of the sixt Commandment and whosoever shall looke on a woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart and broken the seventh Commandment Thus Christ hath as it were revived Moses but as the Law given by Christ is not a Covenant of works but a Commandment of well-doing and he having given it we take our selves bound to be subject unto it The Apostle also presseth the morall Law upon severall relations of men Eph. 6.1,2,3 c. It is an honour to Christ that his servants should be holy as he is holy it is for the glory of God and he requireth it the Apostle James presseth it Chap. 2.8 to the end of the Chapter If you fullfill the Royall Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe ye doe well And againe Whosoever shall keepe the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all Thus wee see the Apostles of Jesus Christ put it upon Christians to keepe the Law of God and Christ himselfe beareth witnes to the Law for God will never justifie sin to be no sin though he will justifie the person of a sinner Now as the Lord Jesus giveth the Law and as it were renueth it so he doth also give his Spirit unto his servants enabling them to keep it Jer. 31.33 and Ezek. 36.27 Now this Law would he not write in the hearts of his people nor give unto them his holy Spirit enabling them to keepe it were it not his will in Jesus Christ that the Law should be the Rule of holines and righteousnes unto his people hence it is that the children of God though they be not under the Covenant of the Law yet take themselves to be bound to the obedience of it for if Christ have given the Law as well as Moses and if he have ratified it by giving them his Spirit to teach and strengthen them to keepe it though not perfectly yet sincerely then they take themselves bound to obey the Law though they be under the Covenant of grace for doe we make voyd the Law through faith God forbid yea we establish the Law for what need have Christians of free justification by Christ if they were not bound unto the obedience of the Law by the Commandment of the Law therefore the free justification of men under a free Covenant of grace doth establish the obedience of the Law otherwise what need they run to Christ to save them from the Curse of the Law Why doe we still run to Christ for the continuance of our Justification but that we find our selves ungodly Creatures against the righteous and holy Law of God Therefore if God have given men the Law his Holy Spirit to strengthen them in the obedience of it and his grace to save them from the curse of it then Christians are to know that they are bound to keep the Law they lye under the authority of it and dare not pluck their necks from under that yoke Now there are divers effects springing from the subjection of Gods people to the Commandement of the Law 1 As they take themselves bound to the obedience of it so they believe and many times feele the fatherly displeasure of God when they transgresse it now the transgression of the Law could not bring them under the displeasure of God unlesse they were bound unto the Commandement of the Law This displeasure David was sensible of Psal 38.1,2,3 c. where he makes many complaints which doe all of them spring from the conscience of the disobedience of the Law which God hath framed in the hearts of his servants whereby they reflect upon their sin as the ground of all the distempers which lye upon their bodies or minds This is the first effect of the subjection of Gods people to his Law they lye under the faith and sense of the danger of the disobedience of it 2 They are under the faith and sense also of Gods gratious acceptance of their wayes when they are sutable to the blessed directions of his word not that they can raise there-from their justified estate but by the same Spirit of God whereby they are helped to obey the Commandements of God they doe see the Lords gratious approbation of them in their poore and weake endeavours for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous that is acknowledgeth and approveth it Psal 1.6 When the Lord by his Spirit boweth the hearts of his people unto obedience then he knoweth and accepteth their obedience Gen. 22.12 Thus the Lord beareth witness unto his Servants that he doth accept their works so that they sensibly know and believe that the Lord doth acknowledge their poorest and weakest endeavours unto which they are carried forth by his Spirit in the Obedience of his word this the Prophet David confirmeth Psal 18.20 to 26. where he speaketh of his righteous dealing with Saul and whereas his enemies laid it to his charge that he was an enemy unto Saul the Lord beareth him witnes that he had walked toward Saul with a good conscience now the Lord having led him an end to deale justly and righteously and purely with Saul having kept him from all the malice and outrage of Saul and maintained his cause against him and delivered him out of his hands whom the Lord had now rejected herein the Prophet seeth the Lord accepting him when in the name of his Son by the power of his Spirit he is helped to attend unto the Commandements of God This is commfortable unto a Christian spirit when the Lord beareth witnesse unto his soule that he hath an eye to all the Commandments of God And all this argueth that the servants of God being in a state of grace in Jesus Christ have looked at themselves as bound by the Commandements of the Law and as being under the Law to Christ who hath given the Law and power unto his servants sincerely to keep it both by writing in their hearts a Law of obedience and by putting his Holy Spirit within them for if the people of God were not sensible of their bounden duty to the observation of the Law of God they would neither have faith nor sence of Gods fatherly displeasure when they negligently breake these Lawes neither would they be sensible of Gods acceptance of their conformity thereunto But we know what the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience c. And truly the Lord doth often beare witnesse unto the integrity of his Servants against the oppositions of men So he did to Abraham to David to Paul and to sundry of the Servants of God though they are not wont to build their safe estate thereupon Yet this kind of Gods acceptance of their wayes and obedience they doe discern c. yet in their best obedience which they doe perform they see the need they have to goe unto God for justifying grace because if they have failed in
expresse Restipulation pre-required on Abrahams part We see this likewise held forth Deut. 29.1.13 where the Lord entreth into another Covenant with them in the Land of Moab besides the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb and in this Covenant he doth establish them to be a people unto himselfe as well as give himself to them to be thrir God vers 13. and as God required it of them to circumcise the outward man even the foreskin of their Children so he will also circumcise them taking possession of them and circumcising their hearts and taking away the stonynesse of them and so fit them to be a Temple for himselfe to dwell in 3 The Lord in this Covenant taketh the chiefest of Abrahams seed even the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Mediator and surety of the Covenant and unto him doe all the Promises belong so the Apostle doth expound it Gal. 3.16 and so by him are all the Promises and blessings of the Covenant conveyed unto Abraham and to his seed his faithfull seed all the world over and therefore he is called the Mediator of a better Covenant Heb. 7.22 meaning of the Covenant of Grace Heb. 8.6 These three things doe containe the sum of the Covenant of Grace and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and would therefore be plainly discovered unto Christians as 1 What is the meaning of this that God gave himselfe unto Abraham 2 How doth he take Abraham and his seed and make them his people 3 How doth he take Jesus Christ and make him the Surety of the Covenant between them both for the Covenant is established and so is a sure firm and everlasting Covenant Now in this gift that God gave himself unto Abraham observe three things 1 The Blessing given 2 The Order in which it was given 3 The Manner of giving it In the Blessing given When God doth by Covenant give himself to be a God it doth imply two things 1 That God doth give Himselfe the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost the whole Nature of God and all the Persons the God-head with all the Attributes of that Nature and all the Offices of those persons for it is not a confused God that vanisheth away in a generall imagination but God distinctly considered in his Persons Attributes Properties c. Thus the Lord giveth himselfe to Abraham and to his seed I will be a father unto you 2 Cor. 6.18 and that is not spoken unto the Jewes onely but unto all the Israel of God He giveth the Son also Isa 9.6 Joh. 3.16 And for the Holy Spirit Jo. 16.7.13 Isa 59.21 This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit that is upon thee and my words that I have put into thy mouth shall not depart c. And this is it which the Apostle also saith Gal. 4.6 Thus the Lord giveth himselfe unto his Servants from one Generation to another If therefore the Lord God the Father give himselfe he will not be wanting to draw his people unto the Son Jo. 6.44 and what is the chief businesse and work that the Son hath to doe about us No man can have fellowship with the Father but he must have fellowship with Jesus Christ so our Saviour himselfe saith John 14.6 No man can come unto the Father but by me This therefore the Lord Jesus Christ will doe for all the elect seed of Abraham he will open their eyes to see that the Father did not draw them to damnation or utter desolation though at first that be their greatest fear but unto salvation by him This hath he promised to doe and if it be the work of the Spirit of God to establish us both in the Father and the Son then will he convince the world of sin of righteousnesse and of judgement John 16.8 to 11. and so will establish our hearts in the comforts of the Lord our God and this is that which the Apostle prayeth for the Ephesians Chap. 3.16 Hence it cometh to passe that what the Lord would have us to doe he is present by his Spirit to teach us and to strengthen us and so to doe it for us All these things doth the Lord work for Abraham and for his Elect seed So that look what is meet for a Father to do or for a Brother to doe or for the Spirit of God to doe that will the Lord doe unto his elect ones and so he giveth all his attributes and they are even God himselfe and therefore when Moses desired to see his glory and he desired it from the grace that God had shewed him Exod. 34.6 the Lord proclaimed his Name before him Jehovah Jehovah strong mercifull and gracious c. Thus doth the Lord give himselfe and all the Persons in the God-head as they are truly called and Attributes they are no more nor no other then God himselfe 2 And as God himself is implyed so when God is given by Covenant all the Ordinances and Creatures and works of God are given also for so it was in all Covenants of old time when Jehosaphat maketh a Covenant with Ahab King of Israel 2 Kings 22.4 then I am as thou art and my people as thy people and my Horses as thy Horses and all that he hath is for Ahabs service as the King goeth so goeth his strength so thus it comes to passe that if the Lord of Hoasts be for us and give himself unto us then also he gives unto us his Eternall Election and Redemption and whatsoever he hath wrought for the salvation of his Elect He hath not so dealt with any Nation Psal 147.20 but only with the Israel of God unto them hath he given his Laws and shewed them his judgements And for his Creatures they are all given to be for his People to whom he hath given himself If God be a God unto Abraham then shall all Gods people be for him Melchisedeck shall blesse him Aner Eshcot and Mamre shall be Confederates with him the Sun Moon and Stars shall fight in their courses for the people of God the Sea shall give way to passe through it on dry ground What ailed you ye streams of Jordan to goe back Why all the Creatures of God must stoop unto the people of God wâ—… he is in Covenant with them This is that which the Lord promiseth unto his people Hos 2.18 to 22. when the Lord shall marry them to him in faithfullnesse and 1 Cor. 3.22 This is the large gift of Gods Covenant Nay and which is wonderfull and beyond all comprehension when I say all the Creatures and Ordinances of God are ours the very expression of the phrase doth imply that the Lord giveth himselfe to be the staffe and strength of them so that you shall see the presence of God in them he will not only give a man wife and children and Ordinances and providences but he will be in all these and blesse his people in the enjoyment of them all so as that
is not possible that God should lye Mal. 3.6 Hence springeth our eternity perseverance Rom. 11.29 Phil. 1.6 Though the sence of the Covenant doth require it of Abraham to give himself back again unto the Lord though that be Abrahams duty and the Lord doth intend it yet his intendment is to imply that he doth receive Abraham and his seed to be his people for ever Josh 24.3 Thus mind ye the Lord dealeth in the Coven of Grace he looketh towards those that look not towards him as is held forth Hos 3.3 where the Lord biddeth the Prophet love a woman that was an Adulteresse and say unto her Thou shalt be for me and I will be for thee This is a branch of the Covenant when the Lord doth undertake to receive Abraham and his seed unto himself his giving himselfe unto them doth breed a reciprocall returning of them unto him Quest Now it may be demanded How did the Lord take Abraham and his seed to be his people Answ By a double Act as 1 Of Preparation not on Abrahams part or on his seeds part but on his own part the Lord prepared them 2 The Lord did invest him with the blessings of this Covenant 1 For Preparation the Lord prepareth them by a double work of his Spirit which are manifest in all the seed of Abraham Elect of God 1 By a Spirit of Bondage whereby he cutteth off the seed of Abraham from all worldly intanglements and delights thus God took Abraham and brought him from beyond the Flood and so doth he take men off from their Countreys and Fathers houses he seperates them from all such things that he might draw them unto himselfe Thus he dealt with the Children of Israel and called them to be a singular people unto himselfe and yet but in a Covenant of works Deut. 7.6,7,8 Thus doth the Lord deale with all those whom he receiveth to be a people unto himself and by this spirit of bondage he draweth them from all their sinfull lusts and passions so as that they can find no hope of mercy in any thing and this is properly a Seal of the Covenant of works as the Spirit of Adoption is a seale of the Covenant of Grace Rom. 8.15 Now by this bondage the Lord first setteth home unto the Consciences of men the weight and danger of their sins and it is the usuall manner of God to give a Covenant of Grace by leading men first into a Covenant of works as it is his constant manner to work by contraries and so to thrust men out of doors that they may have fellowship with himselfe at length I had a gratious father will the poor soule say but now I may goe and shake my ears like a poor wretch for so indeed he is cast out of the Covenant and favour of God to his sense and feeling but thus the Lord doth even shut him out of doors that he may open to him another and a better way 2 The Lord also Prepareth his people by a Spirit of Burning which upon a spirit of bondage he doth shed abroad into the hearts of men This we read of Mal. 4.1 It is spoken of the Ministry of John the Baptist which did burn like an oven against all the Scribes and Pharisees and left them neither the root of Abrahams Covenant nor the branch of their own good works he cutteth them off from the Covenant of Abraham Mat. 3.9 Think not to say that you have Abraham to be your father c. and so by cutting them off from the root he leaveth them no ground to trust on From their good works the Lord Jesus Christ also cutteth them off Mat. 6.2.5.16 This was a Spirit of Burning which the Lord conveyed by the M nistry of Christ and of John Baptist to burn up all the Hypocrites like stubble and the beauty of their works was blasted by it and this is Gods usuall manner of dealing Now there are many under a Spirit of bondage that never came under a Spirit of burning yet many under a Spirit of bondage doe fear the Lord with some kind of reverence unto his Ordinances for as an Angel of God they received Paul and yet for many of them they were but under the Law and therefore the Apostle saith He is afraid of them least he hath bestowed his labour in vaine Gal. 4.9,10,11 compared with ver 21. where he saith Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law c. A signe that this bondage under which they were did not onely bind them under fear of wrath but did bind them also to obey the Ordinances of God with some kind of devout reverence Now you have many men that rest there but when the Lord doth carry men further then he sendeth a spirit of burning thereby to blast all the fruits and branches of their righteousnesse and to burn up all that under a Covenant of works a man hath wrought and this is that which the Prophet Esay speaketh of Isa 4.4 that the Lord will purge away the filth of the daughter of Sion with a spirit of judgement and of burning The one is a spirit of sanctification and the other is a consuming fire which forceeth them not to build any comfort upon any works that they have done This may Hypocrites reach unto in their judgements so as that they may be convinced that they have neither root within them nor branch growing upon them and yet in the mean while they may not come unto a Spirit of Adoption but hereby also the Lord useth to prepare his people Some blesse themselves in worldly courses and never come unto a spirit of bondage some doe find comfort in their performances and never saw the vanity of their own righteousnesse but there are those whom the Lord doth carry further unto a spirit of burning even unto a sensible feeling of Gods wrath burning against whatsoever is as stubble such is a mans own gifts and parts and worth so that now the poor soule findeth that he hath no root of any good Covenant but seeth it to be an outward face of the Covenant that he doth rest upon and now he seeth no green branch of righteousnesse remaining but all is blasted and broken in pieces according to what the Prophet Esay saith Chap. 40.6,7 and so the Lord cometh to leave a man neither root nor branch for by a spirit of bondage the Lord blasteth all flesh but when it cometh unto the goodlinesse of flesh that is consumed by a Spirit of burning 2 As God thus prepareth us for himselfe so he doth give himself unto us and taketh possession of us by his blessed Spirit The Father giveth himself and his Son by his blessed Spirit for the Spirit it is by which he doth visit the hearts of his people and this is the main blessing of the Covenant of Grace For the better cleering of it this may be demanded Quest How doth the Lord give himselfe unto his people
and his people back againe to receive him Answ 1. They being thus prepared the Spirit of God taketh up his seat in the soule by making it a Temple unto himselfe in the name of the Father and of the Son and so are they made an habitation of God through the Spirit Eph. 2.22 Gal. 4.6 And because yee are Sons c. where he speaketh not of Sons by actuall regeneration but by Gods Eternall Counsell The same Spirit is also called the Comforter whom Jesus Christ hath promised to send John 16.7,8,9 If I depart I will send you the Comforter and when he is come he will reprove the world of sin of righteousnesse and of judgement Of sin because they beleeve not in me This the holy ghost convinceth men of to be the greatest misery of the soule that they have not beleeved upon Jesus Christ And look as a Talent of gold or some weighty mettall falling into a Vessell of water dasheth out all that is in the vessell to make room for it selfe So the Lord Jesus Christ coming into the soule dasheth out all watry confidences and maketh room for himselfe so as that you may say the Eternall God is there and in very deed because the heart of man is not onely like unto water but is hard and stony therefore the Spirit of God cometh like fire and melteth the iron stone of the heart and softneth it into flesh that now the soul is utterly at a losse not onely in regard of his sins but in regard of his best works also and is most of all convinced of his unbeliefe Now the Holy Spirit of God bring thus shed abroad into the heart at the very first entrance of it into the soule us it doth chiefly convince the soule of Unbelief so 2 The same Spirit worketh faith in the soule to yeeld himselfe unto the Lord and the soule being emptied of himselfe now the Holy Ghost hath infused Faith to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and this is a true saving work though the soule thinketh it selfe in a very sad condition that he should so long live without beleeving in Jesus Christ But he is cleerly convinced what his case is and how vaine his best works are and he lyeth under this work not onely in his judgement but in his heart he now freely submitteth unto the will of God So that the Spirit of God becometh unto the soul not onely as a Spirit of burning to consume all that is like stubble but doth also melt the iron-stone of the heart and softneth it into flesh that the word may take deep impression in it Now there is room for Jesus Christ now faith is wrought there and now a soule can plead with God by faith in prayer he seeth there is no former Covenant that he can plead nor any righteousnesse of his owne but such as Hypocrites will quarrell for and rise up to maintaine as they did against John Baptist pleading their Covenant and their righteousnesse with these things a poore soule is not satisfied but unto you that feare my name shall the Sun of righteousnesse arise with healing in his wings c. Mal. 4.2 Herein is implyed such a reverent fear that dare not disaffect this kind of yeeldingnesse to the Son In the old Testament it is called Fear in the new Testament it is more generally called Faith yet the Apostle saith Rom. 11.20 Be not high-minded but fear whereby he provoketh them to live by Faith and indeed it is that whereby the soule doth yeeld unto the Lord and this is indeed our Effectuall Calling the Spirit of God taking possession in our hearts and working this faith in us whereby we submit unto the Lord. This is that faith in Jesus Christ that maketh us one with Christ for our effectuall calling bringeth us to be one with him 1 Cor. 1.9 God is faithfull by whom ye are called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ This fellowship or communion standeth in two things 1 In the Unity of the Spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 2 In the receiving of Faith on our parts so that by beleeving which is the first thing we doe we yeeld unto the first work of God when this stronger man cometh we yeeld up all our Armour to him and herein standeth our coming on to be in Christ and in God the Father by this Spirit of God that taketh possession of the heart and hath not only burnt up root and branch of our legall righteousnesse but hath also melted us unto a soft frame to yeeld up our selves unto the Lord and now we are fit for any duty the Lord having possest us with his powerfull presence and this is true spirituall Union between the Lord our souls By this faith the Creature doth yeeld up it selfe unto the Lord which is also the work of the grace of God in us having brought us unto holy union w th himselfe Now this faith thus wrought in our effectuall calling is not built upon any Conditionall Promise I mean upon any Promise made to any gracious Condition penitent in us nor can it be built upon any but upon the Absolute free Promise unto the soule according to what we read Isa 43.22 to 2â— Thou hast not called upon me O Jacob but thou hast been weary of me O Israel thou hast not brought me the small Cattell c. See Calvin l. 3. justiâ— c. 2. s 29. In all which we see the absolute freenes of the grace of God So Ezek. 36.26 Object But you will say Though some may be converted by such an absolute Promise yet some mans faith may be built upon a conditionall Promise unto a gratious condition Answ I pray you consider it If it be a condition it is to some good Qualification or other some good work or other of the Spirit of God in the heart of a Christian Was this work wrought before Conversion or after Every Christian knoweth that all workes wrought before Conversion are but drosse and dung to apply Promises to such works were indeed to build upon a sandy foundation What say you then to works after Conversion All works after Conversion are fruits of Faith and if they proceed from faith then faith went before then a mans faith was not built upon a conditionall promise how is it possible that it should when as all works after Conversion are fruits of faith or else they are no true sanctification then faith went before in order of Nature and so was not built upon works but works upon it And therefore all our best Divines doe carry it thus That faith closeth with Christ upon a Promise of free grace otherwise as saith Calvin Justiâ— l. 3. c. 2. s 29. my faith would alwayes be trembling and wavering as my works be Upon a Promise of free grace therefore my faith is built as upon the Promise of God in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe 2 Cor. 5.18,19 The word is it may be spoken outwardly unto
Prop. 2. That true Christian sanctification which is a work of faith is many times darke to a sincere Christian It is generally granted to be so in the first conversion and in time of temptation and desertion as also when a man looketh at his justification and at the glory of God Woe is me for I am uncleane saith the Prophet Isaiah at such a time there is so much power of flesh even in spirituall Christians specially in young Christians so much power in their lusts and in their passions as will put their best friends to a stand what to thinke of them and much more themselves when as they come to be pressed with the power of their corruptions specially when they compare with such hypocrites as run away with more freedome of spirit than themselves for sometimes their corruptions doe lesse appeare and they are more free from temptations and not exposed to such sinfull courses which sometimes true hearted Christians are subject unto So a poore Christian is discouraged an hypocrite emboldened seeing himselfe more sanctified than the other in view Prop. 3. That true sanctification of a sincere Christian is not discerned by him nor is indeed discernable untill he first discerne his justifying faith A double ground of it so leave it to your christian disquisition and search they are both taken from the necessity of faith both to the acceptance of a mans person and worke there is a necessity of the activenes of faith in a mans sanctification The Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering Gen. 4.4 A mans person must first be accepted otherwise all his worke will not goe beyond the worke of a legall Christian and without faith it is impossible to please God no acceptance therefore without faith It is also necessary to the performance of all spirituall duties for all sanctification is from that faith which Christ doth convey into the soule Now if the just man live by his faith whether it be the life of sanctification or consolation then no Christian can discerne his sanctification to be lively but he must discerne his faith living in it he must see his faith deriving strength and grace and life from Christ or else he cannot approve his sanctification to be the sanctification of the Gospell for as there can be no true sanctification unlesse there be faith whereby the person is accepted and whereby life is received to act in all sanctification so there can be no knowledge of sanctification but there must be knowledg of faith whereby a mans person is accepted whereby strength is conveyed to sanctification for if a poore soule be doubtfull of his acceptance with the Lord he is where hee was notwithstanding his sanctification and wanteth comfort for this doubt remaineth whether he be accepted or no which untill the Lord doe manifest a mans faith unto him by the revelation of the holy Ghost he is still at a losse in it for though true sanctification be an evidence of a mans justification yet it selfe must be first evident Thus we see by this third exposition that a further light is required to the light of sanctification Prop. 4. Notwithstanding this neere resemblance between legall and evangelicall holines yet there is a reall difference between them and such a difference as is discernable to Christians whose wite are exercised in the wayes of the Spirit and in the word of God and is discerned by the revelation or manifestation of the Spirit of God both of the state and worke of good Christians and that ordinarily also for I would not count it extraordinary being that which the Lord by his Spirit doth usually reveale unto his people A reall difference there is both in the Roote and in the Rule and in the Scope which they ayme at and so it will appeare to be at the last day Math. 25.23 Depart from me saith Christ you workers of iniquity I never knew you though they came and told him that they wrought by faith in him indeed they stood in some relation to him but not as members to the head onely as branches to the vine which may be cut off and yet the vine not maimed but if the members should be cut off any one from another then is the body maimed but Christ will not suffer his body to be maimed but take you never so many branches from the vine and it is not maimed but will bring forth more if therefore there be no more fellowship between Christ a Christian than between the branches and the vine you may take them away and yet not hurt the vine But wherein should this relation stand It is very hard to conceive insomuch that those who have been most exact and diligent to enquire into it have professed that it is Angels worke very hard it is so to distinguish them from Gods owne children so as not to discomfort poor christians nor to imbolden hypocrites Wee must be tender therefore that the least of Gods children may not want their bread better leave 99 sheepe than that one poore stray sheepe should not be sought after and better an 100 hypocrites perish than that one poor Christian should want his portion and yet it is not meet that hypocrites should allow themselves in the estate and fellowship of the Saints and yet alwayes blesse themselves in their carnall condition If you shall ask a difference in the Root both of them are partakers of the Holy Ghost Hypocrites may have a tast and a poor Christian will feare that his best fellowship with Christ is but a tast and that manifold experience maketh good Wherein then lyeth the difference Doth the Spirit of God leave the heart of an Hypocrite stony and unmelted It is so indeed with the stony but not with the thorny soile for the hearts of some Hypocrites are melted as iron stones they may come to melt about their owne estates through fear and so all those melt that want not depth of earth as the thorny soile did not but mind you they will grow hard again as iron or lead will doe after it is melted Now look at the Spirit of God when he cometh to work effectually and he doth not onely melt the heart but taketh away the heart of stone and giveth an heart of flesh for it is not enough to breake a stone it will be a stone though it be broken but when the Lord changeth it into flesh then it will be hard no more But though a man may have many temptations yet the Lord will keep his heart soft for ever And this is that which I do believe touching the witnesse of Sanctification unto Justification You see what workes of God are found in Hypocrites and therefore what dangerous deceits we are subject unto if God be not more mercifull Againe you see what state Christians are brought unto when their Conversion and Faith is wrought in them and how it is not grounded upon the sight of their
sanctification but is revealed in an Absolute Promise of free grace and so is the soule built up in the Assurance of its good estate and groweth faithfull through Christ and not in Hypocrisy This is the true rest of the soule when it groweth up in a lively Faith in Jesus Christ and yet resteth not in this that it is sanctified but doth look principally after Jesus Christ and blesseth God for sanctification making use of it for those ends for which God hath given it but dares not rest in it as the ground of his blessednesse This is the first difference betweene Hypocrites and Gods owne Servants in the root though both may work in the name of Christ yet as the one is temporary and the other persevereth so this difference you shall find between common and sincere Christians and that not onely when Legall Christians are blasted of God but even then when they doe most flourish in their profession The true Faith of the Gospel of Christ is never prefident of his owne strength though they that have it sometimes be as Peter Mat. 26.33,35 but it is out of himselfe in Christ whereas the Legall Christian is confident of his Faith that he can make use of it to these and these ends which are before him he thinketh there is no more needfull but to look up unto Christ and so his work is done whereas take you the strongest Faith of the Thessalonians who were grown to such height that none of the Churches were before them yet the Apostle doth not think their Faith strong enough but prayeth for supply of something lacking in their Faith otherwise when it is at the best it will warpe whereas one that hath but a temporary Faith is confident in the strength of that faith insomuch that it doth not fear but to carry an end his profession in a safe course to Gods glory and his owne Thus we see there is a reall difference between the presence and work of the Spirit in an Hypocrite and in a Child of God In particular we see there is a difference in the Faith which is given to both of them the one hath confidence in himselfe the other in Jehovah Isa 26.12,13 This is the first difference in the root of their profession 2 There is Difference also in the Rule by which they walk though both seek to the word and delight in that you shall not difference them there yet this difference you shall find in their apprehensions the one is confident of his comfort that he hath in the word the other seeth need that the Lord should maintaine his comfort for him 1 Chron. 29.18 David prayeth thus c. as being sensible that this their comfortable frame of spirit would soon faile them and they would quickly grow liftlesse unto such spirituall works as then they had been about and this is the nature of true Consolation in Christ it maketh a man to have recoure unto the Author of it to preserve it Now though both attend unto the word yet here they differ the one hath enough if he can see the Rule like to the Israelites Deut. 5.27 they have enough if they have the rule but a true Christian attending rightly unto his rule findeth it farre off from him to walk according to it unlesse the Lord be pleased so to set it home unto him as that by his power he may be carried an end in obedience unto it for though he know and see his Rule yet he wanteth help to rule his heart according to his rule otherwise though the rule be streight yet his walking will be crooked as a child will write crooked though his line be streight So a Christian man is sensible how his feet and hands will shake when he cometh to walk or doe any thing according to a rule therefore he doth wholly look unto Christ as being sensible of his owne inability unlesse he find help and strength from him 3 There is difference also in the scope and End which they aime at though both aime at the glory of God yet both cannot attaine unto this to make the glory of God their last end but the one of these doe secretly wind about to his owne glory in the end as Jehu doth 2 Kings 10.16 Come see my zeale that I have for the Lord but he bringeth about his owne glory by it and here is the maine deceit of the work he seeketh the glory of God in himselfe and in his owne hand whereas the principall care of Gods owne people is and ought to be the glory of God in Jesus Christ But the Hypocrite his chief care is to have it seen that God is glorified by his hand Come see the zeale that I have Object You will say Is it not a great glory unto God to be glorified by my hand Answ Yes but there is a great deceit in it for many a man will work much so far as his owne glory is wrapped up in his actions and like it well so long as God may be glorified in him But all this while he wanteth those single affections after the glory of God though in the hand of another But how then should a man seek to promote the glory of God If it be the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ that a man seeketh after he will then rejoyce as much that God may be glorified by his brother as by himself and that 's the spirit of a true Israelite indeed So that the Name of Christ be magnified it 's no matter by whom I therein doe rejoyce yea and will rejoyce saith the blessed Apostle Phil. 1.18 If any man therefore aimeth at Gods glory then onely when it may be an honour to him in his profession no thank to him for that much close work may be found so long as both are carryed an end together But if when I hear that my Brother glorifieth God I could have wished that such a thing had been done or spoken by me it is the worse because it is not done by my hands if that which is the rich goodnesse to my Brother be not also my rejoycing it is because of the core of Hypocrisy in my heart Thus have we seen particularly the difference between legall and Evangelicall holinesse We proceed still in the fourth Use to a fifth Question If Jesus Christ be the first gift that is given to the Children of God before he giveth right unto Promises or to me to challenge Promises yea before he giveth me any other gifts of his saving Grace then any soule may ask this Question Quest 5. Of what use are Promises if it be not to bring me to Christ yea especially to what end are conditionall Promises made that is to say Promises to such and such Qualifications if I may not take a Promise in one hand and a Qualification in the other hand and bring them both to God and lay hold upon Christ with both hands in the strength of
to life and glory but given his Sonne to redeeme us and holy Spirit to sanctifie us Ezek. 36.27 What need is there then of Sanctification for if the holy Ghost will dwell in us he can take our wits and understandings and understand all our meditations for us without any such actuall concurrence of ours as might be requisite for that end if the Lord give himselfe to be my righteousnes and holines what need I then these gifts of holines so that this in summe is the Question If the Lord will give unto us himselfe what need we these gifts to worke any thing which God is much more able to performe than we can be this springeth naturally from the doctrine Though the Lord give us himselfe and his holy Spirit to dwell in us yet is it needfull that we should be endued with all the gifts of the Spirit of grace that do accompany salvation You will say what need is there then that the holy Ghost should dwell in us or will not these carry an end our soules unto immortality Truly we have need that the Lord should give us his holy Spirit to dwell in us notwithstanding all the gifts of his grace though they indeed are necessary conditions to be found in the soules of all Gods servants Heb. 12.14 Follow peace with holines without which no man shall see the Lord as if he made it not onely of absolute necessity unto salvation in another world but for a comfortable condition in this world follow peace and holines as if they were ready to fly away from a man and indeed the Originall word doth imply no lesse for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie the pursuit of something that fleeth from a man as peace will many times fly from one a man shall have much adoe to attaine unto it Psal 120.6,7 it is not easily attained unto therefore should not be suffered to depart but held fast when it is enjoyed And so for holines the Apostle would have us make an holy kinde of pursuite after it as if it were still withdrawing it selfe from us which cometh through the corruptions of our hearts for wee are soone weary of holy duties as prayer or conference or the like if holines be in any thing it soone groweth wearisome to flesh and bloud but though our weake and feeble nature will be withdrawing us from holines yet the Lord would have us to follow it and pursue it and so shall a man be withdrawn from the world and from the temptations and bad examples thereof doe not say what shall we be wiser than our fathers is not moderation best in all things but consider what the Apostle saith follow still after it even unto perfection and his words doe intimate the Reason of it Without which no man shall see the Lord for what is holines in its owne nature it is that which giveth God his due as righteousnesse giveth man his due this is a maine ground why we are so slow in works of holines for were they of another nature and did they serve our turnes more as we thinke we should not then account them tedious if a man were to sit and tell money all day long this is for my selfe saith a man and for my profit and if it were for another we should not thinke the time long it may be about that work neither but mind you when it cometh to any thing which doth concerne the Lord then it s so sarre above a mans reach whatsoever we have to doe in the things of God that we should soone be weary of reaching forth our hands all the day long unto the Lord and to be constantly for God from God and with God in all our actions our base spirits are soone ready to be withdrawing from the Lord therefore the Apostle biddeth us Follow after peace and holines without which c. so that great is the necessity of holines and worthy to be followed after for though a mans owne heart and the world and men and Satan withdraw us from it yet follow after it for without it no man shall see God there is a kinde of holines which some men have attained unto many a faire day agoe but t is a thousand to one whether it be the holines that doth accompany salvation for that holines is not easily attained unto but the other will easily cleave close unto a man Now if you shall aske me Quest Wherefore the Lord will have us pursue after holines and what needeth it if the Spirit of holines dwell in me by an Everlasting Covenant if it did withdraw from us as it did from Adam it was another matter but though it may be quenched in us yet it abideth for ever what need then of gifts of holinesse Answ That one word may be sufficient which we finde 2 Tim. 2. If any man purge himselfe from these evills he shall be c. This sheweth us why gifts of holines are requifite to be in Gods people namely that they might become meet instruments in the hand of God and fitted unto every good word and worke therefore it is that the Lord will have us to be filled with all the gifts of righteousnes and fruits of his Spirit that we might be the more fit Temples for the holy Ghost to dwell in and this is the principall Reason of the point Quest If then there be such gifts of holines what need the holy Ghost dwell in us is it not enough that he should shed abroad these things into our hearts cannot the Lord carry an end the worke of our salvation by these gifts Answ There is need that the holy Ghost should dwell in us notwithstanding 1. To keepe these gifts in us 2. To Act them in us 3. To witnesse unto our soules by these for our comfort and the good one of another Some Scriptures for all these 1. That there is need of the holy Ghost that he should keepe these in us 2 Tim. 1.14 there is a worthy thing committed unto us how shall wee keepe it not by our owne wit or wisdome carefull watchfullnes and faithfullnes though such things ought not to be wanting but the charge is Keepe those things by the holy Ghost which dwelleth in us we stand in need of gifts to be fit instruments in the hand of God we stand in need of the Spirit of God to maintaine that which God giveth us though Adams gifts were in perfection yet not having the holy Ghost to keepe them for him they all fly from him as soone as ever he had tasted of the forbidden fruit and left him naked and desperate therefore in the Covenant of grace the Lord giveth the holy Ghost to keepe strong possession in his servants against the strong man armed 2. It s the holy Ghost that Acteth the gifts given to us and enableth them in us for the holy Ghost who keepeth possession doth derive continued strength into our faith which putteth life into all
that is the first and fundamentall of all the rest that God doth put forth or any other Person in Trinity for the applying of the Covenant unto the hearts of his people And God in giving his Sonne doth give himselfe Isai 9.6 Joh. 10.30 1 Joh. 2.23 Rom. 5.8 Joh. 3.16 And as God giveth us his Sonne so he giveth us all things else in his Sonne Rom. 8.32 So then this is the first and the great worke of God that he hath given his Son out of his own bosome to take our nature upon him to lead a miserable life and to dye a cursed death and in him hath given all his Attributes his mercy and power unto the sonnes of men an undoubted signe that God intendeth to give himselfe in the Covenant of grace unto his people when he giveth Jesus Christ himselfe in that Covenant as he doth expressely Isa 42.6 where wee may see that God giveth another even that God the Father giveth God the Sonne Thus it is a gift of the Covenant that God giveth his Sonne to be the foundation of the Covenant and the chiefe blessing of it And Chap. 49.8 He speaketh to the same purpose No man hath seene God at any time Joh. 1.18 nor can see him nor will God the Father have immediate fellowship with any creature but the onely begotten Sonne of the Father the Lord hath given him that he might reveale him Thus wee may perceive that the Lord is gratious and marvellous gratious in that he giveth us his Sonne his deare Sonne the second Person in Trinity and thus he saith to his Elect I will be a God unto thee and give thee my Sonne that shall redeeme thee out of all distresse and danger Thus doth the Lord for his people and it is a cleere evidence of his grace and sheweth that his love unto his people is beyond all banks and bottome for the Lord to give us his Sonne and this Sonne so soone as he was promised his people saw him a farre of Joh. 8.56 Your father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad For when the Lord Jesus Christ was promised unto him Gen. 17.16,17 and the Lord had said unto him I will blesse Sarah and give thee a sonne of her yea I will blesse her c. Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed he did rejoyce that the Lord would give him a Saviour out of his loynes how it could be brought to passe it may be he knew not but by a spirit of Prophecy did he discerne it no doubt This is the first worke of God in giving himselfe by Covenant and this was done long agoe before we were borne he gave him in his eternall counsell when he did elect us in him he gave him when he sent him into the world But this is more when 2. He giveth us unto his Christ by Covenant and draweth us unto him and giveth Christ unto us also And this grace of God cometh neerer us the other did leave us like lambs in a large pasture but now as He giveth us unto Christ so he giveth him unto us and both in present possession And this the Father doth Joh. 6.44 for no man saith Christ can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and every one that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me Now this kinde of hearing and learning of the Father is a strange kinde of learning which the Lord Teacheth the soule by when he draweth him unto Christ an effectuall Teaching and powerfull 1 Cor. 1.9 This is your effectuall calling and this is the Lords giving us unto his Sonne John 6.37 All this is properly the worke of the Father Men are said to be well given when they give themselves to their bookes to their works and businesse but this we may well say that we are indeed well given when the Lord giveth us unto his Sonne for otherwise we are but in all ill state which way soever we are given Quest If you shall aske How the Father giveth us and calleth us and draweth us into fellowship with his Sonne for they are Scripture-phrases and all of them of like value in Scripture-sense Answ In a word The Lord draweth us unto his Sonne by his Spirit and calleth us as by his word so by his Spirit also and giveth us by his word and Spirit unto Jesus Christ In this thing I shall speake no more unto you than what you have often heard and I suppose long agoe received As that the Lord calleth his people out of their sinnes by the light of the Law and by the Spirit of bondage he setteth home the Law effectually unto the soule and thereby draweth us from sin and from the world in some measure that we have now no minde to those things which before we were full of delight in whether they be sinnes against the Law or sinnes against the Gospell it is the Lords usuall dealing by his Spirit to set home sinnes against both in so much that thereby we come to be afflicted with some kinde of trembling and feare and torment about our spirituall estate And thus it was with Saul who afterwards was Paul Acts 9.3,4,5,6 when Christ called unto him out of heaven and challenged and convinced him of sinne he all trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to doe So it was with the Jaylor Acts 16.29 After the Lord had shaken his heart with an earth-quake which is a sanction of the Law and a ratification of it as all Gods judgements are he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling to Paul and Silas Thus the Lord draweth men out of themselves and their finfull wayes by a spirit of bondage whereby they are convinced of sinne and desert of Gods wrath are greatly and deeply afflicted with feare concerning which the Apostle Paul saith 2 Tim. 1.7 God hath not given us the Spirit of feare or bondage but of power of love and of a sound mind c. Such feare also the Apostle John speaketh of 1 Joh. 4.18 when he saith Perfect love casteth out feare for feare hath torment which commeth from the sense of a mans estate whereby he is forced to cry out many times and to say woe worth my soule that ever I was borne for the Lord causeth the to possesse all my sinnes and presseth me downe to the nethermost hell This is one worke of the Spirit of bondage by which the Lord draweth the soule out of it selfe and sinnes though of it selfe the spirit of feare goeth no further than to shake a mans carnall confidence which is accompanyed with Anguish and Torment 1 Joh. 4.18 Rev. 9.3 11.10 Besides this Spirit of Bondage the Lord hath another work which is called a Spirit of Burning Mal 4.1 The day cometh c. This is a Spirit of burning let us speak unto it a little the Prophet saith I shall leave them neither root nor branch
to ingraffe us into Jesus Christ this is quite contrary to nature Why wherein is it so contrary I answer whereas nature is active for it selfe now it cometh to passe that whereas a soul hath been stirring and busie in his owne strength at length the Spirit of God by the mighty power of his grace being shed abroad into the soule doth burn up root and branch not onely the root of Abraham's Covenant but all the fatnesse of the root of the Wild Olive by which we are fat and lively to all spirituall work in our owne apprehensions so that we work in our owne strength untill the Lord come and cut us quite down and make us to see that there is not the least good thought as of our selves and therefore unlesse the Lord be wonderfully gratious unto us we cannot be saved till it come unto this the soule is not fit for Jesus Christ Thus the Spirit of God may worke powerfully in the hearts of men and burn up their root and branch and this a spirit of burning may doe and yet leave the soule in a damnable condition for ought I know and such as many a soule may be in and yet never come to enjoy saving fellowship with Jesus Christ therefore as this is one arm of God stretched forth for the salvation of his people when he draweth them out of themselves by a Spirit Of Bondage Burning towards Christ So 2 There is a further work of God in drawing us home throughly and effectually to Jesus Christ when he giveth the Spirit of Adoption which reacheth beyond all the former work he hath cut us off from our selves and now we stand in a state quite contrary to nature and if any saving work be wrought in us it is quite contrary to nature if any thing fall upon the heart and soule of a man to bring his will to this passe to lye downe at Gods feet that he knoweth not what to doe and yet whatsoever the Lord calleth him unto he is willing if it were possible to be done he would run through fire and water to doe it but he findeth himselfe unable to doe any thing and now he will tell you that to believe is as impossible for him as to build a world why then bid him wait waite saith he I but I cannot waite and if I seek the Lord I cannot find him and I see others of Gods servants wrought upon gratiously but dead-hearted I nothing will work upon me now in such a case as this the Spirit of God cometh into the heart of a Christian and taketh possession of the soule for Jesus Christ and so draweth the soule to Christ and maketh it there to stay and there to lye down and to be willing to be drawne yet neerer and neerer unto Christ and to be carried an end by him to take all from him to give all the glory to him This Spirit of Adoption doth give a man a Son-like frame to lye prostrate at his Fathers will like unto the Prodigall Son Luke 15.17,18,19 who when he came to himselfe and saw how unable he was to provide for himselfe and how unworthy he was that his Father should doe any thing for him he came and lay downe at the feet of his Father for he is unable and unworthy of any mercy Now this stooping of the heart unto God and yielding unto him to doe with us as seemeth good in his own eyes is such a prostration of the heart wherein the Lord hath taken possession of the soule that now a man is led unto fellowship with Christ that there is None in Heaven but him none in the earth in comparison of him that the soule desireth after and now a man waiteth upon Christ to see what he will doe for him and though he cannot tell you that he waiteth yet he doth waite that he may be helped of God to depend upon him Thus he receiveth all from Christ and giveth all unto him This is the Fathers drawing of the soule which is expounded to be the hearing and learning of the Father of which John speaketh ch 6.45 He that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me which is when the Lord hath drawne the soule out of his naturall corruptions legall reformations pretences of Faith and waiting upon Christ in his owne strength for Faith if it be wanting Then when the soul doth lie at his feet to be disposed of according to the will of God and is in some measure subject unto the Lord though not so much as he could desire and therefore now the soule doth not content or blesse himselfe in any gifts or works of his own but yieldeth himselfe humbly to the Lord to work in him both will and deed of his owne good pleasure and to teach him how to seek and waite and believe and long after Jesus Christ these things he waiteth for Otherwise untill he be thus taught of God the soule will alwayes think that he can doe something and is not able to come out of himself to utter denyall of himselfe but if any man will come unto Christ he must deny himselfe even all his owne gifts and parts and good works whatsoever for a man is never utterly denyed untill there be nothing left of which a man can say This I am able to doe or this is an hopefull thing in me and when it cometh to this passe then will the soule lie down at the will of God and acknowledge that if the Lord would never shew him mercy just and righteous are his judgements Now when the soule and will of a Christian are convinced of these things as well as his judgement that now he waiteth upon Christ as well that he may be able to waite and seek the Lord as he doth for any other good thing from the Lord he waiteth now upon the Lord for a poor spirit and cannot perke up himselfe no more then a bruised Reed can doe Thus when it cometh unto saving work the will and soule of a man is so cast downe that a man cannot tell what to make of himselfe but there he lieth to see what the Lord will doe with him whether he will reach forth the hand of salvation unto him or no. In this case the soule is left utterly void and hath in himself neither root nor branch but seeth how unable he is in himselfe to beleeve or waite nor can he tell whether Jesus Christ be his portion and now doth the Lord take possession and fill the empty soule If you ask me how this spirit cometh into the soule to make it thus to stoop unto Christ You shall find that the Lord useth to convey himselfe unto the soule in some word of Promise of the Gospel that sheweth unto the soule the riches of the grace of God in Jesus Christ something or other is declared of Christ This word being taught in the publick Ministry of the word or brought to remembrance in some spirituall
behind him doe and I trust ever will speak to the Saints to the Churches here below both in the present and also future Generations yet unborn Neither doth the other viz. the third that concerning the Power of Magistrates in matters of the first Table seem to claim any lower descent being indeed a Result of a meeting of divers reverend and godly Elders of severall Churches in the Masaâ—…usets Plantation in New-England An. 1646. where both the head and heart of the forenamed reverend and precious man was also present amongst those approved workmen who need not to be ashamed And as for the Matter which they do treat of 't is the establishment of Peace both Spirituall viz. of a beleeving soul with the Lord in the Covenant of Grace as in the first Treatise and Ecclesiasticall viz. between the Brethren and Churches of the Presbyterian and Congregationall way as in the second and also Politicall viz. between Magistrates and people in point of power and Jurisdiction about matters belonging to the first Table as in the third Treatise How well these things are here spoken unto I shall willingly leave to the godly and learned Readers to judge I shall only desire to give a brief account of the publishing of them to the world that the Reader may undoubtedly assure himself that these are neither spurious Copies nor surreptitiously put forth The Treatise of the New Covenant having been taken from the Authors mouth in Preaching was afterward presented unto him with desire of his perusal and emendation of it which being done and indeed the interlinings of his owne hand doe plainly testifie his correcting of it he delivered back not long before his death into the hands of a Gentleman one of the Church in Boston there who coming over hither and being about to return left it with me to take order for the Printing of it That of the Queries I had from the Reverend Author himself my most Honoured friend in a letter from him with liberty if it might be thought meet of publishing of it At my coming over from that Country which was about a year before his death he delivered unto me the same for substance but in another Form viz. in 12 Propositions and therefore did then expresse his unwillingness to yield to the impression of them being moved thereunto by a Reverend Elder then present with us by reason as he said they were set down by way of Propositions but afterward the Lord having directed him to mould them in to another model turning the twelve Propositions into eleven Queries he was pleased to send them over unto me as here they are presented He was a man of peace of a very sweet spirit and had a speciall faculty of composing differences in the judgements of Brethren and thus much I shall crave liberty to testifie of him that besides the multiplicity of occasions which was constantly upon him he was not without care about the Peace and welfare of the Churches abroad and notwithstanding his so vast a distance in body from the Churches and Saints in his Native Countrey yet he had great thoughts of heart for the Division of his Brethren here being seriously studious how to compose and heale their breaches He hath sometimes said unto me being privately together Brother I perceive there is a great gravamen which the one party is much offended at with the other I pray let us study how we may ease and remove it From that solicitous care it was that he drew up these 11 Queries unto which may it be without offence I shall be bold to add one more to make up the number even and round the which I doe presume that our Reverend and honoured friend would not have been averse unto had he been on earth to have been consulted withall The third and last Treatise being The Result of a Synod at Cambridge as 't is stiled by the Copy come to my hands was lately sent over unto me from a Reverend Friend one that was present at that Assembly desiring mee earnestly intimating also that 't was not his owne desire only to procure the Printing of it as conceiving it might prove very usefull for the present season Now these three little Treatises being in mine hand through providence together and each of them somewhat too small to put forth severally I was the more willing especially apprehending them not to be altogether heterogeniall to joyne in one small Volume and as they came from one and the same place so to send them forth as Companions together and oh that the presence and blessing of the Spirit of Christ may go along with them making them usefull and profitable unto the Readers or Hearers of them THO ALLEN BOOKS Sould by John Allen at the Rising Sun in Pauls Church-yard NOva Testament Beza fol. Doctor Holdsworths Works compleat 4o. Mr. Caryl's fifth Vollume on Job 4o. Mr. Greenhil's second Voll on Ezekiel 4o. Gospel-Liberty by Mr. Cradock 4o. Mr. Lockiers Works 4o. Andrew's Catechisticall Doctrine 8o. Simpson of Justification 8o. Ainsworth's Communion 8o. Ainsworth's Arrow against Idols 8o. Welch Testament 8o. The Saints Desire by Samuel Richardson 8o. Gaule of Witches 8o. The Contents of the Treatise concerning the Covenant Doct. THat God in the Covenant gave himselfe to be a God unto Abraham and his seed and received Abraham and his Seed to be his people and took Christ to be the Mediatour and Surety of this Covenant between both Page 4. In which are these 3 things 1 That God gave himselfe to Abraham to be a God to him and his Seed 5. 7. Here is considered 1 What 't is for God to give himselfe to Abraham 7. Viz. 1 The whole nature of God in his Persons and Attributes 8. 2 All the Ordinances Creatures and works of God 10. 2 The Order of Gods giving in the Covenant 14. Viz. 1 God doth first give and not the Creature ibid. 2 God also is the first thing that is given ibid. 3 The Manner of giving viz. freely and for ever 15. Obj. But the Lord required that he should give himselfe back again Answered 16. Obj. The Lord required him to circumcise his Seed answered 17. 2 How the Lord doth take Abraham and his Seed to be his people 5. 19. By preparing them by a spirit of Bondage 20. Burning 21. By taking possession of them by his spirit 24. Which spirit doth Convince the soule of unbeliefe 25. Work Faith and unites to Christ by some Promise of grace 26. Qu. Whether may not true Faith be built on a Conditionall Promise answered 29. see 56. From Union followeth Communion with Christ in all spirituall Blessings 31. Viz. Relative as Adoption ibid. Iustification ibid. Positive wrought in us as Sanctification 34. Glorification 35. 3 How the Lord did constitute Jesus Christ to be the Mediatour of the Coven 7. 36. By receiving him the Son of the Virgin Mary to be one person with the second in the Trinity ibid. By
giving him to be a Covenant or a Mediatour of it In filling him with all fullnesse to be a King Priest and Prophet 37. In his performing whatever is required on our parts ibid. Use 1 It teacheth the difference between the Covenant of Works of Grace 39. 1 In the one all is given upon the condition of obedience in the other not ibid. 2 The Covenant of Grace is built upon a free Promise of Grace the other upon something else as Ordinances Duties c. 40. 3 In the Continuance the Benefits of the one as Justification and Sanctification doe abide the other not so 42. Two sorts of Hypocrites have a kind of Sanctification Viz Washed Swine and Goates 44. The Goates fall short of Sheep in two things 45. 1 Goats are Capricious affecting eminency ibid. 2 They are Rankish not having the sweetnesse of sheep 47. 4 In respect of the Mediator both of the one and the other ibid. 2 It yieldeth an Argument against the Body of Arminianisme 48. 3 Gods people 〈◊〉 to respect them that are under a Covenant of Workes and not be hopelesse of their Salvation 49. 4 It helps to clear sundry Questions about the Covenant 51. 1 Qu. What is the first Gift that ever the Lord giveth to the Elect 52. Ans He giveth Himself and not saving Preparations fiâ—st ibid. 2 Qu. Whether are the Blessings of the Covenant given before faith to apply them 55. Ans The Spirit is given to work faith ibid. 3. Qu. Whether the Promise wherein the Lord giveth Himselfe be absolute or conditionall 56. Ans ' Tiâ— absolute ibid. 4. Qu. Whether a mans Union with Christ may be evidenced by his Sanctification Answered in foure Propositions 58. 1 Propos That a Sanctification which the Terrours of the Law may produce is no evidence of Union with Christ ibid. Here three things are to be attended unto concerning Sanctification 60. 1 The Root from which it springeth 61. 2 The Rule by which 't is guided 67. 3 The End at which it aimeth 70. 2 Propos That true Sanctification is many times dark unto a Christian 74. 3 Propos That true Sanctification is not discernable before Faith be discerned 75. 4 Propos There is a reall Difference between legall and Evangelicall Sanctification and wherein it lyeth 77. 5 Qu. Of what use are Promises especially Conditionall if not to bring us unto Christ 86. Ans There is a three fold use of them 1 Before Union with Christ both for Doctrine 87. Instruction 88. Exhortation 89. And a three-fold Effect also the Promises have before Union Viz. Of Illumination 90. Affection to despise all other things ibid. Conviction so as to leave without excuse 91. 2 In our Union with Christ 92. 3 After our Union with Christ and that many wayes Viz. 1 For Doctrine that all treasures are in Christ 96. 2 For Instruction where to looke for Qualifications ibid. 3 To stir up to Prayer 97. 4 To help to discern our spirituall estate 98. 5 To worke the Qualifications and Conditions of the Promises in us 100. 6 To provoke to such Duties as to which blessings are promised 101. 7 To strengthen Faith ibid. 6 Qu. To what use then serveth the Law of God which requireth such and such Conditions in us Is not this to make it voyd unto Christians as if they were not under the Law at all 106. Ans 'T is of speciall use both unto them that are Carnall either Elected to make them see their sin 108. Not Elected to harden them 111. Both by their Obedience to it 112. Comfort in their Obed ib. Spirituall being under the Rule of it 114. And the effects of their subjection to it are 1 They feele the Fatherly displeasure of God for their transgressing of it 119. 2 They beleeve Gods gracious acceptance of their Obedience unto it 120. 2 A Christian is not under the Law i. e. under the Covenant of it so as he is not to 1 Look for life by his Obedience nor to fear condemnation by the breach of it 124. 2 Seek for any blessing from his obedience nor fear any curse from his disobedience 128. 3 Look for Conjugall Comfort from his Obedience 130. Divorce from his Disobedience 130. 4 Claime his right to any Conditionall Promise by his Obedience Deny himselfe the Blessing of the Promise because of his disobedience 132. Hence therefore 1 Let none accuse the Doctrine of the Covenant of Antinomianisme 134. 2 The Servants of God may see how far they are freed from the Law 136. 3 Men may come to have some discerning of their spirituall states 137. 4 Gods people may learn how to build their Faith and Hope 138. 7 Qu. If God gives Himselfe and so if his Holy Spirit be in us what need we Gifts or Grace to work by 141. Ans 1. We cannot see God without the same 143. 2 Thereby we are made fit Temples for the Holy Ghost 145. Qu. But if there be Gifts of Holinesse in us then what need the Holy Ghost to dwell in us ibid. Ans 1 To keep those gifts in us 146. 2 To act them in us 147. 3 To witnesse to us by them to our comfort ibid. Qu. How are we to imploy the gifts of Sanctification in us 150. Ans 1 See that we receive them from Christ and that Christ be all in all in them ibid. 2 Trust not on them 152. Either for The performance of any duty 153 Justification from them 160. 3 In point of witnesse and how 161. 4 In point of rejoycing 162. 5 We are to grow up in them to perfection 164. 9 Qu. How doth God give Himselfe to be a God Covenant with us 170. Ans 1 He gave his Son out of his bosome for our Redemption 171. 2 He giveth us unto Christ and Christ unto us 173. Qu. How doth the Father give and call us to Christ 174. Ans By his Word ibid. Spirit Of Bondage 175. Burning 177. Adoption 184. Hence we may learne to discerne how we came to saving fellowship and union with Christ 192. There are foure sorts that fall short of this Union with Christ ibid. Viz. Such as 1 Doe blesse themselves in regard of outward blessings ibid. 2 Find comfort in their Reformations ibid. 3 Rest in a Faith of their owne making 193. 4 Waite upon Christ for Faith in their owne strength 195. FINIS Some Faults to be Corrected by the Reader In the first Treatise Page Line  1 16 read through 11 25 read Eschol 29 14 for penitent read president 31 2 blot out is it 33 22 after us make a period 38 18 for persons r. person 43 26 r. their 44 22 r. Hypocrites 46 23 for recrive r. receive 48 1 for the r. their 49 21 for it is r. is it not 51 3 r. prefidence 53 2 after Christ make 60 7 for attained r. attended   last line but one r. no easie 71  last line in the marg for Answ r. Quest 77 2 for
they shall enjoy God in all Psal 16.5,6 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance He saw the Lord in what he did enjoy and when he had any thing it was in God when he wanted any thing it was supplyed in him The like did Jacob find when his brother Esau came against him with 400 men and the Lord turned him from the fiercenesse of his wrath here was the Covenant of Abraham the Lord gave him the mouth and arms and tears of his brother Esau what saith Jacob to all this Gen. 33.10 I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God He saw the power and mercy of God in changing the countenance of his elder brother and that is it which sweetneth all that a man doth enjoy the loving-kindnes of God in all is the blessing of all and this likewise doth Jacob acknowledge Gen. 33.5 These are the Children which God hath gratiously given thy Servant and so he looked at them as Gods wives and children and servants and Cattell and this is the very life of the Covenant of Grace when as the Lord is wrapped up in all his blessings when as he giveth himselfe and in himselfe his Christ in Christ Peter and Paul and all things unto his Church 1 Cor. 3.22,23 Rom. 8 32. This is the maine thing given God himselfe the God of the Covenant his Persons Nature Ordinances Providences and now Abraham is made the Lord of the world and so the Apostle doth interpret it Rom. 4.13 the Promise that he should be Heire of the world c. and this is that which Abraham did receive in receiving the Lord to be his God 2 In the Order of giving the Covenant there is something to be observed 1 God giveth first and not the Creature it was not Abraham that gave unto God first for which of all the Creatures shall offer a Covenant unto the Mighty God Rom. 11.35 the Lord hath the preheminence in giving for what should Abraham give unto God if God give not something unto him first He is the first giver 2 He is also the first thing in order that is given for doth he give the world first or Ordinances first or any other spirituall or temporall blessings first No doubtlesse the Lord is the first thing that he giveth by his Covenant and with himselfe all things else also Rom. 8.32 And there is the precedency of Jesus Christ he is given and in him all spirituall blessings as the Apostle saith Ephes 1.3 and this for the order of Nature in giving the Covenant not Obedience first nor Faith first nor any thing else first but himselfe is Donum primum primarium and in him all his goodnesse Exod. 33.19 3 For the Manner of giving in that he giveth himselfe there is implyed both the freedome and eternity of the gift firmnesse therefore and that unto eternity In that he giveth himselfe it must of necessity be done freely for what can any Creature give to purchase God If a man could give thousands of worlds they were not enough to purchase or redeem one soule and if he had millions of worlds to give what were they all to purchase so great a gift as God himselfe is Therefore it must needs be of free gift for the Creature can doe nothing to prevent God God indeed may give with a purpose to receive back againe as God doth require this of Abraham that he should have no other Gods before him c. Gen. 17.1 But though Abraham shall performe this and all the Commandements in an Evangelicall manner yet God himselfe doth undertake in this Covenant to be the Author and finisher of this his faith and obedience Heb. 12.2 And this doth argue the marvelous freedome of the Covenant of Grace for the Lord offereth it out of his grace without the foresight of faith or works for he undertaketh to give both will and deed of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 Object But it may be said Did not the Lord exact it that he should give himselfe back againe or else God would not give himselfe Answ Truly then the Covenant had not been of free Grace but as you see sometimes great Princes will take in a Neighbour Nation into League with them and not tell them of it so doth the Lord deale with his Elect ones otherwise he should not at all intend it nor ever give himselfe unto us for we are not able to give our selves unto him for if Abraham did give himselfe it was because God did take him first and therefore it is that the Apostle telleth us that the Lord took hold of Paul that he might take hold of the Loâ—d Phil. 3.12 I follow after if that I may c Deut. 32.6 If we give up our selves unto the Lord it is because the Lord hath taken hold upon our hearts first Object But doth not the Lord require of him to Circumcise his seed the eighth day Answ So he doth indeed but the Lord giveth him that also God the Father seeth it needfull for the confirmation of their Faith and their everlasting salvation therefore he giveth him Circumcision and giveth him the grace to circumcise his Children I think indeed the Lord doth call for many things under a Covenant of Grace but so as that the Lord 1 Worketh those things in them out of Grace not give Grace out of works 2 He will have them know that those things which they work are nothing without the working of his grace It is true Abraham may circumcise Isaac but who shall circumcise the heart of Isaac It is a small matter to circumcise the flesh so it is a small matter for us to baptize with water but who must wash us from our sins save only the Lord our God So that he doth secretly intimate that what his poor servants doe outwardly he would doe it in effect The Children of Israel shall at the Lords Commandment march about the City of Jericho seaven dayes together and not speak a word and hereby the walls of the City shall faâ—l down flat of what use were these weapons to such an end what would the Lord shew his people hereby hereby he teacheth them to know by what ability and power to bring mighty things to passe they shall doe duties as the Lord commandeth them but he himself shall breath in them to make them effectuall for though we doe never so much yet we cannot reach unto the accomplishment of any good thing Not by might nor by strength but by my Spirit The Lord therefore by his Spirit must work all our works for us Here is the freeness of Gods Covenant in that the Lord giveth himself first Jer. 32 40. You may speak of Conditions in this kind but the Lord doth undertake both for his own part and for our parts also for as the Covenant is free so the Lord will freely maintaine and preserve all his Elect and all from the immutable nature of God it
all Christians but if God doe set it home particularly unto any soule that man receives this gift of God it is made his own first he beleeveth this Promise of free grace and then afterward come other Promises that doe bear witnesse unto the right application of that Promise unto the soule but I am first buâ—… upon a Promise of free-grace or else there is no true closing with Jesus Christ Well then being thus united unto Christ from this Union with Christ do flow all other blessings and benefits of the Covenant of grace and from hence springeth Communion with Christ in all spirituall blessings that the Lord hath wrought for us in him and they are two of them Relative blessings as they are called by Divines and two of them Positive blessings The two former are laid up in Gods owne hand and are not created in us as the other two are 1 For the Relative blessings they are 1 Adoption 2 Justification And they spring immediately simul semel from the former Union with Christ for as soon as ever the spirit of God is in our hearts and hath wrought faith that we doe not spurne against Jesus Christ now is the Divine nature of Christ in us and we are now become the Sons of God as Christ himselfe is Look as in a mans first naturall conception as soon as ever Adam doth live there is an heir of Adam even so soon as the soul liveth So it is in this new spirituall birth as soon as the Holy Ghost cometh and hath wrought this faith now is the seed of God in us and the life of Christ and the Spirit of God and now are we the Sons of God Jo. 1.12 Immediately upon this Union with Christ we are Sons by Adoption and as we are Adopted so likewise our sins are now imputed unto Christ and his righteousnesse unto us and so our persons are justified For how and when was Adams sin imputed unto us Psa 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity c. so soon as ever there was life it was the life of Adam now the imputation of Adams sin falleth immediately upon the soule So when we doe receive Christ by this living faith having the life of Christ in us we have the righteousnesse of Christ also imputed to us for what doth the Child in the womb though it doth neither good nor evill but is meerly passive yet sinfull it is and a Child of Adam So also in this our Regeneration the soule acteth not but onely receiveth Christ by that faith which the Lord hath wrought in it whereby also it is made capable of the priviledge of Adoption and so the Lord accounteth us his Children and imputeth the righteousnesse of his Son unto us whereby we are justified These things doe dwell in Gods bosome and the meaning of them is afterward revealed unto the soule but communicated they are both that of Adoption and this of Justification by the gift of faith wrought in us but we are still upon the first worke of Conversion wherein a Christian is onely passive and receptive and truly it must needs be so in the first work of God upon us 2 Now for the Positive blessings that are wrought in us they are 1 Sanctification 2 Glorification When we are called then are we sanctified then are we glorified 1 Cor. 1.2 As in our naturall conception as soon as ever the Child liveth Adams sin is first imputed and then there is a pronenesse in it to carry it captive unto sin and to make it backward unto any goodnesse so when the life of Christ is dispensed unto the soule now the Lord cometh to convey with it Justification and in it pardon of sin and then there is a pronenesse in a justified person to be lively in duty If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit and by faith our hearts come to be purified Acts 15.9 and the same Spirit quickneth us unto holy duties so that we live yet not we but Christ liveth in us yea the Spirit sanctifying draweth us into an holy Confederacy to serve God in family Church Common-wealth and this sanctification groweth and encreaseth more and more for as corruption of Nature springeth from the imputation of Adams unrighteousnesse so doth sanctification spring from the imputation of Christs righteousnesse and thence floweth a pronenesse unto that which is good and a backwardnes unto that which is evill this is Sanctification 2 The other Positive gift is Glorification which we read of Rom. 8.30 This the Apostle Peter mentioneth 1 Pet. 5.10 as that whereunto we are called and in truth he hath begun the work from the time that he first began to call and sanctifie us 2 Tim. 1.9 From the very first time that God worketh upon the soule gratiously there is a glorious work in that soul and others may see it though himselfe seeth nothing that he hath received Thus we see the second branch of the Doctrine opened how the Lord doth receive Abraham and his seed unto himselfe preparing them by a spirit of bondage and of burning and then savingly by the inhabitation of the blessed Spirit the same Spirit begetting Faith we are alive in Jesus Christ and so come to be adopted and justified in him Afterwards the same Faith which at first onely receiveth Adoption and Justification doth now begin to stir a little and to breath forth into gratious desires and some holy mourning and beginneth now to put forth such works as the Holy Ghost carryeth the soul an end in working all our works in us and for us Now for the third and last part of the Doctrine the Lord took the chiefest of Abrahams seed to be the Mediator of this Covenant unto whom all the Promises were made Gal. 3.16 Quest If the Lord gave him to be Mediator how did he constitute him so to be Answ By a double Act First by receiving Jesus Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary to be one person with the second in Trinity hereby laying a ground of a firm Mediation between God and us for now cometh Jesus Christ to be of Gods Nature and therefore he wil be faithfull unto God and of our nature and therefore he wil be compassionate towards us And here is the Root of all the life and power of this Mediation to wit this personall Union betweene Jesus Christ and the Father which maketh up a firm and everlasting communion between God himselfe and Jesus Christ Secondly by Gods giving him to be a Covenant Isa 42.6 I will give thee for a Covenant of the people c. That is to be a Mediator of this Covenant 1 To receive from God all the Offices and gratious gifts whatsoever is requisite to a King Priest and Prophet all things he receiveth from the hand of the Father Col. 1.19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullnesse dwell thus he becometh a plentifull Redeemer And as the Lord gave him
to be a Covenant so he giveth him also to worke all things needfull for our Redemption partly by his Passion and obedience unto the death of the Cross and partly by fulfilling the whole Law all righteousnesse for us The Lord Jesus Christ did fully accomplish whatsoever was requisite for him to accomplish in his owne Person 2 He doth perform all things needfull for the Application of this redemption unto our soules and to this end he it is that sheddeth abroad his Spirit into our hearts John 15.26 16.7 and when this blessed Spirit cometh he applyeth unto the soule all the gratious redemption of Jesus Christ by giving him and all the fruits of his redemption and by working all those blessed works that the souls of his people come to be partakers of and so performeth all those Conditions that are required on our parts If it be needfull for us to have faith he will work it in us If it be needfull for us to live a life of Faith he will help us so to live for it is not of our selves it is the gift of God Ephes 2.9 Thus hath the Lord made him a compleat Mediatour of this holy Covenant and whatsoever we receive we receive it from him for unto him first as the head of the Church are all blessings given and unto us all Promises in him are Yea and in him Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 for though Christ be not a sinner in his owne persons yet in respect of his Members he is many times lost in them though not in himselfe and poor in them though not in himselfe for us therefore he receiveth the Promises of God and that is the great security of them that they are laid up safe in him and belong unto us if we have Union with the head and in him we perform whatsoever God requireth whether we Pray or Preach or hear we doe all in the Name of Christ going forth in his strength and power Col. 3.17 Thus is the Lord Jesus Christ a firm Surety of the better Covenant Stablished upon better Promises Heb. 8.6 Vse 1. In the first place This may teach us a broad difference between the Covenant of works and the Covenant of Grace In the Covenant of works the Lord offereth himselfe as a Father his Son as a Redeemer his Spirit as a Sanctifier but this upon a condition of works Thou shalt have no other Gods but me and If they shall keep his Lawes and obey his voyce then they shall be a peculiar treasure unto him above all people Exod. 19.5,6 This also they undertake to doe Deut. 5.27 All that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee we will heare it and doe it But O that there were such an heart in them vers 29. When they rebelled he did not pardon them gratiously but the Angel whom he sendeth with them he biddeth them beware of him and obey his voyce and provoke him not For he will not pardon your Transgressions for my Name is in him In the Covenant of Grace he will but not in this here is indeed a Conditionall Redeemer and Saviour and so it is expressed Isa 63.8,9,10 with many of them God was not well pleased almost with none of them but overthrew them in the wilderness Thus in the Covenant of works all is given upon condition of obedience 2 The Lord giving Himself his Son his Spirit upon condition though it be but to works yet he is pleased to receive them into some kind of relative Union expressed Jer. 32.32 Which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband unto them He was marryed unto them in Church-Covenant this was some kind of Union he was their God and they were his peculiar people and yet the Lord cast them off a Generation of his wrath from this Marriage Covenant between them and him from this Union there springeth a kind of Faith by which the soule cleaveth unto the Lord in some measure else there could not be this marriage union and this faith is that which you read Psal 106.12,13 They beleeved his words they sang his praise c. So also Exod. 14.31 it is said They beleeved the Lord and his servant Moses This is that faith which men may receive and yet may Apostate from it spoken of Heb. 6.3 to 6. and Luk. 8.13 but all that faith was never grounded upon any free promise of grace but all was built upon Ordinances and Duties and upon no higher ground In the 2 Chron. 13.8 to 12. marvelously strong are the expressions of Abijah when Jeroboam came against him You think to withstand the Kingdome of the Lord in the hand of David c. Where we see what faith he did expresse and hereupon vers 18. The Children of Israel were brought under and the Children of Judah prevailed and yet this Kings heart was not perfect with the Lord his God 2 Kings 15.3 and yet mind you a strong confidence he had that the Lord was with him and that he would be present with his owne Ordinances there was faith built upon fellowship with Ordinances like unto that Faith in the Scripture before alleadged Luke 8.13 Men are affected with the word and beleeve and find comfort and all this springeth from that Relative Communion which they have with the Lord they find refreshing in their way and work and many times take it for the very Seale of the Spirit of God All which may and oftentimes is found in Hypocrites but here 's the difference in a Covenant of workes God giveth himselfe Conditionally in that of grace Absolutely in both he maketh a Covenant in the one of Grace the other of works in which the Voyce of the Lord is If you be true and faithfull to me then I will not remove you and in this Covenant is Faith found whereby they lay hold upon the head of the Sacrifice but not on Christ it is onely built upon such changes as they finde in themselves and will in the end vanish utterly away 3 There is a difference also that springeth from the fruits of these two Covenants iâ—… their continuance for tho in the Covenant of works there be a semblance of Justification and Adoption and a kind of Sanctification yet they endure but for a season and therefore he calleth them Lo-ammi for ye are not my people and Lo-ruhamah for I will no more have mercy though sometimes they were his people and he then had mercy on them They may also have pardon of sin that is forbearance of punishment for a season Psal 78.37,38 Being full of compassion he forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not yet they were such whose heart was not upright with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant This is plainly held forth in the Parable Matth. 18.23 to the end When the Servant had not wherewith to pay his Lord he fell down and worshipped him saying Lord have patience with me and I will pay thee all his Lord was moved with compassion
deliver unto us another Gospel for it is not of Grace that Faith is given us Vse 3. This may also teach the people of God to bear a gratious respect unto those that are under a Covenant of works and not forthwith to condemn them as if there were no hope of their Salvation For God doth not call any into fellowship with himselfe in a Covenant of Grace but ordinarily he first bringeth them into a Covenant of works and casteth them out of doors by a spirit of bondage and of burning and then bringeth them in by the true door and Jesus Christ is that doore Joh. 10.9 Though the Children of the Faithfull be born under the outward dispensation of the Covenant of Grace yet if they be not of the Elect seed they will chose life by their works and so fall under the Covenant of works Gal. 4.24 to 30. So will Professors also Gal. 4.21 yea the Elect themselves before their Effectuall Calling will seek life by their works Hence those that are under a Covenant of works may belong unto the Lord as well as my selfe pray for them therefore Paul was under a Covenant of workes Steven prayeth for him and as most conceive that Prayer was effectuall unto his Conversion and Paul was as dear unto the Lord in his Eternall purpose as Steven himselfe was And thus Paul himselfe speaketh of Onesimus He therefore departed for a season that he might be received for ever So may we say of men under a Covenant of works the Lord may bring any of them home unto himselfe by dashing all his works in pieces and shewing him the presidence of his Spirit though the Lord hath melted him formerly in his Prayers and Preachings and Hearing and Sacraments by a Spirit of burning yet the Lord will discover that he is but hardened by it into another lump of pride against the Lord his God And the Lord will also pluck away the caul from their hearts and then they will have none in Heaven but Christ nor in the earth in comparison of him and then the Holy Ghost convinceth them of this sin above all their other sins that they have not believed on Jesus Christ Doe not therefore censure any such as to say there is no likelihood that they should have fellowship with Christ for if the Lord make them to fall down before him and to yield up their spirits unto the Lord in holy reverence and feare these have now received some secret smoking affections besides a Spirit of burning which the Lord will not quench Vse 4. It may serve in the next place to clear up our judgements in sundry passages that doe concerne the Covenant of Grace by Answers unto these 6 Questions following Quest 1. What is the first gift that ever the Lord giveth unto his Elect Answ First of all he giveth Himselfe the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit this is the foundation and if you shall lay saving Qualifications in the foundation before these the foundation will lye uneasily and the spirit of a true Christian shall not lye long in peace Christ must therefore be first and with him Faith to receive him first he will make a Covenant with us and put his holy Spirit within us and he cometh in with Faith and Fear that we never may depart from him He giveth us his Son and all things else in him he giveth us in him pardon of sins in our Justification and in him some degrees of glory also and in him right unto all the Promises of the Covenant no other foundation but him Take him first for he is the first thing given He taketh us by giving us Faith and we take him by exercising our Faith on him Object But whether doth not the Lord give us some saving Preparations before Jesus Christ for there be those that are gratious Saints that have conceived that there are some gratious Qualifications which the Lord giveth to prepare for Jesus Christ Answ There be saving graces which doe sanctifie us unto God our Father but whether they doe make way for Jesus Christ there proveth a difference but you may discern the truth of the point If the Lord doe give any saving Qualification before Christ then the soule may be in a state of Salvation before Christ and that would be prejudiciall unto the grace and truth of Christ for if there be no name given under Heaven whereby we must be saved but onely Jesus Christ nor his name but in a way of fellowship with him then it will unavoidably follow that whatsoever saving work there be in the soul it is not there before Christ be there it is true John Baptist was sent to subdue all flesh by a spirit of burning which burneth up the Covenant of Abraham I mean their carnall confidence in it and all their fruits of righteousnesse here were indeed preparations for Christ but these were not saving they were still Children of wrath Ye Serpents ye Generation of Vipers notwithstanding all this John did indeed dispense poverty of Spirit and yet though they had received the Holy Ghost they were not sensible of it yet the poverty of spirit was there unto which the Promise was made but then Jesus Christ was there also whether they knew it or knew it not that is not greatly materiall in this Argument But if the Kingdome of Heaven was there Jesus Christ was there first otherwise it will prove dishonourable unto the name of Christ Indeed there is a saving preparation before consolation in Christ and the manifestation of our gratious union with him but for our first union there are no steps unto the Altar Exod. 20. last But Christ doth prepare his Tabernacle for himselfe to dwell in This is in the first place for Instruction concerning what is the first gift which the Lord giveth unto the soule before any work or Promise he giveth saving communion in spirituall union with his Son this standeth firm from the Tenor of the Covenant and the nature of it to my best understanding and therewith giveth us Faith and all other saving Qualifications and Conditions as it is held forth in the Scriptures of God Quest 2. In what order the Lord giveth the Covenant and the blessings of it whether Faith before them or those blessings before faith be able to apply them Answ He doth give himselfe in working Faith before Faith can be there and therefore it is the fruit of the Spirit that Faith is wrought in the soule and this Faith doth receive the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ himselfe by his Spirit and it doth also receive Adoption and Justification but to be able actually to apply it our first birth will not bear it for a man is as passive in his Regeneration as in his first generation onely the Lord giveth us his Spirit that doth unite us unto Christ which is received by Faith together with Adoption and Justification And yet by the Act of believing we are justified
therefore I spake so the Israelites also Psal 106.12 beleeved and sang the praises of the Lord upon the red sea shore and yet were they but an Hypocriticall Generation and if Hypocrites may work Miracles in the name of Christ as they did and expostulate with Christ about it Mat. 7.22 then may a temporary Faith work ordinary works in Christianity also and therefore you shall read Mat. 13.22 that there is no fault found with the thorny soile for their want of root or depth of earth for the want of both which the stony soile was taxed but look as it is with the branches of a Vine what depth of earth the roote hath they have it being grafted into the Vine though they be but branches of the wild Olive and will bring forth but wild fruit for though the branch of the wild Olive be grafted into the fat Olive and may flourish there yet will it bring forth his owne fruit but in the roote you will finde no difference And yet there is a difference but it is very hard to be discerned Object Yes you will say there is a plaine difference for an hypocrite is ever full of himselfe but a true Christian doth all in faith he seeketh God daily and waiteth upon God daily and these are not the wayes of hypocrites Answ Consider I pray you what the Word of the Lord holdeth forth as the Roote of this sanctification and I will go no further than expresse Scriptures Isa 58.2 They seeke me daily and this is spoken of hypocriticall Israelites and for waiting we often heare it spoken of the five foolish Virgins that they all went out to meet the bridegroome Mat. 25.1 though while they tarryed long they all slumbred and slept and so did the wise Virgins also and for more particular application of God unto themselves we finde that also Hos 8.2 Israel shall cry unto me My God we know thee and yet this Israel in the same Scripture had transgressed the Covenant and cast off the thing that is good And for a further Act of faith which is a staying a mans selfe upon God what saith the Text Isa 48.2 They stay themselves upon the God of Israel and these were obstinate sinners and their neck as an iron sinew and their brow as brasse there was not truth and uprightnesse True it was not but how shall we know the difference Truly it is hard to perceive when men differ and therefore it is not an easie matter to make such use of Sanctification as by it to beare witnesse unto Justification and it will be a very hard case and much more difficult when men cannot feele the presence of spirituall gifts but want spirituall light and when they doe finde faith in themselves they doe finde it in hypocrites also even in hypocrites also even faith to seeke the Lord faith to waite upon him and faith to apply him saying My God and faith to stay upon the God of Israel and yet these men doe vanish away in hypocrisie this hypocrites may doe seeing therefore what easines of errour may befall Christians whether this or that grace be of the right stampe or no it will behove Christians to be wary for even Eagle-eyed Christians will have much adoe so to discerne of sanctification in themselves before they see their justification as to cut off all hypocrites from having the like in them for the sanctified frame of Gods children and that which seemeth to be like it in hypocrites both of them spring from the holy Ghost and both from faith but now the Spirit of God hath further worke in his own people beyond what he worketh upon others though he melteth both yet hypocrites are melted as iron which will returne againe to his former hardnes but his owne people are melted into flesh which will never returne to his hardnes more neither can they rest in any measure of softnes unto which they have attained but still are carryed toward Jesus Christ so that the one is a temporary faith and the other persevereth though both worke in the name of Christ yet this difference will be found between them not only when hypocrites come to be blasted but even in the midden of their profession As for the faith of the Gospell of Jesus Christ it is never president of its own power but his strength lyeth out of himselfe in Christ whereas hypocrites and legall Christians are confident of their faith that they can make use of it unto such and such ends they think they need no more but look up to Christ and their worke is at an end and such strength they finde in themselves as that they doe not feare but that they shall carry an end all their worke to Gods glory and their own whereas the strongest faith even of the Thessalonians whose faith was such as none of all the Churches went before them if it be not supplyed and strengthened they know the Apostle Paul knoweth that it will warpe shrinke This may we see by comparing 1 Thes 1.3 with Chap. 3.2,10 And the faithfull people of God Isa 26.12 acknowledge Him to worke all their works for them And therefore as there is a reall difference in the presence of the Spirit so also in the worke of faith in hypocrites and the children of God for the one putteth confidences in himselfe in the gift received and the other in Jehovah This is the first difference of Sanctification 2. There is Difference also in the Rule whereby they are guided though both seeke to the word of God take delight in that insomuch as you shall not be able to difference them there yet a great difference there is in the apprehension of the word the one is so consident of the comfort that he hath in the word and he will be ready to take it ill at Gods hand if he finde not acceptance before him Now the other see the need they have of the Lord to maintaine their comfort for them This manner of affection we finde in David when the Lord had brought him and his people into a sweet frame and temper of spirit to offer willingly towards the building of the Temple what saith David now Doth he thinke this to be enough No no but he prayeth to the Lord 1 Chron. 29.18 O Lord God of Abraham Isaack and Israel our fathers keepe this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people and prepare their heart unto thee Thus is he sensible that these comforts would soone faile them they should againe waxe barren and uncomfortable And here is the nature of true Consolation in Christ to looke up unto the Lord to preserve and maintaine it and so he is still drawne neerer neerer to Christ But now though both attend unto the Word as their Rule of Sanctification if you take it in the way in which the one and the other hold it forth yet there is a great difference Psal
this Promise made to this Qualification Thus ariseth the Question if God give Jesus Christ first before any other blessing as we read before to Abraham and to his seed were the Promises made he meaneth unto Christ and all the Promises are in him Yea and in him Amen No having of Promises then before Christ To what purpose are they given if not to bring me unto Christ It is a point needfull to be knowne because we read Promises in Scripture daily and certainly great use is to be made of them and if we shall make no other use of them but to bring us unto Christ and God hath not sanctified them to that end then we shall take them all in vaine and the Name of God that is called upon them Answ There is a three-fold use of Promises in Scripture 1 Before our Vnion with Christ 2 In Vnion with him 3 After Vnion with him 1 Before our union with Christ there is a three-fold use of Promises 1 They are of use for Doctrine to teach all the people of God what great and glorious things are laid up in Christ Jesus even the unsearchable riches of Christ Eph. 3.8 and this all the Promises of God doe hold forth If the Lord Promise to be your Father your Husband your Shepheard your Head your Root if he Promise to be any other blessing in the world to you what ever Promise you read or heare the Lord sheweth you the unsearchable riches of Christ and that is no vaine use of Promises for a man to know by them the great good things that are treasured up in Jesus Christ by the Father therefore they are called great and pretious Promises 2 Pet. 1.4 why so because they declare the great and pretious priviledges and blessings in Jesus Christ therefore it is that the Lord will have all his people to looke at him in his word and Promises and to know what great good he hath in store for all them that trust in him and seek after him in Jesus Christ Thus all the Promises of Grace declare his excellency as Cant. 5.10 So doe all the Promises declare him to be a plentifull Saviour and a mighty Redeemer of all his people 2 As they are of use for Doctrine so for Instruction It is good to know them but Instruction is a further thing and distinct from Doctrine 2 Tim. 3.16 By Instruction men are taught not only what to know but what to doe to know and see whither they should resort for the enjoyment of all those pretious blessings that God hath laid up in Jesus Christ and this is a pretious use of the Promises that by them the soule should be thus instructed whither to goe for life and salvation Isa 45.22 Look unto me and be you saved all the ends of the earth Here is a direction to me before I know whither to look I doe not onely see great things and so vanish away but I am directed to look and be saved thus are we taught of God likewise by his blessed Apostle Acts 2.38,39 Repent and be baptized c. for the Promise is unto you c. Thus we are taught by the Promises whither to look for life and salvation 3 The Promises serve also for Exhortation as the Scripture last alleadged holdeth forth For so many blessings as you see propounded in the Promises so many invitations are there to provoke mens soules to come unto Christ as old Jacob sometimes provoked his Sons Gen. 42.1,2 so saith the Lord to the Sons of men in his Promises Why stand ye gazing in the want of this and that blessing Is there not pardon of sin and all manner of blessings in Jesus Christ Thus is the soul exhorted not onely to look for mercy but not to rest till he may enjoy it Though it be not the Promises that can by their owne power carry men an end yet this is the end to which God giveth them to stir up the Sons of men not to rest in beholding the good things in the Promises but to exhort them to provoke themselves and one another to look after the Lord thus did the Apostle Peter exhort the Jewes and testified to them of the free grace of God in his Promises Acts 2.40 and indeed the Promises are strong grounds of Exhortation to stir up the spirits of all Gods people to look to Jesus Christ and to come unto him in whom such abundance of rich grace is laid up Thus doe the Promises of God furnish both Ministers and people with Doctrine with Instruction with Exhortation in their kinds Now there is a three-fold effect that they have in some of all sorts good and bad that live in the bosome of the Church 1 They have a power of illumination they will enlighten the minds even of Hypocrites and men indued with no more than common gifts as well as the people of God of such the Apostle speaketh Heb. 6.4 who were once enlighted c. and had tasted of the good word of God An Hypocrite may have such a tast of Christ in the Promises and be 2 So affected with it that he despiseth all other things in comparison of it so as that he cometh to resolve for his part never to forgoe him and hath so much confidence in God that he saith with Haman Whom will the King delight to honour more than my selfe and this illumination he taketh to be a strong and effectuall Conversion unto the Lord. 3 The Promises have a worke of conviction if any man refuse or despise them they leave him unexcusable Pro. 1.24,25,26 c. Thus is their blood justly upon their owne head that refuse and despise the Promises and they aggravate their condemnation another day and to this end the Apostle maketh use of a pretious Promise of God Acts 13.38,39,40,41 A strange application of such a gratious Promise a signe there is a power in the Promises even unto this end Thus we see there is a marvelous gratious use of Promises before Union with Christ as to help Ministers and people with matter of Doctrine and Instruction and Exhortation as also to awaken men unto Illumination and Affection and Conviction and to seal them up unto everlasting destruction if they turn their backs upon them 2 As the Promises are of use before our Union with Christ so In our union with him they are of great use for when the Lord giveth himselfe to the soule he doth it in a Promise he cometh unto the soule riding as it were upon the Chariot of a Promise and begetteth Faith back again in the soul by the Promise whereby we receive Jesus Christ though before him we can have no Promise yet in a Promise we doe receive him This is the very first stroke of closing with Christ he giveth himselfe and we take him as he offereth himselfe even in an absolute Promise such a like dispensation of himselfe we read of Acts 3.25,26 where Christ is offered in an Absolute Promise
of free grace without any Qualification mentioned Howbeit many of them that heard the word believed and the â—umber of the men were about five thousand about three thousand of them believed before so that here are two thousand that believe upon this Absolute Promise the Lord Christ is offered to them and they receive him by Faith The like we read also Acts 10.43,44 To him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins And while Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the words to that the Holy Ghost giveth himselfe and they receive him in an absolute Promise and left it should be a matter of absolute doubt unto any consider thus much that whereas the Lord doth unite himselfe to the soule as a Father to a child or as an Husband to a wife it is free For did you ever know a true reall Marriage made in a Conditionall Promise Doth a man say to his wife If you prove a loving and a kind wife then I will be thine Husband Or doth a wife say to her Husband If you will take me and love and maintaine me and all the children that God shall blesse us with then I will be your wife Would not your soule rise against such a Covenant as this Now I beseech you consider whether we shall not put an unspeakable dishonour upon the Covenant of free grace to conceive and expect that if we carry our selves thus and thus then God will be ours and we his But if thus and thus then he will cast us off Hath the Lord made such a Covenant with his Elect Indeed the Lord would have the Jewes to know that though he were marryed to them yet he would not continue that Covenant but upon condition of obedience when they were disobedient the Lord gave them a bill of Divorce but in the Covenant of Grace spoken of Hos 2.19,20 the Lord giveth himselfe and you take him in an absolute Promise and now the Lord dwelleth in you and the soul yieldeth up it selfe unto God to be wholly at his disposing and doth not stint nor limit God upon this and this condition nor doth the Lord so bind us to the performance of any condition as that if it be not found the Covenant will be voyd yet he requireth many things of us as an Husband will doe of his wife as to be meek and lowly c. but if we faile the Covenant is not broken therefore believe it it doth much dishonour the Covenant of Grace to lay the weight of our interest in it upon any Condition by which we might plead our right unto it I confesse that the Lord doth usually give himselfe in a future Promise which makes us conceive that it is not so absolute a Covenant when persons give themselves one to another they give themselves absolutely and not in a future Promise and say I take thee to be my wife and I take thee to be mine Husband but all times are alike unto God that if the Lord say I will marry thee to me in tender mercies and faithfullnesse and loving kindnesse he doth that for the present which he promiseth to doe and againe it breeds in the soule a Reciprocall Union that though it know not whether the Lord hath given himselfe yet this it findeth namely a patient waiting with hope that the Lord will shew mercy at the length as when a woman hath a promise of marriage from her Husband she waiteth in hope untill he give himselfe so there is an Union or Contract when the soule doth waite upon God but when the Lord giveth himselfe more fully then he speaketh more plainly and giveth himselfe not in a future but in a present Promise and now the soule seeth that the Lord hath gracious fellowship with him for ever and ever Thus we see that promises are not vaine things but there are great use of them before our Union all promises are of excellent use in our Union the Lord giveth himselfe in an absolute promise onely but to take Christ in a Conditionall promise by vertue of the Condition is incompatible to a Covenant of Grace 3 After our union with Christ they are of more abundant use They were of use before we were in Christ for Doctrine and for Instruction and for Exhortation but now they are of more efficacy in the same kind and 1 They serve us for Doctrine to teach us that there is not onely free grace in Christ but there are gifts of grace in him and all the treasures of the good things of God are in him and all the blessings of the promises made unto Qualifications are layd up in him also 2 They serve for Instruction to direct us whither to look for Qualifications and the blessings promised unto them also namely to the Lord Jesus Christ to receive the blessing through him and the Qualification by the same hand for they are first fulfilled in him there is no good Condition but it is found in Christ no blessing thereunto but it is found in him also in him therfore they are to be sought for so that though a poor soule see himselfe wretched and blind and naked yet he hath an husband in whom all riches are laid up this he is taught to know by the promise and directed also to goe to Jesus Christ that enjoying him he may enjoy all good things in him 3 They are of use to stirre up unto Prayer for now I see that all these good things are in Christ and in him they must be enjoyed if they be enjoyed at all hereupon the soule is set a work the Holy Ghost concurring therewith to consider Is there so much grace in Christ and in him abundantly Hath the Lord made so many gratious promises unto such and such gracious Qualifications whether then should I goe either for the one or for the other but unto Christ that he may work in us a spirit of Faith of Love and of a sound mind and whatsoever else we stand in need of Give unto thy Servant a wise and an understanding heart saith Solomon when the Lord bad him ask what he should give him 1 Kings 3.9 Thus are the Servants of God stirred up by Conditionall promises to seek unto the Lord for the supply of all their wants for in him are all good things laid up and by him are they given unto his servants 4 They are of use to helpe us to Know our spirituall state and means to discern thereof All these qualifications to which the promises are made are fruits of the Spirit and will more or lesse declare unto you your sanctified state which is a marvelous blessing Upon the promises made unto such conditions the Lord stirreth up the hearts of his people to seek for such conditions to which the promises are made and when the Lord hath given them he then openeth their hearts to see what he hath
given them and so to discern their sanctified estate Now I know that thou fearest me seeing thou hast not with-held thy Son thine onely Sonne from me so the Lord saith to Abraham Gen. 22.12 wherein he bare witnesse to his work and this doth fill Abraham with strong Consolation together with the Oath of God unto him for now the Lord doth not onely know it but cause him to know it also so that if the Lord doth but breath in such fruit of the Spirit if he doth but give power to the soule to doe such a work unto which the promise is made and doe make it appear unto the soule to be indeed such by the revelation of his blessed Spirit then doth the Lord fill the soule with Consolation But though the Holy Ghost himselfe doth not so sweetly and strongly breath and clear up his own Testimony by the comfort which he giveth unto the soule in such a promise yet a man by the Promise may being enlightned of God discerne what God hath done for him and hereby the soule may stay it selfe Psal 9.18 The expectation of the poore shall not perish for ever When the poor soule is meekned by Gods hand and the Lord letteth him so discern it that now he quietly resteth upon the Lord now the Spirit of God doth help David along to be supported with some stay and besides the waiting of a Christian upon him who hath made the promises doth make him yet more patient and hopefull And this is a fourth use of Conditionall promises to strengthen Faith 5 They are of use to work all these qualifications in us to which the blessings are promised by the exceeding pretious Promises we are made partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and this is no small work or use of these promises that from them should spring all our gratious qualifications for the Lord having promised such blessings in them these promises being received and enjoyed and meditated on by us we beholding them and the glory of the Lord Jesus in them are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 This great power there is in the Promises to help an end the work of God in the soul of a Christian so that though they were never given to bring us to Christ yet to this end they were given to work all those qualifications in us to which the blessings are promised Yea and they may truly be said to be given to bring us to Christ in this sense That though our Faith be not begotten by any promises to gratious qualifications prae-existent in us yet they may beget such qualifications of Faith to which promises are made 6 They are of use to stir up and provoke Christians to all such duties to which blessings are promised they stir them up effectually The Lord maketh a Promise 2 Cor. 6.17,18 And mark what use the Apostle maketh of it being a conditionall Promise Chap. 7.1 Having therefore these Promises c. let us c. implying that the having of these Promises stirreth up Gods people unto duties and the Lord is wont to breath in them and so to set forwards the work of cleansing of the hearts and wayes of his servants 7 They are of use further to strengthen Faith for the Lord that hath made such Promises will accomplish them for his Servants Gen. 32.9,10 Jacob there putteth the Lord in mind of his Promise and said O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac the Lord which saidst unto me Returne unto thy Countrey and to thy Kindred and I will deale well with thee and he was now returned according to the appointment of God but what now doth he plead the condition mind in the next words I am not worthy the least of all the mercy and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant yet now though he pleadeth not any worth at all yet seeing the Lord had promised such a mercy to him he prayeth for it ver 11. Deliver me I pray thee from the hand of my brother Thus his faith is strengthned though he doth not plead any worthinesse to receive mercy So also doe absolute promises strengthen faith and the prayer of faith 2 Sam. 7.13,14 c The Lord there promiseth David that he would build him an house and that he would not take his mercy from his Children this stirreth up and strengthneth the faith of David ver 28 29 c. This well ordered and sure Covenant of God was all his stay and all his salvation though his house was not so with God 2 Sam. 23.5 So when the Lord promiseth to heal the backslidings of his people Ho. 14.5 their hearts are strengthned to come unto the Lord and say O Lord thy words are true let it please thee to heal the backslidings of thy servants Thus by the promises of God the Faith and faithfull prayers of his servants are both strengthned together Now let me further say thus much let us rightly discern what use to make of the principall part of the Scriptures take heed you doe not close with promises before we have Jesus Christ in them especially take heed you make not use of a promise to a gratious qualification to give you your part in Christ neither be taken aside to make account that the Lord did give you himselfe gratiously in a conditionall promise for these are aberrations from the Covenant of grace consider therefore well what the promises be and what use the Lord would have us to make of them it is not for a woman to take her husbands inheritance before shee take his person you know that all the blessings and all the promises are as it were the Inheritance of the Lord Jesus given unto him and to no other but in his name and therefore there is not any soule under heaven that can challenge his Right in Christ at the first by any promise till Christ first be given either in that promise or in some former if you know that you are in Christ you may know that the promises are yours otherwise you shall not be able to know your right in Christ by your right in the promises and therefore doe not turne them upside downe beyond the scope and intendment of the promises of the Covenant of grace we may take occasion by them to admire the goodnesse and grace of God as David did Psal 31.19 Thus ought we to consider of them and whither to looke that we might enjoy them and the blessings in them If you shall say we have been converted and have had gratious changes wrought in us be not deceived such worke may reach no farther than conviction and you may come to turne your backs upon Jesus Christ Consider therefore did ever the Lord give himselfe to be one with you whensoever the Lord doth strike up the bond of Union it is in a free promise of his grace Trust
the gifts of God and if you shall aske how love and patience and all the rest of the gifts of God doe worke The holy Ghost stirreth up faith to looke unto Christ who returneth strength by his Spirit unto faith so faith worketh by love and by meeknes and by all the rest of the fruits of the Spirit thus the Spirit of God acteth according to what we read Rom. 8.14 Come to any holy duty and it is the holy Ghost that leadeth you along and acteth in you so Ezek. 36.27 2 Pet. 1 2â— it is the Spirit of God that moveth us to any good worke and that acteth the gifts of his grace in us 3. It is the same Spirit of God also that witnesseth to these gifts and sheweth what gifts he hath given us for such is the blindnes of the nature of all the sons of men and it is a wonder to see that generally Christians when the Lord first worketh these gifts in them not one of a thousand but they thinke they are in a sad and fearefull condition and so they are very uncomfortable when they have greatest cause of rejoycing But now least that we should alwayes mistake that which the Lord hath given us wee have received the Spirit of God that wee might know the things that are freely given unto us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 He indeed taketh his owne time to discover it unto us to some sooner to some later but this is his intendment that he might honour his grace upon us by all the rich and gracious gifts which he hath given us He doth also reveale unto us the duties which he helpeth us to doe â—…om 9.1 The holy Ghost that wrought in him this brotherly love beareth him witnes also that he doth not lye and that he had continuall sorrow in his heart and that he could have wished to have been accursed from Christ that they might be saved it grieved him so much that the whole Nation should be destitute of the Lord Jesus Christ Thus we see what need there is that the holy Ghost should dwell in us to keepe all the gifts of his grace in us to Act them according to his will and to discover to us what gratious gifts the Lord hath wrought in us and what duties he hath helped us to doe that we may be able to give Account of them by the holy Ghost that dwelleth in us and beareth witness with us We see there is a necessity both of the gifts of grace that we may be fit Temples for the holy Ghost to dwell in and fit instruments for him to work by there is need also the holy Ghost should dwell in us for the causes we have spoken unto And I might adde this to comfort us in all the changes that may come upon us it is a strong Scripture which we read in John 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me our Divines have no place of more cleere evidence to prove the procession of the Spirit from the Father And the same Spirit testifieth to us both what mighty redemption he hath wrought for us and what grace he hath wrought in us this the holy Ghost shall testifie even he that proceedeth from the Father and this is the comfort of Gods people Thus wee see both these poynts opened to us Quest 3. How may we then imploy and improve this sanctification which the Lord hath given us and which he keepeth and acteth in us by his Spirit and whereunto he beareth witnesse How or to what end shall we employ it seeing the Lord undertaketh to doe these things for us Answ If the Lord Jesus Christ by his Spirit giveth us these gifts it is our part then first to see that we doe not rest in any Sanctification which doth not spring from Christ conveyed unto us by his Spirit conveying us to him the Spirit knitteth us unto Christ Christ unto us he worketh Faith in us to receive whatsoever the Lord giveth unto us and by the same Faith worketh all our holinesse for us 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ is made unto us c. Therefore we are to see him the principall author of all these things in us and for us this is the principall comfort of all gifts Christ given in them and the glory of all our safety and so far as any of these lyeth in our Sanctification we ought to see that it be Sanctification in Jesus Christ and then it is so when the Lord giveth us to look unto the Lord Jesus in it and to it in him and as we look for our holinesse to be perfect in Jesus Christ so we look for continuall supply of it from him and this it is to make Christ our Sanctification when as whatsoever gift the Lord giveth us we goe not forth in the strength of it but in the strength of Jesus Christ There may be a change in the soule which may spring from a spirit of bondage and may captivate our consciences unto the Law that may restraine us from sin and constraine us unto duty but such holinesse springeth not alwayes from our union with Christ for there may be a conscience of duty without sense of our need of Christ as it was with the Israelites at Mount Sinai Deut. 5.27,28,29 Goe thou neer say they to Moses and hear all that the Lord our God shall say and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will heare it and doe it They have well said all that they have spoken saith the Lord. O that there were an heart in them that they would fear me c. This I say therefore is the first thing to be attended unto as ever ye would make a right use of your holinesse see that it be such as floweth from Jesus Christ and that there be not onely an heart awed with the Law but waiting upon Christ to be all in all in us and to us so shall we neither neglect the gifts of God in us nor Christ and his Spirit but shall give due honour unto all of them together 2 This may also Teach all Christians not to trust upon the gifts of their holinesse though they doe spring from the Holy Ghost himselfe though they be such as are unchangeable though they spring from Jesus Christ and knit our soules in union with him yet trust not in the gifts themselves the Lord layeth it down as the Apostacy of Israel Ezek. 16.14,15 Trust not therefore in any of these but let all our confidence be in Jesus Christ not in any of the gifts of his Spirit whatsoever For a little further opening of it 1 Trust not in any gifts that you have received for the performance of any duty for it is not the strongest Christian that is able to put forth a good thought 2 Cor. 3.5 but our sufficiency is
fault in him in this matter she had no reason to tax him upon this point it was her owne Counsel vers 2. that he should goe in to her maid that I may have Children by her therefore there was no colour of any just complaint on her part yet see this meek spirited woman failed in the point of her meeknesse herein and did expresse no greater failing all her life long that we read of she was weak in Faith once but there was great reason for that her womb was dead and her Lord as she called him was old also Nor doth the Angel so much blame her about it but that action wherein she most failed was in that grace wherein she most abounded And though every grace of the Spirit be of great force when the Lord doth act and move it yet let a man goe forth in the strength of his greatest gifts and if ever his heart faile him it will be in them Thinke not when you have done all you can that you are worthy of any thing but say that you are unprofitable servants For though sanctification be the way wherein the Lord will poure out all his blessings upon his servants yet he doth require them to boast in none of their excellencies but look at them all as freely given them of God and consider that the right unto all springeth from fellowship with Jesus Christ that so not onely the gift it selfe is grace but the blessing that followeth upon the gift is grace also and suppose that we have attained all that we pray for shall we then exalt our owne gifts No but let us say with Jacob I am lesse than the least of all the mercies and truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant Doe not trust as not upon gifts nor upon duties performed by those gifts to reach the blessing so look not for your Justification from thence at all for the Apostle is plaine that he looked not for any thing for his righteousness before his conversion and after his conversion he counteth it all as drosse and dung that he might win Christ Phil. 3.6,7,8 And for our faith they are not to be trusted upon as grounds of our Faith for all the gifts of our sanctification are fruits of our Faith and therefore our Faith is said to worke by love Gal. 5.6 and so it doth by all other gifts of the Spirit and if they be fruits of Faith then Faith is not built upon them And thus much of the second Use which Christians are to make of their Sanctification 3 There is in the next place a point of Witnesse which this Sanctification doth yield and the Spirit of God with it the water beareth witnesse to the blood and the blood to the water and the Spirit unto both 1 John 5.6,7,8 A mans owne Spirit beareth witnesse also Rom. 8.16 And therefore as a witnesse of God unto our Faith we may lawfully hear what it speaketh But this is the life of a true Evidence that all these gifts of God doe not bear witnesse any further then a man seeth the Lord Jesus working them in him and for him for it is Faith that maketh all the graces of the Gospel active and it is a condition so requisite that unlesse our works be of Faith and flow from it they are not acceptable before God Heb. 11.6 Therefore unlesse Faith carry an end our works they are not works of holinesse such as should bear witnesse to the soule therefore the Apostle doth stir up the Corinthians unto this mainly Examine your selves whether you are in the faith 2 Cor. 13.5 And if he doe exhort them to Examination it is in point of Faith therefore Reverend Forbes of Middleburgh who hath written a Sermon upon that Text saith well That unlesse men find faith in their holinesse none of all their sanctification will become a sound witnesse of the grace of God unto them but if Faith be found then you shall see Jesus Christ accepting you and breathing in you except ye be reprobates There is a marvelous gratious witnesse that Sanctification giveth unto him that liveth by Faith in Jesus Christ if it be in Christ and work from him and for him This onely is that sanctification which the Lord commendeth unto his servants to seek after it 4 A fourth Use of our sanctification is that the Spirit of God helpeth us by it in point of Rejoycing and therefore it is that you shall see the Servants of God rejoycing in their holinesse so doth the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 1.12 This is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience c. He rejoyceth at what the Lord doth by him and with him Gal. 6.4 But what is it that maketh the Apostle rejoyce before God When he rejoyceth in his work before the Lord you shall ever find him rejoycing at the Lords acting these gifts in him and blessing him in his work Let us look upon two or three Scriptures for this end 1 Tim. 1.12,13 So that mind you as he â—eeth God giving him these gifts and enabling him unto the work so he blesseth God in that behalfe You shall find him also blessing God that had prospered this worke of the Ministry wheresoever he came 2 Cor. 2.14 The Lord working in him and for him maketh him to triumph and to over-wrastle all the difficulties that he meeteth withall The Lord had given him gifts taught him to exercise those gifts and doth accept him and therefore he expresseth himselfe in a marvelous strong speech Phil. 1.20,21 I am in nothing ashamed c. for to me to live is Christ and to dye is gaine To me to live is Christ as if he had said I have no life but from Christ I put forth no act of life but for Christ this is the sum of all his conversation and if Christ be his life then death will be his advantage and Christ will be magnified in either Thus we see how the Saints of God have made use of their Sanctification they are carefull to see that it flow from Christ and yet when they have it they dare not trust in their best gifts for the least duty neither doe they look for their Faith from their best gifts but they expect their best gifts to flow from their Faith They make use of the testimony of their holinesse when they see Christ in it and Faith in it and the Spirit of God carrying them along in the ways and duties thereof Thus they see their holinesse and take comfort in it from the witnesse of it as that by which the Lord dispenseth comfort unto his people when they receive it from the hands of Christ by Faith in him by which they are taught of God to carry an end their whole conversation in his name 5 Furthermore as we receive it from Christ and trust not in it but in Christ and receive the witnesse of it in Christ and in the Holy Spirit of Christ and as we receive
joy and comfort also which the Lord doth minister to us in a Sanctified course by his Holy Spirit so we grow up and perfect our holinesse which we have received in his name There is growth in grace this Sanctification is not bedrid Christians are not as weak now as they were seven years agoe nor doe they stand at a stay but goe forward in Christianity and hereupon the Apostle exhorteth the Ephesians Chap. 4.16 To speak the truth in love that they may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ Implying that men that enter into the wayes of holinesse ought to grow on unto perfection in the fear of God Job 17.9 And many sweet meanes the Lord hath appointed for this end the communion of Gods people tendeth hereto Prov. 13.20 He that walketh with the wise shall learn wisedome All the Ordinances of God are appointed for this end also to beget and encrease Faith and holinesse therefore a Christian in the use of all these Ordinances doth not stand at a stay but is still thriving and growing and that not in his owne strength but in the strength of Jesus Christ seeking for his acceptance and help in every duty he goeth about and this is that the Apostle doth exhort the Colossians unto Chap. 2.6,7 This ought Christians mainly to attend unto that as you see the branch the more juice it sucketh the more fruitfull it is so also it becometh the people of God to know that the more need we stand in to be fruitfull the more need we have to derive a continuall fresh supply from the Lord Jesus Christ that by his Spirit renewing grace in us we may be enlarged and carried an end in the wayes of God whereas otherwise the hearts of Christians would soon faile to goe on in those things wherein they desire to be growing up unto perfection What is the reason that so many servants of God are not so lively in their profession as they were wont to be many yeares agoe Truly wee attend upon Ordinances but it is onely upon the outward act of them and not upon Jesus Christ in them this is many times wanting in the hearts of Gods people but truly if this be our constant frame and wee doe not recover our selves then is not our sanctification such as floweth from fellowship with Jesus Christ for you shall finde this to be true that there is no gift of Christ nor no sanctification accompanying salvation but it doth knit us neerer and neerer unto Christ and the more wee are filled with true spirituall gifts the more empty wee are of our owne strength and selfe conceits and so wee ought to be otherwise we shall constantly finde this that if the Lord doe not preserve this empty frame in us the more full we are of any gift the more full shall we be of our owne strength and consequently the lesse need shall we feele of Christ and if this be our constant frame it will be a sad argument that our best sanctification will not endure but fall away unlesse we be knit unto Christ by the Spirit of his grace for by all true sanctification we are the more knit unto him so that if any man would know whether the superscription of Christ and his Image be stamped upon his sanctification this you shall ever finde to be the stampe of the grace of Christ that the more you receive from him the more you stand in need of him in so much that notwithstanding all the gifts of the Spirit there is not the ablest Minister of the New Testament but if his gifts flow from the Spirit of Christ and knit you unto Christ you will finde as great need to cleave unto Christ as ever you did the first day when you came trembling into the Pulpit If therefore wee feele our selves full so that the more we have received the more sufficient we are and goe not about the duties we have in hand in feare trembling but in selfe-confidence if this be our usuall and constant practise it is but counterfeit Christianity I doe not say that the gifts are counterfeit for they are from the Spirit of God and men may by them be very serviceable to Church and Common-weale but this is certaine that the stronger and the more your gifts are if you sit loose from Christ the emptier your hearts are of him But you will say may not a Christian be full of himselfe and depend upon the strength of his owne gifts Yes God forbid I should deny that for the best Christians have gone astray in the exercise of their best gifts and hereupon Abraham hath been wanting in faith Moses in meeknes Peter in courage and Sarah in her modesty they have been so apt to trust upon those graces of God wherein they have most abounded that they have principally failed therein but this you shall finde that if they have been overtaken once or twice as the burnt childe dreads the fire so they grow to be more sensible of their need of Christ more fearfull of departing from him more carefull to cleave unto him that they might grow up in his Name unto all well pleasing in his sight If therefore there be a sanctification that standeth at a stay in any man it is a great suspition whether the gifts thereof flow from fellowship with Christ or no if gifts be truly spirituall a man shall usually grow up in them Habenti dabitur Imploy them and multiply them but if you imploy the gifts you have received in your owne strength and you are now full of your owne sanctification truly this is but frothy work and doth not convey true nor lively nourishment and comfort but the comfort and life is to him that in his most spirituall gifts best performances is empty of himselfe and onely full of Jesus Christ to live or dye is his advantage This is the Use which I would commend unto you touching your Christian sanctification Thus we see sundry things have been cleered from this doctrine concerning the Covenant of grace There remaineth another thing to be resolved and cleered from the doctrine for if God in the Covenant of his grace doe give himselfe to be a God to Abraham and to his seede It is then to be enquired How God the Father giveth himselfe and how the Son and how the holy Ghost giveth himselfe for these are the fundamentalls of the Covenant of grace and necessary to be opened for cleering the doctrine of it Quest How God the Father doth give himselfe to be a God in Covenant to Abraham and to his seed that is to the faithfull seed of Abraham Answ All the Persons in Trinity concurre in works ad extra in works upon the Creature They give themselves by a Threefold worke or Act. 1. The first Act of God is having chosen us in his Sonne He gave forth his owne Sonne out of his bosome for the redemption of Abraham his seed
There are two things in the root 1. The first is the Roote of Abrahams Covenant which this people much trusted upon and that is it of which John Baptist speaketh Now the axe is layd to the roote of the Tree c. and this he spake Mat. 3.9 after he had said Thinke not to say within your your selves Wee have Abraham to our father vers 8. So that all the confidence that they had in Abrahams Covenant and Temple and Tabernacle and such things is burnt up and so they have no roote left them to stand upon And this is one thing intended by the Roote But 2. Secondly there is something more in it for with this Spirit of burning the Lord by the power of this Spirit doth cut us off from any power of our owne naturall gifts and parts and spirituall gifts also whereby we thought to lay hold on Jesus Christ and we are cut off hereby from all the confidences that we have in our owne sufficiency when once the Lord intendeth to bring a soule unto himselfe for there is an usuall preâ—idence that we have in our owne state though the Lord have cut us off from hope in the righteousnesse of our parents and from boasting of his Ordinances yet we thinke there is some power still left us and therefore we hope and will seeke in our owne strength that the Lord may reveale himselfe to us in mercy and peace but when the Lord cometh neerer unto us he will shew us how unable we are to take up the least good resolution we shall finde our selves like bruised reeds unable to hold up our heads for Christ came to seeke and to save that which was lost so that Christ will not declare himselfe to seeke us untill we be lost and therefore he saith Math. 16.24 If any man will come after me let him deny himselfe and follow me And according hereunto it is that those converts Acts 2.37 doe cry out when they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall wee doe Hence it is also that the poore soules that came unto Christ Math. 12.20 were like bruised reeds that could not hold up their heads for the Lord in this case bruiseth them layeth them low that they see no more hope of mercy nor likelihood that God should shew them any hope Thus doth the Lord burne up the Root of Abrahams Covenant wherein men trust and the Roote of all our selfe-sufficiency that now wee find our selves dryed up our strength consumed that now we are not able to thinke as of our selves a good thought And againe the Lord by this spirit of burning doth burne up all our branches also how faire and greene soever they have been All our fastings and humiliations and almsdeeds and prayers such things as the Pharisees much boasted in Math. 6.1,2,3 c. but these things are all burnt up The fruit of bondage worketh unto feare and now all the hope is that a man setteth upon reformation but if the Lord love a mans soule he will not let him stay there but goeth further with him and sheweth him that his prayers and fastings are all empty and fall short of the life and power of Jesus Christ but yet the soule is not quite out of hope though the Law cannot save me if it cannot I must get me unto Jesus Christ and lay hold upon him for salvation as if all were to be had by faith in Jesus Christ if once we can lay hold upon him and nothing else were required but faith in Christ and thereby my laying hold upon him I see plainly saith a man in this case that there is no hope in me as hath been rightly observed and therefore I le trust upon Jesus Christ and give up my selfe to him but now if the Lord love thy soule he will not suffer thee there to rest he will not leave thee so He will presse thee further How comest thou by faith in Christ Why thou tookest it up of thine owne accord thou thoughtest all thy gifts aâ—d duties were in vaine and therefore now thou wilt believe in Jesus Christ Is it so easie a matter Can any man come unto Christ except the Father draw him And is thy faith any more than a resolution of thine owne when thou wast convinced of the emptinesse of thine owne gifts and abilities When this spirit of burning hath blasted this thy faith also and that by the cleere evidence of the Gospel put upon it Now saith the soule I see that I am not in Christ though I said that I would trust in Christ yet I see it is not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdome of heaven Now I see it is not my faith such a Faith as mine is that will reach Jesus Christ it is not a faith of my own undertaking that will serve the turne I see now Christ alone must worke this great worke in me and Christ in the way of his owne Ordinances therefore I must looke for it in his word and in the fellowship of the Sacraments therefore I will look up unto the Lord in all these and waite for him and seek him therein And I hope I can seeke and waite in that way though I can do nothing else and so the poore soule maketh account that in time he shall finde Christ in the Ordinances and so hammereth out a faith from thence and therein blesseth himselfe Now minde you the Spirit of God when the Lord God the Father will draw home the soule throughly to Jesus Christ will burne up all thy confidence for if thy soule be not utterly lost so long as it hath any roote or power in it selfe it is not come to an utter selfe-deniall though I cannot worke I will believe and if I cannot believe I can waite that I may believe and so here is still the old roote of Adam left alive in us whereby men seeke to establish their owne righteousnesse This old roote putteth forth it selfe and will not suffer the soule to be wholly from Christ and for Christ alone and all because there is a sprigge of Adam left in the soule whence it is that the soule is marvellously apt to have hope and confidence more or lesse from some vertue or power in himselfe therefore it s no small matter to be cut off from Adam that 's contrary to nature As saith the Apostle Rom. 11.24 this is a marvellous strong work when the Spirit of God comes to act things contrary to nature for nature is fully possessed that what God commandeth I am able to doe it nature will not be perswaded to the contrary If I heare God command any thing I will doe it saith a carnall heart and if I cannot do it I will believe and if I cannot believe I will waite and I can waite that I may believe this is still but nature Now when the Lord cometh indeed
duty as Prayer or Conference or the like for I will not limit the Holy One of Israel yet usually it is done in the Ministry of the Gospel and though the Lord doth not limit himselfe yet he doth limit us to attend upon the means which he usually worketh by but whatsoever the way be this is the manner of Gods working he doth universally come into the soul in some word or other of his grace as for instance that in 2 Cor. 5.19 or that in 1 Tim. 1.15 In some such word of his grace he cometh and putteth life into the soule and maketh it somwhat quies and causeth it to see that there is hope in Israel and the Lord is able and there is riches enough in Christ to save me By such kind of work it is that the Lord bringeth the soules of his servants effectually to Christ and now hath God the Father given us unto him and untill now thou never camest unto him savingly This is the second Act whereby God the Father giveth himselfe unto the soule The third act or work followeth both these as soone as ever the Lord hath given this selfe-denying spirit unto the soule and hath made it like unto a bruised Reed or like a Traveller that is out of his way and willing to take any man by the hand that will lead him into his way againe when the soule is in such a frame the Lord cometh with a third act of Reconcilement The first work was of Conviction the second of Prostration the third of Reconciliation This is the third work of the Father though there is in all these works a concurrence of the whole Trinity yet some are more proper unto each Person as our Catechismes teach us and we are not wont to scruple such expressions in them God the Father created us and we cannot expound it but as God the Father created us at the first so he doth again create you or else if we acknowledg it in the one and not in the other we do wrong unto God even to the Father Well he is then reconciled unto us having given unto us the Spirit of his Son now he doth pronounce us reconciled unto him this is the work which is spoken of Rom. 5.10 and this is the work of God the Father according to that was before alledged 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world c. Now there are two acts of God as fruits that follow hereupon and both of them done at once upon the soule 1 The first is Adoption whereby he maketh us his Children as Gal. 4.4,5,6 John 1.12 So that now we are the Brethren of Christ and the Sons of the Eternall God Adoption is properly the work of the Father but Christ being the naturall Son of God we must be knit unto him before we can be accounted Sons 2 The second is Justification Rom. 8.33,34 This is the Fathers work and it is principally attributed unto him to forgive our iniquities and to make reconciliation in Christ Jesus And look as it is in our naturall Being so soon as ever we have received naturall life from Adam we become the Sons of Adam and his sin is imputed unto us so it is in the new birth as soon as ever the life of Christ is shed abroad into our hearts so soon are we Heires of Christ and the righteousness of the second Adam is imputed unto us now to our Justification as the sin of Adam before was to our Condemnation Vse 1. The Doctrine it selfe is but an Use but I desire that we may all of us apply it unto our selves It will be a help to us for our Instruction to Teach us how we came to saving fellowship with God in Jesus Christ and wherein lieth our spirituall union with Christ and how it is wrought and obtained and this is necessary for as it hath been observed by others so we may now gather it from what we have heard that there be 4 sorts of men that fall short of this union with Christ 1 You have some that blesse themselves in their naturall estate it may be they are rich and honourable among men well they blesse themselves in that estate and will never goe any further 2 There is another sort that are convinced of the danger of their naturall estate they dare not rest there and hereupon they fall upon Reformations and so to duties of Humiliation and such like wherein they find as they conceive such a blessed change and so much comfort as doth satisfie them And indeed God doth comfort men in their Reformations for God will have no man lose by him Mat. 6.2,5 Hypocrices have their reward for their Aime and for their Prayers Herod when he heard John reformed many things and heard him gladly Mark 6.20 Here was a great change and doubtlesse much comfort in that gladnesse yet these men never had the work of God the Father to burn up all that they had received by any strength of their owne 3. A third sort goe a step beyond these they have been convinced that they went forth â—o Reformation in their owne strength they plainly see it and discerne it and therefore they know that it is impossible to be saved by the righteousnesse of the Law and that it is not of works neither of one kind nor of another they are convinced that Faith onely must doe the deed and upon this ground they will take up Faith to believe in Christ for salvation and that Faith which formerly they have pitched upon their good duties they will now pitch upon Christ but still it is the same Faith for the root is not yet burnt up the old corruption still remaineth in them and so here is your old faith still translated from one object to another it was fastned before upon your duties and reformations and now upon Christ though by creature-strength and now a man is ready to plead and say If God had not loved me he would never have set me upon such reformations nor have enlarged me with such comforts if he had not been well pleased with me in Jesus Christ And though I have been sometimes burnt up touching my hope in reformation yet I have translated my Faith to Jesus Christ but how came you to doe that Why I saw my hopes in my owne reformation would not serve my turne and therefore I believed in Jesus Christ and now shall nothing draw me from him nor pull me from my confidence for I have built upon some word of God and some Promise of his made unto such reformation as I have set upon and is not this true Faith in Jesus Christ This is far from true Faith it is no other but a strong fallacy whereby the Devil doth cheat men and in truth this Faith is but a Faith of a mans owne making that I may so speak it is no more than a spirit of Burning at the best that hath burnt up his confidence in
his owne works and taught him to resolve in his judgment to believe on Jesus Christ 4 There is a fourth sort also that fall far short of Christ too and yet goe beyond all these they goe beyond works and beyond this Faith also which we have spoken of which was not a lively Faith in Christ whereby we are justified but men justifie themselves by it God doth not justifie them Now this fourth sort come plainly to see that their Faith is shaken and they dare not look God in the face to justifie the truth of their Faith before him it is true many an heavenly spirited man cannot tell what will become of him nor can he tell whether his Faith be sound but many an Hypocrite also is so far convinced that he cannot tell what will become of him nor can he say that his Faith is right nor that he is able to believe What saith the soule now in such a case as this He will say I see it is not my Reformation nor my Faith that will serve the turn what is it then I see that now I must waite upon Christ that I may believe and unto him I must seek for helpe Is not this soule in a state of everlasting fellowship with Christ Truly this is that which the Lord many times bringeth the souls of his Servants unto but he leaveth them not there if he mean to doe them good for I would examine again how camest thou to waite upon Jesus Christ thou hast been driven out of conceit of thy former Faith and so hast been forced and hast seen a necessity to wait upon Christ for Faith or else thou canst not believe force of Argument hath constrained thee thus far if thou hast taken up a course of waiting onely upon this ground here is a spark of old Adam still kept alive in thee Thou art able to seek and wait upon Christ and yet I cannot promise thee that thou hast any part or portion in him But a soule will say Hath not the Lord made gratious Promises to all those that seeke for him Hath he not said that all they are blessed that waite for him Isa 30.18 And am not I wrapped up hereby in a bundle of grace and peace Mind you there is no promise of life made to those that wait seek in their own strength who being driven to it have taken it up by their own resolutions though I grant it is true that every one that waiteth for and seeketh the Lord aright is driven unto it by the Lord yet if ever the Lord mean to save you he will rend as it were the caule from the heart I mean he will pluck away all the confidence you have built upon a as man would rend the intralls of a Beast from him so the Lord will bring you to a flat deniall of your selves and that you have neither good will nor deed as of your selves And you will find you know not what God will doe with you but this you know that whatsoever he doth he is most righteous When the Spirit of God cometh as a Comforter he will in this manner convince the soul of a man that he hath heretofore hung upon his reformations for hope comfort but now he is brought plainly to see and flatly to deny that he hath so much as one drop of the fatnes of the true Olive tree in him when he most trusted unto his own excellencies Now a man being thus far brought on doth not only deny himselfe in his judgement but in his will and is ready to say as David sometimes did If the Lord say he hath no pleasure in me here I am let him doe unto me as seemeth him good The Lord is righteous in all that cometh upon me this onely the soul hath for his support in such a case the Lord is able to doe all for me that I stand in need of If he shew me no mercy he is just if he be gratious I shall live to praise him Now when a mans will is thus subdued that he hath no will of his owne to be guided by but onely the will of God this is true brokennesse of heart when not onely the judgement but the heart and will is broken The soule being thus convinced that neither his working nor believing nor waiting nor seeking as of himselfe will doe him any good there is no mercy that he can chalenge for any goodnesse sake of his owne then cometh the Holy Ghost in some declaration of Gods free love and taketh possession of the heart and then the soule beginneth to pant after Jesus Christ and nothing in Heaven but him nor in the Earth besides him The soule being thus wrought upon beginneth to put forth it selfe towards the Lord Jesus but the Holy Ghost having taken possession before helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26,27 He alone must help us and no other FINIS CERTAIN QUERIES Tending to Accommodation and Communion of Presbyterian Congregationall Churches BY Mr JOHN COTTON late Teacher of the Church at Boston in New-England Published by a Friend to whom the Author himselfe sent them over not long before his Death LONDON Printed by M. S. for John Allen and Francis Eglesfield in Pauls Church-yard 1654. Certain Queries tending to the mutuall Accommodation Communion of Presbyterian and Congregationall Churches delivered in 11 Propositions humbly presented both to the Consideration and Examination of them according to God BY Mr JOHN COTTON The 1. Querie Whether may it not be safely acknowledged that the Congregations of Christians subject to Presbyteriall Government preaching and professing the Truth of the Gospel and not over-growne with ignorant and scandalous Persons are true and holy Churches of Christ BEcause such Churches for the Matter of them consist of visible Saints at least a principall part of them especially when they present themselves to sit downe before the Lord at his Table And for the Forme they doe agree together in choosing their owne Minister in attending duely to the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments and in submitting to the Doctrine of the Gospel which implyeth a reall and visible though implicite profession of the Covenant of grace requisite to Church-estate Object The Parish-Churches in England were Antichristian if not in their first Institution yet at least for these many hundred yeares and were never since unchurched nor new moulded out of their Anchristian Apostacy Answ 1. The Gospel of Christ was preached and received in England ten yeares before it was in Rome as may appeare by Gildas and may be inferred from Baronius also Annal. Anno Christi 35.5 45.1 and that by the Ministry of Apostles and Apostolick men who doubtlesse did at first institute Churches not after the Pattern of Rome which then was not a Church but according to the Patterne of the Apostles 2. Neither were they unchurched by the Antichristian Apostacy which afterwards grew upon them as a Leprosie but were onely corrupted and polluted even
But their Account doth not make or prove it to be so neither doth it seem really and in truth to be so For 1 The Constitution of Parochiall or Parish Churches is not of Divine but of humane Institution and that too in the very darkest times of Popery and Superstition viz. about 700 years ago as learned Mr. Selden in his Book of Tythes ch 9. seems to intimate So that although it may seem a disorder in regard of that limitation of Parishes for the Parishioners of one place to joyne themselves unto the Church Assemblies in another yet not in regard of any thing appearing to the contrary from the Scripture which is the rule for Christians to walk by especially in matters belonging to Church-Administration and Government Neither will it I suppose be affirmed by any intelligent Christian who understanding in any measure the true Nature of a particular Church that Parish-bounds are the constituting cause of a particular Church or Congregation for it cannot be maintained that every individuall person living in such a Parish bounds is therefore a Member of that Church there except it can be proved that professed Turks or Jewes or Indians who through providence may be brought into the Land and so necessarily reside in some Parish or other there being hardly any parcell of ground free in any part of England from belonging to the bounds of some Parish or Towne are as reall and true Members of the Church there as any Christian man or woman in the Parish I conceive it neither any solecisme or Paradox to affirm that there may be a Parish where there is no true Church of Christ and a true Christian Church where there is no Parish 2 It may seem too great a bondage and slavery both for any Church whether Presbyter or Congregationall to be forced to receive all into fellowship in all the Ordinances who have their habitation or residence in the same Parish bounds with them and also for particular persons to be necessitated to be of this or that particular Congregation in fellowship with such Members and under the Ministry of such a man which they cannot find so suitable to their spirits and so profitable for their spirituall edification as some others which may not be far off from them And whereas it may fall out which possibly may come in here as an Objection that the Minister under whom a man liveth is taken away by death and another one called into his place and Office by the generality of the Church who may be as unsuitable unto the Spirit of this or that Brother as the Minister of the Parish where he dwells or as any other shall not be bound to submit to the choice of the Church or must the Church suspend their choice upon the Negative vote of any one Brother In such a case 't is lawfull for that dissenting Brother who cannot call such a man to be his Minister nor owne him as his Pastour or Teacher to desire a Letter of dismission to some other Church and Officer whom he can more freely and comfortably close in his spirit withall and I suppose that Church with whom he hath fellowship at the present is bound to yield unto his equall and just desire that so they may part in a loving and brotherly manner We doe generally allow every servant so much liberty for his outward comfort and advantage as to choose his owne Master in whose Family and under whose Government and inspection he is to live and why should not Christians also being made free-men by Christ have as much liberty for their spirituall comfort and edification to chose the particular Church under whose teaching and inspection they are to abide And why else hath the Lord out of his infinite goodnesse and wisedome given out diversity of gifts to divers of his Servants in the Ministry but to suite the variety of spirits and dispositions in his people Every lock not agreeing with every key as our Reverend Author was wont to express himselfe speaking of this very thing 3 Experience doth also testifie de facto that such a course is possible to be used and practised without making such disorder and confusion as is conceived by some For notwithstanding it be practised by some Churches not onely Congregationall but Presbyteriall also and Classicall to have their Members scattered up and down in severall Precincts or Parishes yet there have not any such confusion and disorder followed thereupon as we have seen by the constant practice of our Brethren in the Congregations both of the Dutch and French here amongst us in England as viz. in London Norwich Canterbury Colchester and in such other places where they doe inhabit who although they be dispersed throughout the Cities and Townes where they live yet are not thought nor ever were by any except possibly by some of the Lordly Prelates who out of their superstitious zeale did seek to undermine and dissolve their Congregations to be any occasion of disorder and confusion by their Meeting together in their holy Assemblies from all parts of the Cities and Townes where they dwell And why might not the like liberty be allowed unto the English themselves without any just feare of disorder thereby There seems nothing but custome against it for had it been but the practice and course of the English as it hath beene of the other certainly it would not be accounted more disorderly then theirs is Onely if while the division by Parishes doe continue men doe allow and contribute not onely toward the Poor but also toward the Preaching of the word in their severall Parishes that the word may be dispensed all the Land over I should not gainsay it as I suppose the brethren both of the French and Dutch have been wont to doe in the severall Parishes where they live Finally Brethren be of one mind live in Peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you FINIS The RESULT OF A SYNOD AT CAMBRIDGE IN New-England Anno. 1646. CONCERNING The Power of Magistrates in matters of the First Table Nature Power of Synods and other matters thereunto belonging LONDON Printed by M. S. for John Allen and Francis Eglesfield in Pauls Church-yard 1654. The Result of the Disputations of the Synod or Assembly at Cambridge in New-England Begun upon the first day of the 7th Month An. Dom. 1646. About the power of the Civill Magistrate in matters of the first Table and also about the grounds of Synods with their power and the power of calling of them Being drawn up by some of the Members of the Assembly deputed thereunto and being distinctly read in the Assembly it was agreed thus farre onely That they should be commended unto more serious consideration against the next Meeting TOuching the Question of the Civill Magistrate in matters of Religion we shall crave leave to narrow and limit the state of it in the manner of the Proposall of it and shall therefore propound it thus
infringed when as he de jure commands nothing but that which if men have any tendernesse of conscience they are bound in conscience to submit thereto and in faithfull submitting to which is truest liberty of conscience conscience being never in a â—…er or better estate of liberty here on earth than when most ingaged to walke according to Gods Commandements 4. That thereby Christians become servants of men when the Magistrate only is to enjoyne what his Master and theirs hath commanded or to forbid the contrary and consequently in submitting thereto are but servants to Christ in man 5. That thereby men are made hypocrites and time-servers as if to command men to walke according to the Word and to forbid the contrary were to make men so contrary to the Word as are time-servers and hypocrites 6. That thereby a sluce is opened to let in all manner of false religions and corrupt opinions into the Church supposing the Magistrate be of any false religion or corrupt in his judgement yea that were the way to set up a Pope in a Christian Common-wealth for Religion must turne as he turns When as the question is touching the Magistrates power of commanding or forbidding not what he in a Popelike way shall please or what his own spirit shall like best but what God hath commanded or forbidden in the Word and the position subjecteth him to the Word as to the supream Law and doth not set him up Popelike above the Scriptures or allow him to make his sense of scripture to be Scripture or to make humane traditionall Cannons to be as much of force as Scripture to bind mens consciences c. but the position rather condemneth any such power as gular usurped not approved of God which swerveth from that rule of the exercise of his power in matters of religion namely the Scriptures and the contrary to that objected would rather follow that if there must be no King or civill power among Gods professed Israel coercively to restraine forbidden evills in Religion then every man would hold and doe as he list as if every one were a Pope and then Micah's Idolatry and any other abominations may be set up 7. That thereby the civill Magistrate is put upon many intricate perplexities hazards of conscience how to judge in and of matters of Religion But this doth not hinder the Magistrate from that use of his coercive power in matters commanded or forbidden in the first Table no more then it doth hinder him from the like power in matters of the second Table none being ignorant what perplexing intricacies there are in these as well as in the former as conscientious Magistrates finde by dayly experience yet such as object this will not deny this power in the latter and why then in the former the objection proveth the difficulty of his knowing of Gods minde in his place and if it had been objected against Church-Officers power in Churches or the power of Parents and Masters in their families it would have proved the same but it followes not its difficult for a man in authority to know the utmost of his duty in his place therefore it s not necessary for him to doe his duty in his place They which inaugurated Joash to be King 2 Chron. 23.11 they put upon him the testimony as the Hebrew words used to be expounded to shew that it was his duty as a King not onely to know the testimonie or booke of Gods Law but authoritatively to establish what was written in it 8. That thereby persons are put upon acting with doubting consciences the Magistrates Injunctions being oft-times not cleare to such as are to obey them and so they are thereby compelled to sin When the position affirmeth this power in matters cleared in the Word which if not cleared to this or that subject in a Christian Common-wealth that is his owne fault by his owne ignorance of matters which he is bound to know to bring any such snare upon his conscience and in such a case he may desire the Magistrate to use the best meanes to cleare up the matters enjoyned or forbidden to be commanded or forbidden in the Word but neither of these hinder but that the Magistrate is to command or forbid that which God hath commanded or forbidden even that which Christ hath commanded or forbidden should not then be urged upon mens consciences by Church-Officers or Church-censures be executed against obstinate gaine-sayers because through error in judgement and corruption in conscience men will say thâ—…nd after all meanes used for convictâ—… they may still affirme that they thinke otherwise or at best that they still doubt of the matters in question yea albeit the matters be fundamentall 9. That hereby Christians are discouraged from seeking more light or hindred from embracing or following such new light as the Saints expect in these latter dayes When as its evident that the commanding and forbidding things cleared in the Word to be good or evill doth neither expresse what light men have from the Word nor discourage from more light in from the same as not in matters of the second Table so neither of the first 10. That thereby conscientious men especially will come to suffer because Magistrates may think things commanded or forbidden of God and accordingly ratifie them by their authority which God did never command or forbid when as the question is not concerning Magistrates enjoyning what they thinke but what is the minde of God nor can the pressing of the minde of God commanding what he requieth and forbidding the contrary be any just or proper cause of suffering to men truly conscientious The Magistrate may indeed through mistake command or forbid things respecting not onely the first but the second Table But this doth not deprive civill Magistracy therefore of coercive power as not in matters of the second so neither of the first Table but in this case Christians must be content to suffer in either albeit withall the Magistrate doe breake his rule 11. That thereby we shall incourage and harden Papists and Turks in their cruell persecutions of the Saints whereas for the Magistrate to command or forbid according to God as it is not persecution so neither doth it of it selfe tend to persecution Power to presse the Word of God and his truth doth not give warrant to suppresse or oppresse the same the times are evill indeed when the pressing of obedience to the rule shall be counted persecution 12. That thence are caused all the warres in Christendome at this day when it is evident that the pressing men to obey the will and word of God in matters either of the second or fiâ—st Table is not of it selfe any cause of warre but the lusts rather of such as abuse their power contrary to the Word By this already spoken we have seen the ruine of twelve of our opposites Castles in the ayre imaginarily framed to withstand the civil Magistrates coercive power in
matters of Religion Let us now in the next place consider at the object of this coercive power of the Magistrate which in the state of the question we call the outward man the things wh ch the civill Magistrate as such doth command or forbid he commandeth or forbiddeth with immediate respect to the outward man The Magistrate as a Magistrate looketh immediately at the externall acts of the body and not at the internall acts of the soule it s his property as a civill Ruler to attend onely the duties and sinnes which appeare in the walke of the outward man Thus Calvin Beza Chemnitius Gerard and other Protestant Divines generally Quest Hereby also other objections receive answer as first Must Magistrates punish any man for being of a corrupt judgement or barely for an errour in his judgement or for having a corrupt heare and sundry lusts in it Answ We say no because whilst he keepeth his opinion to himselfe and whilest his lusts are confined within his breast he is to be left to the sword of the Spirit and to the Word of God thereby onely to be convinced the Magistrates power onely extending to the outward man but if either his mentall errours or hearts lust breake out into open expression and view and become scandalous and spreading then they become breaches of rules by the outward man yea tend to infringe that outward godly peace of which he is to be a preserver and so in both respects he is to deale with the same Object 2. Must a Magistrate command men to believe with all their heart to repent and mortifie their sins and lusts Answ We say no because these appertaine to the inward man and soule of man to attend so farre as they are inward but if we speake of any outward profession of these so farre he may command as to professe the faith by comming to heare the Word and to repent by publick fasting and prayer And if Princes have no power in such externall things then have they no power instrumentally to remove the wrath of God from their Kingdomes by generall humiliations Briefly now of the manner and means of the exercise of this power included in that phrase civilly we say not ecclesiastically as if he might put forth his power in a Church way by Church-weapons or censures but civilly or in a civill way or by civill censures or punishments Whence also other objections are answered as that the weapons of our warfare are not carnall but spirituall and that Paul sheweth a way of redressing all offences 1 Cor. 5.5 2 Tim. 2.25 and Faith comes by hearing and not by whipping when these places rather intend and shew a Church way of healing Church offences and doe no more exclude a Politicall way of healing offences in a Christian Common-wealth than an Economicall way of redressing disorders in the Family so the other place sheweth a spirituall means of drawing men to the Faith so that neither are pertinent to the case of the Civill power acting civilly nor doth this Assertion That the Magistrate is to be a terrour to all evill works applying the same to evill works forbidden in the first Table any more exclude the use of Church-discipline therein then it doth in matters of the second Table if applyed thereunto for the Church may proceed in her way to censure Ecclesiastically one and the same thing whether it be against the first or second Table which the Magistrate doth punish civilly The last thing to be explained in the state of the Question is touching the coercive power of the Magistrate namely Godly peace Now by Godly peace to which the Magistrate immediately looketh we mean a peaceable living as in all honesty so in godlines as the Apostle hath it 1 Tim. 2.1,2 So far as any matters of Religion coming under the Magistrates cognizance as a publick Officer in the Common-wealth doe either further or hinder such a peace of a Christian Common-wealth so far is he to put forth his coercive power accordingly Hereby also with reference to things before explained other Objections may receive answer as 1 Will you have Magistrates put forth their coercive power to the full in Lawes with Sanctions of punishments as that men shall pray in their Families so long or so oft or else suffer That a Minister in preaching if he exceed a just houre he must suffer and the like we say if either the matters be meerly circumstantiall or if they be matters of lesse moment and such as doe not of themselves any way infringe publick peace or that they are not pertinatiously tumultuously maintained to the disturbance of publick peace in all such like cases wherein the Civill Magistrate's end is not intrenched upon he may not exercise the coercive power of his Authority with sanction or execution of punishments 2 Will not this Thesis arme and stir up the Civill power in Old England against godly Orthodox ones of the Congregationall way or exasperate Civill power in New England against godly moderate and Orthodox Presbyterians if any such should desire their liberty here we conceive no except the civill disturbance of the more rigidly unpeaceably and corruptly minded be very great yet betwixt men godly and moderately minded on both sides the difference upon true and due search is found so small by judicious Orthodox godly and moderate Divines as that they may both stand together in peace and love if liberty should be desired by either sort here or there so exercising their liberty as the publick peace be not infringed The state of the Question in the explication thereof will rather quench then kindle any such coales against either If indeed persons professing either the Congregationall or Presbyteriall way will shelter or close either with other Blasphemous Hereticall or Schismaticall Tenents which tend to break the peace of the Congregationall way there where a Presbyteriall way is authorized to be the generall way of the Churches or the Presbyteriall way here where the Congregationall way is authorized to be the generall way of the Churches there they may be strained by the power of the Civil Magistrate as disturbers and breakers of godly peace the conservation whereof is the Civil Magistrates end and work unto which he is to attend Having thus cleared the state of the Question we shall now come to some Arguments from Scripture which confirme the Affirmative part of the question so stated and the Arguments are taken some from the old some from the New Testament Of the former sort there are three From the Old Testament Argum 1 1 In that it is evident that Rulers of old and those Rulers in the Common-wealth of Israel they are commended in Scripture for the exercise of such power in the matters of the first Table and therefore it is according to the mind of God that now civil Rulers do the like Abraham who was not an ordinary master of a family but a Prince among them Gen. 23.6 He
at any time carried aside it is his greatest burthen 2 Sam. 12.8,9 compared with 13. Hath not the Lord sayth Nathan done these and these things for thee Wherefore then hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord Then David confesseth I have sinned It pierced him to the heart to consider it that he should abuse his neighbours wife and kill her husband and above all that he should commit that wickednes against God that had dealt so gratiously with him So that the children of the Covenant of grace will onely tell you that they are free from the Covenant of the Law but not from the Commandment of it for as it is given by Jesus Christ and ratified in the Gospell and as Christ hath given us his Spirit enabling us to keep it wee are under it so farre as to take our selves bound by the Authority of it and if we doe trangresse against it we know it is sin in the sight of God therefore it is that the soule in such a case is sensible of the wrath and displeasure of God whether it be his own sin or the sin of his brethren therefore he runneth unto God for mercy which he would not doe if he did not know that his desert according to the Law did utterly cut him off from mercy else would he never pray for pardon of sin nor rejoyce when the Lord helpeth him to doe that which is right and just in his sight nor blesse the Lord for strengthning him unto obedience unlesse he thought it to be his duty and therefore Vse 2. It is of use also to Teach the servants of God how far we are freed from the Law to wit from the Covenant of it so that we neither looke for justification nor salvation from it and let it not be grievous to any soule that a Christian should say he doth not feare condemnation by his disobedience he will be apt to feare in this kinde untill he be assured of the favour of God but when he knoweth his portion in the Covenant then indeed he doth not feare condemnation by his sin nor doth he thinke that the Lord will cleave unto him because of his fruitfulnes he casteth not off his comfort nor looketh at himselfe as divorced from Christ because of his barrennes nor doth he looke for his daily bread from all his obedience but expecteth all goodnesse and blessing from the treasures of the free grace of God Vse 3. This may also serve to Teach men some discerning of their owne spirits and state if you looke for justification no longer than you are obedient and feare eternall condemnation then you are disobedient if you are afraid of divorce from Christ because of your sins or if you looke for any vertue or challenge right to any promise by vertue of any well-doing of your owne in such a case either you are under a Covenant of workes or you are gone aside to a Covenant of works and if ever the Lord open your eyes and bestow his free grace upon you you will know your redemption from such dependances as these be I know a Christian man that hath not been cleerely taught the distinct differences between these two Covenants may be misled into dangerous wayes that might tend unto the utter undoing of his soule but it is a sin of ignorance and the Lord will not leave his servants but cleare up his truth and grace unto them Vse 4. May serve to Teach the servants of God that desire to walke in a way of constant obedience how to build their faith and hope truly if they be grounded upon your own obedience or righteousnes of sanctification if they depend upon you you will find your hearts ever unsetled you may finde comfort as under the Law you shall for the Law will cast in comforts upon a man because of his obedience if he be marryed to the Law but if you shall believe that Christ is yours and comfort your selves because you have been by the power of the Law constrained to duties and restrained from sin and thereupon build your conjugall communion with Christ you will find your soules full of sadnes and feare ere long especially if you have true grace in your hearts and therefore it is the faithfullnes and tendernes of the grace of God unto his people that when Christians come into this Country though they have been marvellous eminent in our native Country yet here they cannot pray fervently nor heare the word with profit nor receive the Seales with Comfort they wonder what is become of their old prayers and hearings and Sacraments and of their lively spirits in holy duties truly the Lord hath disinabled them as it were from such things because they did build their union and fellowship with Christ upon them that so they might know the freedome of the grace of God that justifieth the ungodly then will the poore soule be glad to seeke after the Lord Jesus Christ and say as the people of God sometimes did Hos 2.7 I will goe and returne to my first husband for then it was better with me than now now the soule will plainly see discerne that he closed not with his true husband when as he built so much hope and comfort upon his duties therefore he will finde himselfe weake and dead as it were to all spirituall duties and can finde no life in them no comfort from them and it is the marvellous goodnes and free grace of God unto such a soule whom the Lord will not suffer to blesse himselfe in his works for if a man should lay the foundatiō of his comforts in them and be ready as it were to take it ill if he should not finde God accepting his works Wherefore have wee fasted and thou regardest it not Isa 58.3 If a man rejoyce in the sparks which he hath kindled this shall he have at the hands of God he shall lie downe in sorrow Isa 50.11 Whereas the light of God shall gratiously breake forth unto the servants of God that wait upon him though they be for present in darknes and see no light trust not therefore in any legall comforts but wait upon the free grace of God both to justifie sanctifie comfort and glorifie your soules This is the way of constant peace and if the Lord doe at any time checke his servants when they walke in by-wayes it is that he might build them upon a sure foundation so that their salvation will not lye upon their obedience nor damnation upon their disobedience This is the way of constant peace and s◅ety unto all the Israel of God Quest 7. This Doctrine may serve in the next place to Answer a seventh Question touching the necessitie of sanctification For it may be demanded If the Lord will give himselfe unto the soule in the Covenant of his grace not onely his Attributes but his Person all that is God is given by vertue of this Covenant If God hath himselfe not onely chosen us