upon every sinner in the world while under the law Rom. 5.18 2. The guilt of the corruption of our natures sin in the fountain as I have shewed which is likewise upon every Son or Daughter of Adam they are all corrupt Psal 14.1 wherein lies the exceeding sinfulness of sin 3. The guilt of actual rebellion against God sin brought forth and acted in the outward man against God Now under this threefold guilt is every sinner in the world while under the Law the effect of which if not reconciled is punishment suitable to the guilt which is Thou shalt surely dye And The wages of sin is death Eternal Death Rom. 6. last Vse 1. This may therefore inform and convince that every sin brings guilt upon the soul and so deserves death and everlasting wrath from God you that make light of sin to lye to prophane the Name of the Lord be in worldly discourses on the Lords day in any way of sin whatsoever weigh this in thy conscience there 's not the least sin but makes thee guilty before the Tribunal of God God the Law Angels Conscience are all witnesses against thee where 's the soul that will think to avoid this charge shall I prove every soul of you guilty and that before God If this were proved by the power of the word in the conscience I know what and I shall shew it you will be the effect of it lay your Consciences to the Word and if thou art found guilty before the Lord this day go home with the sense of it upon thy soul and do as a guilty sinner should do 1. Consider first as to what concerns God immediately the Law requires thou shouldst have no other Gods but him Exod. 20. which Jesus Christ interprets is to love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Soul Now hath God had thy whole Heart and Soul darest thou say so Hath not the world had more of thy Heart than God Dost not thou love the World and the things of it Do not thy Affections Thoughts Desires of thy Heart even day and night go after it Yea you cannot but grant that 't is so Then God and Angels are witness that thou art guilty of the damnable sin of Idolatry And such a one shall not as such enter into the Kingdom of God Eph. 5.5 Know by that Scripture A covetous heart may send thee to Hell as well as any sin in the World No Covetous man who is an Idolater shall enter into the kingdom of God Read over the place every day and tremble at it Here 's guilt already enough to damn thee 2. Thou hast worshipped God superstitiously and idolatrously after the Traditions and Commandments of Men You that are elderly people are all guilty here in a grevious manner in the time of your ignorance and superstition coming to Sacraments with sins upon your Souls from which sins your are not converted and changed to this day which the Apostle calls eating and drinking damnation or judgment under which guilt you still lye and would heap up more of this guilt were not some more tender of your Souls than your selves Art thou not now ready to cry out Oh hold hold you need go no further my Conscience is smitten Oh! guilt great guilt lyes upon me Oh that 't were the cry of many Souls before the Lord how might it end in mercy that shall be for ever 3. But yet further to pursue thy Conscience for that 's the nature of guilt doth not the Lord require in his law that thou shouldst not take his Name in vain Exod. 20.7 Now sinner stave off this guilt if thou canst How oft hast thou abused and profaned this great and dreadful Name the Lord thy God by swearing or in thy by words crying Oh Lord Oh God for God's sake for Christ's sake upon every foolish vain occasion with no more reverence of His Name than the most common name in the World And some of you have as many days as you have lived since your Child-hood been frequently guilty of this great evil which thou hast made a small matter of which if ever God pardon it it will appear to be odious guilt from the height of thy Heart-Atheism How oft hast thou heard the Word and thy Heart been after the World and thine eyes gazing up and down that 't is easie to discern thou regardest not what is spoken from God to thee and the same in Prayer How oft hast thou babled over the Lords Prayer like a Charm with no reverence of Gods Majesty upon thy Soul In thy bed it may be in a drowsie manner or if otherwise not understanding the Words thou speakest much less thy Heart affected with them or it may be saying over the Creed and the Commandments or some Book of Prayers as abundance do grievously prophaning God's Name and offering Lip-labour which his soul abhorreth yea know what hath been often proved that thy prayers and all thy worship and good deeds as thou callest them are an abomination to the Lord while thou art in thy sin an unconverted and unholy person yea the way of thy worship in which thou placest thy greatest confidence hath been the highest aggravations of thy sin in offering up to God that which his soul hateth Isa 1.11 12 13 14 15. When you make many prayers saith the Lord I will not hear you c. And as to the sanctifying the Sabbath which thou shouldst make a holy rest unto God thou hast made it a meer fleshly rest consuming the day upon thy lusts in vanity idleness carnal and worldly discourses in families in the streets to the high dishonour of the Name of God and hardening of thy heart against the truths of God rendering thereby the preaching of the Gospel wholly unprofitable to thy soul A carriage far unlike a man that hath the grace of God upon him and a most invincible argument to thy Conscience that thou makest not God his word ordinances sabbaths a holy delight and knowest not the excellency and sweetness of Communion with him say sinner and lay thy Conscience to this conviction is hearing and that with love praying praising meditating conferring of holy things the very Heaven of thy soul and so longest for such Exercises as the joy and strength of thy heart Nothing less Thy own Conscience being Judge but hear drowsily and negligently it may be despisingly revile the Preacher speak evil of the word out of thy gross ignorance and hatred to be reformed speak vainly carnally worldly with such as are like thy self Here 's guilt enough to send thee to a thousand Hells if God smite not thy heart for it and thou turn not unto him for pardon and a better heart to be given to thee Add to all this an unthankful and unholy use of Gods good Creatures it may be thou hast been betray'd by the devil and thy own ready heart to some secret sins which thou thinkest enough if thou canst
there 's nothing more abaseth a soul than this nothing makes it more difficult to believe pardon when humbled for it therefore 't is that many poor souls fear that they have sinn'd the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost because they have sinned against knowledge and light which though while they are humbled before the Lord it cannot be that they have so sinned unpardonably yet in as much as 't is the sin that borders next upon the sin against the Holy Ghost it much greatens sin to a poor soul under the sense of it Such a sinner is said to reproach the Lord Numb 15.30 31. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin James 4. last To him it is sin that is great sin of which God will take the severest account Therefore such as have the Profession of Christianity and the knowledge of the Word in some measure and yet go on impenitently in sin they are the greatest sinners in the world and will have the greatest damnation and this circumstance in sin makes or should do so such souls that never lived in notorious sins be under deep abasement because though their Sins were not so gross as many others yet they were against great light and knowledge which makes every little sin continued in great in the account of God and great in the account of the sinner when he comes before the Lord in the sense of it Oh I pleased my self in sins that I knew to be sins and was convinced by the Word of God of them yet I went on and loved them 5. Continuance in sin much greatens sin to a poor soul that is after pardon especially such as are not very early converted God will wound the hairy scalp of such a one that goeth on still in his trespasses Psal 68.21 Oh I added sin unto sin saith a poor soul spending the choice time of my youth in sin when I might have been getting the knowledge of Jesus Christ and honouring of God This lay close upon David's spirit as appears in this 25th Psal 7. Oh remember not the sins of youth c. Yet we do not find that David's youth was notoriously sinful but in as much as he spent not his youth to get knowledge and to serve the Lord fully 't was his burden and complaint before the Lord much more such whose youth was spent in nothing but vanity prophaneness lying swearing prophaning of the Sabbath sports past-times excess of riot and the like when God lays it in upon their Consciences must be greivous and abominable to their souls 6. Multitudes of sins do make sin appear great this made David cry out for multitude of mercies Psal 51. and Psal 40.12 Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look they are more than the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me One sin but a sinful thought is worthy of a thousand Hells much more multiplyed numberless infinite sins in thought words walkings calling worship in all I have done I did nothing else but sin Therefore the least sinner in the world is a great sinner when God lays his account before him 7. Another thing that greatens sin is that it was against purposes and resolutions of forsaking such and such sins and yet all broken sometimes against solemn vows against prayers This consideration upon many a poor soul sticks hard and lays low and makes his sin grievous indeed that against purposes vows prayers he should return to his sin this makes him cry out Oh my sin is great great indeed Doth will the Lord pardon such a Wretch c. 8. Sin appears great when seen by a poor soul because it was reigning sin Rom. 5. 6. Sin reigned to death c. Oh saith a poor humbled sinner I did not only commit sin but I was the servant and slave of sin I obey'd sin as a Lord and that willingly I obey'd it in the lusts thereof where God Christ his Spirit Word Law should have dwelt and reigned there sin and lusts bore sway and had the command of my soul A little sin when a reigning sin is a great sin All that sin can do is but to rule the sinner and so it doth the least sinner that is under it though it break not forth into gross notorious actings against the Lord and this doth much greaten it 9. Sin in the fountain makes it great As it may be said there is more water in the fountain than in the pools and streams it makes because there is a continual issuing and flowing out of it which is able to make far greater streams So in the nature in the heart is there as in the fountain and therefore 't is more there than in the breakings forth of it in the outward man so that though a sinner in his youth hath been restrained from many great sins yet in as much as sin in the fountain was as full as in any sinner in the world though restrained and pent in which the sinner was not beholding to his own heart for it renders him a great sinner before the Lord when savingly enlightned The want of this consideration makes outwardly righteous persons not look upon themselves as great sinners they see and feel not sin infinite in the fountain of it which mostly greatens it above all the actings of it in this life 10. A sinner drawing nigh to God for pardon sees his sin as great because thereby he was led captive by the Devil at his will He that committeth sin is of the Devil 1 John 3.8 committeth sin so as in a state of sin under the power of sin and not born of God why such a one is of the Devil under the power of the Devil of the Devil and not of God and this because of sin which gives this dominion to the Devil Oh saith a poor Creature I that was the creature of God and should have lived to him lived to the Devil and the service of him and took part with him against Christ his Word his Saints and was an enemy to them This greatens my sin before the Lord. 11. Sin appears great because great is the wrath of God against sin sinners are said to heap up wrath Rom. 2. and they are called the Children of wrath God to manifest his displeasure against sin pours out everlasting wrath upon an unpardoned sinner to leave the sinner under endless torment of soul and body God hates nothing but sin and for sin and so hates it that infinite endless wrath must be the vengeance of it Oh when God gives a sinner a glimpse of this Oh the greatness of every little sin to deserve such wrath How shall I flee from and escape the wrath to come who can stand before such wrath who can bear it 12. The way of any sinner's deliverance from such wrath shews sin to be exceeding great in the price
very well of himself and was in much peace and persecuted all beyond his formal Profession now cryes out away with this figleaf-righteousness of mine own 't is as dung I tread it under my feet for Jesus Christ he that thought himself so blameless before now cryes out I am the Chief of sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 And I am carnal sold under sin Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death A marvellous Change indeed and such that is made upon every Soul that is really brought off from the righteousness of the Law to that which is of Jesus Christ Now to bring what hath been spoken to this point to a more particular Application Vse 1. If it be so that the best endeavour of any mortal creature to keep the Law of God as well as they can will not give them acceptance with God then you that have so imagined and thereby spoken peace to your selves namely that you hope if you keep the Church as you use to speak and harm no body and do any body any good you can live not in gross sins be well thought of by your neighbours you shall do well enough for Heaven and you must hope well Ah poor creature thou errest not knowing the way of the Lord nor of thy own heart how art thou befooling thy self and deceiving thy own soul No sinner in so ready a way to Hell as thou if thou continue thus and let not go thy hold and get a new bottom for thy naked Soul which I am to shew thee Consider man or woman young or old whoever thou art thou hast been proved guilty of the breach of the whole Law of God thou hast been shewed of the exactness of the Justice of God and the spirituality of the Law how it reacheth the inmost motions of the heart thou hast been shewed the Tenour of it as it was given forth as a Covenant that the Law will not admit of the least breach though but in thought but it condemns as if the whole Law were transgressed even every soul that is under it here is the rigor of it and thou hast been shewed that the Law admits not of endeavours nor of the Will for the Deed if thou wert once in Christ indeed it would be so but not as now thou art thou hast been shew'd that there 's sin enough in every one of thy best performances to damn thee for ever that thy Righteousness reacheth but the outward Man within didst thou see it thou art full of iniquity that whatever thou hast done cannot make God the least satisfaction as thou flatterest thy self for the least sin All thy obedience and duties cannot give life to thy soul but still leave thee as a dead tree dead in thy sin that by this vain confidence thou dost utterly make void the death of Jesus Christ as to any vertue or effect to thy own Soul here is thy very case plainly set forth a thousand thousand sins to damn thee and that righteousness obedience good thou hopest thou hast done towards God and Man not in the least able to rescue thee cover thee deliver thee from the guilt of one of the least of these sins nor save thee from wrath to come but leave thy soul as sinful guilty naked wretched condemned as if thou hadst been nothing else but sinning all thy days Oh wretched condition that the Devil and thy own heart have flattered thee in Oh let this serve to convince unbottom legal Professors who have spoken peace to themselves in being as good as they can and obeying the Law as well as they can and so hope God pardons where they fail Oh you are ignorant of the righteousness of God Rom. 10.3 Either what righteousness God requires in the Law as to be justified by it or what is the Righteousness of the Gospel which is of Jesus Christ by Faith Oh you who like that young man have been righteous from your youth up brought up religiously look to this whether you make not this your confidence but though under some kind of sorrowings for sin and walking exactly yet never emptied of your selves and renouncing your selves and all that was of you and come poor and nothing to Jesus Christ to be found in him who have not trembled as much at being found in your own righteousness which is of the Law as at living in the greatest sin whatsoever You who have taken up from grosser sins of your life your youth and now think you are safe and bottom your hope upon your new outward obedience but have not the experience of your closing with Jesus Christ for righteousness in which alone you could stand before God nor rooted into Jesus Christ in the carrying on of your new obedience which I am also further to open Alas poor soul thou art yet to seek for a bottom for thy peace and for Heaven as much as the greatest sinner in the world and if you go no further you will certainly perish for ever I beseech you Souls Admit of this Conviction into your Consciences saith the first Covenant of the law A whole law kept or nothing saith the Gospel-Covenant which you are now to look after A whole Christ closed with or nothing Mind it most seriously you that stand upon your terms and will not endure any thing that may shake you and disturb your peace there 's more danger of your righteousness than your sin your sin it may be you would leave because it may damn you if continued in but your righteousness your confidence in it you would not leave because you hope that shall save you and pacifie God for you and this will be your ruine if you stick here But first to strike of some Objections that the heart of such a legal professor doth put forth Object 1. But you will object Why do I speak thus would I beat people off a good coversation Is not a blameless conversation and honest walking a good sign and ground for ones hope for Heaven Answ I answer not such a Conversation as you mean the formal Jews which Christ preacht to were outwardly righteous and yet 't was not a safe ground of Hope unto them as you have been shew'd a good conversation that witnesseth a hope for Heaven must be first of a soul that doth utterly renounce it as to commend him to God that when he looks up to God for his acceptance his justification he looks upon himself as nothing else but a sinner in that respect which poor soul thou doest not 2. A good conversation that witnesseth a hope of Heaven is also a holy conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 To be inwardly holy as well as outwardly righteous Now thy care lyeth mostly about thy outward blamelesness and not thy inward holiness therefore thy conversation which thou callest good is not a ground of hope to thee 3. Or if thou dost pretend to a little outward holiness and thinkest thou hast a good heart
Jesus Christ Jesus Christ being the Undertaker in it for all the Father gave him it is certainly founded upon a sure Bottom This was the Fathers Promise Isa 42.6 I will give him for a Covenant to the People Jesus Christ as a common person did represent all the Elect in the Covenant as the first Adam in the first Covenant did represent all his and Jesus Christ did undertake to bring them to God to bring them into the Covenant and so to estate them in all the grace and Mercy and Blessing of it Therefore the Mercies of the Covenant are stiled The sure mercies of David Isa 55.3 As a Type of Jesus Christ coming of the Seed of David wherein is set forth the excellency of the New Covenant the whole Transaction of it entrusted in the hands of Jesus Christ and therefore not one drop of the Mercy of it can ever fail those that are taken into it 6. By the giving forth of Jesus Christ the whole of Gospel-Salvation is rendered more glorious The Wisdom Justice Holiness of God as well as Mercy and Love do shine forth in Jesus Christ And therefore the Gospel-Mystery is styled The manifold Wisdom of God Ephes 3.10 Every Attribute of God is glorified in the giving out of Jesus Christ 7. Yea had not God taken this way of making out himself by Jesus Christ the world had dwelt in gross darkness of him therefore Jesus Christ is styled The Image of the Invisible God Col. 1.15 The express Image of the Father The brightness of his glory Heb. 1. And in 2 Cor. 2.6 The light of the knowledge of the Glory of God is said to shine in the face of Jesus Christ The Creation is but a dark shadow of the glory of God as to what is revealed of God in the manifestation of Jesus Christ There are the Footsteps of God in the Creatures but his Character and Image in his Blessed Son Jesus Christ 8. There could not have been access to God but by Jesus Christ for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father Eph. 1.18 How could polluted Dust draw nigh to the absolute Majesty and Glory of God had not he let forth himself in Jesus Christ as in our own Nature and so makes way for a poor sinner to come before him 9. Had God let forth Mercy to Sinners and not given out his Son Jesus Christ his justice must have been violated which is the main of all The word of the Lord was absolute In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Gen. 2.17 which was meant of the Eternal Death of the Soul in its separation from the life of God as is clear in Rom. 5. last where grace unto eternal life by Jesus Christ is put in opposition to that death which was by sin which must therefore needs be meant of Eternal Death So Rom. 6. ver last Now this Death must be executed upon all the Posterity of Adam or else God must take some other way to satisfie his Justice he will save the Sinner which was upon his own Son Jesus Christ as will further be evidenced in the following Discourse 10. The blessed God took this way of letting out himself his Grace by Jesus Christ that thereby Saints might have Vnion with him which was a holy Design of the Father in saving them That they may be one in us John 17.21 The deepest and most unconceivable Mystery in our Salvation Now Jesus Christ as the Eternal Son of God taking upon him our natures we became capable of being united to him through the Spirit and made one with the humane nature of Christ whereby we are also united to the God-head and so become one with the Father and the Son which is the top of the Saints perfection Vse 1. Now what hath been said as to the grounds and reasons of God in giving out his eternal Son and letting forth all grace by him may serve to acquaint us with this rich and glorious Mystery as it is styled Col. 1.27 Namely God reconciling the world by Jesus Christ letting forth the knowledge of himself glorifying all his Attributes making such discoveries of his Glory providing such a way of Mediation such a glorious Mediator laying the blessed project of a sinners glorious Salvation so sure rendring his love so acceptable and glorious making way for free access unto himself and how we might become one with him Oh! the depths of the Wisdom and Love of God which of them may we admire most Well may Angels pry into this Holy Mystery well may it be the astonishment of Heaven and Earth of the whole Creation How much more of a sinner for whose sake it was thus ordered Oh that we might fall upon our faces and adore the Wisdom and Grace of God in such a contrivance as this Oh unmeasurable Goodness unfathomed Wisdom Eternity is but enough to admire it To behold God in Christ will be the vision which the souls of blessed Saints will be wrapt up into to all Eternity 2. Oh! therefore what infinite Mercy is it to be brought forth in the New-Testament-times when the Mystery hid in God hid from ages kept secret since the world began 1 Cor. 16.25 is brought to light and sparkling upon the darkness of the world when the glory of God is risen upon the World Now if this Gospel be hid 't is hid to them that are lost 2 Cor. 4.3 Wo unto them that close their eyes when the light shines round about them Oh you that yet sit in darkness and the shadow of death Arise Awake look up that Gospel-light may shine into you Oh cry and wait that your eyes may be opened to behold God coming forth in the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the glorious Gospel wait for the Spirit and that the Gospel in the preaching of it may become the ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 Oh guilty world that so slight the Knowledge of Jesus Christ and contemn the Ministration of it wo unto them 3. If God doth let forth no Grace and Mercy but by Jesus Christ it may serve to unbottom poor souls from a general carnal hope of Mercy not being acquainted with the way of Grace by Jesus Christ nor coming as lost sinners in themselves to be found in Christ and justified by Jesus Christ this they utterly neglect having an empty notion of Christ's dying but know not for what and upon what grounds and how a sinner gets to God by him Oh! let this reprove you for this gross and damnable neglect and convince you that all your pretended hopes of Mercy will vanish unless you learn the Knowledge of Jesus Christ 4. And therefore If no way to the Father no Interest in Mercy no access to God but by Jesus Christ let it serve to teach poor ignorant sinners yea all of us how to get to God to Mercy into his Covenant Oh! No way but by Jesus Christ Oh! I can never come to
freely to speak after the manner of men let out grace and mercy unless such satisfaction had been given by Jesus Christ Now it can come easily delightfully chearfully from the righteous and gracious God seeing his justice will not plead against it but for it being blessedly satisfied and Jesus Christ by his death did fully merit it and deserve it at the hands of God and laid down as much as God in infinite justice would require therefore 't is now as well justice as mercy for God to remit a Sinner that comes to God by Jesus Christ 1 John 1.7 God is just to forgive us our sins Now hereupon God having ordained and accepted of such a way of attonement his justice glorified and satisfied his word that the sinner should die made good his Law to the utmost satisfied what remains but that the blessed God can remit the bondage guilt condemnation of the sinner having thus accepted of satisfaction what remains but that he should pronounce as he doth Job 33.24 Deliver him for I have found a Ransom God can now pardon the sinner that comes believingly by Jesus Christ to him for it without any regret his justice shall be glorified by it as well as his mercy God hath charg'd all upon another and accepted of full payment call'd himself to witness of it and will never repent of it Object If any should Object Wherein is free-grace glorified if God hath received full satisfaction to his justice Answ I answer 1. 'T was infinite free grace for God to give out his blessed Son Jesus Christ when there was no obligation upon him he gave him and sent him freely John 3.16 from his own free love therefore there 's infinite of free grace in Man's salvation 2. 'T was infinite grace towards the sinner to accept of satisfaction by a surety Heb. 5. and not on the sinner the party offending himself what abundant grace and love to lay the sins and guilt upon another especially the only Son of his bosom who was without all sin 2 Cor. 2.21 and not to condemn the poor helpless sinner for ever 3. 'T was infinite free grace for God himself to contrive the way of such a Redemption Had it been left to sinful man to have found out a way how justice might be satisfied he could never have done it It could never have entred into the heart of Man or Angels to have offered to God a satisfactory way for the making up of his wronged justice but he must have perished for ever 4. The Father was at Liberty to impute this Redemption of Christ to whom he would to this sinner and not to another Rom. 9. He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy c. So that 't is indeed a debt to Christ but all of free mercy and grace to any sinner that is saved Vse 1. If then Salvation and remission of sins came in this way by the death and blood of Jesus Christ then it may discover to us the infinite hatred that God bears to sin that to make expiation and attonement to his justice there could no sacrifice be found but the death of his eternal Son Jesus Christ Oh! that ever a sinner should delight in that which the holy God so much hates and abhors 2. Let it be for convincement to poor sinners of the infinite necessity of this way of Redemption by Jesus Christ in laying down his life to satisfie the justice of God and of getting their part in it you have heard the case of a Sinner condemn'd by the Law liable to eternal death subject to the rigour of divine Justice no way able or in a capacity to make satisfaction to God mercy as it were bound up by justice Oh! therefore what necessity of a Mediator of a Redeemer to work forth deliverance to lay down a Ransom for sinners dye and undergo the curse and wrath of the great and dreadful God fulfill the Law make satisfaction to the wronged justice of God to the utmost this Jesus Christ hath done for miserable sinners that will come unto him Now the most of poor souls have but a Notion of Christ's dying but know not what is meant by Christ dying for me though sometimes in their Mouths Oh! sinner for Christ to die for thee if thou gettest a part in his Death is to undergo the punishment and curse and death that thy soul was liable to which otherwise must have come upon thee to the utmost it was to be made sin and a curse for thee to bear thy Sins and stand in them Oh! that thou couldst really be convinc'd of the necessity of this Redemption that thou couldst never come to God without it and therefore to get thy poor soul stated in it 3. If satisfaction to Gods justice can only be by the blood of Jesus Christ then let me again press you that you take heed of performing your duties and repentings as if thereby you did satisfie and pacifie God for the sin of your souls This is the most dangerous snare upon poor souls that though they have sinned yet they hope God will be pacified with some praying and sorrowing and amendment Now though this shall be in a spiritual manner upon every pardoned sinner and 't is a capacity God puts the sinner into when he applies the death of his Son and so gives out mercy and pardon yet you must most carefully take heed that you offer not up such duties as if they did make God amends and pacifie him for your sins but look above and beyond them as if they were not and so to cast your eye to the great sacrifice of the blood of Jesus Christ which Alone makes attonement to God and makes way for a poor sinner to come to him 4. That as sinners would learn the blessed Mystery of this Redemption and the necessity of it and how it makes attonement merits mercy and pardon procures peace and reconciliation with God so they would come and accept of it and fall down before the righteous God and plead it to him Thou hast heard the way of God's letting out mercy to sinners and no mercy but in that way but by justice being satisfied by the death and blood of Jesus Christ whereby he becomes the Saviour of sinners now this blood is offered up to God the price is paid and accepted with God and in the Gospel of God 't is revealed and preach't to the guilty world and 't is freely offered to any poor sinner that will come and accept of it and make claim to it and plead for mercy and forgiveness upon the account of it and will come to the terms of it which is to be accepted and pardoned alone by vertue of it to be washed and sanctified and actually deliver'd not only from the guilt and condemnation of sin but the power and reign and pollution of it Oh Sinner be awakened and stirred up by the word of the Lord to get actual deliverance from the
guilt bondage reign service of thy sin go and cry to God offer him up the blood of his own eternal Son tell him thou seest he may let out justice upon thee to destroy thee and damn thee for ever of thy self thou hast no plea against it But ask the blessed God if it may not be more glory to him and his grace and mercy glorified by it if he will accept of satisfaction by his own Son Jesus Christ plead to him that thou hearest he died in the room of guilty condemned sinnners such as thou art ungodly Rom. 5.6 yea tell him with an humble adoration of his mercy and love in it that thou hearest in his blessed Gospel that 't is offered to any sinner that will come and accept it and that 't is proclamed from Heaven and there 's satisfaction made by the blood of a Jesus for the greatest Sinner such as thou art Oh! cry unto him that therefore thou comest and begg'st to be heard in thy plea and that it may be entred in Heaven that thou comest for all the ends of his death thou art weary of the service of thy lusts and the pollution of thy nature and therefore thou wouldst have thy nature cleansed thy conscience purged all which thou findest the blood of Jesus Christ is able to do yea tell him and plead it with some humble boldness that thou art acquainted that Jesus Christ prays in Heaven for such sinners that come and plead his blood to thee and that he is heard in what he prays and that therefore forgiveness must be had yea say thou wilt hold on thy plea thou hast no other and art resolved against any other If thou shalt to Hell pleading the blood of a Saviour be it so but I am resolved to plead it to the utmost yea tell him and cry to him that it cannot repent him that he hath ordained the sacrifice of the blood of his own Son and therefore why should'st thou be rejected Yea Come to this Issue through the Spirit of Faith upon thee that if it can be that a Sinner crying out for pardon upon the account of the death and blood of Jesus Christ and for sanctification may go to Hell then thou wilt willingly lay thy hand upon thy mouth and open it no more but sink under Divine Vengeance to Eternity Oh! That every poor sinner might go home with this plea in his heart written there by the Holy Ghost and peirce Heaven with his or her crys and groans and put the blood of Jesus Christ before him and plead for mercy and holiness to be pardoned and sanctified till God say Go in peace thou art pardoned redeemed and blessed for ever Yet a little to excite a poor drowsie sinner to this eternal Concernment 1. Consider thou art under the guilt of thousands of Sins one whereof is enough to sink thee to Hell Guilt if continued is Hell begun and wants nothing but the execution of Vengeance upon thee Oh what should a guilty sinner do but close with a Saviour and get an interest in Redemption from it 2. Especially considering that all the Duties and Obedience thou hast performed towards God or ever shall have not made nor ever will the least payment to God for thy sins thou art as much in debt to God as ever thou wast as much behind with him All the Items for the sin of thy Nature thy thoughts words and actual Wickedness and thy sinful neglects stand uncancelled all ready to be charged upon thee and nought will be accepted for payment but the Death of Jesus Christ the only price that God will hearken to Nothing will cancel the Book where all thy sins are recorded Nothing will blot out the Hand-writing that is against thee but the Blood of Jesus Christ Col. 2.13 14. 3. God is resolved never to forgive you the Debt till you have put in this Plea and it be recorded in Heaven and you have it in a Gospel-way No forgiveness of Sins but by Redemption pleaded claimed possessed and sealed by the Holy Spirit Ephes 1.7 14. 4. Thou art yet under the Bondage and Reign of thy sin and therefore under condemnation the Law is gone out against thee thy Sentence pronounced Cursed is every one that transgresseth c. saith the Law and thou art in bondage yet and hast not procured actual deliverance from it If a Prisoner be condemned and lye in Fetters in a Dungeon and hears of a Ransom paid for him what 's this to him till he have Liberty So for a Sinner to be in the Fetters of his Lusts held fast by them a Bond-man to the Devil and hear of a Christ laying down a Ransom what is this to him unless he sue it out and get actual deliverance and liberty the liberty of the Sons and Daughters of God and have a Spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father Gal. 4.4 5. That being made free from sin the Reign and Power of it by the Power of the Lord Jesus revealed in him you may become servants to God and have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life Rom. 6. 5. Consider as thou standest in thy filth and uncleanness of thy Sins thou art unfit for God either to please him in any thing thou doest or to be with him in Heaven hereafter thy person and services are loathsom to the Soul of God therefore get washed and purified in the blood of Jesus Christ Go on to cry and wait and beg a heart to do it and that in Faith till thou shalt feel Peace coming in by thy constant Plea of the blood of Christ till thou shalt feel cleansing vertue of it upon thy Soul till thou shalt experience the power of his death destroying Sin in thee and so shalt find thou hast fellowship with him and so a part in this blessed Redemption we have been treating of 6. Now to encourage a poor Sinner to this coming to God with the Plea of Christ's blood in his heart and mouth and to draw forth the Faith of a poor humbled doubting Soul Consider the All-sufficiency and worth of the price of the Death of Jesus Christ to satisfie the justice of God and procure Pardon and Sanctification for a poor Sinner which may appear from such like Scriptures The Apostle in the 7th of the Hebrews having been opening the excellency of Christ's Priesthood which is chiefly conversant in this Work of Redemption in the offering up of himself a Sacrifice concludes ver 25. of that Chapter Wherefore he is able to save them to the utmost that come to God by him To the utmost that is with a perfect Salvation that nothing more can be desired to it So in the 9th Chap. ver 11 c. The Apostle reasoning from the Levitical Sacrifices to this of the blood of Christ argueth the full perfection of it By his own blood he entred in once into the holy place namely into Heaven having obtained eternal Redemption for us
and by the Spirit of our God Or at least that I may speak to poor weak willing trembling souls Is this it that your souls are restless after Oh that I were that I were in such a blessed state Oh that I could but believingly say the righteousness of Jesus Christ were mine and that now I am I am justified Oh what peace and sweetness and joy would fill my heart Why Soul If this be indeed the breathing of thy Soul Jesus Christ is thine and thou art justified and pardoned and God will at last give in unto thee if thou continue to follow him the sense and comfort of it in thy poor Soul Only by the way take a Discovery or two of the reality of thy Heart in this matter 1. If thou Soul from a Spiritual Conviction be under a real making out after justification by Jesus Christ then thou wouldst also be as really sanctified be made holy 'T was as much in the purpose of God to call thee out of a state of sin and to sanctifie thee as to pardon and justifie thee 1 Ep. John 5.6 2. If thou art brought into a justified state thy soul making out after it thou art made alive in the Spirit Rom. 8.1 Thou art in Jesus Christ and wouldst walk no more after the flesh and the lusts thereof but after the Spirit Gal. 5.18 If ye are led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law namely to condemn you but are free from the curse of it And verse 23. Against such there is no Law that is such as would walk after the Spirit be led by the Spirit and shew forth the fruit of the Spirit And this is that which the Apostle intimateth 1 Ep. John 5.10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself namely of the Spirit So that every justified person hath the Spirit of Christ according to the measure of the grace of God dwelling in him is quickened in the Spirit being once dead prays in the Spirit mortifies sin through the Spirit is taught by the Spirit and so in all other saving and sanctifying vertues of it If it be not thus with thee thou as yet hast no part in this blessedness but art under condemnation unto death And therefore sinner come before God in the sence of thy condemned estate and give up thy self to Jesus Christ to be washed justified sanctified and then blessed for ever 3. Let called and sanctified Believers labour to live in the sense of a pardoned justified state that God is not off and on with them in the matter of justification though it may be sometimes darkned and clouded as to the evidence of it Oh! do you labour to preserve the sense and sweet and blessed peace of it in your souls and give glory to the riches of grace for now there is No No condemnation to you you are passed from Death to Life and the Blessed God imputes no sin unto you Let this be the highest and strongest Argument to Holiness and love to the glory that possibly may be and if indeed you walk in the comfort of it it will be so unto you Only let me give caution here to young Converts whose hearts at the first discovery of the free and glorious grace of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ are wonderfully taken and affected with it but after a time are apt to wanton with it unless the first humiliation be the deeper and to wax sleight in Duties and so their Lusts recover strength again and return upon them and either they fall or are near unto it to the fresh wounding of their Souls This hath been the condition of many therefore be well caution'd in it and walk with fear in the midst of your joyous apprehensions of the sweetness of grace and the endearing love of the Lord Jesus to you Having briefly shewed what the nature of justification is what it is to be in a justified state before God I now come to open more particularly how a Soul comes to be partaker of this justification through the Redemption of Jesus Christ namely Through Eaith in his blood ver 25. of this 3d. of Rom. Observ As God through Free-grace hath set forth Jesus Christ to work forth Redemption for sinners so there must be a special believing on and applying the blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins by every one that is saved Therefore justification is attributed to Faith Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God by our Lord Jesus Christ So Gal. 2.16 and 3.11 In all which places Faith is put in opposition to the works of the Law And so the righteousness of Christ is called the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 9.30 and 10.6 in opposition to the righteousness by Works Not as if Faith were the matter of our justification that it did as an Act or Work in the Soul justifie before God but that God doth thus make over the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ to a Soul by enabling the Soul to come unto to take hold of to apply to it self to appropriate the merit of the blood of Jesus Christ for its own Redemption and Salvation which may afford us a plain Description of justifying Faith precisely considered Namely Faith is a Work of the Holy Ghost in the Soul enabling it to appropriate or apply to it self the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ for the Remission of sin and its justification unto eternal Life So it is called the work of Faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 and 't is expressed by receiving of Jesus Christ Joh. 1. and believing on his Name coming unto him resting upon him So that plainly Faith is a going out to believing in trusting on another namely the Lord Jesus Christ For what it can never be able to find or bring about in or by it self which may lead us to the more particular way of the Holy Ghost's working this power in the Soul in the saved ones of God 1. In the working of Faith in the Soul it is first brought to see an impossibility of coming to God as in its self or by its self concluded under an utter unability to pacifie God or make up a righteousness in it self to get access to God The soul is emptied from vessel to vessel till all the things that it counted gain before become loss for Jesus Christ this is the first work of the Spirit it empties a poor sinful Creature of all its refuges all its dependencies all its sufficiencies and so becomes naked in its guilt before God and therefore is brought to this that its acceptance to God if ever it be accepted must be out of its self what ever become of him he must perish as in himself 2. In the work of Faith the Soul is brought to see that this was the end of the Revelation of Jesus Christ of God's setting him forth to be a propitiation that he might work forth Redemption and Righteousness
that this is a way of God's own ordaining Jesus Christ was set forth for this very end even by God himself and therefore the soul is brought to this conclusion to venture the Issue of its life and eternal salvation upon it and so throws it self as in a sinking condition upon the grace blood righteousness of Jesus Christ sink or swim live or perish saved or damned there the soul casts Anchor there it pitcheth to this it will stand or fall before the righteous God if there be not enough in the blood of Jesus to give it acceptance with God the Soul resolves to Hell it must There saith a poor self-emptied Soul I cast even away my self if it might be upon it Phil. 3.9 3. The soul is brought on to believe the report that God in his word makes concerning his Son Jesus Christ and of the price value merit and all-sufficiency of his blood to save a poor sinner even to the utmost that comes to God by him Heb. 7.25 to answer all the wants and distresses of a poor soul namely in pacifying the Justice of God fulfilling the Law making attonement removing guilt procuring remission of sins reconciling to God Rom. 5.9 10. Much more being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life In all which things the soul is enabled to believe the report of the Gospel that the blood and death of Jesus Christ can do all this for poor sinners that shall pitch upon it 4. In this working of faith the soul comes to see and fasten upon an absolue unlimited Free promise where any sinner that will may come to Jesus Christ and so have the vertue of his death and blood applied to it and therefore that he as well as any other sinner in the world may come to him and make claim to his blood and plead it before God whosoever will let him come Rev. 22. Now saith a poor self-emptied sinner I do not find that I am any where excluded but invited and called upon to come to the Lord Jesus and claim an interest in his blood and that I may plead it even at the throne of his Justice and that I may warrantably safely upon good grounds given out from the mouth of God himself take hold of the Lord Jesus in such a Promise and there is no sin or unworthiness can exclude me unless I will frowardly and wretchedly exclude my self I do not find saith the poor soul that any sin is too great for the Sacrifice of that blood of Jesus so the sinner will come to it yea that 't is the greatest sin and the top of condemnation not to come to it that I more injure God by standing off from Jesus Christ than by all the filthiness blasphemies ungodlinesses my Soul ever wallowed in Heb. 10.29 The Blood of Christ is a price sufficient for the sins of the whole World therefore saith a poor soul for mine He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world and therefore he can take away mine and I am freely called and invited to it and 't is my Rebellion not to come what can I have more And so sense of Peace and Reconciliation falls in upon the Soul 5. The Soul by its often renewing of such Acts of Believing comes at last to see the blood of Jesus Christ appropriated to him now it can stay it self upon the word of promise and can sometimes rejoyce in believing If I roll my self upon the blood of Jesus I have the Word of God for it that I shall be saved we shall be saved from Wrath through him not it may be but we shall be saved and all upon the account of being justified by his blood Rom. 5.9 which justification ariseth upon this believing we have mentioned Thus have I opened the nature of Faith as it is precisely justifying as it applies and appropriates the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus for Remission of sins and Justification unto eternal Life I might insist upon the discovery of the effectual operations of Faith in the Soul as may distinguish it from a meer belief of the History of the death of Jesus Christ take two or three 1. When the Soul by Faith doth act upon the blood of Jesus Christ for justification it doth also bring the power and efficacy of it for purging of the Soul Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God So Acts 15.9 Purifying your hearts by faith There is a purifying vertue in the blood of Jesus Christ upon the souls of Believers they are for the purging away the filth as well as the guilt of sin there 's no believing soul but crys out Purge me Oh Lord purge me and throughly from my filth 2. The soul hath a secret yet real fellowship with the death of Jesus Christ to crucifie and destroy the body of sin in a justified believer which ariseth from its union with Christ Rom. 6.5 6. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection knowing that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Every true believer can really say I am or I would be Crucified with Christ Gal. 2.20 Which the Apostle there brings in as an effect of Justification by Faith 3. Every justified believer looks upon this as one great end of his Justification that he might live to God Gal. 2.19 That I might live unto God Likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto him but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 Every justified Believer doth thus reckon of himself I am to be dead to sin but alive to God I am to yield my self to God verse 13. To have my fruit unto Holiness verse 22. 4. Faith that justifies doth through the Spirit work the Soul to Gospel-obedience to all the Laws and Ordinances of Jesus Christ which shall be revealed to be the Will of Christ from the Command of Jesus Christ and from a principle of love to Jesus Christ John 15.10 5. A justifi'd believer will deny himself for Christ take up his cross and follow him let any sufferings be proposed to a called believer and let him know it is for Jesus Christ and that soul unless under a temporary desertion or temptation will choose and embrace those sufferings and undergo them with some chearfulness Luke 14.26 27. 7. Every justified believer hath a Marriage Vnion with Jesus Christ Ephes 5.25 26 32. The soul hath chosen Jesus Christ having broken off from all other lovers hath betrothed it self unto Christ in an
will not hide his Ear from the breathings of his poor Children Only let crying panting Souls take heed that this breath be not stopt nor intermitted 't is a most dangerous thing to intermit the breath of Prayer that it grows weaker and fainter it will be a sign unto you and a sad one too that the New-Creature is rather decaying than encreasing in you Be not contented with no more praying than will just as we say hold Life and Soul togerher that is to live at a very low rate but just to live if that As breathing takes in the Air revives enlargeth the Natural Spirits renders the whole man lively and lightsom and vigorous so doth this constant Spiritual breathing with God and after God it enlargeth the Heart revives the Soul keeps freshness and vigour of Spirit in the way of God when God comes in with a full gale upon the soul how sweetly is it refreshed how doth faintness weariness indisposition go off and the Spirit of a poor Creature is chearful with God and blessedly delights it self in him Oh delight to be every where in every way where God breaths upon the hearts of his people and where they breath after him And let new living Souls take heed by the way how their hearts do pant after the Earth and World and the contentments of it This will as much damp Spiritual Life and breath in the Soul as any evil whatsoever Lay your hearts to the fulness and sweetness of the Lord Jesus Christ and breath strongly for them and those things will be but wind and vanity 1. But I must proceed I come now to speak of the next discovery of the New-Creature and that is it hath new senses That you may see how fully it answers the frame of man as a Living Creature and what a New-Creation this is As the New-Creature hath a New-Nature a new inward life and hath a new breathing so it hath new Spiritual Senses So the Apostle Heb. 5.14 speaks of the Exercise of Spiritual Senses And as the Natural Life is exercised and preserved by Senses so is also this new Spiritual Life of the New Creature which I shall mention particularly First There is a New Ear given to this New-Creature This Jesus Christ hath frequently promised that he would open the deaf Ear So Job 36.10 He openeth also their Ear to Discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquity The hearing Ear and the seeing Eye the Lord hath made even both of them Prov. 20.12 By this opening the Ear is meant the opening of the Heart as 't is said of Lydia Act. 16. Whose heart the Lord opened The heart is shut up naturally and naturally cannot hear the voice of the Spirit till the Lord himself open it A natural man hears no more than the voice of a man and the Letter of the Word but when this New-Creature is formed he is ennabled to hear the voice of Jesus Christ himself the voice of the Spirit Joh. 10.27 My sheep hear my voiee A Soul can then say This the Lord speaks to me in special This is the voice of Christ that calls me to come to him and that Soul comes Jesus Christ speaks with a convincing particular powerful Word and the Heart being opened to receive it obeys it as his voice And so in every Ordinance 't is the voice of the Spirit of Christ the New-Creature waits for He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Rev. 3. last Secondly The New-Creature hath a new seeing eye The eyes of the Understanding opened to see into the blessed and hidden mysteries of the Gospel of Jesus Christ saith the Apostle of the Natural man Eye hath not seen 1 Cor. 2.9 And seeing they see not Matth. 13. But Christ speaking of called Disciples saith Blessed are your eyes for they see c. They have a new sight of God in Jesus Christ which sight doth abase them and also draw them to Jesus Christ The Vail being in part taken away they can look into the things of God which they saw not before the Scriptures begin to be unveiled and they see beyond the Letter of them into the Life and Spirituality of them And thus the Lord Jesus promised of old especially as to New-Testament-days I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not I will lead them in paths that they have not known I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight c. Isa 42.16 Thirdly There is a new power of tasting given to the Soul as another Spiritual Sense which before the Soul had to no purpose A new and blessed tasting of the good Word of Life Thy word is sweeter than the Honey-Comb Psal 19. How sweet are thy words unto my mouth Psal 119.103 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2.2 there is a new tast of the bitterness of sin The heart knows its own bitterness saith the Wise-man A Tasting of the special free and precious love of Christ A tasting of the goodness of God in mercies And thus there is a savoury spirit given to the New-Creature whereby he doth delightfully savour the things of Jesus Christ and can speak savourly of them to others Fourthly Add to this a new smelling to which the Spouse of Christ often alludes in Solomon's Songs Because of the savour of thy good Ointments Chap. 1.3 speaking of Jesus Christ who is a new and precious Perfume to the Soul Who is this that cometh out of the Wilderness perfumed with Myrrh and Frankincense Chap. 3.6 so saith the word of the promise Chap. 4.6 His smell shall be as Lebanon And when Jesus Christ breaths in his Ordinances upon blessed Souls it is as sweet and delightsom Perfume to them Fifthly There is a new feeling wrought as an effect of this new life which the Soul hath in Christ when a new Creature is in him The natural man is without feeling as a dead man is let never so great a weight lie on a dead man and he feels not but now take a Soul created into Christ and he feels a new weight within him Heb. 12.1 Sin is not only a burden as to the weight of Guilt but every corruption even when the sense of guilt is removed by Jesus Christ is a Weight to the Soul under which the Soul crys out mourns groans to be delivered Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Sin hangs like a dead body about him Vse If the Gospel-New-Creature is a living new-Creature and doth exercise Spiritual Life and hath new spiritual senses Let this then be a word of Tryal to discover the state of your Souls Can you say I that was dead am alive I was once spiritually dead without feeling did neither see nor hear nor tast in a spiritual way but now the Lord in rich grace hath opened my deaf ear and my blind
eyes now I have heard the Lord himself speak to my soul now I have seen the Lord and my heart is taken with him Now I savour the Word of Grace and the Ministration of the Gospel is a sweet savour in Christ to me the Name of Jesus Christ is as good Ointment to me Now I feel a body of sin and groan under it and press after the destroying and crucifying of it Souls If this be not your Experience you are dead your are without the Life of God and Christ in you Oh! Go to God Sinner as you have been exhorted and cry to him to open your ear to hear and your eye to see Be convinced that as yet your Ear hath been stopt as to hearing the Lord himself speak to you Oh say Wo is me that I am where the Lord useth to speak under the Ministration of his Gospel and yet he never spake to my Soul Doth the Lord love me and never speak to me Pity Lord Pity a poor deaf blind stupid unsavoury Wretch and breath life into me and then wait for the Lords Voice in his Word Now let the Spirit himself speak unto me and unveil my heart that I may see into the Mysteries of Jesus Christ and may savour them upon my poor Soul 2. Let living Souls in Christ exercise their Spiritual Senses keep the Ear open to and waiting for the Spirits Voice be prying into the Mystery of God in Christ and all Gospel-Truth get a clearer sight of Jesus Christ till you shall be infinitely taken with him and love him for himself And keep the heart savoury and the precious scent of Gospel-grace upon your Spirits and labour so to feel the weight of the body of sin how it poiseth polluteth cloudeth the Soul that you may come to that frame to cry out to be delivered from it And let it be abundant matter of Praise to the Riches of Grace that God hath given life and senses to your Souls which he might have left under the death of sin to all Eternity 5. The next Discovery of our Gospel-New-Creature is this namely He hath a new heart So Ezek Chap. 18.31 Make you a new heart and a new spirit which the Lord hath in Free-grace promised in the New-Covenant Chap. 36.26 A new heart will I give you Which I shall precisely consider and shew particularly wherein the heart is made new 1. The heart naturally in its old corrupt frame is a Rebellious heart Jer. 5.23 This people have a rebellious heart The usual complaint of the Prophets Now when the Lord makes the heart new he begins to take away the Rebellion of heart as it naturally opposeth the Word Power and Spirit of God and the heart is made obedient and pliable to the Power of the Word the Spirit 's Teachings Isa 1.19 If ye be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the Land but if you refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured c. My people shall be willing in the day of my power Psal 110. The heart of it self is stubborn obstinate unwilling to stoop to the power of Truth to yield to Jesus Christ but when it is made new it becomes of a yieldable frame to the practical Obedience of Gospel-Truths 2. The heart as an effect of the former is naturally hard and impenitent Rom. 2.5 cannot mourn for sin But when 't is made new God makes it soft Ezek. 36.27 I will take away the stoney heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh which is a soft and tender heart whereby a Soul can pour out its complaints to God Yea the heart will pour out it self like water to the Lord Lam. 2.19 The heart receives impressions of truth as by its softness 't is more and more wrought to a new frame as in the hand of the Lord. 3. The Heart is naturally proud and makes the sinner self-conceited and well opinioned of his own condition and will not suffer the sinner to abase himself to God and to take shame to himself But when a new work of God is upon it the sinner humbles himself under the mighty hand of God bears his reproach before him and crys out Oh! What shall I do for an humble heart Lord take away subdue pride in a wretched Creature James 4.10 Now he becomes a poor self-emptied Creature undone helpless and to a full Christ he at last goes 4. The Heart is naturally Hypocritical The Hypocrite in heart heaps up wrath Job 36.13 Now when God makes the Heart new then it begins to be sincere in some good measure for God before the poor deceived sinner thought he did all with a good heart that he did bear much upon that he did all with a good heart but when God shews him his heart by the Candle of his Word and Spirit then the poor Creature sees what a Hell of Hypocrisie was and is within him that he acted in all his Duties as from himself so to himself and not uprightly unto God But when the Lord new frames the heart then the Soul is after new sincere holy aims for God in all it does is most abased for selfish and hypocritical mixtures and would account nothing well done but as God is designed in it and labours to walk in simplicity of heart and godly sincerity as of God and in the sight of God c. 2 Cor. 1.12 5. The old heart is full of all uncleanness and impurity and cares not to be cleansed So saith Christ to the Jews Matth. 23.27 Within you are full of dead mens bones rottenness and of all uncleanness But now when the New-Creature is forming up then the heart is after purifying Purifie your hearts ye double minded James 4.8 Then what a blessedness would a pure heart be saith a poor creature Oh! that my heart were cleansed Wash thine heart saith God Jer. 4.14 Oh! that it were washed saith the New-Creature And this is one of the most special works a New-Creature will be after as he is more formed up in Holiness to keep the heart pure as a Temple for God 6. The Heart naturally is dead as already hinted and feels not its own deadness but when renewed then the heart doth live that seeks God Psalm 22.26 It feels and mourns over its own deadness and crys out Quicken Oh quicken me Oh God! No Duty is well performed then but as the Heart lives in some measure in that Duty Now it feels its own burdens pollutions lusts corruptions carnality earthiness and bewails it before the Lord. 7. The Heart is naturally divided between Christ and the World Christ and Lusts Hosea 10.2 Their heart is divided But under its renewings the heart as to the main bent of it makes a whole close with Christ the great business of a Soul then is to give the whole heart up to Christ and fears he can never do it fully and singly enough and when the heart lusteth after other things so far as
Christ they have been shaken in their bottoms being legal and thought if they took up from their sins and had a kind of sorrow for them and then set themselves to obey the law strictly be close in the Sabbath and some such duties that God would accept them being still ignorant at least practically that when they were convinced of sin they were to see where to have a righteousness and how to get into Christ and have life and strength in and from him for their new Obedicence which is that I drive at in this and my afterwards discourse in opening the New Creature as in Christ Having premised this I come to speak to the first particular laid down namely Observ 1. Every son and daughter of Adam in their natural estate are under the Law By the Law I do not mean the Mosaical or old Testament way of worship But by the law I understand that which we stile the moral law the law of the ten Commandments that was written in Adams heart and afterwards given out by God unto Moses at Mount Sinai and promised in the New Covenant to be written again in the hearts of all that are really called into the grace of ihe Covenant Ezek. 36.27 To be under the Law is an Expression familiar to you you know what it is to live under a law To be under this law of God then bespeaks these things 1. To be under it is to be bound over to the exact fulfilling it See Rom. 10.15 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law that the man which doth these things shall live by them that is it to be bound over to the fulfilling and doing of the law which if done exactly without the least deviation there is life promised to it But upon the least transgression of it to be liable to the penalty which God hath pronounced against the transgressors of it 2. It follows thence that to be under the Law is to be bound over to the whole Law in its full and perfect latitude as it reacheth the whole Man Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Mark well the tenour of these words Here is required of every one an exact doing not only purposing and thinking to do and that not only of some or the most of the Law but in all things and that not only for a time but a Continuance of doing so or else under the curse One sinful thought hath a curse belonging to it as well as the breach of the whole Law if under the Law Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Law 1 John 3.4 3. To be under the Law is to be subject to and to be under all the curses threatnings judgments wrath that it threateneth to the transgressors of it here and for ever Whatsoever the Law saith in point also of judgment and wrath it saith to all that are under it 4. To be under it is to be bound to make God satisfaction in our own persons for the breach of it I mean while under it every soul is so obliged to make satisfaction to the justice of God If a poor soul be in his natural estate and so under the Law he must stand or fall to the Law God expects personal satisfaction from every soul that sinneth against it that will stand to his keeping the Law in whole or in part and God in his justice can bate nothing of what he hath spoken Now That all Men and Women are by nature as of and in the first Adam thus under the Law to wit to be bound up to it and to have life only upon the exact and perfect fulfilling of it to be bound up to the whole Law subject to the curse of it upon the transgression of one part bound to make God satisfaction in his own person for any breach thereof I briefly prove Saith Paul Rom. 6.14 Ye are not under the Law but under grace Implying till a soul is brought under grace the Covenant of grace justifying and sanctifying grace in and by Jesus Christ he is under the Law whosoever he be so Gal. 4.5 To redeem them that were under the law c. implying also that all mankind are naturally under it till under the power and efficacy and priviledge of Christ's Redemption The main reasons of it are All are under this law because all Mankind were bound up under the same Covenant with Adam who was a publick person representing all mankind as a man may bind up himself and his posterity to such and such Conditions and such a Covenant decree or obligation binds his posterity in Law so was Adam bound up to God See Rom. 5.12 the special Scripture that proves this truth Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned So verse 16 17 18 19. by one that sinned c. by one mans offence death reigned by one by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation By one mans disobedience many were made sinners Implying clearly that the guilt of Adam as representing all his posterity was and is imputed to all and therefore all were and are bound over to the same Law bottomed upon that word of the Lord to Adam by which God put the Covenant upon him Gen. 2.17 For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Adam had the law of Holiness and Righteousness the Moral Law written in his heart before and his nature perfect which bound him over to obey every command of his God now God gave out that external law unto him by way of trial in which the form of the Covenant was implied but sinning against that he transgressed the Moral law written in his heart also which bound him over to obey God in all things so that the sin of Adam was at least virtually a transgression of the moral law now abiding and obliging mankind which law we all brake in him as it was given to all in him and being written in Adam's heart it was as much as if it had been actually written in the hearts of all mankind which doth also appear by the remnants of the Law as that there is a God and man should be just and remaining in the hearts of all Therefore by nature we are all bound up to and are under this law 2. It doth appear that all do sin and transgress this law of God therefore they are under the penalty and condemnation of it This Argument the Apostle brings to prove the same thing verse 9. of this 3d. of the Rom. For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin And verse 12. They are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one Thefore seeing all do sin they are bound to answer the law as you use
the presence of God's Majesty but by Jesus Christ who is appointed Mediator to bring a poor sinner to himself to make way for him into the presence of God to conveigh Mercy and Grace to a poor sinner Oh say that I could acquaint my self with Jesus Christ take hold of his skirts and he will bring me into the favour love covenant vision union of God this is the way for a sinner to come unto him John 14.6 5. Let it call upon Saints that know Jesus Christ in the Spirit that they do not grow strangers to him that they neglect not Jesus Christ Oh! Neglect him not in his blessed Mediation Grace Love Fellowship Appearance Ordinances 'T is a grievous thing and very apt are Saints to it to neglect Jesus Christ Oh! still know and consider that as your access to God was by him at first so it is still His Mediation for you his love and grace and fellowship is as good as ever as precious as it ever was therefore have high and precious thoughts of him of your blessed access to God by Jesus Christ The next thing that I come to open is how Jesus Christ wrought forth Salvation and Justification for a Sinner so that the free grace of God might by him be freely let out upon a sinner namely the work of his Redemption through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ verse 24. I shall not insist upon the many difficulties that the wisdom of the flesh hath started about the word or work of our Redemption but endeavour as I have promised to give it out in a plain Scriptural practical manner for the use of poor sinners Redemption signifies a deliverance from Captivity by a price or ransom laid down Man had sinn'd himself into captivity and a just condemnation God from his own free Mercy was willing he should be set at Liberty but this should not be done but by a price or ransom being paid to God which was the intervening death of Jesus Christ who being the eternal Son of God came down from Heaven took upon him the nature of man was willing to stand in the room of sinners bearing their sins in the undergoing the punishment for them whereby God laid upon Jesus Christ the Iniquities of all that shall be saved Isa 53.6 proceeded against him as if he had been the sinner in a way of Justice executed his wrath upon him Thus he is said to dye for the sins of his own 2 Cor. 5.15 Heb. 9.15 and to give himself for us and to give his life a ransom for many which death of Jesus Christ is styled an expiatory Sacrifice an attonement and Propitiation all which do imply that by the death of Jesus Christ satisfaction was made to the infinite Justice of God as if the sinners that are saved by it had suffered the utmost of Divine Justice in their own persons Thus much may serve briefly to open the nature of Christ's Redemption The Doctrine I shall lay down from the words will be this Doct. To the Salvation and Justification of a sinner in order to God's letting out his free grace upon him there was required the death of Jesus Christ as a price laid down to the justice of God for his Redemption I might urge many more Texts besides what have been named As 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Redeemed not with silver and gold c. but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of our sins This was it which was typified by all the Sacrifices in the Old-Testament-Dispensation as in the Epistle to the Hebrews at large especially in the 9th Chapter vers 12 13 14 22. And almost all things are by the Law purged with blood and without shedding of blood is no remission From hence the Reasons of Divine Wisdom thus proceeding so far as revealed in the Word will be clear Reason 1. That the Justice of God might be glorified in the Salvation of sinners as well as Mercy Now there being attonement made to Justice by the death of Jesus Christ the Righteousness of God hath a share in the glory of mans Salvation with the Grace and Mercy of God 2. The Purity and Holiness of God's justice did require it which being violated by the sin of Man it was most equal that satisfaction be made which no meer creature was able to do and therefore the eternal Son of God blessed for ever was appointed of the Father to it Therefore 't is said verse 25. of this third of the Romans That he might be just and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus given as a reason of God's setting forth his Son to be a propitiation 3. The express word of the Lord did require it who pronounced to all mankind in Adam that the transgressor should surely die Gen. 2.17 Therefore upon his transgression the sinner must either die in his own person or another in his stead which God in his infinite wisdom might order as he pleas'd Now God being willing to glorifie his mercy chose to lay this punishment on his own Son Jesus Christ and not on the condemned Sinner which Jesus Christ also voluntarily undertaking the word of the Lord was fully made good and Jesus Christ dying for the sinner being made a curse for him 't was all one as if the sinner himself had died 4. God gave out a holy and righteous Law written in the heart of Adam which Law was just and holy and good Rom. 7. Now this Law being broken God would not dispence with it in shewing mercy to the sinner unless his Law was satisfied which Jesus Christ undertook Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfill'd in us c. Gal. 4.4 But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the Law c. So that the Law was fulfilled by Jesus Christ as if the sinner had kept it fully in his own person by Christ's becoming obedient to the death of the Cross and so suffering the punishment of the Law still in the stead and name of the sinner and by his keeping the Law in the pure original righteousness of his nature 2 Cor. 5.21 and Heb. 7.26 27. and by his actual obedience to it in the perfect observing of it Rom. 5.19 For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many were made righteous Namely by the obedience of Jesus Christ which he gave unto the Law Now all sinners being condemned by the Law the Law could not remit them till it was satisfied it call'd for punishment and full obedience which Jesus Christ gave unto it 5. God could not so
habits are infused in the soul whereby the New Creature is formed up in believers Hence it is that all grace and holiness is infused into the Soul as distinguish'd from Common grace that at last withereth John 15.6 If a man abide not in me he he is cast forth as a branch and is withered c. therefore a necessity of being in Christ 4. Without being in Christ the power and reign of sin the body of sin will not be destroyed no destroying the body of sin by any possible endeavours but by the influence of the death of Jesus Christ and a real fellowship therewith which cannot be attained but by being planted into Christ Rom. 6.5 6. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we might not serve sin All the proper mortifying power that Believers have of the body of sin is drawn from fellowship with the death of Jesus Christ which fellowship ariseth only from being one with him 5. The Image of God cannot be renewed upon us but in Christ As we have born the images of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15.19 So Rom. 8.29 we are made conformable to the Image of his Son by union a Soul is made partaker of the fulness of Jesus Christ as all grace is laid up in him and of that fulness partakes by measure of every grace from him John 1.16 And of his fulness have all we recieved and grace for grace that is Grace according to the pattern of Jesus Christ partaking of every grace in him according to the measure allowed to every Member and Branch in him 6. Without being in Christ no duty is accepted with God by being in Christ we are accepted in the Righteousness of Christ whereby all the duties of a child of God are accepted with the Father 1 Pet. 2.5 as performed by a Principle of life from Jesus Christ and offered up to God in the name and Righteousness of Christ otherwise let praying and all other duties be never so strictly frequently devoutly performed they find no accptance with God and the Soul is not bettered by them Without me ye can do nothing John 15. saith Jesus Christ 7. Without being in Jesus Christ there can be no holy fruit in conversation brought forth to God John 15.5 He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit All the fruit that is of our own stock comes to nought but the fruit that is brought forth in Christ from implantation into him is precious fruit unto Repentance Reformation Holiness and Righteousness and doing of any good unless it proceed from the life we have in Christ is Pharisaical and comes to nothing and will be burnt up in the day of the Lord wherefore sanctified believers are call'd the trees of Righteousness Isa 61. as planted engrafted into Jesus Christ whereby they bring forth all their savoury fruit unto God Vse See now the great and weighty and indispensable necessity of getting into Christ of having union with him the main pillar upon which hangs all your comfort do what ye will and be out of Jesus Christ and 't is an accursed loathed sacrifice do what thou wilt from thy own stock and 't is bitter fruit A dram of what is performed in Christ is of more worth than a mighty daily bulk of duties without it not hereby to lessen a believer as to muchness of duty but to shew the unacceptableness of all duties though never so many long devout till a poor soul performs all from a new principle and power of life in the soul from Jesus Christ and so a New-Creature Oh! that poor souls were throughly convinc'd of this who so they perform duties never consider this Oh! lay to heart thy dead condition and the infinite necessity of getting into Christ No life in thy soul no preserving of life till in Jesus Christ nothing of the divine nature upon thee no destroying of sin nothing of the Image of God upon thee that is saving no duty accepted no fruit unto God in thy conversation till thou hast the real experience of this blessed Mystery in thy soul of being one in Christ through the spirit till thy soul knoweth what union and fellowship with the Son of God meaneth Therefore souls that fall short here their knowledge profession conversation is lost labor as to the great matter of eternal life and salvation 2. If all that are truly and savingly New-Creatures are in Christ then a New Creature any other way is but a semblance and appearance of it and not so indeed and reallity if from our selves from the power of the Law upon the Conscience or upon any other account whatsoever And therefore I still say the more we consider of this matter of the more narrow enquiry do we find it to be There is a semblance and likeness of being New-Creatures which is not really so a semblance of Holiness a holy fruit which is not truly so but will at last wither and hence all the withered Professors in this day as we shall presently shew I shall not here speak of such as pretend to no manner of change inward or outward such as are in all things the same they ever were as such as live in known gross sins they have no appearance or pretence of claim to the Title and Character of the New Creature by their own concession and acknowledgment they are still the same as ever they were therefore not so much as pretend to be made new to such I shall if God will apply a further word before we have done Only now of the Semblance of the New Creature falsly so called but not really so 1. A soul being convinc'd of the damnableness of such and such a sin from the Law and the power of the Word upon the Conscience that a soul living continuing in it shall never enter into the Kingdom of God As from such a place as 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not enter into the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators Adulterers Idolaters nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God And such were some of you c. I say from this or the like Scripture a soul may be convinced that if he continued in any of these gross wickednesses he shall never see the face of God and so may take up from the gross outward Acts of them or at least from a frequent commiting them now this person may go no further and because he hath left some special gross sin he thinks himself a true Convert and a New-man and may flatter himself with the conceit of being the New-Creature we are to
that sleepest Ephes 5. The voice of the Spirit doth awake that Conscience that before was asleep in sinful security 4. A good Conscience is convinced that all the keepings of the Law and keeping a Conscience to men cannot justifie the soul before God cannot commend it to God which a Second Table-Conscience imagines it will and so in peace Paul kept a Conscience as to many things Acts 23.1 I have lived in all good Conscience before God unto this day meaning I conceive from his youth up when he was a Pharisee but when his Conscience was convinced and awakened and came to see Jesus Christ he saw that all his keeping a Conscience as to many sins and Duties could not in the least commend him to God A good Conscience is sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 So that this is the efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ upon the Conscience of a Believer it pacifies it in the sense of the forgiveness of sins towards God so as it can draw near to God and it purgeth it from dead works sin and pollution to serve God acceptably This is a good Conscience indeed 6. A good Conscience respects all the Precepts of God as well of Holiness to God as Goodness to Men which the Conscience we have been speaking of doth not Such a one makes not conscience of this great and absolute Precept Be ye holy 1 Pet. 1. It makes not conscience of purging the heart of secret mourning to God of the purity of God's Worship It makes no Conscience of lesser sins as we have shewed not of all sin as Herod heard the Word gladly but made no conscience of persecuting John to death when he stood in the way of his Lusts Now I say a good Conscience respects Precepts of Holiness secret as well as publick Duties inward as well as outward Sins lesser sins as well as greater 7. A Scripture good Conscience is much taken up about godly sincerity So Paul 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that with simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but with the grace of God we have had our Conversation in the world c. Thus a soul that walks with a good Conscience towards God labours to approve it self in all things with a godly sincerity to do all as unto God Lastly a good Conscience labours to keep it self pure and undefiled it is accompanied with a pure heart 1 Tim. 1.5 Now the end of the Commandment is love out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned A Soul that would keep the Conscience good would keep it pure and the whole inward man pure as a Temple unto God Vse Now see how many ingredients go to make up a good Conscience in a Scripttre-sense and what a great mistake is in this weighty matter and how far abundance of people that make conscience of their dealings with men conclude thence they have a Scripture-good-Conscience to God when they are not savingly enlightned their Conscience never search'd by the power of the Word and throughly awakened out of a natural condition never humbled for resting in themselves and their Duties not having their Conscience sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ and purged thereby not having a tender respect to all the Precepts of God not to walk before him in godly sincerity nor with a pure heart You then that are short of these things you are wholly to seek in that which you so much pretend to and speak peace to your selves in the having or keeping a good Conscience you have as yet no part in this matter 2. What hath been spoken of a good Cnnscience may be for instruction and direction to the Called Ones of Christ how to preserve the Conscience good and peaceable and so to live and dye in the peace and comfort of it through Jesus Christ our Lord. Get it sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus Christ every day and under the searching of the Word and awake unto God and pure and undefiled respecting all the Holy Precepts of God as binding to your conscience so will the conscience be tender and peaceable and God will witness in your conences your acceptance with him in his Son Jesus Christ I would give out further some Notes of Tryal Whether you rest in false common grace or not as to what we have already spoken in so weighty a matter 1. By your never suspecting the truth of your grace but taking all upon trust never doubting but you have Faith and do repent and so of all the rest that soul that never suspected his grace may well fear that his pretended grace is no more than what a Hypocrite may reach unto The poor called children of God are exceedingly jealous their Faith is not sound that they are short in every grace because of the woful mixtures that they find more Unbelief than Faith more hardness of heart than softness more Pride than Humiliation and so of all Now that soul that goes away with an unsuspected confidence of every Grace sure flatters himself and his way will be found to be deceitful 2. That Soul that draws back his conscience from the searching power of the Word when it gives out ways of trial of Sincerity and truth of grace and puts it off as if not concerned in it this may well be speak a false heart A gracious heart would bring the Work over and over to the Touch-stone of the Word delivers up it self unto it yea is much with God to search him in point of a firm Work upon his Spirit as to any prevailing Iniquity in his heart as David Psal 139. When he was before the Lord appealing to him and opening his heart to him speaks thus ver 1. Oh Lord thou hast searched me c. thou hast And yet ver 23.24 begs of God yet further to search him Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me into the way everlasting 3. False Grace is discovered by its easie acting When you can easily believe easily repent easily be humble and so of all others Certainly 't is all naught There is great contradiction within and from the Tempter as to act Grace begun in a soul yea a daily supply from Jesus Christ must be to act any Grace livelily which the common pretending easie Believers are not sensible of It cannot be but every act of Grace must find more or less resistance from flesh and blood which is so vigorously opposite to the nature and acting of real grace in the Soul 4. Such as are
lost sinner to be washed from my sins in his blood and to be justified by him Rev. 1.5 Acts 13.38 39. Q. How doth God justifie a sinner A. God in his free Grace forgives a poor sinner for Christs sake and imputes Christs Righteousness to a Believer Rom. 3.24 25. Rom. 4.6 Q. How may you come to believe on Jesus Christ A. God works faith in dead sinners by his Spirit in hearing of the Gospel Preached Rom. 10.17 1 Thess 2.13 Q. In what manner doth God work faith in the Soul A. 1. By convincing me of sin and revealing Christ in the promise Luk. 7.37 Joh. 6.37 2. I must pray unto God to work faith in me and to reveal Christ to my poor soul 2 Thes 1.11 Ephes 1.17 18. Q. How may you come to pray A. I must beg of God to give me his holy Spirit to help me to Pray Luk. 11.13 Rom. 8.26 Q. How may you know the Spirit helpeth you in Prayer A. When I confess my sins and humble my self to the Mercy and Grace of God by Jesus Christ and beg all Mercy and Grace for Christs sake 1 Ep. Joh. 1.9 Joh. 14.13 Q. How must you be found a Praying Child of God A. 1. I must Pray to my Heavenly Father every Morning and Evening in secret Mat. 6.6 Psal 45.17 2. I must also read some part of the Word of God and pray that God will teach me by it Prov. 6.21 22. 2 Tim. 3.15 Q. What is the work of the Spirit of God A. I must be born again of the Spirit or never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3.3 1 Pet. 1.13 Q. What is the fruit of being born again A. 1. I must be in Christ and a new Creature in him 2 Cor. 5.17 Ephes 2.10 2. I must press after all holiness in Christ Jesus in heart and life 1 Thes 5.14 1 Pet. 1.15 Q. What is required of souls that thirst after more of Christ A. It is the duty of such as would have more of Christ to join themselves to a particular Church of Christ Acts 2. last 2 Cor. 8.5 Q. What is a Church of Christ A. A Church of Christ is a Congregation of Saints by profession gathered by the Gospel and joyned together to enjoy all Ordinances and to Edifie one another in forbearance and love 1 Cor. 1.2 1 Thes 5.11 Q. What is the Covenant of Grace A. The Covenant of Grace is Gods taking us to be his peculiar people and our giving up our selves to him that he may be our God for ever by Jesus Christ Gen. 17.7 Isa 56.6 Q. What be the Ordinances of the Covenant A. Baptism and the Lords Supper Q. What is Baptism A. In Baptism by the washing with Water we are delivered up to the Name and Profession of Jesus Christ Mat. 28. last Gal. 3.27 Q. What is the Lords Supper A. The Lords Supper is the shewing forth of the Death of Jesus Christ and our Communion with his Body and Blood by Faith in which forgiveness of sins is sealed to Believers 1 Cor. 11.36 1 Cor. 10.16 Q. When are you fit to pattake of the Lords Supper A. When I can give up my self to Christ and my heart is drawn after him though I am weak in Faith Rom. 14.1 Rev. 22.17 Q. What priviledg is there more in being of a Church of Christ A. When I am in a Church I am in a special manner in the Prayers of Saints and to partake of all help and comfort from them Isa 5.15 16. Rom. 15.1 2. Q. What is the further comfort of new-born Souls A. 1. If I am new born of the Spirit I am a Child of God and Heir of Heaven John 1.12 13. Rom. 8.16 17. 2. I shall be kept by the power of God unto Salvation 1 Pet. 5. 1 Thes 5.23 Q. What further great priviledge have you if you be a Child of God A. If I become a Child of God God will love me for ever and is my Father and will hear my poor Prayers to him 2 Cor. 13 14. 1 Joh. 5 15. Q. What is the further duty of a Child of God A. 1. I am to grow in Grace and the Knowledge of Jesus Christ under the Word and Ordinances Mat. 25.30 2 Pet. 3.18 2. I ought to love all Saints as Saints though they differ from me in Judgment 1 Ep. Joh. 3.14 Col. 3.12 Q. What is the great Work God will do in the World A. To encrease the Kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ and to subdue the Nations unto him Isa 9.7 Revel 11.15 Q. Shall there be a Resurrection of the Bodies of all from the dead A. When Christ comes to Judgment all shall be raised from the dead and shall stand before his Judgment-Seat Heb. 6.2 2 Cor. 5.10 Q. What shall the reward of all be at the last Judgment A. They who be in Christ and have done good shall have Everlasting Life but such as have done evil Everlasting Damnation Mat. 24. last Joh. 5.29 FINIS