expressions it appeareth that these are two 〈◊〉 things Our being in Christ and Christ's being in us Burgess on Job 17. Serm. 126. the Lord Jesus cometh and taketh up his residence in them and they are inabled to go forth unto Christ and receive him as he is offered in the Gospel whereby they are in him and thus this Union is established These are matters distinct and accordingly the holy Ghost speaketh distinctly of them Joh. 14.20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my father and you in me and I in you See also Joh. 6.56 He that eateh my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him So that there are two great bonds or ligaments of this conjunction and of the union which followeth thereupon 1. The bond on Christ's part is the Spirit whereby the people of God are apprehended of him and he taketh up his abode in them For he dwelleth in them by his Spirit Rom. 8.9 10. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin c. Observe that what is called the Spirit dwelling in us in one verse is stiled Christ in us in the other because Christ seizeth on us by his Spirit and abideth in us through the Spirit 2. The bond of this Union on the Believers part is Faith whereby they do apprehend the Lord Jesus Christ and take him home as it were unto themselves Being apprehended by him they take hold of him and so they are knit together Eph. 3.16 17. That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith First Christ cometh by the holy Ghost and entereth into them and then they are inabled by faith to receive him unto themselves and to apply themselves unto him and so they are conjoyned and made one together From this mutual conjunction doth arise or spring a twofold Union or Oneness between Christ and Believers There is a 1. Natural 2. Legal Union the bond whereof is The Spirit dwelling in them Faith of the operation of the Spirit I will treat of each of them severally with as much clearness and succinctness as I can CHAP. VI. A natural and a legal Union with Christ Wherein they severally consist A moral Union proceeding from the former The last Proposition explained 1. THere is a natural Union or Oneness betwixt Believers and the Lord Jesus arising from the possession which he taketh of them and his residence in them whereupon they are partakers of the same heavenly and spiritual nature with him having Christ formed in them and dwelling with them Therefore I call it for distinctions sake a natural Union because herein they agree in the same divine and spiritual nature else for the manner of its effecting it is supernatural This you have mentioned abundantly in the Scriptures 2 Cor. 13.5 Christ is in you except ye be râ—â—probates that is If you are Christians in good earnest such as are sound in the faith unless you are persons unapproved * Si quid habent Christi sincerae pietatis Calv. Nisi forte reprobi estis i. e. improbi Marian. such as upon trial are found to deal falsely and unfaithfully in the Covenant of God except you are rotten at the heart gilded metal that will not abide the test and touchstone you must have Christ within you It is not enough that Christ be preached unto you but he must be revealed in you As the Apostle speaketh of his conversion and mission to preach the Gospel Gal. 1.16 When it pleased God who spearated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me Not only called me to be an Apostle and made known Christ unto me but also called me to the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ revealing him in me The bond of this Union is the Spirit of Christ which is shed abroad in to the hearts of God's peculiar people and whereby the Lord Jesus taketh up his habitation in them For it is the Spirit that treateth with them in Christ's name and takes possession of them to his use and service For hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which be hath given us 1 Joh. 3.24 This is the first sort of Union betwixt Christ and Believers which we call a natural union and it is wrought by the Spirit of Christ that dwelleth in them Concerning which I will enlarge a little for the better clearing it to your understandings under five Heads 1. This dwelling of Christ in the souls of his people by his Spirit whereupon doth arise a natural union with him is the same thing for substance with the positive part of the grace of regeneration whereby the principles of holiness and new obedience are introduced into them and the image of God is restored upon their natures For it is hereby that the holy Ghost maketh his entrance into them and fixeth his settlement with him You know that regeneration or sanctification take it for the first saving change or distinguishing work upon the soul consisteth of two parts 1. There is a privative part or the mortification and subduing the principles and habits of sin 2. There is a positive part or the introduction of new principles of grace and holiness There is 1. A blotting out the image of the devil 2. Stamping upon a mans heart the divine nature again You read of them distinctly A taking away the heart of a stone and giving an heart of flesh Ezek. 11.19 There is a removing of the old man and a bringing in of the new man which is created after God Now Christ's being in his people by his Spirit is the same thing for substance with this positive part of regeneration By the mortification of sin Satan is outed of his possession of the soul and by the implantation of spiritual grace Christ enters and taketh possession of the soul by the renewing of the holy Ghost Thus you have it explained for one expression there seemeth to be exegetical of the other Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my Spirit within you Mark it by the renovation of the heart God's Spirit is said to be within us And by the washing of regeneration the holy Ghost is said to be shed upon us abundantly Tit. 3.5 6. In the new birth Christ is formed in the soul by the working of the Spirit 2. Where Christ doth come by the operations of his Spirit to dwell in the hearts of his people he doth
way for your â—ture getting into Christ It is less dangerous for a â—an to be a stranger unto Christ and know that he is so â—an to be in that condition and not to know it This I â—dd to remove the main impediment that hindreth â—ens setting about the work of self-examination â—or I am verily perswaded herein lâ—eth a principal â—stacle They are loath to search themselves lest â—ey should find the worst by themselvs Just as some â—reless Shop-keepers that are run much behind â—nd they cannot endure to look into their books 〈◊〉 to cast up their accounts lest they should be â—quainted with their own poverty and see in â—â—at a low condition they are But mind it Sirs it â—better to trie and know that you are under the guilt of your sins and children of the wrath of God then to continue such and not to know it It is the knowledge of a sinners perishing condition will cause him to hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ and make him restless in his spirit till he get into Christ These are the people to whom Christ is sent to bring deliverance such as find they are sinners and are heavy laden under the burden of sin Isa 61.1 2 3. They are such lost sheep which the great Shepherd of souls will seek after that is such as are sensible of their lost condition Ezek. 34.16 I will seek that which is lost and bring again that which was driven away and will bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick But I will destroy the fat and the strong and feed them with judgment And it is ignorance of mens misery and wretchedness which is the devils great engine whereby he carrieth sinners blindfold and headlong into the pit of destruction As the knowledge of the disease is the first part of the cure so it is the knowledge of a mans damnable condition which is one of the first steps unto his conversion and salvation This is all I shall speak to the second head under the Use of Trial By way of motive and provocative thereunto 3. Let me close this Use with some special directions to guide you in the discharge of this work of self-examination That you may come to a right conclusion and resolution of the case Whether you are spiritually ingraffed into Christ and be such as have the Son and life through him or not And here I might give you a catalogue of Scripture-marks and evidences for trial upon this account But I shall not multiply particulars we will only insist upon the principal matter to be enquired into for proof of your union with the Son of God And a little to direct you in the method of your proceeding herein that it may be done effectually and successfully you must diligently heed and observe these following Rules of advice wherein I will proceed by way of gradation the better to help both your understandings and memories Direct 1. For the examination and trial of your selves and in order to the passing a righteous sentence upon your selves whether you are united to Christ You must firstly and fundamentally enquire if the grace of regeneration hath been poured out upon you and a sound conversion wrought within you This is the foundation evidence of a mans having the Son and other marks are made use of for discovery of this and in a subserviency to the manifestation hereof And the reason of it is obvious Because in the day of conversion this union is made up By the spirit of regeneration Christ doth take possession of sinners for himself and by a living faith which is one of the graces then planted in their souls they do receive Christ and embrace him as theirs and so are knit unto him as hath been largely opened By a through conversion the Lord Jesus doth cull out a people from the world and gather them unto himself So that this is primarily and chiefly to be sought into whether you are truly converted and made partakers of the renewing grace of the holy Ghost For if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Here is the grand question Are we new creatures Is there a through change wrought upon our spirits Is corruption mortified in us and the power of it subdued and a new principle of holiness put into and ingraven upon our hearts Thus it will be if you are one with Christ Except you are converted you are strangers to him and have no saving interest in him Rom. 8.10 If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness The body is dead that is the body of corruption is mortified and the force of it is taken away whereby it exercised dominion over you As before you were dead in sin so now you are dead unto sin and quickned and made alive unto righteousness Here is the failure of many and the occasion of their being deceived in this point of their belonging to Christ They sometimes look into the actions of their lives but never seriously consider whether the grace of conversion be shed abroad into their hearts They rest in a civil moral conversation and do not throughly weigh whether they are made partakers of the spirit of regeneration Whereas this is the fundamental evidence of our union with Christ 1 Joh. 4.13 Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit And Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his That is If he have not those gracious qualifications which are infused into the soul by the spirit in the work of conversion If he have not his heart moulded anew and fashioned aright by the holy Ghost If he have not the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord which was the spirit that rested upon Christ he is none of his Isa 11.2 This is firstly and fundamentally to be enquired after whether the work of conversion be wrought upon us and the grace of regeneration be formed in us Direct 2. If a person would be inabled to take cognizance of himself and to pass a right judgment upon himself whether he be converted and so knit to Jesus He must of necessity in order thereunto be well instructed in the nature and quality of conversion My meaning is this He must rightly understand wherein a sound and sincere conversion lieth and what a change it maketh upon the soul and what effects it produceth that so he may not mistake a feigned conversion for a true and a slight work upon the spirit which is common to the wicked for the grace of regeneration which is peculiar to the people of God For mark it Sirs There is a false conversion as well as a true and counterfeit grace as well as that which is grace indeed and in
like travellers as the rest of the company doth But Sirs If a man be gracious indeed it will settle his spirit upon godliness at all seasons and in whatsoever society If he live in Sodom he will be so far from saying a confederacy with them in their wickedness that in seeing and hearing he will vex his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds 2 Pet. 2.8 Though he dwell in Ahabs family yet he will fear the Lord greatly 1 Kings 18.3 He will own the Lord Christ for his Master in the face of all the world and speak of his testimonies even before Kings and not be ashamed Psal 119.46 This is the second qualification It must be universal obedience 3. That obedience which will evidence your conversion and consequently your union with Christ must be evangelical obedience Such as is suitable to the Covenant of grace into which believers are entred 2 conversation answerable to the dispensation of the Gospel Phil. 1.27 For as there is a slavish fear of God in the heart so there is a legal serving of God in the practise which will no way contribute to the proof of your being ingraffed into Christ That which is evidential thereof must be such obedience as becometh the Gospel of Christ when you serve the Lord evangelically in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter as the distinction is given us Rom. 7.6 Qu. But when is our obedience evangelical I answer It mainly consists in four things 1. When we are active and vigorous in doing all that we can for God and then account it as nothing to gain us acceptation with the Lord. When we are serviceable in our places and duties to advance the honour of Jesus Christ indeavouring to the uttermost the promotion of his interest and then lay all that we have done at his feet expecting our acceptance reward purely upon the account of his bloud When we labour to be intent upon the works of personal righteousness and then underwrite with our hearts That we are unprofitable servants and lay the whole stress of our salvation upon the righteousness of the Lord Jesus This is Gospel-service when we lay all our sacrifices upon the Gospel-altar that they may be sanctified thereby and place no manner of confidence in what is done by us but in the obedience and sufferings of Christ for us Phil. 3.3 For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh As if he had said We labour to serve God in the purest manner and offer up unto him the best that we have but then we dare not put the least stress upon it but all our confidence is in Christ it is of him we boast and not of our holiness We give all diligence in point of performance but are nothing in our selves in point of dependance And we are the circumcision we are Israelites indeed who have our hearts circumcised A legal frame of spirit goeth to God in duty and then expects a blessing for his duties sake and thus a sinner may toyl all his life time in a round of duty and be very far from the kingdom of God Then we obey evangelically when we do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Col. 3.17 2. Then is our obedience Gospel-service indeed when it is performed in Gospel strength i. e. not by our own abilities but by vertue derived from Christ and in an humble dependance upon the assistance of his Spirit That is a legal way of obedience when a person brings forth fruit unto himself and when he acts therein from himself When he goeth in his own might and power to grapple with sin and strive against temptations and to keep the Law of God But a Believer is strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and here is the evidence of a sincere convert Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh you shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Mark it It is not said if you make resolutions against sin and set against the workings of corruption But if you mortifie them through the spirit then it is a sign you are quickned and made alive by the holy Ghost and that you shall live for ever in the presence of God 3. Evangelical obedience is that which is according to the evangelical pattern viz. the life of Christ When a Christian doth study to be a follower of him and to tread in his steps and to imitate the Lord Jesus by endeavouring to write after the copy which he hath set before us in doing and suffering the will of God This is the obedience which will evidence our union with him and interest in him 1 Joh. 2.6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked He that saith he is in him that is He that saith so truly and as the matter is in reality He that would not appear to be a lyar in what he pretendeth to and to boast of what he hath no saving interest in must walk according to our Saviour's example 4. Evangelical obedience is that which is tendered upon evangelical motives and considerations When we are diligent and industrious in the service of God because our hearts are drawn forth in love towards him and we are sensible of his goodness in sending his only begotten Son to die in the behalf of lost sinners and in making known the mystery of Christ unto us and giving us promises of salvation through him * Amor meus est pondus meum Eoâ—feror quocunque feror Aug. For although it is not only permissively lawful for a believer but also a duty incumbent upon him to make use of the consideration of the wrath of God to quicken him in the wayes of holiness Luke 12.5 Yet he doth not serve the Lord meerly out of fear of his wrath But the love of God doth constrain him and his affections towards God are a forcible restraint to keep him from displeasing the Lord who hath been so gracious unto him Hos 3.5 They shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter dayes i.e. Upon this very account they shall be cautious not to sin against him because he hath dealt so bountifully with them This is the third qualification it must be evangelical obedience 4. If you would prove your conversion and union with Christ by the holiness of your conversation and new obedience you must look to it that it be sincere obedience done in the singleness and godly simplicity of your hearts You must serve the Lord as in the sight of the Lord and with a pure eye of respect unto the advancement of his glory and in order to your blessedness in the enjoyment of him and communion with him For in those two things doth consist much of the nature of sincerity 1.
THE Mystical Union OF Believers with CHRIST OR A TREATISE WHEREIN That great Mystery and Priviledge of The Saints Vnion with the Son of God is opened In the Nature Properties and Necessity of it The way how it is wrought And the principal Scripture-Similitudes whereby it is illustrated Together with a Practical Application of the whole By Rowland Stedman M. A. and Minister of the Gospel lately of Ockingham in Berkshire John 14.6 Jesus saith unto him I am the Way and the Truth and the Life No man cometh unto the Father but by me Si vis vir virtutis appellari indue te Christum Dominum qui est Dei virtus Dei sapientia Et in omnibus adjunge te Domino ita ut unus cum eo spiritus fias Et tunc vir virtutis efficieris Orig. hom in cap. 31. Num. London Printed by W. R. for Thomas Parkhurst at the Golden-Bible on London-Bridge under the Gate 1668. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY TO The truly Noble and worthily Honoured Lady Dame Eleanor Roberts of Neesdon in the County of Middlesex MADAM THE whole design of this Treatise and the Authors ambition is that it may become subservient to the good of souls And in testimony of that Honour and Observance which is deservedly due to your Ladyship from me I have taken the liberty to prefix your name unto it Nor indeed do I know how to make a better return to all your love and respects than by presenting and commending these Evangelical Truths to your most serious perusal Truths they are of the highest importance upon the right improvement whereof lieth the whole stress of a Believers comfort and salvation If an error be admitted in these things it may end unless timely rectified in utter and remediless ruine Let them not be therefore despised because they tender themselves clad in an homely dress I am conscious of mine own weaknesses and imperfections But our God is pleased to convey the richest of his Treasures in earthen vessels and to make use of the meanest Instruments that the excellency of the power may appear to be of God and not of man The closer view you take of and the greater intimacy of acquaintance you get with these and such like Divine Lessons the more sweet refreshings and soul-satisfaction will they minister It is the nature of all Terrestrials to be fairer in appearance than reality and to promise more at a distance than ever is to be found in them Like the Apples of Sodom they seem glorious and beautiful when beheld afar off but upon a neerer approach and handling they crumble into dust and rottenness Gospel-doctrines and excellencies have a contrary property like some wholsom herbs which the more they are pressed yield the sweeter juice and are of greater fragrancy The deeper you draw out of these Wells of salvation the more Chrystalline and cordial will the waters be and contribute more sanative efficacy to exhilarate and strengthen the vital parts Only be sure to keep the passage open and free from obstructions that goeth from the head to the heart and conscience that the influence of every divine instruction may reach to the quick The main objects of a Christians care and study do for the most part concenter in three things 1. To make a right choice of the chiefest good and pitch upon the true principal end of man which is nothing else but the glorifying of God in the enjoyment of him This only can allay the hunger and thirst and satisfie the perplexities of the soul For alas what are all created beings and sublunary vanities to content the infinite desires of an immortal spirit These terrene possessions are only proportionate to the body and can the soul feed upon the bodies portion 'T is poor support can be drawn from the abundance of this world when the spirit is departing to enter into an endless eternity 2. To select and determine upon the sure means in order to the compassing of that end And this is only the righteousness of Jesus Christ applyed and made over to us by vertue of our union with him to be sought after in the wayes of Gods institution and evidenced by the holiness of our conversations 3. The sincere spiritual and vigorous pursuance of such means And I hope your Ladyship will find in the reading of this Book what may be of special use to direct and quicken in each of these But more directly in relation to the two latter It is matter of sad lamentation and sorrow to behold how many that go under the name of Christians do miserably faulter in these so weighty affairs The multitude do little else but labour in the fire for very vanity And such as are some times at leisure to think of their souls do for the most part but study to find out the easiest and cheapest course a little to palliate and skin over those wounds and grievances which the Apostacy of man hath brought upon them without endeavouring after a perfect cure Your Ladyship hath learnt better Not only to give soul-affairs the preheminence but likewise to know how needful it is to be intent and industrious in the business of salvation and of what dangerous consequence to do that work by halfs It is not my meaning to trouble you with a large preambulatory discourse Neither is it my way nor doth your Ladyship expect it that I should stuff up this Address with your commendations They who most deserve least desire to hear their own praises You know to whose judgment you stand or fall My design is only to incourage your Ladyship to hold on and to be faithful in the good wayes of the Lord wherein you are ingaged That our gracious God may preserve you to be a continued comfort to your Relations and to be further useful in your Place and Station That he may mercifully please to grant you divine assistance and counsel upon all occasions for the right ordering your affairs with Christian sincerity and prudence That his blessing may be upon you during your abode on the earth in your Person Family and every concernment And that you may have real comfort in the day of the resignation of your spirit into the hands of God that gave it is the unfeigned prayer of 23. July 1668. Your Ladyships much obliged Servant ROWLAND STEDMAN To my dearly beloved Friends The Inhabitants of the Town and Parish of Wockingham in the Counties of Berks and Wilts WITH a special respect to the furtherance of your eternal welfare I have suffered these ensuing Meditations to see the light For since it pleased the Lord at whose disposal are our persons liberties and every concernment by his righteous providence to cause me to be separated from you I have often consulted within my self how I might be most instrumental to do you service as to your soul-affairs Which at this local distance I knew not how better to accomplish than by commending to you such spiritual Lessons as
See Rev. 2. â— The Christians were at first reckoned by the Heathen as Jews vid. Suet. in vita Claud. Judaeos imgulsore Christo assidue tumultuantes Roma expulic So that the Christians seem to have goâ—e under that name and to haâ—â— been banished with them by the decree mentioned Act. 18.2 though they were no savingly instructed nor taught the truth as it is in Jesus yet they had some knowledge of the mind of God and were convinced of the truth and excellency of the Law of the Lord so as to subscribe to it and to own and approve it as such This made them Christ's people at large by way of profession And this must needs be one of the ligatures of that Union for such as avowedly reject the fundamental doctrines of Christianity are not so much as Christ's seeming friends but open enemies to his crown and dignity 2. There must be an external subjection to the Ordinances of Christ so as to afford their presence at them and outward compliance with them and attendance upon them For Sirs Gospel Ordinances are the badges of Christ's followers Sacramenta ut alia insti uta divina sunt figna piotestativa fidei as well as means to convey his grace into their souls And if a people belong to him at all they must at least wear his livery So that when persons live in the open neglect or contempt of the Ordinances and Institutions of the Lord Jesus or think they are arrived at so high a pitch as to be above Ordinances they do thereby declare themselves to be so far from the truth of grace that they are not arrived to a serious prosession Above Ordinances and below Christianity Such have not so much as Christ's livery upon them for this is one of the bonds of a common union Thus Simon Magus was baptized into Christ and for a while held fellowship with the Disciples and so in a sort did belong to Christ till afterwards he apostatized and discovered his rottenness Act. 8.13 So far the lowest rank of hypocrites ordinarily go It is true they have no spiritual communion or fellowship with Christ in his Ordinances but they are many times pretty-constant in attendance upon Ordinances So those carnal Israelites whom God owneth in this respect to be his people Isa 58 1.2 And therefore the Apostle calls men off from trusting in this to mind the grace of Regeneration and Conversion upon their hearts for these priviledges avail not to a saving union with Christ but a new creature Gal. 6.15 3. There is usually some common workings upon their hearts and spirits as now convictions in the conscience of the evil of sin sometimes an inclination upon their souls to give up themselves to be the Lords only a beloved lust hindereth the performance of it Possibly many common graces of the Spirit are conferred upon them in which respect they are said to be made partakers of the holy Ghost for so far a carnal Professor may arrive Heb. 6.4 5. The holy Ghost may strive with a professed enemy to the Kingdom of Christ There are some Converts external from the world to the Church who yet stick in their naturals and are not in the sense of sin fled unto Christ for refuge nor converted from nature to saving grace Dicâ—â—s but when he shall moreover work some remarkable effects upon a sinner as terrors in apprehension of the wrath of God desires to be sheltered under the wings of Christ that he may escape that wrath so that he joyneth himself outwardly to his people then he becometh a seeming friend though he proceed no further 4. The last bond which I shall mention of this common union with Christ is some degrees of reformation in the life and practise When persons live and lie weltering in gross pollutions of the world they do apparently belong unto the world they do openly proclaim themselves to be the very children of the devil If a man belong to Christ but by profession there must be some measure of reformation wrought there must be an actual abstaining from those wickednesses whereby the name of Christian is openly contradicted As real holiness and closs walking with God is essential to the being of a Disciple indeed so a cleansing of the outside of the cup and platter as our Saviour calleth it is required to make a man a Disciple but in appearance And thus far they commonly go 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. They retained their doggish and swinish nature still as is evident from their Apostacy v. 12. The dog is turned to his vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire and yet they escaped the pollutions of the world and that through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ v. 20. Although the doctrines of the Gospel had not a saving effect upon their souls yet they had a real effect though their natures were not transformed yet their lives in some particulars were reformed their conversations were cleansed from gross and scandalous abominations That 's the first Position touching this matter 2. Pos 2. It is a very great priviledge and mercy considered in it self for a man or woman to be taken thus neer unto Jesus Christ and in this sense to be united to him namely by way of external adhaesion To be separated from the Heathen to be his people and to be made to differ from the profane world and the notoriously wicked who do avow their sins openly in the face of men and declare themselves subjects unto the prince of darkness Though it be not the best of priviledges yet it is a great priviledge though it be not a mercy to be rested in yet it is a mercy thankfully to be acknowledged it is no way to be slighted and undervalued The Apostle speaketh of it as such Rom. 3.1 2. What advantage hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision that is what benefit doth arise by being a member of the Church of Christ what profit is it to be a Jew outwardly a Disciple by profession into which relation circumcision did give them solemn entrance it was the Ordinance for initiation Is this nothing or is it a priviledge of a low nature No in no wise saith the Apostle do not thus esteem it It is an eminent mercy there is much advantage by it every way You will say wherein lieth the advantage of being thus in Christ Answ In four things especially 1. Chiefly and primarily because hereupon they are set under the means of grace and tenders of salvation They have eternal life set before their souls and upon the terms of the Gospel offered unto them Hereby they do enjoy the word of Christ the Oracles of God and the Ordinances which are the places wherein the Lord Jesus himself is to be found of them that seek him and which are the conduit-pipes through which he doth use to convey spiritual grace and blessings to such
never so zealous and forward in his worship Such actions may less displease the Lord than some others but at the best he cannot take pleasure in them And therefore the whole stress of the matter is laid upon the state of a man Prov. 21.27 The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination how much more when he brings it with a wicked mind Mark it though he come with a good intent and mean well as there is a kind of natural integrity yet it is an abomination This is plainly intimated if he come with a wicked mind making the duties of religion a cloak to cover his other horrid impieties then his sacrifice is most odious and abominable but however he cometh it is an abomination Why because the person sacrificing is a wicked ungodly sinner and the Lord judgeth mens actions by their state 2. This is a matter seriously to be weighâ—d because the greatest number of persons who call themselves Christians do seldom or never think of it They go on in sin and perish eternally for want of laying to heart this very thing And therefore we should give diligence the rather to study it because it is neglected by the most You may observe it as an ordinary thing with carnal people when conscience is a little awakened when they are brought into distress by sickness or some other sore affliction they will cry out with a kind of bitterness for their evil wayes and seemingly melt with sorrow for some actual miscarriages but not one of many will mind his spiritual state Thus it was with Micah the Idolater when he heard his mother curse and ban for the mony that was stollen from her these curses startled his conscience and made him to vomit up the sweet morsel wch he had swallowed down he minds that wicked action but never once considers his spiritual condition and so goeth on in other sins notwithstanding Judg. 17.2 3 5. Thus Saul was troubled in a reflection upon some of his evil ways and profane Esau grieved because he had displeased his Father by his sinful actions but scarce one of an hundred crieth out of his sad condition Nay commonly they are so far from it that they will be ready to fly in a mans face that doth but make mention thereof When you have convinced a wicked man of his evil life and brought him to an acknowledgment of a course of sin wherein he walketh if thence you begin to speak of his estate in sin of his being an enemy to God a child of his wrath and a wicked person he will defie the words No will he say I love the Lord and God knows my heart is good and the like See how fowl they fell upon Christ for touching upon this string When he told them of their wretched condition that they were not of God but of their father the devilâ— Thou art a Samaritan say they and hast a devil Joh. 8.44 47 48. They could not endure he should meddle with that matter 3. It concerneth you to be well instructed and settled in this particular of your spiritual state God-ward because when the spirit of conviction doth powerfully prevail upon a mans heart so as to turn him effectually from sin and to bring him to a sound and sincere conversion it doth ever end in conviction of the state of sin As conviction usually beginneth in some particular actual wickedness so it alwaies endeth in a discovery of that wicked and damnable condition into which the sinner is brought Thus it was with Paul Rom. 7.9 For I was alive without the Law once but when the commandment came sin revived and I died that is * Absentia legis faciebat ut viveyet hoc est inflatus justitiae suae fiducidâ vitam sibi arrogabat quum tamen esset mortuus c. Calv. I saw my self dead and undone I found that I was in a perishing conditione that unless the wonderful grace of God stept in for my deliverance I must perish and be lost irrecoverably Before I had a good conceit of my self as to my state and condition however conscience might now and then check me for some failings and actual miscarriages yet I was alive without the Law i.e. before I had a clear understanding of the Law in my own apprehension I was a child of life I thought my self sure of salvation but when the commandment came in the life and power and vigorous workings of it I found I was stark dead So in the return of the Prodigal mark how far the conviction proceedeth Luk. 15.17 I perish Not only I am a disobedient Son that have ran away from my father and wasted my Patrimony But if I continue in this condition I am undone for ever This is the spirit of bondage which the Apostle mentioneâ—â— as the fore runner of the spirit of adoption Rom. 8.15 You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear Mark it not again intimating that once they had received it that all who are savingly converted must first be under it When is the holy Ghost a spirit of bondage Why when he doth discover to a mans soul his wretched and miserable condition when he doth not only shew him his work wherein he hath exceeded but doth also make him sensible of the lost estate wherein he is involved when he causeth a sinner to see that he is a child of the wrath of God bound over to answer to the demands of the justice of God obnoxious to the everlasting and insupportable vengeance of the most high and raiseth fears and terrors in the soul in apprehension thereof so that he sees it necessary that his state be altered The holy Ghost Sirs may be a spirit of conviction as to sundry acts of sin when he is not a spirit of bondage for this relates to the state of sin which is alwayes an antecedent to sound a conversion And therefore as I said I will open this point of the change of a mans spiritual state in six particulars 1. There is a twofold state or condition of mens souls in reference to spiritual and eternal concernments The state of nature and the state of grace as they are usually called The state of condemnation and exposedness to the wrath of God and the state of favour and reconciliation with the Lord. That of alienation from God and that of friendship and fellowship with him A state of service to the Lord and of slavery to the devil Of liableness and obnoxiousness to everlasting death and the state of heirship and title to the kingdom of heaven You read often of them in the Scripture Joh. 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already So Rom. 6.17 18. But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin There 's the state of nature And v. 18. Being then made free from sin ye became servants of righteousness There 's the state of grace Eph. 2.19 Now therefore ye
you will undoubtedly fall short of the righteousness of Jesus Christ you do quite put your selves from under his shadow If you rest upon the works of the Law never think to receive benefit by the death of the Mediator of the covenant of peace and reconciliation Christ is become of none effect unto you Now Sirs justification by works is mans natural element upon which his soul is fixed and where he delights to dwell Although the Law is disabled to minister relief unto fallen sinners yet there is a proness in them to follow after it still and to rest their souls upon that foundation This is plain from the pains the Apostle Paul taketh in his Epistles to unsettle men from this bottom to take them off from leaning upon this broken reed especially in his Epistles to Rom. and Gal. Besides you read expresly of mens desires to be under the Law Gal. 4.21 Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law q. d. I perceive that hitherward your spirits have a tendency there is a natural inclination in you to split your selves upon this rock as there is in a stone to deseend downwards towards its center As the Law is a rule of life so it is written upon the heart of a Believer but unregenerate persons cleave to it as it is a covenant of works they make use of it so as to seek justification from thence And this mostly ariseth from that monstrous pride which is fast rooted and rivered in mens hearts they would fain advance something of themselves and are loath to give the glory of their salvation to another It is an harder thing to close with the grace of God and to glorifie free grace in salvation than most persons imagine This is the second Proposition That unconverted sinners are not only separated from Christ but actually joyned unto such objects as are utterly incompatible with their being in Christ 3. Propos 3. Hence it clearly followeth as a third Proposition That the first work which is wrought upon the spirit of a man in order to his conjunction and oneness with the Lord Jesus it is the separation or withdrawment of his soul from these objects unto which he is joyned in opposition unto Christ Till this work be done the finner is not in a neer capacity of having the Son of God of being joyned to the Redeemer First a bill of divorcement must be written and the former husbands put away before the soul can be married to another husband to him that is raised from the dead For Sirs Christ will not be a sharer with another if he have the soul at all he will have it altogether if persons have the Son really they must have him only So that first the soul must be wrought upon to renounce those things which stand in competition with the Lord Jesus that they may be in a preparedness to be knit unto him Psal 45.10 11. Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine car forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty They are words spoken of the mystical marriage betwixt Christ and his Church * Hoc de Ecclesiâ quam ut Christi regis uxorem depingit Vides de Christo esse sermonem qui enim de Solomone diceret Quoniam ipse est Dominus Deus cuus Marian. in loc and they amount to thus much q. d. If you will have Christ you must forsake all things for Christ if you will be joyned unto him you must be parted from all besides him as a virgin that will be espoused to an husband must forsake father and mother and cleave to her husband First you must be broken off from the old stock if you will be ingraffed in the true vine This is a special part of that self denial which is required in the followers of Jesus Mar. 8.34 Whosoever will come after me let him deny himself He must den◠his carnal self and say to his corruptions get ye hence he must deny his legal self by renouncing all confidence in the flesh in his own righteousness as to justification in the sight of God he must be dead to sin and the Law if he will be married to the Son of God See the proof of each 1. He must be dead to sin Gal. 5.24 They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts * Carnens pro radice posuit concupiscentias pro fructibus Caro enim est ipsa naturae corruptae vitiositas unde mala omnia prodeunt Calv. in loc Such as are united to his person must be planted together into the likeness of his death as he died for sin so must they be dead unto sin as Christ was crucified in the flesh so must their corruptions be crucified in them The principle or body of sin must be subdued and the lustings and workings of it must be set against else it will be in vain to pretend that they are knit unto Christ 2. He must be dead to the Law because it is impossible for a man to be coupled to both together It was a defectiveness herein which was the cause of the utter undoing of the carnal Israelites they were fast joyned unto the Law and they could not be taken off from seeking life upon those terms and therefore though they followed after righteousness yet they did not attain it they fell short of righteousness How came it to pass that they fell short of what they sought after Why Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9.31 32. That 's the third Proposition The first work that is wrought upon the spirit of a man in a tendency to his conjunction and oneness with Christ is the separation of his soul from sin and the Law to which he is naturally joyned in opposition to Christ 4. Propos 4. The divorce and separation of a sinner from his iniquity which is of indispensable necessity to the reception of Christ and union with him is principally accomplished by a fourfold act 1. The eyes of the understanding are opened to see the evil of sin 2. The heart is awakened to consider the consequents of that evil 3. The spirit is made to tremble in apprehension of the danger of continuing in sin 4. The grace of mortification is poured out for the subduing of corruption and a secret antipathy put into the soul against it When this work is wrought then the sinner is set free from bondage unto his lusts and is at liberty to be married to another I will briefly touch upon these four steps or acts of the holy Ghost whereby tho divorce is made 1. There is an act of Conviction whereby the eyes of the understanding are enlightened to see the evil of sin and that with application to a mans self and his own transgressions and iniquities For indeed general notions of the evil of sin will never have a
due operation upon the heart and conscience * Generalia non pungunt unless it be brought home by a personal and particular appropriation to a mans self When a sinner is wrought upon so as to turn savingly from his iniquities he is made to do it understandingly God working upon a mans heart answerably to mans nature He doth not force him to cast off his sins against his will but maketh him ready and willing to abandon them and to that purpose he giveth the sinner a sight of the guilt he is under He maketh him to know what a contempt sin is of the Majesty of heaven what a slighting of an holy and just and righteous Law what a despising of the goodness and compassion of the Lord and consequently a provocation of his wrath that so there may be raised in the soul a regular abhorrence of it and detestation against it and the sinner may be willing to sue out a divorce Will the person think when he is throughly convinced of sin What a fool was I thus to serve these base lusts and pleasures What madness possessed me that I should depart from the Lord and follow after lying vanities For mark it Sirs When the affections act regularly in closing with or rejecting and refusing any spiritual object there must alwayes precede a competent knowledge of the good or evil of that object And the reason is plain because the will and affections are blind and dependent faculties they depend in their operations upon the information of the understanding So that the heart cannot hate the evil of sin nor will the person loath himself upon the account of it till the judgment be convinced of the nature and greatness of that evil You read of this as one of the first works of the Spirit Joh. 16.8 When the comforter is come he will convince the world of sin He will make them to see clearly what an ugly deformed nature it is of what a bitter thing it is to rebel against the most high He will discover unto them the guilt which lieth upon their souls and that by such evident concluding arguments as will take away from them all excuses whatsoever whereby they were apt to cover their transgressions * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore it followeth that he will convince them of their unbelief which is the great damning sin and that whereby other transgressions are fast bound upon the soul To this end God doth sometimes bring the sinner into sore afflictions and tribulations that he may thereby taste the bitterness and malignity of departing from him which before was accounted but a trivial matter little to be regarded Job 36.8 9 10. When they be bound in fetters and holden in the cords of affliction then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded He openeth their ear also to discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquity * Jer. 2.19 To this purpose the holy Ghost doth set the Law before a mans face in the spiritualness equity and excellency of it that the sinner may behold himself in that glass and pass judgment upon the evils of his heart and wayes according to that rule For when the commandment cometh then sin will revive indeed and be seen in its proper colours Rom. 7.9 Before the person is mistaken concerning the evil of it he reckoneth it a small matter and wondereth that Ministers and Precisians should make such an ado against sin because he judgeth of it by false rules by the opinion which the generality of the world have concerning it by the pleasure and worldly advantage that are attendant upon it and the like But when the Law cometh his mistakes are rectified and he seeth sin as it is And to this end the Spirit of God doth make discoveries unto the soul of the holiness and purity and infinite and spotless perfections of the nature of God himself against whom sin is committed When Job saw the Lord then he did abhor himself as in dust and ashes Job 42.4 5. When Isaiah had a full sight of the infinite power and holiness and glorious perfections of God then he cried out Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips Isa 6.3 4 5. This is a certain rule and if you will observe your hearts anddemeanour the truth of it will every day further appear to you by experience That as your apprehensions of God are so the manner of your applications unto God will be and so your apprehensions of the evil of sin against God will be likewise This is the first act in order unto a divorce from sin An act of Conviction 2. There is an act of Consideration wherein the heart is awakened to weigh the sad consequents of the evil of sin What will be the issue of these things What will become of my precious and immortal soul if I go on in this course There is no way thinketh the sinner to escape the damnation of hell without conversion and the torments thereof will be endless and everlasting torments If I am once cast into that lake there is no deliverance out of it Therefore you read of confidering and turning from sin Ezek. 18.27 28. When the wicked turneth from his wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive Because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed he shall surely live he shall not die And the truth is the reason why men and women do still hug their sins in their bosoms and roll them as a sweet morsel under their tongues is for want of consideration If they did sit down and consult what would become of them did they lay it seriously to heart and revolve it in their thoughts what precious souls their lusts are destroying what insupportable wrath they are pulling down upon their heads what rich grace they are abusing what an incomprehensible Majesty they are setting against and what a dismal condition it will without a speedy repentance reduce them unto would they harbour sin any longer in their hearts would they not flie from it as from a Serpent certainly they would cast it away with indignation and say Get ye hence ye filthy accursed lusts you have brought me into a wretched estate and should I follow you still I must be undone forever Isa 47.7 Thou didst not lay these things to thine heart neither didst thou remember the latter end of it As if the holy Ghost had said the cause of your continuance in sin is want of consideration if you had laid the end of it to heart it would have put a stop to your carier in a course of impiety This will appear in the return of the prodigal Luk. 15.17 18. When he came to himself he said How many hired servants
is the Creator God blessed for ever It is God whose wayes are perfect that is not wont to carry on his designs by halfs and to leave them in the mid-way unfinished and that cannot be disappointed in the fulfilling his counsels 2. It is the God of grace the Author and giver of grace and who aimeth at the magnifying of the riches of his grace in the salvation of his people and therefore will certainly accomplish it and not suffer them to fall back and perish from the right way 3. He is the God of all grace of strengthening and persevering as well as of the first converting and sanctifying grace 4. It is that God who hath called us and therefore will not forsake us utterly now we are called To what end do you think did he bring you into fellowship with himself if he purposed afterwards to reject you and let you perish for ever certainly he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ If whilst you were enemies he reconciled you unto himself and took you into the bond of the Covenant with himself it cannot be imagined that he will now cast you out of his favour If when ye were dead in sins and trespasses he quickned you much more being quickned ye shall be saved through his grace 5. It is he that called you by Christ Jesus who will undoubtedly carry on the work which he hath undertaken Indeed if God had put your happiness into your own keeping again you might have lost it as Adam did at the first But he hath put it into the hands of his own Son who is a faithful Trustee And he hath done it to this end that the promise might be sure to all the seed Wherefore do ye think did God lay such a sure foundation and build his people upon the rock but that the wind and stormes might not overturn the building 6. It is that God who hath called us unto glory unto eternal glory by Christ Jesus not only to have fellowship with him for a time here but to sit down with him in his kingdom for ever And how should that be attained if he should suffer you to be separated from his Son and to draw back unto perdition Undoubtedly you may go to this God with a full assurance of faith to make you perfect to stablish strengthen and settle you That is the third foundation on which the inseparableness of this Union is built 4. It is built upon the Advocateship and intercession of our Lord Jesus which he is making for believers at the right hand of the Father For as he came into the world to give satisfaction for them unto the justice of God so he entred into heaven by vertue of that satisfaction to plead for mercy in their behalf And this is one of the mercies which he pleadeth for That they may abide in him for ever and may not at any time be parted from him God the Father heareth his Son alwayes and granteth him whatever petition he maketh for his people And this is one of the great petitions which he presenteth that whilst his servants are in the world they may be kept from the evil of the world that as they are knit to him so they may never be divided from him till they arrive with safety where he is Joh. 17.15 24. And it is noted as one of the foundations whereupon the indefectibility of a Christians faith is bottomed and consequently of their Union with Christ which is made up thereby Luk. 22.31 32. And the Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not q. d. The great design of the devil is to root out your faith He knoweth if that grace fail other graces will fail with it if your faith be gone your union with me is dissolved and broken asunder But for thy comfort I assure thee of the contrary Thought it be strongly assaulted yet it shall never be utterly vanquished though it may be battered yet it shall not be wholly overcome though it may be kept under a little yet it shall in no wise be rooted up Whence doth this proceed Why from Christ's intercession it shall not fail for I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not 5. The inseparableness of a believers union with Christ is built upon the mighty power by which they are upheld and whereby they are preserved in Christ and that is the infinite unlimited and almighty power of God All the power in heaven is ingaged in their defence This the Apostle Peter urgeth for our incouragement 1 Pet. 1.5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation As the inheritance is reserved in heaven for you so ye are kept and preserved for it Yea but Satan our adversary is a roaring Lion that seeketh to devour us and what if he should pluck us out of the hands of our keeper Why saith the Apostle Your keeper is God the Lord of Hosts who hath ingaged his strength for your preservation He is able to bruise Satan under your feet Is not he that delivered you at first out of the paw of that Lion of strength sufficient to keep you The work is easier in it self to keep Satan out when he is dispossessed than at first to cast him out of his possession to keep sin under when it is subdued than at first to subdue it Besides God is omnipotent there is nothing too hard for him you have his power for your defence who is greater than all and none can pluck you out of his hands Joh. 10.29 6. Lastly it is built upon the durable nature of the new creature or the graces of the Spirit whereby Christ is formed in the souls of believers and they are fashioned after his likeness It is a seed which is of a permanent nature 1 Joh. 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God i. e. He doth not sin allowedly and customarily as the wicked do he doth not give up himself to serve his lusts for he hath a seed within him another principle which is contrary to sin and warreth against it and hath the supremacy in the Spirit But what if that seed should be lost would he not then return with the dog to his vomit yea but saith the holy Ghost It shall not be lost for the principle of grace is a divine principle not only infused and put into the soul but fast riveted into the soul Herein it differs from the habits put into the nature of man at first They were of divine original but they were loseable but when grace is restored under the second Covenant it shall never be lost It is an indefectible principle an everlasting seed If not in it self yet in respect of the fountain whence it is
contemplatiâ—n of this mercy and seriously pondering it in the heart by Believers that God hath so knit them unto his Son that they shall be still growing up into him and never be separated from him will be of notable efficacy to draw forth their love back again to the Lord and to kindle is their breasts a fervent affection towards him Which love so kindled is a mighty quickner to obedience Love is a commanding passion that will set all the powers of a mans soul on work to please the party that is beloved It will level mountains and make rough wayes smooth and no difficulties will deter it What will not a man do for one whom he dearly loveth You know what is said of Jacob Gen. 29 20. Although he served seven years hard service for Rachel the drought consumed him by day and the frost by night and his sleep departed from his eyes yet it was as nothing to him because he loved her Why Sirs a pure entire and affectionate love to God would cause men willingly to spend themselves in his service it would make them very cautious and fearful lest they should dishonour him or sin against him Now this great priviledge of an indissoluble union with Christ will mightily inflame the heart with affection and stir up a person to thankfulness Will the soul of a Believer be thus arguing with himself hath the Lord Christ been pleased not only to give me a transitory glimps of his favour which yet was more than ever I deserved but taken me into everlasting fellowship with him O what shall I render to the Lord How shall I sufficiently express my readiness to serve him Wherein may I be instrumental to shew forth his praise Surely I will cleave to this God as long as I live and call upon him whilst I have a being I will never more rebel against him Psal 31.23 O love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful If it be meant of temporal preservation of how much greater force will the argument be upon the account of spiritual grace and establishment How should a Believer say with David Psal 116.1 2. I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications Because he hath inclined his ear to me I will call upon him as long as I live Surely it is ignorance and unacquaintedness with the workings of the Spirit in a sanctified heart that makes men think doctrines of free grace are incouragements to sin 3. The consideration of the inseparableness of a Believers union with Christ should cause a Christian to entertain a holy jealousie and suspition over his own soul lest at any time he should draw back from the faith That by his fixedness in the wayes of God it may more abundantly appear that his profession of godliness was a sincere profession For if persons are unstedfast in the Covenant of God it will be a shrewd evidence that their hearts were not right with him If they do not hold on their way in the practise of godliness it will be manifest that they went no further than the form of godliness carried them So that the doctrine of perseverance is an awakening doctrine It should awaken us to be watchful over our selves and to work out our salvation with fear and trembling For then we are made partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end Heb. 3.14 That is then it will evidently appear that we are partakers of him and have a share in his death If we sall away from Christ it will be an undeniable token that we were never spiritually ingraffed into him 4. A due meditating upon the inseparableness of a Believers union with the Lord Jesus will incourage the soul of that believer in resisting and repelling the instigations of the devil and standing fast against all sollicitations to sin Through grace thinks a godly man I shall get the victory and therefore I will stir up my strength to the fight I see it is not in vain to strive against the wicked one If God should leave his children in their own hands to stand or fall according to the exercise of their own power then indeed their hearts might sink and their courage might flag But seeing God hath ingaged for my perseverance in the faith I will wrestle with all my might and use the utmost diligence for it will not be in vain so to do Psal 27.14 Wait on the Lord and be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. Hath God promised to preserve you then be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might follow hard after him and urge him with his promise and in his way you may expect the accomplishment of it This is the first rule for vindication of that property Rule 2. The many counsels and warnings which Christ hath given to his people to look well to themselves lest they should lose their hold of him and be separated from him are no proof at all that they may be separated or that their union with him may be dissolved God's injunctions upon them to keep themselves and his ingagement to be their keeper do not interfere one with the other but may well consist and stand together And the reason is evident Because these cautions anâ— commandments are the very means which God is pleased to make use of for their establishment in the faith whereby he doth fulfil his promise for their safeguard and together with which he doth convey his Spirit into their hearts for prevention of their apostacy This is according to that Statute Law of the Lord of hosts That his Spirit shall go forth in his word and with his word Isa 59.21 Will some say To what end doth God so often warn Believers that they draw not back to destruction if they are not liable thereunto True it doth suppose that they are liable to apostacy in themselves * Verè dicitur fidelem posse à fide suâ deficere quum scilicet in se principiis suis intrinsecis consideratur solis sic enim defectui subjicitur mutabilis existit Deas tamen immutabili faedere spospondit se conservaturum in sais faederatis principium illud vitale Hanc autem promissionem non solet exequi nisi verbi ministerio similibus auxilils adhibitis Ames Coron and without divine assistance would totally backslide and perish from the right way But God hath graciously undertaken for their preservation and abidance in Christ and these cautions are the means for the acomplishment of that undertaking and wherewith he sends forth the holy Ghost to strengthen them that they may abide in his Son Joh. 17.17 Thus I have finished my answer to the fourth head of enquiry touching the most signal properties of a Believers union with Jesus Christ CHAP. VIII The indispensable necessity of Union with Christ Proved by enumeration of the
â—and and be made perfectly blessed in the fuil enjoyment of him unto all eternity And this by vertue of their union with the Son of God and because they are so neerly related unto him Joh. 17.22 The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Who are these of whom our Saviour speaketh Why such as are in Christ and in God the Father through Christ v. 21. And again v. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me So that all sorts of blessings are conveyed in this way from the leading mercy of forgiveness of sin to the very consummation of a believers happiness First God doth unite his people unto Christ and then he doth bless them with all subsequent blessings in Christ from the acceptance of their persons to the very crown of righteousness So much shall suffice to be spoken unto the fifth general head of enquiry touching the signal benefits that flow from our union with Christ and for evincing the necessity thereof CHAP. IX The special similitudes made use of in the Scriptures for illustration of this Mystery of Union with Christ. 6. THere is yet one question more to be answered before I come to the Application and practical improvement of the Point The question is this Qu. What are the special similitudes or resemblances which the holy Ghost is pleased to make use of for illustration of this mystery of a believers union with the Lord Jesus Christ Answ I answer There are principally four Which I shall not handle at large as if I designed to shew you in all particulars that might be reckoned up wherein the proportion holds Only I will select a few things under each of those similitudes which will be most obvious and apposite to our purpose and of greatest use for giving us light into this mystery and priviledge A Believers union with Christ is illustrated by comparisons taken from the 1. Natural 2. Corporal 3. Conjugal 4. Artificial Union that there is between the 1. Head and members of the natural body 2. Vine and branches graffed into the vine 3. Husband and Wife married together 4. Foundation and building erected thereupon 1. The first similitude which I shall open for the further illustration of the grace of union with Christ is taken from the head and members of the natural body The Lord Jesus the Mediator is the head of the Church and his people are his body and every individual Saint is a member of that body so they are compacted and knit together Thus the holy Ghost doth condescend in compliance with our weakness to shadow forth heavenly things under the figure of earthly Col. 1.18 And he is the head of the body the Church who is the beginning the first born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence The Church here is compared to a vineyard that bringeth forth fruit unto God and the Lord himself hath undertaken the charge and custody of it So that if you get into Christ you need not be troubled at events what may befal you you may cast your care upon him who is the keeper of Israel and will take the care of you He will destroy the little foxes that spoil the vines as his care is set forth Cant. 2.15 He will root up the errors that endanger the faith of his people and pluck up the Schisms that tend to the destruction of their peace further than may be fit to exercise them for their good and to make manifest such as are approved He will weed up the corruptions out of the hearts of his people and in due time put a stop to the rage of persecutors and whatever is noxious and prejudicial shall be averted and taken out of the way 3. He is the head of the Church In respect of influence and vertue derived from him upon it As from the head are derived the animal spirits for motion and sensation in the body and by it vigour and activity is put into the body So Christ doth minister unto the supply of his Church and people on all occasions By him the Spirit is sent down from above and all their vacuities are filled up Phil. 4.19 My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus That 's the third respect of his headship 4. In respect of his completion and perfecting by the Church The head is not compleat without the body Every part and member thereof doth help to the perfection of the whole Thus doth the Lord 〈…〉 himself imperfect till his body be filled up And therefore the Church which is his body is called The fulness of him that filleth all in all Eph. 1.23 In his person he is compleat without the least taint of an imperfection As to his Godhead he is infinite he filleth all in all But as he is the head of his Church he accounts himself to be defective till all his people are gathered unto him 5. Christ is the Head of the Church upon the account of their neer relation to him and intimate union with him They are as clesly knit together as the body is to the head And this is true not only of the Church in general but every particular Christian is united unto the head and partaketh of the influence of it 1 Cor. 12.27 Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular That 's the first thing to be noted under this similitude 2. In pursuance of this comparison observe further That the way wherein a Believer is knit unto Christ it is by being quickned through the Spirit of Jesus Christ For wherein lieth the conjunction between the head the body Why principally in this that they are both animated with the same soul There is nothing properly and strictly a part of the body unless it partake of life with it So the Saints are quickned by the Spirit of the Son thereby he joyneth them to himself and inableth them to take hold of him and cleave unto him * Ut Christus similitudinem capitis naturalis gerit Ecclesia coporis naturalis ita elect orum tantum Rex caput Christus est quia in â—os tantum vi 〈…〉 electi seli sunt quia soli Christo tanquam à capite naturali spiritualiter vegetantur Parâ— de Pol. Eccles Christus non aliter caput est quam ut Ecclesiae vitam praebet Whitak Eph. 2.5 Even when we were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickned us together with Christ with the same Spiâ—it wherewith 〈…〉 Ghost which is poured forth upon him And if we are alive unto God it is through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 3. According to the tenour of this resemblance If we are made one with our Lord Jesus we must of necessity give up our selves in subjection to him and be ready to follow his conduct The members of
God that it may prove a certain evidence of conversion and consequently of our union with Christ Jesus It must of necessity have these six properties and each of them must be enquired after in the business of self-examination It must be 1. Spiritual 2. Vniversal 3. Evangelical 4. Sincere 5. Thriving 6. Stedfast obedience 1. It must be spiritual obedience answerable to the nature of that God whom we wait upon and whose servants we are His essence is spiritual and such must our obedience to him be if we will serve the Lord acceptably and make it appear that we are of the number of his peculiar people Bodily exercise and a meer external devotion will strike a great stroke in making up the form of godliness but the power of it consisteth in that which is spiritual Joh. 4.23 The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him These are the true worshippers that is such as are so in Gods account whom he will graciously receive and own in their performances When people serve him in a bare external bodily manner he reckoneth them as his greatest enemies their service is but a piece of dissimulation which hath only the shadow of worship For the substance lieth in what is spiritual And such the Father seeketh to worship him i.e. such worship he commandeth and his soul is well pleased with Although it seemeth to be spoken here with a peculiar reference to instituted worship yet it holds strongly as to natural worship also even of all the parts and particulars of his service For the reason which is rendred v. 24. is comprehensive of all Because God is a Spirit So that our obedience if it prove us a chosen generation whom God hath set apart for himself must be spiritual And that in a threefold respect In respect of the 1. Principle from whence it floweth 2. Extent how far it reacheth 3. Subject whereon it is terminated 1. In respect of the principle from whence it proceedeth It must be such obedience as cometh from the heart and wherein the soul and spirit is ingaged Not an honouring him with the lips and drawing neer to him with the mouth when the heart is removed far from him Not a serving him only by a kind of compulsion under some terrible apprehensions of the judgments of God not in a slothful careless and lukewarm manner as if Religion were a weariness to us and we had no mind to our work But when we serve him aright our hearts must be ingaged to approach unto him Jer. 30.21 22. we must be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 And our inward parts must be employed in the works of holiness When a mans tongue doth speak forth the praises of God and his heart joyneth with him in the business when his hands do act in the works of piety and his spirit concurreth in the action and carry him on thereunto this is to serve the Lord with the Spirit Although he calleth for the body also to be imployed in his service as indeed he deserveth the whole man yet not as a picture or image without life and soul but as animated by the heart Prov. 23.26 My son give me thine heart and let thine eyes observe my wayes q.d. A slave will give me his hands and feet and the strength of his body an hypocrite will offer up the outward man but if thou be a son I must have the heart and spirit 2. It must be spiritual obedience in respect of the extent of it how far it reacheth Such as sets us in opposition against spiritual sins as well as fleshly such as causeth us to fight against secret pride and envy and earthliness and unbelief and malice and double-mindedness and the like as well as to obstain from rotten communication and gross outward pollutions It must be such obedience as is exercised in spiritual duties as meditation on the word of the Lord and frequent contemplation of the excellencies of God adoring his Majesty and admiring his works and setting the affections on things above as well as in pleading the cause of holiness and openly walking in the profession of it It must carry us to such works as are performed in the secret recesses of the Spirit and sets us a striving against such corruptions as are forged and fabricated in the spirit which no eye can observe but God and our own consciences 2 Cor. 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves from all the filthiness both of the flesh and spirit Rom. 8.5 They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit Psal 73.1 Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are clean of heart See further Psal 24.3 4. Mat. 6.21 3. In respect of the subject whereon it is terminated It endeth in the further renewing and purifying the spirit and getting more degrees of habitual grace into the heart When we are not only contented to be kept free from the acts of sin but do mourn and lament under the principle of sin and labour to deaden that principle When we do not think it enough to do much for God but fain would have our spirits transformed every day more and more into the image of God Thus it will be if you are converted If a carnal person resist the temptation he thinks his work is done and is apt to glory in himself as if the whole business were dispatched But a convert layeth the ax to the root of the tree he followeth the corrupt stream to the poysonous fountain whence it is derived and nothing will satisfie him but cleansing the fountain and taking revenge upon his lusts that lodge within him Rom. 7.23 24. Paul's actual sins cause him to have an eye upon his heart by which he was turned aside I see saith he another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity unto the law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death This is the first qualification It must be spiritual obedience 2. If you would prove your conversion and consequentially your union with Christ by your obedience It must be universal obedience Not a partial and restrictive serving of God but a following him fully as far as the whole circuit of holiness reacheth As it is said of Caleh Num. 14.24 He followed the Lord fully and that proved him to be a man of another spirit and of a gracious temper indeed sanctified by the holy Ghost because his obedience was universal There is a threefold universality must go to the right qualifying our obedience that it may be evidential of a converted estate It must be universal in relation to the 1. Agent or person obeying 2. Rule of obedience 3. Times and seasons of the performance 1. In relation to the agent or person
And a stop was immediately put to the further progress of it Correcting providences and gracious deliverances have both of them a Teaching vertue They are the voice of the Lord whereby he crieth aloud unto the children of men Mic. 6.9 Amos 4.10 11. And this dispensation which I am calling back to your remembrance being a Judgment allayed with the mixture of abundant mercy seemed in my apprehension to speak thus much unto you As if the Lord had said This people are in the way of declining apace from me and begin to lose the sense of the Gospel doctrines wherein they have been taught And therefore I might justly break in upon them in wrath and consume them with a sore destruction But how shall I give them up to utter ruine and desolation How shall I lay them waste and make them as Admah and Zeboim My bowels are turned within me my repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will yet grant them some deliverance I will wait upon them a while further that I may be gracious unto them I will see what their end will be what use they will make of this eminent deliverance My Brethren I question not but there are many amongst you that truly fear the name of the Lord And of the rest I speak not to shame or accuse But as my dearly beloved friends I warn and admonish And I expect your pardon for dealing thus plainly for if you would have me for your Friend you cannot rationally expect that I should be * Idem non potest esse amicus adulator your Flatterer Take heed therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken of by the Prophet Esaias Chap. 5.4 5 6. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wilde grapes And now Go to I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the wall thereof and it shall be troden down And I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up bryars and thorns I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it You may now expect to be dismissed But before I conclude this Epistle give me leave to press upon you a few general Scripture rules The Lord cause them to work efficaciously upon your spirits 1. Take heed of resting in a formal course of Religion and of fancying to your selves an easie way to salvation But get through convictions upon your hearts of the necessitie of making it your very business to walk with God and of acting with vigour and industry in laying hold on eternal life Lazy wishes and faint desires an empty name and profession and a bare keeping the round of some outward duties will never bring you into the glorious presence of God Formality and lukewarmness will no sooner get to heaven than downright Atheism and profaness If you will be saved you must not only seek but strive you must put your selves as it were into an Agony with striving * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to enter in at the strait gate Luke 13.24 You may be brought into those streights that if you will keep a good conscience you shall keep nothing but a good conscience And if ye will save your souls you shall save nothing but your souls Mark 8.34 35. And can this be done with a wet finger Is it an easie thing to bring your hearts into a willingness to forsake all that you have for Christ If you will enter into life you must walk in a contradiction to the generality of the world 1 Joh. 5.19 Rom. 12.2 You must watch and stand fast against all sorts of sollicitations unto sin 1 Cor. 16.13 You must not content your selves with the external performance of duties but be spiritual and servent in the performance of them Isa 64.7 Jude 3. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence Mat. 11.12 And every man presseth into it i.e. Every one that doth savingly close with it every one that gets a real interest therein every one that will not fall short of the grace offered thereby Luke 16.16 So that if you will work out your salvation successfully you must act forcibly The height of security and wickedness in the heart of a sinner usually entereth in at this door of slightness and formality in the service * Nemo repente fit turpissimns of God When persons are negligent and superficial in duty they will quickly make no conscience of duty and at length forget that there is a God to be served or immortal souls to be regarded Prov. 19.15 2 Tim. 3.13 2. If you will act to purpose in working out your salvation you must set upon the prosecution of that design with the full purpose of your hearts If you will follow the Lord fully you must walk resolvedly That 's the way to resist the devil that he may flee from you and to break through all impediments and aversions that they may not turn you aside A double-minded man is both unstable and slothful in all his waies 'T is a setled resolution that strengthens the spirit under pressures fortifieth the soul against difficulties and makes it unmoveable as a Rock that nothing shall prevail to the alteration of his course Let me give you the exhortation of Barnabas Act. 23. That with purpose of heart you cleave unto the Lord. Say every one of you as Joshua Chap. 24.15 As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. The God of heaven we will adore and his Statutes we will keep His Ordinances we will observe and the wayes of holiness we will own whatever cometh of it To this end consider often the absolute necessity of making your peace with God and walking before him in the integrity of your hearts If you trifle in this business you are undone for ever And bethink your selves how obstinately the wicked are bent upon the satisfaction of their lusts and will not you be as peremptorily fixed upon the saving of your souls That 's an excellent Copy to transcribe in your practise Mic. 4.5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever 3. Be sure to get your understandings and judgments rightly principled with distinct knowledge of the mysteries of the Gospel As there can be no saving grace in the heart without a competent knowledge of the principles of Religion So it is hardly to be imagined what abundant mischiefs do arise as to errors in the mind disorders in the conversation and deprivement of comfort in the soul for want of a distinct knowledge of those principles Ignorance is vertually any evil whatsoever The understanding is the gate of entrance into the soul and the other
Serviceable p. 154 3. Superlative p. 156 4. A love of complacency p. 157 Prop. 8. The Mystical Union of Believers with Christ and all the blessings which are the consequents thereof do originally flow from the merit of the death of Christ which in pursuance of the eternal covenant with the Father he suffered in their stead and whereby he gave satisfaction to divine Justice p. 159 This last proposition explicated under five heads p. 161 CHAP. VII The properties of a Believers Union with Christ 1. It is an immediate Union p. 168 2. It is a spiritual Vnion p. 169 3. It is an inseparable Vnion p. 170 The inseparableness of this Union built on six foundations 1. The Enchangeableness of the purpose of God p. 172 2. The nature of the covenant of Grace p. 173 3. The charge given to the Lord Jesus Christ and his faithfulness p. 175 4. The Advocateship and intercession of Christ p. 177 5. The mighty power by which Believers are preserved p. 178 6. The durable nature of the new creature p. 179 Those things which are most likely to make a separation betwixt Christ and a Believer shall not be able to effect it Not 1. The remainders of sin p. 181 2. The violent assaults of the devil p. 183 3. The allurements of the world p. 185 4. False Teachers the devils instruments p. 187 5. Troubles and persecutions for the sake of Christ p. 188 6. Death which is the great separating providence p. 190 The doctrine of the inseparableness of the Saints Union with Christ vindicated in two Rules Rule 1. This doctrine is so far from being an enemy to holiness that if rightly improved it will be a notable incentive and provocative thereto p. 192. This evidenced by four considerations p. 194 Rule 2. The many counsels and warnings which Christ hath given to his people to take heed that they lose not their hold of him are no proof at all that this Union may be dissolved p. 198 CHAP. VIII The spiritual blessings enumerated which flow from the grace of Union with Christ and have dependance thereon p. 200 1. The grace of justification in the sight of God p. 202 This particular opened under six Heads p. 203 2. Adoption or inrollment amongst the children of God 214 3. Participation of actual grace or the supplies of the Spirit p. 215 This a point well to be considered for three Reasons p. 218 This doctrine explained in three things p. 220 Seven sorts of actual grace instanced in p. 222 4. The fourth blessing arising from union with Christ is the gracious acceptation of all our duties p. 226 5. A title to the promises of the Gospel p. 228 6. Union with the Father and intimate acquaintance with him p. 229 7. Peace and joy in the holy Ghost p. 230 8. Deliverance from the sting and consequently the fear of death p. 232 9. A glorious Resurrection of the body p. 235 10. Boldness at the bar of Judgment p. 236 11. Actual admission into the kingdom of Heaven p. 237 CHAP. IX The special Scripture similitudes whereby the mystery of union with Christ is illustrated p. 238 1. The first similitude taken from the natural union betwixt the head and members of the body p. 239 1. Christ the head of Believers in a fivefold respect p. 240 2. The way of union with Christ is by being quickned through his Spirit p. 243 3. Believers must be in subjection to Christ and follow his conduct p. 244 4. This similitude holds forth also that unity love and concord which Christians should maintain amongst themselves p. id 5. As Christ is the head of the Church so he is constituted head of all things for the good of his Church p. 245 2. The second similitude drawn from the corporal union betwixt the Vine and the branches graffed into the Vine p. 246 This similitude holds forth four things 1. A Christians whole dependance is upon the Lord Jesus p. 247 2. The union of Believers with Christ is a closely compacted union p. 248 3. In order to union with Christ we must be taken off from all other dependances id 4. A Christians glory lieth in practical holiness or being fruitful p. 249 3. The third similitude taken from the nuptial union betwixt the Husband and Wife p. 250 1. This union is with the consent and according to the pleasure of the Father p. 251 2. Christ doth woo and intreat sinners to come unto him p. 252 3. Our faith in Christ is the consent of our hearts to take him p. 253 4. This consent must be a Marriage-consent In three respects p. 254 5. A Christians obedience must be service mingled with love p. 258 6. There is a mutual complacency and satisfaction between Christ and his people p. 259 4. The last similitude taken from the artificial union betwixt the Foundation and Building erected thereon 1. A twofold Foundation 1. Doctrinal 260 2. Personal 261 2. Believers must be conformable to Christ On a fivefold account p. 262 3. Our faith in Christ is a resting on him p. 265 CHAP. X. Inferences collected from the doctrine of Union 1. Inf. True believers are the most excellent persons p. 268 This Inference amplified in five respects p. 270 2. Inf. God hath a special regard to Believers and their concernments p. 276 The peculiarity of the providence of God towards them in four things p. 278 3. Inf. Christless sinners are in a state of death p. 281 In respect of 1. Abomination in the sight of God p. 283 2. Putrefaction and rottenness p. 284 3. Impotency and inability to what is spiritually good p. 286 4. Damnation and liableness to eternal death p. 288 This point pressed by two considerations p. 290 5. The abundant evils incident to that estate p. 294 Exemplified in five things p. 295 Obj. To what purpose are the unregenerate commanded to turn themselves and to walk in wayes of holiness if spiritually dead p. 299 Sol. In five things p. 300 CHAP. XI Use of Trial whether we are united to Christ p. 306 Self-examination necessary to attain the knowledge of our Union p. 307 1. Else we cannot pertinently apply the word of God to our selves p. 308 2. 'T is the means which God hath appointed to that end p. 310 3. Hereby we may find out the deceits and falshoods under which our spirits are apt to hide themselves p. 311 Wherein the work of self-examination consists In six Conclusions Concl. 1. Self-examination is a compounded duty made up of a threefold spiritual and reflexive action p. 314 1. Inspection or Retrospection into our selves p. 315 2. Probation or Trial of our selves p. 316 3. Conclusive determination or passing sentence upon our selves p. 318 Concl. 2. The special faculty by which the work of of self examination is performed is the practical judgment or conscience p. 319 Concl. 3. This work cannot be done effectually and successfully without the concurrent influence and witness of the spirit
damnation that will befal and the sore torments that will be inflicted upon such All ungodly sinners will be punished everlastingly but such as seemed to cleave unto Christ but yet served the devil will be punished most severely and made to drink of the dregs of the cup of God's indignation as sinning against most light Gospel-light and under means of grace denied to others which are the main aggravations of sin To them is reserved the myst of darkness for ever Genitivus reflexus super nominativum singularem importat eminentiam Ut coeli coelorum i.e. Altissimi Et sic in Synenimis ut iniquitas peccati i. e. maxime peccaminosa Sic caligo tenebrarum i. e. densissima that is the grossest darkness and sorest destruction 2 Pet. 2.17 You know our Lord Christ pronounceth the most terrible woes on this account Mat. 11.21 22 23. Wo to thee Chorazin wo to thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you And thou Capernaum which art exalted to heaven shalt be brought down to hell c. that is because thou art highly advanced in spiritual priviledges and hast not improved them thou shalt be destroyed with double destruction and made utterly desolate For as our Lord Jesus elsewhere concludes This is the condemnation that men live in sin under Gospel-light light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light Joh. 3.19 And besides I might have added that the torments of such will be the greater because of the reproach and scandal which they bring upon Christ and his ways As they dishonour him actively by their own transgressions so they give occasion to others to speak evil of him and his service For will wicked profane wretches be ready to say when they see the haltings and hypocrisie of these carnal Professors Lo these are your Saints that would be accounted more precise than others Here is their Religion and such they are all of them and the like It is because of the blots and blemishes of these counterfeit Christians that the name of Christ is blasphemed Rom. 2.24 compared with Ezek. 36.20 23. 3. Their condition is sad because of their more than ordinary inexcusableness in their eternal damnation They will have no manner of Apology or defence to make for themselves their mouths will be stopped to purpose for indeed they are condemned of themselves May Christ say unto them if my service were evil why did you call your selves may servants and go under my name and list your selves into my family and if it be excellent indeed why did not you serve me in truth and in sincerity Mat. 22.12 When the King came in to see the guests he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment And he saith unto him Friend how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment and he was speechless q. d. Why didst thou associate thy self with such company if thou wert resolved to continue in thy filthiness what an impudent wretch art thou to enter thy self into my houshold and family unless thou wert purposed to subject to the Laws and Discipline thereof How couldest thou for shame rank thy selfe amongst believers whilst thou liest polluted in thine impurity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi capistro injecto obmutuit And he was speechless he was muzzled as the word signifieth he had not a word to say in his own defence his own conscience silenced him For as the Apostle argueth If the light of nature will render the Heathen inexcusable and leave them without apology in the day of judgment how much more inexcusable are those who are brought within the pale of the visible Church of Christ and yet will not have that man to reign over them that call themselves Christians and partake of the priviledges of Christianity and yet serve the devil and are of his Synagogue Rom. 1.20 compared with Chap. 2.1 4. Their estate is sad bedanse of that vexation and horror which the very reflection up on this thing will bring to their spirits everlastingly How will the worm of conscience gnaw upon their hearts from this very consideration and the hypocritical wretches be ready to fear out their own bowels When they shall bethink themselves they were so neer to Christ and yet fell short of salvation by him that then took possibly a great deal of pains in the outward part of Religion to go on in a round of duties yet for want of truth and integrity in the inward parts must lose the benefit of all that ever they did that they were not far off from the kingdom of God and for want of going further must perish amongst the devils and damned for ever and make their bed in hell According to that in Luk. 13.28 There shall be weaping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your selves thrust out So much more will it bring vexation and anguish upon a mans spirit when he shall see such an acquaintance of his got to heaven that perhaps fate in the same seat with him who was wont to meet at the same religious exercises with him and himself excluded When he shall find such an one received into Abrahams bosom that possibly she fat outstript in commons gifts and qualifications a poor broken-hearted sinner whom he was aâ—â— to despise and himself tâ—rust into the chains of â—arkness amongst dogs and forcerâ—rs and whoremongers amongst professed Atheists and the profanest of men What bitterness will this bring to a mans thoughts O my friends think of this betimes ere it be too late and the Lord a waken your hearts that you may not rest on this side of a saving Vnion with the Lord Jesus So much for the first branch of the distinction viz. An Union with Christ by way of commoâ— profession or exceâ—nal adhâ—sion only 2. There is an Union or Onchess with Jesuâ— Christ my spiritual implantation and ingrature When a person is in him so as to receive life and nourishment from him as a quick fruit-bearing graff is in the stock as a living member is in the body and united unto the head When a soul is not only set upon the foundation but is also cemented to it by the cement of special grace the peculiar work of the spirit of holiness When he is a lively stone built upon the living foundation as the holy Ghost expresseth it 1 Pet. 2.4 5. To whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house It is this sort of union which the Scripture mentioneth as so great a mystery and to which eternal life
unto the world Joh. 14.22 and mark our Saviours answer v. 23. Jesus answered and said unto him if a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him q.d. We will be united and knit to such a one and thereupon maintain a constant communion and intercourse with him which is a way of the manifestation of our selves which the world knoweth not of The world is shut out of Christ's prayer for this mercy and it is confined to believers Joh. 17. v. 9. compared with v. 21. 2. It belongeth to believers Universally and comprehensively that is to all of that sort and number whether they are weak Christians or strong whether they are more eminent in the Church or of a lower esteem My brethren this grace of Oneness with Christ is not a dignity conferred upon some eminent Saints whereby they are advanced above their fellows but this honour have all the Saints If there be true justifying faith but as a grain of mustard-seed as our Saviour speaketh in another case it putteth a man into the possession of this priviledge It may be the comfort of the meanest and poorest of the people of God upon earth that however men despise them yet they are married to the King of Kings to the only begotten Son of God You read of babes in Christ who are the lowest rank of Believers 1 Cor. 3.1 It may be improved as a point of wonderful consolation by poor drooping souls that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity When your corruptions struggle within you and you are violently assaulted by temptations from without and thereupon are afraid how you shall be able to hold out and to keep on in the way of godliness when your spirits are ready to sink under your burdens indeavour to raise them up again with this meditation The Lord Christ is my Husband why should I fear He is ingaged to preserve me for I belong to him nay I am in him See and study Isa 40.27 28 29 30. 3. This Union appertaineth to Believers entirely and undividedly My meaning is this the whole persons are the subjects of this Union and every part of them not only their souls the spiritual and immortal part but their very bodies which are made of the dust of the earth For as the grace of Vnction or sanctification where it is poured out upon a person it maketh an entire change both in body and soul so doth the grace of Vnion reach to the whole man to the body as well as to the soul 1 Cor. 6.15 What know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ q. d. This is a known truth a foundation principle you must not be ignorant of it you should be well instructed in this Point that you may be careful not to defile your bodies that it may quicken you to glorifie Christ with your bodies as well as with your spirits 1 Cor. 6.20 At the resurrection the bodies of the Saints shall be fashioned and made like to Christ's glorious body and here upon earth they are knit to his person 4. Believers are the subjects of this Union formally that is under that very consideration as such quatenus Believers For the grace of saith is the principle which God doth peculiarly honour in this very business to make up our union with Christ or to knit a person and the Lord Jesus together Whom he hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 And therefore our Apostle applyeth the doctrine of my Text unto them that believe in the words immediately following v. 12. He that hath the Son hath life c. And v. 13. These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that ye have eternal life How should Believers know it hereby Why because Believers have the Son by believing they are in the Son eo nomine because they believe That 's the third Branch of the description the proper subjects of this Union viz. Believers 4. Here is the foundation of this Union on which it is bottomed and from whence it doth arise namely from their intimate conjunction with Christ It is that special relation which Believers have to the Lord Jesus arising from their intimate conjunction with him Or from the closness of their being joyned together This is well to be observed as a material point for first there must be unition as one noteth before there can be Vnion First they must be brought together and must be linked and fastened one to the other before they can become one together At least in order of nature conjunction must precede for Union doth result or flow from it and hath a necessary dependance thereupon As it is in marriage the great resemblance for illustration of this mystery First the man and woman are brought together and married one to the other and thence their union doth arise they become one flesh So it is in this spiritual grace first Christ and a Believer are joyned together and then they become one This conjunction is so closs and in imate that it is called a being glewed unto Christ so the word signifieth 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui Domino agâ—utinatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gluten or glewed to the Lord is one spirit First they are joyned and so become one spiritually How this conjunction is wrought I shall open at large in answer to the next question This is the fourth branch of the Description 5. Lastly You have the blessed consequents which flow from hence or the glorious effects produced hereby and they are especially three 1. Hereupon they are accounted as one with Christ 2. Their spiritual state is fundamentally changed 3. The benefits of redemption are effectually applyed 1. Hereupon they are accounted as one with Christ Being made so they are reckoned and esteemed as such and accordingly made partakers of whatsoever advantage doth accrew thereby and doth grow upon this root of Oneness with the Mediator It is not an empty name and an airy appellation which is hereby attained but believers are answerably esteemed and dealt with in all sorts of dispensations Therefore they are said to be found in him Philip. 3.9 That I may win Christ and be found in him that is in all the dealings of God towards them they are looked upon as one with his Son so their concernments are regarded and blessings are dispensed unto them evils are averted and kept from falling upon them and spiritual good things are given forth When God doth go forth in his providence twoards the children of men he findeth the wicked in their sins polluted in their blood under the curse of the Law and so there is a curse interwoven with his proceedings with them but when he looketh down upon Believers they are found in Christ They are reckoned as one
the state of the person acting * Itaque non quid fiat aut quid detur refert sed qua mente Quia beneficium non in eo quod fit dut datur consistit sed in ipso dantis aut benefacientis animo Sen. de Benefic So that if we would assure our hearts before Christ at his appearance and comfortably expect to receive the reward of the inheritance we must not think it sufficient to make a little reformation in our lives but our spiritual state must be changed Instead of strangers and enemies we must be made the friends of the Lord we must be taken out of Satans family and put into the houshold of faith 6. In the sixth and last place to bring it home to our purpose observe that this change in a mans spiritual state is fundamentally brought to pass by his union with Christ it is wrought by vertue of being ingraffed into Christ Then is a sinner put into another state and condition when he is broken off from the old stock and put into the true vine when he is taken out of the wild Olive and inserted into the good Olive-tree For Sirs Christ is the head and master of the whole party of God's peculiar people as Satan is the prince of the children of disobedience so the Lord Jesus is the king of Saints the Prince and Captain of their salvation to whom they belong and when they are in him then they belong to him Gal. 3.28 29. There is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female that is such things as these Country Sex and Nation or outward condition of life make no difference on a spiritual account but union with Christ as it followeth but you are all one in Christ Jesus one mystical body by vertue of conjunction with him And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise then is your state changed from children of wrath to be inheritors of a kingdom That 's the second general product or consequent of union with Christ Thereby a mans spiritual state is fundamentally changed 3. From hence doth redound a right to all the blessings of the Covenant Hereby the benefits of redemption are effectually applyed to their souls So applyed that believers have a title thereto and may plead their interest therein they may come unto the Lord with an holy boldness and challenge those blessings as their own They have not only liberty to pray for them as mercies which they want but with an holy reverence and humility they may put in their claim to them when they are united unto Christ the Son of God The very justice of God is ingaged to answer their suit as well as his compassion For Sirs when a man is knit unto Christ all things that are Christs do of right belong unto that man 1 Cor. 3.21 22 23. All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come All are yours and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's Mark it all things are yours that is in respect of title to them and the benefit of them Upon what ground is that title bottomed why upon your oneness with Christ therefore all are yours because ye are Christs As the interest which a woman hath in the goods and possessions of her husband doth arise from her being united to the person of her husband so the right which any have to the possessions of Christ and the mercies which he hath purchased doth flow from their oneness with the person of Christ First we must be his before we have a right to any thing that is his This is a known principle That if we would receive any benefit by the redemption which Christ hath purchased it must be applyed unto us Now this application is made effectually by our oneness with Christ It is the Spirit by whom the application is made and union with Christ is the way wherein or whereby that application is made effectually And therefore you must observe there are three wayes how the benefits of redemption are applyed to the souls of men and women There is an 1. External and doctrinal application 2. Internal but conditional application 3. Effectual and saving application 1. There is an external or doctrinal application by the Ministers of the Gospel When the general promise of salvation is particularly manifested unto us and the tenders of life and happiness are made to our souls by the Embassadors whom Christ employeth to that end This is the great priviledge of such as have their standing in the visible Church As there is eternal life procured through the blood of the Lord Jesus so it is offered unto them Christ doth beseech them by his Ministers to accept of it The general promise of blessedness to all that believe is brought home to them and personally applyed unto them This I call a doctrinal Application Thus Peter applyed the grace of God unto the people Act. 2.38 Then Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost Again Acts 3. v. 19. Repent ye therefore and be convâ—rted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Mark it There is a general promise of pardon to such as repent of sin and turn from it unto God that iniquity shall never prove their ruine Now this very thing the Apostle applyeth unto them Repent ye and you shall be pardoned your sins shall be forgiven you and when Christ shall come at the day of judgment which will be a day of gladness and refreshment to believers then you shall be openly acquitted from your guilt it shall be proclaimed in the face of all the world that you are pardoned and accepted Thus Paul and Silas apply salvation to the Jaylor Act. 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thine house There is an universal promise that whosoever believeth shall be saved Now say Paul and Silas to the keeper of the prison Thou art not excluded out of this promise by vertue of our commission from Christ and in his name we tender salvation to thee and to thine house This application doth oftentimes leave men as it found them life and happiness is tendered and they put it far from them Act. 13.46 Mat. 22.2 3. 2. There is an internal but conditional application of the benefits of redemption and this is wrought by the Spirit of God dealing with a mans spirit When the holy Ghost doth present unto the soul what in the Ministery of the Word was sounded in the ear * Interna oblatio est spiritualis quadam illuminatio qua cordibus hominum proponuntur illae promissiones quasi per verbum internum Haec etiam aliquando
quodam modo conceditur non electis Ames When he doth take salvation in the offers of it and lay it before the conscience and doth press an acceptance of it upon the heart and doth strive with men and women in order to a closure with it upon Gospel-terms This is sometimes called a knocking at the door of the soul Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me By the door understand the heart of a sinner whereby entrance is made into the whole person and possession took as a man entreth into an house by the door the heart which is naturally shut against Christ nay barred and bolted against him by vain thoughts and vile affections and carnal reasonings by pride and prejudice and love of sin and the world Now to this door Christ cometh by the Spirit who acteth in his name and knocketh at the door that is he doth argue and reason the case with mens souls by his internal motions that they would accept of salvation as it is offered He doth expostulate with them why they will be so foolish as to spend their time and strength in seeking after that which is not bread and cannot satisfie And in order to move them to turn to God he doth set salvation before them and assureth them of the enjoyment of it if they will submit to the government of Jesus Christ If any man open the door I will come in unto him c. This I call an internal-conditional application because it is an inward work of the Spirit treating with the heart of a sinner And pray mind it Sirs as it is a common thing so it is a very dangerous thing to stand out against this application of eternal life When the holy Ghost hath been dealing with a mans heart convincing him of the necessity of closing with Christ and he doth break through such convictions God doth many times withdraw the very strivings of his spirit from such a sinner and never dealeth with him further in order to his conversion Prov. 1.23 Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you It is the speech of Christ the eternal Wisdom of God inviting sinners to repentance q.d. I do not only call upon you by my Word but I will send the holy Ghost to treat with you He shall speak over to your consciences what the Minister preacheth in your ears And what is the issue of rejecting this work of the holy Ghost See v. 24. and onward Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsels and would none of my reproof I also well laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind That is when judgments which you were afraid of shall actually seize upon you and make you desolate when the wrath of God shall fall down upon you suddenly in a dreadful and terrible manner When distress and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me How is this to be understood seeing God is alwayes found of such as seek him in sincerity Why the meaning seemeth to be this God will withdraw his spirit and deal with their hearts no further and then they will grow hard and impenitent and though they cry in their afflictions yet it will only be the cry of hypocrities such as the Lord will have no manner of regard unto O my brethren let this dreadful Scripture and these awakening expressions sink deep into your ears that you may not dare to resist the holy Ghost or to send him grieved away from you 3. There is an effectual saving application of the benefits of redemption when they are so applyed to us as to be made ours so that we may say this promise is a part of my heritage and the other mercy is that which I have an interest in And this is effected upon our union with Christ When the holy Ghost doth not only shew us his excellency and propound unto us salvation through his righteousness but doth also mightily prevail upon us to come unto Christ and we get into him then we have a right to all that he hath to bestow upon the sons and daughters of men First we must have the Son and so a right to the inheritance by the Son 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption Mark it Then he is made so to us when we are in him It is one thing for Christ to be made wisdom and righteousness c. i.e. to be set apart as the store-house of all these spiritual good things and it is another thing for him to be made so to us By vertue of God's commission and the qualifications poured out upon the Lord Jesus and that active and passive obedience undertaken and performed by him he is made wisdom and righteousness and fanctification and redemption he is delegated to be God's high-steward or Treasurer for the giving out of these mercies he is become the source and fountain of all saving grace But when we are in him he is made wisdom to us and righteousness to us and sanctification to us and redemption to us so that we are actually made partakers of them These four things seem to comprehend the whole of the provisions made to conduct a sinner to glory 1. Wisdom for the revelation of the mind of God to us 2. Righteousness for our acceptation with the Lord. 3. Sanctification for inabling us to walk as a peculiar people and for carrying on the work of holiness to perfection 4. Redemption for our full deliverance from misery and compleating our happiness And all these are made over to us by vertue of our union with him our mystical oneness with Christ So much for opening the several branches of the Description and for the second general Head concerning the nature of this Union wherein it doth consist CHAP. V. The manner how Christ and a Believer are united cleared up in eight gradual Propositions Six of them insisted on 3. COme we now to the third principal Head propounded to be handled touching the manner of this Union how it is brought about The question is Qu. How is this Vnion wrought and accomplished After what manner is this conjunction made up whereby Christ and his people become one Ans I shall return answer to this question by laying down and enlarging upon eight distinct and gradual Propositions To which I must intreat your heedful and diligent attendance 1. Propos 1. The first Proposition is this That all the children of men
of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my father When he came to himself that is when he entered into debate with his own spirit * Ut nemo tenat in se descendere Per. sat when he communed with his own heart touching his deplorable condition then he quickly resolveth to abide amongst the swine no longer he will feed no more upon husks he will rather be as the meanest servant in his fathers house a door-keeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of wickedness Before that time he gave up himself in subjection to his lusts and did not consider what he was doing he did not bethink himself as the expression is 1 Kings 8.47 If they shall bethink themselves and repent This is the second act in order to a divorce from sin An act of Consideration 3. There is a work of Humiliation and Compunction whereby the spirit is made to mourn and â—ament in the sense of sin and withal to tremble in apprehension of the danger of it This is that pricking to the heart which is the usual forerunner of conversion Acts 2.37 Now when they heard this they were pricked to the heart and they said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles men and brethren what shall we do Now their consciences are wounded and they mourn in reflection upon their evil wayes They are as an heavy load and burden uptheir spirits What shall we do q.d. We are utterly ruined and undone except the grace of God step in for our recovery Can you shew us any way to escape we are ready to close with any directions prescribed When God doth bless mens souls in turning them from their iniquities he doth first cause them to grieve and be in bitterness for those iniquities and stirreth up in them a dread and fear of his judgments * Quos non expugnat ratio eos mansuefacit motui For mark it Sirs although it be love unto God and sense of the love of God which have a mighty influence to cause a converted person to cleave unto the Lord yet it is a dread and fear of wrath and judgment which bringeth a sinner in the first conversion unto God Thus you know the Jaylor came in trembing Acts 16.29 30. And when Christ doth shoot out his sharp arrows into mens hearts then the people fall down under him Psal 45.5 It may well be understood of these arrows of compunction and terror * Haec dicuntur typicè de evangelicâ administratione Christi Malv in Psal 45. Cordaque vulâ—ificis figens inimica sagittis Sponte sibi cogis valides precumbere gentes Buchan The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred shall fall down may well be be meant of an act of adoration So it is used in Deut. 9.25 in Chald. Dan. 2.46 Dan. 3.7 whereby the perversness of mens hearts is overcome and subdued of enemies they are made friends and brought into to a ready subjection unto his government That 's the third work 4. The grace of Repentance is poured out upon the soul whereby the heart is crucified unto sin and the reigning power of sin is removed and a standing aversness and antipathy put into the spirit against it When this is done then the divorce is compleated and the sinner is set at liberty from his corruptions that he may be joyned unto Christ For it is not all the arguments and perswasions in the world that can effectually prevail upon a man to cast off his iniquities and bring him from under the power of sin until the Spirit of God doth set home those arguments and doth deaden sin in the heart * Alii partes formales regenerationis duas constituunt mortificationem veteris vivificationem novi hominis Et haec illam necessario praesupponit à qua non re sed ratione tantum distincta est Wend. Syst majus Restraints of providence may keep a man from the outward acts of sin but still the heart is glewed to it As Balaam durst not comply with Balaack actually to curse the Israelites but fain he would have done it his heart followed the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2.15 But now the spirit of Repentance taketh down the dominion of sin and breaketh * I distinguish between the grace of Repentance in the first workings of it upon the heart and the exercise of Repentance in the further mortifying and subduing of sin the bonds of the Covenant whereby the sinner was held fast in subjection to it and then he doth say What have I to do any more with my idols Therefore believers are said to be dead to sin Rom. 6.1 2. and to have their old man crucified with Christ that they may no longer serve sin Rom. 6.6 Thus they are set free from sin that they may be united to Christ and become the servants of God through Christ Rom. 6.22 This may serve for opening the fourth Proposition 5. Propos 5. To deaden a person unto the Law and to take him off from seeking justification by the Law that he may be united or married to the Lord Jesus God doth especially make use of two means 1. The Law it self 2. The body of Christ that is the sufferings which he underwent in his body For this you have the Scripture express Gal. 2.19 For I through the Law am dead to the Law q. d. by studying the Law it self I see it can never avail to give me acceptation with the most high Whatever expectations I have formerly had that way I now utterly renounce them and the Law it self hath sufficiently instructed me in this Lesson 2. For the sufferings of Christ that place is obvious Rom. 7.4 Wherefore my brethren ye are also become dead to the Law * Mori legi est illi renuntiare ab ejus imperio manumitti ita ut nihil habeamus in eâ fiduciae Ne offenderet Judaeos verbi asperitate si dixisset legem esse mortuam deflexione usus est dicens nos legi esse mortuos Non ergo bene vivendi regula quam lex praescribit abrogata est sed qualitas illa quae libertati per Christum parta opponitur Nempe dum summam perfectionem requirit quia non praestamus constringit nos sub aternae mortis reatu Calv. by the body of Christ that ye should be married to anther even to him that is raised from the dead q.d. This instruction God hath given us from Golgotha that by the works of the Law no flesh can be justified indeed our hearts have been hankering after that way of life and acceptance nay we have ben closely linked thereunto but the body of Christ hath made a separation between them The body of Christ i. e. the passion of Christ in his body The doctrine of Christ's death and crucifixion if rightly improved will shew a man the Law 's utter insufficiency to give a
righteousness wherein we may appear before the God of heaven I know many understand it of the Law of sin to which the death of Christ doth deaden us but the Apostle speaketh evidently in the former verses of the cap. of the Law of God See v. 1. I speak to them that know the Law that the Law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth And so in the subsequent verses v. 5. The motions of sin that were by the Law that corruption which took occasion from the commandment to carry us into sin with the greater violence Parallel to v. 8. And v. 6. Is the Law sin God forbid that is Can we justly charge the Law of God with our transgressions far be it from you to imagin such a thing only our hearts pervert it and suck poyson from that which in it self is excellent And why may we not understand it in the same acception in v. 4 I will open this Proposition by shewing you the influence of each of these means or instruments apart to take off a mans heart from seeking justification by the Law 1. The first special means is the Law it self That if we hearken diligently to the voice of it will loudly proclaim its own insufficiency to save us If the question be put where is righteousness to be had As the light of nature will say it is not in me so the Law will answer it is not in me And therefore saith the Apostle Gal. 4.21 Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law do not you hear the Law If you did but hearken to it it would speak enough in this case of it self there would need no further testimony to be produced * Lex verè percepta nos sibi mori cogit Id. Do but carefully and strictly examine it and you will quickly find even from it self that there is no standing before the Lord in the righteousness which is of the Law For mark it Sirs the reason why sinners seek justification by the Law is their ignorance of and unversedness in the Law A little serious study of it would soon dispel those mists of ignorance There is a threefold ignorance of the Law which is the occasion of mens resting upon it for acceptance and seeking justification thereby 1. Ignorance of the terms of the Law upon which life is promised therein and eternal happiness made over thereby unacquaintedness with the conditions that are required to put us under the verge and compass of justification by it Men think to come up to the terms of the Law because they do not mind and consider wherein those terms do consist upon which it promiseth justification nor of what extent and latitude they are A little search into the Law would rectifie this error If a man will answer the demands of the Law he must be able to produce a personal perfect and everlasting obedience Mark it I say 1. It must be personal obedience that is produced the Law doth not admit of a surety to supply our defects and to do that fo◠us which we cannot do of our selves 2. There must be perfect exact and spotless obedience not only sincere and upright but in every particular the command must be filled up If there be a failure in the least action or in the minutest circumstance of an action the Law still not acquit us 3. It must be perpetual and everlasting obedience to the very end and period of our course This is an argument of its inability to justifie drawn from the Law it self Gal. 3.10 As many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse How prove you that why it will undeniably appear if you mark the terms of the Law For it is written Cursed is every is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of Law to do them * Vis argumenti Maledictus est qui non servat totam legem at nemo id facit nec potest Ergo Marian in loc 2. The hankering of a mans heart after justification by the Law doth proceed from ignorance of the spiritualness of it If it were studied in this property it would sufficiently manifest its own inability to save us for the Law requireth holiness in our persons as well as rectitude in our lives it is the rule of mans nature what he should be as well as the rule of his practise what he should do The Law condemneth us for the native pravity and pollution of our hearts and spirits within us and not only for the actual miscarriages in our demeanour so that which of the posterity of fallen man can stand before it The Law injoyneth an absolute rectitude and purity in the thoughts and affections and first motions of the soul as well as integrity in the outward carriage so that it is not a civil conversation which will bring you off from the curse denounced by it If you could suppose a man that had walked all his life-time blameless that no man could charge him with guilt upon any account that no one could say black was his eye as the self-justiciaries boast is yet the Law will pronounce him accursed and send him to hell for the least vain imagination for the least rising of a proud thought or an envious thought or an unbelieving thought or the like for the smallest inordanateness in the affections nay for the corruption brought with us into the world as well as for the grosser pollutions perpetrated and committed in the world And the reason is because the Law is spiritual it is exceeding broad as the Psalmist expresseth it Psal 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfections but thy commandment is exceeding broad It is as extensive as the workings of the whole soul of a man in any part or faculty of the same it is as broad as the person it reacheth to the nature it is a discerner of and giveth prescriptions unto the very thoughts and intents of the heart Thus our Saviour doth vindicate it from the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees whereby they did narrow the commandment and enervate the force of it Mat. 5.21 22. Ye have heard it was said by them of old time thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be indanger of the judgment But I say unto you that whosoever is engry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say unto his brother Racha shall be in danger of the council but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire It is as much as if our Saviour had said Your teachers of old in their interpretations of the Law confined the prohibition to the external act but I tell you the Law is spiritual the least groundless anger is murder in Gods account and deserveth the wrath of God as well as actual killing if there be hatred of his brother in a mans heart he is a
at the same time make his entrance in their whole persons and take seizin and possession of all their powers and faculties unto his use and service The plian meaning is this that the work of sanctification is a through-work wrought upon the whole man there is grace infused into every part and faculty As in the work of mortification all the habits of corruption are subdued so in the work of renovation or vivification all the seeds of holiness are introduced the whole man is purified as Christ is pure The common gifts of the Spirit are bestowed many times singly and apart one from the other but special sanctifying graces are planted together This I lay down that you may not deceive yourselves in this matter by thinking Christ is in you when you are strangers unto him There is great proness in us to mistake upon this account and to flatter our selves in this case for some common workings upon the heart to conclude that saving grace is planted in the heart And therefore mind what I say to prevent this self-cozenage that where a person is cleansed savingly and effectually there is an universal purification of the whole man and all the graces in the seed of them are infused together As all old things pass away so every thing is made new 2 Cor. 5.17 The understanding is renewed with saving knowledge of the mind of God and the will is brought into a blessed subjection to the will of God the conscience is furnished anew with tenderness and faithfulness the affections are renewed by being turned into their right channel and pointed upon their right objects love and delight upon God and hatred and sorrow towards sin and what is displeasing unto the Lord the heart is principled anew with sincerity and singleness and truth put into the inward parts the memory is made a treasury and store-house of good things and the body is fitted to be subservient unto the soul in wayes of holiness Thus I might run over the several branches of this work There is vigour and activity put into the soul to do the will of God commanding and patience to suffer and be contented under the will of God disposing there is the grace of moderation to guide in prosperity and the grace of faith to support under affliction and trouble and the man is prepared and fitted unto every good word and work 1 Thes 5.23 And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole soul and spirit and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Mark it Sirs the work of sanctification is a very extensive and diffusive work it leaveneth the whole man both the inserior and superior faculties of the soul the animal and the rational powers and the body likewise So that it is not some slight trouble upon the conscience for sin or a little touch upon the affections or inclinations towards the Kingdom of God that will evidence you to be sanctified for sanctification ingageth the whole man in an holy compliance with the wayes of holiness and the interest of Jesus As a partial repentance in the exercise of it which striketh at some sins only and leaveth a man in the allowance of others is but a feigned repentance so partial workings upon the heart are but common workings they will not amount to saving grace Jer. 3.10 When Christ entereth by his Spirit into any of the children of men he doth take possession of them wholly and set up his residence in every part and faculty 3. In this work of the entrance of the Spirit into to a mans soul whereupon Christ is said to be in him and to dwell with him and possession is taken for his use and service the soul of that man is altogether passive My meaning is this It is not in the power of any person upon the earth to plant grace in his own soul or to confer the habits of holiness upon himself nor doth he contribute any active assistance in the performance of it but is wholly wrought upon by the mighty power of God and the effectual operation of the holy Ghost We are apt to imagine that it is in our own power to make a saving change within our selves that we can convert and turn to God at any time and repent when we please As Luther said in point of merit there is a Pope in every mans belly so may I say in this case there is a tang of Pelagianism in every mans heart and hence it is they take incouragement to procrastinate and delay in the matters of salvation they think they can repent when they will if it be but upon their death-bed But Sirs it must be a day of power that maketh you willing A as if God should give you up unto your selves you would perish for ever in your unregeneracy The planting grace in the heart is a turning the course of corrupted nature it is as a quickning the dead it is a creating and infusing of how principles into a man * Opus hoc conversionis sive duobus effici non potest Uno a quo fit altero in quo fit Deus est â—â—tor salâ—â—is liberum arbitrium tantum capax Bern. Observetur in primo actu veluntatis qui procedit à gratia praeveniente voluntatem esse motam non moventem Aquin. prima secundae q. 111. of which there is nothing in us by nature but a contrariety and repugnancy thereunto Eph. 2.5 Even when we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together with Christ And v. 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works So that it is not mans free will but God's free grace and his infinite power by which it is wholly wrought and to him alone doth belong the glory of it 4. Although we are wholly passive in this work of regeneration or planting grace into our hearts whereby Christ entereth into and taketh possession of us and we contribute no manner of active affistance therein yet there is something required at our hands in order to the attainment of this grace and that we may be made partakers thereof This is well to be noted that it may prevent our abuse of this doctrine and that we may not turn the grace of God into negligence and slothfulness For will sinners be apt to argue thus if it be God alone by his infinite power who can imprint grace upon our hearts and this he doth without our concurrent assâ—stance then we may fit still and let the Lord perform his own work if he please to convert and sanctifie us we shall be converted and if not all our indeavours are to no purpose But Sirs this is to pervert the grace of the covenant God forbid there should be such cursed inferences drawn from this excellent doctrine although it tendeth to advance and magnifie the free grace and power of God yet it gives no manner of incouragement to the
sloth and carelessne's of men For though we are not active in the planting grace into our souls yet there is something expected at our hands in order to the a tainment thereof Although we cannot convert our selves yet we are to wait upon God that we may be converted by him and are to attend upon the means which he hath appointed and wherein he is wont to meet the souls that seek him Although we cannot cleanse and sanctifie our own spirits yet we are diligently to search the Scriptures and to press arguments upon our selves from the Scriptures and to give constant attendance upon God in his Ordinances which are the special instruments he is wont to make use of whereby to convey the spirit of sanctification * Sâ—bordinata non sunt opponenda sed componenda Auditio hominis irregeniti etsi conversionem non inchoat Est camen ordmarium requisitum quod conversionem ordinariam aâ—tecedit tanquam quaedam ad eam nondum existentem praeparatio Wendel Syst majus And this is none other then what God looketh for at our hands Ezek. 36. v. 26. compared with v. 37. A new heart also I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh But then v. 37. Thus saith the Lord God I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel that I may do it for them Though we cannot mortifie and subdue our own corruptions yet we should reason the case with our selves and be much in expostulation with our own hearts why we should be so vile and foolish as to serve base lusts and corruptions and to turn our backs upon the Lord and though we cannot put the principles of holiness into our own souls yet we must follow after God by prayer and supplication that he may graciously send forth the holy Ghost to plant them in us And this seemeth to be one of the great ends of God in laying his commandments upon us though we have no strength or ability to the performance of them that we might turn the commandment into prayer and be earnest with him to work in us what he requireth to be within us Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Psal 51.6 7 10. Behold thou defirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden parts thou shalt make me to know wisdom Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me It is just for all the world in the case of a private man or woman as it is in the work of a Minister It is not within the power of the most excellent Preacher in the earth to convert one soul but it should be his care to preach such heart-searching truths and to press upon sinners such awakening considerations in season and out of season as may have a tendency towards conversion to instruct in meekness them that oppose themselves not as it he could give them repentance but if peradventure in the use of the means God may give them repentance 2 Tim. 2.25 26. So it is with sinners themselves they cannot bring spiritual life into their own souls yet they may wait upon God in the duties which he hath required and be earnest with the Lord to speak the word that their souls may live in his sight As we are to serve God with grace or in the exercise of grace when it is bestowed so we are to seek unto him for grace that it may be conferred And pray mind it Christians this will be enough to stop the mouths of impenitent sinners and render their plea of inability to convert themselves invalid Why thou sinful wretch who thus cavillest against the Lord hast thou duly and diligently set upon the discharge of that work which God calleth for in order to conversion That is a notable acknowledgment Dan. 9.13 We made not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquity and understand thy truth If Daniel had onely confessed that they had not turned from iniquity might some captious sinner have been apt to say alas we had no power we were not able to turn of our selves yea but saith that holy man we have neglected the means which God hath appointed to turn us so put it home to thy conscience hast thou not resisted the Spirit whereby God hath many times striven with thee Hast thou not neglected to study the word or restrained prayer before the Lord wherein peradventure he might have been found by thee Thus I might instance in other particulars but I proceed 5. These principles of grace infused into the soul in the work of Regeneration or this image of God restored upon the soul by the Spirit in the day of conversion may be called Christ in us and the Lord Jesus may be said thereby to dwell with us and that upon a fourfold account especially Because 1. This grace is derived upon the soul out of the fulness of Christ 2. Hereby we are made conformable unto Christ 3. The Holy Ghost implanting it doth act in Christs name 4. Hereby we become his servants and possession is taken of us to his use 1. It may be called Christ in us because the habits of grace infused into the soul are derived upon us out of Christs fulness The whole stock of grace was put into the hands of the Mediator and from thence it is communicated unto Gods chosen people When the Lord Jesus was anointed with the Spirit without measure it was put into his hands as into a common Store-house or Magazine that from thence the Elect of God might be furnished It was put into him as into a fountain that out of that fountain our vessels might be filled It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. â— 19 And out of his fulness we all receive and that grace for grace John 1.16 And therefore it is called The Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.2 It is in him originally in us derivatively being imparted to us from him 2. Hereby Christ may be said to dwell in us because grace doth render a man conformable to Christ In the work of Regeneration our natures are fashioned according to his nature As there is an answerableness between a Copy and the Orignal from whence it is transcribed there is line for line and sentence for sentence word for word and letter for letter so take the humane nature of Jesus Christ as he was anointed by the Holy Ghost and the nature of a Person sanctified and there is a suitableness between them there is love for love and joy for joy and hatred for hatred they have the minde of Christ and the meekness of Christ and the long-suffering and compassion and gentleness of Christ and the like Therefore they are said to purifie themselves
as he is pure 1 John 3.3 3. By the grace of Regeneration the Lord Christ is said to take up his abode in us because the Holy Ghost in that work doth act in his name as purchased by Christ and receiving commission from him and being sent by vertue of his Prayer and Intercession John 16.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive In the transactions of the everlasting Covenant our Lord Jesus undertook to sanctifie and comfort and to quicken and stablish his people and by the Spirit of truth he doth accomplish that undertaking By his death the Spirit was purchased and in his name he is sent 4. The grace of Regeneration may be stiled Christ dwelling in us from the tendency of it which is to bring sinners in subjection to the Government of Christ and to make them ready to obey the Laws of Christ Hereby we become his Servants and possession is taken of us to his use and behoof that we may cleave unto him and be followers of him Col. 3.24 For ye serve the Lord Christ Mat. 19.28 Ye that have followed me in the Regeneration c. that is in your regenerate condition in the exercise of that grace which was bestowed upon you in your New-birth for so it may be well understood The grace of Regeneration plucketh sinners out of the Kingdom of Satan and seizeth on them for the service of Christ carryeth us out to him and maketh us obedient to his Laws and Dominion This may suffice to be spoken to the first branch of that Vnion which is between Christ and Believers or the first sort of Conjunction betwixt them 2. There is a legal Conjunction and oneness thereupon arising from a Believers reception of Christ closing with him and getting into him Such an Union as there is between the principal Debtor and the Surety who hath paid the debt for him and made over that payment unto him The Law reckoneth them as one what payment the Surety hath made for the Debtor in his name and firmly made over unto him the Law accounts it as if the Debtor himself had paid it and dischargeth him thereupon as if it had been his own personal Act and Deed because of that intimate relation or oneness that is betwixt them in the estimation of the Law Such an union there is between Christ and his people and therefore we call it a legal union because it hath a special reference unto the Law of God which acquitteth the person thus united to Christ by vertue of the sufferings and satisfaction of Jesus Christ as fully and firmly as if the party himself had suffered and satisfied And likewise we call it a legal union because of the analogy it beareth unto the proceedings of Law in Courts of Judicature amongst men The bond of this union is a saving faith whereby Believers receive Christ and take hold on him As by the Spirit of Regeneration Christ doth take hold of their souls so by a living faith of the operation of the Spirit they are inabled to take hold of the Lord Jesus and so they are compacted and knit together You know faith is set forth by such expressions a receiving of Christ and taking hold of him John 1.12 But to as many as received him to them he gave power to be the sons of God even to them that believe on his name Mark it we receive Jesus Christ and take him home to our selves by believing on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ As under the Law when a man q. d. ran for refuge and protection to the Altar he was wont to lay hold upon the horns of the Altar so by faith a sinner betaketh himself for shelter and security unto Christ and layeth hold upon Christ Heb. 6.18 That we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us * We who to flee from deserved wrath have taken our course towards Jesus in hope to get the Salvation offered to us in him Dicks in loc that is upon Jesus Christ the object of our hope and confidence who is set before us in the Gospel as the person in whom we are to trust and upon whom to rely and place our hope By faith we lay hold upon him and by this laying hold on Christ a Believer is joyned unto Christ and made one with him By faith we are in him and put on his righteousness Phil. 3.9 That I may be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith It is of God he provided it for us and it is made over to us and becometh ours by faith in the Mediator This is the Second Branch of the mutual conjunction between Christ and a Believer and the union thereupon the bond whereof is faith in Christ Concerning which I will propose onely these four things to your serious perusal and meditations 1. That the Holy Ghost in the writings of the Scriptures doth distinctly speak of a fourfold faith There is 1. An Historical Faith 2. A Temporal Faith 3. A Faith of Miracles 4. A saving and justifying faith in Christ which is the bond of our union with the Lord Jesus As this is an ordinary School-distinction so it is a Scripture-distinction which hath its warrant from the word and its foundation in the word of God 1. There is an Historical Faith whereby we believe the Scriptures and the matters therein contained to be Divine Truths and to have proceeded from God * This is by some called a dogmatical faith such a faith the Apostle supposed to have been in Agrippa in respect to the writings of the Old Testament Acts 26.27 King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets I know that thou believest q.d. I am confident thou art perswaded of the truth of those things Agrippa being a Jew and always conversant in Judea could not be ignorant of the Scriptures and Paul takes it for granted that he who owned their Original to be of God and that in them was discovered nothing but the truths of God I know that thou believest I am well assured thou darest not deny their Divine Authority This we call an Historical Faith because it assenteth to the truth of the History of the Bible as it is a Narrative of things done and containeth Predictions of things to be done as it comprehends matters of fact mentioned to be performed Doctrines asserted Prophesies and Promises to be fulfilled and the like And pray mark it Sirs this faith is diversifyed according to the different testimony on which it is bottomed * Quia testes quibus fidem adhibemus ex lege ordine communi sunt homines vel Deus idcirco sicut testimonium sic etiam fides distinguitur in
the second Covenant That Text is very full and worthy to be wrot on our hearts in letters of gold and as with the pen of a diamond Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified 3. The ultimate or compleating act of this justifying faith whereby it becometh such is a fiducial resting or relying upon Christ for righteousness and acceptation with the Lord and for all the spiritual benefits that follow thereupon That which I aim at is this That justifying faith is not absolved and compleated by a bare assent of the understanding but it doth evidently include an act of the heart With the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10.10 If thou believest with all thine heart Acts 8.37 And the special act of the heart is a reliance upon Christ leaving a mans soul in his hands upon the articles of the Covenant of grace leaning upon his merits for acceptance with God receiving him as he is offered to sinners in the Gospel and trusting in him for acceptance and salvation Thus we have it explained Eph. 1.12 13. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ In whom also ye trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the Gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise This is the faith both of Jew and Gentiles We first believed unto whom the word of salvation was first spoken and afterwards ye also believed in Christ What is this believing Why it is a trusting in Christ First the soul heareth the word of salvation promised in Christ and assenteth to the truth of that word and thereupon is perswaded to make his actual application unto Christ and trusteth in him for salvation Psal 2.12 Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him q. d. There is no way of avoiding destruction from Christ but by believing in him resting upon him they are the blessed of the Lord that put their trust in him * Sed multum inter est utruns â—â—isque credat ipsum esse Christum utrum credat in Christum Nam ipsum esse Christum daemones crediderunt Ille enim credit in Christum qui sperat in Christum diligit Christum Aug. Indeed there are many acts of the soul required unto this faith and comprized therein If a man believe in Christ he must have some competent knowledge of the nature of Christ and his mediatory office and satisfaction there must be a firm and lively assent to the truth of the Gospel a sense of the evil of sin and the inability of all other means besides the righteousness of Christ to recover the sinner out of his lost condition But now a fiducial reliance upon Christ for salvation is the last compleating act For when the sinner being driven from all other refuges whatsoever doth not only hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ but actually renounceth every thing for him and embraceth him as his Saviour casting his soul and all his spiritual concernments into Christ's hands and resting upon him alone for salvation as he is offered in the Gospel this is a justifying and saving faith As a self-justiciary relieth upon his own righteousness so a true believer râ—steth upon Christ's righteousness This is set forth by coming unto Christ Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Come unto me that is believe in me place your hope and confidence in my righteousness The Lord Jesus in the Gospel is set forth as a propitiation he was sent to be the Redeemer of lost sinners Now when a person being affected with his lost estate sensible of the wrath of God and the insupportableness of it and labouring under the burden of sin doth come unto Christ as such and make use of him to that end namely to be his Redeemer and doth rest upon him to make atonement for his soul this is to believe with a justifying faith Joh. 6.35 He that cometh unto me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst It is a looking unto Christ alone for redemption and deliverance upon his account As the brazen Serpent was an eminent type of the Lord Jesus Num. 21.8 9. so the Israelites looking up thereunto did signifie our faith in Jesus by whom our diseases are healed When a poor sinner is stung in his conscience with the fiery Serpent of the guilt of sin and being filled with dread in apprehension of the sad consequents of it doth look up unto Christ as held forth upon the pole of the Gospel to be a Saviour and doth rest upon him expecting redemption only through his blood here are the workings of a justifying faith Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up by dying on the Cross or by the publication and tender of his death and righteousness in the Gospel That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life This is the third particular which I intended to commend to you for opening the nature of faith which is the bond of our union with Jesus Christ 4. Wherever and in what soul soever there is this fiducial reliance upon Christ and his righteousness in a saving way there is also as a necessary companion thereof an universal subjection to the will of Christ and a ready submission to his government This I add in the last place to prevent if it be possible the abuse of this doctrine by carnal hearts and to stop the mouth of those clamours which are raised by some against it and the aspersions which they cast upon this evangelical truth as if it were not a doctrine according to godliness Will such be ready to say This doctrine will imbolden sinners in their presumption and vain confidence If to believe savingly on Christ be to rest on him for salvation who will not think that be doth believe What carnal wretch will not say that he doth rely upon Christ But mind it Sirs it is not a thinking or saying he doth rely upon Christ will give a man an interest in him but when he doth rest upon him indeed as he is propounded for a Saviour in the Gospel And such a faith will purifie the heart and cause the person believing to bring forth fruits of holiness in the conversation Else it will be an evidence that he doth but pretend thereunto and doth not rest upon Christ in truth For although it be not the work
knit and united unto him and so partake of the salvation which he purchased for them So that the mystical Vnion of Believers with Christ is a fruit of the fatisfaction and merit of his death for them 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Therefore he died for us that we might be implanted into him and so made righteous on his account And therefore mark it Sirs Though the elect of God have no right or title to any laving mercy till they are one with Christ yet he hath a right to this Union for them and to all other blessings which are the concomitants or consequents thereof He prayeth for it on their behalf and upon his account it is given forth unto them Joh. 17.20 21. This is the fourth particular to â—â—e observed and it leadeth me to the last 5. This satisfaction and merit of the death of Christ although it was laid down for the benefit of such as the Father had given him and he suffered in their stead yet doth make no change upon them till they are drawn unto Christ and by the Spirit and faith made one with him Until this grace be wrought in them or conferred upon them they are still children of the wrath of God as well as others Eph. 2.3 The wrath of God abideth on them Joh. 3.36 They are amongst the unrighteous which remaining in that condition shall not inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. And if we could suppose them to die before conversion although indeed it is not to be supposed they would perish unavoidably even as others And the reason is this Although Christ died in their stead and laid down a price for purchase of their pardon and salvation and God the Father accepted thereof yet it was agreed between them in that everlasting Covenant that an order should be observed in conveying those mercies and making them actually partakers of the benefit thereof Which order is this First they must be sanctified by the Spirit of Christ and brought by faith unto him and made one with him and so receive salvation through his blood For till they have the Son they can have no life by the Son Thus I close my answer to the third general question propounded concerning the manner how this conjunction is made up or the way wherein this Union is wrought tual and their hearts are carnal * Ad claram rei intellectionem requiritur proportio inter potentiam apprehendentem rem apprehensam Intellectus assequitur scientiam secundum modum sui non secundum modum objecti Quia receptum est in recipiente per modum recipientis And as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural maureceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned And of this sort is the grace of Union with Christ and all the transactions hereabouts are spiritual transactions And therefore when Christ preached this doctrine unto the people that if they would be blessed by him they must feed upon him and become one with him * Qualis est fames quâ cibum appetimus qualis cibus quem appetimus qualis vita ad quam pascimur talis quoque est manducatio cibi in nobis mansie Atqui fames ista est spiritualis c. his carnal Disciples knew not what to make of it This is an hard saying who can hear it and from that time many of his Disciples went away back and walked no more with him Joh. 6.60 66. That 's the second property It is a spiritual Union 3. And principally It is an inseparable and indissoluble Union such as shall never be broken asunder When Christ and a Believer are once knit together they shall never be parted any more When the Lord Jesus cometh by his Spirit and taketh up his abode in a mans soul he maketh that soul his eternal mansion and doth not at any time withdraw himself from it And when the sinner is by a living faith gotten into Christ he shall in no case be broken off from him A dead branch may fall off from the tree but the living branches will abide there for ever 1 Joh. 2.27 28. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him And now little children abide in him c. As here is an exhortation pressing Believers to abide in Christ so here is a word of promise that they shall abide in him and that as to both the branches of this conjunction 1. The anointing which ye have received abideth in you that is The principle of grace infused into you which was typified by the unctions or anointings in the ceremonial Law which was signified by the precious ointment poured upon the head of Aaron that ran down to the skirts of his garments this principle will prove indefectible 2. On the other hand ye shall abide in him Your faith is a grace that shall not fail nor decay This is clear from the reason that is given of the apostacy of some That therefore they are separated from Christ because they were never spiritually ingraffed into Christ * Triticum non vapit vontus nec arborem solida radice fundatam procella subvertit Inant's paleae tempestate jactantur invalide arbores turbinis inoursione evertuntur Cypr. 1 John 2.19 They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us Had they been quickned by Christ's Spirit they would never have departed from him It is a matter q. d. without controversie no doubt of it This is usually called The Saints perseverance All natural unions must be dissolved the husband must be separated from the wife and children from the patents and one dear friend from another but here is a relation that will be everlasting This is a point of great concernment to the comfort of a child of God without which he could in no wise be assured of his safe arrival at the kingdom of heaven And therefore I will a little longer dwell upon this doctrine 1. By shewing you the principal fouâ—dations on which this inseparableness of union with Christ is bottomed 2. By propounding a consideration further to strengthen and confirm the truth of this point 3. By vindication of this doctrine of perseverance from the two grand exceptions that are made against it 1. For the foundations upon which this perseverance is built Whence doth it come to pass that a Believers union with Christ is of such duration and continuance that when a man is gotten into Christ he shall abide in him and persevere in that
this powerful assailant But mind it Christians Although this should much excite you to watchfulfulness yet here is no cause of discouragement Is Satan a potent enemy yet he is a conquered enemy That Christ who dwelleth in you hath broken the power of hell and brought under the prince of darkness His temptations should quicken you to run to Christ for succour and to clasp the faster about him and in no wise to cast off your confidence A sincere believer in this case should recollect himself with David Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Is not my Saviour stronger than the strong man armed Can it be imagined that he delivered me out of the snare of the devil that he might give me up again unto his will Did he break in with a mighty force upon my soul and eject the devil out of his habitation and come and dwell in me that afterwards he might surrender up his dwelling place to his greatest adversary Why Satan by being mine enemy is Christ's enemy thereby in whom I am and unto whom I am closely united and he wil never suffer him to get the victory Although he may permit him to vex and disquiet me for a time that my faith may be exercised * Deus bonos non negligit cum negligit nec obliviscitur sed quasi obliviscitur Ideo videtur deferere quia non vult deseri yet he will bruise him under my feet shortly Rom. 16.20 Mark how he rebuketh the devil in the case of Joshua Zech. 3.2 And the Lord said unto Satan The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord who hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee is not this a brand pluckt out of the fire q.d. Have I preserved him to this time by a special preservation that now I might deliver him into thy merciless hands So doth Christ pluck poor souls as firebrands out of the fire of the wrath of God and gather them into his own kingdom that afterwards he may give them up to the prince of darkness Mat 16.18 Vpon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it The gates of bell that is all the power and policy all the might and craft of the devil and his adhaerents The gates of Cities were the places where their arms and ammunition were laid up and there their Judges and Counsellors were wont to meet and advise for the good of the place So that by the gates of hell is meant the strength and crafty machinations and devices of Satan and his instruments they may trouble and vex the Saints of the most High but they shall not prevail against them not against the meanest faithful member of the Church because they are built upon the rock For it is not only the Church in general that is built upon that rock but every particular Saint Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner stone elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded 1 Pet. 2.6 3. A third particular that is most likely to disunite a Believer and the Lord Jesus is The allurements of the world Temptations objected * Temptations are 1. Injected such as the tempter darts immediately into the soul 2. Ascendent which arise from some stirred humour or inferior faculty 3. Objected which proceed from external objects baited and suited to the inclination of the Spirit as the Schools distinguish the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life as the Apostle giveth us an inventory of all the worlds goods and accommodations 1 Joh. 2.16 These were the very engines whereby our first parents were seduced and commonly they have a great influence on the souls of their posterity To follow after which some have made shipwrack of faith and put a good conscience far away from them For the pleasures of sin they have forsaken Christ and for earthly profit and advantage have let go the pursuit of heavenly blessings and to get honour of men have neglected that honour that cometh of God only See Luk. 8.14 2 Tim. 4.10 John 12.42 43. But these are outside Christians who thus forsake their station and run away from their Master * Charitas quae descri potest nunquam vera fuit Aug. Such as are indeed ingraffed into Christ will never let him go For they have renounced these things already for his sake when they first gave themselves unto the Lord it was upon these terms That they should be ready to suffer the loss of all things at his command They find in the enjoyment of Christ more solid and substantial pleasure than sin can minister unto its followers and greater riches than the whole earth can afford They account it their highest dignity and preferment to be in him and of the number of his attendants They see that in the Covenant which doth infinitely out-bid the world in all that it can promise unto them that serve it Besides Through the Cross of Christ the world is crucified unto Believers and they are crucified unto it and redeemed from it So that it cannot have that power and prevalency over them as upon others Gal. 1.4 Gal. 6.14 4. False teachers and seducers may be thought likely to dissolve this union They have oftentimes cunning artifices to deceive and are of unwearied diligence to gain Proselytes and to make them the children of hell They are wont to come as messengers of righteousness and transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ They pretend to high attainments and plead the Spirit and new light for introducing their abominations And may not these subtle emissaries of the devil overturn the faith of God's people May not they so prevail as to make a separation between Believers and Christ Why Sirs the holy Ghost hath given sufficient warrant to assure us it shall not be They may lead captive silly unsettled persons who are laden with sins and led away with divers lusts They may beguil unstable souls who though they have been in the School of Christ were never taught the truth as it is in Jesus Nay they may possibly fly blow the souls of Christs peculiar servants with wretched errors and taint their faith but they shall not be able to overturn their faith For the foundation of God stands sure as the Apostle asserteth expressly in this respect 2 Tim. 2.18 19. And therefore their seductions are mentioned as to deceiving the elect with an if it were possible Mat. 24.24 For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect Intimating that eventually it is impossible they are placed out of harms way they are put through grace without the reach of their gunshot as to a total seduction from the faith as having an unction from the holy One whereby they know all things 1 Joh. 2.20 Not that this should
imbolden the godly to be tampering with errors If a man will tread upon hot coals his feet may be burnt and scorched though withal his life may be preserved But this should make you the rather heedful to stick fast unto the truth that it may be evident you are such as they have no power over to lead aside into the error of the wicked It is the very particular consideration which the Apostle John presseth upon Believers why they should not hearken unto seducers when they teach for doctrines mens inventions and uncouth notions of their own Because they were sufficiently taught of Christ and his word was a plentiful directory unto them without the help of other additions and because they should abide in Christ therefore they were not to be followers of false teachers 1 Joh. 2.26 27. 5. Troubles and persecutions for the sake of Christ shall not be able to dissolve this union They may seem to be providences very likely to do it When Christians shall be dragged into prisons and abridged of their comforts and reduced into hardships and extremities when they shall have trial of cruel mockings and reproaches yea moreover of scourgings and torturings in the severest manner that the wicked heart of man can invent and when all these things might be avoided if they would but part with Christ Will not such sore persecutions from the world drive them back again for deliverance into the world out of which they were called Do but mark how confident the Apostle is of the contrary Rom. 8.35 36 37. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are acounted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more than conquerours through him that loved us How more than conquerours Why q. d. We are so far from being foiled that we are brought off with advantage our faith is thereby fourbished and our patience strengthened our other graces are quickned and our experiences increased When conquerours get a victory over their enemies it is seldom or never but with some loss to themselves but we are gainers by our troubles Our spiritual strength is augmented and our vigour heightened to a more intense degree and we come purified as gold out of the fire of tribulation So that we can glory in it For tribulation worketh patience and patience brings experience and experience begetteth hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts As you have it in that climax or gradation Rom. 5.3 4 5. In the winter of adversity the leaves drop off and the withered boughs are pared away but the living branches abide And the reason of it is this Because when Christ bringeth his people into distress and trouble for his Name he hath promised to stand by them and to afford them strength sufficient for their support under those distresseâ— Isa 42.2 When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee When Christ reduceth them into such straits as they never had experience of he will then minister to them such strength and assistance as they never had before experience of As sure as he is a God of faithfulness he will do it according to that precious word 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it But may some poor disconsolate soul say I may quickly be called into temptations and troubles and I find no strength nor ability O what is like to become of me at such a season I am afraid I shall sink under the burden Why mind the promise he will do it with the temptation It is not said he will give ability before the trial but when you are called to use it you shall not fail of it You shall have it time enough against you have occasion to exercise it My brethren it is an excellent word of promise an establishing word if we had hearts to believe And indeed it is according to what the Saints of God have experimentally found How faint-hearted was Mr. Sanders in the dayes of Qu. Mary and very doubtful of himself till he was actually brought into sufferings How dead-spirited was Mr. Glover till he was reduced to the pinch and then he could cry out He is come He is come Nay how cowardly and full of fear was Moses himself till he was ingaged in his work as appeareth from the excuses he made to evade the imployment Exod. 4.1 10 13. 6. Death it self which is the great separating providence that parts between a man all his worldly accommodations that parts between friends and kinsfolks between brethren sisters the nearest and dearest relations shall not separate believers from Jesus Christ But still they are entirely in him even when they are dead As it was in the death of Christ himself though it made a separation between his body and soul yet it did not separate the humane nature from the divine So it is in the death of the Saints Though it rend the spirit from the flesh yet it can part neither from the Son of God The very bodies of Believers are still united unto Jesus even when they are dead and shall be raised up again as I will shew you afterwards by vertue of that conjunction Therefore they are said to sleep in Jesus 1 Thess 4.14 and Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Rev. 14.13 It is not said only They that die for the Lord but in the Lord. A man may suffer death in some cases for the true Religion that never was sincere therein But if a person die in Jesus then he is blessed indeed Upon the upshot of all I may well conclude this point with that of the Apostle Paul in answer as it were to this question we are upon Rom. 8.35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ q. d. Is a Believers union with Christ a dissolveable union or not Can it be broken asunder Or if you will rather understand it by way of assertion though delivered interrogatively For nothing is more ordinary than for affirmative interrogations to denote a vehement denial of the matter questioned As if he had said This union is altogether inseparable nothing can part betwixt a Believer and Christ So fast are they glewed and linked together that they shall never be divided or broken asunder again For saith he v. 38 39. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That 's the second thing I intended for the confirmation of this property of a Believers union with Christ viz. the inseparableness of it 3. A little to vindicate this point from the grand exceptions thas are made against it I will lay down only two rules Rule 1. This doctrine of the perseverance of a sincere Believer in the faith or the inseparableness of his union with Christ is so far in it self from being as enemy to practical holiness and new obedience that if rightly improved it will be a mighty incentive and provocative thereunto It will have a powerful influence to inlarge a mans heart to run the steps of God's commandments and to cause him to take heed unto himself to continue upright and undefiled in the way of the Lord. This assertion I maintain to obviate the main cavil and objection that is made against this comfortable truth For there is an aspersion cast upon it as if it were not a doctrine according to godliness as if it did minister occasion to slothfulness and carelessness and carnal security They will be ready to say who are the opposers of this truth if a person be in Christ so as to be sure he shall in no case be separated from him then they will be apt to think they may live as they list that they may take what liberty they please to indulge the flesh and satisfie their lusts and walk in a way of licentiousness seeing whatever they do they shall abide in a state of grace and come safe to heaven at the last Thus a door say they would be opened to all manner of wickedness But mind it Sirs It is a calumny falsely laid to the charge of this doctrine For in it self it is a strong argument and motive unto holiness It is a consideration that may have a tendency to the mortifying sin and awakening the Spirit if rightly pressed on the soul and thus it will be improved by a gracious heart * Hac igitur certitudo perseverantiae non potest consistere cum deliberate proposito peccandi nedum tale quid causari Piis exercitiis procreatur conservatur eadem etiam invicem procreat conservat auget Ames Coron 'T is true there is not the most wholsom herb but a toad or spider may suck poyson from it there is not the most heavenly doctrine but a carnal heart will pervert it unto evil especially such truths as are purely evangelical that hold forth the free grace of God Jude 4. They turn the grace of God into lasciviousness that is not only the experience which they have of the grace of God in the exercise of it in their preservation and affording to them means and seasons for working out their salvation but it seemeth principally to be meant of the doctrine of the grace of God There is no doctrine more influential in its native tendency to the subduing of sin and crucifying the flesh and quickning to a closs walking with God But ungodly men wrest it and writhe it to countenance their filthiness So hath it befallen this particular point of the Saints perseverance though in its proper causality it will help to cleanse a man from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit and make him vigorously to pursue the designes of holiness See what use the Apostle Peter makes of it 1 Pet. 1.5 13. He had before told them that they were elect according to the foreknowledge of God v. 2. and that this grace of election had broken forth in their regeneration from whence they had a lively hope of enjoying the inheritance prepared for the Saints v. 3 4. And then he doth assure them that they were kept by the power of God is the state of grace that they might not fall short of actually possessing what they hoped for v. y. c. And in the close of all he subjoyneth this exhortation v. 13. Wherefore gird up the loyns of your minds be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance but as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation q. d. If God hath graciously taken care of the concernment of your souls will not you be diligent to advance the glory of his grace Will not you be ashamed to sin against him who hath in every respect dealt so bountifully with you If the Lord has not been unmindful of securing your salvation will not you mind his honour and follow his conduct Should not this mightily prevail upon you never to cast off this God but to cleave unto him unto the end O set diligently and industriously about your work be ready and prepared for all the wayes of holiness and to continue stedfast and unmoveable therein Do not walk as the generality of people walk nor as your selves have formerly walked for God hath called you out of the world and prepared for you a kingdom and taketh care of your preservation that you may come to the enjoyment of it This is the proper use of this doctrine which will plainly appear if you seriously weigh these four things 1. That God hath not promised to preserve his people in the state of grace and union with Jesus Christ whether they be holy or no or however they walk But the promise is to keep them in the exercise of grace in the ways of holiness that so they may not be separated from him If any represent it in another dress it is not the Scripture doctrine of perseverance but they endeavour to cast a slurre upon it We do not teach that God hath ingaged to bring his people safely to heaven let them live as they list or that he will keep them from falling away from Christ though they cast off the fear of the Lord and run to all excess of riot But God hath ingaged to inable them to live the life of the just and to cause them to fear his Name and through the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the body that so they may never draw back to perdition 1 Pet. 1.5 Ye are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation It is not said God will keep them by his almighty power whether they believe or no but he will suodue their unbelief and set their faith on work in order to their being secured Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Mark it is not said They shall never depart from Gâ—d though they slight his word and despise his Majesty and reject the fear of his Name But he will maintain in their hearts an holy aw and dread of him that so they may never be cast out of his favour 2. Consider That the
to him No union with the Son no communication of spiritual strength and influence from the Son Isa 45.24 Surely shall one say In the Lord have I righteousness and strength In the Lord that is in Jesus the Mediator who is Jehovah God blessed for ever In him or through him by vertue of my being in him I have not only righteousness but strength also that is actual grace to help in the times of need It plainly relateth unto Christ unto whom every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear v. 23. Vpon which Text the Apostle himself is a Commentatâ—r Rom. 14.10 11. I will endeavour to make this very plain to your understandings being a matter of much weight and moment as to the life of Religion by handling it in a way of gradation in three steps 1. In the first place you must remember That a Christian is not able to keep on in his journey towards heaven so as to arrive with safety at that everlasting Kingdom only by the strength of habitual grace bestowed upon him in his first conversion but there must be a daily communication of further grace unto the soul or of fresh actual strength conveyed into the soul It is not enough that the principles of holiness be at first formed in the heart but there must be a constant supply of fresh influence imparted to us or else we should quickly fall short in our travel towards Canaan As the air is not maintained in light barely by the first rising of the Sun upon it expelling darkness out of the air spreading abroad his beams into it but there must be a constant issuing forth of fresh beams from the Sun and streamings forth of new influence into the air else it would quickly return to its former darkness Let but the Sun go down or some opacous body interpose to hinder the fresh beamings of it forth and the air would presently become black again notwithstanding the first light that was put into it Thus it is in our spiritual concernments We cannot be maintained in a state of favour with God and carried on to glory meerly by the strength of habitual grace pâ—anted at first within us in our regeneration but there must be further grace imparted to us The beams of the Sun of righteousness must be still issuing forth upon us fresh and fresh or else we should quickly faulter in the working out our salvation This fresh influence of the Holy Ghost is usually called in the Schools Actual grace And in the Scripture you have it under the name of The supplies of the spirit * Spiritus subministratio est praesidium consolatio omne spiritus sancti bonum quo servamur contra omnia scandala Eras Sacr. ex Marl. Phil. 1.19 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Mark it Sirs As there is a standing stock of habitual holiness put into the soul in the day of conversion so there is a constant supply given forth upon all occasions for maintaining and promoting of that stock As there is the regenerating work of the Spirit so there are additional incomes or supplies of the same Spirit Which are elsewhere called The strengthenings of the Spirit Eph. 3.16 That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man There is the inner man the new creature principally seated within the hidden man of the heart and there is auxiliary strength shed abroad every day afresh into the inner man This is a matter heedfully to be regarded and that calleth for our most serious thoughts in the study of it and that for three reasons 1. Because herein doth lie a special difference between the state of man in his primitive perfection under the Covenant of works and the state of believers under the Covenant of peace and reconciliation and indeed the excellency and stedfastness of the latter above the former In the state of innocency man had a sufficient stock of holiness and spiritual power to manage but now in Christ there is provision made for constant supplies to carry us on in the management thereof Under the Covenant of works man had power to stand if he would but in the Covenant of grace there is fresh strength also provided to work in us both to will and to do Phil. 2.12 13. There is not only a new heart and a new spirit given to the servants of Christ whereby they are qualified and disposed to the keeping of God's statutes But a further actual ability is imparted unto them whereby they are caused to walk in the way of those Statutes Ezek. 36.26 27. 2. From hence it many times cometh to pass that weak Christians stand fast in those trials wherein the stronger fall and overcome the temptation whereby they are foiled Here you have a great reason of the difference that is between one Believer and another in the same case and under the like trial A Peter may fall foully who is a pillar in the Church a cedar in the Forest and another â—â—ay stand fast in the same hour of temptation who is in comparison but a shrub and of low statute in the faith How can this be whence doth it proceed Why though the strong Christian hath arrived at an higher pitch and degree in respect of habitual grace yet resting upon himself for strength God might justly be provoked to leave him unto himself And he who is weaker in the faith as to the habits of grace yet keeping his spirit in a constant dependance upon the Lord * Sanctum opus semper inspirae in me ut cogitem compelle ut faciam suade ut diligam confirma me ut te teneam custodione nete perdam Aug. might have more actual assistance imparted to him so as to be inabled to hold on his way when the other shrinks back This is palpably apparent in the example of Peter who was a man of great forwardness and courage in the cause of Christ yet how shamefully did he deny his Master Because trusting in his own strength the Lord was pleased to withdraw his actual assistance that he might learn thereafter to live in the sense of his own weakness Thus Hezekiah fell in the business of the Embassadors of the King of Babylon although he was a man of eminent piety yet the Lord left him and then corruption discovered it self 2 Chron. 32.31 How did God leave him Not as to the principle of habitual grace for that is an abiding principle never taken from a person on whom it is once conferred But God left him as to these fresh supplies of the spirit he with-held from him for that time such efficacious assistance as whereby he might have vanquished the temptation and then his deceitful heart prevailed and carried him aside 3. This is a point which deserveth well to be studied not
darkness what an eternal prison must I be sent amongst devils and damned spirits But a sincere Christian can cheerfully welcom it under this consideration also He knoweth it is but a messenger sent from his heavenly Father to conduct him home to his mansion place and to bring him into neerer fellowship with his Redeemer It puts an end to all sin and temptations and troubles of every sort and opens a door of entrance into unspeakable joyes that shall never end O Sirs what a priviledge is this to be able to triumph over death It is that unto which we are subject every moment * Quotidie morimur quotidie enim demitur aliqua pars vitae Et tunc quoque cum crescimus vita decrescit hunc ipsum quem agimus diem cum morte dividimus Sen. Epist 24. and what is that which will sweeten the passage and remove the fears which are usually attendant upon the contemplation of it Why It is our interest in Christ and union with him He drank that bitter cup yea the very dregs of it that he might sweeten it unto such as are in him 1 Cor. 15.53 54 55. O death where iâ— thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength â—f sin is the Law But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Christ tasted an accursed death that it might be made a blessing to his members Rev. 14.13 And I heard a voâ—ce from heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. It is not a being called Christians which will render the day of death a blessed day nor an outward attendance upon Christ but getting into him Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. 9. A believers union with Jesus Christ is a sure inlet unto a glorious resurrection out of the dust of the earth when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality And therefore observe it Sirs Although the wicked shall be raised at the last day as well as the godly yet not by the same means through which the godly are raised The wicked shall be raised by the power of Christ as a Judge but Believers shall rise again by vertue of their oneness with Christ and neer relation unto him 1 Cor. 15.22 23. For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive But every man in his own order Christ the first fruits afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming Such as sleep in Jesus shall awake by vertue of their being in him and thereupon their vile bodies shall be changed and fashioned like to his glorious body * Rom. 8.11 He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by or because his Spirit that dwelleth in you Vivificari in hac sententia significat resurrectionem gloriosam quae similis est Christi resurrectioni propria bonis in quibus inhabitat spiritus Illud autem Propter inhabitantem spiritum ejus ad Christum refertur non ad Deum Et in hoc est argumenti efficacia quia enim spiritus hic Dei qui in nobis habitat etiam Christi est Sicus Christum ut homo à Patre suscitatus est ita nos suscitabimur qui eundem cum Christo spiritum habemus Tolet. in loc To which that passage of the Prophet Isaiah may be fitly referred which though it primarily be intended of outward deliverance and the wonderful restauration of the Church out of such a forlorn desperate estate as that they were as dead yet it may extend also to the last resurrection of which that eminent deliverance was but a shadow and resemblance Isa 26.19 Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall give up her dead This is another blessing which floweth from this fountain 10. Our union with Christ Jesus will minisâ—er boldness at the bar of Judgment and cause us to lift up our faces without spot or confusion at that great and notable day of the Lord. How will the wicked be ashamed to look Christ in the face at that day seeing that now they despise him and trample his blood under their feet seeing that now they slight his word and contemn his Ordinances and his people Then the Kings and the chief Captains and the great men and the mighty men and every bondman and freeman I mean all impenitent sinners of what rank or quality soever Will be ready to call upon the rocks to fall upon them and the mountains to cover them from the presence of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Then what would not a man give to be able to assure his heart before Christ at his appearance and to be of the number of Christ's followers that shall stand at his right hand when the ungodly are trembling at the left Why It is not all the substance of a mans house can purchâ—se this priviledge It is not all your prayers and tears at that day that can do it though you should cry out your heart blood if you are unconverted sinners But it depends wholly upon your union with Christ 1 Joh 2.28 And noor little children abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming 1 Thess 4.14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Mark it He will summon the wicked before him but such as are members of his body he will bring with him i. e. in his train and company under his own shelter and protection Christ himself will undertake the patronage of their cause and to silence all the accusations of Satan which are brought in against them Well may they exult and be glad for it will be the day of the consummation of their marriage with their Redeemer If now they are espoused and contracted then they shall be married with the greatest solemnity in the presence of God and of his holy Angels Then will that vision be most notably fulfilled Rev. 21.2 3 4. I John saw the holy City new Jerusalem coming downfrom God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband This is the tenth mercy which depends upon our union with Christ 11. Lastly It is our having the Son or being united unto the Son which will give us actual admission into the kingdom of glory and possession of the inheritance prepared for the Saints When the wicked are sent into everlasting punishment then shall the righteous inherit eternal life When the ungodly are thrust together into hell then shall believers dwell in the presence of God for ever and drink of the rivers of pleasures which are at his right
the body are subject to the head As the head dictates and commands so the hands work and the feet walk and the rest of the body is ordered Such an authority must Christ have over us and we must be in a readiness to close and comply with his directions and counsels Or else it will be evident that we stand not in the relation of members to him as our Head Rev. 14.4 These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these were redeemed from amongst men being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb that is These who are the redeemed of the Lord are a people wholly dedicated and consecrated unto the service of Christ and to the worship of God in Christ as the first fruits were set apart unto the Lord and devoted unto him As the first fruits were but an handful in comparison of the whole crop so they were consecrated unto the most high and thus are God's redeemed ones They are ready prest to be at Christ's beck and to follow his guidance See Eph. 5.23 24. Christ is the head of the Church and the Saviour of the body and therefore the Church is subject unto him 4. This Metaphor taken from the head and 〈…〉 hold forth that unity and concord which Christians should maintain amongst themselves and that mutual love tenderness which they ought to entertain one towards another They are members of one body whereof Christ is the Head and therefore it is unseemly nay it is unnatural for divisions to be amongst them If one member be weak will the other enter into contest with it and be filled with indignation against it Doth not the whole body suffer with one member that suffereth And do they not mutually rejoyce at each others welfire So should sincere Christians be kindly affectionated one towards another with brotherly love the weak should rejoyce with the strong and the strong bearing with the infirmities of the weak should help them and not be filled with wrath and bitterness amongst themselves It is an argument often pressed to this purpose Eph. 4.3 4. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of reace There is one body and one spirit q. d. Is it not a shame for you to fall out by the way Why you are brethren nay members of the same mystical body animated by the same Spirit made partakers of the same workings of the Holy Ghost and under the conduct of the same head see to it that there be no contentions amongst you that you live at peace and amity between your selves This consideration is largely insisted on to this purpose 1 Cor. 12 13. to 25. v. 5. As our Lord Jesus the Mediator of the Covenant of peace and reconciliation hath a peculiar relation of Headship unto the Church so he is made the head of all things for the good and benefit of the Church He is the Head of his own people in 〈…〉 and providential disposal of affairs he is the Head of all things for their good This is a matter of wonderful comfort to Believers Art thou an Israelite indeed a Disciple of Christ in reality Be not afraid there is nothing in the world can hurt thee or hinder thy salvation For that Jesus unto whom thou art joyned is ordained of God to be the head of all things and that unto this very intent that he might guide and govern them in a subordination to the good of his servants * Quemadmodum Christus similitudinem capitis Politici gerit ita quoscunque in Ecclesia externè regit non electos soâ—um Quid minus Cum gentium caput etiam sensu isto à Patre Christus constitutus sit Psal 18.44 Et Angelorum qui nedum de Ecclesiâ redemptâ sint Col. 2.10 imò singularum personarum sive de Ecclesia sint vel non sint 1 Cor. 11.3 Parker de Pol. Eccl. So I understand that Text Eph. 1.22 He hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church which is his body Mark it in a peculiar sense he is the head of the Church which is his body but in point of rule and authority he is exalted as head over all things to the Church i.e. with respect to his peoples good that he may dispose and manage them for their best advantage according to that Joh. 3.35 The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hands And Col. 2.10 Ye are compleat in him who is the head of all principality and power This is the first similitude for illustration of this mystery taken from the head and members of the natural body 2. The second great similitude which the Spirit of God hath made use of for the elucidation and setting forth of this Mystery of a Believers oneness with Christ is taken from that Vnion which is betwixt the vine and the branches graffed into the vine Or betwixt the root or stock and the sience inserted into the stock Believers are trees of righteousness in God's vineyard but they do not grow upon their own root The Lord Jesus is the root whence all their sap is derived An hypocrite bringeth forth fruit unto himself and he groweth upon his own root If he have any adhaerance to Christ it is but external But now a Saint indeed is graffed into Christ and there is a coalescency betwixt them into one Joh. 15.5 I am the vine ye are the branches He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit As if Christ had said This is the comparison wherewith I may fitly compare my neer relation to you my Disciples and such as you are I have had occasion already to touch upon this similitude and therefore at present I will but lightly pass over these four things 1. That the whole dependance of Christians in every respect as to the matters appertaining to life and godliness is upon the Lord Jesus and they cannot subsist one moment without him If they have spiritual life Saintship it is from Christ if they are upheld and maintained in that estate it is by Christ and if they have strength and ability to work the works of God it is imparted through him For they are branches in him and he is the vine So that we have no cause to boast of our selves nor is there any ground for self-confidence or trusting in our selves But the whole life that we live should be by faith on the Son of God All our fresh springs are in him Separate the branches from the vine and they quickly decay and perish and are fit for nothing but the fire so doth the soul of a man or woman if separated from Christ Rom. 11.18 If thou boastest thou bearest not the root but the root thee Let this saith the Apostle keep down the pride of your hearts do not glory in your selves for you have nothing from thence If a man glory set
that hath hitherto spared them and the infinite goodness of that God who still waiteth that he may shew mercy unto them Certainly it is wonderful long-suffering and powerful patience whereby the wrath of God is restrained from taking vengeance upon such Numb 14. v. 17 18. 2. Persons unregenerate and out of Christ are dead in respect of the putrefaction and rottenness of their condition A dead carkass the longer it lieth the more it putrefies and is corrupted so it is with impenitent sinners The longer they lye in their unconverted estate the worse they grow the more their spirits are setled in hatred against God and the greater is their forwardness and proneness to all sorts of abominations And therefore none are so hard to be wrought upon as old sinners that have spent the most part of their time in the service of the devil 2 Tim. 3.13 Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse For custom in sin doth naturally tend to strengthen the habits of sin * Suffocat hominem à veritate avertit abducit à vita est laqueus est barathrum est malum ventilabrum mala consuetudo As it is in any secular trade or imployment the more time a man spendeth in his Trade the more skill he getteth and the more handy he is at his work till he come to perfection in such an Art or Mystery So the more time a sinner spendeth upon his lusts the more cursed skill and wisdom he getteth to make provision for the flesh and to find out wayes to satisfie his lusts and evasions to break through convictions upon his conscience the more handy he groweth to commit any sort of wickedness so that in process of time he will turn a deaf ear unto counsel * Ex voluntate perversâ facta est consuetudo dum consuetudint non resistitur facta est necessitas Aug. conf You read of sinners compared to wild asses used to the wilderness And who can turn them away saith the holy ghost Jer. 2.24 q. d. They are grown obstinate in their rebellions formerly perhaps a reproof would have taken with them but now you had as good speak to a stock or a stone Continuance in sin taketh away the conscience of sin Formerly some workings of a natural conscience might put a stop to mens running to all excess of riot but when the bridle is broken whither will not a wicked man run So that my brethren it is a point of wisdom to seek unto God betimes and for persons that are in their youth to remember their Creator in the morning of their lives We are apt to cozen our selves by promises to repent hereafter when I have a convenient season saith the sinner I will make my peace with God and when I am in a better temper Nay but O vain man * Qui promittit poenitenti remissionem non promittit peccanti poenitentiam now is the most convenient season For besides the slipperiness and uncertainty of a mans dayes upon earth the longer thou liest in a course of sin the harder thine heart will grow and the faster hold will the devil get of thy soul So that deliver thy self as a roe from the hand of the hunter and as a bird from the snare of the fowler Give not sleep to thine eyes nor stumber to thine eye-lids Prov. 6.4 5. 3. Persons out of Christ are in a dead condition in respect of their impotency and inability to that which is spiritually good A dead person hath no power to perform the works of nature as eating and drinking and walking and discoursing and the like because he is dead Thus impenitent sinners are without strength unto the things of God Rom. 5.6 A sincere Christian is dead to sin and the unconverted are dead in sin they have no power of themselves to the works of holiness and righteousness In this sense I principally understand that place Eph. 2.5 Even when we were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickned us that is When all our spiritual abilities were gone If we had been left to our selves we should never have recovered out of our bondage and slavery but must have lain in it eternally without hopes of being delivered and then God came and breathed the Spirit of life into us And Sirs this should awaken us to cry mightily unto the Lord and never to give him rest till he steppeth in for our recovery This should cause us to take diligent heed that we quench not the motions of the Spirit nor provoke him to withdraw his workings from us for if he wholly depart we are undone irremediably I might under this head descend unto particulars by shewing you 1. That unconverted sinners have no power to turn their souls unto God nor to make a saving change upon their own spirits but this I have touched upon before 2. That they are without power to walk in the wayes of holiness or to perform one good action in an acceptable manner When the Lord himself took a view of all mankind in their apostatized condition he found not one that did good no not one Psal 14.2 3. And 3. That they are without strength to resist the temptations of the devil further than they are kept in by the restraining grace of God Satan leadeth them captive as he will 2 Tim. 2.26 As the heart of man is tainted with the principles of the most horrid abominations that ever were forbidden in the Scriptures so if God did not set bounds to the lusts that are within us we should quickly rush into the practise of them Sirs were it not for the restraining grace of the Almighty you would have been murderers as Cain and guilty of witchcraft as Manasses and have been as gross Idolaters as any of the Heathen Nay you would have sinned your selves before this time into hell or without the compass of the promise of mercy and forgiveness Surely this is not a condition wherein a person should quietly rest one moment for if God should pluck up the flood-gates whither would not the violent torrent of a mans corruptions carry him Deut. 18.10 11 12 13 14. I might have shewed you 4. That the unregenerate are so far from having any power by nature to turn themselves unto God or to serve him in truth and sincerity that their hearts are filled with enmity and hatred against God and his wayes and ready to fight against the means appointed to draw them heaven-ward Nay the carnal mind is enmity it self so it is expressed in the abstract Rom. 8.7 As if they were made up of nothing but venom and poyson and wrath and bitterness against God But I must not dwell upon these things The Lord press them upon your hearts and awaken you to follow hard after him and to take fast hold of him and never to let him go till he hath given you clear evidence of your freedom from this sad condition The Lord make you restless in your spirits
himself But let every man prove his own work and then he shall have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another As if he had said It is no marvel if your hearts beguile you if you do not make a narrow scrutiny into your selves Your spirits are treacherous apt to put light for darkness and darkness for light You will be apt to entertain good thoughts and opinions of your selves when perhaps you have nothing of the life and substance of godliness and your deceitful hearts take hold of every advantage to strengthen those opinions But if you would avoid this cheat you must examine your selves Let every man prove his own work that is every one that would not be thus deceived and in order to the prevention of this self-flattery and cozenage If you were much in self-examination you would not rest in the good opinions of others nor conclude you were holy because they thought well of you or you would not determine of your spiritual estate from the lives of others that therefore you are the children of God because you are not so bad as they or that you were in Covenant with the Lord because others run faster than you in the devils service But upon the through trial of your selves it would be seen whether you have any substantial ground of rejoycing So that let me tell you again If you love your souls if you would be assured to escape everlasting vengeance that you are persons in favour with God and shall arrive with sasety at the kingdom of heaven when all impenitent sinners are bound up in bundles together and cast into hell fire make it appear that you are united to Christ Get knowledge and assurance that you have the Son and to that end be diligent in the search of your selves for self-examination is the way to know it You will say What course shall we take in the search of this matter or in what method shall we proceed in this examination of our selves that thereupon we may know whether we be ingraffed into Christ This is a work and duty in the discharge whereof eternal life it self lieth at the stake if it be not managed aright it may prove the occasion of a mans utter ruine and destruction And therefore I will insist upon it somewhat largely by passing over these three heads of particulars By 1. By shewing you the nature of this duty That you may know wherein your work lieth in this business or what this self-examination is in order to finding out whether you be knit to Christ 2. Pressing upon your spirits some of the principle motives or provocatives to quicken you to set speedily and vigorously upon the discharge of this work 3. Subjoyning in the close some special directions to guide you in the discharge of this work that you may come to a right conclusion whether you have the Son and not be deceived therein 1. To begin with the first of shewing you wherein your work lieth in this business of examining whether you be one with Christ and have the Son or what this duty of self-examination is Which is a mater needful to be a little explained Because it is to be feared that multitudes who are called Christians are much in the dark as to any distinct knowledge of the nature of this work that they are not only strangers to the practise of it but in a great measure as to any clear apprehensions concerning it But I shall not handle it by way of description at large only I will give you some hints of the most material points which have a reference to this work and that will be needful to open our way for the directions I would give you for the right management thereof All that shall be delivered under this head I have gathered into six plain conclusions Concl. 1. The first conclusion is this That self-examination as to our union with Christ is for the matter of it a compounded duty made up of a threefold spiritual and reflexive action in relation to a mans self There is 1. A search or enquiry made into a mans self 2. The probation and trial of a mans self 3. The passing sentence or judgment upon a mans self a mans self Mark it Sirs It doth not lie in one only single act of the spirit but it doth consist of several acts For as there are some complicated sins which carry many transgressions together in the bowels of them So there are some duties which we may call complicated or compounded duties And such is this of self-examination wherein there are many actions folded up together For it comprehends a threefold reflexive act 1. There is an act of inspection or retrospection into a mans self A search or enquiry made into our persons and wayes our inward qualifications and all our performances He that examineth himself must curiously pry and look into his own heart and practise into his principles and conversation and into all the workings of those principles and the manner of them He must descend into and take a narrow view of every corner of his spirit and the several parts of his demeanour As a man would look with a candle into every room and cast his eye into every hole and crany of an house for the finding out any thing which is lost You have it under this very similitude Prov. 20.27 The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly It is the candle of the Lord that is there is a special faculty put into a mans soul by God himself whereby he is enabled to make enquiry into his innermost thoughts and and the secret operations of his own heart in the exercise whereof he may make a narrow scrutiny into himself and look wistly into what is within him or hath been done by him as a man doth that taketh a torch or candle to see that which could not otherwise be perceived * In mente hominis quasi in tabulis obsignatis conscriptum relinquitur quid fecit quo animo quod etiam tandem 〈◊〉 conscientia legitur pronunciatur Ames de consc It is sometimes stiled in respect to a mans wayes which as I shall shew you by and by are a main evidence of our union with Christ or estrangedness from him a thinking upon them Psal 119.59 I thought upon my wayes and turned my feet unto thy testimonies So that then doth a person examine himself when he sits down and looketh into his own soul what graces are there and how they are exercised what corruptions abide within him and how much force and power they have had over him and the like When he doth bethink himself as to his wayes with what care and conscience he hath sanctified the Sabbath how instant and fervent he is on the one hand or cold and careless on the other hand in the duty of prayer how often he doth read the Word and meditate thereupon
and treachery in the conscience For as that is the faculty which doth eye and observe a man in his wayes so whereby he is impowred to take an account of those wayes and to acquit or condemn himself according to the merits of the cause and as the matter doth require You read of the Apostle Paul that he had a witness on his side that he was a servant of God and walked in sincerity before the Lord whereupon his heart was filled with joy and gladness And what was that witness Why his conscience had examined and found it to be so 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world And both the business of accusing and absolving a sinner is attributed thereunto namely to the workings of conscience Rom. 2.15 Their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Joh. 8.9 They went out one by one being convicted by their own consciences This you are sometimes to understand by the heart and spirit of a man when it is said to take cognizance of the things which are within him The heart knoweth its own bitterness Prov. 14.10 What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him 1 Cor. 2.11 Again Eccl. 7.21 22. Also take no heed to all words that are spoken lest thou hear thy servant curse thee For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thy self likewise hast cursed others That is If you would set your consciences awork they would declare plainly what is the filthiness that cleaveth to you and the abominations that have been committed by you So that your care must be to keep life and vigour and activity in your consciences and you must take heed to your selves that no mistakes or falshoods or practical errors settle within your consciences Concl. 3. Although it be the conscience of a man by which he doth examine himself touching his union with Christ and passeth judgment upon himself in that case yet this work can never be performed effectually and to purpose without the concurrent assistance of the Spirit of God and the powerful inflâ—ence of the holy Ghost It is the Spirit of God by whom the conscience of a sinner is excited and stired up unto this work and directed and guided therein that it may see clearly into matters and may pass a right and convincing sentence thereupon It is the same Spirit alone which converteth a sinner from his natural estate that can convincingly shew him his sad estate in order to conversion And the same Spirit alone which planteth grace into the soul can discover that grace where it is planted that so a Believer may take comfort therein and conclude from thence that he is ingraffed into Christ And therefore when we attain any comfortable evidences of our estate Godward we are said to be sealed by the Spirit because it depends upon his assistance and testimony Eph. 1.13 14. In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance It is a manner of speech taken from the practise of men who for confirmation and assurance of a deed or grant give writings under seal so hath the Lord been pleased saith the Apostle to deal with you you have not only the promises of acceptance and pardon and eternal life made unto you but these promises are sealed How Why by the testimony of the Spirit Again in making of a bargain men are wont to give earnest to confirm it which is not only a part of payment but for assurance of the whole This earnest saith he you have received which is the witness of the holy Ghost It is not the testimony of conscience alone can make a man effectually to know his relation to Christ or separation from Christ without the concurrent operation of the Spirit There is a famous Text in reference to both Rom. 8.15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba father Mark it If a man be brought into bondage by the knowledge of his undone condition by seeing himself to lie under the guilt of his sins and obnoxious to the insupportable wrath of God it is through the operation of the Spirit And if he be able to plead his adoption and to look up unto God as his Father in Christ it is by the efficacious workings of the same Spirit So that for the examination of your selves concerning your union with Christ and finding out whether you are knit unto him your work in this respect lieth in two things 1 In being earnest petitioners and supplicants at the throne of grace for the special assistance of the holy Ghost to make this discovery to you to strike in with your consciences in bearing witness unto your spiritual estate That the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him that the eyes of your understandings being enlightned ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints Eph. 1.17 18. 2 Your business lieth in a careful attendance upon the dictates of the Spirit and taking heed that you resist not the holy Ghost in these actings For it is an ordinary thing in many of the people of God to be accessary to the disconsolateness of their own souls by opposing the spirit of consolation They go on without that comfort which they might have in the knowledge of their union with Christ because they refuse to be comforted as the Psalmist speaketh of himself Psal 77.2 This is a common distemper in times of strong temptations As the ungodly resist the spirit of conviction and conversion so believers themselves are apt to withstand and strive against the spirit of consolation And therefore your work is to give diligent attendance upon the Spirit and to hear attentively what he shall speak unto you Concl. 4. The way of procedure in this business of self-examination or the means whereby it must be found out whether we are united to Christ is By consulting and enquiring into those marks and signs which are the evidencing characters and properties of that union For Sirs the change wrought upon a Believer by his oneness with Christ is a relative change and cannot be seen immediately in it self and of it self But it is discerned and discovered unto the spirit of a man by its properties and concomitants which are as certain characteristical marks and tokens whereby the state of union with Christ is differenced and distinguished from that of being strangers unto him As it is in natural things If I would know whether
under this use of Trial viz. to shew you what this self-examination is and wherein consisteth your work in the performance of it 2. By way of motive and proveâ—ative to quicken and stir you up to the discharge of it It is a duty whereunto the heart of a man is hardly brought as indeed all spiritual work is untastful and unpleasing to flesh and bloud So that as we need line upon line and precept upon pracept to dispel the mists of ignorance whereby our minds are blinded and to prevent the mistakes whereupon we are apt to proceed in this work so we need motive upon motive and one spiritual argument upon the neck of another to cure the backwardness of our hearts whereby we are commonly averse to the performance of this work I will not be large under this head but only press upon you these four moving considerations or incentives Mot. 1. If you be loath to enter throughly into the disquisition of this matter and to debate the case with your selves whether you are one with Christ or not That very thing will be a shrewd argument against you that you are utter strangers unto Christ and in no wise partakers of salvation through him It will be a sign that your profession is unsound and your hearts rotten when you are unwilling to search into your spiritual condition As when a Tradesman will not suffer his wares to be throughly viewed it ministers ground of suspition that they are not right and good So it is in these spiritual affairs If you are hardly brought to make enquiry into your selves it will yield matter of suspition that you are conscious of some wickedness allowed in your selves and that your hearts are not right in the sight of the Lord. For my brethren It is not truth but falshood that hateth the light and will not come to the light lest it should be discovered A person that is indeed in Covenant with God and dealeth faithfully with him in living up to the terms of that Covenant is willing to be searched to the uttermost Psal 26.2 3. Examine me O Lord and prove me trie me and know my heart For thy loving kindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth I have not sate with vain persons c. Mot. 2. It concerns you to examine diligently whether you be united unto Christ Because it is an ordinary thing for men and women to be mistaken in this respect to think that they have the Son and are in a state of salvation when as in truth they lie still in the gall of bitterness And this mistake is the cause of their eternal ruine From hence it is that they neglect to seek after a remedy because in their own apprehensions they are safe already For as our Saviour saith They that be whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Mat. 9.12 Whilst men have good conceits of their own condition they rest secure therein and are not sensible of the need of having it changed * Immittit Diabolus securitatem ut inferat perditionem Neque dinumerari possunt quantos hac inanis spei umbra deceperit Aug. And there are multitudes of this sort who say they are Jews when they are the Synagogue of Satan as it is expressed Rev. 3.9 That is they imagine themselves to be and would have others esteem them as living members of the body of Christ when as in reality they are nothing else but the children of the devil You find it was the house of Jacob that is the generality of the people who were thus deceived Isa 48.1 2 3 4. They were obstinate and obdurate sinners their neck was an iron sinew and their brow as brass and yet they called themselves of the holy City and stayed themselves upon the God of Israel And Rev. 3.1 it is mentioned of the Church of Sardis that is the body of the people for unto them Christ speaketh by his Spirit Although the Epistle was directed to the Angel yet it was to be communicated to the Church v. 6. That they had a name to live whereas indeed they were dead Mot. 3. If upon the examination of your selves you shall find that through grace you are indeed united to Christ and make it sure to your selves that you have the Son the sweetness of that knowledge or assurance will abundantly recompense you for all the pains you were at in the search of it and the travel you took in pursuance after it O what an excellent priviledge will this be to be able to say that Christ is yours that his death is a satisfaction for your sins and the salvation he purchased is your inheritance and that he is now at the right hand of the Father interceding on your behalf With what inexpressible joy will this fill your spirits How will it sweeten your enjoyments and ease your burdens and bring a vein of consolation and gladness into every condition that you are in and under every providence that befalleth you Yoâ— will then be able to read the Scriptures with delight when you can say This promise conveyeth mercy to my soul and this is a blessing wherein I am a sharter And as for the threatnings of judgment they speak not a word of terror to my soul for I am not under the Law but under grace being united unto Jesus the head of the Covenant oâ— grace This will inable you to walk cheerfully throughout your pilgrimage and to meditate up on the excellencies of God with an holy exultation when you can say This God is my God upon the account of Christ unto whom I am knit in separably This infinite power is ingaged for mâ— protection and safeguard this incomprehensibâ— wisdom is at work for my direction and guidancâ— this alsufficiency is for my satisfaction and blessedness and the like Then you may say with thâ— Prophet Hab. 3.19 The Lord God is my strengâ— and he will make my feet like Hinds feet and he will make me to walk upon my high places Then you may appropriate the Lord and his attributes unto your selâ—es and be assured he will make haste for your preservation and deliverance as speedily and swiftly as the Hind runneth into her covert and that he will set you on high in the munitions of rocks I might thus expatiate abundantly in setting forth the sweetness of this knowledge of your union with Christ Then you would taste real comfort in the accomodations of this life and be no way terrified or dismayed at the apprehensions of death for it will but translate you hence into a paradise of bliss and glory Mot. 4. Consider seriously in the last place That although upon the examination of your selves it should appear that you are still in the state of wrath â—nd condemnation without a saving interest in â—he Son of God yet the finding it to be so would â—e one good step towards your restauration and reâ—overy out of that estate and make
obeying that is when a man doth consecrate and devote his whole self both soul and body to the keeping of Gods commandments and doth his will not only from the heart but with the whole heart and spirit When there is a concentrication and conjunction of all the powers and faculties of the whole person in the service of the Lord the understanding is apprehensive of the mind of God and the judgment approveth the way of his precepts the affections run out in earnest desires to do and delight in doing the will of God the will is in a posture of ready compliance therewith the conscience stirreth up unto obedience and the members of the body are instruments in the execution of what is enjoyned Contrary to that dividing heart which the Scripture condemneth when the several faculties of the soul draw several wayes The understanding and judgment and conscience are for God and his wayes but the will and the affections for sin and the world and such lying vanities When persons have an heart and an heart an heart for God and an heart for Belial they are not come to any setled determination but their spirits halt between two opinions My brethren If you would prove that you are converted unto God your hearts must be united to fear his name and all that is within you must be gathered together to the observing of his Statutes Jer. 29.13 Ye shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your hearts And mark the words of Samuel to the men of Israel when they lamented after the Lord 1 Sam. 7.2 3. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel saying If ye do return to the Lord with all your hearts then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines As if he had said Be not deceived it is not some faint inclinations unto godliness and a little lamentation after the Lord that will give you an interest in his mercy But if you would be accepted of him you must espouse none other interest but his you must carry on none other design co-ordinate with that of pleasing the Lord and walking with him if you are his servants at all you must be his altogether and give him your whole heart and mind and soul and strength And the reason is apparent because in sanctification grace is pouted out into the whole man and the change wrought is an universal change And it is not the actings of a part which will evidence a change in the whole But when the whole man is set upon the wayes of God This is the perfect heart which was a comfort to Hezekiah when all the soul goeth together in the way to heaven and there is no part lacking Isa 38.3 Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart 2. It must be universal in relation to the rule or the particulars of obedience When there is an equal and uniform respect unto all the commandments of the Lord and a readiness to be pressed upon any service whether greater or lesser with whatsoever difficulty it is attended and whatsoever self-denial is required in the discharge of it When a man's soul is drawn out in a detestation of every sin and doth not live in the allowed omission or neglect of any known duty whether secret or publike whether generally practised or despised by the generality You read of Herod that he heard John Baptist and did many things but this was no proof of a sound conversion because in other things he fell short * Qui facit solummodo ea quae vult facere non Dominicam voluntatem implet sed suam Salvian In some cases he did what was commanded and in others he took liberty to trample upon the commandment Mark 6.20 And this is the furthest that carnal Professors go They are as Cakes not turned half-bak'd Christians as it is said of Ephraim Hos 7.8 As to the abandoning of some sins and discharge of some duties they bid fair for heaven But as for other corruptions by which they think they have their livelyhood and that have a more than ordinary share in their affections they will hold them fast and shake hands with Religion when they come to difficult points of obedience and so discover their rottenness Thus Jehu bade fair for salvation and yet fell short 2 King 10.30 31. He destroyed Baal out of Israel and did to the house of Ahab according to all that was in God's heart Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam he departed not he thought those sins were so interwoven with his secular interest that he could not keep the Kingdom without them That no calves at Dan and Bethel and no king in Israel But now when a person can say in uprightness that his heart standeth in awe of the whole Word of God and whatever he findeth with the stamp of a divine precept upon it he is willing to submit to and through the assistance of the Spirit will close with it be it never so contrary to flesh and bloud though it run directly cross to his worldly interest and cost him never so much ignominy and reproach from the wicked though it expose him to never so many troubles and hardships here is that obedience in the life which will evidence grace in the heart Psal 119.6 Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy commandments i. e. Then it will appear that my profession is sound and my hopes well bottomed and such as will not deceive me then I shall not be put to confusion at the day of accounts nor be frustrated and disappointed in my expectations of glory when I have this testimony to produce that I am a servant of God because I esteem all his precepts in every thing to be right and have a conscientious regard unto them all 3. It must be universal obedience in relation to the times and seasons of the performance of it Psal 106.3 Blessed are they that keep judgment and he that doth righteousness at all times Not as some Professors whose Religion is modelled according to the providences they are under and the company which they meet and converse with When godliness is in esteem and credit in the world they will be clothed in that dress and none shall be more forward in religious duties and exercises But when it is discountenanced and under a cloud then their course is changed They row their boat as the tide runneth backward or forward and hoise up their sails according as the wind bloweth If they fall into a religious family and amongst godly company there they will approve and commend the wayes of God and if their lot fall amongst vain and profane persons they will be wanton and vain and profane and scurrilous as the rest They will do
shall be stronger and stronger Prov. 4.18 The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Here is that sort of obedience which will evidence your ingrafture into Christ When you are freed from sin so as to be daily striving after greater freedom and getting more ground upon your corruptions When you are not only active for God but still aspiring after further activity and delight in doing the will of God and the rendring your selves more serviceable unto him For although a true Believer doth not alwayes thrive sensibly and perceptibly but may rather seem in his own apprehensions to decay and go backward nor doth he at all times thrive really yet it is the main bent of his spirit and the earnest breathings of his soul are that he may make a continued progress in the course of godliness He never resteth satisfied with any measures attained but is still endeavouring after more As he blesseth God for the least dram of grace conferred upon him so he is ambitious to get into the uppermost form of Christs Scholars And here is the note of oneness with Christ For Joh 15.2 Every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit 6. It must be stedfast obedience and continued unto the end When a soul doth give up himself to the Lord to be his servant perpetually and everlastingly without limitation of time When he is fully determined through the assistance of the Spirit that whatever comes of it this God he will serve and the advancement of his glory he will carry on and the way of holiness he will travel in and through grace nothing shall divert him from his course When a mans ear is bored so as to serve the Lord for ever as the expression of Christ is Psal 40.6 Mine ear hast thou opened or mine ear hast thou bored It is in allusion as some think to the ceremonial Law in the case of servants * Non alienum omnino quod quidam è nostris putant videri respexesse Davidem ad consuetudinem olim usitatam in populo Hebraeo ut servo sponte permanenti in servitute nec admittere volenti libertatem quae septimo quoque anno servis offerebatur auris subula perforaretur Ac dicere voluisse habebis me perpetuum tibi addictum servum c. Sim. de Muis in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si dicendo dixerit Exod. 21.5 6. If the servant shall say plainly I love my Master my wife and my children I will not go out free Then his Master shall bring him unto the Judges he shall also bring him to the door or to the door post and his Master shall bore his ear through with an awl and he shall serve him for ever So Christ gave up himself to serve the Lord for ever He was not rebellious neither did he turn back And thus must a Believer do if he will prove that he is in Christ He must have his ear bored to serve the Lord for ever If saying he shall say as the Hebrew phrase is * Non alienum omnino quod quidam è nostris putant videri respexesse Davidem ad consuetudinem olim usitatam in populo Hebraeo ut servo sponte permanenti in servitute nec admittere volenti libertatem quae septimo quoque anno servis offerebatur auris subula perforaretur Ac dicere voluisse habebis me perpetuum tibi addictum servum c. Sim. de Muis in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si dicendo dixerit If he shall speak it truly and unfeignedly in the very inwards of his soul If his heart shall suâ—scribe unto it I love my Master I will not go free I love the Lord and the desire of my soul is towards him I will serve him perpetually and abide in his family for ever and accordingly doth perform it Here is such obedience and service as will evidence union with Jesus Christ Heb. 3.6 Whose house are we i.e. then it is clear and evident that we are Christs house and temple that he dwelleth in us and we have fellowship with him if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end So much for the sixth Rule of direction To shew you how your obedience must be qualified that it may be produced as a proof of your conversion and consequentially of your union with Jesus Christ Direct 7. This examination of your selves touching your holiness and new obedience as the evidence of your regeneration and union with Christ thereupon if it be done successfully and effectually must be set upon solemnly with the best intention of spirit It is not enough to take a transient view of our selves and to pass over cursorily in an observation of our own souls But if we would perform this work to purpose we must sit down and consider how the case stands with us We must set a covenient time apart particularly to this end of entring into a serious debate with our selves and making a narrow scrutinity into the frame of our hearts and the tenour of our conversations As one that would buy an house or a tenement doth not only cast a glance upon it as he rideth by the way that is not enough to give him a full knowledge of it But he will take a day on purpose to view it and openeth the doors and entereth into the house and passeth from one room to another and from one corner to another So if we would get a clear knowledg of our spiritual estate we must not think it enough to take a general view of our selves obiter and by the by but we must set time apart and gather our spirits together to look wistly into every corner we must take particulars asunder and search heedfully and intentively into each of them And the reason of it is very apparent Because the heart of man is deep and except it be searched throughly we shall never dive into the bottom or entrals of it Psal 64.6 The spirit of fallen man is exceedingly treacherous and deceitful Jer. 17.9 So that unless we trace it narrowly in all its steps and follow after it in to all its subterfuges and hiding places it will escape our cognizance and be apt to impose upon us in the business of salvation It is to be feared that many enter slightly upon the work of self-examination and quickly slubber it over in a carless and superficial manner and that is the very reason why they never bring matters to an issue or determinate conclusion in this case For it is a work to be performed with the greatest cautelousness diligence and deliberation and with earnest prayer to the Lord that he may discover to us those intricacies and labyrinths wherein our guilful spirits are apt to hide themselves This is the seventh Rule of Advice Direct 8. Mind this word of counsel in the last place That if a
person upon the most serious and deliberate examination of himself be still left in the dark as to his union with Christ for want of clear evidences of his conversion The way to make sure work in this behalf and to put the matter out of question is to put forth immediately fresh acts of faith upon the righteousness of Christ for salvation to renew his repentance as to the evil of sin to make a fresh surrender of himself into the hands of God upon the terms of the Covenant of grace and to enter presently upon the course of new obedience * Conscientiae meritò perturbatae haec unica est ratio pacanda Si qui sic afficicur adduci possit in illum statum per veram fidem resipiscentiam ut assumptio syllogismi illius quo turbatus fait merito incipiat esse falsa jure negetur Ames Thes de consc These Sirs are those acts which the principle of regeneration doth first exert and put forth when it is planted into the soul and these spiritual acts are often reiterated and repeated by the souls of such as are converted So that if you were before effectually called these will be the renewings of your conversion and if you were formerly unconverted yet hereby it will be evident that you continue such no longer But that through grace now the work is wrought These being the immediate products of the grace of conversion I will a little open this word of Advice in relation to each of the particulars asunder 1. Act your faith afresh upon the Lord Christ and his righteousness Endeavour in the sense of the greatness of the evil of your sins and apprehension of the insupportableness of the wrath of God deserved by sin in the due acknowledgment of the justice of God that must be satisfied and the insufficiency of all your personal qualifications and obedience to give satisfaction thereunto to cast your selves upon Christ's righteousness to put your selves for redemption into his hands and to accept him for your Saviour upon the terms of the Gospel This is to believe in Jesus and if it be done now in sincerity and truth it will be a comfortable evidence that either you were formerly united unto Christ or else that at the present the knot is tyed betwixt him and your souls See the words of our Saviour Joh. 12.46 I am come as a light into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness Only take the advice with this provise See to it that you do not mistake in the nature of faith that you do not take a dead faith for a living nor an hypocritical counterfeit faith for the faith of God's elect And then if you believe indeed the putting forth that principle into exercise will be as a present evidence that you are gotten into Christ and have a right to the favour of God through his bloud 2. To put the matter out of question touching your conversion and union with Jesus Christ Renew your repentance as to the evil of sin Labour to get such a sight of your transgressions committed against the Lord as may fill you with godly sorrow for them and to be so deeply affected with your own filthiness and pollutions that you may loath your selves and lie down in your shame upon the account of that filthiness Upon taste of the bitterness of your departings from God and the destructive nature of your iniquities let your hearts be set in hatred of them and cast them away from you with utter detestation and abhorrence never to come neer you again as to any reconcilement with them Especially abhor those iniquities which have mostly prevailed over you say unto your lusts get ye hence what have I to do any more with you You have ruined my soul and I will never yield subjection to you further If I have served you hitherto through Gods assistance I will do it no longer This my brethren is repentance according to the Scriptures And if your hearts speak these things in uprightness it will help to demonstrate that you have the grace of repentance and so shall never come into condemnation Only take heed that your hearts do not dissemble and flatter in this work Jer. 31.19 After I was turned I repented and after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh First Ephraim was made partaker of the grace of conversion and then he doth exercise that grace in a sincere repentance Indeed a legal repentance may be without grace in the heart but this evangelical repentance is the product of grace and an evidence thereof See 2 Pet. 3.9 Luke 15.7 10. 3. To prove that you are converted Make a fresh surrender of your selves into the hands of God upon the articles of the Covenant of grace Resign up your selves anew unto the most High make choice of him for your only portion set your affections upon him as the chiefest good and give up your selves unreservedly to be his servants and to be wholly at his disposal That is another spiritual act which the principle of regeneration doth immediately put forth when it is infused into the soul and if you perform it in the integrity of your hearts it will be an evidence that you are partakers of that principle Isa 44.3 5. I will pour out water upon him that is thirsty and flouds upon the dry ground I will pour out my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine off-spring And then it followeth v. 5. One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and firname himself by the name of Israel Mark it Assoon as the Spirit of God is put into the soul that soul doth give up himself unto God and list himself amongst his followers So that as a present proof of your having the spirit of conversion take your hearts along with you and go to the Lord and make a full and fresh refignation of them and of your whole selves into his hands Take with you words and go unto the Lord as it is elsewhere expressed My meaning is this 1. Take with you words of election and choice say unto him O Lord I now take thee to be my God and my Master I will henceforward make thee my refuge and fortress I will set my heart upon thee as my only happiness and exceeding great reward If I have stood it out formerly against the tenders of grace I will stand out no more If I have followed after lying vanities I will follow them no longer Now I make choice of the Lord Behold I come unto thee for thou art my God and I abandon all things that stand in competition with thee This sort of words you shall meet with Jer. 3.22 23. 2. Take with you words of surrender and say unto God O Lord here I am to dedicate my self and my strength and my time and my
That he will have a cooler place in hell than some others who have ran beyond him in the perpetration of horrid abominations 5. A meer civil conversation and inoffensive câ—â—riage towards men is a poor foundation of a mans hopeâ— You have some will lean upon this prop and be very confident of their salvation upon this ground because they pay all men their due and walk honestly towards their neighbours and defie all the world to bring in a bill of accusation against them But this will prove as a rotten pillar that cannot support the Fabrick For observe what our Saviour saith to the Pharisees Luke 16.15 Ye are they which justifie your selves before men but God knoweth your hearts for that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination to God Mark it here is the question Is thy heart washed and sanctified Art thou regenerated by the Spirit of Christ and so knit unto him The God before whom thou must appear is the searcher of the hearts and will bring to light the hidden things * Deest aliquid intus Said one of a picture when he tried to make it stand and vvalk of it self There wants something within So it may be said of the unregenerate moralist There vvants a Principle of spiritual life vvithin of darkness He seeth those secret and spiritual wickednesses that lodge within thee which the world cannot discern He taketh a view of those inward pollutions and filthinesses which pass the eye of the most curious inquisitor amongst the children of men Civility is a mercy for which thou art bound to bless the name of God but it will not entitle thee to the Kingdom of God * Va etiam vitae laudabili Aug. For the obtaining of that thou must be united to Christ Unconverted Paul was of a blameless conversation and yet a child of the wrath of God And therefore when he had a right knowledge of matters he did not rest herein but earnestly breathed after Christ and rejected all things that he might be found in him Phil. 3.6 8. 6. Legal sorrow for sin and a kind of reformation thereupon will not serve to beget a well-grounded hope of eternal life When sinners are under some pangs of conviction that damps their mirth for a while and their consciences are troubled for some ungodliness which they have committed and this trouble prevaileth so far as to make them leave the practise of that ungodliness for the present Hence they are apt to cherish strong confidence of their salvation Surely think they it cannot go amiss with us who have felt such disquietness in our spirits and begin to lead a new life What will bring a man to heaven if this will not But man one thing thou lackest yet and that is union with Christ the Son of God Unless thy sorrow for sin prove efficacious to drive thee quite out of thy self and to cause thee to give up thy soul into the hands of the Mediator whom God hath appointed it will in no wise conduct thee to everlasting glory Judaâ— was troubled for sin and restored the pieces of silver which he had gotten as the wages of unrighteousness and yet he went unto his own place Mat. 27.4 5. Act. 1.25 He had deep gashes of conviction cut in his conscience whereby he was wounded sorely and yet perished for ever for want of getting into Christ and application thereby of the healing balsom of his righteousness There may be much torture and vexation in the heart for sin and such as may carry a man to some amendment of life and yet not a drop of that godly sorrow that worketh repentance unto salvation not the least degree of that evangelical brokenness and contrition of spirit which driveth the sinner unto Christ that he may find rest for his soul 7. The meer external performance of spiritual daties is no sufficient ground whereupon to bottom our hopes of eternal life Such as prayer and reading the Scriptures and frequenting religious exercises and the like These are good means if rightly managed to bring a sinner unto Christ but in themselves they are no evidence of a good estate The Pharisee was much in outward duties and yet he was not justified Luke 18.12 A person may make many prayers and play the counterfeit in all that he doth many confess sin and plead against it with their mouths and in the mean while hug it in their bosoms they pretend to earnest desires of grace and holiness in their expressions but hate it in their affections with a perfect hatted they read the Scriptures to find out the will of God and yet retain a secret resolvedness of spirit to follow the dictates of their own wills they attâ—nd with their bodies on the Ordinances of Christ whilst their hearts go after covetousness and other base corruptions Ezek. 33.31 32. Many labour only to stop the mouth of conscience with outward performances who are utterly strangers to the workings of a renewed principle Besides What are the Institutions and Ordinances of Christ except they lead the soul unto Christ That is the very end of their appointment to bring us unto him and to build us up in him without an interest in whom by way of union with him there is no right to the kingdom of heaven attainable by any 8. The good opinions of the godly are but a sandy foundation of hope It is a great mercy to converse with such as are spiritually wise and to have a place and seat in their affections who are favourites in the court of heaven But it is no sure evidence of our title to heaven And the reason is this Because their estimation of others may arise from a mistake of their persons judging them only by what is visible and apparent in open view but God is a discerner of the secret recesses of the heart The Lord seeth not as man seeth 1 Sam. 16.7 How was David mistaken in Achitophel They took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company and yet he was an accursed person and wickedness was in his dwelling Psal 55.14 They may be much in the affections of the godly who are an abomination unto the Lord. So that trust not in this as a sign of a good estate Thon mayest be of great repute amongst Christians and yet alienated from Jesus Christ whereas it is only union with the Son and ingrafture into him which will give thee a right to salvation 9. Lastly that I may hasten to a conclusion A being joyned in fellowship with this or the other party who make a stricter profession of godliness than others is an insufficient ground whereupon to build our hopes of eternal life This is all the proof that some can make of their fincerity Because they are of such a perswasion and settled in a Church way with such eminent professors they are of the same judgment and hold the same opinions with them this is made the foundation of great
you bring forth the fruits of righteousness here and endeavour to be holy in all manner of conversation If you live in any course of sin or in the neglect of observing any of God's commandments it is not possible you should come to the enjoyment of God whilst you abide in that estate Never dream of being saved without holiness for such imaginations are but dreams and fancies Heb. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. 1 Cor. 6.9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived c. q. d. It is a plain case that the unrighteous will perish unavoidably it is a token of gross ignorance to think otherwise Do not hope for or expect salvation without righteousness for by such hopes and expectations you will but cheat your own souls Gal. 5.19 20 21. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like Of the which I tell you before as I have told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Mark it if a man live in any of these sins or in any other sin like unto these whether it be filthiness of the flesh or of the spirit open or secret though not here particularly enumerated he cannot enter into eternal life It is a matter as if the Apostle had said which I have studied and the more I think of it the more I am confirmed in it I have preached this doctrine to you formerly and I am still of the same mind and therefore warn you of it again that if you be such persons you cannot be saved 2. Although I counsel you to be much in the works of righteousness yet you must despair of ever being justified or saved upon the account of your righteousness For alas what are the best of our righteousnesses to give satisfaction to the justice of God for the wrong that we have done him If you be pardoned and accepted of the Lord it must be for the sake of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and not by virtue of any thing of your own For the Seripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Gal. 3.22 3. Although you must be active and diligent in the service of God and labour to walk in uprightness before him yet you are utterly to despair of doing this in your own strength It is only strength and aflistance from Jesus Christ that will inable you to be faithful unto Christ If you trust in your own hearts they will deceive you 2 Cor. 3.5 Psal 71.15 16. * Ad evulsionem hominis à statu peccati requiritur 3. ut ex evictione conscientiae desperatiosalutis consequatur respectu nostrarum virium omnis etiam auxilii quod à creaturis haberi potest Ames de cons 4. I would counsel you to work up your hearts to an utter despair of receiving either righteousness or strength from Christ except you get into him Sit down and rest in this conclusion that unless you be united to the Son of God you cannot dwell in the presence of God There is no salvation to be had upon other terms And thus to despair of deliverance in a state of separation from Christ is an excellent means or inducement to drive you unto him Thus the Law is our School-master to lead us unto Christ i. e. by convincing us of our undone condition without him * Lex in vero suo officio est ad gratiam ministra praeparatrix prodest ad justificationem non quod justificat sed quia urgeat ad promissionem gratiae cam facit dulcem desiderabilem Luth. It pursueth us with wrath as the avenger of bloud that we may be forced to hasten into the City of refuge Gal. 3.24 This is the first Direction I intended in order to the attainment of this grace of union Direct 2. If you would be united unto the Son Get the Spirit of the Lord Jesus into your hearts It is only the holy Ghost who is sent in his name that can lead you unto him and ingraff you in him and form Christ within you And if you have not the Spirit of Christ you cannot be his Rom. 8.9 And therefore to this end 1. Be much in prayer to God for this very mercy that he would graciously send the Spirit of his Son into your souls There is an encouraging word to draw forth your fervent supplications in this behalf Luke 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him It is the mercy which he delights to be sought unto for and to be dealing forth in return to the prayers of his Servants 2. Be much conversant with the word of Christ and constant in your attendance upon the Ordinances of the Gospel Be frequent in reading and studying the Scriptures make them the matter of your daily meditations lose no opportunity to acquaint your selves therewith or to wait upon Christ in the wayes of his appointment Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom Col. 3.16 For it is the word and institutions of Jesus Christ which are designed as conduit-pipes to convey the spirit of sanctification into mens hearts And therefore the word hath the promise of conversion annexed unto it because the spirit of conversion worketh in and with and by the word Psal 19.7 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Jam. 1.18 Of his own will he begat us with the word of truth As the word cannot work savingly without the concurrent operation of the holy Ghost So the holy Ghost doth not ordinarily work without the word For the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 1.16 And when our Saviour prayeth for them that should be gathered unto him it is under this expression For them that shall believe on me through their word Joh. 17.20.3 Take heed that you resist not the Spirit by quenching his motions or rising up in contradiction against the convictions that he is pleased to work upon your hearts Readily hearken to his call and comply with him in the tenders of grace If you repel him by the frowardness and perverseness of your spâ—rits you know not when he will return Joh. 3.8 Take therefore the Apostles advice Eph. 4.30 Grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption Direct 3. If you would be knit unto Jesus and so have an interest in him endeavour after the uniting grace of faith in his bloud cast your selves upon his righteousness for salvation according to the proposals
love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment that is as I take the meaning of the Apostle to be in the day of mans judgment when we are called before mens tribunal seats for the profession of Christ and required to give an account of our faith in Christ then we that are true believers will do it boldly we are not ashamed to own him for our Lord and Master Why Because we love him and this is the top of our love to make us stick fast unto him in times of tryal Or this is the perfection of our love the putting it to its proper use it was one of the ends for which this grace was planted within us that it might cause us to abide with Christ and not to shrink away from him when we are brought before mens judgment seats * The latter clause of the 17. v. Because as he is so are we in this world is rendred in the Syriack in the time past Because as he was so are we in this world As if the meaning were this Why should not we be bold to stand to the cause of Christ If we suffer for him it is but what he did for our sakes We are thereby rendred conformable unto him He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and shall we not willingly partake of his sufferings Vide Marian. in loc I am the rather confirmed in this interpretation from the following words v. 18. There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear as if he had said if persons love Christ sincerely which is Evangelical perfection if they love him really and in good earnest they will not be terrified with the threatnings of men but they will acknowledge him for their Master in the midst of an adulterous and sinful generation and though they should be dealt with for it even as they dealt with Christ Why Because they dearly love him and that love keepeth under their carnal fear and causeth them to go on with courage amidst all oppositions * The Gnosticks whom as some think the Apostle here confutes held that Christians in danger might to save their lives deny Christ outwardly Provided that they owned him in their-hearts To confute which devillish opinion St. John asserts the necessity of confessing Jesus v. 15. answerable to Matth. 10.32 33. And here he sheweth that denying Christ for fear of death was utterly inconsistent with love to him For many waters cannot quench love neither can the flonds drown it Cant. 8.7 And therefore when Peter had denyed his Master once and again for fear of danger what is the question that our Saviour puts to him after his Resurrection See Joh. 21.15 16 17. Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me He said to him the third time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me as if Christ had said haste thou not cause to question the integrity of thy love towards me Should not thy love have kept thee from disowning thy Lord even in the High-Priests-Hall though in times of danger Is there not reason for thee to search into the reality of thy love where was it at that time when thy carnal fear did so prevail 3. That love of Christ which will be evidential of our ingrafture into him must be a superlative love When we give the Lord Jesus the top of our affections and the uppermost seat in our hearts and place nothing above him or in competition with him When persons plead that they love Christ and it is pity he should live will some carnal people say that doth not love the Lord Jesus but they love the world better they love the Son of God but they have more love for their lusts and the pleasures of sin this is indeed to reject and despise him For Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or danghter more than me is not worthy of me Luk. 14.26 If any man come to me and haâ—e not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple If he doth not hate them that is if he have not a lesser affection for them than for me which in comparison with a greater love is a kind of hatted if he be not ready to cast them away even with detestation and to trample them under his feet when they come in competition with Christ as we are wont to do that which we hate and abhor he cannot be my disciple saith our Saviour For a Believers love to Christ must be a superlative love so as to account all things but loss and dung for Christ's sake and to part with all things to win Christ And to this purpose you must be much in studying the worth of Christ and be careful to get an insight into his excellency For as in secular negotiations men will never part with a great price for a commodity except they know the worth of that commodity so in spiritual affairs you will never be willing to sustain any great loss for Christ unless you know the excellency of him As your apprehensions of Christ's worth are such will be your readiness to venture and lose for Christ's sake Unless the Merchant had been acquainted with the preciousness of the pearl he would never have sold all that he had to buy it Mat. 13.45 46. 4. It must be a love of complacency and satisfaction when there is an holy acquiescence of the soul in Christ and a sweet contentment that ariseth from the enjoyment of Christ When it is the joy and rejoycing of a mans heart to be conversing with him * Amor est delectatio cordis alicujus ad aliquid propter desiderium in appetendo gaudium perfruendo Per desiderium cürrens requiescens per gaudium Else when persons say they love Christ but perhaps think not a serious thought of him from one end of the day to the other seldom or never have him in their meditations care little for any spiritual intercourse with him that is but a pretended love If a man love the Lord Jesus indeed he will long after converse with him it will be as marrow and fatness to his soul to be in his society Psal 63.1 2 3 8. O God thou art my God early wil I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is c. And v. 8. My soul followeth hard after thee It is love to Christ which maketh Believers so prize the Ordinances wherein they are wont to meet with him that is the reason why they take it so heavily to be deprived of those priviledges and that they can hardly bear the withdrawment of his presence but their spirits are ready to sink within them See what effect it had upon the Spouse Cant. 5.6
I opened to my beloved but he had withdrawn himself and was gone my soul failed when he spake that is when he gave forth his parting words The Spouse at first was not ready to open to Christ and to give him entertainment v. 3. Why then farewel saith Jesus I will wait no longer seeing you so little regard me I will be gone immediately O then the soul raileth this striketh the spirit dead and there is no quietness to be had till Christ be found again and intreated to return It is love to Christ that maketh it so pleasant a thing to a Believer to recount his perfections and to reckon up the glorious things that he hath done See what delight the Spouse taketh in the enumeration of them Cant. 5.10 11 12 13 14 15. So much for the seventh Proposition 8. Propos 8. The eighth and last Proposition is this The mystical union of Believers with Christ and all the priviledges and blessings which are the consequents thereof do originally flow from the merit of the death of the Lord Jesus which in pursuance of the eternal Covenant between the Father and himself he suffered in their stead and whereby he gave satisfaction to the justice of God in their behalf To this end he undertook to be a Mediator and to die an accursed death in their room and in the fulness of time he actually performed it that they in whose stead he stood might be gathered unto him and by the Spirit and faith might be made one with him Upon the account of this his standing in their stead and transacting matters with the Father for their good and benefit some speak of an eternal Vnion betwixt them Say they In the eternal counsel of God for reconciling sinners unto himself Christ ingaged to suffer as representing their persons and so they are considered as one This we may call a judicial Union as some or a transcendental Vnion But I will not stand upon an enquiry into the fitness of these expressions This I take to be clear from the Scriptures of truth That the mystical Union of Believers with Christ wrought by the Spirit and faith which is the matter we are treating of and until which they are dead in sins and trespasses and under the wrath of God as well as others is a fruit of Christ's undertaking to die for them and actual performance of that undertaking * Haec transactio inter Deum Christum fuit praevia quaedam applicatio redemptionis liberationis nostrae ad sponsorem nostrum ad nos in ipso Quae ad secundariam istam in nobis peragendam rationem habet cfficacis cajusdam exemplaris ita ut illa fit hujus repraesentatio haec illius virtute producatur Ames med That which I drive at is this That the Lord Jesus did not enter himself into an obligation to undergo the cursed death of the Cross and in due time actually undergo it only that the elect of God might be saved if they should get into him but that they might be brought unto Christ and ingraffed into him and so made partakers of salvation You shall find that their gathering unto Christ and being implanted into him is mentioned as an effect of his undertaking and suffering for them This is notably set forth in that Anti-Socinian Chapter as I may call it which hath broken the teeth of such as have been nibling at it and out of which it is impossible for them with all their subtle devices to extricate themselves I mean Isa 53. v. 10 11 12. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand He shall see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death and he was numbred with the transgressors and he bare the sins of many and made intercession for transgressors Mark but how abundantly this point is confirmed Therefore shall Christ have a people gathered unto him and a seed to serve him because he made his soul an offering for their sins Upon that very account many shall be united to him so as to be justified by him because he bare their iniquities Therefore he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death How doth Christ divide the spoil with the strong Why when in the day of conversion he knittetn sinners unto himself As Satan the strong man armed hath his company that continue finally impenitent in their wickedness So Christ by his Spirit doth gather a company unto himself And whence doth this proceed Why it is the product of the satisfaction which he made for them Thus it shall be because he bare the sins of many These are the trophies of the victory that Christ got by dying the death of the cross They are ingraffed into him because he suffered for them Hence the grace of faith which is the uniting grace is said to be attained through the righteousness of Christ As it is acted upon Christ's righteousness so it was purchased thereby and is given forth upon the account thereof 2 Pet. 1.1 To them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ This is the last Proposition For the clearing whereof and the point asserted I will take it asunder into five heads of observation 1. Observe That the eternal transactions of matters between God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ in order to the redemption and deliverance of the elect are set forth in the Scriptures under the notion of a Covenant that passed betwixt them for the accomplishment of that redemption As there is a Covenant made with the souls of Believers in Christ so there was a Covenant from everlasting made with Christ a kind of compact and agreement between the Father and the Son for the restauration of fallen sinners This is acknowledged by most as to the matter and substance of the thing and I think we have it plainly enoâ—gh under that notion and expression of a Covenaut Zech. 6.12 13. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying Behold the man whose name is the Branch and he shall grow up out of his place and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Even he shall build the temple of the Lord and he shall bear the glory and shall sit and rule upon his throne and he shall be a Priest upon his throne and the counsel of peace shall be between them both The counsel of peace that is the transactions in order to making peace betwixt an incensed God and sinful men and