God that it may prove a certain evidence of conversion and consequently of our union with Christ Jesus It must of necessity have these six properties and each of them must be enquired after in the business of self-examination It must be 1. Spiritual 2. Vniversal 3. Evangelical 4. Sincere 5. Thriving 6. Stedfast obedience 1. It must be spiritual obedience answerable to the nature of that God whom we wait upon and whose servants we are His essence is spiritual and such must our obedience to him be if we will serve the Lord acceptably and make it appear that we are of the number of his peculiar people Bodily exercise and a meer external devotion will strike a great stroke in making up the form of godliness but the power of it consisteth in that which is spiritual Joh. 4.23 The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him These are the true worshippers that is such as are so in Gods account whom he will graciously receive and own in their performances When people serve him in a bare external bodily manner he reckoneth them as his greatest enemies their service is but a piece of dissimulation which hath only the shadow of worship For the substance lieth in what is spiritual And such the Father seeketh to worship him i.e. such worship he commandeth and his soul is well pleased with Although it seemeth to be spoken here with a peculiar reference to instituted worship yet it holds strongly as to natural worship also even of all the parts and particulars of his service For the reason which is rendred v. 24. is comprehensive of all Because God is a Spirit So that our obedience if it prove us a chosen generation whom God hath set apart for himself must be spiritual And that in a threefold respect In respect of the 1. Principle from whence it floweth 2. Extent how far it reacheth 3. Subject whereon it is terminated 1. In respect of the principle from whence it proceedeth It must be such obedience as cometh from the heart and wherein the soul and spirit is ingaged Not an honouring him with the lips and drawing neer to him with the mouth when the heart is removed far from him Not a serving him only by a kind of compulsion under some terrible apprehensions of the judgments of God not in a slothful careless and lukewarm manner as if Religion were a weariness to us and we had no mind to our work But when we serve him aright our hearts must be ingaged to approach unto him Jer. 30.21 22. we must be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 And our inward parts must be employed in the works of holiness When a mans tongue doth speak forth the praises of God and his heart joyneth with him in the business when his hands do act in the works of piety and his spirit concurreth in the action and carry him on thereunto this is to serve the Lord with the Spirit Although he calleth for the body also to be imployed in his service as indeed he deserveth the whole man yet not as a picture or image without life and soul but as animated by the heart Prov. 23.26 My son give me thine heart and let thine eyes observe my wayes q.d. A slave will give me his hands and feet and the strength of his body an hypocrite will offer up the outward man but if thou be a son I must have the heart and spirit 2. It must be spiritual obedience in respect of the extent of it how far it reacheth Such as sets us in opposition against spiritual sins as well as fleshly such as causeth us to fight against secret pride and envy and earthliness and unbelief and malice and double-mindedness and the like as well as to obstain from rotten communication and gross outward pollutions It must be such obedience as is exercised in spiritual duties as meditation on the word of the Lord and frequent contemplation of the excellencies of God adoring his Majesty and admiring his works and setting the affections on things above as well as in pleading the cause of holiness and openly walking in the profession of it It must carry us to such works as are performed in the secret recesses of the Spirit and sets us a striving against such corruptions as are forged and fabricated in the spirit which no eye can observe but God and our own consciences 2 Cor. 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves from all the filthiness both of the flesh and spirit Rom. 8.5 They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit Psal 73.1 Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are clean of heart See further Psal 24.3 4. Mat. 6.21 3. In respect of the subject whereon it is terminated It endeth in the further renewing and purifying the spirit and getting more degrees of habitual grace into the heart When we are not only contented to be kept free from the acts of sin but do mourn and lament under the principle of sin and labour to deaden that principle When we do not think it enough to do much for God but fain would have our spirits transformed every day more and more into the image of God Thus it will be if you are converted If a carnal person resist the temptation he thinks his work is done and is apt to glory in himself as if the whole business were dispatched But a convert layeth the ax to the root of the tree he followeth the corrupt stream to the poysonous fountain whence it is derived and nothing will satisfie him but cleansing the fountain and taking revenge upon his lusts that lodge within him Rom. 7.23 24. Paul's actual sins cause him to have an eye upon his heart by which he was turned aside I see saith he another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity unto the law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death This is the first qualification It must be spiritual obedience 2. If you would prove your conversion and consequentially your union with Christ by your obedience It must be universal obedience Not a partial and restrictive serving of God but a following him fully as far as the whole circuit of holiness reacheth As it is said of Caleh Num. 14.24 He followed the Lord fully and that proved him to be a man of another spirit and of a gracious temper indeed sanctified by the holy Ghost because his obedience was universal There is a threefold universality must go to the right qualifying our obedience that it may be evidential of a converted estate It must be universal in relation to the 1. Agent or person obeying 2. Rule of obedience 3. Times and seasons of the performance 1. In relation to the agent or person
THE Mystical Union OF Believers with CHRIST OR A TREATISE WHEREIN That great Mystery and Priviledge of The Saints Vnion with the Son of God is opened In the Nature Properties and Necessity of it The way how it is wrought And the principal Scripture-Similitudes whereby it is illustrated Together with a Practical Application of the whole By Rowland Stedman M. A. and Minister of the Gospel lately of Ockingham in Berkshire John 14.6 Jesus saith unto him I am the Way and the Truth and the Life No man cometh unto the Father but by me Si vis vir virtutis appellari indue te Christum Dominum qui est Dei virtus Dei sapientia Et in omnibus adjunge te Domino ita ut unus cum eo spiritus fias Et tunc vir virtutis efficieris Orig. hom in cap. 31. Num. London Printed by W. R. for Thomas Parkhurst at the Golden-Bible on London-Bridge under the Gate 1668. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY TO The truly Noble and worthily Honoured Lady Dame Eleanor Roberts of Neesdon in the County of Middlesex MADAM THE whole design of this Treatise and the Authors ambition is that it may become subservient to the good of souls And in testimony of that Honour and Observance which is deservedly due to your Ladyship from me I have taken the liberty to prefix your name unto it Nor indeed do I know how to make a better return to all your love and respects than by presenting and commending these Evangelical Truths to your most serious perusal Truths they are of the highest importance upon the right improvement whereof lieth the whole stress of a Believers comfort and salvation If an error be admitted in these things it may end unless timely rectified in utter and remediless ruine Let them not be therefore despised because they tender themselves clad in an homely dress I am conscious of mine own weaknesses and imperfections But our God is pleased to convey the richest of his Treasures in earthen vessels and to make use of the meanest Instruments that the excellency of the power may appear to be of God and not of man The closer view you take of and the greater intimacy of acquaintance you get with these and such like Divine Lessons the more sweet refreshings and soul-satisfaction will they minister It is the nature of all Terrestrials to be fairer in appearance than reality and to promise more at a distance than ever is to be found in them Like the Apples of Sodom they seem glorious and beautiful when beheld afar off but upon a neerer approach and handling they crumble into dust and rottenness Gospel-doctrines and excellencies have a contrary property like some wholsom herbs which the more they are pressed yield the sweeter juice and are of greater fragrancy The deeper you draw out of these Wells of salvation the more Chrystalline and cordial will the waters be and contribute more sanative efficacy to exhilarate and strengthen the vital parts Only be sure to keep the passage open and free from obstructions that goeth from the head to the heart and conscience that the influence of every divine instruction may reach to the quick The main objects of a Christians care and study do for the most part concenter in three things 1. To make a right choice of the chiefest good and pitch upon the true principal end of man which is nothing else but the glorifying of God in the enjoyment of him This only can allay the hunger and thirst and satisfie the perplexities of the soul For alas what are all created beings and sublunary vanities to content the infinite desires of an immortal spirit These terrene possessions are only proportionate to the body and can the soul feed upon the bodies portion 'T is poor support can be drawn from the abundance of this world when the spirit is departing to enter into an endless eternity 2. To select and determine upon the sure means in order to the compassing of that end And this is only the righteousness of Jesus Christ applyed and made over to us by vertue of our union with him to be sought after in the wayes of Gods institution and evidenced by the holiness of our conversations 3. The sincere spiritual and vigorous pursuance of such means And I hope your Ladyship will find in the reading of this Book what may be of special use to direct and quicken in each of these But more directly in relation to the two latter It is matter of sad lamentation and sorrow to behold how many that go under the name of Christians do miserably faulter in these so weighty affairs The multitude do little else but labour in the fire for very vanity And such as are some times at leisure to think of their souls do for the most part but study to find out the easiest and cheapest course a little to palliate and skin over those wounds and grievances which the Apostacy of man hath brought upon them without endeavouring after a perfect cure Your Ladyship hath learnt better Not only to give soul-affairs the preheminence but likewise to know how needful it is to be intent and industrious in the business of salvation and of what dangerous consequence to do that work by halfs It is not my meaning to trouble you with a large preambulatory discourse Neither is it my way nor doth your Ladyship expect it that I should stuff up this Address with your commendations They who most deserve least desire to hear their own praises You know to whose judgment you stand or fall My design is only to incourage your Ladyship to hold on and to be faithful in the good wayes of the Lord wherein you are ingaged That our gracious God may preserve you to be a continued comfort to your Relations and to be further useful in your Place and Station That he may mercifully please to grant you divine assistance and counsel upon all occasions for the right ordering your affairs with Christian sincerity and prudence That his blessing may be upon you during your abode on the earth in your Person Family and every concernment And that you may have real comfort in the day of the resignation of your spirit into the hands of God that gave it is the unfeigned prayer of 23. July 1668. Your Ladyships much obliged Servant ROWLAND STEDMAN To my dearly beloved Friends The Inhabitants of the Town and Parish of Wockingham in the Counties of Berks and Wilts WITH a special respect to the furtherance of your eternal welfare I have suffered these ensuing Meditations to see the light For since it pleased the Lord at whose disposal are our persons liberties and every concernment by his righteous providence to cause me to be separated from you I have often consulted within my self how I might be most instrumental to do you service as to your soul-affairs Which at this local distance I knew not how better to accomplish than by commending to you such spiritual Lessons as
in their unregeneracy before they are partakers of the differencing or special grace of God are wholly separated from Christ and meer strangers unto him As they are afar off from God by reason of their apostacy and declension from so they are without Christ by whom alone they can be brought back again unto the Lord. They can plead no share in his death and sufferings or if they do plead it they will be found guilty of usurpation for they are without him in the world This is clearly the doctrine of the Scripture Eph. 2.12 At that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise At that time that is whilst you were dead in sins and trespasses before you were quickned by grace according to the riches of the mercy and love of God v. 4,5 then ye were without Christ not only destitute of the knowledge of Christ as Gentiles though that seems to be the primary intent of the words but without an interest in him because unconverted sinners For what the Apostle speaketh of the Gentiles is true in that sense of all wicked ungodly persons whomsoever There is no difference in that respect between Jews and Heathens carnal Professors and open Infidels S. Paul plainly doth include himself and such as he was before his conversion And therefore in the day of grace when the eternal love of God doth break forth towards his chosen people they are said to be brought to Christ and espoused unto him 2 Cor. 11.2 When they are taught of God they are drawn to the Son of God when they have heard and learnt of the Father then they come unto Jesus Joh. 6.44 45. evidently implying that before they had so learned they were without Christ and at a distance from him That is the first Proposition 2. Propos 2. The sons and daughters of men in their carnal unconverted estate over and above their distance and separation from Christ are actually knit and joyned unto such objects as are wholly inconsistent with their Union with Christ I will instance especially in two things They are 1. In Covenant with sin 2. Contracted to the Law 1. They are in covenant with sin and at league of peace with their corruptions their spirits are glewed and fastened unto base lusts and pollutions Though some remainders of sin abide in the hearts of the godly whilst on this side of heaven yet they are hated and abhorred they are ever pursuing them unto death and executing a kind of holy revenge upon them and never satisfied till they are utterly vanquished and rooted up But now an unregenerate person is under the dominion of sin as an hired servant is under the command of his master Pride bids him go and he goeth flattery biddeth him run and he runneth covetousness injoyneth him to do this and he doth it carnal fear requireth him to wound his conscience in this particular and he woundeth it uncleanness commandeth him to venture upon that provocation of the wrath of God and he ventureth as having given up himself to the obedience of sin As the Lord saith of the Israelites of old it is true in its kind and measure of all impenitent sinners They are joyned to their idols Hos 4.17 Sin hath a being and residence in the hearts of the dearest of God's servants but the spirits of the wicked are fast linked together with it Such a one as Paul may be sold under sin but Ahab sells himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord Rom. 7.14 1 King 21.20 Unconverted sinners yield up themselves to be the servants of unrighteousness You shall find that sin is as dear to a natural man as the most useful members of the body Hence it is that Christ compareth a mans beloved lusts to the right hand and the right eye Mat. 5.29 30. And hereupon it is that their hearts are so ready to rise up with indignation and hatred against the means which are made use of to rid them of their sins and that sometimes they will not stick to be at a great deal of cost and pains to retain their abomiminations See what an offer they make Mic. 6.7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oyl Shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul q.d. Let us keep our lusts and we will stick at nothing we will part with our Estates and sacrifice our children rather than abandon our bosom corruptions Nay how do many venture their lives not to speak of their souls which all of them willingly run the hazard of losing for satisfaction of their lusts Now Sirs this can never consist with our being joyned to Christ * In omnibus nobis regnavit peccatum Unusquisque tamen habuit in se aliquem specialem regem qui in eo regnabat dominabatur ei Verbi causa in alio regnum tenebat avaritia in alio superbia in alio mendacium regnabat in alio libido dâ—minabatur alius regem patiebatur furorem Postea vere quam venit Jesus occidit omnes reges qui in nobis tenebant regna peccati praecepit nobis interficere omnes istos reges nullum ex iis relinquere Si quis enim aliquem horum in semet-ipso servaverit vivum in exercitu Jesu esse non poterit Si ergo regnat in te avaritia si jactantia si superbia si libido non eris Israeliticus miles c. Orig. hom 15. in Jos He will have no manner of fellowship with the workers of iniquity The design of his coming was to destroy the works of the devil and therefore he will not dwell with such as give up themselves to serve the devil that make it their trade to promote his interest these are the persons whom his soul abhorreth What communion hath Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6.14 Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity Psal 45.7 Into a polluted soul Christ the wisdom of God will not enter nor will he take up his habitation with those that are in confederacy with sin That 's the first object to which sinners are joyned in opposition unto Christ 2. They are contracted unto the Law as it is a covenant of life and are ready to seek for justification and acceptance upon legal terms which is a strong bar in the way of union with Christ For where the Lord Jesus is a Saviour indeed he will be acknowledged as a perfect Saviour he will have the whole glory of our redemption redound unto himself See what the Apostle speaketh to this purpose Gal. 5.4 Christ is become of none effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the Law that is if you seek to be justified by it none are or can be justified by it in reality but if you rely thereupon and expect and look for acceptation with God upon those terms
they also may be one in us Not only in Jesus the Mediator but in the Father likewise by means of their being in Jesus So 1 Thess 1.1 Unto the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ It was the end of Christ's sufferings in the flesh that he might bring sinners unto God and by vertue of their union with the Son they are actually brought unto him and knit unto the Father also O what a wonderful advancement is this to sinful dust and ashes To poor despicable creatures that dwell in houses of clay With what astonishment should it fill us What a spring-head of all manner of consolation is here Who would not be a Christian not only almost but altogether Who would not have fellowship and hold a correspondency with the Saints For truly their fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ as the Apostle mentioneth it by way of gloriation and boasting 1 Joh. 1.3 This is the sixth fundamental blessing By having the Son they have the Father also 7. A Believers union with Christ is the ground of all that peace and joy in the holy Ghost which putteth true gladness into the heart and life and sweetness into every condition and providence The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment and the pleasures of sin are poor empty external pleasures In the midst of laughter the heart is in bitterness they have many a secret griping of conscience that spoileth their mirth and many a fearful surprizal upon their spirits that marreth all their jollity Let them be set in the midst of their riotings and revellings their banquettings and carowsings amidst all the content and pleasure that sin and the world can afford and one serious thought of judgment to come will overturn it wholly one flash of hell in the conscience will put an end to their rejoycings It will quickly befal them as it befel Belshazzar The appearance but of the likeness of a mans fingers upon the wall made his countenance change and his thoughts trouble him and the joints of his loyns to be loosed and his knees to smite one against another and that when he was in the top of his gallantry and in the height of his merriment Dan. 5.5 6. O thinks the poor carnal wretch what will become of my precious and immortal soul Can all these enjoyments deliver me from the pit of destruction Who can dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 33.14 But the people of God have such peace as passeth understanding such a sweet calm and tranquillity in their spirits that they can rejoyce with joy unspeakable even in the midst of afflictions The joy of the ungodly is worse than sorrow It is but a fit of madness proceeding from ignorance of the state they are in If they knew but their own condition it would fill them with vexation and horror and anguish of heart But great peace have they that fear the Lord and are in Covenant with him * Meditationes rerum divinarum voluptates sensus non tantum potestate sed etiam suavitate superant Bacon de sap Veter nothing shall offend them Psal 119.165 Their portion is peace peace that is perfect peace nothing but peace and serenity which will put gladness into the heart greater than the joy of harvest Isa 26.3 And pray whence doth this peace arise Why originally from their union with Christ All peace out of him will end in sadness it is but as the crackling of thornes under a pot In him our consolation is stored up and given forth by vertue of our conjunction with him Joh. 16.33 These things have I spoken to you that in me ye might have peace If any of the children of God are under disquietness and perplexities upon their spirits it is for want of the evidences of their union with Christ or through their neglect of the right improvement thereof For here is a fountain to fill up a Believers joy Joh. 15.11 These things have I spoken to you that my joy might remain with you and that your joy might be full What were those things which Christ had spoken to them It was the doctrine of a Believers ingrafture into him and abiding in him and the consequents and concomitants thereof in the sormer part of that Chap. So that no union with Christ no solid peace or satisfaction in the soul no true joy in the Spirit For all manner of consolation and revivings from him depend upon our oneness with him 8. It is a believers union with the Lord Jesus which giveth him deliverance from the sting and curse of death and consequentially from the fear of that king of terrors It is this conjunction with the Son which maketh the last change to be a comfortable and happy exchange that altereth the nature of death from a curse into a blessing So that a Christian is able to bid it welcome and to look it in the face with boldness it being disarmed as far as it is an enemy and having the venom and malignity taken out of it This is a very precious and unvaluable mercy For it is the fear of death which keepeth sinners all their life time in bondage and puts a kind of Coloquintida into every enjoyment O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that is at ease to every impenitent sinner There is a terribleness to the unregenerate in the apprehensions of death upon every account But as it is the passage unto eternity it is the greatest of terrors Job 18.14 Mark it I say there is a dread in the thoughts of it every way Death may be considered in a threefold respect 1. As it is a dissolution between the soul and the body as it parts and separates those ancient friends which have long conversed intimately together And thus it startleth a sinner to think of leaving his old habitation having no better provided in the stead of it But a Believer can triumph in this respect and say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.1 If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2. If you consider it as it is a period and puts an end to all worldly accommodations so it cannot but perplex a sinner The place of his habitation shall know him no more he shall be then stripped and divested of whatever earthly comforts have been dear unto him His heart is glewed unto the world and what anguish and bitterness must it needs create to think of being taken from all But now a child of God hath something to counterballance this loss even a better and far more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 3. As death is a passage unto eternity so it is dreadful indeed O thinks the sinner what will become of my soul for ever When I go hence and be no more upon the Land of the living into what chains of
him glory in the Lord for all the sap and juice cometh from the root The branch hath nothing of its own but what is received from thence All your support is by vertue of the root so that walk humbly with God in the sense of your own emptiness and utter insufficiency And if you would live the life of God indeed have your constant recourse unto the Lord Jesus and be drawing nourishment from him for thou standest by faith Rom. 11.20 2. The similitude imports That the union of a Believer with the Lord Jesus is a very closly compacted and intimate union that they are very firmly and entirely knit together The branch when it is graffed becometh thereby incorporated into the vine so in a spiritual sense there is a kind of concorporation of Christ and his people together and therefore it is represented under the notion of being graffed into him There is a deep and inward connexion between them so deep and intimate that they are called by his Name 1 Cor. 12.12 As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ i. e. so is the company of Believers Christ mystical who are so knit closs unto Christ as if they were the same as if they were consolidated into one 3. From this resemblance we may observe That a person cannot possibly be united unto Jesus till he be taken off from all other dependances whatsoever First there must be a cutting on the 〈…〉 stock in which it naturally groweth before it can be graffed into another First there must be an abscission before there can be an insition A branch may grow neer to the vine without being cut off from its old root but it must be wholly cut off ere it can be graffed into the vine Sirs By nature we grow in the wild olive tree we are rooted in the old Adam sin and self for when men are convinced of sin presently they have recourse unto self as a Saviour to deliver them from their sins But if you would get into Christ you must be taken off from these As you have it in the continued metaphor or allegory Rom. 11.25 For if thou wert cut off out of the olive tree which is wild by nature and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree Mark it first cut off from the one before capable of being graffed into the other 4. Learn in the last place from this similitude That the glory and excellency of a Christian doth lie in practical holiness or in being fruitful and abundant in the work of the Lord. You know The worth and excellency of a branch doth not consist in its beautiful outside or in the fair leaves and blossoms which it may bear but in bringing forth much fruit When there are fair clusters of grapes hanging upon it this doth content the Husbandman and prevents the pruning-hooks cutting off such a branch for the fire So herein is the excellency of a Believer when he is active for God in his place and calling and filled with the fruits of righteousness This is acceptable unto God and well pleasing in his sight This commends the root as a juicy sappy root when the branches are fruitful Joh. 15.8 Herein is my Fathor glorified that ye bear 〈…〉 fruitful you will be taken away and burnt the unprofitable servant shall be cast into outer darkness But then you will honour me indeed and be like to enjoy the comfort of your relation towards me when you express the power of godliness in your conversations This is the second resemblance 3. The third similitude setting forth the relation of a Believer to Christ is drawn from the â—uptial conjunction which is betwixt the husband and wife Christ and his people are joyned together in a conjugal union He is married unto them and they are his Spouse whom he hath betrothed unto himself When a man and woman are joyned in marriage according to the Institution and Ordinance of God they become one flesh so the Lord Christ and true Believers are one spirit Eph. 5.31 32. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joyned to his wife and they two shall be one flesh This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the Church It is as much as if the Apostle had said If the husband and wife are one by vertue of their marriage-covenant or nuptial contract much more intimately are Christ and his people one by their spiritual marriage the other is but a shadow of this Union Here is a mystery indeed for of this spiritual union you must understand me I speak concerning Christ and the Church Cant. 5.1 I am come into my garden my sister my spouse And throughout that book of the 〈…〉 1. When the 〈…〉 together into one It is according to the will and pleasure of the Father and a matter very pleasing and acceptable in his sight When marriages are regularly made it is with consent and approbation of parents on either side Now God is the parent on both hands in this spiritual conjunction and they have his consent to their espousals 1. He giveth his Son to the Church to be an husband Isa 49.6 I will give thee to be a light unto the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation to the end of the earth Gal. 4.4 When the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son c. Joh. 3.16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son 2. Upon the other hand he taketh the Church to be a Wife or Spouse unto his Son and giveth Believers unto him Joh. 17.6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world thine they were and thou gavest them me Heb. 2.13 Behold I and the children whom thou hast given me So that this is the Father's will that sinners should come unto Christ and be united unto him And pray observe it the rather because there is a proneness in the heart of man to question the Fathers good will Sometimes sinners have good thoughts of Jesus Christ as one that minds their salvation and came down from heaven to accomplish it but they are full of doubts and jealousies touching the Father they question whether he be willing to accept them Why mind it Sirs What the Lord Jesus 〈…〉 〈◊〉 doth is by God the Fathers appointment and approbation It was he that sent him about his work and giveth lost sinners into his hands to be saved This is mentioned as an incouragement to believe in Jesus for if you do so the Father will receive you graciously and you shall in no wise be rejected See the words of our Saviour Joh. 6.37 38 39. Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise east out For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me And this is the
way for your â—ture getting into Christ It is less dangerous for a â—an to be a stranger unto Christ and know that he is so â—an to be in that condition and not to know it This I â—dd to remove the main impediment that hindreth â—ens setting about the work of self-examination â—or I am verily perswaded herein lâ—eth a principal â—stacle They are loath to search themselves lest â—ey should find the worst by themselvs Just as some â—reless Shop-keepers that are run much behind â—nd they cannot endure to look into their books 〈◊〉 to cast up their accounts lest they should be â—quainted with their own poverty and see in â—â—at a low condition they are But mind it Sirs it â—better to trie and know that you are under the guilt of your sins and children of the wrath of God then to continue such and not to know it It is the knowledge of a sinners perishing condition will cause him to hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ and make him restless in his spirit till he get into Christ These are the people to whom Christ is sent to bring deliverance such as find they are sinners and are heavy laden under the burden of sin Isa 61.1 2 3. They are such lost sheep which the great Shepherd of souls will seek after that is such as are sensible of their lost condition Ezek. 34.16 I will seek that which is lost and bring again that which was driven away and will bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick But I will destroy the fat and the strong and feed them with judgment And it is ignorance of mens misery and wretchedness which is the devils great engine whereby he carrieth sinners blindfold and headlong into the pit of destruction As the knowledge of the disease is the first part of the cure so it is the knowledge of a mans damnable condition which is one of the first steps unto his conversion and salvation This is all I shall speak to the second head under the Use of Trial By way of motive and provocative thereunto 3. Let me close this Use with some special directions to guide you in the discharge of this work of self-examination That you may come to a right conclusion and resolution of the case Whether you are spiritually ingraffed into Christ and be such as have the Son and life through him or not And here I might give you a catalogue of Scripture-marks and evidences for trial upon this account But I shall not multiply particulars we will only insist upon the principal matter to be enquired into for proof of your union with the Son of God And a little to direct you in the method of your proceeding herein that it may be done effectually and successfully you must diligently heed and observe these following Rules of advice wherein I will proceed by way of gradation the better to help both your understandings and memories Direct 1. For the examination and trial of your selves and in order to the passing a righteous sentence upon your selves whether you are united to Christ You must firstly and fundamentally enquire if the grace of regeneration hath been poured out upon you and a sound conversion wrought within you This is the foundation evidence of a mans having the Son and other marks are made use of for discovery of this and in a subserviency to the manifestation hereof And the reason of it is obvious Because in the day of conversion this union is made up By the spirit of regeneration Christ doth take possession of sinners for himself and by a living faith which is one of the graces then planted in their souls they do receive Christ and embrace him as theirs and so are knit unto him as hath been largely opened By a through conversion the Lord Jesus doth cull out a people from the world and gather them unto himself So that this is primarily and chiefly to be sought into whether you are truly converted and made partakers of the renewing grace of the holy Ghost For if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Here is the grand question Are we new creatures Is there a through change wrought upon our spirits Is corruption mortified in us and the power of it subdued and a new principle of holiness put into and ingraven upon our hearts Thus it will be if you are one with Christ Except you are converted you are strangers to him and have no saving interest in him Rom. 8.10 If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness The body is dead that is the body of corruption is mortified and the force of it is taken away whereby it exercised dominion over you As before you were dead in sin so now you are dead unto sin and quickned and made alive unto righteousness Here is the failure of many and the occasion of their being deceived in this point of their belonging to Christ They sometimes look into the actions of their lives but never seriously consider whether the grace of conversion be shed abroad into their hearts They rest in a civil moral conversation and do not throughly weigh whether they are made partakers of the spirit of regeneration Whereas this is the fundamental evidence of our union with Christ 1 Joh. 4.13 Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit And Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his That is If he have not those gracious qualifications which are infused into the soul by the spirit in the work of conversion If he have not his heart moulded anew and fashioned aright by the holy Ghost If he have not the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord which was the spirit that rested upon Christ he is none of his Isa 11.2 This is firstly and fundamentally to be enquired after whether the work of conversion be wrought upon us and the grace of regeneration be formed in us Direct 2. If a person would be inabled to take cognizance of himself and to pass a right judgment upon himself whether he be converted and so knit to Jesus He must of necessity in order thereunto be well instructed in the nature and quality of conversion My meaning is this He must rightly understand wherein a sound and sincere conversion lieth and what a change it maketh upon the soul and what effects it produceth that so he may not mistake a feigned conversion for a true and a slight work upon the spirit which is common to the wicked for the grace of regeneration which is peculiar to the people of God For mark it Sirs There is a false conversion as well as a true and counterfeit grace as well as that which is grace indeed and in
shall be stronger and stronger Prov. 4.18 The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Here is that sort of obedience which will evidence your ingrafture into Christ When you are freed from sin so as to be daily striving after greater freedom and getting more ground upon your corruptions When you are not only active for God but still aspiring after further activity and delight in doing the will of God and the rendring your selves more serviceable unto him For although a true Believer doth not alwayes thrive sensibly and perceptibly but may rather seem in his own apprehensions to decay and go backward nor doth he at all times thrive really yet it is the main bent of his spirit and the earnest breathings of his soul are that he may make a continued progress in the course of godliness He never resteth satisfied with any measures attained but is still endeavouring after more As he blesseth God for the least dram of grace conferred upon him so he is ambitious to get into the uppermost form of Christs Scholars And here is the note of oneness with Christ For Joh 15.2 Every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit 6. It must be stedfast obedience and continued unto the end When a soul doth give up himself to the Lord to be his servant perpetually and everlastingly without limitation of time When he is fully determined through the assistance of the Spirit that whatever comes of it this God he will serve and the advancement of his glory he will carry on and the way of holiness he will travel in and through grace nothing shall divert him from his course When a mans ear is bored so as to serve the Lord for ever as the expression of Christ is Psal 40.6 Mine ear hast thou opened or mine ear hast thou bored It is in allusion as some think to the ceremonial Law in the case of servants * Non alienum omnino quod quidam è nostris putant videri respexesse Davidem ad consuetudinem olim usitatam in populo Hebraeo ut servo sponte permanenti in servitute nec admittere volenti libertatem quae septimo quoque anno servis offerebatur auris subula perforaretur Ac dicere voluisse habebis me perpetuum tibi addictum servum c. Sim. de Muis in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si dicendo dixerit Exod. 21.5 6. If the servant shall say plainly I love my Master my wife and my children I will not go out free Then his Master shall bring him unto the Judges he shall also bring him to the door or to the door post and his Master shall bore his ear through with an awl and he shall serve him for ever So Christ gave up himself to serve the Lord for ever He was not rebellious neither did he turn back And thus must a Believer do if he will prove that he is in Christ He must have his ear bored to serve the Lord for ever If saying he shall say as the Hebrew phrase is * Non alienum omnino quod quidam è nostris putant videri respexesse Davidem ad consuetudinem olim usitatam in populo Hebraeo ut servo sponte permanenti in servitute nec admittere volenti libertatem quae septimo quoque anno servis offerebatur auris subula perforaretur Ac dicere voluisse habebis me perpetuum tibi addictum servum c. Sim. de Muis in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si dicendo dixerit If he shall speak it truly and unfeignedly in the very inwards of his soul If his heart shall suâ—scribe unto it I love my Master I will not go free I love the Lord and the desire of my soul is towards him I will serve him perpetually and abide in his family for ever and accordingly doth perform it Here is such obedience and service as will evidence union with Jesus Christ Heb. 3.6 Whose house are we i.e. then it is clear and evident that we are Christs house and temple that he dwelleth in us and we have fellowship with him if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end So much for the sixth Rule of direction To shew you how your obedience must be qualified that it may be produced as a proof of your conversion and consequentially of your union with Jesus Christ Direct 7. This examination of your selves touching your holiness and new obedience as the evidence of your regeneration and union with Christ thereupon if it be done successfully and effectually must be set upon solemnly with the best intention of spirit It is not enough to take a transient view of our selves and to pass over cursorily in an observation of our own souls But if we would perform this work to purpose we must sit down and consider how the case stands with us We must set a covenient time apart particularly to this end of entring into a serious debate with our selves and making a narrow scrutinity into the frame of our hearts and the tenour of our conversations As one that would buy an house or a tenement doth not only cast a glance upon it as he rideth by the way that is not enough to give him a full knowledge of it But he will take a day on purpose to view it and openeth the doors and entereth into the house and passeth from one room to another and from one corner to another So if we would get a clear knowledg of our spiritual estate we must not think it enough to take a general view of our selves obiter and by the by but we must set time apart and gather our spirits together to look wistly into every corner we must take particulars asunder and search heedfully and intentively into each of them And the reason of it is very apparent Because the heart of man is deep and except it be searched throughly we shall never dive into the bottom or entrals of it Psal 64.6 The spirit of fallen man is exceedingly treacherous and deceitful Jer. 17.9 So that unless we trace it narrowly in all its steps and follow after it in to all its subterfuges and hiding places it will escape our cognizance and be apt to impose upon us in the business of salvation It is to be feared that many enter slightly upon the work of self-examination and quickly slubber it over in a carless and superficial manner and that is the very reason why they never bring matters to an issue or determinate conclusion in this case For it is a work to be performed with the greatest cautelousness diligence and deliberation and with earnest prayer to the Lord that he may discover to us those intricacies and labyrinths wherein our guilful spirits are apt to hide themselves This is the seventh Rule of Advice Direct 8. Mind this word of counsel in the last place That if a