hath seen me hath seen the Father therefore I conceive the meaning of the place to be thus Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me That is beleeve in God as he is held out in me the conclusion from thence is this that that faith which is the way of God to remove sinfull troubles from the Spirits of the people of God 2 Cor. 5.19 Ioh. 17.3 2 Cor. 3.18 1. Iohn 5.20 is not a bare beleeving of God but a beleeving in God as he is held out in his Son Christ The Devills beleeve and tremble the truth hath a power and authority in it selfe presented to men to subject their spirits and overturne the reasons of men that they are so carried out to assent to truth that they are made to accknowledge Truth to be Truth So Simon Magus and Iudas c. This faith men may have and go to hell Apo. 18.13 Iam. 19. this faith though it carries men to assent to truth yet it never gives men to live in truth nor gives men power from muth to live answerable to truth but this faith which is beleeved in God held out in his Son Christ is a Gospell faith Such a faith Heb. 11.1 the life of which beleeving in Christ is the very excellency and glory of the Godhead held out by Christ and may bee thus described 1. It is for a soule by the supernaturall comming in of God to enâ—oy a supernaturall light from him by which the soule is made able to see a sufficiencie in him to supplie all its wants carrying with it a consent of will from which description we may draw these corrolies First that the life of beleeving in Christ is not onely of Christ but is really in Christ but is really the excellencie that is in Christ which is the matter or obiect of faith beleeved by all that are possest with Christ but I speak this to shew what a sweet union there is betweene the object and the joy ☞ Second corolarie that power that produceth faith is not the bare discoveries of God in Christ to us But it is by a supernaturall and divine revelation and discoverie of Christ in us I speak this for this cause to shew that truth doth and must take hold of us before it can be truely beleeved by us Thrirdly that soule that truely by faith sees Christ sees such transcendent and matchlesse excellencie in Christ Can. 5.10 to 16. Cant. 2.3 Psa 110.3 that he is so overcome by it that he is by the vertue of it voluntarily carried out to consent and submit to it And this is the cause why soules when once they come to see Christ they see nothing lovely like Christ Secondly that is the cause and reason why soules delight and love to live in those sweet beams of love which sweetly runs forth from God through Christ which is not onely light to them but life in them Iohn 1.4 Gal. 2.20 dear friend for the uses of the conclusions I shall leave to you and so much in answer to this place of Scripture Now the next Scripture being John 14.6 7 8. The words being thus Iesus saith to him I am the way the truth and the life no man commeth to the Father but by mee Philip saith to him Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth ut First of the sixth verse in which words we may consider an answer to a querie Christ speaking in the fourth verse saying whether I go ye know and the way ye know Thomas answereth in the fifth verse we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way This seems to be a Paradoxe Christ affirming the thing and yet Thomas denying it Doct. Thence we may observe this conclusion it is one thing to know and another to know that we know The second conclusion is that Christ may know that in us and for as that we do not cannot know in nor for our selves I speak this for these ends First to shew it is a greater thing and a higher priviledge to bee known of Christ then to know Christ Secondly it should teach us to live not upon our knowing but upon our being known of Christ Hos 11.3 He that lives upon his knowing and not upon the thing knowne hee lives upon the Streames but not in the Fountain upon the beams but not in the body such a man may have his discoveries of divine things presented to him but he hath little of the marrow of those divine mercies injoyed in him and now I come to the words themselves I am the way the truth and the life No man comes to the Father but by me In which words you may consider a sweet discoverie of that divine Excellencie and sufficience that is in Christ To speak plainely these words hold out First all that can be said concerning the giving downe of the Divine and sweet Excellencies of God through Christ to us And secondly all that can be said of the sweet bringing up of a soul from the comming in of GOD through Christ to us And this is clearly held forth in these words where he saith I am the way the truth and the life I am the way that God gives down himself to you and reveals all that is in himself for you and I am the way through which you are given up to God and through whch you have sweet records and Communion with God and in which you are made able sweetly to see as in an open glasse the divine unfoldings of Gods bosome secrets I meane the mysterie of his minde so that a soule is minded sweetly with the minde of God from which words thus paraphrased on we may observe these brief conclusions Doct. First Coll. 2.9 2 Cor. 3.18 Col. 2.9 that God doth no way give down himself to us as he is in himself but through Christ whom was for that end ordained by himself he is a sutable light to present such an object If this be so what shall we think of those that have found out other ways to bring down God to the creature under the same consideration before spoken of Not to speak of the dead way of nature nor much of the dark way of the Law but also of some guilded path and wayes of the Gospell which men do by using some expressions of the Gospell do endeavour to make a conjunction of Law and Gospell as one way to bring down God Nay men have an art in these times to turne the very effects produced by God they go about to make them causes to cause an alteration in God My meaning is this that even prayer and fasting which in Gods way I much prise Which if true is alone produced by a power from God the end is to fit and alter us and not God Men now a dayes make these meanes as a way to tye and constraine GOD to alter and to change GOD O monstrous I desire to love the work but abhor the
you give me an answer to these four questions 1. Is a Christian freed from the morall Law yea or no 2. Whether a Christian tempted to sin should strive against sin yea or no. 3. Whether sanctification can evidence justification when justification lies darke 4. How shall a poor soul that hath not the witnesse of the spirit nor cannot se any goodnesse it selfe how I say shall such a soul take comfort or on what foundation shall we tender comfort to such a soul Dear friend I pray fail not to give me an answer I long to speak with you that I may tell you how abundantly my soul is overcome by God and findes sweet content in God since I have had a discoverie of free Grace Which Doctrine I was not onely ignorant of but oppofite unto till I by the love of it was fetched into it and I now see it is not a Doctrine of loosenesse but if any thing indeares a soul to God and makes a soul able to bring forth fruit to God then it is to know God in the way of his love O that the world did but know what the Saints do injoy in this way then the pulpits would not be so full of Calumnies and the presse so full of reproaches against the doctrine of free grace as now they be so in hast I rest leaving you to God Your dear friend in Christ M. W. DEAR FRIEND I Have received your letter I rejoyce much to see and hear of the sweet commings in of Christ I desire to blesse God in your behalfe and for your questions I have here sent you an answer according to my small ability as God hath given in unto me Vale. Four Questions answered 1. Question IS a Christian freed from the Morall Law yea or no Answ Without all question a Christian is thus as it was held out by the hand of Moses and by that expression I mean Rom. 7.4 Rom. 10. 2 Cor. 3.11 Heb. 8.13 as it was a Covenant of workes and so a Law where God did declare himself a God over us and not a God for us except we were for him and so we are not under the Law but as it is handed to us in a Christ By that I mean as it is made known to us in a covenant of grace in which covenant of grace in which covenant God doth engage himself to do by us what in the other covenant and Law hee required of us Ier. 33.8 Heb. 8.10 So that the materials of the Law are not destroyed but much exalted for now it is not only a duty but a high priviledge to work and to walk by the power of God to acknowledge God and so we do not go about to destroy the matter of the Law but the old obligement of the Law was do and live But now wee are to do because we live we are not to do for love but to acknowledge love from the power of the incomes of it self which is in God for us which freely runs out from God to us without reference to any thing in us but to produce in us whatsoever is required of us If any one now object and say this is to lay aside all duty and live as we list To this I answer this is not so for love enjoyed ties and indeares more then love supposed but I know those that are not by God gathered up into the bosome of God and so made able to understand the nature of love within the limits of its own light they wil they cannot chuse but so judge For men judge of a thing according to the nature of that light in which they live I say no more of that Q. 2. Whether a Christian tempted to sin should strive against sin yea or no Answ To which I answer that it is our duty but not our ability The alteration of the covenant doth destroy duty but layes it upon a higher power therfore the Apostle Phil. 2.12 13. in all his exhortations drawes forth duties from the power of priviledges as thus Seeing we have these promises let us cleanse our selves c. And the grace of God which brings salvation teach us to deny ungodlinesse c. Dear friend I may strive and sin in striving there is a way of striving which its our priviledge to be acting in but if selfe strive against selfe and sin we are more wrestled into selfe and sin Or when selfe by the terrours of the old covenant goes about to lay down self by such layings down Or when I strive from such a light as is gathered up which light presents God as set against me and to be altered by somthing done by me this is again to returne to Egypt and to live upon a covenant of works and so we may sin in striving against sin For though the worke as a work be approved on by God yet the way in the work is altogether contrary to the minde of God But when we by the power of God do strive against sinne which is against God the more I strive in this way the better it is and I count it not onely a duty but a high priviledge the Lord make you and I thus to know God that by that light we may be carried out to live upon God and to God in all our actions For dear friend you know that sin is not made lesse but a great deal the more unlovely by the apprehending of God in the light of his own love Let men say what they will this I know that a man is not truly Christianized and really crucified to sin till he see a higher good and excellencie in God presented to him and for him then he can possibly see in any way of sinne So much in answer to that Quest 3. Whether Sanctification can evidence justification when justification lies darke Ans If the question be so I answer it doth not for if I question the acceptation of my person I must needs question so farre the acceptation of my actions For Gen. 4.4 Abel beleeved the acceptation of his person and so of his sacrifice Therfore for me to go about to answer a doubtfull justification by a doubtfull sanctification is to answer a doubt by a doubtfull thing whereas the doubtfulnesse of the thing answering arises from the doubtfulnesse of the thing to be answered and how impossible and uncomfortable this is I leave you to judge which I am confident have otherwise learned Christ Besides acts of sanctification as bare acts they say do not evidence it but as sanctified acts for say they love as a bare act doth not evidence but as an act rising from a right principle which principle is the discoverie of Gods love to me which discoverie produces in me love to himself Now do but take notice of this seriously I may not look upon my love as evidencing further then it arises from Gods love to me discovered So then when there is no discoverie of Gods love to me I
cannot look upon my love as an Evidencing love further then it arises from Gods love to me therefore by their own argument love cannot make out to me a propertie in Gods love when Gods love is hid and not made manifest to me by a foregoing witnesse of the Spirit And so sanctification is not nor cannot be an evidence of justification when justification lies dark Therefore those Scriptures in the Epistle of Iohn 1 Ioh. 3.14 and elsewhere are not to be understood as first but second evidences But it may be objected if the witnesse of the spirit must go first this is a foolish thing for it is but to light a candle to look upon the Sun To which I answer which is the greatest folly for a man to light a candle to look upon the Sun Or for a man to light a candle to look for his eyes when he hath lost them judge you If you ask me whether there be much danger in preaching pressing men to beleeve in God according to their measure of love and not to presse them to believe a proprietie in love though they cannot love that so they may love to this answer For men to preach and presse men to beleeve a propriety in God according to their measure of love and not presse them to beleeve though they do not love that they may love This is to reduce them again to a covenant of workes So to preach and hear is very dangerous Quest 4. If this be so How shall a poore soul that hath not the witnesse of the Spirit nor can see any goodnesse in it self How I say shall such a soul take comfort or on what foundation shall we tender comfort to such a soul Answ To which I answer that the foundation on wch I am to tender such souls comfort is not the actings of God in them but the unchangable disposition of himself for them which runs out to them without reference to any good in them but to produce in them whatsoever God required of them and this foundation is held out to them in the Gospell where God offers from himself a free God a ful Christ to a nothing creature if the promise of Salvation and Justification had been tendred to us as a looking upon some qualification in us and not bringing in the bowels of it a power to produce all qualifications in us it had not been free but still a covenant of works but it is free therefore there is a great deal of comfort to poor souls although they be nothing yet there is warrant to beleeve they may be something Though they cannot do yet there is ground to beleeve that so beleeving they may do and further know that this foundation is not laid for me to rest upon when I can do but a foundation to rest upon to recover me when I am faln through infirmitie and cannot do that so through believing I may enjoy power to do and this is a great comfort therfore a want of power to do though it be matter of grief yet it is no ground of discouragement to keep us from believing but rather an incouragement to believe the more this I speak not to declare any ability in the creature to believe but the warrantablenesse of a poor soul believing though it be thus and thus with them as before said Thus having given yea a brief answer to your Queries I leave you to the teachings of the truth which is able so to make forth it self to us as to discover what is to be eyed in it and observed from it and to that truth I leave you And rest Your friend and brother in CHRIST P. H. FJNJS