that point of Pardon of sin Peace of Conscience and deliverance from wrath to come But as I said before Take any of the great Truths of Scripture and they are never separated from that Justifying Faith All the actions of Creation and Government of Providence are never separated from the Divine Being the Father Word and Spirit Creation and Providence you know are attributed to them all And I am perswaded that this may much help your thoughts Because men discourse promiscuously As if we were as well Justified by love to Christ and by mortifying a Lust as by taking hold of the sacrifice and Ransom of Jesus Christ and as if one Truth were as essential to Justifying Faith as another Now I acknowledge they are never separated To take off all Scandal and offence from men And yet I say there 's an Immanence in the act of Faith when it is acting upon Jesus Christ I come now to the Second Point that I would be something more large in And that is concerning full assurance of Faith in point of Conscience or the peace of Conscience and the Pardon of Sin and the assurance that God is ours Now if I could here make out to you how that Assurance comes into the Soul and how it is born up by Christ and by the Father and by the Spirit I should think it were to great Edification I say if I were in any measure able to make it out according to the Excellency of the thing I shall therefore go as far as the Lord shall please to assist by his Spirit in it Therefore the first thing that I shall say to you by which a man comes to have an Assurance of the Pardon and Forgiveness of his Sins I shall speak it in the very Scripture Language It is First of all By an immediate Voice of the Blood I say by an immediate Voice of the Blood And then I shall shew you it is by the Voice of the VVater from Christ And then In the Third piace By the Spirit And then In the Fourth place that the Father from Heaven comes and Ratifies and Assures this Testimony of the Son and of the Spirit in the Blood and in the VVater First I say it proceeds immediately For I would speak of the things in the Order of Nature from the Blood For nothing doth so immediately speak Peace to a Sinner as the Blood of Jesus Christ the Sufferings of Christ And therefore so many things are spoken of Christ of his Sacrifice and of his Death and of his Sufferings I may give you many places of Scripture that put most upon the Blood of his Sacrifice as to our Sense and Apprehension than upon any thing I say upon the Blood of Christ How much more shall the Blood Offered by the Eternal Spirit you know Heb. 9 And the blood of Sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel c. 12. And Heb. 10 24. Having boldness by the blood of Jesus to enter into the Holiest It is put upon the blood the blood of the Everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. The blood of Christ cleanseth from all unrighteousness 1 John 1. VVho loved us and washed in his blood Rev. 1. and Rev. c. 7. They have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb And so the Apostle speaks proportionably in this 1 John 5. There are Three that bear witness in Heaven the Father the VVord and the Spirit And then there is the Spirit the VVater and the Blood The Blood it hath an immediate Voice And this is he saith the Apostle that came by water and by blood not by water only Pray observe that it puts an Emphasis upon the Blood Not by VVater only but by VVater and Blood So I say whenever our Souls come indeed to have the Assurance of the Pardon of Sin and of Peace with God it is by Blood The Blood of Jesus which is carried into the Holy Place not made with hands We are Purged by the Blood Offered by the Eternal Spirit We have Confidence by the Blood of Jesus O! therefore when Christ is pleased to send out the mighty Effluxes the Efluviums of his blood when he sends them out and draws and twists and brings back the Conscience and the Heart upon the Blood of Christ when he is pleased to do thus Those strong Acts upon the blood of Christ they do as it were Recoil and come back upon the Soul and upon the Conscience with the assurance of the pardon of sin in that blood Therefore blessed is he that hears the voice of the blood of Christ that hears in his own Conscience the blood of sprinkling speaking better things than that of Abel And this is the first thing Because I treat as briefly as I can of it I come to the second thing and that is To give you an account of the forgiveness of sins comeing in by the Water Now I confess I shall give somewhat another Interpretation than I have known given concerning Water For I look upon the water not as some would very Chilly and Coldly understand it of Baptism except that spiritual Baptism of the Gospel which I always desire to magnify or that it is meerly Sanctification which the Generality of Interpreters give it to be But by water I understand the very obedience and Righteousness of Christ separated from his sufferings That great obedience which was like a River Pure as Christal that ran through the whole obedience of Jesus Christ from the very beginning to the end And the Reason why I take it so and not to be sanctification is this because saith the Apostle in this 5 Chapter of the 1st Epistle of John This is he that came by water and by blood Not by water onely but by water and blood He came himself by water and by blood He himself came This He take notice of him He came by water and he came by blood He came by the water of a pure and perfect Righteousness in which there was nothing at all of Imperfection or soil or the least of blemish He came by this water And so you find the obedience of Christ is often mentioned in Scripture I shall give you that place for all Rom. 5. v. 18. Saith the Apostle there By the obedience He speaks often of the obedience of Christ But by the obedience of one shall many be made Righteous ver 19 And by the Righteousness of one The offence of one and the Righteousness of one The Disobedience of one and the obedience of one So Obedience and Righteousness they are of one and the same import And the comeing by water I say is comeing by the perfect obedience Righteousness of the whole nature and action and performance of Jesus Christ Now therefore when the Soul is saluted as I may so express it by Christ with this obedience in his hand when he comes saith Christ to the Soul I have obeyed I have fulfilled all Righteousness I have done always the
it flows from Faith in Jesus Christ That is the true Holiness that comes in by Faith in Jesus Christ that Derives from Christ and is conveyed to us by Faith So that if you enquire How shall I come to be Holy I do not deny that all the Rules of the word of God are of great help and assistance herein But yet still I say that the Centre and the Root and the Fountain and the Well-spring of All is Jesus Christ And therefore we find in that 1 Cor. 1. 30. a place often to be remembred and mentioned when we are speaking of these things Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption He is made VVisdom and Sanctification The first being in a Soul by VVisdom it is from Christ He is the Wisdom by which a Man considers the madness and folly of all the ways of Sin and engages therefore into the ways of Holiness Christ is his Wisdom to do it He is the Wisdom of Faith and the Wisdom of Repentance The Wisdom by which a Soul seeing its lost state in it self its unholy and corrupt state in it self It comes to say Where shall I have a change of this State and Condition And it sees Christ to be the only Foundation of it And therefore the Power of Holiness it comes in by Believing you find therefore how often Christ is pleased to speak of himself such words as do certainly imply the Power of Holiness to be from himself As now John 14 6. He comprehends all those in himself saith Christ I am the way the Truth and the Life No Man c. Take these words either in the point of Justification or in the point of Calling or in the point of Sanctification or take them in the highest Glory of Saints it is very true Christ is the way the Truth and the Life Now He is the way in regard of Sanctification And he hath the mighty Power of all that Life of Holiness of all that Life of Grace derived from himself So that indeed when we find our Graces to be either in a declining or in a low State or when we find our selves under any Temptation or when we find our selves to be to grapple and contest with things that Flesh and Blood cannot tell how to contest with our great Wisdom is to run to Christ for Power for the Power of Grace for strength of Grace to do it and to depend upon him wholly for it For As I shew'd you last day That a Servant of Christ a true Believer in Christ he is Crucified with him Even as to the point of Justification he is upon the Cross together with Christ he comes under the sentence of Guilt with Christ and all his own Righteousness is is slain Why so in the very same manner all his Lusts they are brought under by the mighty Efficacy of Truth that is in Jesus Christ As now in the Epistle to the Galatians chap. 6. you shall find where the great Power of Crucifying of our Lusts is It is certainly by our Being in Christ I say it is certainly the Being of the Soul in Christ that Crucifies all these Saith the Apostle Gal. 5. 24. They that are Christ's pray observe have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts. They that are Christs have done it A Man does not become Christs by Crucifying his Lusts and Affections But because his is Christs therefore he has Power from Christ to crucify his Lusts and Affections This is a great Truth they that are Christ's have crucified their Lusts and Affections Their sinful Lusts and Affections And in the 6th chap. of the Gallatians saith the Apostle as he said before That he was crucified with Christ so he says in this chapter Gal. 6. 17. From henceforth let no Man trouble me for I bear in my Body the marks of the Lord Jesus And ver 14. God forbid that I should Glory in any thing save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world You see here how plainly the Power of Christ is that that crucifies Lust and crucifies the love of the World Here is our great misery our great unhappiness in the Power of corruption over us That we do not receive Christ And then Ephes 4. 20 21. When the Apostle had set out the exceeding evil conversation of the Heathen He saith ye have not so learned Christ If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus That ye put off concerning the former conversation which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts I do most sincerely acknowledg that all the Scripture and the Gospel of Christ and all the commands and Admonitions and Exhortations and Reproofs of it and all the Terrible Expressions of it they are all I do acknowledg of great use of great influence in an Holy Life But yet it is all through the Spring in whom they are and thro' that mighty Power in whom they are And therefore we do but go down to the Philistines Forges when we go in the Power of Mortification and being crucified to the Affections of the Flesh when we do not look to Christ as the Principle hereof He is the Sanctification of Believers And so in the 1 Cor. 6. 9. Such were some of you saith the Apostle having spoken of the greatest sinners But ye are washed but ye are Sanctified but ye are Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Abundance of Scripture might be added to this that shew that the Powers of Sanctification and Holiness of Life are all in Christ who makes perfect in every good Work to do the will of God and works in us that which is well pleasing in his sight So that I say again We do not become Christs by doing these things But we do them because we are Christs because a Power and a Might flows from him and from his Blood to do it by O that therefore we may know the true Method and Order of being Holy It is certainly of first being Christ's And if we are strangers to Christ we shall be strangers to Holiness and of all the ways of Purity without him Let us therefore lye under this Rich Redemption of Jesus Christ in setting us free from the Plague of our own Hearts and from the evil of our Lives And then I beseech you consider further for this is most necessary to be understood that all the Reasons Rules Measures and Arguments of Holiness Christ hath brought them all under himself For that Law of Holiness that God planted in the Heart of Man that Law of Holiness that is given out every where in his Word all that is derived from thence it is all now come under Jesus Christ and under his mighty Power The Law came by Moses but Grace and the Power
the 17 th of John That they all may be one As thou Father art in me that they also may be one in us And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them c. And so Christ is even in them and his Righteousness and his Glory and his Perfection are always in himself and in a Communication unto them and they in Union with him and in that Communication If this be not truly the sense and the Spirit of the Gospel I must freely acknowledge I am not in any capacity to speak of these things For there is nothing more evident to me than this That our whole Salvation according to the Gospel does no more stir out of God and Christ than to speak of a thing that we know we see now the Beams of the Sun and the Light of the Sun stir out of the Sun but all is in the Sun For if any one should go to say this Room or Place is full of Light or full of the Beams of the Sun we 'll presently shut up all the Avenues between us and the Sun and we 'll have the Light as our own you know how presently the place would be dark and there would be no remainder of Light at all in it because the Sun is shut out So now and to Eternity if you could shut out God and Christ the Eternal fountain of Righteousness from any Soul that Soul would be immediately dark as to the state of Grace and so grow darker and darker to the darkness of Hell And now in the fifth Place If the Righteousness of Faith were a Righteousness onely because it is freely given why then Love and Repentance and Obedience they are all freely given even as Faith And yet for all this Scripture never speaks of them as Justifying And therefore I come to the last thing to shew you wherein Faith Justifies It is onely in this that by the most simple and abstracted and the most naked Apprehension of the thing that can be It has nothing but what it is made to receive in this great point of Justification I say it is made to receive and to do nothing but to receive It is made to depend and to do nothing but to depend To trust and to do nothing but trust I do acknowledge there 's a great vertue of Faith outward but this is that Immanent act of Faith As I may so speak as Divines call those Immanent acts of God in the Father the Son and the Spirit that do not go out of Himself So I say that Immanent act of Faith that is betwixt Christ and the Soul It is to trust and onely to trust to depend and onely to depend and to receive and onely to receive And as for Faith It hath nothing It is nothing but onely this Receipt So it is the most perfect dependence that Faith hath upon Christ I will trust and not be afraid In that Isa 12. 2. And in that day thou shalt say O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me Behold God is my Salvation I will trust and not be afraid Here therefore is the great Excellency of Faith the meet Excellency of Faith not in it self but onely that it wholly depends It is made and fitted by God on purpose wholly to depend I would come now to the second thing that I proposed which I shall very briefly represent to you For if Faith it self can do nothing It is certain then that the works of Faith can do nothing And therefore that great objection that is made against this out of the 2d of James that Faith which hath not works is Dead and can't Justify It is nothing at all to this Great Point But onely this it is indeed to shew us that if any man has Faith in Christ this Faith shall appear not to be an Idle and a Dead Faith But it shall every way be active from the Power it receiveth from Christ to walk in all ways of obedience to Render up the Soul entirely in the Love of God according to the present state I mean with sincerity and uprightness But it is not to this great point For it is very plain when two things are spoken of in Scripture If there be a higher and a Lower the Lower must be always subordinated to the higher that I look upon to be a stable and unchangeable Rule Now we are said to be Justified by a Faith that is not without works and yet without works we are Justified and in other places we are said to be Justified in God In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be Justified and shall Glory And Jehovah is our Righteousness And the Righteousness of God Now I say that which is infinitely above Faith As we will all grant God and the Righteousness of God Christ and the Righteousness of Christ are far above Faith Why then though sometimes we are said to be Justified by Faith and the Faith by which we are Justified is said to have works Yet certainly the Righteousness of God and of Christ must infinitely take place of these because they are so far above in the Transcendency and Infiniteness of their own nature So that it can never be that the Righteousness of God and of Christ can be brought down Therefore we are said sometimes to be Justified by Faith But it is very plain that Faith in its Justifying Power it must be brought up to God and Christ And there is all that is to be said of it that it takes hold of God and Christ That 's the whole of it it takes hold of God and Christ Therefore indeed I cannot but think of that expression though I don't say it will hold in this Solomon says the Spider is very wise because it takes hold with its hands and is in Kings Palaces The Spider seems a base Creature yet notwithstanding the baseness and poisonousness of its nature yet in this it prefers and advances it self because it takes hold with its hands and is in Kings Palaces So I say in regard of us who are poisoned with sin and Corruption yet Faith takes hold with its hand and it is in the Righteousness of God and in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Now still if you look upon us in our selves or look upon Faith in it self Alas What can it do onely it can take hold of the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness of Jesus Christ And therefore I do acknowledge that Faith is of great power and vertue The 11 Chapter to the Hebrews makes evident as well as the 2d of James Therefore I wonder that men look so disproportionably The great things there ascribed to Faith all along in the 11 th of Heb. make out the very same thing So that the Apostle James did not contradict the Apostle Paul nor the Apostle Paul the Apostle James both of them speaking by the spirit of God and therefore I
full assurance of hope concerning our condition Hope is the proper grace that the Gospel insists upon as to the assurance of Eternity Now there is a fourth In these three places I desire you to Remember that the word is one and the same in the Greek in every one of them It is Plerophoria or full-sail-assurance There is a fourth assurance which is very necessary to be considered and that is the assurance of acting suitable and agreeable to our Faith when a man dares venture when he dares Embarque and engage his action upon this very foundation of Faith Now here for I would deal very clearly and faithfully in these points and not pretend to any thing of proof above what really is written there is the Tantamount of it but there is not the very word Plerophoria or full assurance of Faith But I say very near to that very thing The 2. Thes 1. 10. 11 12. Saith the Apostle speaking with great Earnestness wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of his calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his grace and the work of Faith with power The good pleasure of his grace to be fulfilled and the work of Faith to be fulfilled Plerose a word that bears part with the same word that Plerophoria For there 's the fulness But then in the full assurance signified by Plerophoria there is the carrying of the sayl which signifies a sayl that hath a full Gale upon it and so carryes on the vessel with a mighty swiftness And here the fulness is signified and the mighty Gale also tho there be not the word that he would fulfil the Work of Faith with Power That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him according to the Grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ Now therefore as I have laid before you the four full Assurances of Faith the great Confidences and Assurances of Faith so I would shew you what there is to bear up these great Assurances of Faith For It is not an ordinary Power that can bear up a Man that hath nothing of it at all in himself to bear up I say in this full assurance of understanding That whereas men make such a do to prove the Truth of the Religion and Christianity of the Gospel If a Man comes in by Faith and says I cannot Reason I cannot Dispute I can not Argue I cannot talk like a Learned Person concerning these things But blessed be God I can do this I can Believe So another comes and says O! I could never get such a thing as this the hopes of the Favour and Love of God in Christ and the Pardon of my Sins But when a Man comes under the mighty Power of Grace to be filled with the Assurance of this by mighty Power he is able to say in some measure I believe these things Lord Help my unbelief And sometimes God raises up his Servants to a Triumphant Assurance even at the time of Dying when they are in the greatest Agonies of Body yet they can say I am sure my Redeemer Lives And then for the state beyond the Line beyond this Life Who can tell this Flesh and Blood is ready to say what there is in another World who hath gone and brought certain Accounts and Intelligences what the state of the other World is O! The full Assurance of Faith and Hope it saith I am sure of an Inheritance Incorruptible and that fades not away Tho I cannot tell you what it is Yet I know I shall be like my Lord for I shall see him as he is And then In the last place saith a man what will you venture your selves Will you venture to lose all that you might Enjoy here in this World and to pin your selves to a strict way of Walking Will you venture to deny your selves in your Pleasures in your Enjoyments here You must lay down Estate and Life and leave all the dearness of Relations Will you venture to do such a thing as this O! saith the Soul if I have but the good pleasure of my God and the Work of Faith fulfilled in me with Power I do not care how God calls me out to glorify the Name of God and of Christ Jesus I 'll begin to lay down the Account of all this to you and that I shall do very briefly There is but one place of Scripture to which I refer to shew you what it is that bears up Faith in all these Things And it is that 1 John 5. 4. c. And I desire that you would please to set a Remark Every person that hears and that does seriously desire to wait upon God in this Discourse That you would set a Remark upon that Scripture I name to you in the four Assurances of Faith Whosoever is born of God saith the Apostle overcometh the World And this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God O! But may the Soul say Here 's the Difficulty How shall I do to Believe this That Jesus Christ is the Son of God That he came forth from God and that God did send him Why saith the Apostle This is he that came by Water and Blood even Jesus Christ not by VVater but by Water and Blood And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is Truth For there are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the VVord and the Holy Spirit And these three are one And there are three that bear witness on Earth the Spirit and the VVater and the Blood if you receive the witness of Men the witness of God is greater Now therefore Here is the thing that I shall endeavour to make out to you That Faith in all these Assurances is born up by those three That bear witness in Heaven Principally and Supremely The Father the VVord and the Spirit And by the Three that bear witness on Earth the VVater and the Blood and the Spirit And indeed the Undertaking is very large and very great to speak of the things according to their Weight according to their worth Only I desire you to take notice before I go on That it is very Evident the Apostle is speaking of the Fulfilling the Work of Faith to overcome the VVorld and to give the Soul Victory through Christ For upon this occasion All this comes on What is it overcomes the World but only our Faith And so he goes on to the great Testimony and the great Operations in those that are Christs and by which Faith is born up If we receive the witness of Men the witness of God is greater It is not only greater in Value but in this that it can enter into the Hearts into the Consciences into the Assurances of his Servants I begin therefore with the First of these And I
of Holy Life and Holy Action And a Man believes no more than he is truly and really transformed by into the thing that he Believes I shall shew you That Jesus Christ is that great principle of Holy Life and of Heavenly Life that doth impower the Souls of his People according to the degree of the present State and shall bring them to that spotless to that blemishless state in the Glory of his Appearing I begin with the First thing and that is to shew you that Jesus Christ is that great Revelation that Faith hath Primarily Principally Originally and Supremely to close with and to give up it self unto You shall find in the 3d of John that this is a Notion of Faith and a Notion of Faith proper to the great Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ saith John 1 John 5. 10. He that believeth in the Son of God hath the Witâ—… in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a Liar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son The great Record that God hath given it is of his Son that he hath given his Son as the Great Mediator as the Great Redeemer as the Great Sacrifice as the Great Righteousness of the World Aâ—d therefore if any Man does not believe this he has made God a liar God hath done all in the Gospel that can be done to give us an Assurance of it So it is the great Revelation And so when our Lord saith They have surely known and believed that thou didst send me It is the very same thing that Jesus Christ is the great Saviour and Redeemer of the World For what 's the meaning of God's sending Christ but a sending him as a Saâ—…or As you may find plainly John 3. 17. For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved And Him hath God the Father Sealed John 6. So that from all this it is most Evident that it is the great Revelation And tho this be a great Truth yet still the Gospel raiseth it higher And I beseech you that you would seriously consider when a Man Believes in Jesus Christ he does not only believe a written Word I desire again your serious Attention to it He does not only believe a written Word he does not only Believe a great Testimony from God or a sound of words concerning it but Jesus Christ the word himself comes to him Indeed it was heretofore in a manifestation in the Flesh But the very same thing is now manifested by the Spirit of Jesus Christ And by his coming in Spirit he comes as that Word of the Father as the Eternal Word of the Father And he shews himself to the Soul he shews himself in Spirit to the Soul so that the Soul Believes the Word of God because Christ the word of God shews himself to him And we never have the Truth of Faith till we have this very coming of the Eternal Word to us As you see 1 John 1. 1. how the Apostle speaks concerning this word That which was from the Beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life For the Life was manifested and we have seen it and bear Witness c. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you Now pray Why does the Apostle declare this Not that you should rest in a written word That 's the thing I would desire you to observe Not that you should rest in a sound of Words but that ye also may have fellowship with us ver 3. and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Not that we should expect any Visional Representations of these things That 's not the Intention of it But that we should look for a real Manifestation of the Father and the Son or of the Father by the Son and through the Son And also of the Son by the Father So that there is certainly a Sight of Christ I say a sight of the Son in Faith And if we did but thus consider the excellency of Faith indeed I cannot but apprehend there could be no difference between Christians and Christians in these points concerning Faith and so concerning Justification if we had but true and right apprehensions of Faith It is true indeed there 's a great deal of false Faith of counterfeit Faith that has never seen Christ But all true Faith it hath seen Christ it hath come up to the very word of Jesus Christ That is to Jesus Christ the Word So John 6. 40. there must be a sight of the Son before there can be a believing in him And this is the the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting Life And therefore as I told you he is called the Word of God that is the Essential and Eternal Word of God manifested in Flesh manifested in Human Nature And There is no sight of Christ without his coming to us without our receiving of him by the Teaching of thâ— Father and by the manifestation of himself And so saith the Apostle Paul when it pleased God to Reveal his Son in me You see here is not only words either Spoken or Written but there is the very Son himself Revealed in us I do acknowledg all this is in a Spiritual Sense not only in an Intellectual Sense Tho it is true That shall be Subservient and as it were the Conveyance and Vehicle of this sight But it is a Spiritual Sight wrought by the Power of God and by the Spirit of God And O therefore This is the great Point I would press upon you And indeed I have taken notice that the most Spiritual Writers and Preachers of Faith They have said That Faith is upon the Person of the Son the Person of the Eternal Word in our Nature the Lord Jesus Christ It does not deal first of all with his Benefits and Salvation that comes by him I mean principally I don't say but God may draw a Soul first by the consideration of his Benefits But the principal Touch of Faith it is upon the Son of God I might give you innumerable Scriptures that verify this great Truth And I desire that we may take notice of it In that forenam'd place John 17. v. 8. Christ saith this is the point They have believed that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee and that I came forth from thee and that thou didst send me All this Christ says you may see immediately concerns the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ So in the Epistle to the Galatians a place that is worthy our notice and that I shall have occasion of continual recourse to Gal. 2. 20 21. I am Crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I urge it
Promise if it be so that Heaven is the Promise For I would ask any Man that gives Reverence to this word of God Do you Believe that Enoch Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses Samuel David c. Do you think they are now in Heaven And yet saith the Apostle expresly they went away out of this World and left a great Fame and Honour and record of themselves behind them but did not receive the Promise Did they not receive the Promise immediately when their Spirits went out of their Bodies to Heaven Can it be said They Received not the Promise if Heaven were the Promise intended And yet the Apostle saith They received not the Promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect Therefore I say That Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ That Visible Glory of Saints both in Body and Spirit That they did not receive The New Heaven and the New Earth they did not receive which the Apostle Peter says We look for according to promise they have it not yet tho they have been in Heaven for so many Ages And therefore Faith is on purpose for this Kingdom of Jesus Christ among the things that are to come Among them I say and as a Principal of that World to come whereof we speak I shall therefore add at this time by way of Recollection and so conclude with Application a recollection of all that I have spoken of the great excellency of Faith And I beseech you in the First place Let this be a general Position concerning Faith That Faith is proper to that New Creation from first to last that comes in by Jesus Christ It is as really a New Heaven if I may so represent it to you a New Heaven of Grace As that New Heaven the Apostle Peter and John speak of shall be a New Heaven in comparison of that we have now The Heaven we have now declares the Glory of God It is one of the wonderful Works of God The Sun Moon and Stars How wonderful are they And yet for all this there shall be a New Heaven God does not like the Heaven that is now as sufficient to declare his Glory For if there had been no fault found with the Heaven and Earth that are now what place had there been for a New Heaven As the Apostle Argues in the Case of the Covenant I beseech you consider it is the Apostles own Argument in another case Heb. 8. 7. For if that first Covenant had been faultless then should no place been sought for the Second And in that he saith A New Covenant He hath made the first Old Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away I would but apply it to the New Heaven and New Earth If there had been no fault found with the present Heaven and Earth tho they declare the Glory of God what place had there been for another Heaven and Earth For the Second Heaven and Earth and why are they said to wax Old but that they are to vanish away Surely the Apostles Argument is very Substantial according to the Discourse here But the thing that I intend it for is just as the New Heaven and the New Earth that God will make just such is the Faith that God hath brought in That great Grace of Faith It is as New as the New Heaven and the New Earth It is a way of Salvation a way of Righteousness a way of Holiness a way of Eternally making Happy As new as the New Heaven and the New Earth And therefore it is no wonder that Men boggle at Faith so and that they make such a stir about it and are such Enemies to it That no Discourse that is found in the Gospel will please them or serve their turn It is because God hath Created a New thing It is not of the First Creation but a New thing Grace of a New Erection of a New Extraction O Blessed are they that have it For it is as much above Nature as the New Heaven and the New Earth shall be above the present Heaven and the present Earth It is prepared and fitted on purpose by the Mediator To give it you in another Expression And I beseech you rest upon it And that you may have it ready to Discourse when any Assail the Doctrine of Faith that you may have it fitted within your Lips as Solomon saith I say again Just as the Righteousness of the Second Adam exceeds the Righteousness of the First just so does the way of Faith exceed the Integrity and uprightness of Adam in the First Creation wherein he was Created You 'll say How can you make this appear There is a plain Scripture for it I appeal to all the World upon this Scripture against the greatest Enemies of Faith Therefore it is of Faith that it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure to all the Seed Rom. 4. 16. As much therefore as Grace excels the Righteousness of Man in his first Creation so much does Faith excel all Natural Power And as the certainty of Grace excels that of our Doing So much does Faith excel the First State in which Man was Created For It is of Faith that it might be by Grace And then that it might be sure It must be of Grace I say therefore I beseech you conceive right of the excellency of Faith by what I have spoken to you out of this very Scripture Rom. 4. 16. And have it in your Mouths as that word of Truth by which you may Answer any that Reproach the Holy Doctrine of Grace and Faith in the Gospel But I would add but briefly of the Excellencies of Faith wherein God hath magnified Faith above any other Grace And yet I shall shew you in the next Discourse if the Lord will give me leave to do it that notwithstanding all this excellency of Faith It cannot in the least be said to Justify by it self but only by that hold it has of Christ and of the Righteousness of Christ But I say at the present First of all here 's the excellency of Faith That Faith hangs only upon God and Christ and that which is Divine and Eternal it will not venture upon any thing that is Created And if you come once to true Faith you hang only upon God and Christ and the Spirit of God A great deal of difference when a man hangs by this and that Title that he thinks is well grounded and is in himself and in the Creature He has nothing then of Faith For Faith hangs wholly upon God and Christ and the Spirit and Grace and what is Divine and Eternal In the Second place Faith it gives all the Glory to God It must needs do so when it hangs all upon him gives Glory to God and Christ and Grace Gives Glory wholly to him as Rom. 4. You know Abraham was strong in Faith and gave glory to God
And then In the third place It acknowledges all to God back again It gives Glory to him in the Action That that I mean now is setting to the Seal that God is true depending upon Infinite Grace Infinite Power And then when the thing is done it returns all back again to God To him be Glory that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb who Loved and Washed in his Blood To the Holy Spirit as seven Spirits before the Throne It returns all to him And then In the last place It Receives even to Eternity by way of free Communication from God and from Christ And therefore tho there be some kind of Faith I acknowledg that fails as the Apostle saith and ceases in the Happiness and Blessedness of Eternity and of the Kingdom of Christ some kind of Faith doth But yet that Faith whereby the Spirits of Saints even to Eternity receive Glory and Blessedness and Life from God and from Christ That Faith never fails I am very assured when Saints have been ten Thousand Thousand of Ages in Happiness and Blessedness They 'll own it still as Free and pure gift of Grace in and through the Mediator That they are one with the Father through Christ And the Love wherewith the Father Loveth Christ is in them because Christ is in them This never Ceases to Eternity a dependence upon God in Christ a Being in him I shall make but two brief Applications of what I have spoken and so conclude And The First Application I would make of it is To bring all our Hearts to that we read in the Gospel when Peter said to Christ Matt. 18. 22. How often shall my Brother not sin against me and I forgive him Till seven times Jesus saith unto him I say unto thee until seven times but until seventy times seven And in another Evangelist when Christ had said thus to Peter He cries out in the great Sense of this thing It seemed so great a kind of Difficulty and Impossibility to him the forgiving so often Saith Peter upon Christ's saying there must be a forgiving so often Lord encrease our Faith Now this is that I desire every one of us to make use of what I have spoken to you to cry out unto Christ Lord encrease our Faith And another Matt. 9. 24. When the Father had brought his Children to Christ and Christ told him All things are possible to him that Believes straight-way the Father of the Child cryed out and said with Tears Lord I believe help mine unbelief So I say O that we could cry out with Tears If Faith be such a thing as certainly it is or this Book of God is not true I say certainly Faith is such a thing as I have described O that we could cry out with tears in every case I have named to you O Lord I Believe Help thou my unbelief That we could cry out with Tears O! Want of Faith is the great want among us all We have not so much Faith as a Grain of Mustard-Seed certainly O How therefore are there not great things done among us because we believe not No great things done in our Souls no great things done for us in a way of Providence There are no great and mighty Conquests over Lusts and Corruptions No great and mighty Powers of Holiness and Heavenliness because we want Faith Indeed Men go to work without Faith and they think they can manage the thing But as I hope to have opportunity to shew you No one in the World can make so much as a grain of Mustard seed so not so much Faith as would amount to a grain of Mustard seed O! therefore Let us cry out to Heaven for more Faith We should obtain Promises we should have great things done if we had but more Faith And then The Second thing with which I conclude to beseech you to look to that Kingdom and Glory of Christ wherein so much mighty Power both of Faith and Action shall be given Psal 46. 1. God is our Refuge and Strength a very present help in trouble therefore will we not fear tho the Earth he removed c. We should not be so intimidated so full of fear if we had but Faith Tho the Waters c. even when Mountains were thrown in the midst of the Sea and the Waves Roaring yet there shall be a still silent stream that shall make glad the City of our God The End of the Second Sermon THE FAITH BY WHICH We are Iustified c. The Third and Fourth Sermons Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ I Have in the former Discourses set out the Nature and Excellency of Faith as it hath so close an Union with and derivation from Christ in the whole Nature and Action of it Now I shall go on in shewing you how much All is in Christ and not in Faith it self by shewing you That if you consider Faith as in it self it cannot be that which Justifies if you consider it in and by it self And then In the Second Place I shall more plainly lay down to you how and upon what account Faith is said to Justifie And then In the third Place I shall shew you that if Faith it self considered in it self cannot Justify Then the works of Faith tho they be never so excellent they cannot Justify much less then faith it self And so conclude this point with the Application And then there will remain one point more concerning Faith And that 's the Plerophory and full Assurance They have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me But that will be the last point The First thing therefore that I shall endeavour not in a Controversal but in a Practical Applicatory way and in all the Sweetness of it to all our hearts in the power and life and vertue of it The First thing that I lay down is this that Faith considered as a work It cannot Justify The account that I give you of it is this That Scripture doth every where when it speaks precisely and clearly to the point It doth assure us it is the Righteousness of God And not the Faith that takes the Righteousness of God I desire to be very far from stirring up any Controversy But to draw out our hearts I say into the Sweetness of it Head 1. I begin now therefore to handle this great Point and that is Seeing we meet every where in Scripture with these Expressions Justified by Faith The Righteousness of Faith The great Question that I shall handle first shall be to shew you how and in what sense Faith justifies and in what sense it cannot be said to justifie For indeed this is a point very necessary to be cleared seeing many are ready to say That Faith is now instead of Righteousness and that it justifies as the perfect Righteousness of the Law should have done
Christ But I say it cannot be throughout so For then men should be saved by Christ and never know that they are saved by Christ Then Christ would be no more the Saviour of his people than he is the Saviour of stones or insensible Rocks We must therefore come to have a feeling and knowing that Jesus Christ is ours Or else we could not receive his salvation How should we be the better within if we did not know Christ An understanding and Intellectual Being must have such a knowledge of Faith to know Christ And therefore as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I must know him Not that this Contributes any thing to our happiness but onely the feeling and enjoying that happiness That happiness is onely from God But as you know a blind man is never the better in point of Light and sight though the Sun be never so Glorious Every one that seeth the Son and believeth in him We must see him or else we could not know he is ours we could have no Enjoyment of him our Souls would be still like unsensible Rocks and Marbles if there were not this sense by Faith and the knowledge of Christ by believing And therefore it is a very great truth that Faith is a manifestation to us and within us that Christ is ours When our Souls receive the touches of his Love and grace upon us and we come to know and find the sweetness to taste that the Lord is Gracious and to know what a Pearl we have in some measure and that we find Christ is ours and hath given himself for us In the third place there could not else be a manifestatory Glory It is true Christ is glorious as a Saviour But we could not Glorify him if we did not know by Faith that he is such a Saviour This is that that the soul makes its Boast in God by this draws it to Glory in Christ and to give all the Glory it can do to him Because it finds it is saved by him and him alone Now it is very Evident God had no need of Glory from Angels nor from men to manifest his Glory by them But it pleased the wisdom and Grace of God to declare his infinite Being before such Beings as Angels and men fitted with understandings to behold it Why so Christ had no need of our Glorifying of him But yet it is very Evident that he is pleased to be Glorifyed by us and that we Glorify him by acknowledging all our salvation from him And herein is Faith of great use It gives Glory as the Apostle speaks Abraham was strong in Faith giving Glory to God Rom. 4. So Faith gives Glory to the Righteousness and Freeness of the Grace of God in Jesus Christ And then In the Fourth place it is also necessary upon this Account for I am far in all this discourse from that which is truly called Antinomianism or Libertinism I say as Faith looks outward and from Christ into holy Action the knowledge that Faith gives is serviceable in the hand of Christ to all holiness and purification of Life To live to him to live and to walk by Faith to be every way self-Resigning according to that whole 11th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews And thus I have endeavoured with all briefness to set out the Excellent nature of Faith I shall but make one short Application of it And that is to stir up all our hearts in looking up to God according to that great prayer Ephes 3. 14 15 16. verses For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man To what End That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith O look up to this You see how Faith is indeed always called up by Christ when he gives himself to any Soul when he comes to dwell in any Soul Faith must receive him it must embrace him it must depend wholly upon him Now therefore O! That our hearts may be strengthened by his Spirit in the Inner man Alas Our Inner man you may see plainly by all that I have said is very weak and unfaithful And it is confirmed by this expression of the Apostle how the Inner man would never draw in Christ it would never hold him if it came to him Our Inner man is such a false thing to the Great things of our Eternal salvation it is such a feeble weak thing it would never be able to hold Christ But the Spirit strengthens the Inner man That Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Else I say it could never if you would give me leave to use such a plain word as that fetch in Christ And if he came it would never hold him Our Inner man must be strengthened by the Spirit of Christ that Christ may dwell in us And then we go forward to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and to Comprehend that love of Christ which passeth knowledge that we may be filled with all the fulness of God I hope there is nothing that I have spoken that can Justly offend any man's mind for it is fully to the sense of Scripture and of Scripture Reason and it excludes all manner of looseness and Libertinism of life For Christ is certainly sanctification to every one to whom he is Justification he gives the power of Holiness And Faith is made serviceable As I told you the immanent acts are those whereby it stays within and has Communion with Christ wherein it has nothing but to depend and trust in him But then It works outward as they say of the works of God Ad Extra The Excellent acts of the Father Son and Spirit they go out of themselves So Faith goes out to all the works of obedience And therefore if you would know what Faith is when it works outward I would propose to you to Read that Chapter Heb. 11. How greatly Faith works outward But Christ still is the Author and finisher And when it comes to Christ it has nothing to do but to trust and depend and receive And O! therefore let us all bow our knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant us according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the Inner man We can never have such a thing as Faith if the Riches of Glory does not come in with it and if the spirit of Christ does not come in with it And indeed where the spirit of Christ comes he comes And so Christ and the spirit Elicits as they call it and draws and Brings the Soul to clasp about him to lay hold upon him He brings the Soul thus near to
shall shew you in every respect how the Father the VVord and the Spirit and the VVater and the Blood do VVitness First therefore concerning the full Assurance of understanding Concerning Jesus Christ in the first place And then concerning all the Truths of the Gospel in the second place And I desire you to remember a distinction I gave you the last day I told you there are immanent Acts of Faith as they say those that remain and stay within that 's the meaning of the Word There are Acts then and Motions of Faith when Faith stays within in that great point of taking Christ And then There are Truths of the Gospel that are Ad Extra as they say or without that do not immediately concern that great point of the Redemption of Christ but flow from it No I 'll make this plain to you by setting two points of Scripture before you of which Faith has an assurance But one is like Faith staying at home and within it self and within Christ in the great point of Redemption and Justification As Now Here 's this great Truth That Jesus Christ came into the World to save the chief of Sinners Sinners of whom every one may say I am chief Now when Faith Acts upon this Truth Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom I am chief And so That he shed his Blood for sinners and gave himself a Sacrifice and an Attonement All these are Truths properly within Faith and Christ And when the Soul is upon them it is at home with it self And Faith is also at home with Christ and with the Soul in them But now here 's another great Truth That whoever it is that does not Cut off his Right Hand or Pull out his Right Eye and cut off his Right Foot he shall be cast into Hell where their VVorm dies not and their Fire is not quenched Now this is a great Truth of Christ And Faith hath assurance of this Truth But yet when it acts upon this Truth Pray observe it does not stay within properly with Christ and within it self in the point of Believing But it goes out to a Truth that lyes without as to the great point of Justification So that if you say wherein is Faith Justifying Faith in Relation to Truth I desire that I may be understood I say when it is ask'd wherein is Faith Justifying Faith as to the point of Truth It is not in believing that whosoever doth not cut off his Right hand or pluck out his right Eye shall be cast into Darkness It is true this always is together with Justifying Faith But it is not that wherein Faith properly Justifies But all the Truths concerning the Blood and Righteousness of Christ they are Truths that Faith acts upon when it is in the great point of Justification as it is acted by Christ and his Spirit Now this being not many times well Considered It makes a great Confusion in the point of Justifying Faith For though it is true It is said and I desire it may be carefully remembred that no one may any way take offence or mention what I say to give offence I say that that Truth that a man that does not cut off his hand or pluck out his Right Eye which means any Lust shall be cast into Hell is never separated from true Justifying Faith But I say again that Faith acting upon that Truth does not Justify But acting upon the great Truth wherein Jesus Christ is held forth as a sacrifice a propitiation a Mediator an Intercessor and Redeemer But yet this is certainly true that the Father Son and Spirit give a mighty power to these great Truths and to every Truth that is delivered in the Gospel but especially with this great Principal Truth that Jesus is the Son of God and hath layd down his life for sinners For you see very plainly in this place that I have quoted to you Pray Consider it who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God Faith is therefore in its Immanent action when it is upon this point that Jesus is the Son of God and gave himself for Sinners This is the Immanent Truth that Faith fixes upon But then when it comes to that Truth that without Holiness no man shall see the Lord that can never be separated from this Truth that Jesus is the Son of God when Faith acts upon that Truth or any like it Without Holiness no man shall see the Lord It does not act like Justifying Faith strictly taken in that point of believing Because Justification flows onely from the Righteousness from the Blood from the Obedience from the Redemption of Jesus Christ And therefore to Find a mighty power To find the Soul Impregnated and fill'd out in all the Truths that concern Jesus Christ and in all the other great Truths of the Gospel that Christ hath spoken Here 's the strength and the assurance of Faith And it flows from God in and through Christ For Jesus Christ is the great and Principal Actor in the Soul 's Receiving all Truth I say the great and the principal Actor As you may find the stability of Faith the great Ballance and Poize of Faith that keeps it steady and even Heb. 13. 8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day for ever Be not carryed about with diverse and strange Doctrines Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day for ever It is he that is the Alpha and Omega As he saith himself The Truth the way the Truth and the Life He is the Truth And the Son of the Father in Truth And Truth came by Jesus Christ But I would a little further clear to you this distinction of the Immanent acts of Faith and shew you whence I take the word You know in that great mystery of the Father Son and Spirit Divines when they treat of it they say that those actions between the Father and the Son and the Spirit themselves and no Created Bing comes between they call them Immanent actions of the Father the Word and the Spirit As the Father begat and knoweth the Son so the Son knoweth the Father and that he is begotten of him The holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son And the holy Spirit knows and Glorifieth in every thing the Father and the Son as proceeding from them Now while they are acting within in the Divine Being the Father the Son and Spirit one with another Those are called Immanent acts But when they go outward either to Angels or men or any of the Creatures then they are called extra-acts Or ad extra or Transient acts because they go out from the Divine being to the Creature I make use of it to explain the Immanent acts of Faith The Immanent acts of Faith are upon Christ's Righteousness and Blood and not upon the Points of Repentance or obedience or Love or self Resignation to Christ But wholly and solely in
things pleasing in the sight of my Father there was no guile found in my mouth there was no sin found in me without sin in the midst of all the Temptations that ever could be Congregated upon me Here therefore take this obedience of mine and let it stand against thy disobedience against thy many sins thy many provocations and Transgressions I have come by purest water And so there shall be a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness Zech. 13. 1. And he leads them to the Fountains of living water in his own Righteousness in his own obedience And having the heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience and the Body washed with pure water That is not of sanctification as we might be very apt to understand it I say not principally I never exclude sanctification but not principally But that purity of the obedience of Christ by which we are made the Righteousness of God through him And when this water speaks in this sense that I have now layd down to you It gives that great assurance against the fear of Hell wrath and Eternal condemnation for we are Righteous by it The second thing in which I will be very brief is the spirit that gives witness You know that is a general allowed Doctrine that the Spirit of God seals up to the day of Redemption It is the Earnest of it in the assurance of the pardon of sin in the witness of absolution that it gives It is the Spirit of Adoption and the Spirit of promise After ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our Inheritance The Spirit it self bears witness with our Spirits that we are the children of God And hence arises the great assurance of Faith O! When a man can find the word of the Spirit within that word in his own Soul that his iniquities are pardoned and his sins forgiven The Spirit is a mighty witness For the Spirit is Truth He is able to spread his witness throughout the whole Soul to seal up the whole Soul to himself But then the last thing that I will speak of is this There comes in that mighty Authoritative and original act of the Father saying I have forgiven thy iniquity I have pardoned thy sin And I look upon it to be conveyed especially in that voice that we have in the three Evangelists Matt. 17. v. 5. There came a voice from Heaven And as the Apostle Peter saith from the Excellent Majesty saying this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased That is I have accepted him for a Ransom I have accepted his obedience I have freely forgiven iniquity for his sake for he is my self he is my Son he is mine and therefore I do it freely and yet I do it for his sake Because he has given a Recompense a satisfaction to Justice And so the Apostle says Eph. 1. 5. Who hath made us accepted in the beloved And in whom we have redemption in his blood the forgiveness of sins And so it is said by Jesus Christ The Father loveth me And whatsoever ye ask in my Name the Father will do it for you There comes in the great Evidence Testimony and Assurance of the Fathers free acceptance and free absolution through him To close therefore thus much as I have begun to say from these words in brief application This first Application is this That you would seriously consider whether you have Faith or not You may say How shall I know Why consider it as I have now represented it to you It is a mighty Power from Christ it is a mighty power from his Spirit in all the Truths of God Especially those Truths that concern Jesus Christ But just as I opened to you in the begining of this Discourse That Faith it is a new Understanding to us We have as Men you know an understanding endued with Reason And therefore we all say let me hear Reason and then I 'll be perswaded And every Wise Man whenever he speaks he endeavours to speak Reason Therefore God hath given to man such a thing as he calls Reason He hath Endued the Understanding with that great Principle of Reason And if a Man be a Natural you know that is a man in whom Reason cannot act because some of the Organs of the Body are not prepared to let Reason have its course 'T is plain that 's the meaning of men being Naturals It may be you may think they have not so good a Soul but that 's a mistake Only there are not Organs fit for the working of Reason And therefore you know when we look upon such a one we look upon it as a vain thing to Discourse with such a one because we know he has no Reason Or a Mad â—…an it is but loss of time to Discourse Reason to him because there is such a Disturbance and such a kind of jumble in the Brain that Reason cannot have its course So I say if we would consider a Man in Gospel sense he is just like a meer Natural or like a Mad-man or like a very Brute if he has not a Light of Faith For Faith is a New Light and a New Understanding And therefore it is very observable 2 Thes 3. 2. That we may be delivered saith the Apostle from unreasonable and wicked men For all men have not faith If a Man be unreasonable you can have no place in him by the powers of Reason Now saith the Apostle I look upon a man in Gospel-sense just like a Natural or like a Mad-man or like a very Brute if he has not a Light of Faith he is an unreasonable Person when he has not Faith For all men saith he have not Faith And the word that is used in the Origninal is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is very well known among the Learned to be a word proper to Philosophy They say if a Man has not the Powers of Reason or does not speak according to them he is an absur'd man or an unreasonable Man he is a Man that hath no Topicks Now saith the Apostle he is an unreasonable Man he has no Topicks with him And why because he has no Faith So I say a Man without Faith is a Man without Gospel Topicks You cannot speak to him upon the Topicks of Jesus Christ with any Acceptance because he has not Faith O! Therefore Let us consider how sweet is the Discourse of Christ to us How impressive upon us How do our Souls go out to him and act upon him As you know the mind of man even in worldly things is acting according to Reason and all the Powers of Reason So we should be always Acting upon the Gospel and upon Christ especially by all the Powers of Faith And therefore this I would desire you to mind in the immanent Truths in those Truths wherein Faith is in its immanent Acts principally upon Christ and Righteousness in him and Pardon of sin in his
Blood O! consider how your Souls are Acted to him And so go from thence to All Truth for there 's no separation as I have shewn you The same Omnipotency of God that is in the Father and the Son and the Spirit is that strength that went out and Created this World Acts ad extra or without the Father Son and Spirit Why so the Faith which in its immanent Acts stays upon Christ and his Blood it also passes and goes out upon all the Truths of Holiness and Obedience But then The second thing with which I would conclude is this That you mind these mighty Powers that Act Faith O! mind all the greatness of the Blood and of the Water and the Witness of the Father and the Word and the Spirit It is a great Scripture that I led you to the last day and with which I 'll close 〈◊〉 Discourse which shews you that the mighty Power of Faith is from God and from Christ Ephes 3. 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven amd Earth is Named That he would grant unto you according to the riches of his Glory to be strength'ned with Might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your Hearts by Faith Here you have the Father the Word and the Spirit joyned in this great Power of Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in Love that is in the Love of Jesus Christ may be able to comprehend In your Love to him I understand that first groundedness in Love to Christ A Love that constrains us to live to him that dyed for us and then may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and heigth And to know the love of Christ which passeth Knowledg O! That great Mistery of the Gospel And partâ—cularly that we may know the love of Christ which passeth Knowldg And hereby we may come to be filled with all the fulness of God O! who is able to bring this great work into our Hearts VVhy the Apostle therefore concludes Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the Power that worketh in us It is he that works in us Pray take notice of that Rememember that he works above all that we ask or think And yet it is a Power works in us that we may find and see it and have experience of it Vnto him be Glory saith he in the Church by Jesus Christ throughout all Ages World without end Amen The End of the fifth Sermon THE FAITH BY WHICH We are Iustified c. The Sixth Sermon Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ FRom these words I have pitch'd upon that great point and Doctrine of Justifying Faith Or of that Faith by which we are Justifyed And this Faith it eyes Christ in a Peculiar manner As I prov'd from John 17. 7 8. Far they have known concerning me that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them as so given unto me and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me So here is a Constant Eye of Faith upon Christ As I told you there had never been such a Notion of Faith in Scripture-sense in Gospel sense if it had not been for Christ if he the Mediator had not been given I have spoken of it as it is Faith by which we are justified And the Grounds why it is Faith that justifies here meant which I had not mentioned before to you but rather depended upon other Scriptures for I shall give you now viz. Why this Faith or believing is to be understood of the Faith that justifies Even out of that John 17. 7 8. And the Reason I give for it is because it is the Faith upon which Christ intercedes Pray observe it Christ Intercedes for believers upon the Faith that believers know surely and believe concerning Jesus Christ For in the very next words you may observe it I pray for them saith he I pray not for the world So he intercedes for them They have known and believed that Christ did surely come forth from God and that all things of Christ are Divine infinitely Divine Originally Divine Now therefore upon whatsoever Christ intercedes Pray Consider In the very same line our foundation for Righteousness and acceptance through Christ rests His justifying Righteousness and Redemption and his intercession run all upon one line together That 's a plain point they go together I 'll give you but two places of Scripture because I would not prevent my self in what I have especially to discourse of One is Heb. 9. It is plain by all Scripture that the blood of Christ is that great price of our Redemption And that we are justified freely by the Grace of God God Setting forth Christ as a Propitiaton through Faith in his blood Now you shall find that Christ entred by his blood into Heaven Heb. 9. 12. But by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Christ intercedes now in Heaven and in the Holy place into that Holy place made without hands He entred to interceed And again ver 24. Christ entred not into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us So that he intercedes plainly upon his blood For where he intercedes he entered by his blood And in 1 John 2. 1. You also have the advocateship and the Propitiation of Christ Joyn'd together My little children these things write I unto you that ye sin not And if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father viz. Jesus Christ the Righteous And he is the Propitiation for our Sins c. Therefore this is the clear ground I bottom this Truth upon Upon what Christ intercedes That is certainly Justifying Now he intercedes upon the Faith of Believers I pray for them I pray not for the World viz. For them who know surely and believe in me I have endeavoured to open Faith also to you so that you may have a right understanding that Faith does not Justify as it is an Act of ours or a Grace in us or any thing in us but only by its receiving the Righteousness of Christ I came to speak of the Assurance of Faith They have known And they have surely known And they have believed that thou didst send me Knowledg or as the Learned speak and the great Men of Reason call it Science is the highest degree of Understanding Now this our Lord attributes to Faith in that John 17. They have known For Christ did not come meanly down when he had said They have
evil works passes uncontrolled unquestioned from hand to hand and no body but by faith disputes it if it comes by Tradition As you know the things that are but in fashion They run through not only those that make no profession of the Gospel but those that make a profession so Tradition runs through All. Now how shall we be Redeemed from this There is no way to be Redeemed from the common Evils that are done in the world but by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ And then In the Second place as I began to say Christ is the great Principle of them How can you walk in the ways of Holiness No way but by Jesus Christ being within us the Principle of those Holy Actions And therefore tho I say it is our Duty and we are condemned indeed most righteously in not Answering our Duty Yet still we cannot do the Holy Actions required of us but under a Purchase under a Price Ye are bought with a Price therefore glorify God as the Apostle saith And so we must have that mighty Principle I can do all things saith the Apostle through Christ that strengthens me And in John 15. Our Lord shews plainly that he is the Principle Without me saith he v. 5. ye can do nothing He had compared himself to the Vine and Believers to the Branches Now as the branch can do nothing without the Vine you know it cannot so our Souls can do nothing without Christ He is the great Principle of it And then In the Third place They are washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ And they are all made up in their Imperfections by the great Perfection of the Righteousness and Holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ this must necessarily be considered Take that Action of Abraham as the Apostle speaks he was Justified by the Offering of Isaac Naw I say That very Offering of Isaac was as it was Abraham's Act washed in the Blood of Jesus or else it had never been Accepted There were tho we cannot trace them yet God understands them such Corruptions adhering to this Holy Action of Abraham that if it had not been wash'd in the Blood of Christ it could not have stood before him Rahab sending away the Spies It was washed in the Blood of Christ Moses keeping the Passover and refusing to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter all these they were wash'd in the Blood of Jesus or they could not have stood before God All the Repentance all the Holy Actions of the Best and most eminent of Christians they are wash'd in the Blood of Christ that they may be accepted And wherein they are found Light they are made up by the Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled So I understand that in Rom. 8. 4. It is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit That is by Jesus Christ as the Apostle had said He condemns sin in the flesh viz. His Flesh his Sacrifice And so the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us By all those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus it makes free from the Law of sin and Death VVhat is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus But that perfect Righteousness and that perfect obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ even to the Sacrificing himself The fourth and last thing in which I would shew you that Jesus Christ is supremely to be considered by every Believer as the foundation of all his Holiness and the Acceptance of it is this That Jesus Christ is He through whom alone and through whose perfect Holinest God accounts us Holy This I confess is a Point that is not generally spoken of And it may seem to be something singular But I am fully perswaded of it That we do not only stand before God by Imputative Righteousness But we stand before him by imputative Holiness also That is not as iâ— there were no Holiness Inherent and Real in the Saints of Christ But their Holiness could not be counted Holiness if it were not for the Holiness of Jesus Christ I will not stand much upon it because I know it is a singular Apprehension Yet I would give you two Scriptures that do strongly perswade me that this is the very case Till we are brought into the Perfection of Holiness at the State of the Resurrection of the Dead which as I have formerly told you is either when Spirits go out of the Body or when all the Saints shall appear in the Resurrection then shall they be in a perfection of Inherent Holiness But while we are here in the World we are not in a state of Perfect Inherent inward Holiness And therefore Christ in that that 's the first Scripture that enclines me to this Apprehension 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sactification and Redemption Christ is as truly made to us Sactification as he is made Redemption or as he is made Righteousness or Wisdom in our first being brought home to God Therefore I say if he not our Sanctification our Sanctification could not be looked upon as Sanctification if it were not made Acceptable by the Holiness of Jesus Christ Another Scripture is that in the 7th to the Romans Saith the Apostle We bring forth Fruit unto Death in our selves He is speaking of Sanctification in Believers We bring forth Fruit unto Death In our selves But when we are Married unto another even to him who is raised from the Dead we bring forth Fruit unto God We cannot bring forth Fruit unto God which is certainly meant of Sanctification any other way but by being Married to another even to him who is raised from the Dead because the Resurrection of the Dead in all sense of Scripture is the Perfection of Holiness Till we therefore are in the State of being risen from the Dead being in Spirits separated as I have spoken or in Bodies of Glory we cannot bring forth Fruit unto God but we bring forth Fruit unto Death if we are not in Christ the great Husband who is risen from the Dead All our Holiness is made Perfect by his Holiness But then he brings us into that Perfection that every Saint is indeed perfectly Holy in the state of Spirit and state of a Body of Glory given to that Spirit that went out of the Body long it may be before accordlng to the several times in which the Saints of Christ have Dyed I come now to the Third and Last thing which I proposed in this Discourse And that is To shew you what the Sense of the Apostle James is for it seems to run very Counter to all the Doctrin of Free Justification by Faith and not by Works It seems a wonderful thing that the Spirit of God after it had said so much by Paul of being Justified by Faith without Works That the Spirit