a natural State because we must be born again of water and of the Spirit or else we cannot enter into the kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 5. And we are created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them If we could love God and our Neighbour as the Law requireth without a New-birth and Creation we might live without them for Christ hath said This do and thou shalt live Luke 10.28 Now a New-birth and Creation is more than a meer reforming and repairing our Natural State If we were put into a certain State and Condition by the first Birth and Greation much more by the second For the first produceth the Substance of a Man as well as a State the second hath nothing to produce but a new State of the same Person And note that we were first created and born in Adam the Natural Man but our New-birth and Creation is in Christ the Spiritual Man and if any man be in Christ he is in a new-state far different from the State of Adam before the Fall he is wholly a new creature as it is written old things are past away behold all things are become new 2. Cor. 5.17 Thirdly It is positively asserted by the Apostle Paul that those that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8.8 Many are too overly and negligent in considering the Sense of this Gospel-phrase what it is to be in the flesh They understand no more by it than to be sinful or to be addicted inordinately to please the sensitive Appetite They should consider that the Apostle speaketh here of being in the flesh as the cause of Sinfulness as in the next verse he speaketh of being in the Spirit as the cause of Holiness and whatever cause it be it must needs be distinct from its Effect Sin is a Property of the Flesh or something that dwelleth in the Flesh Rom. 7.18 and therefore it is not the Flesh it self The Flesh is that which lusteth against the Spirit Gal. 5.17 and therefore it is not meerly sinful Lust The true Interpretation is That by flesh is meant the Nature of Man as it is corrupted by the Fall of Adam and propagated from him to us in that corrupt State by natural Generation and to be in the flesh is to be in a Natural State as to be in the Spirit is to be in a new State by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us Rom. 8.9 The corrupt Nature is called Flesh because it is received by carnal Generation and the new Nature is called Spirit because it is received by Spiritual Regeneration That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit John 3.6 So the Apostle if he be rightly understood hath said enough to make us despair utterly of attaining to true Holiness while we continue in a Natural Sate Fourthly The Apostle testifieth that those that have been taught as the truth is in Jesus have learned to avoid the former sinful Conversation by putting off the old-man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and by putting on the new-man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.21.22 24. Putting on the Old-man and putting on the New-man is the same thing with not being in the Flesh but in the Spirit in the foregoing Testimony that is putting off our natural State and putting on a new State by Union and Fellowship with Christ The Apostle himself sheweth that by the new Man is meant that excellent State where Christ is all and in all Col. 3.11 Therefore by the old Man must needs be meant the natural State of Man wherein he is without the saving Enjoyment of Christ which is called Old because of the new State to which Believers are brought by their Regeneration in Christ This is a manner of Expression peculiar to the Gospel as well as the former and as slightly considered by those that think that the Apostles Meaning is only that they should put off Sinfulness and put on Holiness in their Conversation and so they think to become new Men by turning a new Leaf in their Practice and leading a new Life Let them learn here that the old and new Man are two contrary States containing in them not only Sin and Holiness but all other things that dispose and incline us to the Practice of them and that the old Man must be put off as orucified with Christ before we can be freed from the Practice of Sin Rom. 6.6 7. And therefore we cannot lead a new Life until we have first gotten a new State by Faith in Christ Let me add here that the meaning of the Apostle is the same Rom. 13.12 13 14. where he directeth us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ as the means whereby we may cast off the deeds of darkness and walk honestly as in the day time not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh Fifthly Our natural State hath several Properties that wholly disable us for the Practice of Holiness and inslaves us to the Practice of Sin while we continue in it Here I shall shew that the old Man the Flesh or natural State is not only Sin as some would have it but it containeth in it several things which I shall name that make it to be sinful besides several other things that make it miserable I have shewed that in Christ we have all Endowments necessary to frame us for Godliness so in our fleshly State we have all things contrary to that holy Frame One thing belonging to our natural State is the Guilt of Sin even of Adam's first Sin and of the sinful Depravation of our Nature and of all our own actual Transgressions and therefore we are by nature the children of wrath Ephes 2.3 Under the Curse of God the Benefit of Remission of our Sins and Freedom from Condemnation is not given to us in the Flesh or in a natural State but only in Christ Rom. 8.1 Ephes 1.7 And can we imagine that a Man should be able to prevail against Sin while God is against him and curseth him Another Property inseparable from the former is an evil Conscience which denounceth the Wrath of God against us for Sin and inclineth us to abhor him as our Enemy rather than to love him as hath been shewed or if it be a blind Conscience it hardeneth us the more in our Sins A third Property is an evil Inclination tending only to Sin which therefore is called Sin that dwelleth in us and the law of sin in our members that powerfully subdueth and captivateth us to the service of sin Rom 7.20 23. It hath a fixed Propensity to lust against the Law without any Deliberation and therefore its Lustings are not to be prevented by any Diligence or Watchfulness The Mind of the Flesh is enmity against the Law of God or it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can it be How vain
Terms you are first to do the holy Duties commanded before you have any Interest in the Life promised or any Right to lay hold of it as yours by Faith and you must practice Holiness without the forementioned means or else you can never attain to them Thus the true means are turned out of their Office and instead of being Causes they are made to be Effects and Fruits of an holy Practice And it will be in vain ever to expect such Effects and Fruits for Holiness it self with all its Effects must needs be destroyed when its necessary Causes are taken away Therefore the Apostle Paul testifieth that the way of salvation by the works of the law maketh faith void and promises of none effect And frustrateth the grace of God as if Christ died in vain and maketh Christ to be of no profit and of none effect to us as those that are fallen from grace Rom. 4.14 Gal. 2.21 5.2 4. Let us now examine the modern Doctrine of Salvation by the Condition of sincere Obedience to all the Commands of Christ and we shall quickly find it to be a chip of the same block with the former legal way of Salvation in the same manner destructive to the means of Holiness and to Holiness it self It requireth of us the Performance of sincere Obedience before we have the means necessary to produce it by making it antecedent to our Justification and Perswasion of eternal Happiness and our actual Enjoyment of Union and Fellowship with Christ and of that new Nature which is to be had only in him by Faith It destroyeth the nature of that saving Faith whereby we actually receive and enjoy Christ and all his Benefits and knocketh off our Hands from laying hold of Christ and his Salvation by telling us still as Christ told the Legalworker after all his Labour that yet we lack something Mat. 10.21 That it is Presumption to take him as our own until we have performed the Condition for our Right and Title to him which is another kind of saving Faith otherwise called sincere Obedience By this devised conditional Faith Satan keepeth many poor Souls at a bay poreing upon their own Hearts for many years together to find whether they have performed the Condition and whether they have as yet any Right to Christ for their Salvation not daring to venture to take him as their own It is a strong Partition-wall that will certainly hinder the Soul from coming to Christ until it be thrown down by the Knowledge of Salvation by grace without any procuring Condition of Works And though it be accounted but as the Payment of a Pepper-corn for a great Estate yet it is enough to break the ablest Man in the World because it debarreth him from laying hold of the only effectual means of Holiness whereby that Pepper-corn may be obtained 2dly Those that seek Salvation by the Works of the Law do therein act according to their natural State they live and walk according to the Flesh or Old-man not according to the New-state by Christ living in them I doubt not but several of them that live under the light of the Gospel are Partakers of a new State in Christ and do walk holily in it but the best in this World have in them Flesh as well as Spirit and may act according to either State in some measure and in this matter they do act only according to their carnal natural State When the believing Galatians were seduced to a Legal way of Salvation the Apostle Paul chargeth it upon them as their Folly that having begun in the spirit they would now be made perfect in the flesh Gal. 3.3 And he resembleth those that desire to be under the Law to Abraham's Son born of Hagar the Bondwoman to shew that such do walk as those that are born after the flesh not after the spirit Gal. 4.19 23 29. The Law was first given to Adam in his pure natural State to prescribe Terms for his continuance in Happiness which he then enjoyed and ever since that time the Flesh or Natural-man is married to the Law and the Law hath Dominion over a Man as long as he liveth i. e. until he be dead to his fleshly State by the Body of Christ and married to him that is risen from the dead Rom. 7.1 4. We are not at all under the Law as a Covenant of Works according to our new State in Christ as the Apostle testifieth Rom. 6.14 Ye are not under the law but under grace And Gal. 3.18 If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law From hence we may firmly conclude that none can possibly attain to true Godliness by acting according to Legal-terms because I have fully proved already that it is impossible to be godly while we are in the flesh or in a natural State and that as far as we act according to it we can do nothing but sin The Law is weak through the Flesh that it cannot bring us to fulfil its own Righteousness Rom. 8.3 4. It is married to a cross piece of flesh that is Enmity to it and can never be subject to it Rom. 8.8 It sueth the Natural-man for an old Debt of Obedience that he is utterly unable to pay since the Fall and the Success is according to the Proverb Sue a beggar and catch a louse Neither do those take a better Course that would bring themselves to Holiness by making sincere Obedience to Christ's Commands the Condition of their Salvation Their way is the same for Substance with that of the Calatians before mentioned who would be made perfect in the Flesh not by perfect Obedience but sincere as hath been shewed before Their Eudeavours to procure an Interest in Christ by their sincere Obedience do testifie against themselves that they do not act as People that are in Christ but rather as People that judge themselves to be without an Interest in Christ and to be yet to seek for it And sincere Obedience is as impossible to be attained unto as perfect Obedience if we act according to our dead natural State 3dly As the Law bereaveth of all strengthning means that are to be had by Faith in Christ and findeth us without strength in our natural State so of it self it affordeth us no Strength to fulfil its own Commandments If there had been a law given that could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law Gal. 3.21 It doth not so much as promise us life until we have performed the Obedience required by it The man that doth these things shall live by them Rom. 6.5 It is well called a voice of words Heb. 12.19 because its high and big words are not acompanied with any enlivening Power and the Doctrine of Life and Salvation by sincere Obedience is not better natur'd or more bountiful to us For it exacteth of us the Performance of the Condition before it alloweth us any Life or Salvation by Christ
State is that which we derive from the first Adam by natural Generation and it is called in the Scripture the Old Man and while we be in it we are said to be in the Flesh and our new State is that which we receive from the second Adam Jesus Christ being new born in Union and Fellowship with him through Faith And it is called in Scripture the New Man and when we are in it we are said to be in the Spirit The Principles and Means of Practice belonging to a Natural State are such as Persons do or may attain to and make use of before they are in Christ by Faith Such as belong properly to the New-State are the manifold holy Endowments Priviledges and Enjoyments which we partake of in Christ by Faith such as have already appeared to be the only effectual means of a Holy Life We are said to walk according to either of these States or to the Principles or Means that belong to either of them when we are moved and guided by Vertue of them to such actings as are agreeable to them Thus Kings act according to their State in commanding Authoritatively and in magnificicent Bounty poor Men in the way of Service and Obedience and Children indiscreetly Hester 1.7 Prov. 18.23 1 Cor. 13.11 So the Manner of Practice here directed to consists in moving and guiding our selves in the Performance of the Works of the Law by Gospel Principles and Means This is the rare and excellent Art of Godliness in which every Christian should strive to be skilful and expert The reason why many come off with shame and Confusion after they have a long time laboured with much Zeal and Industry for the Attainment of true Godliness is because they were never acquainted with this holy Art and never endeavoured to practise in a right Gospel way Some worldly Arts are called Mysteries but above all this Spiritual Art of Godliness is without Controversie a great Mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 because the Means that are to be made use of in it are deeply Mysterious as hath been shewed and you are not a skilful Artist till you know them and can reduce them to Practice It is a manner of Practice far above the Sphere of Natural Ability such as would never have entred into the Hearts of the Wisest in the World if it had not been Revealed to us in the Scriptures and when it is there most plainly Revealed continueth a dark Riddle to those that are not inwardly Inlightned and Taught by the Holy Spirit Such as many Godly Persons guided by the Spirit and do in some measure walk in yet do but obscurely discern that they can hardly perceive their own Knowledge of it and can hardly give any Account to others of the way wherein they walk As the Disciples that walked in Christ the way to the Father and yet perceived not that Knowledge in themselves Lord we know not whether thou goest and how can we know the way Joh. 14.5 This is the reason why many poor Believers are so weak in Christ and attain to so small a Degree of Holiness and Righteousness Therefore that you may the better be acquainted with a Mystery of so high Concernment I shall shew in the first place that the Holy Scriptures do direct you to this manner of Practice as only effectual for the Performance of Holy Duties and then I shall lay before you some necessary Instructions that you may understand how to walk aright in it and continue and go forward therein till you be made perfect in Christ For the first of these the Holy Scriptures are very large and clear in directing us to this manner of Practice and to Continuance and Growth therein And here it is useful for us to observe the great Variety of peculiar Words and Phraises whereby the Holy Ghost teacheth this Mystery which many that frequently read the Scriptures yea that pretend to be Preachers of the Gospel do little understand or regard shewing thereby that the things of the Spirit of God are Foolishness to them and that they are not yet acquainted with the form of sound Words and are strangers to the very Language of the Gospel which they profess and pretend to preach I shall therefore present to your View several of those particular Words and Phrases whereby this mysterious manner of Practice is express'd in the Holy Scriptures and commended to you as the only way for the sure Attainment of all Holiness in Heart and Life I shall rank such of them together as agree in Sense that the Multitude of them may not breed Confusion in your Thoughts 1. This is the manner of Practice in Scripture which is expressed by living by Faith Hab. 2.4 Gal. 2.20 Heb. 10.38 Walking by Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 Faith working by Love Gal. 5.6 Overcoming the World by Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 Quenching all the fiery Darts of the Wicked by the Shield of Faith Eph. 6.19 20. Some make no more of living and walking by Faith than meerly a stirring up and encouraging our selves to our Duty by such Principles as we believe Thus the Jews might account that they believed by Faith because they professed and assented unto the Doctrin of Moses and the Prophets and were moved thereby to a Zeal of God though they sought righteousness not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law Rom. 3.32 Thus Paul might think he lived by Faith while he was a zealous Pharisee but afterwards he knew that the life of Faith consisted in dying to the Law and living to God and that not himself but Chrish lived in him Gal. 2.19 as it is one and the same thing to be justifyed by Faith and Christ believed on Rom. 5.1 so to live walk and work by Faith is all one with living walking working by means of Christ and his saving Endowments which we receive and make use of by Faith to guide and move our selves to the Practice of Holiness 2. The same thing is commended to us by the Terms of walking rooted and built up in Christ Col. 2.6 living to God as not to live to our selves but to have Christ living in us Gal. 2.19 20. Good Conversation in Christ 1 Pet. 3.16 Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ that we may walk honestly as in the day Rom. 13.13 14. Being strong in the Lord and the power of his might Eph. 6.10.11 Doing all things in the name of Christ Col. 3.17 walking up and down in the name of the Lord Zech. 10.12 going in the strength of the Lord as to make mention of his Righteousness even of his only Psal 71.16 These phrases are frequent and do sufficiently explain one another and do shew that we are to practise Holiness not only by vertue of Christs Authority but also of his strengthning Endowments moving us and encouraging us thereunto 3. It is also signified by the phrases of being strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 2.1 having your
of it The second Adam also the Lord Jesus Christ was born an holy thing Luke 1 35. with an holy Disposition of his Soul and Propensity to Goodness and can we reasonably hope to arise to the Life of Holiness from which the first Adam fell or to be Imitators of Christ since Duty is made so difficult by the Fall if we be not renewed in a measure according to the same Image of God and enabled with such a Propensity and Inclination 3ly Original Corruption whereby we are dead to God and Godliness from the Birth and made willing Slaves to the performance of all actual Sins until the Son of God make us free confisteth in a Propensity and Inclination of the Heart to Sin and Averseness to Holiness Without this Propensity to Sin what can that Law of sin in our members be that warreth against the law of our mind and leadeth us captive to the service of sin Rom. 7.23 What is that Poison in us for which Men may be called serpents vipers What is that Spirit of whoredoms in men by reason of which they will not frame their doings to turn to God Hos 5.4 How is the tree first corrupt and then its fruit corrupt Matth. 12.33 How can Man be said to be abominable and filthy that drinketh iniquity like water Job 15.16 How should the mind of the flesh be continual enmity to the Law of God Rom. 8.7 I know there is also a blindness of Understanding and other things belonging to Original Corruption which conduceth to this evil Propensity of the Will but yet this Propensity it self is the great evil the indwelling Sin which produceth all actual Sins and must of necessity be removed or restrained by restoring that contrary Inclination wherein the Image of God confisted or else we shall be backward and reprobate to every good work and whatever Freedom the Will hath shall be employed only in the service of Sin 4ly God restoreth his People to Holiness by giving to them a new heart a new spirit and taking away the heart of stone out of their flesh and giving them an heart of flesh Ezek. 36.26 27. And he circumciseth their heart to love him with their whole heart and Soul And he requireth that we should be transformed in the renewing of our mind that we may prove what is his acceptable will Rom. 12.2 And David prayeth for the same end that God would create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him Psal 51.10 If any one can judge that this new clean circumcised Heart this Heart of Flesh this new right Spirit is such an one as hath no actual Inclination and Propensity to good but only a Power to chuse good or evil undeservedly call'd Free-will with a present Inclination to evil or an indifference of Propensity to both contraries it will not be worth my labour to convince such a Judgment only let him consider whether David could account such an Heart to be clean and right when he prayeth Psal 119.36 Incline mine heart to thy testimonies and not to coveteousness The second Endowment necessary to enable us for the immediate Practice of Holiness and concurring with the other two that follow to work in us a rational Propensity to this Practice is that we be well perswaded of our Reconciliation with God We must reckon that the breach of Amity which Sin hath made betwixt God and us is made up by a firm Reconciliation to his Love and Favour and herein I include the great Benefit of Justification as the means whereby we are reconciled to God which is described in Scripture either by forgiving our Sins or by the imputation of Righteousness to us Rom. 4.5 6 7. because both are contained in one and the same justifying Act as one act of Illumination comprehends expulsion of Darkness and introduction of Light one act of Repentance containeth Mortification of Sin and vivification to Righteousness and every Motion from any thing to its contrary is but one and the same though it may be expressed by divers Names with respect to either of the two contrary terms the one of which is abolished the other introduced by it This is a great Mystery contrary to the Apprehensions not only of the Vulgar but of some learned Divines that we must be reconciled to God and justified by the Remission of our Sins and imputation of Righteousness before any sincere Obedience to the Law that we may be enabled for the Practice of it They account that this Doctrine tendeth to the Subversion of an holy Practice and is a great Pillar of Antinemianism and that the only way to establish sincere Obedience is to make it rather a condition to be performed before our actual Justification and Reconciliation with God Therefore some late Divines have thought sit to bring the Doctrine of former Protestants concerning Justification to their Anvil and to hammer it into another form that it might be more free from Antinomianism and effectual to secure an holy Practice but their Labour is vain and pernicious tending to Antinemian profaneness or painted Hypocrisice at best neither can the true Practice of Holiness be secure except the Perswasion of our Justification and Reconciliation with God be first obtained without works of the law that we may be enabled thereby to do them as I shall now prove by several Arguments intending also to shew in the following Directions that such a Perswasion of the Love of God as God giveth to his People tendeth only to Holiness though a Misperswasion of it be in many an Occasion of Licenciousness First When the first Adam was framed for the Practice of Holiness at his Creation he was highly in the Favour of God and had no Sin imputed to him and was accounted righteous in the sight of God according to his present state because he was made upright according to God's Image and there is no reason to doubt but that these Qualifications were his advantage for an holy Practice and the Wisdom of God judged them good for that end and as soon as he lost them he became dead in sin The second Adam also in our nature was the Beloved of the Father accounted righteous in the sight of God without the Imputation of any Sin to him except what his Office was to bear on the behalf of others And can we reasonably expect to be Imitators of Christ by performing more difficult Obedience than the first Adam's was before the Fall except the like Advantages be given to us by Reconciliation and Remission of Sins and imputation of a Righteousness given by God to us when we have none of our own Secondly Those that know that natural Deadness under the Power of Sin and Satan are fully convinced that if God leave them to their own Hearts they can do nothing but Sin and that they can do no good work except it please God of his great Love and Mercy to work it in them Joh. 8.36 Philip. 2.13
we may infer that our Fellowship with God and Christ doth include particularly our having Light and walking in it holily and righteously There are other Texts that reach the Proof of the whole Direction fully shewing not only that our holy Endowments are made ready first in Christ for us and receiv'd from but that we receive them by Union with Christ Col. 3.10 11. Ye have put on the new man which is renewed after the image of him that created him where Christ is all and in all 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Gal. 2.20 I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me 1 Joh. 5.11 12. This is the recerd that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Can we desire that God should more clearly teach us that all the fulness of the New Man is in Christ and all that spiritual nature and Life whereby we live to God in Holiness and that they are fixed in him so inseparably that we can not have them except we be joyned to him and have himself abiding in us Take heed lest through Prejudice and Hardness of Heart you be guilty of making God a Liar in not believing this eminent Record that God hath given to us of his Son Secondly God is pleased to illustrate this mysterious manner of our Sanctification by such variety of Similitudes and Resemblances as may put us out of doubt that it is Truth and such a Truth as we are highly concern'd to know and believe I shall endeavour to contract the chief of these Resemblances and the force of them briefly into one Sentence leaving it to those that are Spiritual to enlarge their Meditations upon them We receive from Christ a new holy frame and nature whereby we are enabled for an holy Practice by union and fellowship with him in like manner as Christ lived in our nature by the Father Joh. 6.57 As we receive original sin and death propagated to us from the first Adam Rom. 5.12 14 16 17. as the natural Body receiveth Sense Motion Nourishment from the Head Col. 2.19 As the Branch receiveth its Sap Juiceand fructifying Virtue from the Vine Jo. 15.4 5 As the Wife bringeth forth Fruit by Virtue of her Conjugal Union with her Husband Rom. 7.4 As Stones become an holy Temple by being built upon the Foundation and joyned with the chief corner-stone 1 Pet. 2. 4 5 6. As we receive the nourishing Virtue of Bread by eating it and of Wine by drinking it Joh. 6.51 55 57. Which last Resemblance is used to seal to us our Communion with Christ in the Lords Supper Hear are seven Resemblances instanced whereof some do illustrate the Mystery spoken of more fully than others all of them do some way intimate that our New Life and Holy Nature is first in Christ and then in us by a true proper Union and Fellowship with him If any should urge that the Similitude of Adam and his Seed and of married Couples do make rather for a Relative than a real Union betwixt Christ and us let them consider that all Nations are really made of one Blood which was first in Adam Acts 17.26 and that the first Woman was made out of the Body of Adam and was really bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and by this first married Couple the mystical Union of Christ and his Church is eminently resembled Gen. 2.22 23 24. with Ephes 5.30 31 32. And yet it supposeth both these Resemblances in the nearness and fulness of it because those that are joyned to the Lord are not only one Flesh but one Spirit with him Thirdly The end of Christ's Incarnation Death and Resurrection was to prepare and form an holy Nature and Frame for us in himself to be communicated to us by Union and Fellowship with him and not to enable us to produce in our selves the first Original of such an holy Nature by our own Endeavours By his Incarnation there was a Man created in a new holy Frame after the Holiness of the first Adam's Frame had been marred and abolished by the first Transgression and this new Frame was far more excellent than ever the first Adam's was because Man was really joyned to God by a close inseparable Union of the divine and humane Nature in one Person of Christ so that these Natures had Communion each with other in their Actings and Christ was able to act in his humane Nature by Power proper to the divine Nature wherein he was one God with the Father The words that he spake while he was upon Earth he spoke not of himself by any meer humane Power but the Father that dwelt in him he did the Works Joh. 14.10 Why was it that Christ set up the fallen Nature of Man in such a wonderful Frame of Holiness in bringing of it to live and act by Communion with God living and acting in it One great End was that he might communicate this excellent Frame to his Seed that should be born of him and in him by his Spirit as the last Adam the quickning Spirit that as we have born the Image of the earthly Man so we might also bear the Image of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15.45 49. in Holiness here and in Glory hereafter Thus he was born Emanuel God with us because the fulness of the Godhead with all Holiness did first dwell in him bodily even in his humane Nature that we might be filled up with that fulness in him Mat. 1.23 Col. 2.9 10. Thus he came down from Heaven as living Bread that as he liveth by the Father so those that eat him may live by him Joh. 6.51 56. By the same Life of God in them that was first in him By his Death he freed himself from the Guilt of our Sins imputed to him and from all that innocent Weakness of his humane Nature which he has born for a time for our sakes And by freeing himself he prepared a Freedom for us from our whole natural Condition which is both weak as his was and also polluted with our Guilt and sinful Corruption Thus the corrupt natural State which is called in Scripture the Old Man was crucified together with Christ that the Body of Sin might be destroyed And it is destroyed in us not by any Wounds that we our selves can give to it but by our partaking of that Freedom from it and Death unto it that is already wrought out for us by the Death of Christ as is signified by our Baptism wherein we are buried with Christ by the Application of his Death to us Rom. 6.2 3 4 10 11. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh for Sin or by a Sacrifice for Sin as in the Margent condemned Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the Flesh but
or Christ for Salvation to be accounted the principal Saving-act of it because as it seemeth to them many loose wicked People trust on God and Christ for their Salvation as much as others and are by their Confidence hardened the more in their Wickedness But they had rather it should be Obedience to all Christ's Laws at least in their Resolution or a Consent that Christ should be their Lord accepting of his terms of Salvation and a resignation of themselves to his Government in all things It is a sign that the Scripture-form of Teaching is grown into disesteem with our great Masters of Reason when trusting in the Lord so much commended in Scripture is accounted a mean and ordinary thing They endeavour to affright us from owning Faith to be an Instrument of Justification by telling us that thereby we that use the Instrument are made our own principal Justifiers to the dishonour of God though it might be easily answered that we are made thereby only the principal receivers of our own Justification from God the Giver of it to whom all the Glory doth belong All these Errors will fall if it can be proved that such a Faith as I have described is an Instrument whereby we actually receive Christ himself into our Hearts and Holiness of Heart and Life as well as Justification by Union and Fellowship with him For the proof of it I shall offer the following Arguments First By Faith we have the actual enjoyment and possession of Christ himself and not only of Remission of Sins but of Life and so of Holiness Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith Ephes 3.17 We live to God and yet not we but Christ liveth in us by the Faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.19 20. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Son and everlasting life that is in him 1 John 5.12 13. John 3.36 He that heareth Christ's word and believeth on him that sent Christ hath everlasting life and is passed from death unto life These Texts express clearly such a Faith as I have described therefore the efficiency or operation of Faith in order to the enjoyment of Christ and his Fulness cannot be the procurement of a bare Right or Title to this Enjoyment but rather it must be an entrance into it and taking possession of it We have our accâ—ss and entrance by faith into that Grace of Christ wherein we stand Rom. 5.2 Secondly The Scripture plainly ascribeth this effect to Faith that by it we receive Christ put him on are rooted and grounded in him and also that we receive the Spirit remission of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified John 1.2 Gal. 3.26 27. Col. 2.6 7. Gal. 3.14 Acts 26.18 And the Scripture illustrateth this Receiving by the Similitude of Eating and Drinking He that believeth on Christ drinketh the living water of his spirit John 7.37 38 39. Christ is the bread of life his flesh is meat indeed and his blood drink indeed and the way to eat and drink it is to believe in Christ and by so doing we dwell in Christ and Christ in us and have everlasting Life John 6.35 47 48 54 55 56. How can it be taught more clearly that we receive Christ himself properly into our Souls by Faith as we do receive Food into our Bodies by eating and drinking and that Christ is as truly united to us thereby as our Food when we eat or drink it So that Faith cannot be a Condition to procure a meer Right or Title to Christ no more than Eating or Drinking procureth a meer Right or Title to our Food but it is rather an Instrument to receive it as the Mouth that eateth and drinketh the Food Thirdly Christ with all his Salvation is freely given by the Grace of God to all that believe on him for we are saved by Grace through Faith and that not of our selves it is the Gist of God Eph. 2.8 9. We are justified freely by his Grace through Faith in his blood Rom. 8.24 The Holy Ghost who is the Bond of Union betwixt Christ and us is a Gift Acts 2.38 Now that which is a Gift of Grace must not be at all earned purchased or procured by any Work or Works performed as a Condition to get a right Title to it and therefore Faith it self must not be accounted such a Condition If it be by Grace it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace Rom. 11.1 The Condition of a free Gift is only take and have and in this sence we will readily acknowledge Faith to be a Condition allowing a Liberty in Terms where we agree in the thing but if you give a Pepper-corn to purchase a Title to it then you spoil the freeness of the Gift The free Offer of Christ to you is sufficient to conferr upon you a Right yea to make it your Duty to receive Christ and his Salvation as yours and because we receive Christ by Faith as a free Gift therefore we may account Faith to be the Instrument and as it were the Hand whereby we receive him Fourthly It hath been already proved that all spiritual Life and Holiness is treasured up in the Fulness of Christ and communicated to us by Union with him therefore the accomplishing of Union with Christ is the first work of Saving Grace in our Hearts and Faith itself being an holy Grace and part of spiritual Life cannot be in us before the beginning of it but rather it is given to us and wrought in the very working of the Union And the way wherein it conduceth to the Union cannot be by procuring a meer Title to Christ as a Condition because then it should be performed before the uniting Work beginneth but rather by being an Instrument whereby we may actively receive and embrace Christ who is already come into the Soul to take possession of it his own Habitation True Saving-Faith such as I have described hath in its nature and manner of Operation a peculiar aptitude or fitness to receive Christ and his Salvation and to unite our Souls unto him and to furnish the Soul with a new holy Nature and to bring forth an holy Practice by Union and Fellowship with him God hath fitted natural Instruments for their Office as the Hands Feet c. so that we may know by their nature and natural manner of operation for what use they are designed In like manner we may know that Faith is an Instrument formed on purpose for our Union with Christ and Sanctification if we consider what a peculiar fitness it hath for the Work The discovery of this is of great use for the understanding of the mysterious manner of our receiving and practising all Holiness by Union and Fellowship with Christ By this precions Grace of Faith and to make you as it were to see with your Eyes that it is such an Instrument as I have asserted it to be I shall present it to your view
and is more powerful to secure an holy Practice than any of those Resolutions of Obedience or resignating Acts that some would have to be the great conditions of our salvation which are indeed no better than hypocritical Acts if they be not produc'd by this Faith There is indeed a counterfeit dead Faith such as wicked men may have and if that tend to Licentiousness let not true Faith be blamed but rather mark the Description of it which I have given that you may not be deceived with a counterfeit Faith instead of it I shall add something concerning the efficient cause of this excellent Grace and of our Union with Christ by it whereby it may appear that it is not so slight and easie a way of Salvation as some may imagine The Author and Finisher of our Faith and of our Union and Fellowship with Christ by Faith is no less than the infinite Spirit of God and God and Christ himself by the Spirit for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body of Christ and are all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor 12.12 13. God granteth us according to the Riches of his glory to be strengthened with all might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3.16 17. If we do but consider the great effect of Faith that by it we are raised to live above our natural condition by Christ and his Spirit living in us we cannot rationally conceive that it should be within the power of Nature to do any thing that advanceth us so high If God had done no more for us in our Sanctification than to restore us to our first natural Holiness yet this could not have been done without putting forth his own Almighty Power to quicken those that are dead in Sin How much more is this Almighty Power needful to advance us to this wonderful new kind of Frame wherein we live and act above all the power of Nature by an higher Principle of Life than was given to Adam in Innocency even by Christ and his Spirit living and acting in us The natural man bringeth forth his Off-spring according to his Image by that natural Power of multiplying with which God blessed him at his first Creation but the second Adam bringeth forth his Off-spring new born according to his Image only by the Spirit Joh. 3.5 As many as receive him even those that believe on his name are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.12 13. Christ took his own Humane Nature into personal Union with himself in the Womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost coming upon her and the power of the Highest overshadowing her the same Power whereby the World was created Luke 1.35 So He taketh us into mystical Union and Fellowship with himself by no less than an Infinite Creating Power For we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ephes 2.10 And if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 For the accomplishing of this great Work of our new Creation in Christ the Spirit of God doth first work upon our Hearts by and with the Gospel to produce in us the Grace of Faith for if the Gospel should come to us in Word only and not in Power and in the Holy Ghost Paul might labour to plant and Apollos to water without any success because we cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God yea we shall account them foolishness until the Spirit of God enable us to discern them 1 Thess 1.5 1 Cor. 3.6 2.14 We shall never come to Christ by any teaching of Man except we also hear and learn of the Father and be drawn to Christ by his spirit John 6.44 45. And when Saving Faith is wrought in us the same Spirit giveth us fast hold of Christ by it As he openeth the Mouth of Faith to receive Christ so he filleth it with Christ or else the acting of Faith would be like a Dream of one that thinketh that he eateth and drinketh and when he awaketh he findeth himself empty The same Spirit of God did both give that Faith whereby Miracles were wrought and did work also the Miracles by it So also the same Spirit of Christ doth work Saving Faith in us and doth answer the aim and end of that Faith by giving us Union and Fellowship with Christ by it So that none of the Glory of this Work belongeth to Faith but only to Christ and his Spirit And indeed Faith is of such an humble self-denying nature that it ascribeth nothing that it receiveth to itself but all to the Grace of God and therefore God saveth us by Faith that all the Glory may be ascribed to his Free-Grace Rom. 4.16 If Adam had Strength enough in Innocency to perform the Duty of Faith as well as we yet it will not follow that he had Strength enough to raise himself above his natural state into Union with Christ because Faith doth not unite us to Christ by its own Vertue but by the Power of the Spirit working by it and with it Thus we are first passive and then active in this great work of mystical Union we are first apprehended of Christ and then we apprehend Christ Christ entereth first into the Soul to joyn himself to it by giving it the Spirit of Faith and so the Soul receiveth Christ and his Spirit by their own Power As the Sun first enlighteneth our Eyes and then we can see it by its own light We may note further to the Glory of the Grace of God that this Union is fully accomplished by Christ giving the Spirit of Faith to us even before we act that Faith in the reception of him because by this Grace or Spirit of Faith the Soul is enclined and disposed to an active receiving of Christ And no doubt Christ is thus united to many Infants who have the Spirit of Faith and yet cannot act Faith because they are not come to the use of their Understandings but those of riper years that are joyned passively to Christ by the Spirit of Faith will also joyn themselves with him actively by the Act of Faith and until they act this Faith they cannot know or enjoy their Union with Christ and the Comfort of it or make use of it in acting any other Duties of Holiness acceptably in this Life DIRECT V. We cannot attain to the Practice of true Holiness by any of our Endeavours while we continue in our natural State and are not Partakers of a new State by Vnion and Fellowship with Christ through Faith EXPLICATION IT it evident all have not that precious Faith whereby Christ dwelleth in our Hearts yea the number of those that have it is small comparatively to the whole World that lieth in Wickedness 1 Joh. 5.19 20. and many of those that at length attain unto it do
the Spirit whereby we are made good Trees that we may bring forth good Fruit. Though they are given before the sincere Practice of the Law yet they are not given to us in our corrupt sinful Nature but in and with the new holy Nature which immediately produceth a holy Practice though it must necessarily go before as the Cause before the Effect and they are no other than Comforts of those spiritual Benefits by which our new Estate and Nature is produced and of which it is constituted and made up as the Comforts of Redemption Justification Adoption the Gift of the Spirit and the like Neither do I intend here any Transport or Ravishment of Joy and Delight but only such manner of Comfort as rationally strengthens in some measure against the Oppression of Fear Grief and Despair which we are liable unto by reason of our natural Sinfulness and Misery This Explanation of the Sense of my Assertion is sufficient to answer some common Objections against it and I hope the Truth of it will be fully evidenced by the following Arguments First This Truth is a clear Consectary from those Principles of Holiness that have been already confirmed I have shewed that we must have a good Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God and of our Happiness in Heaven and of our sufficient Strength both to will and to do that which is acceptable to God through Jesus Christ that we may be rationally inclined and bent to the Practice of Holiness and that these Endowments must be had by receiving of Christ himself with his Spirit and all his Fulness by trusting on him for all his Salvation as he is freely promised to us in the Gospel and that by this Faith we do as really receive Christ as our Food by eating and drinking Now let right Reason judge can we be perswaded of the Love of God of our everlasting Happiness and our Strength to serve God and yet be without any Comforts Can the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace be believed and Christ and his Spirit actually believed into the Heart without any Relief to the Soul from oppressing Fear Grief Despair Can the Salvation of Christ be comfortless or the Bread and Water of Life without any sweet Relish to those that feed on him with hungring and thirsting Appetites God will not give such Benefits as these to those that do not desire and esteem them above the World and certainly the very receiving of them will be comfortable to such except they receive them blindfold which they cannot do when the very giving and bestowing of them openeth the Eyes of a Sinner and turns him from Darkness to Light whereby he doth at least in some measure see and perceive Spiritually the things that concern his present and future Peace and reap some encouraging and strengthning Comfort thereby to the Practice of Holiness Secondly Peace Joy Hope are recommended to us in Scripture as the Spring of other holy Duties and Fear and oppressing Grief forbidden as Hinderances to true Religion The peace of God keepeth our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Phil. 4.7 Be ye not sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength Nehem. 8.10 Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 John 3.3 Fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in Love 1 John 4.18 This is the Reason why the Apostle doubleth his Exhortation to rejoyce in the Lord always as a Duty of exceeding weight and necessity Phil. 4.4 What are such Duties but Comfort it self and can we think that these Duties are necessary to our continuance in an holy Practice and yet not to the beginning of it where the Work is most difficult and Encouragement most needful Therefore we must make haste in the first place to get a comfortable Frame of Spirit if we would make hastâ— and not delay to keep Gods holy Commandments Thirdly The usual Method of Gospel-Doctrine as it is delivered to us in the holy Scriptures is first to comfort our Hearts and thereby to establish us in every good Word and Work 2 Thess 2.17 And it appears how clearly this method is adjusted in several Epistles written by the Apostles wherein they first acquaint the Churches with the rich Grace of God toward them in Christ and the spiritual Blessings which they are made Partakers of for their strong Consolation and then they exhort them to an holy Conversation answerable to such Priviledges and it is not only the Method of whole Epistles but of many particular Exhortations to Duty wherein the comfortable Benefits of the Grace of God in Christ are made use of as Arguments and Motives to stir up the Saints to a holy Practice which comfortable Benefits must be first believed and the Comfort of them applyed to our own Souls or else they will not be forcible to engage us to the Practice for which they are intended To give you a few Instances out of a Multitude that might be alledged we are exhorted to practice holy Duties because we are dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 And because sin shall not have dominion over us for we are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.14 Because we are not in the flesh but in the spirit and God will quicken our mortal bodies by his spirit dwelling in us Rom. 8.9.11 12. Because our bodies are the members of Christ and the temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.15 19. Because God hath made him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.20 21. And hath promised that he will dwell in us and walk in us and be to us a Father and we shall be to him sons and daughters 2 Cor. 7.1 Because God hath forgiven us for Ghrist's sake and accounteth us his dear children and Christ hath loved us and given himself for us and we that were sometimes darkned are now lightened in the Lord Ephes 4.32 5.1 2 8. Because we are risen with Christ and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3.1.4 Because God hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 Because of the many promises made to us 2 Cor. 7.1 Search the Scriptures and you may with delight see that is this the Vein that runneth through Gospel Exhortations and you may find the like Vein of Comfort running through the Prophetical Exhortations in the Old Testament Some may object that the Apostles used this Method in their Writings to Saints that had practised Holiness already that so they might continue and increase therein But to that I may easily reply If it be a Method needful for grown Saints much more then for Beginners that find the Work of Obedience most difficult and have most need of strong Consolation and I hope to shew how we may be able to lay hold
without any further ado and with Assurance that it is mine freely if I do it doubtingly I disparage the Honesty and Credit of the Donor as if he were not a Man of his Word In like manner if fearing to be too confident least we should believe a lie we should come to Christ doubtingly and in mere Suspense whether we shall be freely entertained after all Gods free Invitations and Promises should we not disparage the Faithfulness of God and should we not be guilty of making God a Liar as the Apostle John teacheth because of our not believing the Record which God gave of his Son and this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son 1 John 5.10 11. And what if the Salvation promised be not absolutely intended for all to whom the Gospel cometh it is enough that God giveth us his faithful Word that they that believe shall have it and none else and hath absolutely intended to fulfill his Word that none shall find it to be a lie to them and hath joyned Believing and Salvation together inseparably On this ground God may justly cause the Promise of this Salvation to be published to all and may justly require all to believe on him assuredly for their own Salvation that so it may appear whether they will give him the Glory of his Truth and if they will not he may justly reject them and punish them severely for dishonouring him by their Unbelief in this Case we must not look to the secret Decrees of God but to his revealed Promises and Command Thus God promised to the Israelites in the Wilderness that he would give them the Land of Canaan and would fight for them against their Enemies and required them not to fear or be discouraged that so the Promise might be fulfilled to them yet God never absolutely decreed or intended that those Israelites should enter in as the Event did quickly manifest Deut. 1.20 21 29.30 Yet were they not bound in this case to trust confidently in God to give them Victory over their Enemies and to give them the Possession of the Land had they not sufficient ground for such a Faith was it not just with God to consume them in the Wilderness for their Unbelief Let us therefore fear least a Promise being made of entring into this everlasting Rest through Christ we should come short of it and fall after the same Example of Unbelief Heb. 4.1 11. Fourthly The Professors of true Godliness that we read of through the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament did commonly profess their Assurance and Perswasion of their Interest in God and his Salvation and were directed by the word of God so to do and true Saints had still some true Assurance of it and we have no cause to judge that this Assurance was grounded on the certainty of their own good Qualifications but rather on the Promises of God by the direct Act of Faith We may judge of the ordinary Profession of the Frame of Spirit that was in Saints by some Instances I shall begin with the Profession that the Church made when it was very corrupt at its first coming out of Egypt when few of them could assure themselves by their own good Qualifications that they were in a state of Grace already which many now imagine to be the only way of Assurance Even in that corrupt Time the Children of Israel sung that triuphant Song of Moses The Lord is my strength and my song and he is become my salvation he is my God c. Exod. 15.2 Moses taught them in this Song to assure themselves of their own personal Interest in the Salvation and he guided them to the Practice of their Duty and they did not find fault with Moses as some do with Ministers in these Days for putting them to express more Confidence in their Song than they could find ground for in their Qualifications but they applied themselves to the exercise of their Faith agreeably to the Song and doubtless this Faith was unfeigned in some sew of them though but feigned in others for it is testified of them that then they believed his Words they sang his Praise Psal 106.12 Several other Psalms and Songs that were by divine Appointment in common Use under the Old Testament are as clear an Evidence as we can desire of that Assurance of Faith that was commonly professed and that People were generally bound to under the Old Testament as Psal 23. 27. 46. Many other Psalms or Expressions in Psalms might be alledged The Spirits of few in comparison could have throughly complyed with such Psalms though they were true Believers if all the Assurance of the Love of God must altogether depend upon the certain Knowledge of the sincerity of their own Hearts We have a great Cloud of Witnesses gathered out of the whole History of the Old Testament Heb. 11. who did and suffered and obtained great things by Faith whose Examples are produced on purpose that we may follow them in believing to the saving of our Souls Heb. 10.39 And if we consider these Examples particularly we shall find that many of them do evidently guide us to such a saving Faith as hath an Assurance of the Effect contained in the nature of it I confess we read several times of the Fears and Doubtings of the Saints under the Old Testament but we read also how their Faith opposed such Fears and Doubts and how they themselves condemned them as contrary to Faith as in the Psalms Psal 42.11 Psal 31.22 77.7 10. The most mournful Psalm in Scripture begins with an Expression of some Assurance Psal 88.1 And we may note that the Doubtings that we meet with of the Saints of old were commonly occasioned by some Extraordinary Affliction or some hainous Transgression not by common Failings or the common Original Depravation of Nature or the Uncertainty of their Election or any Thought that it is Humility to doubt and that they were not bound to be confident of Gods Salvation because then many might be bound to believe a Lie It is hard to find any of these Occasions of doubting under the Old Testament though they are grown so rise amongst us now under the New Testament In the time of the Apostles we may well expect that the Assurance of Faith grew higher because the Salvation of Christ was revealed and the Spirit of Adoption poured forth plentifully and the Church made free from its former Bondage under the terrifying Legal Covenant Paul could prove to primitive Christians by Appeals to their own Experience that they were the Children and Heirs of God because they had not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby they cry Abba father the Spirit it self bearing witness with our spirits or beareth our spirits witness as the Syriaok and vulgar Latin render it and as the like Greek Phrase is rendred Rom. 9.1 That
from your evil ways for why will ye die O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Christ testifieth that he would often have gathered the Children of Jerusalem as a hen c. and they would not Mat. 23.37 And the Apostle Paul testifieth that God will have all men to be saved c. 1 Tim. 1.4 you are to reject and abandon all thoughts that are contrary to this persuasion What if few be saved Thy Salvation will not make the number too great for few will follow thee in the Duty of Believing What if the Wrath of God be revealed from Heaven against thee in many terrible Judgments and the Word and thine own Conscience condemn thee and Christ seem to reckon thee no better than a Dog as he did the Woman of Canaan Mat. 15.26 Thou art to make a good interpretation of all these things that the end of them is to drive thee to Christ as this was the End of the Curses of the Law and all the terrible Dispensations of them Rom. 10.4 If a Prophet or Angel from Heaven sent of God on purpose to declare that the Sentence of Everlasting Damnation is declared against thee it would be thy Duty to believe that God sent him to give thee timely warning for this very end that thou mightest Believe and turn to God by Faith and Repentance Jeremiah prophesied against the Jews that God would pluck them up pull them down and destroy them for their sins yet he himself taught them If they turned from their evil ways God would repent of the evil Jer. 18.7 8 11. Jonah preached nothing but certain Destruction of Nineveh to be executed upon them within 40 days Chap. 3.4 yet the intent of that terrible message was that those Heathenish People might escape Destruction by Repentance The most absolute and peremptory denunciations of Divine Vengeance against us while we are in this World must be always understood with a secret reserve of Salvation for us upon our Faith and Repentance And we are to account that the reason why God doth so terribly denounce his Judgments against us by his Word is that we may escape them by flying for Refuge to his free Mercy in Christ Take heed of fostering any thoughts that God hath absolutely decreed to shew no saving Mercy to you or that you have already committed the unpardonable sin or that it is in vain for you to attempt the work of Believing because God will not help you in it If such thoughts prevail in your hearts they will do you more hurt than the worst blasphemous thoughts that terrifie you or any of the grossest Abominations that ever you were guilty of because they obstruct your Believing on Christ for Salvation The Spirit and the Bride say Come Christ saith Whosoever will let him take of the water of Life freely Rev. 22.17 Therefore we are to abandon all thoughts that hinder our coming to Christ as very sinful and pernicious arising in us from our own Corruptions and Satan's Delusions and utterly opposite to the mind of Christ and teachings of the Spirit and what ground can we have to entertain such unbelieving thoughts Hath God made us of his Privy-Council that we should be able to know that God hath decreed us to Damnation before it be manifest by our final unbelief and impenitence As for the unpardonable sin it consisteth in renouncing the way of Salvation by Christ with the whole heart after we have attained to the knowledge of it and are convinced of the Truth of it by the Gospel It s the sin that the Christian Hebrews would have bin guilty of if they had revolted from Christianity to the Religion of the unbelieving Jews that accounted Christ to be an Impostor and were most rancorous persecutors of him and his ways Heb. 6.4 5. They that have committed that sin continue implacable malicious Enemies to Christ and his ways to the end without any repentance Therefore if you can but find that you desire seriously to get an interest in Christ and to be better Christians than you are if you be troubled and grieved that your Hearts and Lives are so wicked and that you want Faith Love and true Obedience yea if your Hearts be not maliciously bent to persecute the Gospel and prefer Atheism Licentiousness or any false Religion before it you have no cause to suspect your selves to be guilty of this unpardonable sin 6. Add to all these a full persuasion of the incomparable glorious Excellency of Christ and of the way of Salvation by him You are to esteem the enjoyment of Christ as the only Salvation and true happiness and such an happiness as hath in it unsearchable Riches of Glory and will make our Cup to run over with exceeding abundance of Peace and Joy and full of Glory to all Eternity We must account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord c. Phil. 3.8 Incline your Wills and Affections to choose and embrace Christ as the Chief Good and never to rest satisfied without the Enjoyment of him and to reject every thing that stands in Competition with him or the Enjoyment of him Christ is precious in the esteem of all true Believers 1 Pet. 2.7 Their high esteem of his incomparable preciousness and excellency induceth them to sell all that they may buy this Pearl of great price Mat. 13.46 this maketh them to say Lord evermore give us of this Bread that cometh down from Heaven and giveth Life to the World Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the Words of Eternal Life Joh. 6.32 33 68. because of the savour of his good Ointments his Name is as Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love him Cant. 1.3 They are sick of love to him because he is in their Eyes the chiefest of ten thousand Cant. 5.8 10. As the Glory of God that appeared in the wonderful Beauty of the Temple and in the Wisdom and Glory of Solomon drew Worshipers to God from the utmost parts of the Earth so the unparallel'd excellency of Christ which was prefigured by the Glory of Solomon and the Temple doth more powerfully draw Believers in these Gospel-days The Devil who is the God of this World knows how necessary it is for our Salvation to discern all the Glory and Excellency of Christ and therefore where the Gospel is preached he maketh it his great work to Eclypse the Glory of Christ in the Ministry and to blind the minds of the People lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine into them 2 Cor. 4.4 One that is convinced of the truth of the Gospel may be averse to the embracing of it until he see also the goodness of it that Christ is altogether lovely and excellent I come now to the second principal Act of Faith whereby Christ himself and his Spirit and all his saving Benefits are actually received into the Heart which is Believing on Christ as revealed and freely