that point of Pardon of sin Peace of Conscience and deliverance from wrath to come But as I said before Take any of the great Truths of Scripture and they are never separated from that Justifying Faith All the actions of Creation and Government of Providence are never separated from the Divine Being the Father Word and Spirit Creation and Providence you know are attributed to them all And I am perswaded that this may much help your thoughts Because men discourse promiscuously As if we were as well Justified by love to Christ and by mortifying a Lust as by taking hold of the sacrifice and Ransom of Jesus Christ and as if one Truth were as essential to Justifying Faith as another Now I acknowledge they are never separated To take off all Scandal and offence from men And yet I say there 's an Immanence in the act of Faith when it is acting upon Jesus Christ I come now to the Second Point that I would be something more large in And that is concerning full assurance of Faith in point of Conscience or the peace of Conscience and the Pardon of Sin and the assurance that God is ours Now if I could here make out to you how that Assurance comes into the Soul and how it is born up by Christ and by the Father and by the Spirit I should think it were to great Edification I say if I were in any measure able to make it out according to the Excellency of the thing I shall therefore go as far as the Lord shall please to assist by his Spirit in it Therefore the first thing that I shall say to you by which a man comes to have an Assurance of the Pardon and Forgiveness of his Sins I shall speak it in the very Scripture Language It is First of all By an immediate Voice of the Blood I say by an immediate Voice of the Blood And then I shall shew you it is by the Voice of the VVater from Christ And then In the Third piace By the Spirit And then In the Fourth place that the Father from Heaven comes and Ratifies and Assures this Testimony of the Son and of the Spirit in the Blood and in the VVater First I say it proceeds immediately For I would speak of the things in the Order of Nature from the Blood For nothing doth so immediately speak Peace to a Sinner as the Blood of Jesus Christ the Sufferings of Christ And therefore so many things are spoken of Christ of his Sacrifice and of his Death and of his Sufferings I may give you many places of Scripture that put most upon the Blood of his Sacrifice as to our Sense and Apprehension than upon any thing I say upon the Blood of Christ How much more shall the Blood Offered by the Eternal Spirit you know Heb. 9 And the blood of Sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel c. 12. And Heb. 10 24. Having boldness by the blood of Jesus to enter into the Holiest It is put upon the blood the blood of the Everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. The blood of Christ cleanseth from all unrighteousness 1 John 1. VVho loved us and washed in his blood Rev. 1. and Rev. c. 7. They have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb And so the Apostle speaks proportionably in this 1 John 5. There are Three that bear witness in Heaven the Father the VVord and the Spirit And then there is the Spirit the VVater and the Blood The Blood it hath an immediate Voice And this is he saith the Apostle that came by water and by blood not by water only Pray observe that it puts an Emphasis upon the Blood Not by VVater only but by VVater and Blood So I say whenever our Souls come indeed to have the Assurance of the Pardon of Sin and of Peace with God it is by Blood The Blood of Jesus which is carried into the Holy Place not made with hands We are Purged by the Blood Offered by the Eternal Spirit We have Confidence by the Blood of Jesus O! therefore when Christ is pleased to send out the mighty Effluxes the Efluviums of his blood when he sends them out and draws and twists and brings back the Conscience and the Heart upon the Blood of Christ when he is pleased to do thus Those strong Acts upon the blood of Christ they do as it were Recoil and come back upon the Soul and upon the Conscience with the assurance of the pardon of sin in that blood Therefore blessed is he that hears the voice of the blood of Christ that hears in his own Conscience the blood of sprinkling speaking better things than that of Abel And this is the first thing Because I treat as briefly as I can of it I come to the second thing and that is To give you an account of the forgiveness of sins comeing in by the Water Now I confess I shall give somewhat another Interpretation than I have known given concerning Water For I look upon the water not as some would very Chilly and Coldly understand it of Baptism except that spiritual Baptism of the Gospel which I always desire to magnify or that it is meerly Sanctification which the Generality of Interpreters give it to be But by water I understand the very obedience and Righteousness of Christ separated from his sufferings That great obedience which was like a River Pure as Christal that ran through the whole obedience of Jesus Christ from the very beginning to the end And the Reason why I take it so and not to be sanctification is this because saith the Apostle in this 5 Chapter of the 1st Epistle of John This is he that came by water and by blood Not by water onely but by water and blood He came himself by water and by blood He himself came This He take notice of him He came by water and he came by blood He came by the water of a pure and perfect Righteousness in which there was nothing at all of Imperfection or soil or the least of blemish He came by this water And so you find the obedience of Christ is often mentioned in Scripture I shall give you that place for all Rom. 5. v. 18. Saith the Apostle there By the obedience He speaks often of the obedience of Christ But by the obedience of one shall many be made Righteous ver 19 And by the Righteousness of one The offence of one and the Righteousness of one The Disobedience of one and the obedience of one So Obedience and Righteousness they are of one and the same import And the comeing by water I say is comeing by the perfect obedience Righteousness of the whole nature and action and performance of Jesus Christ Now therefore when the Soul is saluted as I may so express it by Christ with this obedience in his hand when he comes saith Christ to the Soul I have obeyed I have fulfilled all Righteousness I have done always the
of Holy Life and Holy Action And a Man believes no more than he is truly and really transformed by into the thing that he Believes I shall shew you That Jesus Christ is that great principle of Holy Life and of Heavenly Life that doth impower the Souls of his People according to the degree of the present State and shall bring them to that spotless to that blemishless state in the Glory of his Appearing I begin with the First thing and that is to shew you that Jesus Christ is that great Revelation that Faith hath Primarily Principally Originally and Supremely to close with and to give up it self unto You shall find in the 3d of John that this is a Notion of Faith and a Notion of Faith proper to the great Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ saith John 1 John 5. 10. He that believeth in the Son of God hath the Witâ—… in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a Liar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son The great Record that God hath given it is of his Son that he hath given his Son as the Great Mediator as the Great Redeemer as the Great Sacrifice as the Great Righteousness of the World Aâ—d therefore if any Man does not believe this he has made God a liar God hath done all in the Gospel that can be done to give us an Assurance of it So it is the great Revelation And so when our Lord saith They have surely known and believed that thou didst send me It is the very same thing that Jesus Christ is the great Saviour and Redeemer of the World For what 's the meaning of God's sending Christ but a sending him as a Saâ—…or As you may find plainly John 3. 17. For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved And Him hath God the Father Sealed John 6. So that from all this it is most Evident that it is the great Revelation And tho this be a great Truth yet still the Gospel raiseth it higher And I beseech you that you would seriously consider when a Man Believes in Jesus Christ he does not only believe a written Word I desire again your serious Attention to it He does not only believe a written Word he does not only Believe a great Testimony from God or a sound of words concerning it but Jesus Christ the word himself comes to him Indeed it was heretofore in a manifestation in the Flesh But the very same thing is now manifested by the Spirit of Jesus Christ And by his coming in Spirit he comes as that Word of the Father as the Eternal Word of the Father And he shews himself to the Soul he shews himself in Spirit to the Soul so that the Soul Believes the Word of God because Christ the word of God shews himself to him And we never have the Truth of Faith till we have this very coming of the Eternal Word to us As you see 1 John 1. 1. how the Apostle speaks concerning this word That which was from the Beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life For the Life was manifested and we have seen it and bear Witness c. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you Now pray Why does the Apostle declare this Not that you should rest in a written word That 's the thing I would desire you to observe Not that you should rest in a sound of Words but that ye also may have fellowship with us ver 3. and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Not that we should expect any Visional Representations of these things That 's not the Intention of it But that we should look for a real Manifestation of the Father and the Son or of the Father by the Son and through the Son And also of the Son by the Father So that there is certainly a Sight of Christ I say a sight of the Son in Faith And if we did but thus consider the excellency of Faith indeed I cannot but apprehend there could be no difference between Christians and Christians in these points concerning Faith and so concerning Justification if we had but true and right apprehensions of Faith It is true indeed there 's a great deal of false Faith of counterfeit Faith that has never seen Christ But all true Faith it hath seen Christ it hath come up to the very word of Jesus Christ That is to Jesus Christ the Word So John 6. 40. there must be a sight of the Son before there can be a believing in him And this is the the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting Life And therefore as I told you he is called the Word of God that is the Essential and Eternal Word of God manifested in Flesh manifested in Human Nature And There is no sight of Christ without his coming to us without our receiving of him by the Teaching of thâ— Father and by the manifestation of himself And so saith the Apostle Paul when it pleased God to Reveal his Son in me You see here is not only words either Spoken or Written but there is the very Son himself Revealed in us I do acknowledg all this is in a Spiritual Sense not only in an Intellectual Sense Tho it is true That shall be Subservient and as it were the Conveyance and Vehicle of this sight But it is a Spiritual Sight wrought by the Power of God and by the Spirit of God And O therefore This is the great Point I would press upon you And indeed I have taken notice that the most Spiritual Writers and Preachers of Faith They have said That Faith is upon the Person of the Son the Person of the Eternal Word in our Nature the Lord Jesus Christ It does not deal first of all with his Benefits and Salvation that comes by him I mean principally I don't say but God may draw a Soul first by the consideration of his Benefits But the principal Touch of Faith it is upon the Son of God I might give you innumerable Scriptures that verify this great Truth And I desire that we may take notice of it In that forenam'd place John 17. v. 8. Christ saith this is the point They have believed that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee and that I came forth from thee and that thou didst send me All this Christ says you may see immediately concerns the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ So in the Epistle to the Galatians a place that is worthy our notice and that I shall have occasion of continual recourse to Gal. 2. 20 21. I am Crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I urge it
shall shew you in every respect how the Father the VVord and the Spirit and the VVater and the Blood do VVitness First therefore concerning the full Assurance of understanding Concerning Jesus Christ in the first place And then concerning all the Truths of the Gospel in the second place And I desire you to remember a distinction I gave you the last day I told you there are immanent Acts of Faith as they say those that remain and stay within that 's the meaning of the Word There are Acts then and Motions of Faith when Faith stays within in that great point of taking Christ And then There are Truths of the Gospel that are Ad Extra as they say or without that do not immediately concern that great point of the Redemption of Christ but flow from it No I 'll make this plain to you by setting two points of Scripture before you of which Faith has an assurance But one is like Faith staying at home and within it self and within Christ in the great point of Redemption and Justification As Now Here 's this great Truth That Jesus Christ came into the World to save the chief of Sinners Sinners of whom every one may say I am chief Now when Faith Acts upon this Truth Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom I am chief And so That he shed his Blood for sinners and gave himself a Sacrifice and an Attonement All these are Truths properly within Faith and Christ And when the Soul is upon them it is at home with it self And Faith is also at home with Christ and with the Soul in them But now here 's another great Truth That whoever it is that does not Cut off his Right Hand or Pull out his Right Eye and cut off his Right Foot he shall be cast into Hell where their VVorm dies not and their Fire is not quenched Now this is a great Truth of Christ And Faith hath assurance of this Truth But yet when it acts upon this Truth Pray observe it does not stay within properly with Christ and within it self in the point of Believing But it goes out to a Truth that lyes without as to the great point of Justification So that if you say wherein is Faith Justifying Faith in Relation to Truth I desire that I may be understood I say when it is ask'd wherein is Faith Justifying Faith as to the point of Truth It is not in believing that whosoever doth not cut off his Right hand or pluck out his right Eye shall be cast into Darkness It is true this always is together with Justifying Faith But it is not that wherein Faith properly Justifies But all the Truths concerning the Blood and Righteousness of Christ they are Truths that Faith acts upon when it is in the great point of Justification as it is acted by Christ and his Spirit Now this being not many times well Considered It makes a great Confusion in the point of Justifying Faith For though it is true It is said and I desire it may be carefully remembred that no one may any way take offence or mention what I say to give offence I say that that Truth that a man that does not cut off his hand or pluck out his Right Eye which means any Lust shall be cast into Hell is never separated from true Justifying Faith But I say again that Faith acting upon that Truth does not Justify But acting upon the great Truth wherein Jesus Christ is held forth as a sacrifice a propitiation a Mediator an Intercessor and Redeemer But yet this is certainly true that the Father Son and Spirit give a mighty power to these great Truths and to every Truth that is delivered in the Gospel but especially with this great Principal Truth that Jesus is the Son of God and hath layd down his life for sinners For you see very plainly in this place that I have quoted to you Pray Consider it who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God Faith is therefore in its Immanent action when it is upon this point that Jesus is the Son of God and gave himself for Sinners This is the Immanent Truth that Faith fixes upon But then when it comes to that Truth that without Holiness no man shall see the Lord that can never be separated from this Truth that Jesus is the Son of God when Faith acts upon that Truth or any like it Without Holiness no man shall see the Lord It does not act like Justifying Faith strictly taken in that point of believing Because Justification flows onely from the Righteousness from the Blood from the Obedience from the Redemption of Jesus Christ And therefore to Find a mighty power To find the Soul Impregnated and fill'd out in all the Truths that concern Jesus Christ and in all the other great Truths of the Gospel that Christ hath spoken Here 's the strength and the assurance of Faith And it flows from God in and through Christ For Jesus Christ is the great and Principal Actor in the Soul 's Receiving all Truth I say the great and the principal Actor As you may find the stability of Faith the great Ballance and Poize of Faith that keeps it steady and even Heb. 13. 8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day for ever Be not carryed about with diverse and strange Doctrines Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day for ever It is he that is the Alpha and Omega As he saith himself The Truth the way the Truth and the Life He is the Truth And the Son of the Father in Truth And Truth came by Jesus Christ But I would a little further clear to you this distinction of the Immanent acts of Faith and shew you whence I take the word You know in that great mystery of the Father Son and Spirit Divines when they treat of it they say that those actions between the Father and the Son and the Spirit themselves and no Created Bing comes between they call them Immanent actions of the Father the Word and the Spirit As the Father begat and knoweth the Son so the Son knoweth the Father and that he is begotten of him The holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son And the holy Spirit knows and Glorifieth in every thing the Father and the Son as proceeding from them Now while they are acting within in the Divine Being the Father the Son and Spirit one with another Those are called Immanent acts But when they go outward either to Angels or men or any of the Creatures then they are called extra-acts Or ad extra or Transient acts because they go out from the Divine being to the Creature I make use of it to explain the Immanent acts of Faith The Immanent acts of Faith are upon Christ's Righteousness and Blood and not upon the Points of Repentance or obedience or Love or self Resignation to Christ But wholly and solely in
Blood O! consider how your Souls are Acted to him And so go from thence to All Truth for there 's no separation as I have shewn you The same Omnipotency of God that is in the Father and the Son and the Spirit is that strength that went out and Created this World Acts ad extra or without the Father Son and Spirit Why so the Faith which in its immanent Acts stays upon Christ and his Blood it also passes and goes out upon all the Truths of Holiness and Obedience But then The second thing with which I would conclude is this That you mind these mighty Powers that Act Faith O! mind all the greatness of the Blood and of the Water and the Witness of the Father and the Word and the Spirit It is a great Scripture that I led you to the last day and with which I 'll close 〈◊〉 Discourse which shews you that the mighty Power of Faith is from God and from Christ Ephes 3. 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven amd Earth is Named That he would grant unto you according to the riches of his Glory to be strength'ned with Might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your Hearts by Faith Here you have the Father the Word and the Spirit joyned in this great Power of Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in Love that is in the Love of Jesus Christ may be able to comprehend In your Love to him I understand that first groundedness in Love to Christ A Love that constrains us to live to him that dyed for us and then may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and heigth And to know the love of Christ which passeth Knowledg O! That great Mistery of the Gospel And partâ—cularly that we may know the love of Christ which passeth Knowldg And hereby we may come to be filled with all the fulness of God O! who is able to bring this great work into our Hearts VVhy the Apostle therefore concludes Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the Power that worketh in us It is he that works in us Pray take notice of that Rememember that he works above all that we ask or think And yet it is a Power works in us that we may find and see it and have experience of it Vnto him be Glory saith he in the Church by Jesus Christ throughout all Ages World without end Amen The End of the fifth Sermon THE FAITH BY WHICH We are Iustified c. The Sixth Sermon Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ FRom these words I have pitch'd upon that great point and Doctrine of Justifying Faith Or of that Faith by which we are Justifyed And this Faith it eyes Christ in a Peculiar manner As I prov'd from John 17. 7 8. Far they have known concerning me that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them as so given unto me and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me So here is a Constant Eye of Faith upon Christ As I told you there had never been such a Notion of Faith in Scripture-sense in Gospel sense if it had not been for Christ if he the Mediator had not been given I have spoken of it as it is Faith by which we are justified And the Grounds why it is Faith that justifies here meant which I had not mentioned before to you but rather depended upon other Scriptures for I shall give you now viz. Why this Faith or believing is to be understood of the Faith that justifies Even out of that John 17. 7 8. And the Reason I give for it is because it is the Faith upon which Christ intercedes Pray observe it Christ Intercedes for believers upon the Faith that believers know surely and believe concerning Jesus Christ For in the very next words you may observe it I pray for them saith he I pray not for the world So he intercedes for them They have known and believed that Christ did surely come forth from God and that all things of Christ are Divine infinitely Divine Originally Divine Now therefore upon whatsoever Christ intercedes Pray Consider In the very same line our foundation for Righteousness and acceptance through Christ rests His justifying Righteousness and Redemption and his intercession run all upon one line together That 's a plain point they go together I 'll give you but two places of Scripture because I would not prevent my self in what I have especially to discourse of One is Heb. 9. It is plain by all Scripture that the blood of Christ is that great price of our Redemption And that we are justified freely by the Grace of God God Setting forth Christ as a Propitiaton through Faith in his blood Now you shall find that Christ entred by his blood into Heaven Heb. 9. 12. But by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Christ intercedes now in Heaven and in the Holy place into that Holy place made without hands He entred to interceed And again ver 24. Christ entred not into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us So that he intercedes plainly upon his blood For where he intercedes he entered by his blood And in 1 John 2. 1. You also have the advocateship and the Propitiation of Christ Joyn'd together My little children these things write I unto you that ye sin not And if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father viz. Jesus Christ the Righteous And he is the Propitiation for our Sins c. Therefore this is the clear ground I bottom this Truth upon Upon what Christ intercedes That is certainly Justifying Now he intercedes upon the Faith of Believers I pray for them I pray not for the World viz. For them who know surely and believe in me I have endeavoured to open Faith also to you so that you may have a right understanding that Faith does not Justify as it is an Act of ours or a Grace in us or any thing in us but only by its receiving the Righteousness of Christ I came to speak of the Assurance of Faith They have known And they have surely known And they have believed that thou didst send me Knowledg or as the Learned speak and the great Men of Reason call it Science is the highest degree of Understanding Now this our Lord attributes to Faith in that John 17. They have known For Christ did not come meanly down when he had said They have
It is true Because as God saith they were his Servants in the doing of them And they were as the Axe and as the Saw in his hand he gave them great strength And so now what is done and has been done by the French Potentate certainly it is because God hath had a great End and Design in it And I am very sure it is well known that God hath set him up to do all that he has done for special purposes of his own and According to all that Frame of Prophesy that is given But now here 's a great Difference As here do but observe it As God speaks in the Prophet Isaiah There 's great difference between David and Nebuchadnezzar Between Joshua and such a one as Nebucadnezzar or such a one as Alexander or such a one as Julius Caesar that History makes so famous I say here 's the great difference As God saith They are but like the saw in his hand Isa 10. 15. Shall the Ax boast it self against him that heweth therewith Or shall the Saw magnify it self against him that shaketh it That is These are things without Sense You know an Ax or a Saw whatever it doth it does without any Sense of what it does So these have done great things because they have been in God's hand to do by But they had no sense at all of the things they did They had no Faith Here 's the great difference Now I say if we could receive it this I look upon to be the great Reconciliation between the Apostle Paul and the Apostle James This 11th to the Hebrews it Expounds what the Apostle means by a Faith of Works He does not speak of the ordinary Works of Holiness but he speaks of extraordinary As Abraham Sacrificing his Son and Rahab leaving the Int'rest of his Country from a sight that God was pleased to Exalt that People of Israel These were the Heroick Acts of Faith And these the Apostle properly speaks of And therefore to Argue the ordinary Duties Practice and Conversation and Holiness to Justification is not according to the sense and intention of the Apostles meaning not in Justifying Abraham as I shall speak particularly to that wherein and how Faith comes to Justify But still I go on further Lest any one should say why then are not the ordinary ways of Holiness under the Power of Faith and so Derived by Christ Yes by all means as I have spoken to you before He is our Sanctification But I speak of it only now as under this Head the Heroick Acts of Faith For all the ordinary Acts of Faith come under him As now suppose any one is called out either as a General in this very Age if he be truly a Believer in Christ tho he does but the things that are Accountable according to the Law of Arms if I may so speak according to the Law of a General and the great use and office of a General yet still even those ordinary Actions where they are Believers are done by the Power of Faith You 'll say Why when others do the same thing I Answer as I did before They are but Axes and Hammers As God calls Nebuchadnezzar the Hammer of all the Earth And his Empire was the Hammer of all the Earth They do things but as Hammers There 's a great deal of difference I 'll assure you in this thing tho the outward Action be the same yet the inward is not the same When a Man as a General leads an Army in the Cause and Interest of God and when another does it by his own Prowess The one does it by Faith the other by an Instrument There is a living Spirit in Believers and therefore God does many times raise them up to greater Actions than Ordinary But I only speak when God calls Men to Deny to be the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter as Moses when he calls Joshua to be so great a Warriour in the World And David and those Worthies to do extraordinary Works It is by Faith through the Mediator it is all upon his Account and is managed for him and by his strength by Faith The Fifth thing in which I would open to you the great excellency of the Nature of Faith That in the obtaining of Wonderful things it is a Wonderful thing how God hath enlarged Faith to the obtaining of extraordinary things in several Ages of the World Indeed you may say such things are ceased now But as I have endeavoured to shew you there shall be a Revival of them But now when such great things as we read of at any time in the Scripture Extraordinary Appearances of God in a way of Deliverance of his Saints When Elijah prayed and shut the Heavens When great Deliverances were obtained by Prayer in Fights When there has been great Answers of Prayer extraordinary Answers of Prayer in any case That God hath Appeared in the Mount This hath been from the Power of Faith And therefore the Apostle Heb. 11 one of the things that he puts into the great Record of Faith it is this That they obtained promises vers 33. They stopt the Mouths of Lyons When the Fire could not burn upon those three Shadrach Meshach and Abednego Why this was by the Power of Faith they quenched the Violence of the Fire And Women received their Dead raised to Life again This was by the power of Faith All these things are extraordinary things given to the Mediator to do for his Servants according to the season that he sees fit And they are conveyed to But I would very earnestly desire to add something concerning the Kingdom of Christ What is the Reason that the Scripture is so abundant of such a World to come Whereof as the Apostle saith we speak In such a new Heaven in such a new Earth In such a Sabbattism that remains for the people of God In such a glorious Inheritance as shall he What is the Reason we are so hard to believe it It is only the want of Faith I 'll give you one Scripture concerning this Heb. 11. 39 40. These all having obtained a good report through Faith receiving not the promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect This place of Scripture if it were but well pursued followed and Argued from would prove to you That the great Point of Faith is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Undoubtedly there should have been an Eternal Life an Eternal Happiness for Adam If he had stood in Innocency There had been a preparation and a provision But this very state of things comes in by the Mediator by his entring into Rest for us this great Sabbattism comes in But now the thing that I would urge I wouid help you in this thro' Faith they obtained a good Report A great Fame as I told you before a great Renown But they received not the Promise How can it be said They received not the
the 17 th of John That they all may be one As thou Father art in me that they also may be one in us And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them c. And so Christ is even in them and his Righteousness and his Glory and his Perfection are always in himself and in a Communication unto them and they in Union with him and in that Communication If this be not truly the sense and the Spirit of the Gospel I must freely acknowledge I am not in any capacity to speak of these things For there is nothing more evident to me than this That our whole Salvation according to the Gospel does no more stir out of God and Christ than to speak of a thing that we know we see now the Beams of the Sun and the Light of the Sun stir out of the Sun but all is in the Sun For if any one should go to say this Room or Place is full of Light or full of the Beams of the Sun we 'll presently shut up all the Avenues between us and the Sun and we 'll have the Light as our own you know how presently the place would be dark and there would be no remainder of Light at all in it because the Sun is shut out So now and to Eternity if you could shut out God and Christ the Eternal fountain of Righteousness from any Soul that Soul would be immediately dark as to the state of Grace and so grow darker and darker to the darkness of Hell And now in the fifth Place If the Righteousness of Faith were a Righteousness onely because it is freely given why then Love and Repentance and Obedience they are all freely given even as Faith And yet for all this Scripture never speaks of them as Justifying And therefore I come to the last thing to shew you wherein Faith Justifies It is onely in this that by the most simple and abstracted and the most naked Apprehension of the thing that can be It has nothing but what it is made to receive in this great point of Justification I say it is made to receive and to do nothing but to receive It is made to depend and to do nothing but to depend To trust and to do nothing but trust I do acknowledge there 's a great vertue of Faith outward but this is that Immanent act of Faith As I may so speak as Divines call those Immanent acts of God in the Father the Son and the Spirit that do not go out of Himself So I say that Immanent act of Faith that is betwixt Christ and the Soul It is to trust and onely to trust to depend and onely to depend and to receive and onely to receive And as for Faith It hath nothing It is nothing but onely this Receipt So it is the most perfect dependence that Faith hath upon Christ I will trust and not be afraid In that Isa 12. 2. And in that day thou shalt say O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me Behold God is my Salvation I will trust and not be afraid Here therefore is the great Excellency of Faith the meet Excellency of Faith not in it self but onely that it wholly depends It is made and fitted by God on purpose wholly to depend I would come now to the second thing that I proposed which I shall very briefly represent to you For if Faith it self can do nothing It is certain then that the works of Faith can do nothing And therefore that great objection that is made against this out of the 2d of James that Faith which hath not works is Dead and can't Justify It is nothing at all to this Great Point But onely this it is indeed to shew us that if any man has Faith in Christ this Faith shall appear not to be an Idle and a Dead Faith But it shall every way be active from the Power it receiveth from Christ to walk in all ways of obedience to Render up the Soul entirely in the Love of God according to the present state I mean with sincerity and uprightness But it is not to this great point For it is very plain when two things are spoken of in Scripture If there be a higher and a Lower the Lower must be always subordinated to the higher that I look upon to be a stable and unchangeable Rule Now we are said to be Justified by a Faith that is not without works and yet without works we are Justified and in other places we are said to be Justified in God In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be Justified and shall Glory And Jehovah is our Righteousness And the Righteousness of God Now I say that which is infinitely above Faith As we will all grant God and the Righteousness of God Christ and the Righteousness of Christ are far above Faith Why then though sometimes we are said to be Justified by Faith and the Faith by which we are Justified is said to have works Yet certainly the Righteousness of God and of Christ must infinitely take place of these because they are so far above in the Transcendency and Infiniteness of their own nature So that it can never be that the Righteousness of God and of Christ can be brought down Therefore we are said sometimes to be Justified by Faith But it is very plain that Faith in its Justifying Power it must be brought up to God and Christ And there is all that is to be said of it that it takes hold of God and Christ That 's the whole of it it takes hold of God and Christ Therefore indeed I cannot but think of that expression though I don't say it will hold in this Solomon says the Spider is very wise because it takes hold with its hands and is in Kings Palaces The Spider seems a base Creature yet notwithstanding the baseness and poisonousness of its nature yet in this it prefers and advances it self because it takes hold with its hands and is in Kings Palaces So I say in regard of us who are poisoned with sin and Corruption yet Faith takes hold with its hand and it is in the Righteousness of God and in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Now still if you look upon us in our selves or look upon Faith in it self Alas What can it do onely it can take hold of the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness of Jesus Christ And therefore I do acknowledge that Faith is of great power and vertue The 11 Chapter to the Hebrews makes evident as well as the 2d of James Therefore I wonder that men look so disproportionably The great things there ascribed to Faith all along in the 11 th of Heb. make out the very same thing So that the Apostle James did not contradict the Apostle Paul nor the Apostle Paul the Apostle James both of them speaking by the spirit of God and therefore I
Christ But I say it cannot be throughout so For then men should be saved by Christ and never know that they are saved by Christ Then Christ would be no more the Saviour of his people than he is the Saviour of stones or insensible Rocks We must therefore come to have a feeling and knowing that Jesus Christ is ours Or else we could not receive his salvation How should we be the better within if we did not know Christ An understanding and Intellectual Being must have such a knowledge of Faith to know Christ And therefore as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I must know him Not that this Contributes any thing to our happiness but onely the feeling and enjoying that happiness That happiness is onely from God But as you know a blind man is never the better in point of Light and sight though the Sun be never so Glorious Every one that seeth the Son and believeth in him We must see him or else we could not know he is ours we could have no Enjoyment of him our Souls would be still like unsensible Rocks and Marbles if there were not this sense by Faith and the knowledge of Christ by believing And therefore it is a very great truth that Faith is a manifestation to us and within us that Christ is ours When our Souls receive the touches of his Love and grace upon us and we come to know and find the sweetness to taste that the Lord is Gracious and to know what a Pearl we have in some measure and that we find Christ is ours and hath given himself for us In the third place there could not else be a manifestatory Glory It is true Christ is glorious as a Saviour But we could not Glorify him if we did not know by Faith that he is such a Saviour This is that that the soul makes its Boast in God by this draws it to Glory in Christ and to give all the Glory it can do to him Because it finds it is saved by him and him alone Now it is very Evident God had no need of Glory from Angels nor from men to manifest his Glory by them But it pleased the wisdom and Grace of God to declare his infinite Being before such Beings as Angels and men fitted with understandings to behold it Why so Christ had no need of our Glorifying of him But yet it is very Evident that he is pleased to be Glorifyed by us and that we Glorify him by acknowledging all our salvation from him And herein is Faith of great use It gives Glory as the Apostle speaks Abraham was strong in Faith giving Glory to God Rom. 4. So Faith gives Glory to the Righteousness and Freeness of the Grace of God in Jesus Christ And then In the Fourth place it is also necessary upon this Account for I am far in all this discourse from that which is truly called Antinomianism or Libertinism I say as Faith looks outward and from Christ into holy Action the knowledge that Faith gives is serviceable in the hand of Christ to all holiness and purification of Life To live to him to live and to walk by Faith to be every way self-Resigning according to that whole 11th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews And thus I have endeavoured with all briefness to set out the Excellent nature of Faith I shall but make one short Application of it And that is to stir up all our hearts in looking up to God according to that great prayer Ephes 3. 14 15 16. verses For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man To what End That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith O look up to this You see how Faith is indeed always called up by Christ when he gives himself to any Soul when he comes to dwell in any Soul Faith must receive him it must embrace him it must depend wholly upon him Now therefore O! That our hearts may be strengthened by his Spirit in the Inner man Alas Our Inner man you may see plainly by all that I have said is very weak and unfaithful And it is confirmed by this expression of the Apostle how the Inner man would never draw in Christ it would never hold him if it came to him Our Inner man is such a false thing to the Great things of our Eternal salvation it is such a feeble weak thing it would never be able to hold Christ But the Spirit strengthens the Inner man That Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Else I say it could never if you would give me leave to use such a plain word as that fetch in Christ And if he came it would never hold him Our Inner man must be strengthened by the Spirit of Christ that Christ may dwell in us And then we go forward to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and to Comprehend that love of Christ which passeth knowledge that we may be filled with all the fulness of God I hope there is nothing that I have spoken that can Justly offend any man's mind for it is fully to the sense of Scripture and of Scripture Reason and it excludes all manner of looseness and Libertinism of life For Christ is certainly sanctification to every one to whom he is Justification he gives the power of Holiness And Faith is made serviceable As I told you the immanent acts are those whereby it stays within and has Communion with Christ wherein it has nothing but to depend and trust in him But then It works outward as they say of the works of God Ad Extra The Excellent acts of the Father Son and Spirit they go out of themselves So Faith goes out to all the works of obedience And therefore if you would know what Faith is when it works outward I would propose to you to Read that Chapter Heb. 11. How greatly Faith works outward But Christ still is the Author and finisher And when it comes to Christ it has nothing to do but to trust and depend and receive And O! therefore let us all bow our knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant us according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the Inner man We can never have such a thing as Faith if the Riches of Glory does not come in with it and if the spirit of Christ does not come in with it And indeed where the spirit of Christ comes he comes And so Christ and the spirit Elicits as they call it and draws and Brings the Soul to clasp about him to lay hold upon him He brings the Soul thus near to
full assurance of hope concerning our condition Hope is the proper grace that the Gospel insists upon as to the assurance of Eternity Now there is a fourth In these three places I desire you to Remember that the word is one and the same in the Greek in every one of them It is Plerophoria or full-sail-assurance There is a fourth assurance which is very necessary to be considered and that is the assurance of acting suitable and agreeable to our Faith when a man dares venture when he dares Embarque and engage his action upon this very foundation of Faith Now here for I would deal very clearly and faithfully in these points and not pretend to any thing of proof above what really is written there is the Tantamount of it but there is not the very word Plerophoria or full assurance of Faith But I say very near to that very thing The 2. Thes 1. 10. 11 12. Saith the Apostle speaking with great Earnestness wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of his calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his grace and the work of Faith with power The good pleasure of his grace to be fulfilled and the work of Faith to be fulfilled Plerose a word that bears part with the same word that Plerophoria For there 's the fulness But then in the full assurance signified by Plerophoria there is the carrying of the sayl which signifies a sayl that hath a full Gale upon it and so carryes on the vessel with a mighty swiftness And here the fulness is signified and the mighty Gale also tho there be not the word that he would fulfil the Work of Faith with Power That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him according to the Grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ Now therefore as I have laid before you the four full Assurances of Faith the great Confidences and Assurances of Faith so I would shew you what there is to bear up these great Assurances of Faith For It is not an ordinary Power that can bear up a Man that hath nothing of it at all in himself to bear up I say in this full assurance of understanding That whereas men make such a do to prove the Truth of the Religion and Christianity of the Gospel If a Man comes in by Faith and says I cannot Reason I cannot Dispute I can not Argue I cannot talk like a Learned Person concerning these things But blessed be God I can do this I can Believe So another comes and says O! I could never get such a thing as this the hopes of the Favour and Love of God in Christ and the Pardon of my Sins But when a Man comes under the mighty Power of Grace to be filled with the Assurance of this by mighty Power he is able to say in some measure I believe these things Lord Help my unbelief And sometimes God raises up his Servants to a Triumphant Assurance even at the time of Dying when they are in the greatest Agonies of Body yet they can say I am sure my Redeemer Lives And then for the state beyond the Line beyond this Life Who can tell this Flesh and Blood is ready to say what there is in another World who hath gone and brought certain Accounts and Intelligences what the state of the other World is O! The full Assurance of Faith and Hope it saith I am sure of an Inheritance Incorruptible and that fades not away Tho I cannot tell you what it is Yet I know I shall be like my Lord for I shall see him as he is And then In the last place saith a man what will you venture your selves Will you venture to lose all that you might Enjoy here in this World and to pin your selves to a strict way of Walking Will you venture to deny your selves in your Pleasures in your Enjoyments here You must lay down Estate and Life and leave all the dearness of Relations Will you venture to do such a thing as this O! saith the Soul if I have but the good pleasure of my God and the Work of Faith fulfilled in me with Power I do not care how God calls me out to glorify the Name of God and of Christ Jesus I 'll begin to lay down the Account of all this to you and that I shall do very briefly There is but one place of Scripture to which I refer to shew you what it is that bears up Faith in all these Things And it is that 1 John 5. 4. c. And I desire that you would please to set a Remark Every person that hears and that does seriously desire to wait upon God in this Discourse That you would set a Remark upon that Scripture I name to you in the four Assurances of Faith Whosoever is born of God saith the Apostle overcometh the World And this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God O! But may the Soul say Here 's the Difficulty How shall I do to Believe this That Jesus Christ is the Son of God That he came forth from God and that God did send him Why saith the Apostle This is he that came by Water and Blood even Jesus Christ not by VVater but by Water and Blood And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is Truth For there are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the VVord and the Holy Spirit And these three are one And there are three that bear witness on Earth the Spirit and the VVater and the Blood if you receive the witness of Men the witness of God is greater Now therefore Here is the thing that I shall endeavour to make out to you That Faith in all these Assurances is born up by those three That bear witness in Heaven Principally and Supremely The Father the VVord and the Spirit And by the Three that bear witness on Earth the VVater and the Blood and the Spirit And indeed the Undertaking is very large and very great to speak of the things according to their Weight according to their worth Only I desire you to take notice before I go on That it is very Evident the Apostle is speaking of the Fulfilling the Work of Faith to overcome the VVorld and to give the Soul Victory through Christ For upon this occasion All this comes on What is it overcomes the World but only our Faith And so he goes on to the great Testimony and the great Operations in those that are Christs and by which Faith is born up If we receive the witness of Men the witness of God is greater It is not only greater in Value but in this that it can enter into the Hearts into the Consciences into the Assurances of his Servants I begin therefore with the First of these And I