our not resting on sight or our own graces for assurance p. 211. The Law as given by Moses no rule to Christians p 212. Faith before Justification is no Grace p. 213. God is never an enemy to his though sinning p. 214. Christ promised to sinners as sinners p. 215. A beleevers Law is Christ and his Spirit p. 216. ERRATA Page 198. lin. 19. and pag. 199. lin. 17. and pag. 202 lin. 21. for intervenings read interfeerings The flowings of Christs Blood freely to Sinners Occasioned by an Experimental Discourse CHAP. I. Of the Parties natural condition and how they felt themselves in their state of nature before they could perswade themselves they had taken Christ Quest WHat manner of life did you lead as you can well remember Answ I continued in a course of some particular sins long Quest Had you no fits of terrour of conscience in your continuance in those sins Answ I had some gripings and accusations in my continuance in those sins but they tarried not with me Quest Had you any reluctancy in sinning or did you it with full consent Answ Yea with full consent to my remembrance Quest Were you much delighted in those sins so as you committed them with greedinesse or were you over-powred partly through the strength of corruption Answ I delighted in them and felt no over-powring of that kinde Quest In this your natural state how far did the light of conscience check you or put you upon any Reformation Answ Upon some duties of Prayer and hearing the Word and checks divers times I had Quest Were not your checks such as put you upon some other religious duties Quest Did you not see any need of Christ Answ Yea but it was I thought rather for my self-ends then for love to Christ One asked me if I could be contented without Christ if it were possible that I had my sins pardoned and peace of conscience and not have Christ I answered I did not know Quest But after all these proceedings and soul-conflicts which I perceive you had and your dealings with many concerning your condition How came you to that assurance of your calling and the spirit as you were once perswaded you had Answ I shall relate unto you my experiences which I had as I was then assured on of my calling First When I was minded to make away my self for my sin the Lord sent into my minde this word I have loved thee with an everlasting love Ah thought I then hath God loved me with such an everlasting love and shall I sin against such a God! Secondly I had many doubts and fears but through the strength of Christ I overcame all These doubts and fears arose from the examination of my self how I could finde the work in my soul agreeable to that testimony for I was much afraid of being deluded Thirdly The promise in Isai. 55.1 did stay my heart and Christ in my partaking of him in his Ordinances did sweetly witnesse and exceedingly that he was my Christ Fourthly I went on for some time full of joy and of comfort upon these promises and another I had Fear not I will be with thee I will never leave thee I will never forsake thee Fifthly I was in fears again that I could not pray but I had a promise I will fulfill the desires of them that fear me These and many more were my grounds and evidences which I thought were right then when I had them Sixthly Sometimes in hearing the Word Christ did witnesse to my soul yet but seldom But O how I did strive against this work as I thought of my being called to put away all promises of mercy from me I may justly say The Lord saved me whether I would or no Sometimes I was dead and could not pray sometimes very much quickned and stirred up
and I could powre out my soul in much sorrow and remorse for sin O me thought I could spend a whole night in praying for what my soul wanted That which I much desired in prayer was still that my sinful soul might be healed of sin and that running issue of sin that ran and ceased not might be stopped Yet in this my time and those dayes I seldom desired pardon of sin till I were fitted for mercies But now I see we are pardoned freely I cannot even now but say this O rest not therefore in your own duties lest you perish in the sparks you kindle as I had almost done I observed a good providence of the Lord to me in providing me still many Christians to complain to in this my condition OBSERVATIONS on the former Discourse I. Of the Preachers several dealings with this Party to settle them and not in a way of beleeving first I Observe That now this soul questioning the truth of all their assurances they labour to perswade it to faith or beleeving upon a ground of Sanctification in themselves which hath no evidence nor for the present can bring any demonstration to the spirit For Satan and the Parties own suspecting heart will not let them beleeve any truth in that which they have found so faulty As for instance a man that hath had cause to be jealous of his wife hath seen some miscarriages all the friends she can make are not able to satisfie and take away all grounds of fear jealousie from him by their perswasion but he will still suspect because he once had some real ground and unlesse they can take away this they cannot perswade him to that So in that soul where there hath been real failings and a spiritual discerning of its own unrighteousnesse all the perswasions of others cannot make it have any good opinion of it self nor perswade it of its righteousnesse unlesse they can take away that unrighteousnesse sin and make it to be no sin and no unrighteousnesse For the soul which is onely troubled for sin must be setled upon some thing which is not sin and upon a righteousnesse either in it self or some other or there can be no setlement peace or comfort in that soul And yet this is the common way of dealing with souls and bringing them up into assurance as thus Repent and pray and live an holy life and walk according to the Law of God and if they answer they cannot do thus O then say they can you not desire to pray and repent and if they say they cannot desire O but then say they can you not desire that you may desire And thus they winde them up by acts of their own spirit and run them out to the end of their own workings when alas these desires of desires and the spining of such fine threds in divinity are not strong enough to binde up a broken spirit This is but the broken work of a soul for how many have desired to enter in have not been able Nay Who is there not that have a desire All the world of common beleevers are carried on by this principle of a desire We see now the vanity of such reasonings with a soul troubled for sin and questioning the truth of the spiritual work in themselves Such kinde of arguing may give some hints to the soul that hath the Spirit of God in it some spiritual actings to pacifie and perswade it a while because it findes something in it self agreeable to such a discourse but these are too narrow and weak to bear up the burden of sin and legal terrours like the bottom and point of a top which being so small may for some time that it is in motion bear up the body of the top as wee see but when the motion is done the top fals having nothing proportionable to support it So the soul turns upon some hints of comfort a while but flattens again And this is the furthest and strongest satisfaction the discourse of such Divines can give yet I despise them not in this Light they have so they contend not against the more glorious light of truth but the Lord if he please reveal more unto them But you will say how will you deal then with a soul thus puzzled and questioning I answer I shall not dare to place them on any bottom of their own righteousnesse or to satisfie themselves by something only in themselves that were to take the disease for the Physitian to give them no oyntment but blood of their own wound to heal them nor should I take that other way which many do that are of this legal strain too as to apply promises to them first which many times instead of drawing the soul to Christ puts it further off bringing some conditions which the soul questioning in themselvs dares not meddle with before it be prepared by Christ and his freenesse But you will say what way will you take then I answer That way which the Scriptures reveal to me First the laying down and establishing and bringing forth a perfect righteousnesse even the righteousnesse of Christ and then shewing forth the way of common right and interest to this righteousnesse which is contained in the freest promises for bringing souls to close with and partake of this perfection and righteousnesse more plainly thus Christ crucified is the foundation and corner-stone and rock for sinners The righteousnesse of this Christ is every way perfect and compleat This righteousnesse is that which hath taken away the sins of the world so as no sin is now to be satisfied for nor no new righteousnesse to be wrought by any for salvation onely all that will be saved are to beleeve their interest and right in this righteousnesse and already purchased salvation And for the way of coming by a right or purchasing an interest in this righteousnesse or salvation it is held out without price or works in the freest clearest promises of salvation to sinners onely for taking and receiving beleeving in all being wrought to our hands So us this is as good a ground for one to beleeve on as another without exception and in this way of salvation to beleeve is life eternal and not to beleeve is condemnation He that beleeveth hath everlasting life and he that beleeveth not is condemned and this being a Scripture way I would leave the soul upon these principles and under this Commandment Beleeve on the Lord Jesus Christ for this is the Commandment that ye beleeve on his Son c. But you will say what if a soul answer I cannot beleeve I am not elected I shall answer then to such a soul thus You are bound to beleeve because it is a Commandment and you are not to make an objection from election or reprobation against your beleeving for that were to set one part of the truth against the other And thus you misinterpret both God and his Word But you