are as unfit for the glorious Presence as Swine for the Presence-Chamber of an Earthly Prince I confess some may be converted when they are so near the point of Death that they may have little time to practice Holiness in this World but the Grace of the Spirit is active like fire Mat. 3.11 And as soon as it is given it will immediately produce good inward Workings of Love to God and Christ and his People which will be sufficient to manifest the righteous Judgment of God in saving them at the great Day when he shall judge every Man according to his Work though some possibly may not have so much Time to discover their inward Grace in any outward good Works as the Thief upon the Cross Luke 23.40.43 The third and last thing to be noted in this Direction is that Holiness of heart and life is to be sought for earnestly by Faith as a very necessary part of our Salvation Great multitudes of ignorant People that live under the Gospel harden their hearts in sin and ruine their Souls for ever by trusting on Christ for such an imaginary Salvation as consisteth not at all in Holiness but only in Forgiveness of Sin and Deliverance from everlasting Torments They would be free from the Punishments due to Sin but they love their Lusts so well that they hate Holiness and would not be saved from the Service of Sin The way to oppose this pernicious Delusion is not to deny as some do That trusting on Christ for Salvation is a saving Act of Faith but rather to shew that none do or can trust on Christ for true Salvation except they trust on him for Holiness neither do they heartily desire true Salvation if they do not desire to be made holy and righteous in their Hearts and Lives if ever God and Christ give you Salvation Holiness will be one part of it if Christ wash you not from the filth of your Sins you have no part in him Joh. 13.8 What a strange kind of Salvation do they desire that care not for Holiness They would be saved and yet be altogether dead in Sin Aliens from the Life of God bereft of the Image of God deformed by the Image of Satan his Slaves and Vassals to their own filthy Lusts utterly unmeet for the Enjoyment of God in Glory Such a Salvation as that was never purchased by the Blood of Christ and those that seek it abuse the Grace of God in Christ and turn it into Lasciviousness They would be saved by Christ and yet out of Christ in a fleshly state whereas God doth free none from Condemnation but those that are in Christ that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit or else they would divide Christ and take a part of his Salvation and leave out the rest but Christ is not divided 1 Cor. 1.13 They would have their Sins forgiven not that they may walk with God in Love in time to come but that they may practice their Enmity against him without any Fear of Punishment but let them not be deceived God is not mocked they understand not what true Salvation is neither were they ever yet throughly sensible of their lost Estate and of the great evil of Sin and that which they trust on Christ for is but an Imagination of their own Brains and therefore their Trusting is gross Presumption True Gospel Faith maketh us to come to Christ with a thirsty Appetite that we may drink of living Water even of his sanctifying Spirit John 7.37 38. And to cry out earnestly to save us not only from Hell but from Sin saying Teach us to do thy will thy spirit is good Psal 143.10 Turn thou me and I shall be turned Jer. 31.18 Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me Psal 51.10 This is the way whereby the Doctrine of Salvation by Grace doth necessitate us to Holiness of Life by constraining us to seek for it by Faith in Christ as a substantial part of that Salvation which is freely given to us through Christ DIRECT IX We must first receive the Comforts of the Gospel that we may be able to perform sincerely the Duties of the Law EXPLICATION SInce Man fell from Obedience to God which he was enabled and engaged to perform by the Comforts of his first happy state in Paradice God might have justly refused ever to give Man again any Comforts before-hand to encourage him to his Duty that the way to Holiness being hedged up against him with the Thorns and Briars of Fear Grief and Despair he might never be able to escape the Sentence of Death which was denounced against his first Transgression This Justice of God is manifest in the Method of the Legal Covenant wherein God promiseth us no Life Comfort or Happiness until we have throughly performed his Law and may be seen in the Mount Sinai Promulgation explicated Levit. 26. throughout and we are by Nature so strongly addicted to this Legal Method of Salvation that it is a hard matter to disswade those that live under the Light of the Gospel from placing the Duties of the Law before the Comforts of the Gospel if they cannot make Salvation it self yet they will be sure to make all the Comforts of it to depend upon their own Works They think it as unreasonable to expect Comfort before Duty as Wages before Work or the Fruits of the Earth before the Husband Man's Labour 2 Tim. 2.6 They account the only effectual way to secure the Obedience we owe to the Law of God is to ground all our Comforts on the Performance of it and that the contrary Doctrine strengthens the Hands of the Wicked by prophesying Peace to them where there is no Peace Ezek. 13.16 22. And openeth the Flood-gates to all Licentiousness therefore some Preachers will advise Men not to be sollicitous and hasty of getting of Comfort but that they should rather exercise themselves diligently in the Performance of their Duty and they tell them that in so doing their Condition will be safe and happy at last though they never enjoy any Comfort of their Salvation as long as they live in this World That you may rightly understand what I have asserted in the Direction against such vulgar Errors take notice That I do not make the only place of Gospel-comfort to be before the Duties of the Law I acknowledge that God comforteth his People on every side Psal 71.21 both before and after the Performance of their Duty and that the greatest Consolations do follow after Duty yet some Comforts God giveth to his People before hand as Advance-money to furnish them for his Service though most of the Pay comes in afterward Neither do I hereby speak any Peace to those that continue in their sinful natural state for the Comforts that I speak of cannot be received without rejecting those false Confidences whereby natural Men harden themselves in Sin and without that effectual working of
the Spirit whereby we are made good Trees that we may bring forth good Fruit. Though they are given before the sincere Practice of the Law yet they are not given to us in our corrupt sinful Nature but in and with the new holy Nature which immediately produceth a holy Practice though it must necessarily go before as the Cause before the Effect and they are no other than Comforts of those spiritual Benefits by which our new Estate and Nature is produced and of which it is constituted and made up as the Comforts of Redemption Justification Adoption the Gift of the Spirit and the like Neither do I intend here any Transport or Ravishment of Joy and Delight but only such manner of Comfort as rationally strengthens in some measure against the Oppression of Fear Grief and Despair which we are liable unto by reason of our natural Sinfulness and Misery This Explanation of the Sense of my Assertion is sufficient to answer some common Objections against it and I hope the Truth of it will be fully evidenced by the following Arguments First This Truth is a clear Consectary from those Principles of Holiness that have been already confirmed I have shewed that we must have a good Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God and of our Happiness in Heaven and of our sufficient Strength both to will and to do that which is acceptable to God through Jesus Christ that we may be rationally inclined and bent to the Practice of Holiness and that these Endowments must be had by receiving of Christ himself with his Spirit and all his Fulness by trusting on him for all his Salvation as he is freely promised to us in the Gospel and that by this Faith we do as really receive Christ as our Food by eating and drinking Now let right Reason judge can we be perswaded of the Love of God of our everlasting Happiness and our Strength to serve God and yet be without any Comforts Can the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace be believed and Christ and his Spirit actually believed into the Heart without any Relief to the Soul from oppressing Fear Grief Despair Can the Salvation of Christ be comfortless or the Bread and Water of Life without any sweet Relish to those that feed on him with hungring and thirsting Appetites God will not give such Benefits as these to those that do not desire and esteem them above the World and certainly the very receiving of them will be comfortable to such except they receive them blindfold which they cannot do when the very giving and bestowing of them openeth the Eyes of a Sinner and turns him from Darkness to Light whereby he doth at least in some measure see and perceive Spiritually the things that concern his present and future Peace and reap some encouraging and strengthning Comfort thereby to the Practice of Holiness Secondly Peace Joy Hope are recommended to us in Scripture as the Spring of other holy Duties and Fear and oppressing Grief forbidden as Hinderances to true Religion The peace of God keepeth our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Phil. 4.7 Be ye not sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength Nehem. 8.10 Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 John 3.3 Fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in Love 1 John 4.18 This is the Reason why the Apostle doubleth his Exhortation to rejoyce in the Lord always as a Duty of exceeding weight and necessity Phil. 4.4 What are such Duties but Comfort it self and can we think that these Duties are necessary to our continuance in an holy Practice and yet not to the beginning of it where the Work is most difficult and Encouragement most needful Therefore we must make haste in the first place to get a comfortable Frame of Spirit if we would make hastâ— and not delay to keep Gods holy Commandments Thirdly The usual Method of Gospel-Doctrine as it is delivered to us in the holy Scriptures is first to comfort our Hearts and thereby to establish us in every good Word and Work 2 Thess 2.17 And it appears how clearly this method is adjusted in several Epistles written by the Apostles wherein they first acquaint the Churches with the rich Grace of God toward them in Christ and the spiritual Blessings which they are made Partakers of for their strong Consolation and then they exhort them to an holy Conversation answerable to such Priviledges and it is not only the Method of whole Epistles but of many particular Exhortations to Duty wherein the comfortable Benefits of the Grace of God in Christ are made use of as Arguments and Motives to stir up the Saints to a holy Practice which comfortable Benefits must be first believed and the Comfort of them applyed to our own Souls or else they will not be forcible to engage us to the Practice for which they are intended To give you a few Instances out of a Multitude that might be alledged we are exhorted to practice holy Duties because we are dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 And because sin shall not have dominion over us for we are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.14 Because we are not in the flesh but in the spirit and God will quicken our mortal bodies by his spirit dwelling in us Rom. 8.9.11 12. Because our bodies are the members of Christ and the temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.15 19. Because God hath made him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.20 21. And hath promised that he will dwell in us and walk in us and be to us a Father and we shall be to him sons and daughters 2 Cor. 7.1 Because God hath forgiven us for Ghrist's sake and accounteth us his dear children and Christ hath loved us and given himself for us and we that were sometimes darkned are now lightened in the Lord Ephes 4.32 5.1 2 8. Because we are risen with Christ and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3.1.4 Because God hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 Because of the many promises made to us 2 Cor. 7.1 Search the Scriptures and you may with delight see that is this the Vein that runneth through Gospel Exhortations and you may find the like Vein of Comfort running through the Prophetical Exhortations in the Old Testament Some may object that the Apostles used this Method in their Writings to Saints that had practised Holiness already that so they might continue and increase therein But to that I may easily reply If it be a Method needful for grown Saints much more then for Beginners that find the Work of Obedience most difficult and have most need of strong Consolation and I hope to shew how we may be able to lay hold
after the Spirit Rom. 8.3 4. Observe here that though Christ died that we might be justified by the Righteousness of God and of Faith not by our own Righteousness which is of the Law Rom. 10.4 5 6. Phil. 3.9 yet he died also that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us and that by walking after his Spirit as those that are in Christ Rom. ibid. He is resembled in his Death to a Corn of Wheat dying in the Earth that it may propagate its own nature by bringing forth much Fruit Joh. 12.24 to the Passover that was slain that a Feast might be kept upon it and to Bread broken that it may be Nourishment to those that eat it 1 Cor. 5.7 8. and 11.24 To the Rock smitten that Water may gush out of it for us to drink 1 Cor. 10.4 He died that he might make of Jew and Gentile one New Man in himself Ephes 2.15 and that he might see his seed i. e. such as derive their holy Nature from him Is 53.10 Let these Scriptures be well observed and they will sufficiently evidence that Christ died not that we might be able to form an holy Nature in our selves but that we might receive one ready prepared and formed in Christ for us by Union and Fellowship with him By his Resurrection he took Possession of Spiritual life for us as now fully procured for us and made to be our Right and Property by the Merit of his Death and therefore we are said to be quickned together with Christ even when we were dead in sins and to be raised up together yea and to be made to sit together in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus as our Head while we continue upon Earth in our own Persons Ephes 2.5 6. His Resurrection was our Resurrection to the Life of Holiness as Adam's Fall was our Fall into spiritual Death and we are not our selves the first makers and formers of our new holy Nature any more than of our Original Corruption but both are formed ready for us to partake of them And by Union with Christ we partake of that spiritual Life that he took Possession of for us at his Resurrection and thereby we are enabled to bring forth the Fruits of it as the Scripture sheweth by the Similitude of a Marriage Union Rom. 7.4 We are married to him that is risen from the Dead that we might bring forth Fruit unto God Baptism signifieth the Application of Christ's Resurrection to us as well as his Death we are raised up with him in it to newness of Life as well as buried with him and we are taught thereby that because he died unto sin once and liveth unto God we should likewise reckon our selves to be dead indeed unto Sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.4 5 10 11. Fourthly Our Sanctification is by the Holy Ghost by whom we live and walk holily Rom. 15.16 Gal. 5.25 Now the Holy Ghost first rested on Christ in all fulness that he might be communicated from him to us as was signified to John the Baptist by the Similitude of the descending of a Dove from the opened Heavens resting on Christ at his Baptism Joh. 1.32.33 And when he sanctifieth us he baptizeth us into Christ and joyneth us to Christ by himself as the great Bond of Union 1 Cor. 12.13 So that according to the Scriptural Phrase it is all one to have Christ himself and to have the Spirit of Christ in us Rom. 8.9 10. He glorifieth Christ for he receiveth those things that are Christ's and sheweth them to us Joh. 16.14 15. He giveth us an experimental Knowledge of those spiritual Blessings which he himself prepared for us by the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of Christ Fifthly The effectual Causes of those four principal Endowments which in the foregoing Direction were asserted necessary to furnish us for the immediate Practice of Holiness are comprehended in the fulness of Christ and treasured up for us in him and the Endowment themselves together with their Causes are attained richly by Union and Fellowship with Christ If we be joyned to Christ our Hearts will be no longer left under the Power of sinful Inclinations or in a meer indifferency of Inclination to good or evil but they will be powerfully endued with a Power Bent and Propensity to the Practice of Holiness by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and inclining us to mind spiritual things and to lust against the Flesh Rom. 8.1 4 5. Gal. 5.17 And we have in Christ a full Reconciliation with God and an Advancement into higher Favour with him than the first Adam had in the State of Innocency because the Righteousness that Christ wrought out for us by his Obedience unto Death is imputed to us for our Justification which is called the Righteousness of God because it was wrought by one that is God as well as Man and therefore it is of an infinite value to satisfie the Justice of God for all our sins and to procure his Pardon and highest Favour for us 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 1.19 And that we may be perswaded of this Reconciliation we receive the Spirit of Adoption through Christ whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 Hereby also we are perswaded of our future Enjoyment of the everlasting heavenly Happiness and of sufficient Strength both to will and to perform our Duty acceptably until we come to that Enjoyment For the Spirit of Adoption teacheth us to conclude that if we be the Children of God then we are heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ And that the Law of the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus maketh us free from the Law of Sin and Death and that nothing shall be against us nothing shall separate us from the Love of God in Christ but in all opposition and difficulties that we meet with we shall be at last more than conquerours through him that loved us Rom. 8.17.23 35 37 39. Furthermore this comfortable Perswasion of our Justification and future Happiness and all saving Priviledges cannot tend to licentiousness as it is given only in this way of Union with Christ because it is joyned inseparably with the Gift of Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ so that we cannot have Justication or any saving Priviledge in Christ except we receive Christ himself and his Holiness as well as any other Benefit as the Scripture testifieth that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 Sixthly Whereas it may be doubted whether the Saints that lived before the coming of Christ in the Flesh could possibly be one Flesh with him and receive a new Nature by Union and Fellowship with him as prepared for them in his fulness we are to know that the same Christ that took our Flesh was before Abraham Joh. 8.58 and was fore-ordained before the Foundation of the World to be sacrificed as a Lamb
a natural State because we must be born again of water and of the Spirit or else we cannot enter into the kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 5. And we are created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them If we could love God and our Neighbour as the Law requireth without a New-birth and Creation we might live without them for Christ hath said This do and thou shalt live Luke 10.28 Now a New-birth and Creation is more than a meer reforming and repairing our Natural State If we were put into a certain State and Condition by the first Birth and Greation much more by the second For the first produceth the Substance of a Man as well as a State the second hath nothing to produce but a new State of the same Person And note that we were first created and born in Adam the Natural Man but our New-birth and Creation is in Christ the Spiritual Man and if any man be in Christ he is in a new-state far different from the State of Adam before the Fall he is wholly a new creature as it is written old things are past away behold all things are become new 2. Cor. 5.17 Thirdly It is positively asserted by the Apostle Paul that those that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8.8 Many are too overly and negligent in considering the Sense of this Gospel-phrase what it is to be in the flesh They understand no more by it than to be sinful or to be addicted inordinately to please the sensitive Appetite They should consider that the Apostle speaketh here of being in the flesh as the cause of Sinfulness as in the next verse he speaketh of being in the Spirit as the cause of Holiness and whatever cause it be it must needs be distinct from its Effect Sin is a Property of the Flesh or something that dwelleth in the Flesh Rom. 7.18 and therefore it is not the Flesh it self The Flesh is that which lusteth against the Spirit Gal. 5.17 and therefore it is not meerly sinful Lust The true Interpretation is That by flesh is meant the Nature of Man as it is corrupted by the Fall of Adam and propagated from him to us in that corrupt State by natural Generation and to be in the flesh is to be in a Natural State as to be in the Spirit is to be in a new State by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us Rom. 8.9 The corrupt Nature is called Flesh because it is received by carnal Generation and the new Nature is called Spirit because it is received by Spiritual Regeneration That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit John 3.6 So the Apostle if he be rightly understood hath said enough to make us despair utterly of attaining to true Holiness while we continue in a Natural Sate Fourthly The Apostle testifieth that those that have been taught as the truth is in Jesus have learned to avoid the former sinful Conversation by putting off the old-man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and by putting on the new-man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.21.22 24. Putting on the Old-man and putting on the New-man is the same thing with not being in the Flesh but in the Spirit in the foregoing Testimony that is putting off our natural State and putting on a new State by Union and Fellowship with Christ The Apostle himself sheweth that by the new Man is meant that excellent State where Christ is all and in all Col. 3.11 Therefore by the old Man must needs be meant the natural State of Man wherein he is without the saving Enjoyment of Christ which is called Old because of the new State to which Believers are brought by their Regeneration in Christ This is a manner of Expression peculiar to the Gospel as well as the former and as slightly considered by those that think that the Apostles Meaning is only that they should put off Sinfulness and put on Holiness in their Conversation and so they think to become new Men by turning a new Leaf in their Practice and leading a new Life Let them learn here that the old and new Man are two contrary States containing in them not only Sin and Holiness but all other things that dispose and incline us to the Practice of them and that the old Man must be put off as orucified with Christ before we can be freed from the Practice of Sin Rom. 6.6 7. And therefore we cannot lead a new Life until we have first gotten a new State by Faith in Christ Let me add here that the meaning of the Apostle is the same Rom. 13.12 13 14. where he directeth us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ as the means whereby we may cast off the deeds of darkness and walk honestly as in the day time not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh Fifthly Our natural State hath several Properties that wholly disable us for the Practice of Holiness and inslaves us to the Practice of Sin while we continue in it Here I shall shew that the old Man the Flesh or natural State is not only Sin as some would have it but it containeth in it several things which I shall name that make it to be sinful besides several other things that make it miserable I have shewed that in Christ we have all Endowments necessary to frame us for Godliness so in our fleshly State we have all things contrary to that holy Frame One thing belonging to our natural State is the Guilt of Sin even of Adam's first Sin and of the sinful Depravation of our Nature and of all our own actual Transgressions and therefore we are by nature the children of wrath Ephes 2.3 Under the Curse of God the Benefit of Remission of our Sins and Freedom from Condemnation is not given to us in the Flesh or in a natural State but only in Christ Rom. 8.1 Ephes 1.7 And can we imagine that a Man should be able to prevail against Sin while God is against him and curseth him Another Property inseparable from the former is an evil Conscience which denounceth the Wrath of God against us for Sin and inclineth us to abhor him as our Enemy rather than to love him as hath been shewed or if it be a blind Conscience it hardeneth us the more in our Sins A third Property is an evil Inclination tending only to Sin which therefore is called Sin that dwelleth in us and the law of sin in our members that powerfully subdueth and captivateth us to the service of sin Rom 7.20 23. It hath a fixed Propensity to lust against the Law without any Deliberation and therefore its Lustings are not to be prevented by any Diligence or Watchfulness The Mind of the Flesh is enmity against the Law of God or it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can it be How vain
then is it to plead that they can do good if they will when their Minds and Will it self is enslaved to Sin A fourth Property is Subjection to the power of the Devil who is the God of this world that hath blinded the minds of all that believe not 2. Cor. 4.4 And will certainly conquer all that he sighteth with upon his own Dunghill that is in a natural State And from all these Properties we may well conclude that it hath the Property never to be good to be stark dead in Sin Ephes 2.1 according to the Sentence denounced against the first Sin of Mankind in Adam in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 For you can no more bring it to Holiness by any the most vehement Motives and Endeavours then you can bring a dead Carcase to Life by chafing and rubbing it You can stir up no strength or fortifying Grace in the natural Man by such Motives and Endeavours because there is no Strength in him to be stirred up Rom. 5.6 Tho' you do all that lieth in you to the utmost while you are in this Flesh you can do nothing but sin for there is no good lying in you as the Apostle Paul sheweth by his own Experience I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 Sixthly We have no good ground to trust on Christ to help us to will or to do that which is acceptable to him while we continue in our natural State or to imagine that Freedom of Will to Holiness is restored to us by the Merit of his Death For as it hath been already shewed Christ aimed at an higher end in his Incarnation Death and Resurrection than the restoring the Decay and Ruins of our natural State He aimed to advance us to a new State more excellent than the State of Nature ever was by Union and Fellowship with himself that we might live to God not by the Power of a natural Free-will but by the Power of his Spirit living and acting in us So we may conclude that our natural State is irrecoverable and desperate because Christ the only Saviour did not aim at the Recovery of it It is neither holy nor happy but subject to Sin and to all Miseries as long as it remaineth Even those that are in a new State in Christ and do serve the Law of God with their Mind do yet with their Flesh serve the Law of Sin Rom. 7.25 As far as it remaineth in them it lusteth against the spirit Gal. 5.17 And it remaineth dead because of sin even when the spirit is life to them because of righteousness Rom. 8.10 And must be wholly abolished by Death before we can be perfected in that Holiness and Happiness that is by Faith in Christ After God had promised Salvation by Christ the Seed of the Woman he placed Cherubims and a flaming Sword to keep Man out of Paradice thereby teaching him that his first State was lost without Hope and that the Happiness intended for him was wholly new Our old natural Man was not revived and reformed by the Death of Christ but crucified together with him and therefore to be abolished and destroyed out of us by virtue of his Death Rom. 6.6 It is like the part of a Garment infected with the Plague of Leprosie which was to be rent off as incurable that the Garment might be clean Levit. 13.56 If Christ be not in us we are reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 i. e. we are in a State which God hath rejected from partaking of his Salvation so that we are not to expect any Assistance from God to make us holy in it but rather to deliver us from it Seventhly This doth not at all discharge those that are in a natural State from Obligation to Holiness of Life nor render them excusable for their Sins at the Tribunal of God's Justice For God hath made man upright but they sought many inventions Eccles 7.29 Observe well the Words of this Text and you will find that all they who have sought out many Inventions rather than upright walking are comprehended in Man that was at first made upright And Man in the Text signifieth all Mankind the first Adam was all Mankind as Jacob and Esau were two nations in the womb of Rebecca Gen. 25.23 God made us all in our first Parents according to his own Image able and inclined to do his Law and in that pure Nature our Obligation to Obedience was first laid upon us and the first wilful Transgression whereby our first Parents bereaved themselves of the Image of God and brought upon themselves the Sentence of Death was our Sin as well as theirs For in one man Adam all have sinned and so death is passed upon all Rom. 5.12 Because all Mankind were in Adam's Loins when the first Sin was committed even as Levi may be said to have paid Tithes in Abraham before he was born because when his Father Abraham paid Tithes to Melchizedeck he was yet in his Loins Heb. 7.9 10. That Promise of God that he will not charge the Iniquities of Parents upon their Children is a Promise belonging to the New Covenant confirmed in the Blood of Christ and it is Yea and Amen to us only in Christ in whom we have another Nature than that which our Parents conveyed to us so that we cannot justly claim the Benefit of it in our old natural State Jer. 31.29 30 31. 2 Cor. 1.20 Those that account their Impotency a sufficient Plea to excuse them or others shew that they were never truly humbled for that great wilful Transgression of all Mankind in the Loins of Adam Inability to pay Debts excuseth not a Debtor that hath lavished away his Estate neither doth Drunkenness excuse the mad Actings of a Drunkard but rather aggravates his Sin And our Impotency consisteth not in a meer want of an executive Power but in the want of a willing Mind to practice true Holiness and Righteousness Naturally we love it not we like it not but lust against it Gal. 5.17 and hate the light John 3.20 If Men in a natural State had an hearty Love and Likeing to true Holiness and a desire and serious endeavour to practice it out of hearty Love and yet failed in the event then they might under some pretence plead for their Excuse as some do for them that they were compelled to sin by an inevitable Fate But none have just cause to plead any such thing for their excuse because none endeavour to practice true Holiness out of hearty Love to it until the good Work be begun in their Souls and when God hath begun he will perfect it Phil. 1.6 And will in the mean time accept their ready Mind though they fall short in Performance 2 Cor. 8.12 How abominable then and filthy is man that drinketh up iniquity us water Job 15.16 That cannot practise Holiness because he will not This is their just Condemnation that
us God hath promised that the wayfaring Men tho Fools shall not err in the way of Holiness and that he will teach sinners in the way the Meek will he guide in Judgment and the Meek will he teach his way Psal 25.8 9. and he commandeth them that lack Wisdom to ask it of God in Faith nothing doubting Jam. 1.5 6. But however we are to know that God guideth us only according to the rule of his Word and we must endeavour to learn the right way of Believing out of the Word or else we are not able so much as to trust rightly on God for guidance and direction in this great Work To help you herein I have given you before in this Treatise a Description of saving Faith and have shewed that it containeth two Acts in it the one is Believing the Truth of the Gospel the other is Believing on Christ as revealed and freely promised to us in the Gospel for all his Salvation Now your great endeavour must be to perform both these Acts in a right manner as I shall shew concerning each of them in particular In the first place you are highly concerned to endeavour for a right belief of the Truth of the Gospel of Christ that so you may be well furnished disposed and encouraged to Believe on Christ as revealed and promised in the Gospel hereby you are to remove all discomfortable thoughts and objections of Satan and your own Conscience and to overcome all corrupt Inclinations that hinder a chearful embracing of Christ and his Salvation It is found by experience that when any fail in the second Act of Faith the reason of the failing is commonly some defect in this first Act. There is some false imagination or other in them contrary to the belief of the Truth of the Gospel which is a strong hold of Sin and Satan that must be pulled down before they can receive Christ into their Hearts by Believing on him If they knew the Name of Christ as he is discovered in the Gospel and judged aright of the Truth and Excellency of it they would not fail to put their Trust in him And we are in great danger of entertaining such false Imaginations and to account many Truths of the Gospel strange Paradoxes yea foolish and pernicious because of our Ignorance Self-conceitedness guilty Consciences corrupt Affections and manifold Errors wherewith our Judgments are prepossessed in matters of Salvation and because Satan laboureth to beguil us as he did Eve through his subtilty to corrupt our minds from the simplicity of the Gospel that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.3 I shall therefore give you some particular Instructions that are of greatest moment to prevent such defects as we are most lyable to in the first Act of our Faith 1. You must Believe with a full perswasion that you are a Child of Wrath by Nature as well as others fallen from God by the sin of the first Adam dead in Trespasses and Sins subject to the Curse of the Law of God and to the power of Satan and to insupportable misery to all Eternity And that you cannot possibly procure your reconciliation with God or any spiritual Life and Strength to do any good work by any endeavouring to get Salvation according to the terms of the Legal Covenant and that you cannot find any way to escape out of this sinful and miserable Condition by your own Reason and Understanding without supernatural Revelation nor be freed from it except by that infinite power that raiseth the Dead We must not be afraid as some are to know our own vileness and sinfulness neither must we be willing to think our selves better than we are but must be heartily desirous and glad to know the worst of our own Condition yea when we have found out the worst that we can of our selves Yea we must be willing to believe that our Hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked beyond all that we can know and find out Jer. 17.9 This is all necessary to work in us true Humiliation Self-despair and Self-loathing that we may highly esteem and earnestly seek the Salvation of Christ as the one thing necessary It maketh us sick of sin and sensible of our need of the great Physician and willing to be ordered according to any of his prescriptions whatsoever we suffer rather than to follow our own Wisdom Mat. 9.12 It was for want of this Humiliation that the Scribes and Pharisees were not so forward to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as the Publicans and Harlots Mat. 21.31 2. You are to believe assuredly That there is no way to be saved without receiving all the saving benesits of Christ his Spirit as well as his Merits Sanctification as well as remission of sins by Faith It is the ruin of many Souls that they trust on Christ for remission of sins without any regard to Holiness whenas these two Benefits are inseparably joyned in Christ So that none are freed from Condemnation by Christ but those that are enabled to walk holily i. e. not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8.1 It is also the ruin of Souls to seek only remission of sins by Faith in Christ and Holiness by our endeavours according to the terms of the Law whereas we can never live to God in Holiness except we be dead to the Law and live only by Christ living in us by Faith That Faith that receiveth not holiness as well as remission of sins from Christ will never sanctifie us and therefore it will never bring us to heavenly Glory Heb. 12.14 3. You are to be fully persuaded of the All-sufficiency of Christ for the Salvation of your self and of all that believe on him that his blood cleanseth from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 tho our sins be never so great and horrible and continued in never so long yet he is able to deliver us from the body of Death and mortifie our Corruptions be they never so strong We find in Scripture that abominable wicked persons have bin saved by him Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Covetous Drunkards Extortioners c. 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Such as have sinned against the Light of Nature as the Heathen and the Light of Scripture as the Jews such as have denied Christ as Peter and persecuted and blasphamed him as Paul many that have fallen into great sins are ruined for ever because they do not account the Grace of Christ sufficient for their Pardon and Sanctification when they think they are gone and past all hope of recovery that their sins are upon them and they pine away in them and how shall they live Ezek. 33.10 This despair works secretly in many Souls without much trouble and horror and maketh them careless of their Souls and true Religion The Devil sills some with horrid filthy blasphemous thoughts on purpose that they may think their sins too great to be forgiven tho commonly such thoughts are the least of the sins of those that are pestered
with them and rather the Devils sin than theirs because they are hurried into them sore against their wills but if their Hearts be somewhat polluted with them Christ testifieth that all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven besides blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Mat. 10.31 And as for those that are guilty of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost the reason why they are never forgiven is not because of any want of sufficiency in the Blood of Christ or in the pardoning mercy of God but because they never repent of that sin and never seek to God for mercy through Christ but continue obstinate until Death for the Scripture testifieth that it is impossible to renew them again by Repentance Heb. 6.5 6. So that the Merits of Christ are sufficient for all that seek to him for mercy by Believing There are others that despair of ever getting any Victory over their Lusts because they have formerly made many Vows and Resolutions and have used many vigorous Endeavours against them in vain such are to persuade themselves that the Grace of Christ is sufficient for them when all other means have failed as the Woman that had the Issue of Blood and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse by any Remedies that Physicians could prescribe yet persuadeth her self that if she might but touch the Cloths of Christ she should be whole Mar. 5.25 28. Those that despair by reason of the greatness of their Guilt and Corruption do greatly dishonour and undervalue the Grace of God his infinite mercy and the infinite merits of Christ's Blood and power of his Spirit and deserve to perish with Cain and Judas Abundance of People that give up themselves to all Licentiousness in this wicked Generation lye under secret Despair which maketh them so desperate in Swearing Blaspheming Whoring Drunkenness and all manner of Wickedness How horrid and hainous soever our sins and corruptions have bin we should learn to account them a small matter in comparison to the Grace of Christ who is God as well as Man and offered himself by the Eternal Spirit as a Sacrifice of an infinite Value for our Salvation and can create anew as easily as he created the World by a word speaking 4. You are to be fully perswaded of the Truth of the General Free Promise in your own particular case that if you believe on Christ sincerely you shall have everlasting Life as well as any other in the World without performing any condition of Works to procure an Interest in Christ For the Promise is Universal Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashanted Rom. 9.32 without any Exception and if God exclude you not you must not exclude your selves but rather conclude peremptorily that how Vile Wicked and Unworthy soever you be yet if you come you shall be accepted as well as any other in the World you are to believe the great Article of the Creed the Remission of Sins in your own case when you are principally concerned or else it will little profit you to believe it in the case of others This is that which hinders many broken wounded Spirits from coming to the great Physician when they are convinced of the abominable Filthiness of their Hearts that they are dead in Sin without the least spark of true Grace and Holiness in them they think that it is in vain for such as they are to trust on Christ for Salvation and that Christ will never save such as they are why so They can be but lost Creatures at worst and Christ came to seek and save those that are lost If they that are Dead in Sin cannot be saved then all must Despair and Perish for none have any Spiritual Life until they receive it by Believing on Christ Some think themselves to be worse than any others and that none have such wicked Hearts as they and tho others be accepted yet they shall be rejected but they should know that Christ came to save the Chiefest of Sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 and that the design of God is to shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace in our Salvation Eph. 2.7 which is most glorified by pardoning the greatest Sinners and it is but our ignorance to think our selves like no Body for all others as well as we are naturally Dead in Trespasses and Sins their Mind is Enmity to God and is not subject to his Law nor can be Rom. 8.8 and every Imagination of the Thoughts of their Hearts are only evil and continually so Gen. 6.5 they have all the same corrupt Fountain of all Abominations in their Hearts tho we may have exceeded many others in several actual Sins Others think that they have out-staid their time and therefore now they should find no place for Repentance tho they should seek it carefully with Tears Heb. 12. but Behold now is 〈◊〉 accepted time now the day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. ◠even as long as God calleth upon you by the Gospel And altho Esau was rejected that sought rather the Earthly than Spiritual Blessings of the Birth-right yet they shall not be rejected that seek the Enjoyment of Christ and his Salvation as their only Happiness If you come into Christ's Vinyard at the eleventh Hour of the day you shall have your Penny as well as those that come early in the Morning because the Reward is of Grace and not of Merit Matt. 20.9 10. and here you must be sure to believe stedfastly that Christ and all his Salvation is bestowed as a Free Gift upon those that do not work to procure any Right or Title to him or meetness or worthiness to receive him but only believe on him that justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4.5 if you put any condition of Works or good Qualifications betwixt your selves and Christ it will be a Partition wall that you can never climb over 5. You are to believe assuredly that it is the Will of God that you should Believe in Christ and have Eternal Life by him as well as any other and that your Believing is a Duty very acceptable to God and that he will help you as well as any other in this work because he calleth and commandeth you by the Gospel to Believe in Christ This maketh us to set carefully upon the work of Believing as when Jesus commanded the blind Man to be called they said unto him Be of good comfort and rise he calleth thee Mat. 10.29 A Command of Christ made Peter to walk upon the Water Mat. 14.29 And here we are not to meddle with Gods secret of Predestination or the purpose of his Will to give the Grace of Faith to some rather than others but only with his revealed Will in his gracious Invitations and Commands by which we are required to Believe on Christ This Will of God is confirmed by his Oath As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye
Conversation in the World not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God 2 Cor. 1.12 having or holding fast Grace that we may serve God acceptably labouring abundantly in such a manner as that the whole work is not performed by us but by the Grace of God that is with us 1 Cor. 15.10 By Grace therefore we may well understand the priviledges of our new state given to us in Christ whereby we ought to be influenced and guided in the performance of holy Duties 4. It is also signified when we are to put off the old and put on the new Man yea to continue in so doing tho we have done it in a measure already and that we avoid our former sinful Conversation Ephes 4.21 22 24. and to avoid sin because we have put off the old and put on the new Man Col. 3.9 10 11. I have already shewed that by this twofold man is not meant merely sin and holiness but by the former meant our natural Estate with all its Endowments whereby we are furnished only to the practice of sin and by the later or new Estate in Christ that whereby we are furnished with all means necessary for the practice of Holiness 5. We are to understand the same thing when we are taught not to walk after the Flesh but after the Spirit that we may be free from the Law of sin and that the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.1 2 3. and through the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the body and to be led by the Spirit because we live by the Spirit and have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 The Apostle doth shew by these expressions not only that we are to practise holiness but also by what means we may do it effectually By the Flesh is meant our old Nature derived from the first Adam And by the Spirit is meant the Spirit of Christ and that new Nature which we have by him dwelling in us We are said to walk after either of these Natures when we make the Properties or Qualifications of either of them to be the principles of our Practice So when we are taught to serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter that so we may bring forth fruits unto God The meaning is that we must endeavour to bring forth the fruits of holiness not by vertue of the Law that killing Letter to which the Flesh is married and by which the motions of sin are in us but by vertue of the Spirit and his manifold Riches which we partake of in our new state by a mystical marriage with Christ Rom. 7.4 5 6. and by vertue of such Principles as belong to the New State declared in the Gospel whereby the holy spirit is ministred to us 6. This is the manner of walking which the Apostle Paul directeth us unto when he teacheth us by his own Example That the continual work of our lives should be to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to his Death if by any means we may attain to the Resurrection of the dead and to encrease and press forward in this kind of knowledge Phil. 3.10 11 12 15. Certainly he meaneth such an experimental knowledge of Christ and his Death and Resurrection as effectually makes us conformable thereunto in dying to sin and living to God And he would hereby guide us to make use of Christ and his Death and Resurrection by Faith as the powerful means of all Holiness in Heart and Life and to encrease in this manner of walking until we attain unto perfection in Christ 2. The second thing proposed was to lay before you some necessary Instructions that your steps may be guided aright to continue and go forward in this way of Holiness until you be made perfect in Christ And seeing we are naturally prone to mistake this way and are utterly unable to find it out or discern it by our own Reason and Understanding we should the more diligently attend to these Instructions taken out of the Holy Scriptures And we should pray earnestly that God would give unto us the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that we may discern the way of Holiness thereby and walk aright in it according to that gracious promise The wayfaring men tho Fools shall not err therein Isa 35.8 1. Observe and consider diligently in our whole Conversation That tho you are partakers of a new holy state by Faith in Christ yet our natural state doth remain in a measure with all its corrupt Principles and Properties as long as we live in this present World our apprehension of Christ and his perfection in this Life is only by Faith whereas by Sense and Reason we may apprehend much in our selves contrary to Christ and this Faith is imperfect So that true Believers have cause to pray to God to help their Unbelief Mar. 9.24 Therefore tho we receive perfect Christ by Faith yet the measure and degree of enjoying him is imperfect and we hope still so long as we are in this World to enjoy him in a higher degree of perfection than we have done we are yet but weak in Christ 2 Cor. 13.4 Children in comparison to the perfection we expect in another World 1 Cor. 13.10 11. and we must grow still till we come to the perfect man Eph. 4.13 and some are less Babes than others and have received Christ in so small a measure that they may be accounted carnal rather than spiritual 1 Cor. 3.1 And because all the Blessings and Perfections of our new state as Justification the gift of the Spirit and of the holy Nature and the Adoption of Children are seated and treasured up in Christ and joyned with him inseparably we can receive them no further than we receive Christ himself by Faith which we do in an imperfect measure and degree in this Life The Apostle Paul proposeth himself as a pattern for all those that are perfect in the truth of Grace to imitate And yet he professeth That he was not yet made so perfect in the degree or measure of saving Endowments but that he did still press forward towards the mark of the prize of the high-calling of God in Christ Jesus labouring still to apprehend and win Christ more perfectly and to be found in him not having his own Righteousness but that which is of God by Faith and to gain more experimental knowledge of Christ and of the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his Resurrection being made conformable thereunto Phil 3.8 10. Believers are Justified already yet wait for the hope of Righteousness by Faith i. e. for the full enjoyment of the Righteousness of Christ Gal. 5.5 They have received but the first-fruits of the spirit and must wait for a more full enjoyment of it The Spirit witnesseth now to them that they are the Children of God and yet they groan
within themselves waiting for more full enjoyment of Adoption Rom. 8.23 Now seeing the degree and measure of our Reception and Enjoyment of Christ with all the Blessings of our new state in him in this Life is imperfect it followeth clearly that our contrary natural state with its Properties remaineth still in us in some degree and is not perfectly abolished so that all Believers in this World do in some degree partake of these two contrary states Believers have indeed put off the old man and put on the new man where Christ is all and in all Col. 3.10 11. yet they are to put the old Man off and the new Man on more and more because the old Man remaineth still in a measure They are said to be not in the flesh but in the spirit because their being in the Spirit is their best and lasting state as denominations are usually taken from the better part but yet the Flesh is in them and they find work enough to mortify the deeds of it Rom. 8.9.13 Therefore several things which are contrary to each other are frequently attributed to Believers in the Scripture with respect to these two contrary States wherein one place seems to contradict another and yet both are true in divers respects Thus holy Paul saith truly of himself I live yet not I Gal. 2.20 because he did live to God by Christ living in him and yet in another respect according to his natural State he did not live to God Again he professeth that he was carnal sold under Sin and yet on the contrary that he allowed not Sin but hated it he sheweth how both these were true concerning himself In diverse respects he saith in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing And I delight to do the Will of God according to the Inner-Man With my Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of Sin Rom. 7.14.15 John saith He that saith he hath no sin deceiveth himself and is a Lyar 1 Joh. 1. and also that it 's true that whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed i. e. Christ's the new spiritual Nature remaineth in him and he can't sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 3.9 It is true that we are weak and nothing and yet strong and able to do all things 2. Cor. 12.10 11. Phil. 4.13 It 's true that Believers are dead because of Sin but alive because of Righteousness Rom. 8.10 and that when they dye by a natural Death they shall never dye Joh. 11.25 26. They are Sons that have the Inheritance by their Birth-right and yet in some respects may differ nothing from Servants and so they may be under the Law in a sense and yet under Grace and Heirs according to the free Promise at the same time Gal 4.1 2. They are redeemed from the Curse of the Law and have forgiveness of Sins and a Promise that God will never be wroth with them nor rebuke them any more Gal. 3.13 Eph. 1.7 Isa 54.9 And yet on the contrary the Curse written in the Law is sometimes poured out upon them Dan. 9 11. and they have need still to pray that God would deliver them from their Guiltiness and forgive their Debts Psal 51.14 Mat. 6.12 and they may expect that God will punish them for all ther Iniquities Amos 3.2 These contrary things asserted concerning Believers in Scripture do sufficiently manifest that they partake of two contrary States in this Life and this is a plain and easie and ready way to reconcile these seeming Contradictions whatever other ways may be used to reconcile some of them And what reason is there to question that the old Sate remaineth in Believers in some degrees seeing all sound Protestants acknowledge that the sinful Depravation and Pollution of our Natures commonly called Original Sin which is one principal part of this old State doth remain in all as long as they live in this World Now though some penal Evils may be said to remain in us yet we can't suppose that this original Pollution is continued in us and considered in Christ But as considered in our old State derived from the first Adam therefore the first sin of Adam is imputed in some respect even to those that are justifyed by Faith and they remain in a measure as aforesaid under the Punishment and Curse denounced Gen. 2.17 in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye and on this account the same original Guilt and Pollution is propagated to the Children of believing Parents as well as others by natural Generation and if such a great and fundamental part of the natural State continue in Believers as subjection to the Guilt of the first Sin and original Corruption which is one great part of the Punishment and Death threatned and by which we are prone and inclined to all actual Sins why should we not judge that other parts of the same State do likewise continue in them as well as the guilt of their own actual Sins and subjection to the Wrath of God and the Curses and Punishments denounced against them in the Law and why should we not judge that all the Miseries of this Life and Death it self are inslicted upon Believers at least in some respect as Punishments of Sin It may be objected that this Doctrin of a twofold State of Believers in this Life doth much derogate from the Perfection of our Justification by Christ and from the fulness of all the Grace and spiritual Blessings of Christ and from the Merits of his Death and the power of his Spirit and that it greatly diminisheth the Consolation of Believers in Christ But it may be easily vindicated from this Objection if we understand it rightly for notwithstanding this twofold State it still holdeth true that Believers while they are on Earth have all Perfection of spiritual Blessings Justification Adoption the Gift of the Spirit Holiness Eternal Life and Glory in and with Christ Eph. 1.3 in the person of Christ who is now in Heaven the Old Man is perfectly crucifyed they are dead to Sin and to the Law and its Curse and they are quickned together with him and raised up with him and made to sit in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.6 7. and Believers do in their own persons receive and enjoy by Faith all these perfect spiritual Blessings of Christ as far as they receive and enjoy Christ himself dwelling in them and no further Thus far they are in a new State free from the Guilt Pollution and Punishment of Sin and so from the Wrath of God and all Miseries and Death it self while they are in this World Yea all the Guilt Pollution and Punishments of Sin and all Evils whatsoever which they are subject to according to their natural State do them no harm according to this new State but work for their good and are no Evils but rather Advantages to them tending to the Destruction only
of the Flesh and to the Perfection of the New Man in Christ Yet it holdeth true also that our reception and enjoyment of Christ himself and all his Perfections is but in an imperfect measure and degree until Faith be turned into heavenly Vision and Fruition of Christ and therefore our old sinful State with the Evils thereof is not perfectly abolished during this Life The Kingdom of Heaven or the Grace of Christ within us is like leaven in Meal and doth not unite it self perfectly to the Meal in an Instant but by degrees until the whole be leavened Mat. 13.35 or like the morning Light that expelleth Darkness by degrees shining more and more unto a perfect day Prov. 4.18 This cannot be justly accounted any derogation to the Merits of Christ's Death or to the power of his Spirit seeing Christ never intended to bring to pass by his Death or by the power of his Spirit that we should enjoy his spiritual Blessings any further than we are in him and enjoy him by Faith or that we should be made holy or happy according to the Flesh by a Reformation of our natural State as hath been shewed Neither doth this diminish the Consolation of Believers in Christ for thereby they may know that they have the Perfection of Grace and Happiness in Christ and that they enjoy it in this World as far as they enjoy Christ himself by Faith and that they shall enjoy it in a perfect measure and be fully freed from their old Sins and miserable State when that frame of Nature which they received from the first Adam is dissolved by Death This Instruction is very useful to frame our Souls aright for the practising of Holiness only by those Gospel Principles and Means that belong to our new State which we are Partakers of by Faith in Christ And thus it is easily vindicated from another great Objection wherein the Papists and Quakers do much Triumph They appeal to Mens Conscience to answer this Question which Doctrin is most likely to bring People to the practice of true Godliness theirs which teacheth That perfect Holiness may be attained in this Life or ours which teacheth That it is impossible for us to keep the Law perfectly and to purge our selves from all Sin as long as we live in this World though we use our best Endeavours They think that common Reason will make the Verdict pass for them against our Doctrin as that which discourageth all Endeavours for Perfection and hardneth the Hearts of People to allow themselves in Sin because they cannot avoid it But on the contrary the Doctrine of Perfection hardens People to allow themselves in Sin and to call Evil Good as the Papists account That the Concupiscence of the Flesh against the Spirit is no Sin but rather good matter for the Exercise of their Vertues because the most perfect in this Life are not without it It also discourageth those that labour to get Holiness in the right way by Faith in Christ and maketh them to think that they labour in vain because they find themselves still sinful and far from Perfection when they have done their best to attain it It hindereth our Diligence in seeking Holiness by these Principles and Means whereby only it can be found For who will be Diligent and Watchful to avoid walking according to his own carnal Principles if he think that his own carnal State with it's Principles is quite abolished and is out of him so that at present he is in no danger of walking according to them Whatsoever good works the Doctrin of the Perfectionists may serve to promote I am sure it hindereth a great part of that work which Christ would have us to be employed in as long as we live in this World we must know that our old State with its evil Principles continueth still in a measure or else we shall not be sit for the great Duties of confesing of Sins loathing our selves for them praying earnestly for the Pardon of them a just sorrowing for them with a Godly Sorrow accepting the Punishment of our Sins and giving God the glory of his Justice and offering to him the Sacrifice of a broken and contrite Spirit being poor in Spirit working out our Salvation with fear and trembling Some have doubted how it can consist with our Justification by Christ that we should be still lyable to be punished for our Sins and obliged to pray for the Pardon of them because they have not well considered the twofold State of Believers in this Life and except we know this and keep it in Mind we shall never be sit to practise continually the great Duties that tend to the putting off the Old Man and putting on the New Man and mortifying the Deeds of the Body by the Spirit praying continually that God would renew a right Spirit in us and sanctify us throughout pressing forward to Perfection desiring the sincere Milk of the Word and the Enjoyment of other Ordinances Christ hath appointed that his Church on Earth should be employed in such works and Perfectionists either do or sain would account them needless for them and that they have no longer need of Christ himself to be their spiritual Physician and Advocate with the Father and Propitiation for their Sins Therefore they are not fit to be Members of the Church on Earth and are never likely to be Members of the Church in Heaven except they can make a Ladder and climb up thither before their time 2. Despair of purging the Flesh or Natural Man of its sinful Lusts and Inclinations and of practising Holiness by your willing and resolving to do the best that lyeth in your own Power and trusting on the Grace of God and Christ to help you in such Resolutions and Endeavours rather resolve to trust on Christ to work in you to will and to do by his own power according to his own good Pleasure They that are convinced of their own Sin and Misery do commonly first think to tame the Flesh and to subdue and root out its Lusts and to make their corrupt Nature to be better natured and inclined to Holiness by their strugling and wrestling with it And if they can but bring their Hearts to a full purpose and resolution to do the best that lyeth in them they hope that by such a Resolution they shall be able to atchieve great Enterprizes in the Conquest of their Lusts and performance of the most difficult Duties It is the great work of some zealous Divines in their Preaching and Writings to stir up People to this Resolution wherein they place the chiefest turning Point from Sin to Godliness And they think that this is not contrary to the life of Faith because they trust on the Grace of God through Christ to help them in all such Resolutions and Endeavours Thus they endeavour to reform their old State and to be made perfect in the Flesh instead of putting it off and walking according to
the testimony of a good conscience 1 Joh. 3.19 21. that so our Hearts may be more strongly comforted by Faith and established in every good work and that if our ways be evil we may turn from them to the Lord our God through Christ without whom none cometh to the Father Lam. 3.40 Joh. 14.6 But your great care in this work of Self-examination must be to perform it in such a manner that it may not hinder and destroy the Life of Faith as it doth in many instead of promoting it Therefore beware lest you trust upon your Self-examination rather than upon Christ As some do that think they have made their Peace with God meerly because they have examined themselves upon their Sick-Bed or before the Receiving of the Lords Supper though they have found themselves Stark Naught and do not depend on Christ to make them better but on their own deceitful Purposes and Resolutions Think not that you must begin this Work with doubting whether God will extend Mercy to you and save you and that you must leave this a Question wholly under debate until you have found out how to resolve it by Self-examination This is a common and very pernicious Error in the very foundation of this Work which is hereby laid in the great Sin of Unbelief which as soon as it prevaileth doth by its great Influence Dash and Obscure all inward gracious Qualifications of Peace Hope Joy Love to God and his People before they be at all tryed whether they can give any good Evidence for their Salvation And it makes People willing to think their own Qualifications better than they are lest they should fall into an utter Despair of their Salvation and thus it wholly marreth the good work of Self-examination and maketh it destructive to our Souls For to them that are defiled and unbelieving there is nothing pure Tit. 1.15 You should rather begin the work with much assurance of Faith that though you find your Heart never so wicked and reprobate at present as many of God's choicest Servants do often find yet the Door of Mercy is open for you and that God will certainly save you for ever if you put your trust in his Grace through Christ I have formerly shewed that this confident Persuasion is of the nature of saving Faith and that we have sufficient Ground for it in the Free Promises of the Gospel when we walk in Darkness and can see no Light shining forth in our gracious Qualifications If we begin the work with this Confidence it will make us impartial and not afraid to find out the worst by our selves and willing to judge that our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked beyond what we can find out Jer. 17.9 And if we have any holy Qualifications this Confidence will preserve them in their Vigour and Brightness that they may be able to give clear Evidence that we are at present in a State of Grace Mark well the difference betwixt these Two Questions whether God will graciously accept and save me though a vile Sinner through Christ as before was said and whether I am already brought into a State of Salvation The former of these I say is to be resolved affirmatively by a confident Faith in Christ the latter only is to be inquired into by Self-examination Mis-spend not your time as many do in poring upon your Hearts to find whether you be good enough to trust on Christ for your Salvation nor to find whether you have any Faith before you dare be so bold as to act Faith in Christ But know that though you cannot find that you have any Faith or Holiness yet if you will now believe-on him that justifyeth the ungodly it shall be accounted to you for righteousness Rom. 4.5 And if you love Christ and your own Soul mis-spend not your time in examining whether you have committed the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost except it be with a full Purpose to assure your self more and more that you are not guilty thereof for any Doubtfulness in this Point will but harden you in Unbelief Remember well that the Question to be resolved is Whether you be at present in a state of Grace and to resolve it you must be willing to know the best by your self as well as the worst And you must not think that Humility bindeth you to overlook your good Qualifications and to take notice only of your Corruptions But your great work must be to find whether there be not some Drop of saving Grace in the Ocean of your Corruption And it will consist well with Humility to take notice of and own any Spark of true Holiness that is in you because the Praise and Glory of it belongeth not to you but to God Phil. 1.11 And you must try inherent Grace by the Touch-stone not by the Measure by its Nature not its Degree not denying any Lustings of the Spirit in you because of the strong Lustings of the Flesh against the Spirit nor denying that you are Spiritual in some degree and Babes in Christ because you find your selves carnal in a more prevailing degree and the old man bigger than the new Gal. 5.17 1 Cor. 3.1 Especially you are to examine and prove whether you be in the Faith for if you make sure of this you make sure of all the things that pertain to Life and Godliness and if you doubt of this you will certainly doubt of the Truth of any other Qualifications and will suspect them to be meerly Carnal and Counterfeit because it is a known Truth that to the Vnbelieving there is nothing pure and that all that have not truly received Christ by Faith are at present in an unregenerate State though they seem never so Pure and Godly 2 Cor. 13.5 Tit. 1.15 And let not the Issue of this Tryal depend at all upon your Knowledge of the time when or of the Sermon Conference or Place of Scripture by which you were first converted to the Faith though that is good to know too if it may be And some who have formerly lived in gross Ignorance or in a manifest Opposition to true Faith and Holiness may know such Circumstances of their Conversion and may reflect upon them comfortably as the Apostle Paul did who was turned of a suddain from his Persecuting Rage to be a Disciple and an Apostle of Christ yet others sincere Believers may be wholly Ignorant of them as John the Baptist who was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mothers Womb Luk. 1.15 and they that have been trained up religiously and known the Holy Scripture from their Childhood as Timothy 2. Tim. 3.15 Yea and many that are first turned from gross Ignorance and Profaneness to some external Reformation and then in process of time brought nearer to the Kingdom of Heaven by insensible Degrees before they be really new begotten by the Spirit of Faith There are also some that deceive their Souls by imagining that
thing that 's contrary to an Holy Life and the Graces and holy Desires to be acted for your selves or others Col. 4.12 Rom. 15.30 Stir up your selves to the Duty Col. 2.1 2. Isa 64.7 Though the Flesh be cross and reluctant we must not yield but resist by the Spirit Mat. 26.41 And thus we shall find the Spirit helping our Infirmities Rom. 8.26 27. Though God seem to defer long we must not faint or be discouraged Luk. 18.1 7. The greater our Agonies be the more earnestly we are to pray Psal 22.1 2. Luk. 22.42 This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.12 Eph. 6.18 Thus you will find Prayer a great Heart-work and not such a thing as may be done while you think on other things and that it requireth all the Strength of Faith and Affection that you can possibly stir up Thus you may get a holy Frame 7. You must make a good use of the whole matter and all the manner of Prayer as ordinary and extraordinary Exigencies may require to stir up Grace in you by wrestling and to bring your Hearts into a holy Frame As in Confession you must condemn your self according to the Flesh but not as you are in Christ You must not deny that Grace that you have as if you were only wicked hitherto and now to begin again which hinders Praise for Grace received in those that are already converted In Supplication you must endeavour to work up your Heart to a godly Sorrow Psal 38.18 and a holy sense of your own Sin and Misery and lay before you the Aggravations thereof Psal 51.3 Psal 102. Complaint and Lamentation are one great part of Prayer as Lamentations of Jeremiah And you must add pleading to your Petitions with such Arguments as may serve to strengthen Faith and to stir up and kindle Affection Job 23.4 which pleadings are taken from Attributes Num. 14.17 18. Promises 2 Sam. 7.27 28 c. Gen. 32.9 12. the equity of our cause Psal 17.2 3. the advantage and benefit of the thing to the glory of God and our comfort Psal 115.1 2. Psal 79.9.10 13. Naked Petitions are not sufficient when the Soul findeth special cause of strugling and wrestling against Corruptions and Dangers and for Mercies Christs large Prayer is made up Joh. 17. of pleading and very few Petitions And we must make use also of Praise and Thanksgiving for to stir up Peace Joy Love c. Gen. 33.10 Psal 18.1 2 3. and 33.1 and 74.14 and 104.34 Especially be much in praising God for Mercies of the new State in Christ Eph. 1.3 and then you will the better give thanks for all benefits on his account Eph. 5.20 1 Thess 5.18 and plead those Benefits to stir up to Faith and Duty That brief Ejaculation Lord have mercy on me is very good to be used but it will not answer the end and use of the whole Duty of Prayer as some lazy carnal People would have it and so harden themselves in the neglect of the Duty Though the large Improvement and use of all the matter of Prayer at all times is not required but only as ordinary or extraordinary Occasions may require 8. You must not confine and limit your Prayers by any prescribed Form seeing it is impossible that any such Forms should be contrived as should answer and fit all the various Conditions and Necessities of the Soul at all times I do not condemn all Forms as that made by Christ the Lords Prayer though it were easie to shew that Christ never intended it for a Form of Prayer so as to bind any to the precise Form of Words and it 's plain the Spirit of God hath expressed it in different Words Mat. 6. Luk. 11. But better to pray by that Form or other Forms than not at all It is uncharitable to take away Crutches or Woodden Leggs from lame People yet none will look upon them but as dead helps I say it is utterly unlawful to bind our selves to any Form because none can answer the Duty fitly and suitably to particular occasions Eph. 6.18 Phil. 4.6 Joh. 15.7 1 Thess 5.18 Eph. 5.20 You must make the whole Scripture your Common-Prayer-Book as the Primitive Church did being the Language of the Spirit reaching all Occasions and Conditions and sittest to speak to God in And if you use a Form you must follow it by the Spirit further than the Form goes according as he shall guide you by the Word or else you quench the Spirit 1 Thess 5.19 If you know the Principles of Prayer and have a lively sense of your Necessities and hearty Desires of Gods Grace and Mercies you will be able to pray without Forms and your Affections will bring forth words out of the fulness of your Heart And you need not be over-solicitous and timorous about words for doubtless the Spirit who is the help to us in speaking to Men will also much more help us to speak to God if we desire it 1 Cor. 1.5 Mar. 13.11 Luk. 12.12 And God regards not eloquent Words nor artificial Composure neither need we regard it in private Prayer Isa 38.14 If you limit your self to Forms you will thereby grow formal and limit the Spirit 7. Another means appointed of God is Singing of Psalms i. e. Songs of any sacred Subject composed to a Tune are Hymns or Songs of Praise and spiritual Songs of any sublime spiritual Matter as Psal 45. and the Song of Solomon God hath commanded it Col. 3.16 Eph. 5.19 in the New Testament Though now in these days many question whether it be an Ordinance or no and there were many Commands for it under the Old Testament Psal 149.2 3. and 96.1 and 100. Moses and the Children of Israel sang before David's time Exod. 15. David composed Psalms by the Spirit to be sung publickly 2 Sam. 23.1 2. yea privately too Psal 40.3 2 Chron. 29.30 Psal 105.2 Other Songs also were made upon several Occasions and used whether they were parts of the Scripture or no as Solomon made 1005. 1 King 4.32 And they made Songs upon occasion which teacheth that it is lawful for us to do so so they be according to the Word Isa 38.9 14. The matter of Scripture may be sung Psal 119.54 Christ and his Disciples sang a Hymn Mat. 26.30 supposed to be one of David's Psalms and they were written for our Instruction as well as other parts of Scripture Rom. 15. and so to be used now in singing They speak of the things of the New Testament either figuratively or clearly and we may understand them better now than the Jews could under the Old Testament 2 Cor. 3.16 Col. 2.7 Christians heretofore practised this Duty as well as Jews Act. 16.25 Hence their Antelucani Hymni were noted by Pliny a Heathen These Songs or Hymns may be used at all times especially for holy Mirth or Rejoycing Jam. 5.13 But is not to be taken exclusively in Singing any more than in Prayer Psal 38.18 2 Chron. 35.25
of it The second Adam also the Lord Jesus Christ was born an holy thing Luke 1 35. with an holy Disposition of his Soul and Propensity to Goodness and can we reasonably hope to arise to the Life of Holiness from which the first Adam fell or to be Imitators of Christ since Duty is made so difficult by the Fall if we be not renewed in a measure according to the same Image of God and enabled with such a Propensity and Inclination 3ly Original Corruption whereby we are dead to God and Godliness from the Birth and made willing Slaves to the performance of all actual Sins until the Son of God make us free confisteth in a Propensity and Inclination of the Heart to Sin and Averseness to Holiness Without this Propensity to Sin what can that Law of sin in our members be that warreth against the law of our mind and leadeth us captive to the service of sin Rom. 7.23 What is that Poison in us for which Men may be called serpents vipers What is that Spirit of whoredoms in men by reason of which they will not frame their doings to turn to God Hos 5.4 How is the tree first corrupt and then its fruit corrupt Matth. 12.33 How can Man be said to be abominable and filthy that drinketh iniquity like water Job 15.16 How should the mind of the flesh be continual enmity to the Law of God Rom. 8.7 I know there is also a blindness of Understanding and other things belonging to Original Corruption which conduceth to this evil Propensity of the Will but yet this Propensity it self is the great evil the indwelling Sin which produceth all actual Sins and must of necessity be removed or restrained by restoring that contrary Inclination wherein the Image of God confisted or else we shall be backward and reprobate to every good work and whatever Freedom the Will hath shall be employed only in the service of Sin 4ly God restoreth his People to Holiness by giving to them a new heart a new spirit and taking away the heart of stone out of their flesh and giving them an heart of flesh Ezek. 36.26 27. And he circumciseth their heart to love him with their whole heart and Soul And he requireth that we should be transformed in the renewing of our mind that we may prove what is his acceptable will Rom. 12.2 And David prayeth for the same end that God would create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him Psal 51.10 If any one can judge that this new clean circumcised Heart this Heart of Flesh this new right Spirit is such an one as hath no actual Inclination and Propensity to good but only a Power to chuse good or evil undeservedly call'd Free-will with a present Inclination to evil or an indifference of Propensity to both contraries it will not be worth my labour to convince such a Judgment only let him consider whether David could account such an Heart to be clean and right when he prayeth Psal 119.36 Incline mine heart to thy testimonies and not to coveteousness The second Endowment necessary to enable us for the immediate Practice of Holiness and concurring with the other two that follow to work in us a rational Propensity to this Practice is that we be well perswaded of our Reconciliation with God We must reckon that the breach of Amity which Sin hath made betwixt God and us is made up by a firm Reconciliation to his Love and Favour and herein I include the great Benefit of Justification as the means whereby we are reconciled to God which is described in Scripture either by forgiving our Sins or by the imputation of Righteousness to us Rom. 4.5 6 7. because both are contained in one and the same justifying Act as one act of Illumination comprehends expulsion of Darkness and introduction of Light one act of Repentance containeth Mortification of Sin and vivification to Righteousness and every Motion from any thing to its contrary is but one and the same though it may be expressed by divers Names with respect to either of the two contrary terms the one of which is abolished the other introduced by it This is a great Mystery contrary to the Apprehensions not only of the Vulgar but of some learned Divines that we must be reconciled to God and justified by the Remission of our Sins and imputation of Righteousness before any sincere Obedience to the Law that we may be enabled for the Practice of it They account that this Doctrine tendeth to the Subversion of an holy Practice and is a great Pillar of Antinemianism and that the only way to establish sincere Obedience is to make it rather a condition to be performed before our actual Justification and Reconciliation with God Therefore some late Divines have thought sit to bring the Doctrine of former Protestants concerning Justification to their Anvil and to hammer it into another form that it might be more free from Antinomianism and effectual to secure an holy Practice but their Labour is vain and pernicious tending to Antinemian profaneness or painted Hypocrisice at best neither can the true Practice of Holiness be secure except the Perswasion of our Justification and Reconciliation with God be first obtained without works of the law that we may be enabled thereby to do them as I shall now prove by several Arguments intending also to shew in the following Directions that such a Perswasion of the Love of God as God giveth to his People tendeth only to Holiness though a Misperswasion of it be in many an Occasion of Licenciousness First When the first Adam was framed for the Practice of Holiness at his Creation he was highly in the Favour of God and had no Sin imputed to him and was accounted righteous in the sight of God according to his present state because he was made upright according to God's Image and there is no reason to doubt but that these Qualifications were his advantage for an holy Practice and the Wisdom of God judged them good for that end and as soon as he lost them he became dead in sin The second Adam also in our nature was the Beloved of the Father accounted righteous in the sight of God without the Imputation of any Sin to him except what his Office was to bear on the behalf of others And can we reasonably expect to be Imitators of Christ by performing more difficult Obedience than the first Adam's was before the Fall except the like Advantages be given to us by Reconciliation and Remission of Sins and imputation of a Righteousness given by God to us when we have none of our own Secondly Those that know that natural Deadness under the Power of Sin and Satan are fully convinced that if God leave them to their own Hearts they can do nothing but Sin and that they can do no good work except it please God of his great Love and Mercy to work it in them Joh. 8.36 Philip. 2.13
way to the Father before they clearly knew him to be the way John 14.5 And the best of us know it but in part and must wait for the perfect knowledge of it in another World One great Mystery is that the holy frame and disposition whereby our Souls are furnished and enabled for immediate Practice of the Law must be gotten by receiving it out of Christ's fulness as a thing already prepared and brought to an existance for us in Christ and treasured up in him and that as we are justified by a righteousness wrought out in Christ and imputed to us so we are sanctified by such an holy frame and qualifications as are first wrought out and compleated in Christ for us and then imparted to us and as our natural corruption was produced originally in the first Adam and propagated from him to us so our new nature and holiness is first produced in Christ and derived from him to us or as it were propagated So that we are not at all to work together with Christ in making or producing that holy frame in us but only to take it to ourselves and use it in our holy Practice as made ready to our hands Thus we have fellowship with Christ in recovering that holy frame of Spirit that was originally in him for fellowship is when several Persons have the same things in common 1 Jo. 1. This Mystery is so great that notwithstanding all the Light of the Gospel we commonly think that we must get an holy frame by producing it a new in ourselves and by forming and working it out of our own Hearts Therefore many that are seriously devout take a great deal of pains to mortifie their corrupted Nature and beget an holy frame of Heart in themselves by striving earnestly to master their sinful lusts and by pressing vehemently upon their Hearts many motives to Godliness labouring importunately to squeeze good qualifications out of them as Oyl out of a Flint They account that tho' they be justified by a righteousness wrought out by Christ yet they must be sanctifi'd by a holiness wrought out by themselves And thô out of humility they are willing to call it infused Grace yet they think they must get the infusion of it by the same manner of working as if it were wholly acquired by their endeavours On this account they acknowledge the entrance into a Godly Life to be harsh and unpleasing because it costs so much strugling with their own Hearts and Affections to new frame them if they knew that this way of entrance is not only harsh and unpleasant but altogether impossible and that the true way of mortifying sin and quickning themselves to holiness is by receiving a new nature out of the fulness of Christ and that we do no more to the production of a new nature than of original sin tho' we do more to the reception of it If they knew this they might save themselves many a bitter agony and a great deal of mispent burdensome labour and employ their endeavours to enter in at the strait Gate in such a way as would be more pleasant and successful Another greater mystery in the way of Sanctification is the glorious manner of our Fellowship with Christ in receiving an holy frame of heart from him It is by our being in Christ and having Christ himself in us and that not meerly by his universal presence as he is God but by such a close union as that we are one spirit and one flesh with him which is a priviledge peculiar to those that are truly sanctified I may well call this a mystical union because the Apostle calleth it a great mystery in an Epistle full of Mysteries Eph. 5.20 intimating that it is great eminently above many other Mysteries it is one of the three Mystical Unions that are the chief Mysteries in Religion the other two are the Union of the Trinity of Persons in One Godhead and the Union of the Divine and Human Natures in One Person Jesus Christ God and Man Though we cannot frame an exact Idea of the manner of any of these Three Unions in our Imaginations because the depth of these Mysteries is beyond our Comprehension yet we have cause to believe them all because they are clearly revealed in Scripture and are a necessary Foundation for other Points of Christian Doctrine particularly this Union betwixt Christ and Believers is plainly in several places of Scripture affirming that Christ is and dwelleth in believers and they in him Joh. 6.56 and 14.20 And that they are so joyned together as to become one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 And that Believers are Members of Christ's Body of his Flesh and of his Bones and they two Christ and the Church are one flesh Eph. 5.30 31. Furthermore this Union is illustrated in Scripture by various resemblances which would be very much unlike the things which they are made use of to resemble and would rather seem to beguile us by obscuring the Truth than instruct us by illustrating of it if there were no true proper Union betwixt Christ and Believers It is resembled by the Union betwixt God the Father and Christ Jo. 14.20 and 17.21 22 23. betwixt the Vine and its Branches Joh. 15.4 5. betwixt the Head and Body Ephes 1.22.23 betwixt Bread and the Eater Joh. 6.51 53 54. It is not only resembled but sealed in the Lords Supper where neither the Popish Transubstantiation nor the Lutherans Consubstantiation nor the Protestants spiritual Presence of Christ's Body and Blood to the true Receivers can stand without it and if we can imagine that Christ's Body and Blood are not truely eaten and drunk by Believers either spiritually or corporally we shall make the Bread and Wine joyned with the Words of Institution not only naked Signs but such Signs as are much more apt to breed false Notions in us than to establish us in the Truth And there is nothing in this Union so impossible or repugnant to Reason as may force us to depart from the plain and familiar sence of those Scriptures that express and illustrate it Though Christ be in Heaven and we on Earth yet he can joyn our Souls and Bodies to his at such a distance without any substantial Change of either by the same insinite Spirit dwelling in him and us and so our Flesh will become his when it is quickned by his Spirit and his Flesh ours as truly as if we did eat his Flesh and drink his Blood and he will be in us himself by his Spirit who is one with him and who can unite more closely to Christ than any material Substance can do or who can make a more close and intimate Union betwixt Christ and us And it will not follow from hence that a Believer is one Person with Christ any more than that Christ is one Person with the Father by that greater mystical Union Neither will a Believer be hereby made God's but only the Temple of God as Christ's Body
and Soul is and the Spirits lively Instrument rather than the principal Cause Neither will a Believer be necessarily perfectin Holiness here by or Christ made a Sinner for Christ knoweth how to dwell in a Believer by certain measures and degrees and to make them holy so far only as he dwelleth in them And though this Union seem too high a Preferment for such unworthy Creatures as we are yet considering the preciousness of the Blood of God whereby we are redeemed we should dishonour God if we should not expect a miraculous Advancement to the highest Dignity that Creatures are capable of through the Merits of that Blood Neither is there any thing in this Union contrary to the Judgment of Sense because the Bond of the Union being Spiritual falleth not at all under the Judgment of Sense Several learned Men of late acknowledge no other Union betwixt Christ and Believers than such as persons or things wholly separated may have by their mutual relations each to other and accordingly they interpret the places of Scripture that speak of this Union When Christ is called the Head of the Church they account that a Political Head or Governour is the thing meant when Christ is said to be in his People and they in him they think that the proper meaning is that Christ's Law Doctrine Grace Salvation or that Godliness is in them and embraced by them so that Christ here must not be taken for Christ himself but for some other thing wrought in them by Christ When Christ and Believers are said to be one Spirit and one Flesh they understand it of the Agreement of their Minds and Affections as if the greatness of the Mystery of this Union mentioned Ephes 5.32 consisted rather in a harsh Hope or a dark improper Expression than in the depth and abstruceness of the thing it self and as if Christ and his Apostles had affected obscure intricate Expressions when they speak to this Church of things very plain and easie to be understood Thus that great Mystery the Union of Believers with Christ himself which is the Glory of the Church and hath been highly owned formerly both by the ancient Fathers and many eminent Protestant Divines particular Writers concerning the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper and by a very general Consent of the Church in many Ages is now exploded out of the new Model of Divinity The Reason of exploding it as I judge in Charity is not because our late learned Refiners of Divinity think themselves less able to defend it than the other two mysterious Unions and to silence the Objections of those proud Sophisters that will not believe what they cannot comprehend but rather because they account it to be one of the Sinnews of Antinomianism that lay unobserved in the former usual Doctrine that it tendeth to puff up Men with a Perswasion that they are justified and have eternal Life in them already and that they need not depend any longer upon their uncertain Performances of the Condition of sincere Obedience for Salvation whereby they account the very Foundation of a holy Practice to be subverted But the Wisdom of God hath laid another manner of Foundation for an holy Practice than they imagine of which this Union which the Builders refuse is a principal stone next to the head of the corner And in opposition to their corrupt Glosses upon the Scriptures that prove it I assert that our Union with Christ is the cause of our Subjection to Christ as a Political Head in all things and of the abiding of his Law Doctrine Grace Salvation and all Godliness in us and of our Agreement with him in our Minds and Affections and therefore it cannot be altogether the same thing with them And this Assertion is useful for a better Understanding of the Excellency of this Union It is not a Priviledge procured by our sincere Obedience and Holiness as some may imagine or a reward of good works reserved for us in another World but it is a Priviledge bestowed upon Believers in their very first entrance into an holy state on which all ability to do good works doth depend and all sincere Obedience to the Law doth follow after it as Fruit produced by it Having thus far explained the Direction I shall now shew that though the Truth contained in it be above the Search of Natural Reason yet it is evidently discovered to those that have their Understandings opened to discern that supernatural Revelation of the mysterious way of Sanctification which God hath given to us in the holy Scriptures First There are several Places in Scripture that do plainly express it some Texts shew thâ—â— all things pertaining to our salvation are treasured 〈◊〉 for us in Christ and comprehended in his fulness 〈◊〉 that we must have them thence or 〈◊〉 at all Col. 1.19 It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell And in the same Epistle Col. 2.11 12 13. The Apostle sheweth that the holy Nature whereby we live to God was first produced in him by his death and resurrection in whom also ye are circumcised in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh buried with him quickened together with him when you were dead in your sins Ephes 1.3 Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. An holy Frame of Spirit with all its necessary Qualifications must needs be comprehended here in all spiritual Blessings and these are given us in Christ's Person in heavenly places as prepared and treasured up in him for us while we are upon Earth and therefore we must have our holy Endowments out of him or not at all In this Text some chuse rather to read heavenly things as in the Margent because neither places nor things are expressed in the Original but the former textual reading is to be preferred before the Marginals as being the proper Sense of the Original Greek Phrase which is and must necessarily be so rendred in two other Places of this same Epistle Chap. 3.10 6.12 Another Text is 1 Cor. 1.30 which sheweth that Christ is of God made unto us Sanctification by which we are able to walk holily as well as wisely by the Wisdom of which we are savingly wise and Righteousness by the Imputation of which we are justified and Redemption whereby we are redeemed from all Misery to the Enjoyment of his Glory as our Happiness in the heavenly Kingdom Other Texts of Scripture shew plainly that we receive our Holiness out of his fulness by Fellowship with him Joh. 1.16 17. Of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace And it is understood of Grace answerable to the Law given by Moses which must needs include the Grace of Sanctification 1 Joh. 1.3 5 6 7. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. God is Light if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another Hence
we may infer that our Fellowship with God and Christ doth include particularly our having Light and walking in it holily and righteously There are other Texts that reach the Proof of the whole Direction fully shewing not only that our holy Endowments are made ready first in Christ for us and receiv'd from but that we receive them by Union with Christ Col. 3.10 11. Ye have put on the new man which is renewed after the image of him that created him where Christ is all and in all 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Gal. 2.20 I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me 1 Joh. 5.11 12. This is the recerd that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Can we desire that God should more clearly teach us that all the fulness of the New Man is in Christ and all that spiritual nature and Life whereby we live to God in Holiness and that they are fixed in him so inseparably that we can not have them except we be joyned to him and have himself abiding in us Take heed lest through Prejudice and Hardness of Heart you be guilty of making God a Liar in not believing this eminent Record that God hath given to us of his Son Secondly God is pleased to illustrate this mysterious manner of our Sanctification by such variety of Similitudes and Resemblances as may put us out of doubt that it is Truth and such a Truth as we are highly concern'd to know and believe I shall endeavour to contract the chief of these Resemblances and the force of them briefly into one Sentence leaving it to those that are Spiritual to enlarge their Meditations upon them We receive from Christ a new holy frame and nature whereby we are enabled for an holy Practice by union and fellowship with him in like manner as Christ lived in our nature by the Father Joh. 6.57 As we receive original sin and death propagated to us from the first Adam Rom. 5.12 14 16 17. as the natural Body receiveth Sense Motion Nourishment from the Head Col. 2.19 As the Branch receiveth its Sap Juiceand fructifying Virtue from the Vine Jo. 15.4 5 As the Wife bringeth forth Fruit by Virtue of her Conjugal Union with her Husband Rom. 7.4 As Stones become an holy Temple by being built upon the Foundation and joyned with the chief corner-stone 1 Pet. 2. 4 5 6. As we receive the nourishing Virtue of Bread by eating it and of Wine by drinking it Joh. 6.51 55 57. Which last Resemblance is used to seal to us our Communion with Christ in the Lords Supper Hear are seven Resemblances instanced whereof some do illustrate the Mystery spoken of more fully than others all of them do some way intimate that our New Life and Holy Nature is first in Christ and then in us by a true proper Union and Fellowship with him If any should urge that the Similitude of Adam and his Seed and of married Couples do make rather for a Relative than a real Union betwixt Christ and us let them consider that all Nations are really made of one Blood which was first in Adam Acts 17.26 and that the first Woman was made out of the Body of Adam and was really bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and by this first married Couple the mystical Union of Christ and his Church is eminently resembled Gen. 2.22 23 24. with Ephes 5.30 31 32. And yet it supposeth both these Resemblances in the nearness and fulness of it because those that are joyned to the Lord are not only one Flesh but one Spirit with him Thirdly The end of Christ's Incarnation Death and Resurrection was to prepare and form an holy Nature and Frame for us in himself to be communicated to us by Union and Fellowship with him and not to enable us to produce in our selves the first Original of such an holy Nature by our own Endeavours By his Incarnation there was a Man created in a new holy Frame after the Holiness of the first Adam's Frame had been marred and abolished by the first Transgression and this new Frame was far more excellent than ever the first Adam's was because Man was really joyned to God by a close inseparable Union of the divine and humane Nature in one Person of Christ so that these Natures had Communion each with other in their Actings and Christ was able to act in his humane Nature by Power proper to the divine Nature wherein he was one God with the Father The words that he spake while he was upon Earth he spoke not of himself by any meer humane Power but the Father that dwelt in him he did the Works Joh. 14.10 Why was it that Christ set up the fallen Nature of Man in such a wonderful Frame of Holiness in bringing of it to live and act by Communion with God living and acting in it One great End was that he might communicate this excellent Frame to his Seed that should be born of him and in him by his Spirit as the last Adam the quickning Spirit that as we have born the Image of the earthly Man so we might also bear the Image of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15.45 49. in Holiness here and in Glory hereafter Thus he was born Emanuel God with us because the fulness of the Godhead with all Holiness did first dwell in him bodily even in his humane Nature that we might be filled up with that fulness in him Mat. 1.23 Col. 2.9 10. Thus he came down from Heaven as living Bread that as he liveth by the Father so those that eat him may live by him Joh. 6.51 56. By the same Life of God in them that was first in him By his Death he freed himself from the Guilt of our Sins imputed to him and from all that innocent Weakness of his humane Nature which he has born for a time for our sakes And by freeing himself he prepared a Freedom for us from our whole natural Condition which is both weak as his was and also polluted with our Guilt and sinful Corruption Thus the corrupt natural State which is called in Scripture the Old Man was crucified together with Christ that the Body of Sin might be destroyed And it is destroyed in us not by any Wounds that we our selves can give to it but by our partaking of that Freedom from it and Death unto it that is already wrought out for us by the Death of Christ as is signified by our Baptism wherein we are buried with Christ by the Application of his Death to us Rom. 6.2 3 4 10 11. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh for Sin or by a Sacrifice for Sin as in the Margent condemned Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the Flesh but
without blemish that he might redeem us from all iniquity by his precious Blood 1 Pet. 1.18 19 20. and he had the same Spirit then which filled his humane Nature with all its fulness afterwards and raised it from the dead and he gave that Spirit then to the Church 1 Pet. 1.11 3.18 19. Now this Spirit was able and effectual to unite those Saints to that Flesh which Christ was to take to himself in the fulness of Time because he was the same in both and to give out to them that Grace with which Christ would afterwards fill his Flesh for their Salvation as well as ours Therefore David accounted Christ's Flesh to be his and spake of Christ's Death and Resurrection as his own before hand as fully as any of us can do since their Accomplishment Psal 16.9 10 11. My flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption thou wilt shew me the path of life Yea and Saints before Davids time did all eat of the same spiritual meat and drink of the same spiritual drink even of the same Christ as we do and therefore were Partakers of the same Priviledge of Union and Fellowship with Christ 1 Cor. 10.3 4. And when Christ was manifested in the Flesh in the fulness of time all things in Heaven and on Earth all the Saints departed whose Spirits were then made perfect in Heaven as well as the Saints that then were or should afterward be on Earth were gathered together in one and comprehended in Christ as their Head Ephes 1.10 And he was the chief corner-stone in whom the building of the whole Church upon the foundation of the Prophets before and the Apostles after his comming being fitly fromed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord Ephes 2.20 21. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 His incarnation death and resurrection were the cause of all the Holiness that ever was or shall be given to Man from the Fall of Adam to the end of the World and that by the mighty Power of his Spirit whereby all Saints that ever were or shall be are joyned together to be Members of that one mystical Body whereof he is the Head DIRECT IV. The Means or Instruments whereby the Spirit of God accomplisheth our Vnion with Christ and our Fellowship with him in all Holiness are the Gospel whereby Christ entereth into our Hearts to work Faith in us and Faith whereby we actually receive Christ himself with all his Fulness into our Hearts And this Faith is a Grace of the Spirit whereby we heartily believe the Gospel and also believe on Christ as he is revealed and freely promised to us therein for all his Salvation EXPLICATION THAT which I asserted in the foregoing Direction concerning the necessity of our being in Christ and having Christ in us by a mystical Union to enable us for an holy Practice might put us to a stand in our Endeavours for Holiness because we cannot imagine how we should be able to raise our selves above our natural Sphere to his glorious Union and Fellowship until God be pleased to make known to us by supernatural revelation the means whereby his Spirit maketh us Partakers of so high a Privilege But God is pleased to help us at a stand to go on forward by revealing two Means or Instruments whereby his Spirit accomplisheth the mystical Union and Fellowship betwixt Christ and us and whereby rational Creatures are capable of attaining thereunto by his Spirit working in them One of these Means is the Gospel of the Grace of God wherein God doth make known to us the unsearchable Riches of Christ and Christ in us the hope of Glory Eph. 3.8 Col. 1.27 and doth also invite us and command us to believe on Christ for his Salvation and doth encourage us by a free Promise of that Salvation to all that believe on him Acts 16.31 Rom. 10.9 11. This is God's own Instrument of Conveyance wherein he sendeth Christ to us to bless us with his Salvation Acts 3.26 It is the ministration of the spirit and of righteousness 2 Cor. 3.6 8 9. Faith cometh by the hearing of it and therefore it is a great instrument whereby we are begotten in Christ and Christ is formed in us Rom. 10.16 17. 1 Cor. 4.15 Gal. 4.19 There is no need for us to say in our Hearts Who shall ascend into Heaven to bring Christ down from above Or who shall descend into the deep to bring up Christ from the dead that we may be united and have fellowship with him in his death and resurrection For the word is nigh to us the Gospel the word of Faith in which Christ himself graciously condescendeth to be nigh to us so that we may come at him there without going any further if we desire to be joyned to him Rom. 10.6 7 8. The other of these means is Faith that is wrought in us by the Gospel This is our Instrument of Reception whereby the Union betwixt Christ and us is accomplished on our part by our actual receiving of Christ himself with all his Fulness into our Hearts which is the principal Subject of the present Explanation The Faith which Philosophers commonly treat of is only an Habit of the Understanding whereby we assent to a Testimony upon the Authority of the Testifier Accordingly some would have Faith in Christ to be no more than a believing the truth of things in Religion upon the authority of Christ testifying them but the Apostle sheweth that the Faith whereby we are justified is Faith in Christ's Blood Rom. 3.24 25. not only in his Authority as a Testifier And tho' a meer assent to a Testimony were sufficient Faith for knowledge of things which the Philosophers aimed at yet we are to consider that the Design of Saving Faith is not only to know the Truth of Christ and his Salvation testified and promised in the Gospel but also to apprehend and receive Christ and his Salvation as given by and with the Promise Therefore Saving Faith must necessarily contain two Acts believing the Truth of the Gospel and believing on Christ as promised freely to us in the Gospel for all Salvation By the one it receiveth the Means wherein Christ is conveyed to us by the other it receiveth Christ himself and his Salvation in the Means As it 's one act to receive the Breast or Cup wherein Milk or Wine are conveyed and another act to suck the Milk in the Breast and to drink the Wine in the Cup and both these acts must be perform'd heartily with an unfeigned love to the Truth and a desire of Christ and his Salvation above all things this is our spiritual Appetite which is necessary for our eating and drinking Christ the Food of Life as a natural Appetite is for Bodily Nourishment Our assenting unto or believing the Gospel must not be forced
by meer conviction of the Truth such as wicked Men and Devils may be brought to when they had rather it were false Neither must our believing on Christ be only constrained for fear of Damnation without any hearty Love and Desire towards the enjoyment of him but we must receive the Love of the Truth by relishing the Goodness and Excellency of it and we must account all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord and count them but dung that we may win Christ and be found in him 2 Thess 2.10 Phil. 3.8 9. esteeming Christ to be all our Salvation and Happiness Col. 3.11 in whom all fulness doth dwell Col. 1.19 And this Love must be to every part of Christ's Salvation to Holiness as well as Forgiveness of Sins We must desire earnestly that God would create in us a clean Heart and right Spirit as well as hide his face from our sins Psal 51.9 10. not like many that care for nothing in Christ but only Deliverance from Hell Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Mat. 5.6 The former of these Acts doth not immediately unite us to Christ because it is terminated only on the means of Conveyance the Gospel yet it is a saving Act if it be rightly performed because it enclineth and disposeth the Soul to the latter Act whereby Christ himself is immediately received into the Heart He that believeth the Gospel with hearty love and liking as the most Excellent Truth will certainly with the like heartiness believe on Christ for his Salvation They that know the name of the Lord will certainly put their trust in him Psal 9.10 Therefore in Scripture Saving-Faith is sometimes described by the former of these Acts as if it were a meer believing the Gospel sometimes by the latter as a believing on Christ or in Christ Rom. 10.9 If thou believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved 11 the Scripture saith Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed 1 John 5.1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God For the better understanding of the nature of Faith let it be further observed that the Second and Principal of it believing on Christ includeth believing on God the Father Son and Holy Ghost because they are one and the same infinite God and they all concurr in our Salvation by Christ as the only Mediator betwixt God and us in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen 2 Cor. 1.20 By him as mediator we believe on God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory that our faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 And it is the same thing with trusting on God or on the Lord which is so highly commended in the whole Scripture especially in the Old Testament as may easily appear by considering that it hath the same Causes Effects Objects Adjuncts Opposites and all the same Circumstances excepting only that it had a respect to Christ as promised before his Coming and now it respecteth him as already come in the Flesh Believing in the Lord and trusting on his Salvation are equivalent terms that explain one another Psal 78.22 I confess that trusting on things seen or known by the meer Light of Reason as on our own Wisdom Power Riches on Princes or any Arm of Flesh may not so properly be called believing on them but trusting on a Saviour as discovered by a Testimony is properly believing on him It is also the same thing that is expressed by the terms of resting relying leaning staying our selves on the Lord because it is the Ground of that Expectation that is the proper Act of Hope though our Believing and Trusting be for the present as well as future benefit of this Salvation The reason why it is so commonly expressed in the Scriptures of the New Testament by the terms of believing on Christ might be probably because when that part of Scripture was written there was cause in a special manner to urge believing the Testimony that was then newly revealed by the Gospel Having thus explained the nature of Faith I come now to assert its proper Use and Office in our Salvation That it is the Means and Instrument whereby we receive Christ and all his Fulness actually into our Hearts This excellent Use and Office of Faith is encountered by a multitude of Errors men naturally esteem that it is too small and slight a thing to produce so great effects as Naaman thought washing in Jordan too small a matter for the cure of his Leprosie They contemn the true means of entring in at the streight Gate because they seem too easie for such purpose and thereby they make the Entrance not only difficult but impossible to themselves Some will allow that Faith is the sole Condition of our Justification and the Instrument to receive it according to the Doctrine maintained formerly by the Protestants against the Papists but they account that it is not sufficient or effectual to Sanctification but that it rather tendeth to Licentiousness if it be not joyned with some other means that may be powerful and effectual to procure an holy Practice They commend this great Doctrine of Protestants as a comfortable Cordial for Persons upon their Death-beds or in Agonies under Terrors of Conscience but they account that it is not good for ordinary Food and that it is Wisdom in Ministers to preach it seldom and sparingly and not without some Antidote or Corrective to prevent the licentiousness to which it tendeth Their common Antidote or Corrective is That Sanctification is necessary to Salvation as well as Justification and that though we be justified by Faith yet we are sanctified by our own performance of the Law and so they set up Salvation by works and make the Grace of Justification to be of none effect and not at all comfortable If it had indeed such a malignant influence upon Practice it could not be owned as a Doctrine proceeding from the most holy God and all the Comfort that it affords must needs be ungrounded and deceitful This Consequence is well understood by some late Refiners of the Protestant Religion and therefore they have thought fit to new-model this Doctrine and to make Saving-Faith to be only a Condition to procure a Right and Title to our Justification by the Righteousness of Christ which must be performed before we can lay any good claim to the enjoyment of it and before we have any right to the actual receiving of it and this they call an accepting of or receiving Christ And that they may the better secure the practice of Holiness by their Conditional Faith they will not have trusting on God
or Christ for Salvation to be accounted the principal Saving-act of it because as it seemeth to them many loose wicked People trust on God and Christ for their Salvation as much as others and are by their Confidence hardened the more in their Wickedness But they had rather it should be Obedience to all Christ's Laws at least in their Resolution or a Consent that Christ should be their Lord accepting of his terms of Salvation and a resignation of themselves to his Government in all things It is a sign that the Scripture-form of Teaching is grown into disesteem with our great Masters of Reason when trusting in the Lord so much commended in Scripture is accounted a mean and ordinary thing They endeavour to affright us from owning Faith to be an Instrument of Justification by telling us that thereby we that use the Instrument are made our own principal Justifiers to the dishonour of God though it might be easily answered that we are made thereby only the principal receivers of our own Justification from God the Giver of it to whom all the Glory doth belong All these Errors will fall if it can be proved that such a Faith as I have described is an Instrument whereby we actually receive Christ himself into our Hearts and Holiness of Heart and Life as well as Justification by Union and Fellowship with him For the proof of it I shall offer the following Arguments First By Faith we have the actual enjoyment and possession of Christ himself and not only of Remission of Sins but of Life and so of Holiness Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith Ephes 3.17 We live to God and yet not we but Christ liveth in us by the Faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.19 20. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Son and everlasting life that is in him 1 John 5.12 13. John 3.36 He that heareth Christ's word and believeth on him that sent Christ hath everlasting life and is passed from death unto life These Texts express clearly such a Faith as I have described therefore the efficiency or operation of Faith in order to the enjoyment of Christ and his Fulness cannot be the procurement of a bare Right or Title to this Enjoyment but rather it must be an entrance into it and taking possession of it We have our accâ—ss and entrance by faith into that Grace of Christ wherein we stand Rom. 5.2 Secondly The Scripture plainly ascribeth this effect to Faith that by it we receive Christ put him on are rooted and grounded in him and also that we receive the Spirit remission of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified John 1.2 Gal. 3.26 27. Col. 2.6 7. Gal. 3.14 Acts 26.18 And the Scripture illustrateth this Receiving by the Similitude of Eating and Drinking He that believeth on Christ drinketh the living water of his spirit John 7.37 38 39. Christ is the bread of life his flesh is meat indeed and his blood drink indeed and the way to eat and drink it is to believe in Christ and by so doing we dwell in Christ and Christ in us and have everlasting Life John 6.35 47 48 54 55 56. How can it be taught more clearly that we receive Christ himself properly into our Souls by Faith as we do receive Food into our Bodies by eating and drinking and that Christ is as truly united to us thereby as our Food when we eat or drink it So that Faith cannot be a Condition to procure a meer Right or Title to Christ no more than Eating or Drinking procureth a meer Right or Title to our Food but it is rather an Instrument to receive it as the Mouth that eateth and drinketh the Food Thirdly Christ with all his Salvation is freely given by the Grace of God to all that believe on him for we are saved by Grace through Faith and that not of our selves it is the Gist of God Eph. 2.8 9. We are justified freely by his Grace through Faith in his blood Rom. 8.24 The Holy Ghost who is the Bond of Union betwixt Christ and us is a Gift Acts 2.38 Now that which is a Gift of Grace must not be at all earned purchased or procured by any Work or Works performed as a Condition to get a right Title to it and therefore Faith it self must not be accounted such a Condition If it be by Grace it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace Rom. 11.1 The Condition of a free Gift is only take and have and in this sence we will readily acknowledge Faith to be a Condition allowing a Liberty in Terms where we agree in the thing but if you give a Pepper-corn to purchase a Title to it then you spoil the freeness of the Gift The free Offer of Christ to you is sufficient to conferr upon you a Right yea to make it your Duty to receive Christ and his Salvation as yours and because we receive Christ by Faith as a free Gift therefore we may account Faith to be the Instrument and as it were the Hand whereby we receive him Fourthly It hath been already proved that all spiritual Life and Holiness is treasured up in the Fulness of Christ and communicated to us by Union with him therefore the accomplishing of Union with Christ is the first work of Saving Grace in our Hearts and Faith itself being an holy Grace and part of spiritual Life cannot be in us before the beginning of it but rather it is given to us and wrought in the very working of the Union And the way wherein it conduceth to the Union cannot be by procuring a meer Title to Christ as a Condition because then it should be performed before the uniting Work beginneth but rather by being an Instrument whereby we may actively receive and embrace Christ who is already come into the Soul to take possession of it his own Habitation True Saving-Faith such as I have described hath in its nature and manner of Operation a peculiar aptitude or fitness to receive Christ and his Salvation and to unite our Souls unto him and to furnish the Soul with a new holy Nature and to bring forth an holy Practice by Union and Fellowship with him God hath fitted natural Instruments for their Office as the Hands Feet c. so that we may know by their nature and natural manner of operation for what use they are designed In like manner we may know that Faith is an Instrument formed on purpose for our Union with Christ and Sanctification if we consider what a peculiar fitness it hath for the Work The discovery of this is of great use for the understanding of the mysterious manner of our receiving and practising all Holiness by Union and Fellowship with Christ By this precions Grace of Faith and to make you as it were to see with your Eyes that it is such an Instrument as I have asserted it to be I shall present it to your view
in three particulars 1st The Grace of Faith is as well fitted for the Souls receiving of Christ and Union with him as any Instrument of the Body is for receiving and closing with things needful for it By the very act of hearty trusting or believing on Christ for all Salvation and Happiness the Soul heaveth and putteth away from itself every thing that keepeth it at a distance from Christ as all confidence in our own Strength Endeavours Works Privileges or in any Worldly Pleasures Profits Honours or in any humane Helps and Succours for our Happiness and Salvation Because such Confidences are inconsistent with our Confidence in Christ for all Salvation Paul by his Confidence in Christ was taken off from all Considence in the Flesh he suffer'd the loss of glorying in his Privileges legal Righteousness and counted all other Enjoyments in matters of the World or of Religion to be but Dung that he might win Christ and be found in him Phil. 3.3 6 7 8 9. the voice of Faith is Ashur shall not save us neither will we ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our God for in thee the Fatherless find mercy Hos 14.3 We have no might against this great company of our spiritual Enemies neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee 2 Chron. 20.12 I might multiply places of Scripture to shew what a self emptying Grace Faith is and how it casteth other Considences out of the Soul by getting above them to Christ as the only Happiness and Salvation The same act of trusting or believing on Christ or on God is the very manner of our Souls coming to Christ Joh. 6.35 drawing near to the Lord Psal 73.28 fleeing unto the Lord to hide us Psal 143.9 making our resuge in the shadow of his wings Psal 57.1 staying our selves and our minds upon the Lord Isa 50.10 26.3 laying hold of eternal life 1 Tim. 6.12 lifting up our selves to the Lord Psal 51.1 2. rolling our way and casting our burden upon the Lord Psal 37.5 55.22 and of our eating and drinking Christ as hath already appeared Let us consider that Christ and his Salvation cannot be seen or handled or attained to by any bodily motion but are revealed and promised to us in the Word Now let any invent if they can any way for the Soul to exercise any motion or activeness in receiving of this unseen promised Salvation besides believing the Word and trusting on Christ for the Benefit promised If Christ were to be earned by Works or any other kind of Conditional Faith than this yet a Faith must be instrumental to receive him Some think Love as sit to be the uniting Grace but I have shewed that Love to Christ's Salvation is an Ingredient into Faith And though Love be an Appetite unto Union yet we have no other likely way to fill this Appetite while we are in this World besides trust on Christ for all his Benefits as he is promised in the Gospel 2dly There is in this Saving-Faith a natural Tendency to furnish the Soul with an holy Frame and Nature and all Endowments necessary thereunto out of the Fulness of Christ An hearty affectionate trussing on Christ for all his Salvation as freely promised to us hath naturally enough to work in our Souls a rational bent and inclination to and ability for the Practise of all Holiness because it comprehendeth in it a trusting that through Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God and that our old man is crucified Rom. 6.2 6 4. and that we live by the spirit Gal. 5.25 and that we have forgiveness of sin and that God is our God Psal 31.14 and that we have in the Lord righteousness and strength whereby we are able to do all things Isa 45.24 Phil. 4.13 and that we shall be glortensly happy in the anjoyment of Christ to all eternity Phil. 3.20 21. When the Saints in Scripture speak so highly of such glorious spiritual Privileges as I have here named they acquaint us with the familiar fence and language of their Faith trusting on God and Christ and they give us but an Explication of the nature and contents of it and they speak of nothing more than what they receive out of the Fulness of Christ And how can we otherwise judge but that those that have an hearty Love to Christ and can upon a good ground think and speak such high things concerning themselves must needs be heartily disposed and mightily strengthened for the practice of Holiness 3dly Because Faith hath such a natural tendency to dispose and strengthen the Soul for the practise of Holiness we have cause to judge it a meet Instrument to accomplish every part of that Practice in an acceptable manner Those that with a due affection believe stedfastly on Christ for the free Gift of all his Salvation may find by experience that they are carried forth by that Faith according to the measure of its Strength or Weakness to love God heartily because God hath loved them first 1 Joh. 4.19 to praise him to pray unto him in the name of Christ Ephes 5.26 John 16.26 27. to be patient with cheerfulness under all afflictions giving thanks to the Father that hath called them to his heavenly inheritance Col. 1.11 12. to love all the children of God out of love to their heavenly Father 1 John 5.1 to walk as Christ walked 1 John 2.6 and to give themselves up to live to Christ in all things as constrained by his love in dying for them 2 Cor. 5.14 We have a Cloud of Witnesses concerning the excellent works that were produced by Faith Heb. 11. And though trusting on Christ be accounted such a slight and contemptible thing yet I know no Work of Obedience which it is not able to produce And note the excellent manner of working by Faith by it we live and act in all good Works as People in Christ as raised above our selves and our natural state by partaking of him and his Salvation and we do all in his name and on his account This is the Practice of that mysterious manner of living to God in Holiness which is peculiar to the Christian Religion wherein we live and yet not we but Christ liveth in us Gal. 2.20 And who can imagine any other way but this for such a Practice while Christ and his Salvation is known to us only by the Gospel The explanation that I have made of the Nature and Office of true Faith and of its Aptitude for its Office is sufficient to evidence that it is a most holy Faith as it is called Jude 20. and that such a trusting on Christ as I have described in its own nature cannot have any tendency to Licentiousness but only to Holiness and that it rooteth and groundeth us in Holiness more than the meer accepting of any terms of Salvation and consenting to have Christ for our Lord can do
continue without it for some considerable time Ephes 2.12 And though some may have the Spirit of Faith given to them from their Mothers Womb as John the Baptist Luke 1.15.44 yet even in them there is a natural Being by Generation before there can be a Spiritual Being by Regeneration 1 Cor. 15.46 Hence ariseth the Consideration of two States or Conditions of the Children of Men in Matters that appertain to God and Godliness the one of which is vastly different from the other Those that have the Happiness of a New-birth and Creation in Christ by Faith are thereby placed in a very excellent State consisting in the Enjoyment of the Righteousness of Christ for their Justification and of the Spirit of Christ to live by in Holiness here and Glory for ever as hath already appeared Those that are not in Christ by Faith cannot be in a better State than that which they received together with their Nature from the first Adam by being once born and created in him or than they can attain to by the Power of that Nature with any such help as God is pleased to afford to it This latter I call a Natural State because it consisteth in such things as we have either received by natural Generation or can attain to by natural Power through Divine Assistance as the Scripture calleth Man in this State the natural Man 1. Cor. 2.14 The former I call a new State because we enter into it by a new Birth in Christ and I may call it a Spiritual State according to the Scripture because it received from Christ the quickening Spirit and the Natural and Spiritual Man are opposed 1 Cor. 2.14 15. though some call both these States Spiritual because the everlasting Weal or Woe of the Soul or Spirit of Man is chiefly concerned in them It is a common Error of those that are in a corrupt natural State that they seek to reform their Lives according to the Law without any thoughts that their State must be changed before their Lives can be changed from Sin to Righteousness The Heathen that knew nothing of a new State in Christ were urged by their own Consciences to practice several Duties of the Law according to the Knowledge they had by the Light of Nature Rom. 2.14 15. Israel according to the Flesh had a Zeal of God and Godliness and endeavoured to practice the written Law at least in external Performances while they were Enemies to the Faith of Christ and Paul attainted so far that he was blameless in these external Performances of the Righteousness of the Law while he persecuted the Church of Christ Phil. 3.6 Some are so near the Kingdom of God while they continue in a Natural State that they are convinced of the Spirituality of the Law that it bindeth us principally to love God with all our Heart Soul Mind and Strength and to love our Neighbour as our selves and to perform universal Obedience to God in all our inward Thoughts and Affections as well as in all our outward Actions and to do all the Duties that we owe to our Neighbour out of this hearty Love Mark 12 33 34 And they struggle and labour with great earnestness to subdue their inward Thoughts and Affections to the Law of God and to abstain not only from some Sins but from all known Sins and to perform every known Duty of the Law with their whole Heart and Soul as they think and are so active and intent in their devout Practice that they overwork their natural Strength and so servent in their Zeal that they are ready even to kill their Bodies with Fastings and other Macerations that they may kill their sinful Lusts They are strongly convinced that Holiness is absolutely necessary to Salvation and deeply affected with the Terrours of Damnation and yet they were never so much enlightened in the Mystery of the Gospel as to know that a new State in Christ is necessary to a new Life therefore they labour in vain to reform their natural State instead of getting above it in Christ And some of these when they have mispent many Years in striving against the Stream of their Lusts without any Success do at last fall miserably into Despair of ever attaining to Holiness and turn to wallowing in the mire of their Lusts or are fearfully swallowed up with horrour of Conscience There are several false Opinions whereby such ignorant Zealots encourage themselves in their fruitless Endeavours Some of them judge that they are able to practice Holiness because they are not compelled to sin and may abstain from it if they will To this they add That Christ by the Merit of his Death hath restored that Freedom of Will to good which was lost by the Fall and hath set Nature upon its Legs again and that if they endeavour to do what lieth in them Christ will do the rest by assisting them with the Supplies of his saving Grace so they trust upon the Grace of Christ to help them in their Endeavours They plead further That it would not consist with the Justice of God to punish them for Sin if they could not avoid it and that it would be in vain for the Ministers of the Gospel to preach to them and exhort them to any saving Duty if they cannot perform it They produce Examples of I leathens and of such as had the name of Christians without any acquaintance with the Faith that I have described who have attained to a great Excellency in religious Words and Works My Work at present is to deliver those ignorant Zealots from their fruitless tormenting Labours by bringing them to despair of the Attainment of Holiness in a natural State that they may seek it only in a new State by Faith in Christ where they may certainly find it without such tormenting Labour and Anxiety of Spirit For this end I shall confirm the Truth asserted in the Direction and fortifie it against the forementioned false Opinions by the ensuing Considerations First The Foundation of this Assertion is firmly laid in the Directions already explained and confirmed by many Places of Scripture For if all Endowments necessary to enable us for an holy Practice be to be had only in a State of Union and Fellowship with Christ by Faith and Faith it self not by the natural Power of Free-will but by the Power of Christ coming into the Soul by his Spirit to unite us with himself who seeeth not that the Attainment of true Holiness by any of our most vigorous Endeavours while we continue in our natural Condition is altogether hopeless I need add no more were it not to shew more sully what abundance of Light the Scripture affordeth to guide us aright in this part of our way that those that wander out of it by following any false light of their own or others corrupted Judgments may find themselves the more inexcusable Secondly It is evident that we cannot practice true Holiness while we continue in
Terms you are first to do the holy Duties commanded before you have any Interest in the Life promised or any Right to lay hold of it as yours by Faith and you must practice Holiness without the forementioned means or else you can never attain to them Thus the true means are turned out of their Office and instead of being Causes they are made to be Effects and Fruits of an holy Practice And it will be in vain ever to expect such Effects and Fruits for Holiness it self with all its Effects must needs be destroyed when its necessary Causes are taken away Therefore the Apostle Paul testifieth that the way of salvation by the works of the law maketh faith void and promises of none effect And frustrateth the grace of God as if Christ died in vain and maketh Christ to be of no profit and of none effect to us as those that are fallen from grace Rom. 4.14 Gal. 2.21 5.2 4. Let us now examine the modern Doctrine of Salvation by the Condition of sincere Obedience to all the Commands of Christ and we shall quickly find it to be a chip of the same block with the former legal way of Salvation in the same manner destructive to the means of Holiness and to Holiness it self It requireth of us the Performance of sincere Obedience before we have the means necessary to produce it by making it antecedent to our Justification and Perswasion of eternal Happiness and our actual Enjoyment of Union and Fellowship with Christ and of that new Nature which is to be had only in him by Faith It destroyeth the nature of that saving Faith whereby we actually receive and enjoy Christ and all his Benefits and knocketh off our Hands from laying hold of Christ and his Salvation by telling us still as Christ told the Legalworker after all his Labour that yet we lack something Mat. 10.21 That it is Presumption to take him as our own until we have performed the Condition for our Right and Title to him which is another kind of saving Faith otherwise called sincere Obedience By this devised conditional Faith Satan keepeth many poor Souls at a bay poreing upon their own Hearts for many years together to find whether they have performed the Condition and whether they have as yet any Right to Christ for their Salvation not daring to venture to take him as their own It is a strong Partition-wall that will certainly hinder the Soul from coming to Christ until it be thrown down by the Knowledge of Salvation by grace without any procuring Condition of Works And though it be accounted but as the Payment of a Pepper-corn for a great Estate yet it is enough to break the ablest Man in the World because it debarreth him from laying hold of the only effectual means of Holiness whereby that Pepper-corn may be obtained 2dly Those that seek Salvation by the Works of the Law do therein act according to their natural State they live and walk according to the Flesh or Old-man not according to the New-state by Christ living in them I doubt not but several of them that live under the light of the Gospel are Partakers of a new State in Christ and do walk holily in it but the best in this World have in them Flesh as well as Spirit and may act according to either State in some measure and in this matter they do act only according to their carnal natural State When the believing Galatians were seduced to a Legal way of Salvation the Apostle Paul chargeth it upon them as their Folly that having begun in the spirit they would now be made perfect in the flesh Gal. 3.3 And he resembleth those that desire to be under the Law to Abraham's Son born of Hagar the Bondwoman to shew that such do walk as those that are born after the flesh not after the spirit Gal. 4.19 23 29. The Law was first given to Adam in his pure natural State to prescribe Terms for his continuance in Happiness which he then enjoyed and ever since that time the Flesh or Natural-man is married to the Law and the Law hath Dominion over a Man as long as he liveth i. e. until he be dead to his fleshly State by the Body of Christ and married to him that is risen from the dead Rom. 7.1 4. We are not at all under the Law as a Covenant of Works according to our new State in Christ as the Apostle testifieth Rom. 6.14 Ye are not under the law but under grace And Gal. 3.18 If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law From hence we may firmly conclude that none can possibly attain to true Godliness by acting according to Legal-terms because I have fully proved already that it is impossible to be godly while we are in the flesh or in a natural State and that as far as we act according to it we can do nothing but sin The Law is weak through the Flesh that it cannot bring us to fulfil its own Righteousness Rom. 8.3 4. It is married to a cross piece of flesh that is Enmity to it and can never be subject to it Rom. 8.8 It sueth the Natural-man for an old Debt of Obedience that he is utterly unable to pay since the Fall and the Success is according to the Proverb Sue a beggar and catch a louse Neither do those take a better Course that would bring themselves to Holiness by making sincere Obedience to Christ's Commands the Condition of their Salvation Their way is the same for Substance with that of the Calatians before mentioned who would be made perfect in the Flesh not by perfect Obedience but sincere as hath been shewed before Their Eudeavours to procure an Interest in Christ by their sincere Obedience do testifie against themselves that they do not act as People that are in Christ but rather as People that judge themselves to be without an Interest in Christ and to be yet to seek for it And sincere Obedience is as impossible to be attained unto as perfect Obedience if we act according to our dead natural State 3dly As the Law bereaveth of all strengthning means that are to be had by Faith in Christ and findeth us without strength in our natural State so of it self it affordeth us no Strength to fulfil its own Commandments If there had been a law given that could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law Gal. 3.21 It doth not so much as promise us life until we have performed the Obedience required by it The man that doth these things shall live by them Rom. 6.5 It is well called a voice of words Heb. 12.19 because its high and big words are not acompanied with any enlivening Power and the Doctrine of Life and Salvation by sincere Obedience is not better natur'd or more bountiful to us For it exacteth of us the Performance of the Condition before it alloweth us any Life or Salvation by Christ
themselves for the Lords Supper that so they may make their Peace with God and trust securely on Christ for his Salvation but all Resolutions of that kind are vain and hypocritical sooner broken than made Those that know the Plague of their own hearts do find that their mind is enmity unto the Law of God and Christ and cannot be subject unto it Rom. 8.7 and that they can as soon remove a mountain as give up themselves sincerely to Obedience before they trust on Christ for his Salvation and for the gift of a new heart whereby they may be enabled both to will and to do any thing that is acceptable to God We should have been sufficiently obliged to all obedient purposes resolutions and resignations if Christ had never come into the World to save us but he knew that we could perform nothing holily except he made us first Partakers of Salvation and that we shall never obey him as Law-giver until we receive him as Saviour He is a saving Lord trust on him first to save you from the guilt and power of sinâ— and dominion of Satan and to give you a new spiritual Disposition then and not till then the Love of Christ will constrain you to resign up your self heartily to live to him that died for you 2 Cor. 5.14 and you will be able to say with an unfeigned Resolution O Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid thou hast loosed my bonds Psal 116.16 4thly It seemeth to them evident that some good works are necessary before we can trust on Christ safely for the forgiveness of sins because our Saviour teacheth us that if we forgive not men their Trespasses neither will our heavenly Father forgive our Trespasses and directeth us to pray Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors Mat. 6.12 15. Restitution also was to be made of things wrongfully gotten from others before the Sacramental Atonement was made by the Trespass offering Lev. 6.5 7. This is sufficient to prove that forgiving others and Restitution according to our ability or at least a sincere desire and purpose so to do are very closely joyned with the forgiveness of our sins and are very necessary to fit us for Prayer and for Sacramental Applications of pardoning Grace to our selves A lively Faith cannot be without these Fruits and therefore we cannot pray or partake of Sacraments in Faith without them but yet if we strive to do either of these before we trust on Christ for our Pardon and Salvation we shall do them slavishly and hypocritically not in any holy acceptable manner Our forgiving others will not be accompanied with any hearty Love to them as to our selves for the sake of God and our Restitution will be but a forced act like Pharaoh's letting the Children of Israel go or like Judas restoring the thirty pieces of Silver being compelled thereunto by terror of Spirit and when the terror that forced us is removed we shall be as ready to recal our Forgiveness and to wrong others again as Pharaoh was to bring the Israelites again into bondage after he had let them go Exod. 14.5 If you would forgive others heartily so as to love them again you must first apprehend the love and mercy of God towards your selves by Faith in Christ and then you will be able according to the Apostle's Instruction to be kind tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Ephes 4.32 The readiness of Zaccheus to make Restitution followed upon a discovery of Christ's love to him and his joyful receiving Christ into his house was fruit whereby he did evidence the Truth of that Faith that was already wrought in his heart 5thly I shall reckon up together several other Qualifications that distressed Souls would find in themselves that they may be duly prepared to trust on Christ for their Salvation and when they have laboured anxiously a long time and cannot get them at last they lie down in sorrowful Despondence not daring to apply the Consolations of the grace of God in Christ to their wounded Consciences Let perplexed Souls mark the particulars and observe whether the condition of their own Souls be reached in any of them O thou afflicted tossed with tempests and not comforted what good Qualifications is it that thou wouldest have that thou mayest be encouraged to lay hold on Christ for Salvation It is likely thou wilt answer in the bitterness of thy Soul O let me have first some love to God and Godliness in mine heart and freedom from mine hateful heart-risings against him and his Service Let me have some good thoughts of God his Justice Mercy Holiness that I may be able to justifie him tho' he damn me and that I may not be filled with murmuring and hellish Blasphemies in my mind against him let the raging of my lusts be abated and the stinking kennel of my wicked heart a little cleansed let me have some holy reverential Fear of God and not only a pannick tormenting horror I would be more affected with the wrath of God and not be of a slighting heedless Spirit I would be more humbled for Sin loath it and be ashamed of it and be sorry for it with a godly Sorrow not meerly because of the Punishment but because it grieveth and vexeth the holy Spirit of God I would be able to make a willing and ingenious Confession of sin and to pour out my Soul to the Lord in lively affectionate Prayer for Forgiveness and to praise and glorifie him heartily and not to be like a lifeless stone in the duty of Prayer as I am Are these the things thou desirest O poor distressed Soul The best Reply I can make for thy speedy comfort is to inform thee that the things are good but thy desires are not well timed it is unreasonable for thee to expect these holy Qualifications whilst thou art in thy natural State under the guilt of Sin and the apprehension of the Wrath of God before thou hast received the Atonement and the new Spiritual Life that is by Christ through Faith in his Name thou dost but exasperate thy Corruptions and harden thy Heart and make thy wounds to stink the more because of thy foolishness such good Qualifications are included in the Nature of Faith and for the most part they follow after it so that they cannot possibly be obtained before thou trustest in Christ for thy Salvation as I shall shew concerning them particularly in their Order A love to the Salvation of God and to the free Gift of Holiness is included in the Nature of Faith so that it cannot be hearty without it Act Faith first with this kind of Love and the Apprehension of God's Love to thy Soul will sweetly allure and constrain thee to love God and his Service universally We love him because he loved us first 1 Joh. 4.19 We cannot be before-hand with God in love and
is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.5 They that are perswaded of the Free-grace of God toward them in Christ are not indeed sollicitous about earning their Salvation by their own legal Works and Satan is ready to suggest to them that this is a sinful Carelesness and tendeth to Licenciousness but they that will believe this false Suggestion of Satan shew plainly that they do not yet know what it is to serve God in Love and that they are held in to all their Obedience by the Bit and Bridle of slavish Fear as the horse and mule that have no understanding Psal 32.9 Thirdly Beware of thinking so highly of this Assurance as if it were inconsistent with any doubting in the same Soul A great Reason why many Protestants have receded from the Doctrine of their Ancestors in this Point is because they think there can be no true Assurance of Salvation in any that are troubled with Doubtings as they find many be whom they cannot but own as true Believers and precious Saints of God True indeed this Assurance must be contrary to Doubtings in the nature of it and so if it be perfect in the highest Degree it would exclude all Doubting out of the Soul and it doth now exclude in some Degree But is there not Flesh as well as Spirit in the best Saints on Earth Gal. 5.17 Is there not a law in their members warring against the law of their minds Rom. 7.23 May not one that truly believeth say Lord help my unbelief Mark 9.24 Can any on Earth say they have received any Grace in the highest Degree and that they are wholly free from the contrary Corruption Why then should we think that Assurance cannot be true except it be perfect and free the Soul from all Doubtings The Apostle accounts it a great Blessing to the Thessalonians that they had much Assurance intimating that some true Assurance might be in a less Degree 1 Thess 1.5 Peter had some good Assurance of Christ's Help when he walked on the Water at Christ's Command and yet he had some Doubtfulness in him as his Fear shewed when he saw the Wind boisterous He had some Faith contrary to doubting though it were but little as Christ's Words to him shew O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt Matth. 14.29 30 31. It is strange if the Flesh and the Devil should never oppose a true Assurance and assault it with Doubtings A Believer may be sometimes so overwhelmed with Doubtings that he may not be able to perceive an Assurance in himself he is so far from knowing his Place in Heaven already as some scoffingly object that he will say that he knoweth not any Assurance that he hath of being there and needeth diligent self-examination to find it out yet if at that time he can blame his Soul for doubting Why art thou cast down O my soul why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him Psal 42.11 If he can condemn his Doubtings as sinful and say with himself This is mine infirmity Psal 77.10 These Doubtings are of the Flesh and of the Devil if he still endeavour to call God Father and complain to him that he doubteth whether he be his Father and pray that God will give him the Assurance of his Fatherly Love which he is not sensible of and dispel those Fears and Doubtings I say that such an one hath some true Assurance though he must strive to grow to a higher Degree for if he were not perswaded of the Truth of the Love of God towards him he could not rationally condemn his Fears and Doubts concerning it as sinful neither could he rationally pray to God as his Father or that God would assure him of that Love that he doth not think to be true Do but grant that it is the Nature of saving Faith thus to resist and struggle with slavish Fears of Wrath and doubting of our own Salvation and you grant in effect that there is and must be something of Assurance of our Salvation in Saving faith whereby it resisteth Doubtings and you are in effect of the same Judgment with me in the Assertion however strange my Expressions seem to you If this that I have said concerning our Imperfection in Assurance as well as in other Graces were well considered this ancient Protestant Doctrine would be freed much from Prejudice and gain more Esteem among us Fourthly In the last place let it be well observed that the Reason why we are to assure our selves in our Faith that God freely giveth Christ and his Salvation to us particularly is not because it is a Truth before we believe it but because it becometh a certain Truth when we believe it and because it will never be true except we do in some measure perswade and assure our selves that it is so We have no absolute Promise or Declaration in Scripture that God certainly will or doth give Christ and his Salvation to any one of us in particular neither do we know it to be true already by Scripture or Sense or Reason before we assure our selves absolutely of it yea we are without Christ's Salvation at present in a state of Sin and Misery under the Curse and Wrath of God Only I shall prove that we are bound by the Command of God thus to assure our selves and the Scripture doth sufficiently warrant us that we shall not deceive our selves in believing a Lie but according to our Faith so it shall be to us Matth. 9.29 This is a strange kind of Assurance far different from other Ordinary kinds and therefore no Wonder if it be found weak and imperfect and difficult to be obtained and it be assaulted with many Doubtings We are constrained to believe other things on the clear Evidence we have that they are true and would remain true whether we believe them or no so that we cannot deny our Assent without rebelling against the Light of our Sences Reason or Conscience but here our Assurance is not impressed on our Thoughts by any Evidence of the thing but we must work it out in our selves by the Assistance of the Spirit of God and thereby we bring our own Thoughts into Captivity to the Obedience of Christ None but God can justly require of us this kind of Assurance because he only calleth those things that are not as tho they were Rom. 4.17 He only can give Existence to things that yet are not and make a thing to be true upon our believing it that was not true before He only can make good that Promise What things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them Mark 11.24 Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not Lament 3.37 Therefore this Faith is due to God only and greatly redowndeth to his Glory Men will often require a Believing something like it as when one says I will forgive your Offence
our Salvation Therefore I conclude that we must necessarily have some Assurance of our Salvation in the direct Act of Faith whereby we are justified sanctified and saved before we can upon any good ground assure our selves that we are already in a state of Salvation by that which they call the Reflect Act. Give me such a saving Faith as will produce such Fruits as these No other Faith will work by Love and therefore will not avail to Salvation in Christ Gal. 5.6 The Apostle James putteth thee upon shewing thy Faith by thy Works James 2.18 And in this Trial this Faith of Assurance cometh off with high Praise and Honour When God calleth his People to work outward Miracles by it all things have been possible to them and it hath frequently brought forth such Works of Righteousness as may be deservedly esteemed great Spiritual Miracles from hence hath proceeded that Heroick Fortitude of the People of God whereby their absolute Obedience to God hath shined forth in doing and suffering those great things which are recorded in the holy Scriptures and in the Histories of the Church And if we be ever called to the fiery Trial as Protestants formerly were we shall find their Doctrine of Assurance to encourage us in suffering for the sake of Christ Seventhly The contrary Doctrine which excludeth Assurance out of the Nature of Saving Faith bringeth forth many evil Fruits it tendeth to bereave our Souls of all Assurance of our Salvation and solid Comfort which is the Life of Religion by placing it after sincere universal Obedience whereas if we have them not first we can never attain to this Obedience and to any Assurance that dependeth on it as hath been proved and this as far as it prevails makes us subject to continual Doubtings concerning our Salvation and to tormenting Fears of Wrath which casteth out true Love to God and can produce no better than slavish hypocritical Service It is one of the principal Pillars whereby manifold Superstitions in Popery are supported as their Monkish Orders their Satisfactions for Sin by Works of Penance Bodily Macerations Whippings Pilgrimages Indulgences trusting on the Merits of Saints c. When once Men have lost the Knowledge of the right way to assure themselves of Salvation they will catch at any Straw to avoid Drowning in the Gulph of Despair There is no way to administer any solid Comfort to the wounded Spirits of those that see themselves void of all Holiness under the Wrath and Curse of God dead in Sin not able so much as to think a good Thought you do but increase their Terror and Anguish if you tell them they must first get Faith and Obedience and when they find they have done that they may perswade themselves that God will receive them into his Grace and Favour Alass they know that they cannot believe nor obey except God prevent them with his Grace and Favour and what if they be even at the Point of Death strugling with Death's Pangs so that they have no time or leisure to get good Qualifications and examine the Goodness of them you must have a more speedy way to comfort such by discovering to them the Free-Promises of Salvation to the worst of Sinners by Faith in Christ and by exhorting them to apply those Promises and trust on Christ confidently for Remission of Sins Holiness and Glory assuring them also that God will help them to believe sincerely on Christ if they desire it with all their Hearts and that it is their Duty to believe because God commands it Several other Evils are occasioned by the same Doctrine Men are unwilling to know the worst of themselves and prone to think their Qualifications better than they are that they may avoid Despair others please and content themselves without any Assurance of their Interest in Christ because they think that is not necessary to Salvation and that but few attain to it and in this they shew little Love to Christ or to their own Souls some foster Doubtings of Salvation as Signs of Humility though they will hypocritically complain of them many mispend their time in poring upon their own Hearts to find out some Evidence of their Interest in Christ when they should rather be imployed in receiving Christ and walking in him by a confident Faith Some are troubled with Doubts whether they should call God Father and what Apprehensions they should have of him in Prayer and are offended at Ministers that in their Publick Prayers use any Expressions that the People cannot joyn in as if they do own God as their God and Father and Christ as their Saviour and upon the same Account they are offended at the Publick singing of many of David's Psalms and avoid partaking of the Lord's Supper because they are not satisfied about their Interest in Christ Though true Believers have some Assurance of Salvation in Saving Faith it self yet it is much weakned in many by this contrary Doctrine and assaulted with many Doubtings and then other good Qualifications must needs be low and weak together with it and so obscure that it is very hard to discern them how hard a thing then will it be for true Believers to assure themselves by the certain Knowledge of their own Sincerity that they are in a state of Grace already which is the only Assurance of Faith Some prescribe Marks and Signs to distinguish Sincerity from Hypocrisie that Believers cannot sufficiently try themselves by them except they have more Knowledge and Experience than Ordinary Thus many Believers walk heavily in the Bitterness of their Souls conflicting with Fears and Doubtings all their Days and this is the Cause that they have so little Courage and Fervency of Spirit in the ways of God and that they so much mind earthly things and are so afraid of Sufferings and Death And if they get some Assurance by the Reflect Act of Faith they often soon lose it again by Sins and Temptations The way to avoid these Evils is to get your Assurance and to maintain it and renew it upon all Occasions by the direct Act of Faith by trusting assuredly on the Name of the Lord and staying your self upon your God when you walk in Darkness and see no light in any of your own Qualifications Isa 50.10 I doubt not but the Experience of many choice Christians will bear witness to this Truth DIRECT XI Endeavour diligently to perform the great work of believing on Christ in a right manner without any delay and then also to continue and increase in your most holy Faith that so your enjoyment of Christ Vnion and Fellowship with him and all holiness by him may be begun continued and increased in you EXPLICATION HAving already discovered to you the powerful and effectual means of an holy practice my remaining work is to lead you to the actual Exercise and Improvement of them for the immediate attainment of the End and I think it may be clearly perceived by the
from your evil ways for why will ye die O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Christ testifieth that he would often have gathered the Children of Jerusalem as a hen c. and they would not Mat. 23.37 And the Apostle Paul testifieth that God will have all men to be saved c. 1 Tim. 1.4 you are to reject and abandon all thoughts that are contrary to this persuasion What if few be saved Thy Salvation will not make the number too great for few will follow thee in the Duty of Believing What if the Wrath of God be revealed from Heaven against thee in many terrible Judgments and the Word and thine own Conscience condemn thee and Christ seem to reckon thee no better than a Dog as he did the Woman of Canaan Mat. 15.26 Thou art to make a good interpretation of all these things that the end of them is to drive thee to Christ as this was the End of the Curses of the Law and all the terrible Dispensations of them Rom. 10.4 If a Prophet or Angel from Heaven sent of God on purpose to declare that the Sentence of Everlasting Damnation is declared against thee it would be thy Duty to believe that God sent him to give thee timely warning for this very end that thou mightest Believe and turn to God by Faith and Repentance Jeremiah prophesied against the Jews that God would pluck them up pull them down and destroy them for their sins yet he himself taught them If they turned from their evil ways God would repent of the evil Jer. 18.7 8 11. Jonah preached nothing but certain Destruction of Nineveh to be executed upon them within 40 days Chap. 3.4 yet the intent of that terrible message was that those Heathenish People might escape Destruction by Repentance The most absolute and peremptory denunciations of Divine Vengeance against us while we are in this World must be always understood with a secret reserve of Salvation for us upon our Faith and Repentance And we are to account that the reason why God doth so terribly denounce his Judgments against us by his Word is that we may escape them by flying for Refuge to his free Mercy in Christ Take heed of fostering any thoughts that God hath absolutely decreed to shew no saving Mercy to you or that you have already committed the unpardonable sin or that it is in vain for you to attempt the work of Believing because God will not help you in it If such thoughts prevail in your hearts they will do you more hurt than the worst blasphemous thoughts that terrifie you or any of the grossest Abominations that ever you were guilty of because they obstruct your Believing on Christ for Salvation The Spirit and the Bride say Come Christ saith Whosoever will let him take of the water of Life freely Rev. 22.17 Therefore we are to abandon all thoughts that hinder our coming to Christ as very sinful and pernicious arising in us from our own Corruptions and Satan's Delusions and utterly opposite to the mind of Christ and teachings of the Spirit and what ground can we have to entertain such unbelieving thoughts Hath God made us of his Privy-Council that we should be able to know that God hath decreed us to Damnation before it be manifest by our final unbelief and impenitence As for the unpardonable sin it consisteth in renouncing the way of Salvation by Christ with the whole heart after we have attained to the knowledge of it and are convinced of the Truth of it by the Gospel It s the sin that the Christian Hebrews would have bin guilty of if they had revolted from Christianity to the Religion of the unbelieving Jews that accounted Christ to be an Impostor and were most rancorous persecutors of him and his ways Heb. 6.4 5. They that have committed that sin continue implacable malicious Enemies to Christ and his ways to the end without any repentance Therefore if you can but find that you desire seriously to get an interest in Christ and to be better Christians than you are if you be troubled and grieved that your Hearts and Lives are so wicked and that you want Faith Love and true Obedience yea if your Hearts be not maliciously bent to persecute the Gospel and prefer Atheism Licentiousness or any false Religion before it you have no cause to suspect your selves to be guilty of this unpardonable sin 6. Add to all these a full persuasion of the incomparable glorious Excellency of Christ and of the way of Salvation by him You are to esteem the enjoyment of Christ as the only Salvation and true happiness and such an happiness as hath in it unsearchable Riches of Glory and will make our Cup to run over with exceeding abundance of Peace and Joy and full of Glory to all Eternity We must account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord c. Phil. 3.8 Incline your Wills and Affections to choose and embrace Christ as the Chief Good and never to rest satisfied without the Enjoyment of him and to reject every thing that stands in Competition with him or the Enjoyment of him Christ is precious in the esteem of all true Believers 1 Pet. 2.7 Their high esteem of his incomparable preciousness and excellency induceth them to sell all that they may buy this Pearl of great price Mat. 13.46 this maketh them to say Lord evermore give us of this Bread that cometh down from Heaven and giveth Life to the World Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the Words of Eternal Life Joh. 6.32 33 68. because of the savour of his good Ointments his Name is as Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love him Cant. 1.3 They are sick of love to him because he is in their Eyes the chiefest of ten thousand Cant. 5.8 10. As the Glory of God that appeared in the wonderful Beauty of the Temple and in the Wisdom and Glory of Solomon drew Worshipers to God from the utmost parts of the Earth so the unparallel'd excellency of Christ which was prefigured by the Glory of Solomon and the Temple doth more powerfully draw Believers in these Gospel-days The Devil who is the God of this World knows how necessary it is for our Salvation to discern all the Glory and Excellency of Christ and therefore where the Gospel is preached he maketh it his great work to Eclypse the Glory of Christ in the Ministry and to blind the minds of the People lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine into them 2 Cor. 4.4 One that is convinced of the truth of the Gospel may be averse to the embracing of it until he see also the goodness of it that Christ is altogether lovely and excellent I come now to the second principal Act of Faith whereby Christ himself and his Spirit and all his saving Benefits are actually received into the Heart which is Believing on Christ as revealed and freely
State is that which we derive from the first Adam by natural Generation and it is called in the Scripture the Old Man and while we be in it we are said to be in the Flesh and our new State is that which we receive from the second Adam Jesus Christ being new born in Union and Fellowship with him through Faith And it is called in Scripture the New Man and when we are in it we are said to be in the Spirit The Principles and Means of Practice belonging to a Natural State are such as Persons do or may attain to and make use of before they are in Christ by Faith Such as belong properly to the New-State are the manifold holy Endowments Priviledges and Enjoyments which we partake of in Christ by Faith such as have already appeared to be the only effectual means of a Holy Life We are said to walk according to either of these States or to the Principles or Means that belong to either of them when we are moved and guided by Vertue of them to such actings as are agreeable to them Thus Kings act according to their State in commanding Authoritatively and in magnificicent Bounty poor Men in the way of Service and Obedience and Children indiscreetly Hester 1.7 Prov. 18.23 1 Cor. 13.11 So the Manner of Practice here directed to consists in moving and guiding our selves in the Performance of the Works of the Law by Gospel Principles and Means This is the rare and excellent Art of Godliness in which every Christian should strive to be skilful and expert The reason why many come off with shame and Confusion after they have a long time laboured with much Zeal and Industry for the Attainment of true Godliness is because they were never acquainted with this holy Art and never endeavoured to practise in a right Gospel way Some worldly Arts are called Mysteries but above all this Spiritual Art of Godliness is without Controversie a great Mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 because the Means that are to be made use of in it are deeply Mysterious as hath been shewed and you are not a skilful Artist till you know them and can reduce them to Practice It is a manner of Practice far above the Sphere of Natural Ability such as would never have entred into the Hearts of the Wisest in the World if it had not been Revealed to us in the Scriptures and when it is there most plainly Revealed continueth a dark Riddle to those that are not inwardly Inlightned and Taught by the Holy Spirit Such as many Godly Persons guided by the Spirit and do in some measure walk in yet do but obscurely discern that they can hardly perceive their own Knowledge of it and can hardly give any Account to others of the way wherein they walk As the Disciples that walked in Christ the way to the Father and yet perceived not that Knowledge in themselves Lord we know not whether thou goest and how can we know the way Joh. 14.5 This is the reason why many poor Believers are so weak in Christ and attain to so small a Degree of Holiness and Righteousness Therefore that you may the better be acquainted with a Mystery of so high Concernment I shall shew in the first place that the Holy Scriptures do direct you to this manner of Practice as only effectual for the Performance of Holy Duties and then I shall lay before you some necessary Instructions that you may understand how to walk aright in it and continue and go forward therein till you be made perfect in Christ For the first of these the Holy Scriptures are very large and clear in directing us to this manner of Practice and to Continuance and Growth therein And here it is useful for us to observe the great Variety of peculiar Words and Phraises whereby the Holy Ghost teacheth this Mystery which many that frequently read the Scriptures yea that pretend to be Preachers of the Gospel do little understand or regard shewing thereby that the things of the Spirit of God are Foolishness to them and that they are not yet acquainted with the form of sound Words and are strangers to the very Language of the Gospel which they profess and pretend to preach I shall therefore present to your View several of those particular Words and Phrases whereby this mysterious manner of Practice is express'd in the Holy Scriptures and commended to you as the only way for the sure Attainment of all Holiness in Heart and Life I shall rank such of them together as agree in Sense that the Multitude of them may not breed Confusion in your Thoughts 1. This is the manner of Practice in Scripture which is expressed by living by Faith Hab. 2.4 Gal. 2.20 Heb. 10.38 Walking by Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 Faith working by Love Gal. 5.6 Overcoming the World by Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 Quenching all the fiery Darts of the Wicked by the Shield of Faith Eph. 6.19 20. Some make no more of living and walking by Faith than meerly a stirring up and encouraging our selves to our Duty by such Principles as we believe Thus the Jews might account that they believed by Faith because they professed and assented unto the Doctrin of Moses and the Prophets and were moved thereby to a Zeal of God though they sought righteousness not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law Rom. 3.32 Thus Paul might think he lived by Faith while he was a zealous Pharisee but afterwards he knew that the life of Faith consisted in dying to the Law and living to God and that not himself but Chrish lived in him Gal. 2.19 as it is one and the same thing to be justifyed by Faith and Christ believed on Rom. 5.1 so to live walk and work by Faith is all one with living walking working by means of Christ and his saving Endowments which we receive and make use of by Faith to guide and move our selves to the Practice of Holiness 2. The same thing is commended to us by the Terms of walking rooted and built up in Christ Col. 2.6 living to God as not to live to our selves but to have Christ living in us Gal. 2.19 20. Good Conversation in Christ 1 Pet. 3.16 Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ that we may walk honestly as in the day Rom. 13.13 14. Being strong in the Lord and the power of his might Eph. 6.10.11 Doing all things in the name of Christ Col. 3.17 walking up and down in the name of the Lord Zech. 10.12 going in the strength of the Lord as to make mention of his Righteousness even of his only Psal 71.16 These phrases are frequent and do sufficiently explain one another and do shew that we are to practise Holiness not only by vertue of Christs Authority but also of his strengthning Endowments moving us and encouraging us thereunto 3. It is also signified by the phrases of being strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 2.1 having your
the new State in Christ They trust on low carnal things for Holiness and upon the acts of their own Will their Purposes Resolutions and Endeavours instead of Christ and they trust to Christ to help them in this carnal way whereas true Faith would teach them that they are nothing and that they do but labour in vain They may as well wash a Blackamoor white as purge the Flesh or Natural Man from its evil Lusts and make it pure and holy It is desperately wicked past all cure It will unavoidably lust against the Spirit of God even in the best Saints on Earth Gal. 17. its mind is enmity to the Law of God and neither is nor can be subject to it Rom. 8.7 They that would cure it and make it holy by their own Resolutions and Endeavours do act quite contrary to the design of Christ's Death for he dyed not that the Flesh or Old Natural Man might be made holy but that it might be crucifyed and destroyed out of us Rom. 6.6 and that we might live to God not to our selves or by any natural power of our own Resolutions or Endeavours but by Christ living in us and by his Spirit bringing forth the fruits of Righteousness in us Gal. 2.20 and 5.24 25. Therefore we must be content to leave the Natural Man vile and wicked as we found it until it be utterly abolished by Death though we must not allow its Wickedness but rather groan to be delivered from the Body of this Death thanking God that there is a Deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our way to mortify sinful Affections and Lusts must be not by purging them out of the Flesh but by putting off the Flesh it self and geting above into Christ by Faith and walking in that new Nature that is by him thus the way of Life is above to the Wise that he may depart from Hell beneath Prov. 15.24 Our willing resolving and endeavouring must be to do the best not that lyeth in our selves or in our own power but that Christ and the power of his Spirit shall be pleased to work in us for in us i. e. in our Flesh there dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 we have no ground to trust in God and Christ for help in such Resolutions and Endeavours as in things that are agreeable to the design of Christ in our Redemption as to the way of acting and living by Faith It is likely that Peter sincerely resolved to dye with Christ rather than to deny him and to do all that he could by his own power for that end but Christ made him quickly to see the Weakness and Vanity of such Resolutions and we see by Experience what many Resolutions made in Sickness and other Dangers mostly come to It is not enough for us to trust on Christ to help us to act and endeavour so far only as Creatures for so the worst of Men are helped he is the Jehovah in whom they Live Move and have their Being Act. 17.28 and it 's likely the Pharisee would trust on God to help him in Duty as he would thank God for the performance of Duty Luk. 18.11 and this is all the Faith that many make use of to a holy Practice But we must trust on Christ to enable us above the strength of our own natural power by vertue of the new Nature which we have in Christ and by his Spirit dwelling and working in us or else our best endeavours will be altogether sinful and meer Hypocrisie notwithstanding all the help for which we trust upon him We must also take heed of depending for Holiness upon any Resolutions to walk in Christ or on any written Covenants or any Holiness that we have already received for we must know that the Vertue of these things continue no longer than we continue walking in Christ and Christ in us They must be kept up by the continual Presence of Christ in us as Light is maintained by the presence of the Sun and cannot subsist without it 3. You must not seek to procure forgiveness of sins the favour of God a new holy Nature Life and Happiness by any works of the Moral Law or by any Rites and Ceremonies whatever but rather you must work as those that have all these things already according to your new state in Christ as such who are only to receive them more and more by Faith as they are ready prepared and treasured up for you and freely given to you by your spiritual head the Lord Jesus Christ If we walk as those that are yet wholly to seek for the procurement of such enjoyments as these it is a manifest sign that at present we judge our selves to be without them and without Christ himself in whose fulness they are all contained And therefore we walk according to our own Natural State as those that are yet in the Flesh and that would get Salvation in it and by our carnal Works and Observances instead of living altogether on Christ by Faith This practice is according to the tenour of the Covenant of Works as I have before shewed And we have no ground to trust on Christ and his Spirit to work Holiness in us this way for we are dead to the Legal Covenant by the Body of Christ Rom. 7. And if we be led by the Spirit we are not under the Law Gal. 5.18 When the Galatians were seduced by false Teachers to seek the procurement of Justification and Life by Circumcision and other works of the Mosaical Law the Apostle Paul rebuketh them for seeking to be made perfect in the flesh directly contrary to their good beginning in the Spirit for rendring Christ of none effect to them and for falling from Grace Gal. 3.3 and 5.4 And when some of the Colossians sought perfection in the like manner by observation of Circumcision holy-meats holy-times and other Rudiments of the World The same Apostle blameth them for not holding the Head Jesus Christ and as such as were not dead and risen with Christ but living merely in the World Col. 2.19 20. and 3.1 He clearly sheweth that those who seek any saving enjoyments in such a way do walk according to their own Natural State And that the true manner of living by Faith in Christ is to walk as those that have all fulness and perfection of Spiritual Blessings in Christ by Faith and need not seek for them any other way to procure them for themselves In this sense it is a true saying That Believers should not act for Life but from Life They must act as those that are not procuring Life by their Works but as such who have already received and derived Life from Christ and act from the Power and Vertue received from him And hereby it appears that the Papists and all others that think to Justifie Purisie Sanctifie and save themselves by any of their own Works Rites or Ceremonies whatever do walk in a carnal way as those that are without
walk according to the Principles and Practices of your old natural state and you will be moved thereby to yield to the Dominion of Sin and Satan to withdraw your selves from God and Godliness as Adam was moved from the sight of his own Nakedness to hide himself from God Gen. 3.10 Therefore your way to a holy practice is first to conquer and spoil such unbelieving thoughts by trusting confidently on Christ and persuading your selves by Faith that his Righteousness Spirit Glory and all his spiritual Benefits are yours and he dwelleth in you and you in him In the might of this Confidence you should go forth to the performance of the Law and you will be strong against Sin and Satan and able to do all things through Christ that strengthens you This consident perswasion is of great necessity to the right framing and disposing our Hearts to walk according to our new state in Christ The Life of Faith principally consisteth in it And herein it eminently appeareth that Faith is an Hand not only to receive Christ but also to work by him and that it cannot be effectual for our Sanctification except it contain in it some Assurance of our Interest in Christ as hath bin shewed Thus we act as those that are above the Sphear of Nature advanced to Union and Fellowship with Christ The Apostle maintained in his Heart a perswasion that Christ had loved him and given himself for him and hereby he was enabled to live to God in Holiness through Christ living in him by Faith He teacheth us also that we must maintain the like perswasion if we would walk holily in Christ We must know that our old man is crucified with him and we must reckon our selves dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.6 This is the means whereby we may be filled with the Spirit strong in the Lord and the power of his might which God would not require of us if he had not appointed the means Eph. 6. Christ himself walked in a constant perswasion of his excellent state he set the Lord always before him and was perswaded that because God was at his right hand he should not he moved Psal 16.8 How should it be rationally expected that a Man should Act according to this new state without Assurance that he is in it It s a rule of Common Prudence in all worldly Callings and Conditions that every one must know and consider well his own State lest he should act proudly above it or sordidly below it and it is a hard thing to bring some to a right estimate of their own worldly Conditions If the same rule were observed in Spiritual things doubtless the knowledg and perswasion of the Glory and Excellency of our new state in Christ would more elevate the hearts of Believers above all sordid Salvery to their Lusts and enlarge them to run chearfully the ways of Gods Commandments If Christians knew their own Strength better they would enterprize greater things for the Glory of God This Knowledge is difficultly attained it is only by Faith and spiritual Illumination the best know but in part and hence it is that the Conversation of Believers falleth so much below their holy and heavenly Calling 6. Consider what Endowments Priviledges or Properties of your new State are most meet and forcible to incline and strengthen your Heart to love God above all and to renounce all Sin and to give up your self to Universal Obedience to his Commands and strive to walk in the persuasion of them that you may attain to the Practice of these great Dutiesâ— I may well joyn these together because to love the Lord with all our Hearts Might and Soul is the first and great Commandment which influenceth us to all Obedience with a hatred and detestation of all Sin as it 's contrary and hateful to God The same effectual means that produceth the one will also produce the other and Holiness chiefly consisteth in these So the chief Blessings of our holy State are most meet and forcible to enable us for the immediate performance of them and are to be made use of to this end by Faith Particularly you must believe stedfastly that all your Sins are blotted out and that you are reconciled to God and have access into his Favour by the Blood of Christ and that he is your God and Father and altogether Love to you and your all-sufficient everlasting Portion and Happiness through Christ Such Apprehensions as these do present God as a very lovely Object to our Hearts and do thereby allure and win our Affections that cannot be forced by Commands or Threatnings but must be sweetly won and drawn by Allurements We must not harbour any Suspicions that God will prove a terrible everlasting Enemy to us if we would love him for there is no fear in Love but perfect Love casteth out Fear because Fear hath Torment he that feareth is not made perfect in Love we love him because he first loved us 1 Joh. 4.18 19. David loved the Lord because he was persuaded that he was his Strength Rock Fortress his God and the horn of his salvation Psal 18.1 2. Love that causeth Obedience unto the Law must proceed from a good Conscience purged from sin and this good Conscience must proceed from Faith unfeigned whereby we apprehend the remission of our sins our Reconciliation with God by the merits of the blood of Christ 1 Tim. 1.5 with Heb. 9.14 For the same end that your Hearts may be rightly fitted and framed for the performance of these principal Duties the Holy Scripture directeth you to walk in the perswasion of other principal Endowments of your new state As that you have fellowship with the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 1.3 That you are the Temple of the living God 2 Cor. 6.16 That you live by the Spirit Gal. 5.25 That you are called to Holiness and created in Christ Jesus unto good works That God will sanctisie you wholly and make you perfect in holiness at the last 1 Thes 5.23 24. Eph. 2.10 That your old man is crucified with Christ and through him you are dead unto sin and alive unto God and being made free from sin you are become the Servants of Righteousness and have your Fruit unto Holiness and the End Everlasting Life Rom. 6.6 22. You are Dead and your Life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is your Life shall appear then shall you also appear with him in Glory Col. 3.3 4. Such perswasions as these when they are deeply rooted and constantly maintained in our Hearts do strongly Arm and Encourage us to practise Universal Obedience in opposition to every sinful Lust Because we look upon it not only as our Duty but our great Priviledge to do all things through Christ strengthning of us and God doth certainly work in us both to will and to do by these Principles because they properly belong to the Gospel
Likewise your Hearts will be purified to unfeigned love of the Brethren in Christ and you will walk toward them with all lowliness meekness long-suffering forbearing one another in Love if you maintain a stedfast belief and perswasion of those manifold Bonds of Love whereby you are inseparably joyned with them through Christ as particularly that there is one Body and one Spirit one hope of your Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Finally you will be able to abstain from all fleshly and worldly Lusts that war against the Soul and hinder all Godliness by an assured perswasion not meerly that Gluttony Drunkenness Letchery are filthy Swinish Abominations And that the pleasures profits and honours of the World are vain empty things but that you are Crucified to the Flesh and the World and quickned raised and set in heavenly places through Christ and that you have pleasures profits honours in Christ to which the best things in the World are not worthy to be compared And that you are Members of Christ the Temple of his Spirit Citizens of Heaven Children of the Day not of the Night nor of Darkness So that 't is below your State and Dignity to practise deeds of darkness and mind fleshly worldly things Thus I have given Instances enough to stir you up to acquaint your selves with the manifold endowments priviledges properties of your New State in Christ as they are discovered in the Gospel of your Salvation whereby the new Nature is fitted for holy Operations as the common Nature of Man is furnished with the Endowments necessary for those Functions and Operations to which it is designed and also to stir you up to make use of them by Faith as they serve to strengthen you either for Universal Obedience or for particular Duties And by this manner of Walking your Hearts will be comforted and established in every good Word and Work and you will grow in Holiness until you attain to Perfection in Jesus Christ 8. If you endeavour to grow in Grace and in all Holiness trust assuredly that God will enable you by this manner of Walking to do every thing that is necessary for his Glory and your own everlasting Salvation and that he will graciously accept of that Obedience through Christ which you are enabled to perform according to the measure of your Faith and pardon your Failings though you offend in many things and fall short of many others as to degrees of Holiness and high Acts of Obedience And therefore attempt not the performance of Duty in any other way though you cannot yet attain to do so much as you would in this way This is a necessary Instruction to establish us in the life of Faith that the sense of our manifold Failings and Defects may not move us eitheir to Despair or to return to the use of carnal Principles and Means for help against our Corruptions as accounting this way of living and acting by Faith to be in-sufficient for our Sanctification and Salvation The Apostle Paul exhorts the Galatians to walk in the Spirit though the flesh lusts against the spirit so that they cannot do the things that they would Gal. 5 10 17. We are to know that though the Law requireth of us the utmost perfection of Holiness yet the Gospel maketh an allowance for our Weakness and Christ is so meek and lowly in heart that he accepteth of that which our weak Faith can attain to by his Grace and doth not exact or expect any more of us for his Glory and our Salvation until we grow stronger in Grace God shewed his great Indulgence to his People under the Old Testament that Moses the Law-giver suffered them because of the hardness of their hearts to put away their Wives Though from the beginning it was not so Mat. 19.8 and also in tolerating the customary practice of Polygamy tho Christ will not tolerate the continuance of such Practices in his Church since his Spirit is more plentifully poured forth under the Gospel Yet he is as forward as ever to bear with the Failings of his weak Saints that desire to obey him sincerely We have another Instance of God's Indulgence more full to our present purpose in his commanding that the fearful and faint-hearted should not be forced to enter into the Battel against their Enemies but suffered to return home to their Houses Though sighting in Battel against Enemies without Fear and Faint-heartedness was a Duty that God did much exercise his People in at that time Deut. 20.3 8. So under the Gospel though it be an eminent part of Christ's Service to endure the greatest Fight of Afflictions and Death it self courageously for his Name sake yet if any be so weak in Faith that they have not sufficient Courage to venture into the Battel no doubt but Christ alloweth them to make use of any honest means whereby they may escape the hands of Persecutors with safety to their holy Profession He will accept them in this weaker kind of Service and will approve of them better than if they should hazard a denial of his Name by venturing themselves upon the Tryal of Martyrdom when they might have escaped it Peter came off with Sin and Shame by venturing beyond the measure of his Faith into the hands of his Persecutors when he went after Christ to the High Priest's Hall whereas he should rather have made use of that indulgent Dismission that Christ gave to him and the rest of his Disciples Let these go their way Joh. 18.8 Christ dealeth with his People as a good careful Shepherd that will not over-drive his Sheep He gathereth his Lambs with his Arms and carrieth them in his Bosom and will gently lead those that are with young Isa 40.11 He would not have his Disciples urged rigorously upon the Duty of Fasting when their Spirits were unfit for it because he knew that imposing Duties above their Strength is like putting a piece of new Cloath into an old Garment and new Wine into old Bottles which spoyleth all at last Mat. 9.14 17. That Precept of Solomon Be not righteous overmuch Prov. 7.10 is very useful and necessary if rightly understood We are to beware of being too rigorous in exacting Righteousness of our selves and others beyond the measure of Faith and Grace Overdoing commonly proveth undoing Children that venture on their Feet beyond their Strength have many a Fall and so have Babes in Christ when they venture unnecessarily upon such Duties as are beyond the strength of their Faith We should be content at present to do the best that we can according to the measure of the gift of Christ though we know that others are enabled to do much better and we are not to despise the day of small things but to praise God that he worketh in us any thing that is well-pleasing in his sight hoping that he will sanctify us throughout and
in vain when you utter Petitions for the coming of his Kingdom and doing of his Will and yet hate Godliness in your Heart This is Lying to God and slattering with your Lips but no true Prayer and so God takes it Psal 78.36 and you must have a sense of your wants and necessities and that God only can supply 2 Chron. 20.12 And fervency in those desires is required Jam. 5.16 And you must pray with attention minding your selves what you pray or else you cannot expect that God should mind it 1 Pet. 4.7 Watch to it Dan. 9.3 Set your selves to this Duty intently God seeth where your Heart is wandring when you pray without attention Ezek. 33.31 When you say never so many prayers without Understanding Attention Affection it is not praying at all but sinning and playing the Hypocrite as Papists mumble over their Latin Prayers upon the Beads by Tale prating like Parrots what they cannot understand And thus ignorant People say over their Forms of English Prayers and account they have well-discharged their Duty tho their Heart prayed not at all and were minding other things This is a meer Lip-labour and bodily Exercise offering a dead Carcass to God plain deceit Mal. 1.13 14. a form of Godliness with denying the Power 2 Tim. 3.5 whereby Popery hath cheated the World of the Power of this and all other Holy Ordinances They say God minds and knows what they speak and approves it I answer He doth so as to Judg them for Hypocrites and profane persons for not knowing minding and approving what they utter themselves He hath no pleasure in Fools Eccles 5.1 2. They would not deal so with an Earthly Prince 2. You must pray in the Name of Christ for the Spirit glorifies Christ Joh. 16. and leadeth us to God through Christ Eph. 2.18 As I have shewed that walking in the Spirit and walking in Christ is all one so praying in the Spirit and by and through Christ And as we are to walk in the Name of the Lord and to do all things in his Name as is commanded Joh. 14.13 14. It is not enough to conclude our Prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord but we must come for Blessings in the Garments of our elder Brother and must depend upon his Worthyness and Strength for all So also we must praise God for all things in his Name as things received for his sake and by him Eph. 5.20 We must lay hold on his Strength only and plead nothing and own nothing for our Acceptance but him We must not plead our own works arrogantly like the proud Pharisee Luk. 18.11.12 except only as Fruits of Grace and Rewards of Grace Isa 38.1 2. Praying in the Spirit is upon Gospel not legal Principles Rom. 7.6 with 2 Cor. 6.3 with great Humiliation and sense of Unworthyness Psal 51. with a broken Spirit with Despair of Acceptance otherwise than upon Christ's Account Dan. 9.18 If your Enlargements Struglings Meltings have been never so great yet without this all is Abominable 3. Hence you must not think to be accepted for the Goodness of your Prayers and trust on them as works of Righteousness which is making Idols of your Prayers and putting them into the place of Christ quite contrary to praying in the Name of Christ Thus Papists hope to be sav'd by saying their Tale of Prayers upon their Bead-Rows and they have Indulgences granted upon their saying so many Prayers and of such a sort Yea some ignorant Protestants trust on their Prayer as Duties of Righteousness and they think one Prayer to be more acceptable than another by reason of the Holiness of the Form if it were made by Holy Men especially the Lords Prayer which they use to help them in any Exigence or Danger how little soever they can apply it to their own Case they make an Idol of it And some use it and other places of Scriptures as a Spell or Charm to drive away the Devil And others think their Prayers more acceptable in one place than in another by reason of the Holiness of the place Joh. 4.21 24.1 Tim. 2.8 Others trust on their much speaking Mat. 6. which they call the enlarging of their Hearts They think to put off God and stop the Mouth of Conscience with a few Prayers and so to live as they list 4. Pray to God as your Father through Christ as your Saviour in Faith of Remission of Sins and your acceptance with God and the obtaing of all other things which you desire of him as far as is necessary for your Salvation Jam. 1.5 6 7. ch 5.15 1 Joh. 5.14 15. Mar. 11.24 Heb. 10.24 and Psal 62.8 and 86.7 and 55.16 and 57.1 2. and 17.6 This is praying in Christ Eph. 3.12 and by the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.16 Gal. 4.6 Without this Prayer is Lifeless and Heartless and but a dead Carcass Rom. 10.14 Psal 77.4 By this you may judge whether you have prayed rightly more than by your melting Affection or largeness in Expression Though you be not assured that you shall have every thing that you ask yet every thing that is good This Faith you must endeavour to act and therefore if any Sin lye on Conscience you must strive first to get the Pardon of it Psal 32.1.5 and 51.14 15. and Purisication from it by Faith that you may lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting 1 Tim. 2.8 The sin of wrath there is especially mentioned because that is contrary to Love and forgiving others Here lyes the Strength Life and Powerfulness of Prayer Set Faith on work and you will be powerful and prevail 5. You must strive in Prayer to stir up and act every other sanctifying Grace through Faith moving you thereunto Thus your Spikenards will yield their Smell as godly sorrow Psal 38.18 peace Isa 27.8 joy Psal 105.3 hope Psal 71.5 desire and love to God Psal 4.6 and love to all his commands Psal 119.4 5. and to his people out of love to him Psal 122. you must seek the Spirit it self in the first place Luk. 11.13 Psal 37.5 and all spiritual things Mat. 6.33 Praying only for carnal things shews a carnal Heart and leaves it carnal Pray for faith Mar. 9.24 and for such things as may serve most for the glorifying God 2 Chron. 1.11 12. and for outward things you must act in submission to his Will and thus Prayer sets you in a holy frame Mat. 26.42 Luk. 22.42 43. Hallowing Gods Name must be your aim Mat. 6. not your Lusts Jam. 4.3 6. Strive to bring your Soul into order by this Duty however disordered by Guilt Anguish inordinate Cares or Fears Psal 32.1 5. and 55.16 17 20 22. and 69.32 Phil. 4.6 7.1 Sam. 1. A Watch must be often wound up you must wrestle in Prayer against your Unbelief Doubting Fears Cares Reluctancy of the Flesh to that which is good against all Evil Lusts and Desires Coldness of Affection Impatience trouble of Spirit every
5 6 7. and in publick Assemblies Heb. 10.25 Zach. 14.16 17. And doubtless it ought to be used for the Attainment of Holiness as may be proved First in General Because God communicates all Salvation to a People ordinarily by or in a Church either by taking them into Fellowship or holding forth the Light of Truth by his Churches to the World A Church is the Temple of God where God dwells 1 Tim. 3.15 He hath placed his Name and Salvation there as in Jerusalem of old Joel 2.32 2 Chron. 6.5 6. He hath given to his Churches those Officers and Ordinances whereby he Converts others 1 Cor. 12.28 His Springs are there Psal 87. He makes the several Members of a Church Instruments for the Conveyance of his Grace and Fulness from one to another as the Members of the Natural Body convey to each other the fulness of the Head Eph. 4.16 All the New-born are brought forth and nourished by the Church Isa 66.8 10. ch 49.20 60.4 And therefore all that would be saved should joyn to a Church They shall prosper that love the Church so as to stand in its Gates and unite as Members Brethren and Companions Psal 122.2 4 6. And wrath is denounced against those that are not Members of it at least of the mystical Body They cannot have God for their Father that have not That for their Mother Can. 1.7 8. This maketh those that desire Fellowship with God to take hold of the Skirts of his People Zech. 8.23 2. In particular Fellowship with the Saints conduceth to Holiness many ways 1. By manifold helps to Holiness which are received thereby As 1. The Word and Sacraments Act. 2.42 Isa 2.3 Mat. 28.19 20. And all the Ministerial Office and Labour in watching over Souls Heb. 13.17 1 Thess 5.12 13. Isa 25.6 None of these Helps can be enjoyed without Fellowship of Saints each with other and if Believers had been to have stood single by themselves and not maintained Fellowship with each other for mutual Assistance and common Good none of these things could have continued neither could any Believer been extant at this day in an ordinary way but even the very Name of Believers had been Abolished 2. Mutual Prayer which is the more forcible when all pray together Mat. 18.19 20. 2 Cor. 1.10 11. Jam. 5.16 Rom. 15.30 3. Mutual Admonition Instruction Consolation to help each other when they are ready to fall and to promote the good work in each other 1 Thess 5.14 He that walketh with the wise shall be wise Prov. 13.20 Wo to him that is alone when he falleth See Eccl. 4.9 12. In Church-Fellowship there are many Helpers many to watch Soldiers have their Security in Company and the Church is compared to an Army with Banners Cant. 6.10 So for quickning Affections Iron sharpneth Iron Prov. 27.17 Likewise the counsel of a friend like ointment and perfume rejoyceth the heart Prov. 27.9 Yea the Wounds and Reproofs of the Righteous are as precious Balm Psal 141.5 4. External Supports which mitigate Afflictions and are to be communicated mutually Eph. 4.28 1 Pet. 4.9 10. The Affliction is increased when none careth for our Souls Psal 142.4 5. Excommunication when Offences are exceeding hainous or Men obstinate in sin This Ordinance is appointed for the destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit may be saved 1 Cor. 5.5 Better and more hopeful it is to be cast out by the Church for a persons amendment than to be wholly without the Church at all times and better to be a lost Sheep than a Goat or Swine For Excommunication cuts off Actual Communion only until Repentance be evident and not absolutely abolisheth the Title and Relation of a Brother and Church-member tho it judgeth one to be an unnatural Brother and a pernicious rotten Member at present not fit for Acts of Communion Besides Admonition which is still to be afforded 2 Thes 3.15 and any means is to be used that may serve to Cure and restore him the Church reacheth forth a Hand to help such a person tho they do not joyn Hands in Fellowship with him or it communicateth to him not with him Yet if he have not so much Grace as to Repent it were better he had never known the way of Righteousness 2 Pet. 2.21 6. The lively Examples of Saints are before our Eyes in Church-fellowship to teach and encourage Phil. 3.17 ch 4.9 2 Tim. 3.10 11. 2 Cor. 9.2 2ly By those holy Duties that are required and do appertain to this Fellowship and Communion all Acts that belong to this Fellowship are Holy as Hearing receiving the Sacraments Prayer mutual Admonitions c. I shall consider some such holy Acts whereby we are rather doers than receivers and which we perform towards others As 1. Godly Discourse Teaching Admonishing Comforting others in Christ which we cannot so perform towards others as towards those we have strict Fellowship with in Christ Others like Swine trample these Jewels under Foot and Saints therefore are forced to refrain from Godly Discourse in their Company Amos 5.10 13 16. and 6.10 But holy Discourse is most acceptable to the Saints and to be practised with them Mal. 3.16 and is greatly to the advantage of Holiness Prov. 11.25 2. In helping succouring and conversing with Christ in his Members we do good to Christ in his Members in Church-fellowship and we our selves as Members of Christ Act as well from Christ as towards Christ whereas if we do good to others without we do good only for Christs sake but not to Christ Mat. 25.35 49. Psal 16.2 3. We have advantage in general to do all Duties that belong to us as Members of Christ to Fellow-members which we cannot do if separate from them as a Natural Member cannot perform its Office to other Members if separate from them 2ly The means must be used rightly for the attaining of Holiness only in Christ 1. One Rule is Do not trust on Church-membership or on Churches as if this or that relation in Fellowship commended you to God of it self whereas a Church-way is but a help to Fellowship with Christ and walking in the Duties of that Fellowship The Israelites stumbled at Christ by trusting on their Carnal Priviledges and set them in opposition to Christ whereas they should have only made them subservient to Christ Confidence in them should have bin abandoned as Pauls example teacheth Phil. 3.3 4 5. c. We must not Glory in Paul Apollos Cephas but in Christ else we Glory in the Flesh and in Men 1 Cor. 1.12 13. 3.21 Trusting on Church-priviledges is an inlett to Formality and Licentiousness Jer. 7.4 8 9 10. and thence the Corruption of Churches Isa 1.10 2 Tim. 2.20 2. Follow no Church any further than you may follow it in the way of Christ and keep Fellowship with it only upon the Account of Christ because it follows Christ and hath Fellowship with Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 Zech. 8.23 If a Church
that Faith according to the New Man in Christ and not as in a natural Condition and use all means of Holiness rightly for this end Now that this is an excellent advantageous way appears by the following desirable Properties of it 1. It hath this Property that it tends to the Abasement of all Flesh and Exaltation of God only in his Grace and Power through Christ and so it is agreeable to Gods design in all his Works and the end that he aimeth at Rom. 11.6 Isa 2.17 Ezek. 36.21 22.31.32 Psal 145.4 and a fit means for the attaining the end that we ought to aim at in the first place which is the Hallowing Sanctifying and Glorifying Gods Name in all things and is the first and chief Petition Mat. 6. and is the end of all our Actings 1 Cor. 10.31 was the end of giving the Law Rom. 3.19 20. God made all things for Christ and would have him have the Preheminence in all Col. 1.17 18. That the Father may be glorified in the Son Joh. 14.13 And this Property of it is a great Argument to prove that it is the way of God and hath the Character of his Image stamped upon it we may say that it is like him and a way according to his Heart as Christ proveth his Doctrin to be of God by this Argument Joh. 7.18 And Paul proveth the Doctrin of Justification and of Sanctification and Salvation by Grace through Faith to be of God because it excludes all boastings of the Creature Rom. 3.27 28. 1 Cor. 1.29.30 31. Eph. 3.8 9. This Property appears evidently in the Mystery of Sanctification by Christ in us through Faith For first It sheweth that we can do nothing by our natural Will or any Power of the Flesh and that God will not enable us to do any thing that way Rom. 7.18 however Nature be stirred up by the Law or natural Helps Col. 3.21 And so it serveth to work Self-loathing and Abasement and to make us look upon Nature as desperately wicked and past cure and to be put off not reformed by putting on Christ It remains wicked and only wicked after we have put on Christ 2. It sheweth that all our good Works and living to God are not by our own Power and Strength at all but by the Power of Christ living in us by Faith and that God enableth us to act not meerly according to our natural Power as he enableth carnal Men and all other Creatures but above our own Power by Christ united to us and in us through the Spirit All Men live move and have their Being in him and by his universal Support and Maintenance of Nature in its Being and Activity they act Heb. 1.3 So that the Glory of their Acting as Creatures belongs to God but God acts more immediately in his People who are one Flesh and Spirit with Christ and act not by their own Power but by the Power of the Spirit of Christ in them as closely united to him and being the living Temple of his Spirit so that Christ is the immediate principal Agent of all their good Works and they are Christs Works properly who works all our Works in us and for us and yet they are the Saints Works by Fellowship with Christ by whose Light and Power the Faculties of the Saints do act and are acted Gal. 2.20 Eph. 3.16 17. Colos 1.1 so we are to ascribe all our works to God in Christ and thank him for them as free Gifts 1 Cor. 15.10 Phil. 1.11 God inableth us to act not by our selves as he doth others but by himself The Wicked are supported in acting only according to their own Nature so they act wickedly Thus all are said to live move and have their being in God Acts 17.27 But God enableth us to conquer Sin not by our selves but by himself Hos 1.7 and the Glory of inabling us doth not only belong to him which the Pharisee could not but ascribe to him Luk. 18.11 but also the Glory of doing all in us and yet we work as one with Christ even as he works as one with the Father by the Father working in him We act as Branches by the Juice of the Vine as members by the animal Spirits of the Head and bring forth Fruit by Marriage to him as our Husband and Work in the Strength of him as the living Bread that we feed on he is all in the new Man Colos 3.11 and all the Promises are made good in him 2 Cor. 1.20 2. It hath this Property that it consisteth well with other Doctrins of the Gospel which contrary Errors do not and hence this is the way to confirm us in many other Points of the Gospel and therefore appears to be true by its Harmony with other truths and sit linking with them in the same golden Chain of the mystery of Godliness and evidenceth them to be true by their Harmony with it I have shewed that mens mistaking the true Way of Sanctification is the cause of perverting the Scripture in other Points of Faith and of declining from the Truth to Popish Socinian and Arminian Tenents Because Men cannot seriously take that for truth which they judge not to be according to Godliness But this Way of Holiness will evidence that those Gospel Doctrins which they refuse are according to Godliness and that those Tenents which a blind Zeal for Holiness moveth them to embrace are indeed contrary to Holiness However Satan appeareth to their natural Understandings as an Angel of light in such Tenents Whatever Men say its certain that Legalists are indeed the Antinomians I shall instance in some Truths confirmed by it 1. The Doctrin of original Sin viz. Not only the Guilt of Adam's Sin and a corrupt Nature but utter Impotency to do spiritual good and Proneness to Sin which is Death to God in all People according to nature Psal 51.5 Rom. 5.12 There is an utter Inability to keep the Law truly in any Point Many deny this Doctrin because they think that if People believe this they will excuse their Sins by it and be apt to despair of all striving to do good Works and leave off all Endeavours and grow licentious and they think it will be more conducing to Godliness to hold and teach either that there is no original Sin or Corruption derived from Adam or at least it is done away either in the World by universal Redemption or in the Church by Baptism and that there is free-will restored whereby People are able to encline themselves to do good that Men may be more encouraged to set upon good Works and their Neglect made inexcusable All this is indeed forcible against seeking and endeavouring for Holiness by the free-will and power of Nature which is the way of endeavouring which I directed you to avoid and if there were no new Way to Holiness since the fall original Sin might make us despair but there is a new Birth a new Heart a new Creature and
therefore we have directed to seeking of Holiness by the Spirit of Christ and willing good freely by a spiritual Power as new Creatures partakers of a divine Nature in Christ Yea it s necessary to know the first Adam that we may know the second Rom. 5.12 To believe the fall and original Sin that we may be stirred up to fly to Christ by Faith for Holiness by free Gift knowing that we cannot attain it by our own Power and Free Will 2 Cor. 1.9 Mat. 9.12 13. Rom. 7.24 25. 2 Cor. 3.5 Eph. 5.14 There were no need of a new Man or a new Creation if the old were not without strength and Life Joh 3.5 6 Eph. 2.8 But original Deadness cannot hinder Gods working Faith and Hungrings and Thirstings after Christ by the Spirit through the Gospel in those that God chooseth to walk holily and blamelessly before him in Love 1 Thes 1.4 5. Act. 26.18 And so we are made alive in a new Head and become Branches of another Vine living to God by the Spirit not by Nature 2. It confirms us in the Doctrin of Predestination which many deny because they say it takes Men off from Endeavours as fruitless by telling Men that all Events are predetermined This Argument would be more forcible against Endeavours by the power of our own Free Will but not at all against Endeavours for Holiness by the Operation of God giving us Faith and all Holiness by his own Spirit working in us through Christ we are to trust on Christ for the Grace of the Elect and Gods good Will towards Men Matt. 3.17 Luke 2.14 Psal 106.4 5. Election by Grace destroys seeking by Works but not by Grace Rom. 11.5 6. And we are here taught to seek for Salvation only in the way of the Elect and we may conclude that Holiness is to be had by Gods Will and not by our own and it may move us to desire Holiness by the Will of God Rom. 9.16 Psal 109.32 And seeing it appears by this Doctrin of Sanctification through Christ that we are Gods Workmanship as to all the good wrought in us Phil. 2.12 13. Eph. 2.10 We may well admit that he hath appointed his Pleasure from Eternity without infringing the Natural Liberty of our corrupt Wills which reacheth not unto good Works Acts 15.18 compare with 30. Mans Natural Free Will may well consist with Gods Decree as in Paradise Decretum radii contingentia 3. It confirms us in the true Doctrin of Justification and Reconciliation with God by Faith relying on the Merits of Christs Blood without any Works of our own and without considering Faith as a Work to procure Favour by the Righteousness of the Act but only as a Hand to receive the Gift or rather as the very Eating and Drinking of Christ actually than any kind of Condition intitling us to him as our Food This great Doctrin of the Gospel many hate as breaking the strongest Bonds of Holiness and opening a way to all Licentiousness for they reckon that the Conditionality of Works to attain Gods Favour and avoid his Wrath and the necessity of them to Salvation are the most necessary and effectual Impulsives to all Holiness and they account that the other Doctrin opens the Flood-gates to Licentiousness And truly this Consideration would be of some weight if People were to be brought to Holiness by Moral Suasion and their natural Endeavours stirred up by the Terms of the Law and by slavish Fears and Mercenary Hopes for the Force of these Motives would be altogether enervated by the Doctrin of Justification by Free Grace but I have already shewed that a Man being a guilty dead Creature cannot be brought to serve God out of love by force of any of these Motives and that we are not sanctified by any of our own Endeavours to work Holiness in our selves but rather by Faith in Christ's Death and Resurrection even the same whereby we are justified and that the urging of the Law stirs up Sin and that Freedom from it is necessary to all Holiness as the Apostle teacheth Rom. 6.11 14. and 7.4 5. And this way of Sanctification confirms the Doctrin of Justification by Faith as the Apostle informeth Rom. 8.1 For if we are Sanctified and so restored to the Image of God and Life by the Spirit through Faith it is evident that God hath taken us into his Favour and pardoned our Sins by the same Faith without the Law or else we should not have the Fruits and Effects of his Favour thereby to our eternal Salvation Rom. 8.2 Yea his Justice would not admit his giving Life without Works if we were not made Righteous in Christ by the same Faith And we cannot trust to have Holiness freely given us by Christ upon any rational Ground except we can also trust on the same Christ for free Reconciliation and Forgiveness of Sins for our Justification Neither can guilty cursed Creatures that cannot work by reason of their Deadness under the Curse be brought to a rational love of God except they apprehend his loving them first freely without Works 1 John 4.19 The great Objection and Reason of so many Controversies and Books written about it is because they think that Men will trust to be saved however they live But Sanctification is an Effect of Justification and floweth from the same Grace and we trust for them both by the same Faith and for the former in order to the latter And such a Faith be it never so confident tendeth not to Licentiousness but Holiness And we grant that Justification by Grace destroys Holiness by legal Endeavours but not by Grace So that there is no need to live a Papist and die an Antinomian 4. It confirms us in the Doctrin of Real Union with Christ so plentifully held forth in Scripture which Doctrin some count a vain Notion and cannot endure it because they think it worketh not Holiness but Presumption whereas I have shewed that it is absolutely necessary for the Enjoyment of Spiritual Life and Holiness which is treasured up in Christ and that so inseparably that we cannot have it without a real Union with him 2 Cor. 13.5 1 John 5.12 John 6.53 ch 15.5 1 Cor. 1.30 Col. 3.11 The Members and Branches cannot live without Union with the Vine and Head nor the Stones be part of the living Temple except they be really joyned mediately or immediately to the Corner-stone 5. In the Doctrin of certain final Perseverance of the Saints John 3.36 c. 6.37 5.24 1 John 3.9 1 Thess 5.24 Phil. 1.6 John 10.23 29. c. 4.14 They think this Doctrin maketh People careless of good Works I answer It maketh People careless of seeking them by their own Natural Strength and in a way of slavish Fear but careful and couragious in trusting on the Grace of God for them when they are brought by Regeneration heartily to desire them Rom. 6.14 Numb 13.30 setting upon the doing of them in that Grace 1 Thess 5.8
of Eden rather than the Wilderness of Sinai Act. 9.31 It is the Office of the Spirit our Guide to be our Comforter and not a Spirit of bondage Rom. 8.15 Peace and Joy are great Duties in this way Phil. 4.4 5 6. God doth not drive us on with Whips and Terrors and by the Rod of the Schoolmaster of the Law but leads us and wins us to walk in his ways by Allurements Cant. 1.3 Hos 11.4 See such Alurements 2 Cor. 5.14 15. c. 7.1 Rom. 12.1 5. Our very Moving Acting Walking in this way is a Pleasure and Delight every good Work is done with Pleasure the very Labour of the way is pleasant Carnal Men wish Duties were not necessary and they are burthensome to them but they are pleasant to us because we do not gain Holiness by our own carnal Wrestling with our Lusts and crossing them out of carnal Fear with Regret and Grief and setting Conscience and the Law against them to hinder their Actings but we act naturally according to the New Nature and perform our own New spiritual Desires and Lusts by walking in the ways of God through Christ And our Lusts and Pleasures in Sin are not only restrained but taken away in Christ and Pleasures in Holiness freely given us and implanted in us Rom. 8.5 Gal. 5.17 24. Joh. 4.34 Psal 40.8 Psal 119.14 16 20. We have a new Taste and Savour Love Lust and Liking by the Spirit of Christ and look on the Law not as a Burden but as our Priviledge in Christ 6. It is a high exalted way above all other ways Unto this way the Prophet Habbakuk is exalted when upon the Failure of all visible Helps and Supports he resolves to rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of his Salvation and making God his Strength by Faith his Feet should be as Hinds Feet and should walk upon his high places Hab. 3.18 19. These are the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that God hath set us in being quickned and raised up together with him Eph. 2.5 6. 1. We live high here for we live not by the flesh but by the Spirit and Christ in us with all his fullness Rom. 8.1 2. Gal. 2.20 c. 5.25 We walk in Fellowship with God dwelling in us and walking about in us 2 Cor. 6.18 And therefore our Works are of higher Price and Excellency than the Works of others because they are wrought in God Joh. 3.21 And are the Fruits of Gods Spirit Gal. 5. Phil. 1.11 And we may know that they are accepted and good by our Gospel Principles which others have not Rom. 7.6 2. We are inabled to the most difficult Duties Phil. 4.1 3. and nothing is too hard for us See the great Works done by Faith Heb. 11. Mar. 9.23 Works that carnal Men think Folly and Madness to venture upon they are so great and honourable Atchievements in doing and suffering for Christ 3. We walk in an honourable State with God and on honourable Terms not as guilty Creatures to get our Pardon by Works nor as Bond-Servants to earn our Meat and Drink but as Sons and Heirs walking towards the full Possession of that Happiness to which we have a Title and so we have much boldness in Gods Presence Gal. 4.6 7. We can approach nearer to God than others and walk before him considently without slavish Fear not as Strangers but as such who are of his own Family Eph. 2.19 20. And this prompts us to doing greater things than others walking as free Men Rom. 6.17 18. Joh. 8.35 36. It is a Kingly way the Law to us is a Royal Law a Law of Liberty and our Priviledge not a Bond and Yoak of Compulsion 4. It is the way only of those that are Honourable and Precious in the eyes of the Lord even his Elect and Redeemed ones whose special Priviledge it is to walk therein No unclean Beast goeth there Jer. 35.8 9. No carnal Man can walk in this way but only those that are taught of God Joh. 6.44 45 46. Nor would it have come into our Hearts without Divine Revelation 5. The preparing this way cost Christ very dear it is a costly way Heb. 10.19 20. 1 Pet. 3.18 6. It is a good old way wherein thou mayest follow the Footsteps of all the Flock 7. It 's the way to Perfection it leads to such Holiness which shall in a while be absolutely perfect It differs only in the degree and manner of Manifestation from the Holiness of Heaven there the Saints live by the same Spirit and the same God in all 1 Cor. 15.28 Joh. 4.14 And have the Image of the same spiritual Man 1 Cor. 15.49 Only here we have but the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.23 And live by faith and not by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 And are not full grown in Christ Eph. 4.13 Sanctification in Christ is Glorification begun as Glorification is Sanctification perfected ERRATA PAge 6. l. 18. r. works p. 7. l. 5. Ã fine for not r. yet p. 23. l. 6. Ã fi for that r. there p. 27. l. 18. for either rather p. 33. l. 9. for an r. in p. 36. l. 5. Ã fi r. yet for that p. 41. l. 9. Ã fi r. receiving for recovering p. 42. after them r. it were better if p. 42. l. 2. for God r. Gods p. 46. l. 7. for hope r. Trope ibid. l. 11. for this r. the. p. 46. l. 17. for particulars r. particularly p. 48. l. 4. Ã fi r. for wisely c. r. wisdom by the knowledge of which c. p. 49. l. 19. r. from Christ p. 52. l. 3. Ã fi for has r. had p. 63. l. 19. r. principal act p. 64. l. 13. add after Lord. called hoping in the Lord because c. p. 65. l. 12. for procure r. secure p. 66. l. 5. after right r. to use any Instrument for the actual c. p. 68. l. 4. Ã fi for right title r. right or title Ib. l. 2. Ã fi for condition r. conditional work p. 69. l. 2. Ã fi r. 5ly true c. p. 73. l. 19. put that after first p. 80. l. 21. r. it is p. 85. l. 6. Ã fi for on r. off p. 87. l. 7. Ã fi for it hath r. it is p. 88. l. 22. for lying r. thing p. 95. l. 1. for do r. toyl more p. 97. l. 5. Ã fi r. for the worst p. 108. l. 12. Ã fi r. done away p. 114. l. 8. Ã fi for ways r. wages Ib. l. 16. for which r. what p. 122. l. 18. r. for it prescribeth c. p. 125. l. 6. these words without any farther practice of Holiness add them after the l. 14. p. 160. l. 6. r. this is p. 171. l. 10. de that p. 172. l. 3. Ã fi r. of it it c. p. 194. l. 7. r. to the life of c. p. 196. l. 12. r. by all the c. p. 197. l. 20. free Salvation p. 201.
God 3. They have no need to seek Salvation by Works of the Law and so are delivered from a Yoke that cannot be born from endless observances that Pharisees and Papists have heaped up from the continual frights doubts fears and terrors by the Law Act. 15.10 Rom. 8.15 from a Wrath-working Law Rom. 4.15 from a Sin irritating Law Rom. 7.5 from a killing Law a Ministration of Death and Condemnation 2 Cor. 3.6 7 9. Mount Sinai which gendreth to Bondage Gal 4.24 4. Hence they are delivered from a condemning Conscience which otherwise would still gnaw them as a Worm Heb. 9.14 If the Blood of Bulls and Goats sanctified to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works c. A guilty conscience is a foul conscience and it will make all his services and duties dead works unfit for the service of the living God it s the blood of Christ applied by Faith that takes off this foulness of guilt from the conscience therefore the blood of Christ hath the only efficacy this way to take off the conscience of Sin Heb. 10.1 2 3 4 c. Hence they come to have a good conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 void of offence toward God Act. 24.16 5. It is an everlasting Righteousness by which their standing in Christ is secured Heb. 9.12 It s an eternal Redemption that is obtained So Dan 9.24 Whereas by the Law those that were justified to day typically might fall under condemnation so far as to need another sacrifice for Sin they had no real purgation of conscience from sin by those Sacrifices and therefore could not have a lasting delivery of their consciences from guilt by them here it is far otherwise here is an effectual compleat and perpetual Redemption reaching the conscience of the Sinner and for the purging away all sins past present and to come 1 Joh. 1.7 6. It 's a Righteousness of infinite value because it is the Righteousness of one that is God and his Name is Jehovah our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 Heb. 9.14 It is therefore more powerful to save than Adams sin was to destroy or condemn Rom. 5. Christ is here the power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 thence we are powerful and conquer by Faith likewise there 's a marvelous plenty of Mercy and Grace that is brought to us by Jehovah our Righteousness plenteous Redemption Psal 130.7 it must be most plentiful because infinite though no creature could satisfie for sin yet Jehovah could do it abundantly and therefore in Christ Gods merey prevails high above our sins Psal 103.11 12. 7. Gods Grace and Justice is both ingaged on our behalf in this Righteousness Justice is terrible and seems to be against mercy and dreadful to Natural people but it is otherwise to Believers it 's pacified and appeased through this Righteousness it 's satisfied in Christ for our sins Justice becomes our Friend joins in with Grace and instead of pleading against us it 's altogether for us and it speaks contrary to what it speaks to sinners out of Christ Josh 24.19 20. We may also plead Justice for forgiveness through mercy in Christ Rom. 3.26 8. We may be sure of Holiness and Glory of delivery from the power and dominion of sin as well as the charge of it before God and guilt in our own consciences for this was the end of Christs death Tit. 2.14 Rom. 6.6 Rom. 8.3 4. ch 6.14 c. 8.30 Whom he hath justified them hath he glorified The Law was the strength of Sin for sin had its title to rule in us by reason of the Curse and thence Satan also rules but here is our deliverance from Sin and Satan yea from Death too Heb. 2.14 15. Hos 13 14. And by the same reason we are raised by this excellent Righteousness to a better State than we had in Adam at first for Christ died that we might receive the Adoption of Sons and the Spirit that we might be brought under a new Covenant and be set in the right way of Holiness serving out of Love Gal. 3.14 1 Joh. 4.19 Gal. 4.4 Heb. 9.15 Rom. 5.11 Mat. 22.37 38. Col. 2.13 9. We may be sure hence of a concurrence of all things for our good all things shall work for good through Grace to bring us to Glory because God is for us who is the Creator and Governor of all things Rom 8.28 31 33. God will never be wroth with us nor rebuke us in anger any more Isa 54.9 Rom. 5.3 10. Hence we may come before God without confusion of face yea with boldness to the Throne of Grace in Christs Name Joh. 14.13 14. and expect all good things of him Eph. 3.12 in whom we have boldness of access with confidence by saith in him Heb. 10.22 23. Let us draw nigh with full assurance of faith Christs blood pleads for us in Heaven Heb. 12.14 and we may and are to plead boldly a satisfaction on his account 11. We live in those times when this righteousness is fully revealed and Sin made an end of Rom. 3.21 22. this is our happiness above those that lived before Christs coming who were under Types and Shadows of this righteousness when as we have the substance in its own light and so we are not under the Law which they were under as a School-master we are not Servants but Sons called to liberty Gal. 3.23 26. 4 7. 5 13. The preaching of the old Covenant as a Church Ordinance to be urged now is ceased the Law is not to be preached now in the same terms as Moses preached it for Justification Rom. 10.5 6 7 8. 2 Cor. 3.6 7. Gal. 3.12 21. its contrary in terms to saith though it were subservient Vse II. For Examination whether we be in Christ and have received this Justification by faith with all our hearts 1. Consider whether you be made really sensible of Sin and your Condemnation by the Law this is necessary to make us fly to Christ and for this as one great end was the Law given Gal. 3.22 23 24. Mat. 9.13 Act. 2.37 without sense of sin no prizing of Christ or desire of Holiness but rather abuse of Grace to carnal security and licentiousness those that were stung with the fiery Serpents looked up to the brazen Serpent 2. Dost thou trust only upon free mercy for Justification in Gods sight renouncing all thy works whatever in this point as not able to stand in them before Gods exact Justice crying mercy with the poor Publican Perfectionists and Self-righteous persons have no share in this matter Luk. 18.13 14. and Paul notwithstanding all that the World might think he had to plead for himself yet he counted all but dung that he might win Christ and be found in him not having his own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is of the faith of Christ the righteousness which is
soveraign Authority Omniscience perfect Holiness exact Justice the equity of his Law and reasonableness of our Obedience to it the unspeakable Happiness prepared for the Godly and Misery for the Wicked to all Eternity Meditation on such things as these is indeed very useful to press upon our Consciences the Strictness of our Obligation to holy Duties and to move us to go by Faith to Christ for Life and Strength to perform them But that we may receive this Life and Strength whereby we are enabled for immediate performance we must meditate believingly on Christ's saving Benefits as they are discovered in the Gospel which is the only Doctrin which is the Power of God to our Salvation and whereby the quickning Spirit is ministred to us and that is able to build us up and give us an inheritance among all them which are sanctifyed Rom. 1.16 2 Cor. 3.6 Act. 20.32 You must take special care to act Faith in your Meditation mix the Word of God's Grace with it or else it will not profit you Heb. 4.2 and if you set the loving kindness of God frequently before your eyes by meditating on it believingly you will be strengthned to walk in the truth Psal 26.2 and by beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord you will be changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 This kind of Meditation is sweet and delightful to those that are guided to it by the Spirit of Faith and it needs not the help of such artificial-Methods as the Vulgar cannot easily learn You may let your Thoughts run in it at liberty without confining them to any rules of Method you will find your Souls much enlivened by it and enriched with the Grace of God which cannot be effected by any other kind of Meditation though it be never so methodical and curiously framed according to the Rules of Art 4. The Sacrament of Baptism must needs be of great use to promote the Life of Faith if it be made use of according to its Nature and Institution because it is a seal of the righteousness of faith as circumcision was formerly Rom. 4.11 But then we must take heed of making it a Seal of the contrary Righteousness of Works as the carnal Jews did that sought to be justified by the Law of Moses and as many Christians do that transform the New Covenant into a Covenant of Works requiring sincere Obedience to all the Laws of Christ as the condition of our Justification into which new devised Covenant they think themselves to be entred by their Baptism I may say of Baptism thus perverted and abused as the Apostle saith of Circumcision Baptism verily profiteth if thou keep the Law but if thou be a Breaker of the Law thy Baptism is made no Baptism Rom. 2.26 If thou be Baptised so long as thou continuest in the abuse of that holy Ordinance Christ shall profit you nothing Christ is become of no effect to you Ye are all fallen from grace Gal. 3.2.4 Beware also of making an Idol of Baptism and putting it in the place of Christ as the Papists do who hold that it conferreth Grace by the very work that is performed in the Administration of it And as many Ignorant People do that trust rather on their Baptism than on Christ like to the Pharisees who placed their Confidence on Circumcision and other external Privileges Phil. 3.4 5. We are to know that God is not well pleased with many that are Baptised 1 Cor. 10.2 5. and the time will come when he will punish the Baptised with the Unbaptised as well as the circumcised with the uncircumcised Jer. 9.25 Beware also of advancing Baptism to an equal Partnership with Faith in your Salvation as some do who account all Baptism null and void besides that which is administred to persons grown up to years of Discretion and they that refuse to be re-baptized at those years are to be accounted Aliens from the true Church from Christ and his Salvation notwithstanding all their Faith in Christ If the Baptism of Infants were null and void yet the want of true Baptism would be no Damning matter to those that are otherwise perswaded Circumcision was as necessary as Baptism in its time and yet the Israelites omitted it for the space of forty years in the Wilderness without fearing that any would fall short of Salvation for want of it John 5.6 7. Many precious Saints in the Primitive times of Persecution have gone to Heaven through a Baptism of Suffering for the Name of Christ before they had opportunity to be Baptized with Water And in those ancient Times when the Custom of deferring Baptism too much prevailed we are not to think that none were in a state of Salvation by Faith in Christ that deferred that Ordinance or neglected it Take notice further that it is not sufficient to avoid the pernicious Errors of those that pervert Baptism contrary to its Institution but you must be also diligent in the improving of it to the ends for which it was instituted And here let me desire you to put the Question seriously to your Souls What good use you do make of your Baptism How often or seldom do you think upon it The vulgar sort of Christians yea it may be feared many sincere Converts do so little think upon their own Baptism and study to make a due improvement of it that its of no more profit to their Souls than if they never had bin Baptized yea their sin is the more aggravated by rendring such an Ordinance of none effect to their Souls through their own gross neglect Tho Baptism be administred to us but once in our Lives yet we ought frequently to reflect upon it and upon all Occasions to put the Question to our selves Into what were we Baptized Acts 19.2 What this Ordinance Seals What did it engage us to And accordingly we must stir up and strengthen our selves by our Baptism to lay hold on the Grace which it seals to us and to fulfil its Engagements We should often remember that we are made Christs Disciples by Baptism and engaged to hear him rather than Moses and to Believe on him for our Salvation as John baptized with the Baptism of Repentance saying to the People That they should believe on him that should come after him i. e. on Christ Jesus We should remember that our Baptism sealed our putting on of Christ and our being the Children of God by Faith in Christ and our being no longer under the former Schoolmaster the Law Gal. 3.25 26 27. And that it sealed to us the putting off the body of sin and our Burial and Resurrection with Christ by Faith and the forgiving of our trespasses Col. 2.12 13. Our being made Members of one Body of Christ and to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.12 13. We may find by such things as these which are more fully discovered in the Gospel
that it is the proper nature and tendency of Baptism to guide us to Faith in Christ alone for remission of Sins Holiness and all Salvation by Union and Fellowship with him and that a diligent improvement of this Ordinance must needs be of great advantage to the Life of Faith 5. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is as a spiritual Feast to nourish our Faith and to strengthen us to walk in all Holiness by Christ living and working in us if it be used according to the Patern which Christ gave us in its first Institution recorded by Three Evangelists Mat. 26.26 Mar. 14.22 24. Luk. 22.19 20. and was extrordinarily revealed from Heaven by Christ himself to the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 11.23 25. that we might be the more obliged and stirred up to the exact Observation of it It s end is not only that we may remember Christs Death in the History but in the Mystery of it as that his Body was broken for us that his Blood is the Blood of the New Testament or Covenant shed for us and for many for the remission of Sins that so we may receive and enjoy all the Promises of the New Covenant which are recorded Heb. 8.12 It s end is to mind us that Christs Body and Blood are Bread and Drink even all-sufficient Food to nourish our Souls to everlasting Life and that we ought to take and eat and drink him by Faith and to assure us that when we truly believe on him he is as really and closely united to us by his Spirit as the Food which we eat and drink is united to our Bodies Christ himself Joh. 6. doth more fully explain this Mystery Furthermore this Sacrament doth not only put us in mind of the spiritual Blessings wherewith we are Blessed in Christ and our Enjoyment of them by Faith but also it is a Mean and Instrument whereby God doth really exhibit and give forth Christ and his Salvation to true Believers and whereby he doth stir up and strengthen Believers to receive and feed upon Christ by present actings of Faith while they partake of the outward Elements When Christ saith eat drink this is my body this is my blood no less can be meant than that Christ doth as truly give his Body and Blood to true Believers in that Ordinance as the Bread and Cup and they do as truly receive it by Faith As if a Prince invest a Subject in some Honourable Office by delivering to him a Staff Sword or Signet and say to him take this Staff Sword or Signet this is such an Office or Preferment or if a Father should deliver a Deed for Conveyance of Land to his Son and say take it as thine own this is such a Farm or Mannor how can such Expressions import any less in common Senfe and Reason than a Present Gift and Conveyance of the Offices Preferments and Lands by and with those outward Signs Therefore the Apostle Paul asserteth that the bread in the Lords supper is the communion of the body of Christ and the cup is the communion of his blood 1 Cor. 10.16 which sheweth that Christ's Body and Blood are really communicated to us and we do really partake of them as well as of the Bread and Cup. The chief Excellency and Advantage of this Ordinance is That it is not only a Figure and Resemblance of our living upon a crucified Saviour but also a precious Instrument whereby Christ the Bread and Drink of Life is really conveyed to us and received by us through Faith This makes it to be a Love-Token worthy of that ardent Affection toward us which filled Christ's Heart at the time when he instituted it when he was on the point of finishing of his greatest work of Love by laying down his Life for us 1 Cor. 11.23 And this is diligently to be observed that we may make a right improvement of this Ordinance and receive the saving Benesits of it One reason why many do little esteem and seldom or never partake of this Ordinance and do find little benefit by it is because they falsly imagine that God in it only holds forth naked signs and resemblances of Christ and his Salvation which they account to be held forth so plainly in Scripture that they need not the help of such a sign Whereas if they understood that God doth really give Christ himself to their Faith by and with those Signs and Resemblances they would prize it as the most delicious Feast and be desirous to partake of it on all opportunities Acts 2.42 and 20.7 Another reason why many partake seldom or never of this Ordinance and know little of the benefit of it is because they think themselves brought by it into great danger of eating and drinking their own Damnation according to those terrifying words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.29 therefore they account it the safest way wholly to abstain from such a dangerous Ordinance or at least that once a year is enough to run so great a Hazard And if they be brought to it sometimes by constraint of Conscience their slavish Fears bereave them of all comfortable Fruit of it So that instead of striving to receive Christ and his Salvation therein they account themselves to have succeeded well if they come off without the Sentence of Damnation As the Jewish Rabbies write that the High-Priests Life was so eminently hazarded by his entring once a year into the Holy of Holies that he stayed there as little time as he could lest the People should think him to be struck dead by the Hand of God And when he was come forth alive he usually made a Feast of Thanksgiving for Joy of so great a Deliverance But there is no reason why we should be so much terrified by those words of the Apostle for they were darted against such a gross prophanation of the Lords Supper amongst the Corinthians as we may easily avoid by observing the Institution of it which the Apostle proposeth to them as a sufficient remedy against the gross abuse in not discerning or differencing the Lords Body from other bodily Food and partaking of it as their own Supper with such disorder that one was Hungry and another Drunken Besides that terrifying word Damnation may be rendred more mildly Judgment as it is in the Margent yea the Apostle himself Ver. 32. doth interpret it of a merciful temporal Judgment whereby we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the World We are indeed prone to sin in receiving this Ordinance unworthily and so we are also to pollute more or less all other holy things that we meddle with So that the consideration of our danger might sill us with slavish fear in the use of all other means of Grace as well as of this were it not that we have a great High-Priest to bear this Iniquity of our holy things Exod. 28.38 under the Covert of whose Righteousness we are to draw near unto God without