within themselves waiting for more full enjoyment of Adoption Rom. 8.23 Now seeing the degree and measure of our Reception and Enjoyment of Christ with all the Blessings of our new state in him in this Life is imperfect it followeth clearly that our contrary natural state with its Properties remaineth still in us in some degree and is not perfectly abolished so that all Believers in this World do in some degree partake of these two contrary states Believers have indeed put off the old man and put on the new man where Christ is all and in all Col. 3.10 11. yet they are to put the old Man off and the new Man on more and more because the old Man remaineth still in a measure They are said to be not in the flesh but in the spirit because their being in the Spirit is their best and lasting state as denominations are usually taken from the better part but yet the Flesh is in them and they find work enough to mortify the deeds of it Rom. 8.9.13 Therefore several things which are contrary to each other are frequently attributed to Believers in the Scripture with respect to these two contrary States wherein one place seems to contradict another and yet both are true in divers respects Thus holy Paul saith truly of himself I live yet not I Gal. 2.20 because he did live to God by Christ living in him and yet in another respect according to his natural State he did not live to God Again he professeth that he was carnal sold under Sin and yet on the contrary that he allowed not Sin but hated it he sheweth how both these were true concerning himself In diverse respects he saith in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing And I delight to do the Will of God according to the Inner-Man With my Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of Sin Rom. 7.14.15 John saith He that saith he hath no sin deceiveth himself and is a Lyar 1 Joh. 1. and also that it 's true that whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed i. e. Christ's the new spiritual Nature remaineth in him and he can't sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 3.9 It is true that we are weak and nothing and yet strong and able to do all things 2. Cor. 12.10 11. Phil. 4.13 It 's true that Believers are dead because of Sin but alive because of Righteousness Rom. 8.10 and that when they dye by a natural Death they shall never dye Joh. 11.25 26. They are Sons that have the Inheritance by their Birth-right and yet in some respects may differ nothing from Servants and so they may be under the Law in a sense and yet under Grace and Heirs according to the free Promise at the same time Gal 4.1 2. They are redeemed from the Curse of the Law and have forgiveness of Sins and a Promise that God will never be wroth with them nor rebuke them any more Gal. 3.13 Eph. 1.7 Isa 54.9 And yet on the contrary the Curse written in the Law is sometimes poured out upon them Dan. 9 11. and they have need still to pray that God would deliver them from their Guiltiness and forgive their Debts Psal 51.14 Mat. 6.12 and they may expect that God will punish them for all ther Iniquities Amos 3.2 These contrary things asserted concerning Believers in Scripture do sufficiently manifest that they partake of two contrary States in this Life and this is a plain and easie and ready way to reconcile these seeming Contradictions whatever other ways may be used to reconcile some of them And what reason is there to question that the old Sate remaineth in Believers in some degrees seeing all sound Protestants acknowledge that the sinful Depravation and Pollution of our Natures commonly called Original Sin which is one principal part of this old State doth remain in all as long as they live in this World Now though some penal Evils may be said to remain in us yet we can't suppose that this original Pollution is continued in us and considered in Christ But as considered in our old State derived from the first Adam therefore the first sin of Adam is imputed in some respect even to those that are justifyed by Faith and they remain in a measure as aforesaid under the Punishment and Curse denounced Gen. 2.17 in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye and on this account the same original Guilt and Pollution is propagated to the Children of believing Parents as well as others by natural Generation and if such a great and fundamental part of the natural State continue in Believers as subjection to the Guilt of the first Sin and original Corruption which is one great part of the Punishment and Death threatned and by which we are prone and inclined to all actual Sins why should we not judge that other parts of the same State do likewise continue in them as well as the guilt of their own actual Sins and subjection to the Wrath of God and the Curses and Punishments denounced against them in the Law and why should we not judge that all the Miseries of this Life and Death it self are inslicted upon Believers at least in some respect as Punishments of Sin It may be objected that this Doctrin of a twofold State of Believers in this Life doth much derogate from the Perfection of our Justification by Christ and from the fulness of all the Grace and spiritual Blessings of Christ and from the Merits of his Death and the power of his Spirit and that it greatly diminisheth the Consolation of Believers in Christ But it may be easily vindicated from this Objection if we understand it rightly for notwithstanding this twofold State it still holdeth true that Believers while they are on Earth have all Perfection of spiritual Blessings Justification Adoption the Gift of the Spirit Holiness Eternal Life and Glory in and with Christ Eph. 1.3 in the person of Christ who is now in Heaven the Old Man is perfectly crucifyed they are dead to Sin and to the Law and its Curse and they are quickned together with him and raised up with him and made to sit in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.6 7. and Believers do in their own persons receive and enjoy by Faith all these perfect spiritual Blessings of Christ as far as they receive and enjoy Christ himself dwelling in them and no further Thus far they are in a new State free from the Guilt Pollution and Punishment of Sin and so from the Wrath of God and all Miseries and Death it self while they are in this World Yea all the Guilt Pollution and Punishments of Sin and all Evils whatsoever which they are subject to according to their natural State do them no harm according to this new State but work for their good and are no Evils but rather Advantages to them tending to the Destruction only
continue without it for some considerable time Ephes 2.12 And though some may have the Spirit of Faith given to them from their Mothers Womb as John the Baptist Luke 1.15.44 yet even in them there is a natural Being by Generation before there can be a Spiritual Being by Regeneration 1 Cor. 15.46 Hence ariseth the Consideration of two States or Conditions of the Children of Men in Matters that appertain to God and Godliness the one of which is vastly different from the other Those that have the Happiness of a New-birth and Creation in Christ by Faith are thereby placed in a very excellent State consisting in the Enjoyment of the Righteousness of Christ for their Justification and of the Spirit of Christ to live by in Holiness here and Glory for ever as hath already appeared Those that are not in Christ by Faith cannot be in a better State than that which they received together with their Nature from the first Adam by being once born and created in him or than they can attain to by the Power of that Nature with any such help as God is pleased to afford to it This latter I call a Natural State because it consisteth in such things as we have either received by natural Generation or can attain to by natural Power through Divine Assistance as the Scripture calleth Man in this State the natural Man 1. Cor. 2.14 The former I call a new State because we enter into it by a new Birth in Christ and I may call it a Spiritual State according to the Scripture because it received from Christ the quickening Spirit and the Natural and Spiritual Man are opposed 1 Cor. 2.14 15. though some call both these States Spiritual because the everlasting Weal or Woe of the Soul or Spirit of Man is chiefly concerned in them It is a common Error of those that are in a corrupt natural State that they seek to reform their Lives according to the Law without any thoughts that their State must be changed before their Lives can be changed from Sin to Righteousness The Heathen that knew nothing of a new State in Christ were urged by their own Consciences to practice several Duties of the Law according to the Knowledge they had by the Light of Nature Rom. 2.14 15. Israel according to the Flesh had a Zeal of God and Godliness and endeavoured to practice the written Law at least in external Performances while they were Enemies to the Faith of Christ and Paul attainted so far that he was blameless in these external Performances of the Righteousness of the Law while he persecuted the Church of Christ Phil. 3.6 Some are so near the Kingdom of God while they continue in a Natural State that they are convinced of the Spirituality of the Law that it bindeth us principally to love God with all our Heart Soul Mind and Strength and to love our Neighbour as our selves and to perform universal Obedience to God in all our inward Thoughts and Affections as well as in all our outward Actions and to do all the Duties that we owe to our Neighbour out of this hearty Love Mark 12 33 34 And they struggle and labour with great earnestness to subdue their inward Thoughts and Affections to the Law of God and to abstain not only from some Sins but from all known Sins and to perform every known Duty of the Law with their whole Heart and Soul as they think and are so active and intent in their devout Practice that they overwork their natural Strength and so servent in their Zeal that they are ready even to kill their Bodies with Fastings and other Macerations that they may kill their sinful Lusts They are strongly convinced that Holiness is absolutely necessary to Salvation and deeply affected with the Terrours of Damnation and yet they were never so much enlightened in the Mystery of the Gospel as to know that a new State in Christ is necessary to a new Life therefore they labour in vain to reform their natural State instead of getting above it in Christ And some of these when they have mispent many Years in striving against the Stream of their Lusts without any Success do at last fall miserably into Despair of ever attaining to Holiness and turn to wallowing in the mire of their Lusts or are fearfully swallowed up with horrour of Conscience There are several false Opinions whereby such ignorant Zealots encourage themselves in their fruitless Endeavours Some of them judge that they are able to practice Holiness because they are not compelled to sin and may abstain from it if they will To this they add That Christ by the Merit of his Death hath restored that Freedom of Will to good which was lost by the Fall and hath set Nature upon its Legs again and that if they endeavour to do what lieth in them Christ will do the rest by assisting them with the Supplies of his saving Grace so they trust upon the Grace of Christ to help them in their Endeavours They plead further That it would not consist with the Justice of God to punish them for Sin if they could not avoid it and that it would be in vain for the Ministers of the Gospel to preach to them and exhort them to any saving Duty if they cannot perform it They produce Examples of I leathens and of such as had the name of Christians without any acquaintance with the Faith that I have described who have attained to a great Excellency in religious Words and Works My Work at present is to deliver those ignorant Zealots from their fruitless tormenting Labours by bringing them to despair of the Attainment of Holiness in a natural State that they may seek it only in a new State by Faith in Christ where they may certainly find it without such tormenting Labour and Anxiety of Spirit For this end I shall confirm the Truth asserted in the Direction and fortifie it against the forementioned false Opinions by the ensuing Considerations First The Foundation of this Assertion is firmly laid in the Directions already explained and confirmed by many Places of Scripture For if all Endowments necessary to enable us for an holy Practice be to be had only in a State of Union and Fellowship with Christ by Faith and Faith it self not by the natural Power of Free-will but by the Power of Christ coming into the Soul by his Spirit to unite us with himself who seeeth not that the Attainment of true Holiness by any of our most vigorous Endeavours while we continue in our natural Condition is altogether hopeless I need add no more were it not to shew more sully what abundance of Light the Scripture affordeth to guide us aright in this part of our way that those that wander out of it by following any false light of their own or others corrupted Judgments may find themselves the more inexcusable Secondly It is evident that we cannot practice true Holiness while we continue in
Conversation in the World not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God 2 Cor. 1.12 having or holding fast Grace that we may serve God acceptably labouring abundantly in such a manner as that the whole work is not performed by us but by the Grace of God that is with us 1 Cor. 15.10 By Grace therefore we may well understand the priviledges of our new state given to us in Christ whereby we ought to be influenced and guided in the performance of holy Duties 4. It is also signified when we are to put off the old and put on the new Man yea to continue in so doing tho we have done it in a measure already and that we avoid our former sinful Conversation Ephes 4.21 22 24. and to avoid sin because we have put off the old and put on the new Man Col. 3.9 10 11. I have already shewed that by this twofold man is not meant merely sin and holiness but by the former meant our natural Estate with all its Endowments whereby we are furnished only to the practice of sin and by the later or new Estate in Christ that whereby we are furnished with all means necessary for the practice of Holiness 5. We are to understand the same thing when we are taught not to walk after the Flesh but after the Spirit that we may be free from the Law of sin and that the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.1 2 3. and through the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the body and to be led by the Spirit because we live by the Spirit and have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 The Apostle doth shew by these expressions not only that we are to practise holiness but also by what means we may do it effectually By the Flesh is meant our old Nature derived from the first Adam And by the Spirit is meant the Spirit of Christ and that new Nature which we have by him dwelling in us We are said to walk after either of these Natures when we make the Properties or Qualifications of either of them to be the principles of our Practice So when we are taught to serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter that so we may bring forth fruits unto God The meaning is that we must endeavour to bring forth the fruits of holiness not by vertue of the Law that killing Letter to which the Flesh is married and by which the motions of sin are in us but by vertue of the Spirit and his manifold Riches which we partake of in our new state by a mystical marriage with Christ Rom. 7.4 5 6. and by vertue of such Principles as belong to the New State declared in the Gospel whereby the holy spirit is ministred to us 6. This is the manner of walking which the Apostle Paul directeth us unto when he teacheth us by his own Example That the continual work of our lives should be to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to his Death if by any means we may attain to the Resurrection of the dead and to encrease and press forward in this kind of knowledge Phil. 3.10 11 12 15. Certainly he meaneth such an experimental knowledge of Christ and his Death and Resurrection as effectually makes us conformable thereunto in dying to sin and living to God And he would hereby guide us to make use of Christ and his Death and Resurrection by Faith as the powerful means of all Holiness in Heart and Life and to encrease in this manner of walking until we attain unto perfection in Christ 2. The second thing proposed was to lay before you some necessary Instructions that your steps may be guided aright to continue and go forward in this way of Holiness until you be made perfect in Christ And seeing we are naturally prone to mistake this way and are utterly unable to find it out or discern it by our own Reason and Understanding we should the more diligently attend to these Instructions taken out of the Holy Scriptures And we should pray earnestly that God would give unto us the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that we may discern the way of Holiness thereby and walk aright in it according to that gracious promise The wayfaring men tho Fools shall not err therein Isa 35.8 1. Observe and consider diligently in our whole Conversation That tho you are partakers of a new holy state by Faith in Christ yet our natural state doth remain in a measure with all its corrupt Principles and Properties as long as we live in this present World our apprehension of Christ and his perfection in this Life is only by Faith whereas by Sense and Reason we may apprehend much in our selves contrary to Christ and this Faith is imperfect So that true Believers have cause to pray to God to help their Unbelief Mar. 9.24 Therefore tho we receive perfect Christ by Faith yet the measure and degree of enjoying him is imperfect and we hope still so long as we are in this World to enjoy him in a higher degree of perfection than we have done we are yet but weak in Christ 2 Cor. 13.4 Children in comparison to the perfection we expect in another World 1 Cor. 13.10 11. and we must grow still till we come to the perfect man Eph. 4.13 and some are less Babes than others and have received Christ in so small a measure that they may be accounted carnal rather than spiritual 1 Cor. 3.1 And because all the Blessings and Perfections of our new state as Justification the gift of the Spirit and of the holy Nature and the Adoption of Children are seated and treasured up in Christ and joyned with him inseparably we can receive them no further than we receive Christ himself by Faith which we do in an imperfect measure and degree in this Life The Apostle Paul proposeth himself as a pattern for all those that are perfect in the truth of Grace to imitate And yet he professeth That he was not yet made so perfect in the degree or measure of saving Endowments but that he did still press forward towards the mark of the prize of the high-calling of God in Christ Jesus labouring still to apprehend and win Christ more perfectly and to be found in him not having his own Righteousness but that which is of God by Faith and to gain more experimental knowledge of Christ and of the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his Resurrection being made conformable thereunto Phil 3.8 10. Believers are Justified already yet wait for the hope of Righteousness by Faith i. e. for the full enjoyment of the Righteousness of Christ Gal. 5.5 They have received but the first-fruits of the spirit and must wait for a more full enjoyment of it The Spirit witnesseth now to them that they are the Children of God and yet they groan
of the Flesh and to the Perfection of the New Man in Christ Yet it holdeth true also that our reception and enjoyment of Christ himself and all his Perfections is but in an imperfect measure and degree until Faith be turned into heavenly Vision and Fruition of Christ and therefore our old sinful State with the Evils thereof is not perfectly abolished during this Life The Kingdom of Heaven or the Grace of Christ within us is like leaven in Meal and doth not unite it self perfectly to the Meal in an Instant but by degrees until the whole be leavened Mat. 13.35 or like the morning Light that expelleth Darkness by degrees shining more and more unto a perfect day Prov. 4.18 This cannot be justly accounted any derogation to the Merits of Christ's Death or to the power of his Spirit seeing Christ never intended to bring to pass by his Death or by the power of his Spirit that we should enjoy his spiritual Blessings any further than we are in him and enjoy him by Faith or that we should be made holy or happy according to the Flesh by a Reformation of our natural State as hath been shewed Neither doth this diminish the Consolation of Believers in Christ for thereby they may know that they have the Perfection of Grace and Happiness in Christ and that they enjoy it in this World as far as they enjoy Christ himself by Faith and that they shall enjoy it in a perfect measure and be fully freed from their old Sins and miserable State when that frame of Nature which they received from the first Adam is dissolved by Death This Instruction is very useful to frame our Souls aright for the practising of Holiness only by those Gospel Principles and Means that belong to our new State which we are Partakers of by Faith in Christ And thus it is easily vindicated from another great Objection wherein the Papists and Quakers do much Triumph They appeal to Mens Conscience to answer this Question which Doctrin is most likely to bring People to the practice of true Godliness theirs which teacheth That perfect Holiness may be attained in this Life or ours which teacheth That it is impossible for us to keep the Law perfectly and to purge our selves from all Sin as long as we live in this World though we use our best Endeavours They think that common Reason will make the Verdict pass for them against our Doctrin as that which discourageth all Endeavours for Perfection and hardneth the Hearts of People to allow themselves in Sin because they cannot avoid it But on the contrary the Doctrine of Perfection hardens People to allow themselves in Sin and to call Evil Good as the Papists account That the Concupiscence of the Flesh against the Spirit is no Sin but rather good matter for the Exercise of their Vertues because the most perfect in this Life are not without it It also discourageth those that labour to get Holiness in the right way by Faith in Christ and maketh them to think that they labour in vain because they find themselves still sinful and far from Perfection when they have done their best to attain it It hindereth our Diligence in seeking Holiness by these Principles and Means whereby only it can be found For who will be Diligent and Watchful to avoid walking according to his own carnal Principles if he think that his own carnal State with it's Principles is quite abolished and is out of him so that at present he is in no danger of walking according to them Whatsoever good works the Doctrin of the Perfectionists may serve to promote I am sure it hindereth a great part of that work which Christ would have us to be employed in as long as we live in this World we must know that our old State with its evil Principles continueth still in a measure or else we shall not be sit for the great Duties of confesing of Sins loathing our selves for them praying earnestly for the Pardon of them a just sorrowing for them with a Godly Sorrow accepting the Punishment of our Sins and giving God the glory of his Justice and offering to him the Sacrifice of a broken and contrite Spirit being poor in Spirit working out our Salvation with fear and trembling Some have doubted how it can consist with our Justification by Christ that we should be still lyable to be punished for our Sins and obliged to pray for the Pardon of them because they have not well considered the twofold State of Believers in this Life and except we know this and keep it in Mind we shall never be sit to practise continually the great Duties that tend to the putting off the Old Man and putting on the New Man and mortifying the Deeds of the Body by the Spirit praying continually that God would renew a right Spirit in us and sanctify us throughout pressing forward to Perfection desiring the sincere Milk of the Word and the Enjoyment of other Ordinances Christ hath appointed that his Church on Earth should be employed in such works and Perfectionists either do or sain would account them needless for them and that they have no longer need of Christ himself to be their spiritual Physician and Advocate with the Father and Propitiation for their Sins Therefore they are not fit to be Members of the Church on Earth and are never likely to be Members of the Church in Heaven except they can make a Ladder and climb up thither before their time 2. Despair of purging the Flesh or Natural Man of its sinful Lusts and Inclinations and of practising Holiness by your willing and resolving to do the best that lyeth in your own Power and trusting on the Grace of God and Christ to help you in such Resolutions and Endeavours rather resolve to trust on Christ to work in you to will and to do by his own power according to his own good Pleasure They that are convinced of their own Sin and Misery do commonly first think to tame the Flesh and to subdue and root out its Lusts and to make their corrupt Nature to be better natured and inclined to Holiness by their strugling and wrestling with it And if they can but bring their Hearts to a full purpose and resolution to do the best that lyeth in them they hope that by such a Resolution they shall be able to atchieve great Enterprizes in the Conquest of their Lusts and performance of the most difficult Duties It is the great work of some zealous Divines in their Preaching and Writings to stir up People to this Resolution wherein they place the chiefest turning Point from Sin to Godliness And they think that this is not contrary to the life of Faith because they trust on the Grace of God through Christ to help them in all such Resolutions and Endeavours Thus they endeavour to reform their old State and to be made perfect in the Flesh instead of putting it off and walking according to
necessary to the very being there of because Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God and receiveth Christ as manifested by the Word as I have before proved Raab the Canaanite was justifyed by Faith before she had any visible Commuion with the Church in any of God's Ordinances yet not without the Word of God even the same Word for Substance which was written in the Scriptures and was then extant in the Books of Moses Though that Word was not brought to her by any Book of Holy Scripture nor by the Preaching of any Holy Minister but by the Report of the Heathens Josh 2.9 11. But here our great work must be to get such a Knowledge of the Word as is necessary and sufficient to guide us in receiving of Christ and walking in him by Faith You must not be of their Minds that think the Knowledge of the Ten Commandments to be sufficient to Salvation or that would have Mysteries to remain hidden from the Understanding of the Vulgar and nothing to be Preached to them but that they can readily assent to and receive by the Light that is in all Men of which Mind it may be some Ministers are who unwitingly agree with the Quakers in a Fundamental of their Heresie But you must endeavour chiefly to know the Mystery of the Father and the Son as it is discovered in the Gospel Wherein are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.2 3. Which to know is life eternal and the ignorance of it is death eternal Joh. 17.3 2 Cor. 4.3 You must know that Christ is the end of the law Rom. 10.4 and therefore you must endeavour to know the Commands of the Law not that you may be enabled by that Knowledge to practife them immediately and so to procure Salvation by your Works but rather by your Knowledge of them you may be made sensible of your Inablility to perform them and of the Enmity that is in your Heart against them and the Wrath that you are under for breaking of them and the Impossibility of being saved by your own Works that so you may flee to Christ for Refuge and trust only to the Free Grace of God for Justification and Strength to fulfill the Law acceptably through Christ in your Conversation And for this end you must endeavour to learn the utmost Strictness of the Commands the exact Perfection and spiritual Purity which they require that you may be the more convinced of Sin and stired up to seek unto Christ for Remission of Sin for Purity of Heart and spiritual Obedience and be brought nearer to the Enjoyment of him As Christ testified that the Scribel who understood the greatness of that Command of Loving the Lord with all the Heart and Soul was not far from the Kingdom of God Mar. 12.34 the most effectual Knowledge for your Salvation is to understand these Two Points The desperate Sinfulness and Misery of your own natural Condition and the alone Sufficiency of the Grace of God in Christ for your Salvation that you may be abased as to the Flesh and exalted in Christ alone And for the better understanding of these Two main Points you should learn how the first Adam was the figure of the second Rom. 5.14 How Sin and Death came upon all the natural Seed of the first Adam by his Disobedience in eating the forbidden Fruit and how Righteousness and Everlasting Life come upon all the spiritual Seed of the second Adam Jesus Christ by his Obedience unto Death even the death of the Cross You also should learn the true difference betwixt the Two Covenants the Old and the New or the Law and the Gospel that the former shutteth us up under the Guilt and Power of Sin and the Wrath of God and his Curse by its rigorons Terms Do all the Commandments and live and cursed are you if you do them not and fail in the least Point The latter openeth the gates of righteousness and life to all Believers i. e. the New Covenant by its gracious Terms Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and live i. e. All your Sins shall be forgiven and Holiness and Glory shall be given to you freely by his Merit and Spirit Furthermore you should learn the Gospel Principles that you are to walk by for the attainment of Holiness in Christ And here I shall mind you particularly that you would be a good Proficient in Christian Learning if you get a good Understanding of the 6th and 7th Chapters of the Apostle Paul to the Romans where the powerful Principles of Sanctification are purposely treated of and differenced from those weak and ineffectual Principles which we are most naturally prone to walk by I need not particularly commend any other Points of Religion to your Learning for if you get the Knowledge of these principal Points which I have mentioned and improve it to a right end which is to Live and Walk by Faith in Christ your own renewed Mind will covet the Knowledge of all other things that appertain to Life and Godliness And if in any thing you be otherwise minded than is according to saving Truth God shall reveal even this unto you Phil. 3.15 Yet let me caution you lest instead of gaining Christ by your Knowledge you rather lose him by putting your Knowledge in the place of Christ and trusting on it for your Salvation One cause of the Jews perishing was that they rested in a form of knowledge and of the truth in the law Rom. 2.20 and doubtless all that many Christians will gain by their Knowledge in the end will only be to be beaten with more Stripes because they place their Religion and Salvation chiefly in the Knowledge of their Lords Will and in their Ability to Talk and Dispute of it though it may be for the most part at the Tavern or Ale-Bench without preparing themselves to do according thereunto Luk. 12.47 much less are you to place your Religion and hope of Salvation in a daily Task of reading Chapters or repeating Sermons without understanding more than the Papists do their Lessons in the Latin Mass and Canonical Hours as sad Experience sheweth that many seemingly Devout and frequent Hearers of the Word do notwithstanding remain in lamentable and wonderful Ignorance of the saving Truth and in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Isaias That in hearing they shall hear and not understand and in seeing they shall see c. Mat. 13.14 15. 2. Another means to be used diligently for the promoting of the Life of Faith is Examination of our State and Ways according to the Word whether we be at present in a State of Sin and Wrath or of Grace and Salvation that if we be in a State of Sin we may know our Sickness and come to the great Physician while it is called to day And if we be in a State of Grace ws may know that we are of the truth and assure our hearts before God with the greater confidence by
after the Spirit Rom. 8.3 4. Observe here that though Christ died that we might be justified by the Righteousness of God and of Faith not by our own Righteousness which is of the Law Rom. 10.4 5 6. Phil. 3.9 yet he died also that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us and that by walking after his Spirit as those that are in Christ Rom. ibid. He is resembled in his Death to a Corn of Wheat dying in the Earth that it may propagate its own nature by bringing forth much Fruit Joh. 12.24 to the Passover that was slain that a Feast might be kept upon it and to Bread broken that it may be Nourishment to those that eat it 1 Cor. 5.7 8. and 11.24 To the Rock smitten that Water may gush out of it for us to drink 1 Cor. 10.4 He died that he might make of Jew and Gentile one New Man in himself Ephes 2.15 and that he might see his seed i. e. such as derive their holy Nature from him Is 53.10 Let these Scriptures be well observed and they will sufficiently evidence that Christ died not that we might be able to form an holy Nature in our selves but that we might receive one ready prepared and formed in Christ for us by Union and Fellowship with him By his Resurrection he took Possession of Spiritual life for us as now fully procured for us and made to be our Right and Property by the Merit of his Death and therefore we are said to be quickned together with Christ even when we were dead in sins and to be raised up together yea and to be made to sit together in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus as our Head while we continue upon Earth in our own Persons Ephes 2.5 6. His Resurrection was our Resurrection to the Life of Holiness as Adam's Fall was our Fall into spiritual Death and we are not our selves the first makers and formers of our new holy Nature any more than of our Original Corruption but both are formed ready for us to partake of them And by Union with Christ we partake of that spiritual Life that he took Possession of for us at his Resurrection and thereby we are enabled to bring forth the Fruits of it as the Scripture sheweth by the Similitude of a Marriage Union Rom. 7.4 We are married to him that is risen from the Dead that we might bring forth Fruit unto God Baptism signifieth the Application of Christ's Resurrection to us as well as his Death we are raised up with him in it to newness of Life as well as buried with him and we are taught thereby that because he died unto sin once and liveth unto God we should likewise reckon our selves to be dead indeed unto Sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.4 5 10 11. Fourthly Our Sanctification is by the Holy Ghost by whom we live and walk holily Rom. 15.16 Gal. 5.25 Now the Holy Ghost first rested on Christ in all fulness that he might be communicated from him to us as was signified to John the Baptist by the Similitude of the descending of a Dove from the opened Heavens resting on Christ at his Baptism Joh. 1.32.33 And when he sanctifieth us he baptizeth us into Christ and joyneth us to Christ by himself as the great Bond of Union 1 Cor. 12.13 So that according to the Scriptural Phrase it is all one to have Christ himself and to have the Spirit of Christ in us Rom. 8.9 10. He glorifieth Christ for he receiveth those things that are Christ's and sheweth them to us Joh. 16.14 15. He giveth us an experimental Knowledge of those spiritual Blessings which he himself prepared for us by the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of Christ Fifthly The effectual Causes of those four principal Endowments which in the foregoing Direction were asserted necessary to furnish us for the immediate Practice of Holiness are comprehended in the fulness of Christ and treasured up for us in him and the Endowment themselves together with their Causes are attained richly by Union and Fellowship with Christ If we be joyned to Christ our Hearts will be no longer left under the Power of sinful Inclinations or in a meer indifferency of Inclination to good or evil but they will be powerfully endued with a Power Bent and Propensity to the Practice of Holiness by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and inclining us to mind spiritual things and to lust against the Flesh Rom. 8.1 4 5. Gal. 5.17 And we have in Christ a full Reconciliation with God and an Advancement into higher Favour with him than the first Adam had in the State of Innocency because the Righteousness that Christ wrought out for us by his Obedience unto Death is imputed to us for our Justification which is called the Righteousness of God because it was wrought by one that is God as well as Man and therefore it is of an infinite value to satisfie the Justice of God for all our sins and to procure his Pardon and highest Favour for us 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 1.19 And that we may be perswaded of this Reconciliation we receive the Spirit of Adoption through Christ whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 Hereby also we are perswaded of our future Enjoyment of the everlasting heavenly Happiness and of sufficient Strength both to will and to perform our Duty acceptably until we come to that Enjoyment For the Spirit of Adoption teacheth us to conclude that if we be the Children of God then we are heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ And that the Law of the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus maketh us free from the Law of Sin and Death and that nothing shall be against us nothing shall separate us from the Love of God in Christ but in all opposition and difficulties that we meet with we shall be at last more than conquerours through him that loved us Rom. 8.17.23 35 37 39. Furthermore this comfortable Perswasion of our Justification and future Happiness and all saving Priviledges cannot tend to licentiousness as it is given only in this way of Union with Christ because it is joyned inseparably with the Gift of Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ so that we cannot have Justication or any saving Priviledge in Christ except we receive Christ himself and his Holiness as well as any other Benefit as the Scripture testifieth that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 Sixthly Whereas it may be doubted whether the Saints that lived before the coming of Christ in the Flesh could possibly be one Flesh with him and receive a new Nature by Union and Fellowship with him as prepared for them in his fulness we are to know that the same Christ that took our Flesh was before Abraham Joh. 8.58 and was fore-ordained before the Foundation of the World to be sacrificed as a Lamb
in three particulars 1st The Grace of Faith is as well fitted for the Souls receiving of Christ and Union with him as any Instrument of the Body is for receiving and closing with things needful for it By the very act of hearty trusting or believing on Christ for all Salvation and Happiness the Soul heaveth and putteth away from itself every thing that keepeth it at a distance from Christ as all confidence in our own Strength Endeavours Works Privileges or in any Worldly Pleasures Profits Honours or in any humane Helps and Succours for our Happiness and Salvation Because such Confidences are inconsistent with our Confidence in Christ for all Salvation Paul by his Confidence in Christ was taken off from all Considence in the Flesh he suffer'd the loss of glorying in his Privileges legal Righteousness and counted all other Enjoyments in matters of the World or of Religion to be but Dung that he might win Christ and be found in him Phil. 3.3 6 7 8 9. the voice of Faith is Ashur shall not save us neither will we ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our God for in thee the Fatherless find mercy Hos 14.3 We have no might against this great company of our spiritual Enemies neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee 2 Chron. 20.12 I might multiply places of Scripture to shew what a self emptying Grace Faith is and how it casteth other Considences out of the Soul by getting above them to Christ as the only Happiness and Salvation The same act of trusting or believing on Christ or on God is the very manner of our Souls coming to Christ Joh. 6.35 drawing near to the Lord Psal 73.28 fleeing unto the Lord to hide us Psal 143.9 making our resuge in the shadow of his wings Psal 57.1 staying our selves and our minds upon the Lord Isa 50.10 26.3 laying hold of eternal life 1 Tim. 6.12 lifting up our selves to the Lord Psal 51.1 2. rolling our way and casting our burden upon the Lord Psal 37.5 55.22 and of our eating and drinking Christ as hath already appeared Let us consider that Christ and his Salvation cannot be seen or handled or attained to by any bodily motion but are revealed and promised to us in the Word Now let any invent if they can any way for the Soul to exercise any motion or activeness in receiving of this unseen promised Salvation besides believing the Word and trusting on Christ for the Benefit promised If Christ were to be earned by Works or any other kind of Conditional Faith than this yet a Faith must be instrumental to receive him Some think Love as sit to be the uniting Grace but I have shewed that Love to Christ's Salvation is an Ingredient into Faith And though Love be an Appetite unto Union yet we have no other likely way to fill this Appetite while we are in this World besides trust on Christ for all his Benefits as he is promised in the Gospel 2dly There is in this Saving-Faith a natural Tendency to furnish the Soul with an holy Frame and Nature and all Endowments necessary thereunto out of the Fulness of Christ An hearty affectionate trussing on Christ for all his Salvation as freely promised to us hath naturally enough to work in our Souls a rational bent and inclination to and ability for the Practise of all Holiness because it comprehendeth in it a trusting that through Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God and that our old man is crucified Rom. 6.2 6 4. and that we live by the spirit Gal. 5.25 and that we have forgiveness of sin and that God is our God Psal 31.14 and that we have in the Lord righteousness and strength whereby we are able to do all things Isa 45.24 Phil. 4.13 and that we shall be glortensly happy in the anjoyment of Christ to all eternity Phil. 3.20 21. When the Saints in Scripture speak so highly of such glorious spiritual Privileges as I have here named they acquaint us with the familiar fence and language of their Faith trusting on God and Christ and they give us but an Explication of the nature and contents of it and they speak of nothing more than what they receive out of the Fulness of Christ And how can we otherwise judge but that those that have an hearty Love to Christ and can upon a good ground think and speak such high things concerning themselves must needs be heartily disposed and mightily strengthened for the practice of Holiness 3dly Because Faith hath such a natural tendency to dispose and strengthen the Soul for the practise of Holiness we have cause to judge it a meet Instrument to accomplish every part of that Practice in an acceptable manner Those that with a due affection believe stedfastly on Christ for the free Gift of all his Salvation may find by experience that they are carried forth by that Faith according to the measure of its Strength or Weakness to love God heartily because God hath loved them first 1 Joh. 4.19 to praise him to pray unto him in the name of Christ Ephes 5.26 John 16.26 27. to be patient with cheerfulness under all afflictions giving thanks to the Father that hath called them to his heavenly inheritance Col. 1.11 12. to love all the children of God out of love to their heavenly Father 1 John 5.1 to walk as Christ walked 1 John 2.6 and to give themselves up to live to Christ in all things as constrained by his love in dying for them 2 Cor. 5.14 We have a Cloud of Witnesses concerning the excellent works that were produced by Faith Heb. 11. And though trusting on Christ be accounted such a slight and contemptible thing yet I know no Work of Obedience which it is not able to produce And note the excellent manner of working by Faith by it we live and act in all good Works as People in Christ as raised above our selves and our natural state by partaking of him and his Salvation and we do all in his name and on his account This is the Practice of that mysterious manner of living to God in Holiness which is peculiar to the Christian Religion wherein we live and yet not we but Christ liveth in us Gal. 2.20 And who can imagine any other way but this for such a Practice while Christ and his Salvation is known to us only by the Gospel The explanation that I have made of the Nature and Office of true Faith and of its Aptitude for its Office is sufficient to evidence that it is a most holy Faith as it is called Jude 20. and that such a trusting on Christ as I have described in its own nature cannot have any tendency to Licentiousness but only to Holiness and that it rooteth and groundeth us in Holiness more than the meer accepting of any terms of Salvation and consenting to have Christ for our Lord can do
and is more powerful to secure an holy Practice than any of those Resolutions of Obedience or resignating Acts that some would have to be the great conditions of our salvation which are indeed no better than hypocritical Acts if they be not produc'd by this Faith There is indeed a counterfeit dead Faith such as wicked men may have and if that tend to Licentiousness let not true Faith be blamed but rather mark the Description of it which I have given that you may not be deceived with a counterfeit Faith instead of it I shall add something concerning the efficient cause of this excellent Grace and of our Union with Christ by it whereby it may appear that it is not so slight and easie a way of Salvation as some may imagine The Author and Finisher of our Faith and of our Union and Fellowship with Christ by Faith is no less than the infinite Spirit of God and God and Christ himself by the Spirit for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body of Christ and are all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor 12.12 13. God granteth us according to the Riches of his glory to be strengthened with all might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3.16 17. If we do but consider the great effect of Faith that by it we are raised to live above our natural condition by Christ and his Spirit living in us we cannot rationally conceive that it should be within the power of Nature to do any thing that advanceth us so high If God had done no more for us in our Sanctification than to restore us to our first natural Holiness yet this could not have been done without putting forth his own Almighty Power to quicken those that are dead in Sin How much more is this Almighty Power needful to advance us to this wonderful new kind of Frame wherein we live and act above all the power of Nature by an higher Principle of Life than was given to Adam in Innocency even by Christ and his Spirit living and acting in us The natural man bringeth forth his Off-spring according to his Image by that natural Power of multiplying with which God blessed him at his first Creation but the second Adam bringeth forth his Off-spring new born according to his Image only by the Spirit Joh. 3.5 As many as receive him even those that believe on his name are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.12 13. Christ took his own Humane Nature into personal Union with himself in the Womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost coming upon her and the power of the Highest overshadowing her the same Power whereby the World was created Luke 1.35 So He taketh us into mystical Union and Fellowship with himself by no less than an Infinite Creating Power For we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ephes 2.10 And if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 For the accomplishing of this great Work of our new Creation in Christ the Spirit of God doth first work upon our Hearts by and with the Gospel to produce in us the Grace of Faith for if the Gospel should come to us in Word only and not in Power and in the Holy Ghost Paul might labour to plant and Apollos to water without any success because we cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God yea we shall account them foolishness until the Spirit of God enable us to discern them 1 Thess 1.5 1 Cor. 3.6 2.14 We shall never come to Christ by any teaching of Man except we also hear and learn of the Father and be drawn to Christ by his spirit John 6.44 45. And when Saving Faith is wrought in us the same Spirit giveth us fast hold of Christ by it As he openeth the Mouth of Faith to receive Christ so he filleth it with Christ or else the acting of Faith would be like a Dream of one that thinketh that he eateth and drinketh and when he awaketh he findeth himself empty The same Spirit of God did both give that Faith whereby Miracles were wrought and did work also the Miracles by it So also the same Spirit of Christ doth work Saving Faith in us and doth answer the aim and end of that Faith by giving us Union and Fellowship with Christ by it So that none of the Glory of this Work belongeth to Faith but only to Christ and his Spirit And indeed Faith is of such an humble self-denying nature that it ascribeth nothing that it receiveth to itself but all to the Grace of God and therefore God saveth us by Faith that all the Glory may be ascribed to his Free-Grace Rom. 4.16 If Adam had Strength enough in Innocency to perform the Duty of Faith as well as we yet it will not follow that he had Strength enough to raise himself above his natural state into Union with Christ because Faith doth not unite us to Christ by its own Vertue but by the Power of the Spirit working by it and with it Thus we are first passive and then active in this great work of mystical Union we are first apprehended of Christ and then we apprehend Christ Christ entereth first into the Soul to joyn himself to it by giving it the Spirit of Faith and so the Soul receiveth Christ and his Spirit by their own Power As the Sun first enlighteneth our Eyes and then we can see it by its own light We may note further to the Glory of the Grace of God that this Union is fully accomplished by Christ giving the Spirit of Faith to us even before we act that Faith in the reception of him because by this Grace or Spirit of Faith the Soul is enclined and disposed to an active receiving of Christ And no doubt Christ is thus united to many Infants who have the Spirit of Faith and yet cannot act Faith because they are not come to the use of their Understandings but those of riper years that are joyned passively to Christ by the Spirit of Faith will also joyn themselves with him actively by the Act of Faith and until they act this Faith they cannot know or enjoy their Union with Christ and the Comfort of it or make use of it in acting any other Duties of Holiness acceptably in this Life DIRECT V. We cannot attain to the Practice of true Holiness by any of our Endeavours while we continue in our natural State and are not Partakers of a new State by Vnion and Fellowship with Christ through Faith EXPLICATION IT it evident all have not that precious Faith whereby Christ dwelleth in our Hearts yea the number of those that have it is small comparatively to the whole World that lieth in Wickedness 1 Joh. 5.19 20. and many of those that at length attain unto it do
then is it to plead that they can do good if they will when their Minds and Will it self is enslaved to Sin A fourth Property is Subjection to the power of the Devil who is the God of this world that hath blinded the minds of all that believe not 2. Cor. 4.4 And will certainly conquer all that he sighteth with upon his own Dunghill that is in a natural State And from all these Properties we may well conclude that it hath the Property never to be good to be stark dead in Sin Ephes 2.1 according to the Sentence denounced against the first Sin of Mankind in Adam in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 For you can no more bring it to Holiness by any the most vehement Motives and Endeavours then you can bring a dead Carcase to Life by chafing and rubbing it You can stir up no strength or fortifying Grace in the natural Man by such Motives and Endeavours because there is no Strength in him to be stirred up Rom. 5.6 Tho' you do all that lieth in you to the utmost while you are in this Flesh you can do nothing but sin for there is no good lying in you as the Apostle Paul sheweth by his own Experience I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 Sixthly We have no good ground to trust on Christ to help us to will or to do that which is acceptable to him while we continue in our natural State or to imagine that Freedom of Will to Holiness is restored to us by the Merit of his Death For as it hath been already shewed Christ aimed at an higher end in his Incarnation Death and Resurrection than the restoring the Decay and Ruins of our natural State He aimed to advance us to a new State more excellent than the State of Nature ever was by Union and Fellowship with himself that we might live to God not by the Power of a natural Free-will but by the Power of his Spirit living and acting in us So we may conclude that our natural State is irrecoverable and desperate because Christ the only Saviour did not aim at the Recovery of it It is neither holy nor happy but subject to Sin and to all Miseries as long as it remaineth Even those that are in a new State in Christ and do serve the Law of God with their Mind do yet with their Flesh serve the Law of Sin Rom. 7.25 As far as it remaineth in them it lusteth against the spirit Gal. 5.17 And it remaineth dead because of sin even when the spirit is life to them because of righteousness Rom. 8.10 And must be wholly abolished by Death before we can be perfected in that Holiness and Happiness that is by Faith in Christ After God had promised Salvation by Christ the Seed of the Woman he placed Cherubims and a flaming Sword to keep Man out of Paradice thereby teaching him that his first State was lost without Hope and that the Happiness intended for him was wholly new Our old natural Man was not revived and reformed by the Death of Christ but crucified together with him and therefore to be abolished and destroyed out of us by virtue of his Death Rom. 6.6 It is like the part of a Garment infected with the Plague of Leprosie which was to be rent off as incurable that the Garment might be clean Levit. 13.56 If Christ be not in us we are reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 i. e. we are in a State which God hath rejected from partaking of his Salvation so that we are not to expect any Assistance from God to make us holy in it but rather to deliver us from it Seventhly This doth not at all discharge those that are in a natural State from Obligation to Holiness of Life nor render them excusable for their Sins at the Tribunal of God's Justice For God hath made man upright but they sought many inventions Eccles 7.29 Observe well the Words of this Text and you will find that all they who have sought out many Inventions rather than upright walking are comprehended in Man that was at first made upright And Man in the Text signifieth all Mankind the first Adam was all Mankind as Jacob and Esau were two nations in the womb of Rebecca Gen. 25.23 God made us all in our first Parents according to his own Image able and inclined to do his Law and in that pure Nature our Obligation to Obedience was first laid upon us and the first wilful Transgression whereby our first Parents bereaved themselves of the Image of God and brought upon themselves the Sentence of Death was our Sin as well as theirs For in one man Adam all have sinned and so death is passed upon all Rom. 5.12 Because all Mankind were in Adam's Loins when the first Sin was committed even as Levi may be said to have paid Tithes in Abraham before he was born because when his Father Abraham paid Tithes to Melchizedeck he was yet in his Loins Heb. 7.9 10. That Promise of God that he will not charge the Iniquities of Parents upon their Children is a Promise belonging to the New Covenant confirmed in the Blood of Christ and it is Yea and Amen to us only in Christ in whom we have another Nature than that which our Parents conveyed to us so that we cannot justly claim the Benefit of it in our old natural State Jer. 31.29 30 31. 2 Cor. 1.20 Those that account their Impotency a sufficient Plea to excuse them or others shew that they were never truly humbled for that great wilful Transgression of all Mankind in the Loins of Adam Inability to pay Debts excuseth not a Debtor that hath lavished away his Estate neither doth Drunkenness excuse the mad Actings of a Drunkard but rather aggravates his Sin And our Impotency consisteth not in a meer want of an executive Power but in the want of a willing Mind to practice true Holiness and Righteousness Naturally we love it not we like it not but lust against it Gal. 5.17 and hate the light John 3.20 If Men in a natural State had an hearty Love and Likeing to true Holiness and a desire and serious endeavour to practice it out of hearty Love and yet failed in the event then they might under some pretence plead for their Excuse as some do for them that they were compelled to sin by an inevitable Fate But none have just cause to plead any such thing for their excuse because none endeavour to practice true Holiness out of hearty Love to it until the good Work be begun in their Souls and when God hath begun he will perfect it Phil. 1.6 And will in the mean time accept their ready Mind though they fall short in Performance 2 Cor. 8.12 How abominable then and filthy is man that drinketh up iniquity us water Job 15.16 That cannot practise Holiness because he will not This is their just Condemnation that
they love darkness rather light They deserve to be Partakers with the Divels in Torments as they partake with them in evil Lusts and their Inability to do Good will no more excuse them than it excuseth the Divils Eighthly Neither will this Assertion make it a vain thing to preach the Gospel to natural People and to exhort them to true Repentance and Faith in Christ for their Conversion and Salvation For the Design of our Preaching is not to bring them to Holiness in their natural State but to raise them above it and to present them perfect in Christ in the Performance of those Duties Col. 1.28 And though they cannot perform those Duties by their natural Strength yet the Gospel is made effectual for their Conversion and Salvation by the Power of the Holy Ghost which accompanieth the Preaching of it to quicken those that are dead in Sin and to create them a new in Christ by giving to them Repentance unto Life and a lively Faith in Christ The Gospel cometh to the Elect of God not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in such Assurance that they receive it with joy of the Holy Ghost 1 Thess 5.6 The Gospel is the ministration of the Spirit that giveth life 2. Cor. 3.6 8. It is mighty through God 2 Cor. 10.4 It dependeth not at all upon the Power of our Free-will to make it successful for our Conversion but it conveyeth into the Soul that Life and Power whereby they receive and obey it Christ can make those that are dead in Sin to hear his voice and live John 5.25 Therefore he can speak to them by his Gospel and Command them to repent and believe with good Success as well as he could say to dead Carcases Tabitha cumi Mark 5.41 Lazarus come forth John 11 43 44. And to the Sick of the Palsie Arise take up thy bed and go unto thine house Matth. 9.6 Ninthly There is no reason that the Examples of Heathen Philosophers or any Jews or Christians by outward Profession that have lived without the saving Knowledge of God in Christ should move us by their wise Sayings and renouned Attainments in the Practice of Devotion and Morality to recede from this Truth that hath been so fully confirmed out of the holy Scriptures Have we not cause to judge that the Apostle Paul while he was a zealous Pharisee and at least some few of the great Multitude of the Jews in his time that were zealous of the Law and had the Instruction of the holy Scriptures attained as near to that true Holiness as the Heathen Philosophers or any others in their natural State Yet Paul after he was enlightned with the saving Knowledge of Christ judged himself the chief of sinners in his highest former Attainments though in the Judgment of others he was blameless touching the Righteousness which is in the Law and he found it necessary to begin to live to God in a new way by Faith in Christ and to suffer the loss of all his former Attainments and to count them but dung that he might win Christ 1 Tim. 1.15 Phil. 3.6 7 8. And none of the great Multitude of Jews that followed after the Law of Righteousness did ever attain unto it while they sought it not by faith in Christ Rom. 9.31 32. What Performances are greater in outward Appearance than for a Man to give all his goods to the poor and to give his body to be burnt and yet the Scripture alloweth us to suppose that this may be done without true Charity and therefore without any true holiness of the heart and life 1 Cor. 13.3 Men in a natural State may have strong Convictions of the infinite Power Wisdom Justice and Goodness of God and of the Judgment to come and the everlasting Happiness of the Godly and Torments of the Wicked and these Convictions may stir them up not only to make an high Profession and to utter rare Sayings concerning God and Godliness but also to labour with great earnestness to avoid all known Sin to subdue their Lusts to perform universal Obedience to God in all known Duties and to serve him with their Lives and Estates to the utmost and to extort out of their Hearts some kind of Love to God and Godliness that if possible they may escape the terrible Torments of Hell and procure everlasting Happiness by their Endeavours Yet all their Love to God is but forced and feigned they have no hearty liking to God or his Service they account him an hard Master and his Commandments grievous and they repine and fret inwardly at the burden of them and were it not for fear of everlasting Fire they would little regard the Enjoyment of God in Heaven and they would be glad if they might have the Liberty to enjoy their Lusts without danger of Damnation The highest Preferment of those that are born only after the Flesh in Abraham's Family is but to be children of the bond-woman Gal. 4.23 And though they do more in God's Service than many of his dear Children yet God accepteth not their Service because their best Performances are slavish without any Child-like Affections towards God and no better than glistering Sins and yet these natural Men are not at all beholden to the goodness of their Natures for these counterfeit Shews of Holiness or for the least abstaining from the grossest Sin If God should leave Men fully to their own natural Corruptions and to the Power of Satan as they deserve all Shew of Religion and Morality would be quickly banished out of the World and we should grow past feeling in Wickedness and like to the Canibals who are as good by Nature as our selves But God that can restrain the Burning of the siery Furnace without quenching it and the flowing of Water without changing its nature doth also restrain the working of natural Corruption without mortifying it and through the greatness of his Wisdom and Power he maketh his enemies to yield feigned obedience to him Psal 66.3 And to do many things good for the matter of them though they can do nothing in a right holy manner He hath appointed several means to restrain our Corruptions as the Law Terrors of Conscience terrible Judgments and Rewards in this Life Magistrates humane Laws Labour for Necessaries Food and Raiment and those Gospel means that are effectual for Sanctification serve also for Restraint of Sin God hath gracious ends in this Restraint of Sin that his Church may be preserved and his Gospel preached in the World and that these Natural Men may be in a better Capacity to receive the Instruction of the Gospel and that such of them that are chosen may in due time be converted and that those of them that are not truly converted may enjoy more of the Goodness of God here and suffer the less Torments hereafter As vile and wicked as the World is we have cause to praise and to magnifie the Free
Terms you are first to do the holy Duties commanded before you have any Interest in the Life promised or any Right to lay hold of it as yours by Faith and you must practice Holiness without the forementioned means or else you can never attain to them Thus the true means are turned out of their Office and instead of being Causes they are made to be Effects and Fruits of an holy Practice And it will be in vain ever to expect such Effects and Fruits for Holiness it self with all its Effects must needs be destroyed when its necessary Causes are taken away Therefore the Apostle Paul testifieth that the way of salvation by the works of the law maketh faith void and promises of none effect And frustrateth the grace of God as if Christ died in vain and maketh Christ to be of no profit and of none effect to us as those that are fallen from grace Rom. 4.14 Gal. 2.21 5.2 4. Let us now examine the modern Doctrine of Salvation by the Condition of sincere Obedience to all the Commands of Christ and we shall quickly find it to be a chip of the same block with the former legal way of Salvation in the same manner destructive to the means of Holiness and to Holiness it self It requireth of us the Performance of sincere Obedience before we have the means necessary to produce it by making it antecedent to our Justification and Perswasion of eternal Happiness and our actual Enjoyment of Union and Fellowship with Christ and of that new Nature which is to be had only in him by Faith It destroyeth the nature of that saving Faith whereby we actually receive and enjoy Christ and all his Benefits and knocketh off our Hands from laying hold of Christ and his Salvation by telling us still as Christ told the Legalworker after all his Labour that yet we lack something Mat. 10.21 That it is Presumption to take him as our own until we have performed the Condition for our Right and Title to him which is another kind of saving Faith otherwise called sincere Obedience By this devised conditional Faith Satan keepeth many poor Souls at a bay poreing upon their own Hearts for many years together to find whether they have performed the Condition and whether they have as yet any Right to Christ for their Salvation not daring to venture to take him as their own It is a strong Partition-wall that will certainly hinder the Soul from coming to Christ until it be thrown down by the Knowledge of Salvation by grace without any procuring Condition of Works And though it be accounted but as the Payment of a Pepper-corn for a great Estate yet it is enough to break the ablest Man in the World because it debarreth him from laying hold of the only effectual means of Holiness whereby that Pepper-corn may be obtained 2dly Those that seek Salvation by the Works of the Law do therein act according to their natural State they live and walk according to the Flesh or Old-man not according to the New-state by Christ living in them I doubt not but several of them that live under the light of the Gospel are Partakers of a new State in Christ and do walk holily in it but the best in this World have in them Flesh as well as Spirit and may act according to either State in some measure and in this matter they do act only according to their carnal natural State When the believing Galatians were seduced to a Legal way of Salvation the Apostle Paul chargeth it upon them as their Folly that having begun in the spirit they would now be made perfect in the flesh Gal. 3.3 And he resembleth those that desire to be under the Law to Abraham's Son born of Hagar the Bondwoman to shew that such do walk as those that are born after the flesh not after the spirit Gal. 4.19 23 29. The Law was first given to Adam in his pure natural State to prescribe Terms for his continuance in Happiness which he then enjoyed and ever since that time the Flesh or Natural-man is married to the Law and the Law hath Dominion over a Man as long as he liveth i. e. until he be dead to his fleshly State by the Body of Christ and married to him that is risen from the dead Rom. 7.1 4. We are not at all under the Law as a Covenant of Works according to our new State in Christ as the Apostle testifieth Rom. 6.14 Ye are not under the law but under grace And Gal. 3.18 If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law From hence we may firmly conclude that none can possibly attain to true Godliness by acting according to Legal-terms because I have fully proved already that it is impossible to be godly while we are in the flesh or in a natural State and that as far as we act according to it we can do nothing but sin The Law is weak through the Flesh that it cannot bring us to fulfil its own Righteousness Rom. 8.3 4. It is married to a cross piece of flesh that is Enmity to it and can never be subject to it Rom. 8.8 It sueth the Natural-man for an old Debt of Obedience that he is utterly unable to pay since the Fall and the Success is according to the Proverb Sue a beggar and catch a louse Neither do those take a better Course that would bring themselves to Holiness by making sincere Obedience to Christ's Commands the Condition of their Salvation Their way is the same for Substance with that of the Calatians before mentioned who would be made perfect in the Flesh not by perfect Obedience but sincere as hath been shewed before Their Eudeavours to procure an Interest in Christ by their sincere Obedience do testifie against themselves that they do not act as People that are in Christ but rather as People that judge themselves to be without an Interest in Christ and to be yet to seek for it And sincere Obedience is as impossible to be attained unto as perfect Obedience if we act according to our dead natural State 3dly As the Law bereaveth of all strengthning means that are to be had by Faith in Christ and findeth us without strength in our natural State so of it self it affordeth us no Strength to fulfil its own Commandments If there had been a law given that could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law Gal. 3.21 It doth not so much as promise us life until we have performed the Obedience required by it The man that doth these things shall live by them Rom. 6.5 It is well called a voice of words Heb. 12.19 because its high and big words are not acompanied with any enlivening Power and the Doctrine of Life and Salvation by sincere Obedience is not better natur'd or more bountiful to us For it exacteth of us the Performance of the Condition before it alloweth us any Life or Salvation by Christ
Sinai-covenant would have proved to them an occasion of no Happiness but only of sin Despair and Destruction Of it self it was only a killing Letter the ministration of death and condemnation and therefore it is now abolished 2 Cor. 3.6 8 9 11. We have cause to praise God for delivering his Church by the Blood of Christ from this Yoke of Bondage and we have cause to abhor the Device of those that would lay upon us a more grievous and terrible Yoke by turning our very New covenant into a Covenant of sincere works and leaving us no such better Covenant as the Israelites had under their Yoke to relieve us in our Extremity DIRECTION VII We are not to imagine that our hearts and lives must be changed from Sin to Holiness in any measure before we may safely venture to trust on Christ for the sure Enjoyment of himself and his Salvation .. EXPLICATION WE are naturally so prone to ground our Salvation upon our own works that if we cannot make them procuring Conditions and Causes of our Salvation by Christ yet we shall endeavour at least to make them necessary Preparatives to fit us for receiving Christ and his Salvation by Faith And Men are easily perswaded that this is not at all contrary to Salvation by Free-grace because all that is hereby ascribed to our works or good Qualifications is only that they put usin a sit posture to receive a Free gift If we were to go to a Prince for a Free gist good Manners and due Reverence would teach us to trim our selves first and to change our slovenly Clothes as Joseph did when he came out of the Dungeon into the presence of Pharaoh It seemeth to be an impudent slighting and contemning the Justice and Holiness of God and Christ and an insufferable affront and indignity offer'd to the divine Majesty when any dare presume to approach into his Presence in the nasty pickle of his Sins covered all over with putrifying Sores not at all clo'sd boundeup or cleansed much more when they endeavour to receive the most holy One into such an abominable stinking Kennel as a Sinners heart is before it be at all reformed The Parable concerning the Man that was to be bound hand and foot and cast into outer Darkness for coming to the Royal Wedding without a Wedding garment seemeth to be intended as a Warning against all such Presumption Mat. 22.11 13. Many that behold with terrour the abominable Filth of their own hearts are kept off from coming immediately to Christ by such Imaginations which Satan strongly maintaineth and increaseth in them by his Suggestions so that they can by no means be perswaded out of them until God teacheth them inwardly by the powerful Illumination of his Spirit they delay the saving act of Faith because they account that they are not yet duly prepared and qualified for it On the same Account many weak Believers delay coming to the Lord's Supper for many Years together even as long as they live in this World and would be as likely to delay their Baptism if they had not been baptized in Infancy Against all such Imaginations I shall propose the following Considerations First This Error is pernicious to the Practice of Holiness and to our whole Salvation in the same manner with that treated of in the foregoing Direction and may be confuted by the same Arguments which are there produced whether Holiness be made a procuring Condition of our Salvation through Christ or only a Condition necessary to qualifie us for the Reception of Christ we are equally brought under those Legal terms of doing first the Duties required in the Law that so we may live Therefore we are equally bereaved of the Assistance of those means of Holiness mentioned in the foregoing Directions as Union and Fellowship with Christ and the Enjoyment of all his sanctifying Endowments by Faith which should go before the Practice of Holiness that they may enable us for it and we are equally left to labour in vain for Holiness while we are in our cursed natural State whereby our sinsul Corruption will be rather exasperated than mortified so that we shall never be duly prepared for the reception of Christ as long as we live in the world Thus while we endeavour to prepare our way to Christ by holy Qualifications we do rather fill it with stumbling-blocks and deep pits whereby our Souls are hindered from ever attaining to the Salvation of Christ 2dly Any the least change of our hearts and lives from Sin to Holiness before our receiving of Christ and his Salvation by Faith is not at all necessary according to the Terms of the Gospel nor required by any one Syllable in the Word of God Christ would have the vilest Sinners come to him for Salvation immediately without delaying the time to prepare themselves for him When the wicked Jaylor enquired what he must do to be saved Paul directed him forthwith to believe on Christ with a Promise that in so doing he should be saved and straitway he and all his were baptized Acts 16.30 33. Paul doth not tell him that he must reform his heart and life first though he was in a very nasty pickle at that time having but a little before fastened Paul and Silas in the Stocks and newly attempted an horrid wilful self-murder Those three thousand Jews that were converted by Peter's Preaching and added the same day to the Church by Baptism Acts 2.41 seemed to have as much need of some considerable time to prepare themselves for receiving of Christ as others because they had but lately polluted themselves with the Murder of Christ himself v. 23. Christ commands his Servants to go out quickly into the Streets and Lanes of the City and to bring in to his Feast the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind yea to go out into the high ways and to compel them to come in without allowing them to tarry away until they had cleansed the sores and shifted off their filthy rags and swarms of lice Christ would have us to believe on him that justifieth the ungodly and therefore he doth not require us to be godly before we believe Rom. 4.5 He came as a Physician for the Sick and doth not expect that they should recover their Health in the least degree before they come to him Mat. 9.12 The vilest Sinners are fitly prepared and qualified for this Design which is to shew forth the exceeding riches of Grace pardoning our sins and saving us freely Eph. 2.5 7. For this end the Law of Moses entered that the offence might abound that so where sin abounded grace might much more abound Rom. 5.20 He loved us in our most loathsom sinful Pollution so as to die for us and much more will he love us in it so as to receive us when we come to him for the purchased Salvation He hath given full satisfaction to the Justice of God for sinners that they might have all
all are given to us at one and the same time and I think enough hath been said already to shew in what order God brings us to the Practice of the Moral Law he maketh us first to be in Christ by Faith as Branches in the Vine that we may bring forth much fruit Joh. 15.5 He first purgeth our Consciences from dead Works by Justification that we may serve the living God Heb. 9.14 He maketh us first to live in the Spirit and then to walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 This is the Order prescribed in the Gospel which is the Power of God unto Salvation though the Law prescribeth a quite contrary Method that we should first perform its Commandements that so we may be justified and live and thereby it proveth a killing Letter to us Now mark well the great Advantages you have for the Attainment of Holiness by seeking it in a right Gospel-Order you will have the Advantage of the Love of God manifested toward you in forgiving your Sins receiving you into Favour and giving you the Spirit of Adoption and the Hope of his Glory freely through Christ to perswade and constrain you by sweet allurements to love God again that hath so dearly loved you and to love others for his sake and to give up your selves to the Obedience of all his Commandments out of hearty love to him you will also enjoy the Help of the Spirit of God to incline you powerfully unto Obedience and to strengthen you for the Performance of it against all your Corruptions and the Temptations of Satan so that you will have both Wind and Tide to forward your Voyage in the Practice of Holiness contrariwise if you rush upon the immediate performance of the Law without taking Christ's Righteousness and his Spirit in the way to it you 'll find both Wind Tide against you Your guilty Conscience and corrupt dead Natures shall certainly defeat and frustrate all your Enterprizes and Attempts to love God and serve him in Love and you will but stir up sinful Lusts instead of stirring up your selves to true Obedience or at best you will but attain to some slavish hypocritical Performances Oh that People would be perswaded to consider the due place of Holiness in the Mystery of Salvation and to seek it only there where they have all the Advantage of Gospel-Grace to find it Many miscarry in their zealous Enterprizes for Godliness and after they have spent much Labour in vain God maketh a Breach upon them even to their everlasting Destruction as he did upon Uzzah to a Temporal destruction because they sought him not after a due order 2 Chron. Secondly We are to look upon Holiness as a very necessary part of that Salvation that is received by Faith in Christ some are so drenched with a Covenant of Works that they accuse us for making good Works needless to Salvation if we will not acknowledge them to be necessary either as Conditions to procure an Interest in Christ or as Preparatives to fit us for the receiving of him by Faith and others when they are taught by the Scriptures that we are saved by Faith through Faith without Works do begin to disregard all Obedience to the Law as not at all necessary to Salvation and do account themselves obliged to it only in point of Gratitude if it be wholly neglected they doubt not but Free-grace will save them harmless yea some are given up to such strong Antinomian Delusions that they account it a part of the Liberty from the Bondage of the Law purchased by the Blood of Christ to make no Conscience of breaking the Law in their Conversation One cause of these Errors that are so contrary one to the other is that many are prone to imagine nothing else to be meant by Salvation but to be delivered from Hell and in heavenly Happiness and Glory hence they conclude that if good Works be a means of Glorification and precedent to it they must also be a precedent Means of our whole Salvation and that if they be not a necessary Means of our whole Salvation they are not at all necessary to Glorification But though Salvation be often taken in Scripture by way of Eminency for its perfection in the State of heavenly Glory yet according to its full and proper Signification we are to understand by it all that freedom from the Evil of our Natural corrupt State and all those holy and happy Enjoyments that we receive from Christ our Saviour either in this World by Faith or in the World to come by Glorification Thus Justification the Gift of the Spirit to dwell in us the Priviledges of Adoption are parts of our Salvation which we partake of in this Life Thus also the Conformity of our Hearts to the Law of God and the Fruit of our Righteousness with which we are filled by Jesus Christ in this Life are a necessary part of our Salvation God saveth us from our finful uncleanness here by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost as well as from Hell hereafter Ezek. 36.29 Tit. 3.5 Christ was called Jesus i.e. A Saviour because he saved his People from their Sins Mat. 1.21 therefore it is part of our Salvation to deliver us from our Sins which is begun in this Life by Justification and Sanctification and perfected by Glorification in the Life to come Can we rationally doubt whither it be any proper part of our Salvation by Christ to be quickned to live to God when we were by nature dead in Trespasses and Sins and to have the Image of God in Holiness and Righteousness restored to us which we lost by the Fall and to be freed from a vile dishonourable Slavery to Satan and our own Lusts and made the Servants of God and to be honoured so highly as to walk by the Spirit and bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit And what is all this but holiness in Heart and Life Conclude we then that Holiness in this Life is absolutely necessary to Salvation not only as a Means to the end but by a nobler kind of Necessity as part of the end it self Though we are not saved by good Works as procuring Causes yet we are saved to good Works as fruits and effects of Saving-grace which God hath prepared that we should walk in them Eph. 2.10 It is indeed one part of our Salvation to be delivered from the Bondage of the Covenant of Works but the end of this is not that we may have liberty to sin which is the worst of Slavery but that we may fulfil the royal Law of Liberty and that we may serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter Gal. 3.13 14. Rom. 7.6 Yea Holiness in this Life is such a part of our Salvation as is a necessary Means to make us meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in heavenly Light and Glory without Holiness we can never see God Heb. 12.14 and
be sincere so that they cannot see assurance in themselves therefore they conclude that Assurance must not be accounted absolutely necessary to justifying Faith and Salvation lest we should make the Hearts of doubting Saints sad and drive them to despair They account that former Protestants were guilty of a manifest Absurdity in making assurance to be of the Nature and Definition of Saving-Faith because all that hear the Gospel are bound to Saving-Faith and yet they are not bound absolutely to believe that they themselves shall be saved for then many of them would be bound to believe that which is not declared in the Gospel concerning them in particular yea that which is a plain lye because the Gospel sheweth that many of those that are called are not chosen to Salvation and that perish for ever Mat. 20.16 No wonder if the appearance of so great an Absurdity move many to imagine that saving-Saving-Faith is a trusting or resting on Christ as the only sufficient means of Salvation without any assurance or that it is a desiring and venturing to trust or rely upon him in a mere State of Suspence and Uncertainty concerning our Salvation or with a probable Opinion or conjectural Hope of it at best Another Objection against this Doctrine of Assurance is that it destroyeth Self-examination bringeth forth the evil Fruits of Pride and Arrogancy as if they knew their places in Heaven already before the Day of Judgment causeth carelesness of Duty carnal Security all manner of Licentiousness And this maketh them commend doubtfulness of our Salvation as necessary to maintain in us Humility Religious Fear Watchfulness much searching and trying our spiritual State and Ways diligence in good Works and all Deyotion Against all those contrary Imaginations I shall endeavour to maintain this ancient Protestant Doctrine of assurance as I have expressed in the Direction and first I shall lay down some Observations for the right understanding of it which will be sufficient to turn the edge of the strongest Objections that can be made against it First Observe diligently that the Assurance directed unto is not a Perswasion that we have already received Christ and his Salvation or that we have been already brought in to a State of Grace but only that God is pleased graciously to give Christ and his Salvation unto us and to bring us into a State of Grace though we have been altogether in a State of Sin and Death until this present time so that this Doctrine doth not at all tend to breed Presumption in wicked and unregenerate Men that their state is good already but only encourageth them to come to Christ confidently for a good State I acknowledge that we may yea many must be taught to doubt whether their present State be good and that it is Humility so to do and that we must find out the Certainty and Sincerity of our Faith and Obedience by Self-examination before we can have a well-grounded Assurance that we are in a State of Grace and Salvation already and that such an assurance belongeth to that which they call the reflect Act of Faith if any act of Faith can be made of it being spiritual Sence or feeling of what is in my self and is not of the Essence of that Faith whereby we are justified and saved and that many precious Saints are without it and subject to many Doubts that are contrary to it so that they may not know at all that it shall go well with them at the Day of Judgment and that it may be sometimes intermitted if not wholly lost after it is gotten and that we should strive to walk holily that we may attain to it because it is very useful for our growth and increase in Faith and in all Holiness Most Protestants amongst us when they speak or write of Assurance mean only that which is by Reflection and I have said enough briefly to shew that what I assert is consistent with the Doctrine which is commonly received concerning it and destructive to none of the good Fruits of it therefore not guilty of those Evils that some falsly charge it with This kind of Assurance which I speak of answereth not the Question Whither I am already in a state of Grace and Salvation There is another great Question that the Soul must answer that it may get into a state of Grace Whether God be graciously pleased now to bestow Christ and his Salvation upon me though I have been hitherto a very wicked Creature We must be sure to resolve this Question comfortably by another kind of Assurance in the direct act of Faith wherein we are to perswade our selves without reflecting upon any good Qualifications in our selves That God is ready graciously to receive us into the Arms of his saving Mercy in Christ notwithstanding all our former Wickedness according to the gracious Promise I will call them my people which were not my people and her beloved which was not beloved and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them Ye are not my people there shall they be called the children of the living God Rom. 9.25 26. Secondly The Assurance directed unto is not a Perswasion of our Salvation whatever we do or however we live and walk but only in a limited way through meer Free-grace in Christ by partaking of Holiness as well as Forgiveness and by walking in the way of Holiness to the Enjoyment of the Glory of God We shall not heartily desire or endeavour to assure our selves of such a Salvation as this if we be not brought first to see our own Sinfulness and Misery and to despair of our own Righteousness and Strength and to hunger and thirst for the sanctifying as well as justifying Grace of God in Christ that so we may walk in the ways of Holiness to the Enjoyment of Heavenly Glory The Faith whereby we receive Christ must have in it not only a Perswasion of Happiness but these and the like good Qualifications that will make it a most holy Faith Certainly an Assurance thus qualified will not beget any Pride in us but rather Humility and self-loathing except any account it Pride to rejoyce and glory in Christ when we have no Confidence in the Flesh Phil. 3.3 It will not destroy religious Fear and breed carnal Security but rather it will make us fear going aside from Christ our only Resuge and Security and walking after the Flesh Noah had cause to enter into the Ark and to abide there with Assurance of his Preservation yet he might well be afraid to venture out of the Ark because he was perswaded that Continuance in the Ark was his only Safery from perishing in the Flood And how can a Perswasion of Salvation in a way of Holiness breed Sloathfulness in Duty Carelesness and Licentiousness It doth rather mightily allure us and stir us up to be always abounding in the Work of the Lord for as much as we know that our labour
this be truly believed it will exclude Doubtfulness concerning your Salvation Secondly Several places of Scripture declare positively and expresly that we are to be assured of our Salvation in that Faith whereby we are justified and saved I shall produce some Instances We are exhorted to draw near to God with full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 Many apply this Text to that which they call the reflect Act of Faith because they imagine that all Assurance must needs be by Reflection but the Words of the Text do clearly teach us to understand it of that Act of Faith whereby we draw near to God that is the direct Act and it is that very Faith whereby the Just do live even justifying saving Faith verse 38. And this Assurance must be full at least in the true and proper Nature of it in Opposition unto mere Doubtfulness and Uncertainty though we are yet further to labour for that which is full in the highest Degree of Perfection And the same Faith whereby we are exhorted to draw nigh unto God and whereby the Just liveth is a little after Chap. 11.1 affirmed to be the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Why should saving Faith have these high Titles and Attributes given to it if it did not contain in it a sure Perswasion of the great things of our Salvation hoped for which maketh them to be evident to the Eyes of our Mind as if they were already present in their Substance though yet not visible to our bodily Eyes that Faith whereby we are made Partakers of Christ and to be Christ's House must be worthy to be called Confidence and accompanied with reioycing Hope Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end Heb. 3.6.14 What is Confidence concerning any thing but trusting concerning it with a firm Perswasion of the Truth of it If we have only a strong Opinion concerning a thing without any absolute certainty we use to say that we are not altogether confident of it The Faith whereby we are justified must be in a measure like to the Faith whereby Abraham against Hope believed in Hope that his Seed should certainly be multiplyed according to the Promise of God though by reason of the Deadness of his own Body and of Sarah's Womb he could have no Evidence from his own Qualifications to assure himself of it but all Appearances were rather to the contrary as the Apostle teacheth clearly Rom. 4.18 19 23.24 As absolute as this Promise was thus made Abraham yet it was not to be fulfilled without this Assurance of Faith and by the like Faith the free Promises of Salvation by Christ will be absolutely fulfilled to us The Apostle James expresly requireth that we should ask good things of God in Faith nothing doubting which includeth Assurance manifestly and he telleth us plainly that without it a Man ought not to think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord therefore we may firmly conclude that without it we shall not receive the Salvation of Christ James 1.6 7. And that which the Apostle James requireth us not to doubt of is the obtaining the things that we ask as we may learn from an Instruction to the same purpose given to us by Christ himself What things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them Mark 11.24 More places of Scripture might be alledged to the same purpose but these are sufficient to evince that we are bound to assure our selves of our Salvation in Faith it self or else we are never likely to enjoy it and that it is not Humility but rather proud Disobedience to live in a state of mere Suspense and Doubtfulness concerning our Salvation and that this Assurance must be in the direct Act of Faith whereby we are justified and saved For as for that which is called the Reflect Act of Faith it is a certain Truth and generally owned that it is not absolutely necessary to Salvation to any and that it is sinful and pernicious to many to believe that they are already entred into a state of Grace and Salvation Thirdly God giveth us sufficient ground in Scripture to come to Christ with confident Faith at the very first trusting assuredly that Christ and his Salvation shall be given to us without any Failing and Delay however vile and sinful our Condition hath been hitherto The Scripture speaketh to the vilest Sinners in such a manner as if it were framed on purpose to beget Assurance of Salvation in them immediately Acts 2.39 Chap. 3.26 This Promise is unversal That whosoever believeth on Christ shall not be ashamed without making a Difference between Jew and Greek Rom. 10.11 12. And this Promise is confirmed by the Blood of Christ who was given for the World and lifted up upon the Cross for this very end that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.14 15 16. His Invitation is free to any If any man thirst let him come to me and drink and this Drink is promised to every one that believeth John 7.37 39. The Command of believing is propounded not only in general but in particular and the Promise of Salvation upon believing is also applyed personally and that to such as have been hitherto in a state of Sin and Wrath as to the wicked persecuting self-murdering Jaylor Acts 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thine house God commanded them that walked altogether in Sin hitherto to call him their own Father in their very first returning Jer. 3.4 So Hos 2.23 God saith he will say Thou art my people and they shall say Thou art my God confidently averring their personal Interest in him God hath joyned Confidence and Salvation inseparably together In returning and rest ye shall be saved in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength Isai 30.15 What a poor slender Use and Improvement do many make of these Discoveries of the rich Grace of God towards Sinners who say that if we see that we have performed the Condition of believing then we may take Christ confidently as our own they skip over the first and principal Use they ought to make of them the very Performance of the Condition is to take Christ as our own immediately and to eat him and drink him by believing consiently on him for our Salvation If an honest rich Man say to a poor Woman I promise to be thy Husband if thou wilt have me say but the Word and I am thine may not she presently answer confidently Then thou art my Husband and I claim thee for my Husband and should she not rather say so then say I believe not what thou sayest If an honest Man say Do but take this Gift and it is your own do but eat and drink and you are freely welcome may not I take the Gift and eat and drink at first
we are the children of God and if children then heirs Rom. 8.15 16. Gal. 4.6 And the Apostle tells the Ephesians that after they believed they were sealed with the Holy Spirit which was the Earnest of their Inheritance Eph. 1.13 14. i. e. They were sealed from the same time that they believed for the original Words are in the same Tense If this Witness Seal and Earnest of the Spirit had not been Ordinary to Believers it would not have been sufficient to prove that they were the Children of God and such manner of arguing might have driven some to despair that wanted this Witness Seal and Earnest Let us enquire now whether the Spirit beareth witness that we are the Children of God and enables us to cry Abba Father by the direct Act or by that which they call the Reflect Act of Faith for we must not think that it is done by an Enthusiasm without any ordinary means nor can we reasonably imagine that no true Believers can call God Father by the Guidance of the Spirit but only those few that are so sure of their own Sincerity that by reflecting upon it they can ground an Act of Faith concerning their own Interest in Christ no surely therefore we may judge rather that the Spirit worketh this in us by giving us saving Faith it self whereby all true Believers are enabled to trust assuredly on Christ for the Enjoyment of the Adoption of Children and all his Salvation according to the Free Promise of God and to call God Father without reflecting on any good Qualifications in our selves and by the direct Act of it For the Spirit is received by the direct Act of Faith Gal. 3.2 And so he is the Spirit of Adoption and Comfort to all that receive him They that assert that the Spirit witnesseth our Adoption only by assuring us of the Sincerity of our Faith Love and other gracious Qualifications and by the reflect Act of Faith do teach also commonly that you must again try whether the Spirit thus witnessing be the Spirit of Truth or of Delusion by searching narrowly whether our inward Grace be sincere or counterfeit so that hereby the Testimony of the Spirit is rendred so hard to be discerned that it standeth us in no stead but all our Assurance is made at last to depend on our own certain Knowledge of our own Sincerity There are several other Evidences to shew That Believers generally were perswaded of their Salvation in the Apostles times they loved and waited for the coming of Christ to judge the World 1 Cor. 1.7 2 Tim. 4.8 They loved all the Saints for the Hope that was laid up for them in Heaven Col. 1.3 4. The Corinthians that were very carnal and but Babes in Christ were perswaded that they should judge the World and Angels and that their Bodies were Members of Christ and the Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.2 3 15 19. The very first coming of the Gospel to the Thessalonians was in the Holy Ghost and much Assurance so that they received it with much Affliction with Joy of the Holy Ghost when as yet they had no Considerable time to get Assurance by reflecting on their good Qualifications 1 Thess 1.5 6. Likewise the believing Hebrews when they were illuminated at their first Conversion took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods knowing that they had in Heaven a better and more enduring Substance and this was their Confidence which they were not to cast off because the Just liveth by Faith and therefore it appeareth that this Confidence belonged necessarily to justifying saving Faith Heb. 10 32 34 35 38. Now let those that alledge the Examples or Experiences of many modern Christians to disprove all that I have asserted and consider well whether these are fit to be laid in the Ballance against all the Scripture Examples and Experiences that I have produced out of the Old and New Testament I confess that Assurance of Salvation is more rarely professed by Christians in these times than formerly and we may thank some Teachers for it that have deserted the Doctrine of former Protestants in this Point and vented against it several Errors such as have been already named and now would take Advantage to confirm the Truth of their Doctrines from those Doubtings in Christians that have been chiefly occasioned by it But however the nature of saving Faith is still the same and I assert that in these Days as well as formerly it always hath in it some Assurance of Salvation by Christ which doth and will appear at least in resisting and condemning all Doubtings and praying against them and endeavouring to trust assuredly and to call God Father except in extraordinary Desertions by which our Gase must not be tried We are not to trust the Judgment of many concerning themselves they will judge falsly that they have no Assurance at all because they know not yet by Marks and Signs that they are in a state of Grace already or because they think that there is no Assurance when there are many Doubtings and because it is so weak and so much oppressed with Doubting that it can hardly be discerned as Life in a fainting Fit but if their Judgments be better informed they may be brought to discern some Assurance in themselves We are also to take heed of mistaking those for true Believers that are not so and of judging this Point by their Experiences which is a vulgar Error The blind Charity of some moveth them to take all for true Believers which are full of Doubts and Troubles concerning their Salvation though it may be they only be convinced of Sin and brought to some Zeal of God that is not according to the Knowledge of the way of Salvation by Christ and they think it Duty to comfort such Ignorant Persons by perswading of them that their state is good and their Faith right though they have no Assurance of Salvation Thus they are brought to judge falsly concerning the nature of Faith out of their blind Charity to such as are yet in Ignorance and Unbelief and instead of comforting such they rather take the direct way to harden them in their natural state and to divert them from seeking Consolation by Saving Faith in Christ and to ruine their Souls for ever Fifthly The chief Office of this Faith in its direct saving Act is to receive Christ and his Salvation actually into our Hearts as hath been proved which Office cannot be rationally performed except we do in some measure perswade our Hearts and assure our selves of the Enjoyment of him as the Body receiveth things into it self by the Hands and Mouth So the Soul receiveth these things to it self and layeth actual Hold on them by the Faculty of the Will making choice of them and embracing them in a way of present Enjoyment and Possession as it doth by the Faculty of the Understanding see and apprehend them thus the Soul receiveth Comfort from outward things As a righteous
Person cannot receive inward Comfort from outward things as from worldly Estate Wife Husband Friends c. except it chuse them as good and count them his own by a Right and Title This is the only rational way whereby the Soul can actively lay hold on Christ and take actual Possession of him and his Salvation as he is freely offered and promised to us in the Gospel by the Grace of Faith which God hath appointed to be our great Instrument for the receiving of him and closing with him If we do not make choice of Christ as our only Salvation and Happiness or if we be altogether in a slate of Suspence and doubting whether God will be pleased to give Christ to us or no it is evident that our Souls are quite loose from Christ and have no Holdfast or Enjoyment of him They do not so much as pretend to any actual receiving or laying hold or choosing of him neither are they fully satisfied that it is lawful for them so to do but rather they are yet to seek whether they have any good Ground and Right to lay hold on him or no. Let any rational Man judge whether the Soul doth or can put forth any sufficient Act for the Reception and Enjoyment of Christ as our Saviour Head or Husband while it is yet in Doubt whether it be the Will of Christ to be joyned with us in such a near Relation can a Woman honestly receive any one as her Husband without being assured that he is fully willing to be her Husband The same may be said concerning the several Parts of Christ's Salvation which are to be received by Faith It is evident that we do not aright receive the Benefit of Remission of Sins for the purging of our Consciences from that Guilt that lyeth upon them unless we have an assured Perswasion of God's forgiving them we do not actually receive into our Hearts our Reconciliation with God and Adoption of Children and the Title to an everlasting Inheritance until we can assure our selves that God is graciously pleased to be our God and Father and take us to be his Children and Heirs We do not actually receive any sufficient Strength to encourage our Hearts to Holiness in all Difficulties until we can stedfastly believe that God is with us and will not fail nor forsake us Hence then we may firmly conclude that whoso seeketh to be saved by Faith and doth not seek to have Assurance or Confidence of his own Salvation doth but deceive himself and delude his Soul with a mere Fansie instead of saving Faith and doth in effect seek to be saved in his corrupt Natural state without receiving and laying actual hold of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Salvation Sixthly It is also a great and necessary Office of Saving Faith to purifie the Heart and to enable us to live and walk in the Practice of all holy Duties by the Grace of Christ and by Christ himself living in us as hath been shewed before which Office Faith is not able to perform except some Assurance of our own Interest in Christ and his Salvation be comprehended in the nature of it If we would live to God not our selves but by Christ living in us according to Paul s Example we must be able to assure our selves as he did Christ loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 We are taught that if we live in the Spirit we shall walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 It would be high Presumption if we should endeavour to walk above our natural Strength and Power by the Spirit before we have made sure of our living by the Spirit I have shewed that we cannot make Use of the comfortable Benefits of the Saving Grace of Christ whereby the Gospel doth engage and encourage us to an holy Practice except we have some Confidence of our own Interest in those saving Benefits If we do not assuredly believe that we are dead to Sin and alive to God through Christ and risen with Christ and not under the Law but under Grace and Members of Christ's Body the Temple of his Spirit the dear Children of God it would be Hypocrisie to serve God upon the Account of such Priviledges as if we reckoned our selves to be Partakers of them he that thinks he should doubt of his Salvation is not a fit Disciple for this manner of Doctrine and he may reply to the Preachers of the Gospel if you would bring me to Holiness you must make Use of other more essectual Arguments for I cannot practice upon these Principles because I have not Faith enough to believe that I have any Interest in them some Arguments taken from the Justice and Wrath of God against Sinners and his Mercy towards those that perform the Condition of sincere Obedience would work more powerfully upon me O what a miserable worthless kind of saving Faith is this that cannot fit a Believer to practice in a Gospel manner upon the most pure and powerful Principles of Grace but rather leaveth him to work upon Legal Principles which can never bring him to serve God acceptably out of Love and as such a Faith faileth wholly in the right manner of obeying upon Gospel Principles so it faileth also in the very matter of some great Duties which are of such a nature that they include Assurance of God's Love in the right Performance of them such are those great Duties of Peace with God rejoycing in the Lord always Hope that maketh not ashamed owning the Lord as our God and our Saviour praying to him as our Father in Heaven offering up Body and Soul as an acceptable Sacrifice to him casting all our Cares of Body and Soul upon him Contentment and hearty Thanksgiving in every Condition making our Boast in the Lord triumphing in his Praise rejoycing in Tribulation putting on Christ in our Baptism receiving Christ's Body as broken for us and his Blood as shed for us in the Lord's Supper committing our Souls willingly to God as our Redeemer when ever he shall be pleased to call for us loving Christ's Second Appearance and looking for it as that blessed Hope when we fall into any sudden Doubting whether we are in a state of Grace already when we are called to any present Undertaking as to partake of the Lord's Supper or any Duty that requires Assurance to the right Performance of chem we must relieve our selves by trusting confidently in Christ for the present Gift of his Salvation or else we shall be driven to omit the Duty or not to perform it rightly or sincerely can we judge our selves already in a state of Grace by the reflect Act of Faith if we do not find that we perform these Duties at least several of them sincerely or if we do not find that we have such a holy Faith as doth enable or incline us to the Performance of them And can we be thus enabled and inclined by any Faith that is without some true Assurance of
our Salvation Therefore I conclude that we must necessarily have some Assurance of our Salvation in the direct Act of Faith whereby we are justified sanctified and saved before we can upon any good ground assure our selves that we are already in a state of Salvation by that which they call the Reflect Act. Give me such a saving Faith as will produce such Fruits as these No other Faith will work by Love and therefore will not avail to Salvation in Christ Gal. 5.6 The Apostle James putteth thee upon shewing thy Faith by thy Works James 2.18 And in this Trial this Faith of Assurance cometh off with high Praise and Honour When God calleth his People to work outward Miracles by it all things have been possible to them and it hath frequently brought forth such Works of Righteousness as may be deservedly esteemed great Spiritual Miracles from hence hath proceeded that Heroick Fortitude of the People of God whereby their absolute Obedience to God hath shined forth in doing and suffering those great things which are recorded in the holy Scriptures and in the Histories of the Church And if we be ever called to the fiery Trial as Protestants formerly were we shall find their Doctrine of Assurance to encourage us in suffering for the sake of Christ Seventhly The contrary Doctrine which excludeth Assurance out of the Nature of Saving Faith bringeth forth many evil Fruits it tendeth to bereave our Souls of all Assurance of our Salvation and solid Comfort which is the Life of Religion by placing it after sincere universal Obedience whereas if we have them not first we can never attain to this Obedience and to any Assurance that dependeth on it as hath been proved and this as far as it prevails makes us subject to continual Doubtings concerning our Salvation and to tormenting Fears of Wrath which casteth out true Love to God and can produce no better than slavish hypocritical Service It is one of the principal Pillars whereby manifold Superstitions in Popery are supported as their Monkish Orders their Satisfactions for Sin by Works of Penance Bodily Macerations Whippings Pilgrimages Indulgences trusting on the Merits of Saints c. When once Men have lost the Knowledge of the right way to assure themselves of Salvation they will catch at any Straw to avoid Drowning in the Gulph of Despair There is no way to administer any solid Comfort to the wounded Spirits of those that see themselves void of all Holiness under the Wrath and Curse of God dead in Sin not able so much as to think a good Thought you do but increase their Terror and Anguish if you tell them they must first get Faith and Obedience and when they find they have done that they may perswade themselves that God will receive them into his Grace and Favour Alass they know that they cannot believe nor obey except God prevent them with his Grace and Favour and what if they be even at the Point of Death strugling with Death's Pangs so that they have no time or leisure to get good Qualifications and examine the Goodness of them you must have a more speedy way to comfort such by discovering to them the Free-Promises of Salvation to the worst of Sinners by Faith in Christ and by exhorting them to apply those Promises and trust on Christ confidently for Remission of Sins Holiness and Glory assuring them also that God will help them to believe sincerely on Christ if they desire it with all their Hearts and that it is their Duty to believe because God commands it Several other Evils are occasioned by the same Doctrine Men are unwilling to know the worst of themselves and prone to think their Qualifications better than they are that they may avoid Despair others please and content themselves without any Assurance of their Interest in Christ because they think that is not necessary to Salvation and that but few attain to it and in this they shew little Love to Christ or to their own Souls some foster Doubtings of Salvation as Signs of Humility though they will hypocritically complain of them many mispend their time in poring upon their own Hearts to find out some Evidence of their Interest in Christ when they should rather be imployed in receiving Christ and walking in him by a confident Faith Some are troubled with Doubts whether they should call God Father and what Apprehensions they should have of him in Prayer and are offended at Ministers that in their Publick Prayers use any Expressions that the People cannot joyn in as if they do own God as their God and Father and Christ as their Saviour and upon the same Account they are offended at the Publick singing of many of David's Psalms and avoid partaking of the Lord's Supper because they are not satisfied about their Interest in Christ Though true Believers have some Assurance of Salvation in Saving Faith it self yet it is much weakned in many by this contrary Doctrine and assaulted with many Doubtings and then other good Qualifications must needs be low and weak together with it and so obscure that it is very hard to discern them how hard a thing then will it be for true Believers to assure themselves by the certain Knowledge of their own Sincerity that they are in a state of Grace already which is the only Assurance of Faith Some prescribe Marks and Signs to distinguish Sincerity from Hypocrisie that Believers cannot sufficiently try themselves by them except they have more Knowledge and Experience than Ordinary Thus many Believers walk heavily in the Bitterness of their Souls conflicting with Fears and Doubtings all their Days and this is the Cause that they have so little Courage and Fervency of Spirit in the ways of God and that they so much mind earthly things and are so afraid of Sufferings and Death And if they get some Assurance by the Reflect Act of Faith they often soon lose it again by Sins and Temptations The way to avoid these Evils is to get your Assurance and to maintain it and renew it upon all Occasions by the direct Act of Faith by trusting assuredly on the Name of the Lord and staying your self upon your God when you walk in Darkness and see no light in any of your own Qualifications Isa 50.10 I doubt not but the Experience of many choice Christians will bear witness to this Truth DIRECT XI Endeavour diligently to perform the great work of believing on Christ in a right manner without any delay and then also to continue and increase in your most holy Faith that so your enjoyment of Christ Vnion and Fellowship with him and all holiness by him may be begun continued and increased in you EXPLICATION HAving already discovered to you the powerful and effectual means of an holy practice my remaining work is to lead you to the actual Exercise and Improvement of them for the immediate attainment of the End and I think it may be clearly perceived by the
promised to us in the Gospel for all his Salvation The Spirit of God doth habitually dispose and encline our Hearts to a right performance of this act by enabling us to perform the first Act according to the former instructions by believing assuredly those great things of the Gospel whereby we are delivered into a form of doctrine Rom. 6.17 which we are to obey from our hearts and to follow as our pattern in the manner of our Acting Faith in Christ for Salvation Therefore I need only to exhort you briefly to Act your Faith in Christ according to that form and pattern in which you have bin already so largely instructed You are to believe in Christ as alone sufficient and all-sufficient for your Happiness and Salvation despairing altogether of any attainment of Happiness by your own Wisdom Strength works of Righteousness or any fleshly worldly Confidences whatsoever We must be as dead People to all other Confidences and account them to be loss for Christ according to the example of the blessed Apostle Phil. 3.3 7 8. We must not be grieved that we have nothing to trust upon besides Christ for our Salvation but rather we are to rejoyce that we need nothing else and that we have a sure foundation to rely upon incomparably better than any other that can be imagined And we must resolve to cast the burden of our Souls wholly on Christ and to seek Salvation no other way whatsoever becomes of us If the Cripple lay not the whole weight of his Body upon a strong Staff but part of it on a rotten one he is like to receive a fall If the Swimmer will not commit his Body wholly to the Water to bear him up but catch at Weeds or struggle to feel out Ground he may sink to the bottom Christ will be all our Salvation or nothing if we seek to be saved by any other ways as the Galatians did by Circumcision Christ will profit us nothing Gal. 5.2 You are also to receive Christ meerly as a free-gift given to the Chief of sinners resolving that you will not perform any Conditions to procure your selves a right and title to him But that you will come to him as a lost sinner an ungodly Creature trusting on him that Justifieth the ungodly and that you will buy him without mony and without any price whatsoever Rom. 4.5 Isa 55.2 Look not on your own Faith or Love or any good Qualifications in your selves as the ground of your trusting in Christ but only to the free Grace and loving-kindness of God in Christ How excellent is thy loving-kindness O God! therefore the Children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy Wings Psal 30.7 For if you make your Faith Love or good Qualifications to be your first and principal Foundation and you build Christ upon them instead of building all upon Christ you invert the order of the Gospel and Christ will profit you nothing Another thing to be observed diligently is that you must come to Christ for a new holy Heart and Life and all things necessary thereunto as well as for deliverance from the wrath of God and the torments of Hell You must also come to him with an ardent Love and Affection to him and esteem him better than a thousand Worlds and the only excellent Portion loathing and abhorring your self as a vile sinful and miserable Creature and accounting all things Dung in comparison of his Excellency that you may be able to say from the bottom of your Heart Whom have I in Heaven but thee c. Psal 73.23 Lastly You must endeavour to draw near with full assurance of Faith Heb. 10.22 trusting on Christ confidently for your own particular Salvation upon the account of that general promise That whosoever believeth on Christ shall not be ashamed Rom. 9.33 You must check your selves for all doubtings fears staggerings concerning your own Salvation by Christ saying with the Psalmist Why art thou cast down O my Soul c. Psal 42.11 The third thing contained in the direction is The avoiding of all delay in the performance of this great work of Believing in Christ Until we have performed it we continue under the power of Sin and Satan and under the wrath of God and there is nothing betwixt Hell and us besides the Breath of our Nostrils It s dangerous for Lot to linger in Sodom lest Fire and Brimstone come down from Heaven upon him The Man-slayer must flee with all haste to the City of refuge lest the avenger of blood pursue him while his Heart is hot and slay him Deut. 19.5 6. We should make haste and not delay to keep Gods Commandments Psal 119.60 and flee for refuge to the hope set before us Heb. 6.18 And God commandeth us to flee thus by Faith without which it is impossible to please God in other Duties The work is of such a nature that it may be performed as soon as you hear the Gospel As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me Psal 18.44 As soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her Children Isa 66.8 We have many examples of those that received the Word by Faith at the first hearing of it Three Thousand were added to the Church on the very same day wherein Peter first published the Gospel in Jerusalem Acts 2.41 so many Jews and Gentiles were converted at the first hearing of the Apostle Paul at Antioch Acts 13.43 The Jaylor with all his house believed and were baptized the same Night wherein Paul first preached to them Acts 16.33 34. The Gospel came at first to the Thessalonians not in Word only but in Power and in the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1.5 6. If God open the Hearts of his People to attend diligently they may be instructed in the knowledge of the Gospel by one brief Sermon sufficiently to begin the practice of saving Faith and when they know their Duty God requireth immediate performance without allowing us the least respit in the state of Unbelief When Satan cannot prevail with People to reject wholly the Duty of Believing his next attempt for the ruin of their Souls is to prevail with them at least to delay and shift off the performance of it from time to time by several false reasonings and imaginations which he putteth into their minds the most ignorant and sensual are easily prevailed with to defer this Duty until they have taken their fill of the pleasures profits and honours of this World and are summoned to prepare for another World by Infirmities Age Sickness praying and hoping that a large time of Repentance will be granted unto them before they dye But such delays shew that they are really unwilling to Repent and Believe until they are forced by necessity and that they prefer the pleasures prosits and honours of the World above God and Christ and their own Souls Thus they unfit themselves more and more for this great Duty by their customary walking in sin and by
hope of the Gospel Col. 1.23 and to hold the beginning of our Confidence and the rejoycing of hope stedfast to the end Heb. 6.14 and build up our selves in the most Holy Faith Jude 20. abounding therein with Thanksgiving Col. 2.7 Tho we receive Christ freely by Faith yet we are but Babes in Christ 1 Cor. 3.1 and we must not account that we have already attained or are made perfect Phil. 3.12 13. but we must strive to be more rooted and built up in him until we come to the perfect Man to the measure of the Stature of the fullness of Christ Eph. 4.13 If the new Nature be really in us by Regeneration it will have an Appetite to its own continuance and Increase until it come to Perfection as the New Born Babe 1 Pet. 2.2 And we are not only to receive Christ and a new Holy Nature by Faith but also to live and walk by it and to resist the Devil and to quench all his fiery Darts by it and also to grow in Grace and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God for we are kept by the mighty Power of God through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 as all our Christian Warfare is the good Fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6.12 All Spiritual Life and Holiness continue grow or decay in us according as Faith continueth groweth or decayeth in Vigour but when this Faith beginneth to sink by Fears and Doubtings the Man himself beginneth to sink together with it Matt. 14.29 31. Faith is like the Hand of Moses while it is held up Israel prevails when it is let down Amaleck prevails Exod. 17.11 this continuance and growth in Faith will require our Labour and Industry as well as the beginning tho we â—â—e to ascribe the Glory of all to the Grace of God in Christ who is the Finisher as well as the Author of it Heb. 12.2 The Church meeteth with great Difficulties in her marching through the Wilderness of this World to the Heavenly Canaan as well as in her first Deliverance from Egyptian Bondage yea we often meet with greater Difficulties in going to Perfection than we did in the beginning of the Good Work The Wisdom and Mercy of God so ordering it that we shall be exercised with the sharpest Dispensations of Providence and the fiercest Assaults of our own Corruptions and Satans Temptations after we have Grace given us to stand in the Evil Day You must therefore endeavour to continue and go on in the same â—ight manner as I have taught you to begin this great Work of Believing in Christ that your Faith may be of the same Nature from the Beginning to the End though it increase in Degrees for our Faith is imperfect and joyned with much Unbelief in this World and we had need to pray still Lord I believe help my Vnbelief Mar. 9.24 and therefore we have need to strive for more Faith that we may receive Christ in greater Perfection If you find your Faith hath produced good Works you should thereby increase your Confidence in Christ for Salvation by his meer Grace But take heed of changing the nature of your Faith from trusting on the Grace and Merits of Christ to trusting on your own Works according to the Popish Doctrin that our first Justification is by Grace and Faith only but our second Justification is also by Works Beware also of trusting on Faith it self as a work of Righteousness instead of trusting on Christ by Faith If you do not find that your Believing in such a right manner as I have described doth produce such Fruits of Holiness as you desire you ought not to diminish but rather to increase your Confidence in Christ knowing that the weakness of your Faith hindereth its Fruitfulness and the greater your Confidence is concerning the Love of God to you in Christ the greater will be your Love to God and to his Service If you fall into any gross Sin after the work is begun in you as David and Peter did think not that you must cast away your Confidence and expect nothing but Wrath from God and Christ and that you must refuse to be comforted by the Grace of Christ at least for some time for thus you would be the more weak and prone to fall into other Sins but rather strivo to believe more confidently that you have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and that he is the Propitiation for our Sins 1 Joh. 2.1 2. and let not the guilt of Sin stay at all upon your Conscience but wash it away with all speed in the Fountain of Christs Blood which is opened for us that it may be ready for our use on all such incident Occasions that so you may be humbled for your Sins in a Gospel way and may hate your own Sinfulness and be sorry for it with Godly Sorrow out of Love to God Peter might have been ruined for ever by denying of Christ as Judas was by betraying him if Peter's Faith had not been upheld by the Prayer of Christ Luke 22.32 If a Clould be cast over all your inward Qualifications so that you can see no Grace at all in your selves yet still trust on him that justifyeth the Ungodly and came to seek and to save them that are lost If God seem to deal with you as an Enemy by bringing on you some horrible Affliction as he did upon Job beware of demning your Faith and its Fruits as if they were not acceptable to God but rather say with holy Job Though he slay me yet will I trust in him but I will maintain mine own ways before him Strive to keep and to increase Faith by Faith i. e. by acting Faith frequently by trusting on God to keep and increase it being confident that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 DIRECT XII Make diligent use of your most holy Faith for the immediate Performance of the Duties of the Law by walking no longer according to your old natural State or any Principles or Means of Practice that belong unto it but only according to that New State which you receive by Faith and the Principles and Means of Practice that properly belong thereunto and strive to continue and increase in such manner of Practice This is the only way to attain to an acceptable Performance of those Holy and Righteous Duties as far as it is possible in this present Life EXPLICATION HEre I am guiding you to the manner of Practice wherein you are to make use of Faith and of all other effectual means of Holyness before treated of which Faith layeth hold on for the immediate Performance of the Law which is the great end aimed at in this whole Treatise And therefore this deserveth to be diligently considered as the principal Direction to which all the foregoing and following are subservient As for the meaning of it I have already shewed that our old natural
State is that which we derive from the first Adam by natural Generation and it is called in the Scripture the Old Man and while we be in it we are said to be in the Flesh and our new State is that which we receive from the second Adam Jesus Christ being new born in Union and Fellowship with him through Faith And it is called in Scripture the New Man and when we are in it we are said to be in the Spirit The Principles and Means of Practice belonging to a Natural State are such as Persons do or may attain to and make use of before they are in Christ by Faith Such as belong properly to the new-New-State are the manifold holy Endowments Priviledges and Enjoyments which we partake of in Christ by Faith such as have already appeared to be the only effectual means of a Holy Life We are said to walk according to either of these States or to the Principles or Means that belong to either of them when we are moved and guided by Vertue of them to such actings as are agreeable to them Thus Kings act according to their State in commanding Authoritatively and in magnificicent Bounty poor Men in the way of Service and Obedience and Children indiscreetly Hester 1.7 Prov. 18.23 1 Cor. 13.11 So the Manner of Practice here directed to consists in moving and guiding our selves in the Performance of the Works of the Law by Gospel Principles and Means This is the rare and excellent Art of Godliness in which every Christian should strive to be skilful and expert The reason why many come off with shame and Confusion after they have a long time laboured with much Zeal and Industry for the Attainment of true Godliness is because they were never acquainted with this holy Art and never endeavoured to practise in a right Gospel way Some worldly Arts are called Mysteries but above all this Spiritual Art of Godliness is without Controversie a great Mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 because the Means that are to be made use of in it are deeply Mysterious as hath been shewed and you are not a skilful Artist till you know them and can reduce them to Practice It is a manner of Practice far above the Sphere of Natural Ability such as would never have entred into the Hearts of the Wisest in the World if it had not been Revealed to us in the Scriptures and when it is there most plainly Revealed continueth a dark Riddle to those that are not inwardly Inlightned and Taught by the Holy Spirit Such as many Godly Persons guided by the Spirit and do in some measure walk in yet do but obscurely discern that they can hardly perceive their own Knowledge of it and can hardly give any Account to others of the way wherein they walk As the Disciples that walked in Christ the way to the Father and yet perceived not that Knowledge in themselves Lord we know not whether thou goest and how can we know the way Joh. 14.5 This is the reason why many poor Believers are so weak in Christ and attain to so small a Degree of Holiness and Righteousness Therefore that you may the better be acquainted with a Mystery of so high Concernment I shall shew in the first place that the Holy Scriptures do direct you to this manner of Practice as only effectual for the Performance of Holy Duties and then I shall lay before you some necessary Instructions that you may understand how to walk aright in it and continue and go forward therein till you be made perfect in Christ For the first of these the Holy Scriptures are very large and clear in directing us to this manner of Practice and to Continuance and Growth therein And here it is useful for us to observe the great Variety of peculiar Words and Phraises whereby the Holy Ghost teacheth this Mystery which many that frequently read the Scriptures yea that pretend to be Preachers of the Gospel do little understand or regard shewing thereby that the things of the Spirit of God are Foolishness to them and that they are not yet acquainted with the form of sound Words and are strangers to the very Language of the Gospel which they profess and pretend to preach I shall therefore present to your View several of those particular Words and Phrases whereby this mysterious manner of Practice is express'd in the Holy Scriptures and commended to you as the only way for the sure Attainment of all Holiness in Heart and Life I shall rank such of them together as agree in Sense that the Multitude of them may not breed Confusion in your Thoughts 1. This is the manner of Practice in Scripture which is expressed by living by Faith Hab. 2.4 Gal. 2.20 Heb. 10.38 Walking by Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 Faith working by Love Gal. 5.6 Overcoming the World by Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 Quenching all the fiery Darts of the Wicked by the Shield of Faith Eph. 6.19 20. Some make no more of living and walking by Faith than meerly a stirring up and encouraging our selves to our Duty by such Principles as we believe Thus the Jews might account that they believed by Faith because they professed and assented unto the Doctrin of Moses and the Prophets and were moved thereby to a Zeal of God though they sought righteousness not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law Rom. 3.32 Thus Paul might think he lived by Faith while he was a zealous Pharisee but afterwards he knew that the life of Faith consisted in dying to the Law and living to God and that not himself but Chrish lived in him Gal. 2.19 as it is one and the same thing to be justifyed by Faith and Christ believed on Rom. 5.1 so to live walk and work by Faith is all one with living walking working by means of Christ and his saving Endowments which we receive and make use of by Faith to guide and move our selves to the Practice of Holiness 2. The same thing is commended to us by the Terms of walking rooted and built up in Christ Col. 2.6 living to God as not to live to our selves but to have Christ living in us Gal. 2.19 20. Good Conversation in Christ 1 Pet. 3.16 Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ that we may walk honestly as in the day Rom. 13.13 14. Being strong in the Lord and the power of his might Eph. 6.10.11 Doing all things in the name of Christ Col. 3.17 walking up and down in the name of the Lord Zech. 10.12 going in the strength of the Lord as to make mention of his Righteousness even of his only Psal 71.16 These phrases are frequent and do sufficiently explain one another and do shew that we are to practise Holiness not only by vertue of Christs Authority but also of his strengthning Endowments moving us and encouraging us thereunto 3. It is also signified by the phrases of being strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 2.1 having your
any present interest in Christ and shall never attain unto Holiness or Happiness until they learn a better way of Religion 4. Think not that you can effectually encline your Heart to the immediate practice of Holiness by any such practical Principles as do only serve to bind press and urge you to the performance of holy Duties But rather let such Principles stir you up to go to Christ first by Faith that you may be effectually enclined to the immediate practice of Holiness in him by Gospel Principles that strengthen and enable you as well as oblige you thereunto There are some practical Principles that do only bind press and urge us to holy Duties by shewing the reasonableness equity and necessity of our Obedience without shewing at all how we that are by Nature dead in sin under the wrath of God may have any Strength and Ability for the performance of them As for Instance the Authority of God the Law-giver our absolute dependance on him as our Creator Preserver Governour in whose hand is our Life Breath and all our Happiness here and for ever His All-feeing Eye that searcheth our Heart discerneth our very Thoughts and secret Purposes his exact Justice in rendring to all according to their works his Almighty and Eternal Power to reward those that Obey him and to punish transgressors for ever The unspeakable Joy of Heaven and terrible Damnation of Hell Such Principles as these do bind our Consciences very strictly and do work very strongly upon the prevalent Affections of Hope and Fear to pross and urge our Hearts to the performance of holy Duties if we believe them assuredly and work them earnestly upon our Hearts by frequent serious lively Meditation And therefore some account them most forcible and effectual means to form any Vertue in the Soul and to bring it to immediate performance of any Duty tho never so difficult and that the Life of Faith consisteth principally in our living to God in Holiness by a constant Belief and Meditation on them And they account those things that serve to mind them of such Principles very effectual for Holiness as looking on the Picture of Death or on a Deaths-head keeping a Coffin by them ready made walking about among the Graves c. But this is not that manner of living to God whereof the Apostle speaketh when he saith I live yet not I but Christ that liveth in me and the Life that I live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me If a Man make use of these obliging Principles to stir him to go to Christ for Strength to Act holily he walketh like one that hath received Christ as his only Life by Faith otherwise he walketh like other Natural Men. For the Natural Man may be brought to Act by these Principles partly by Natural Light and more fully by Scripture-Light without any true knowledge of the way of Salvation by Christ and as if Christ had never come into the World And he may be strictly bound by them and vehemently urged and pressed to holy Duties and yet all this while is left to his own Natural Strength or Weakness being not assured by any of these Principles that God will give him Strength to help him in the performance of these Duties and can do nothing aright until he get new Life and Strength in Christ by a more precious saving Faith There would be no need of a new Life and Strength by Christ if these Principles were sufficient to bring us to a holy Conversation Therefore this manner of practice is no better than walking after the flesh according to our corrupt state and a seeking to be made perfect in the flesh No question but Paul was very diligent in it while he was a blind Pharisee Yea the Heathen Philosophers might attain to it in some measure by the Light of Common Reason The Devils have such Principles as they do believe assuredly yet they are never the better for them It s a part of that Natural Wisdom whereby the world knew not God not that Wisdom of God in a Mystery discovered in the Gospel which is the only sanctifying Wisdom and Power of God unto Salvation VVhat can you produce but corruption by pressing with Motives to Holiness one that hath no soundness in him from the sole of the foot even to the head only wounds and bruises and putrified sores He that is made truly sensible of his own vileness and deadness by Nature will despair of ever bringing himself to Holiness by Principles that afford him no Life and Strength but only lay an Obligation upon him and urge and press him to Duty What are meer Obligations to one that is dead in sin While the Soul is without spiritual Life sin is the more moved and enraged by pressing and urging upon the Soul the Obligations of the Law and its Commands The motions of sin are by the Law and sin taking occasion by the Commandment worketh in us all manner of Concupiscence Rom. 7.5 7 8. And yet these obliging Principles are very good and excellent in this right Gospel use of them as the Apostle saith of the Law that it is good if it be used lawfully 1 Tim. 1.7 The humbled sinner knoweth well his Obligations but it is Life and Strength that he wanteth and despaireth of walking according to such Obligations until he get this Life and Strength by Faith in Christ Therefore these obliging Principles do move him to go in the first place to Christ that so he may be enabled to answer their End by the strengthning and enlivening Principles of Gods Grace in Christ Some there are that make use of Gospel-Principles only to oblige and urge to Duty without affording any Life and Strength for the performance as they that think that Christ dyed and rose again to establish a New Covenant of Works for our Salvation and to give us a pattern of Good Works by his own Obedience rather than to purchase Life Obedience and good Works for us Such as these do not understand and receive the Principles of the Gospel rightly but they pervert and abuse them contrary to their true Nature and Design and thereby they render them as ineffectual for their Sanctification as any other natural or legal Principles 5. Stir up and strengthen your self to perform the Duties of Holiness by a firm perswasion of your enjoyment of Jesus Christ and all spiritual and everlasting Benefits through him Set not your selves upon the performance of the Law with any prevailing thoughts or apprehensions that you are yet without an Interest in Christ and the love of God through him under the Curse of the Law the power of Sin and Satan having no better Portion than this present World no better strength than that which is in the purposes and resolutions of your own Free-will While such thoughts as these prevail and influence your Actings its evident that you
walk according to the Principles and Practices of your old natural state and you will be moved thereby to yield to the Dominion of Sin and Satan to withdraw your selves from God and Godliness as Adam was moved from the sight of his own Nakedness to hide himself from God Gen. 3.10 Therefore your way to a holy practice is first to conquer and spoil such unbelieving thoughts by trusting confidently on Christ and persuading your selves by Faith that his Righteousness Spirit Glory and all his spiritual Benefits are yours and he dwelleth in you and you in him In the might of this Confidence you should go forth to the performance of the Law and you will be strong against Sin and Satan and able to do all things through Christ that strengthens you This consident perswasion is of great necessity to the right framing and disposing our Hearts to walk according to our new state in Christ The Life of Faith principally consisteth in it And herein it eminently appeareth that Faith is an Hand not only to receive Christ but also to work by him and that it cannot be effectual for our Sanctification except it contain in it some Assurance of our Interest in Christ as hath bin shewed Thus we act as those that are above the Sphear of Nature advanced to Union and Fellowship with Christ The Apostle maintained in his Heart a perswasion that Christ had loved him and given himself for him and hereby he was enabled to live to God in Holiness through Christ living in him by Faith He teacheth us also that we must maintain the like perswasion if we would walk holily in Christ We must know that our old man is crucified with him and we must reckon our selves dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.6 This is the means whereby we may be filled with the Spirit strong in the Lord and the power of his might which God would not require of us if he had not appointed the means Eph. 6. Christ himself walked in a constant perswasion of his excellent state he set the Lord always before him and was perswaded that because God was at his right hand he should not he moved Psal 16.8 How should it be rationally expected that a Man should Act according to this new state without Assurance that he is in it It s a rule of Common Prudence in all worldly Callings and Conditions that every one must know and consider well his own State lest he should act proudly above it or sordidly below it and it is a hard thing to bring some to a right estimate of their own worldly Conditions If the same rule were observed in Spiritual things doubtless the knowledg and perswasion of the Glory and Excellency of our new state in Christ would more elevate the hearts of Believers above all sordid Salvery to their Lusts and enlarge them to run chearfully the ways of Gods Commandments If Christians knew their own Strength better they would enterprize greater things for the Glory of God This Knowledge is difficultly attained it is only by Faith and spiritual Illumination the best know but in part and hence it is that the Conversation of Believers falleth so much below their holy and heavenly Calling 6. Consider what Endowments Priviledges or Properties of your new State are most meet and forcible to incline and strengthen your Heart to love God above all and to renounce all Sin and to give up your self to Universal Obedience to his Commands and strive to walk in the persuasion of them that you may attain to the Practice of these great Dutiesâ— I may well joyn these together because to love the Lord with all our Hearts Might and Soul is the first and great Commandment which influenceth us to all Obedience with a hatred and detestation of all Sin as it 's contrary and hateful to God The same effectual means that produceth the one will also produce the other and Holiness chiefly consisteth in these So the chief Blessings of our holy State are most meet and forcible to enable us for the immediate performance of them and are to be made use of to this end by Faith Particularly you must believe stedfastly that all your Sins are blotted out and that you are reconciled to God and have access into his Favour by the Blood of Christ and that he is your God and Father and altogether Love to you and your all-sufficient everlasting Portion and Happiness through Christ Such Apprehensions as these do present God as a very lovely Object to our Hearts and do thereby allure and win our Affections that cannot be forced by Commands or Threatnings but must be sweetly won and drawn by Allurements We must not harbour any Suspicions that God will prove a terrible everlasting Enemy to us if we would love him for there is no fear in Love but perfect Love casteth out Fear because Fear hath Torment he that feareth is not made perfect in Love we love him because he first loved us 1 Joh. 4.18 19. David loved the Lord because he was persuaded that he was his Strength Rock Fortress his God and the horn of his salvation Psal 18.1 2. Love that causeth Obedience unto the Law must proceed from a good Conscience purged from sin and this good Conscience must proceed from Faith unfeigned whereby we apprehend the remission of our sins our Reconciliation with God by the merits of the blood of Christ 1 Tim. 1.5 with Heb. 9.14 For the same end that your Hearts may be rightly fitted and framed for the performance of these principal Duties the Holy Scripture directeth you to walk in the perswasion of other principal Endowments of your new state As that you have fellowship with the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 1.3 That you are the Temple of the living God 2 Cor. 6.16 That you live by the Spirit Gal. 5.25 That you are called to Holiness and created in Christ Jesus unto good works That God will sanctisie you wholly and make you perfect in holiness at the last 1 Thes 5.23 24. Eph. 2.10 That your old man is crucified with Christ and through him you are dead unto sin and alive unto God and being made free from sin you are become the Servants of Righteousness and have your Fruit unto Holiness and the End Everlasting Life Rom. 6.6 22. You are Dead and your Life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is your Life shall appear then shall you also appear with him in Glory Col. 3.3 4. Such perswasions as these when they are deeply rooted and constantly maintained in our Hearts do strongly Arm and Encourage us to practise Universal Obedience in opposition to every sinful Lust Because we look upon it not only as our Duty but our great Priviledge to do all things through Christ strengthning of us and God doth certainly work in us both to will and to do by these Principles because they properly belong to the Gospel
bring us at last to perfection of Holiness through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we should carefully observe in all things that good Lesson of the Apostle not to think of our selves more highly than we ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every Man the measure of Faith Rom. 12.3 DIRECT XIII Endeavour diligently to make the right use of all meansappointed in the word of God for the obtaining and practising of Holiness only in this way of believing in Christ and walking in him according to your new State by Faith EXPLICATION THis might have been added to the Instructions in the Explication of the former Direction because its Use is the same to guide us in the mysterious manner of practising Holiness in Christ by the life of Faith but the weight and comprehensiveness of it maketh it worthy to be treated of by it self as a distinct Direction Two things are observable in it First That though all Holiness be effectually attained unto by the life of Faith in Christ yet the use of any means appointed in the Word for attaining and promoting Holiness is not hereby made void but rather established This is needful to be observed against the Pride and Ignorance of some carnal Gospellers that being puft up with a Conceit of their feigned Faith imagine themselves to be in such a state of Perfection that they are above all Ordinances except singing Halelujahs And also against the Papists that run into the contrary Extream by heaping together a multiude of means of Holiness which God never commanded neither ever came they into his Heart and that Slander the Protestant Doctrin of Faith and Free Grace as if it tended to destroy all diligent use of the means of Holiness and Salvation and to breed up a company of lazy Solifidians We do indeed assert and profess that a true and lively Faith in Christ is alone sufficient and effectual through the Grace of God to receive Christ and all his Fulness so far as is necessary in this Life for our Justification Sanctification and eternal Salvation But yet we also assert and profess that several means are appointed of God for the Begetting Maintaining and Increasing of this Faith and the Acting and Exercising of it in order to the attainment of its End and that these means are to be used diligently which are mention'd in the Sequel True Believers find by Experience that their Faith needeth such Helps and they that think themselves above any need of them do reject the Counsel of God against themselves like to those Prond Pharisees and Lawyers that thought it a thing beneath them and refused to be baptized of John Luk. 7.30 yet we account no means necessary or lawful to be used for the attainment of Holiness besides they that are appointed by God in his Word We know that Holiness is a Part of our Salvation and therefore they that think that Men may or can invent any means effectual for the attainment of it do ascribe their Salvation partly to Men and rob God of his Glory in being our only Saviour and they do thereby plainly shew That though they draw nigh unto God with their mouth and honour him with their lips yet their hearts are far from him and in vain do they worship him teaching for Doctrins the commandments of men Mat. 15.7 8 9. The Second thing observable and principally design'd in this Direction is the right manner of using all the means of Holiness for the obtaining and practising of it in no other way besides that of believing in Christ and walking in him according to our new State by Faith which hath been already demonstrated to be the only way whereby we may effectually attain to this great End We must use them as helps to the life of Faith in its Beginning Continuance and Growth and as Instruments subservient to Faith the principal Instrument in all its Acts and Exercises whereby the Soul receiveth Christ and walketh in all Holiness by him We must beware lest we use them rather in Opposition than in Subordination to the way of Sanctification and Salvation by Free Grace in Christ through Faith and lest by our Abuse of them they be made rather Hindrances than Helps to our Faith We must not Idolize any of the means and put them into the place of Christ as the Papists do by trusting in them as if they were effectual to conferr Grace to the Soul by the work that is done in the use of them Neither may we use them as works of Righteousness to be performed as Conditions for the procuring of the Favour of God and the Salvation of Christ Neither must they be accounted so absolutely necessary to Salvation as if a true Faith were void and of none effect when we are debarred from the Enjoyment of several of them The holy Scriptures with all the means of Grace appointed therein are able to make us wise unto Salvation no other way than by faith in Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 3.18 and therefore our wise Endeavour must be not to use â—hem in any opposition to the Grace of God in Christ For God's Ordinances are like the Cherubims of Glory made with their Faces looking towards the Mercy-Seat They are made to guid us to Christ for Salvation by Faith alone If any turn them to another use it is a great Violation of divine Institutions as if any Sacrilegious Person had presumed to turn the Faces of the Cherubims from the Mercy-Seat some other way This right use of the means of Grace is a Point wherein many are Ignorant that use them with great Zeal and Diligence and thereby they do not only lose their Labour and the benefit of the means but also they wrest and pervert them to their own Destruction The Jews under the Law of Moses enjoyed many more Ordinances of divine Worship than we do under the Gospel but their Table became their Snare and they fell miserably from God and Christ because the Veil of Ignorance was upon their Hearts that they could not look to the end of those Ordinances even to the Lord Jesus Christ And they sought not salvation by faith but by the ordinances as works of righteousness and by other works of the law for they stumbled at the stumbling stone Rom. 9.31 32 and 10.4 5. 2 Cor. 3.13 14. That you may not stumble and fall by the same pernicious Error I shall shew particularly how several of the principal means of Holiness appointed in the Word of God are to be made use of in that right manner expressed in the Direction 1. We must endeavour diligently to know the Word of God contained in the Holy Scripture and to improve it to this end That we may be made wise unto Salvation through saith which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.15 Other means of Salvation are necessary to the more abundant well-being of our Faith and of our new State in Christ but this is absolutely
the testimony of a good conscience 1 Joh. 3.19 21. that so our Hearts may be more strongly comforted by Faith and established in every good work and that if our ways be evil we may turn from them to the Lord our God through Christ without whom none cometh to the Father Lam. 3.40 Joh. 14.6 But your great care in this work of Self-examination must be to perform it in such a manner that it may not hinder and destroy the Life of Faith as it doth in many instead of promoting it Therefore beware lest you trust upon your Self-examination rather than upon Christ As some do that think they have made their Peace with God meerly because they have examined themselves upon their Sick-Bed or before the Receiving of the Lords Supper though they have found themselves Stark Naught and do not depend on Christ to make them better but on their own deceitful Purposes and Resolutions Think not that you must begin this Work with doubting whether God will extend Mercy to you and save you and that you must leave this a Question wholly under debate until you have found out how to resolve it by Self-examination This is a common and very pernicious Error in the very foundation of this Work which is hereby laid in the great Sin of Unbelief which as soon as it prevaileth doth by its great Influence Dash and Obscure all inward gracious Qualifications of Peace Hope Joy Love to God and his People before they be at all tryed whether they can give any good Evidence for their Salvation And it makes People willing to think their own Qualifications better than they are lest they should fall into an utter Despair of their Salvation and thus it wholly marreth the good work of Self-examination and maketh it destructive to our Souls For to them that are defiled and unbelieving there is nothing pure Tit. 1.15 You should rather begin the work with much assurance of Faith that though you find your Heart never so wicked and reprobate at present as many of God's choicest Servants do often find yet the Door of Mercy is open for you and that God will certainly save you for ever if you put your trust in his Grace through Christ I have formerly shewed that this confident Persuasion is of the nature of saving Faith and that we have sufficient Ground for it in the Free Promises of the Gospel when we walk in Darkness and can see no Light shining forth in our gracious Qualifications If we begin the work with this Confidence it will make us impartial and not afraid to find out the worst by our selves and willing to judge that our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked beyond what we can find out Jer. 17.9 And if we have any holy Qualifications this Confidence will preserve them in their Vigour and Brightness that they may be able to give clear Evidence that we are at present in a State of Grace Mark well the difference betwixt these Two Questions whether God will graciously accept and save me though a vile Sinner through Christ as before was said and whether I am already brought into a State of Salvation The former of these I say is to be resolved affirmatively by a confident Faith in Christ the latter only is to be inquired into by Self-examination Mis-spend not your time as many do in poring upon your Hearts to find whether you be good enough to trust on Christ for your Salvation nor to find whether you have any Faith before you dare be so bold as to act Faith in Christ But know that though you cannot find that you have any Faith or Holiness yet if you will now believe-on him that justifyeth the ungodly it shall be accounted to you for righteousness Rom. 4.5 And if you love Christ and your own Soul mis-spend not your time in examining whether you have committed the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost except it be with a full Purpose to assure your self more and more that you are not guilty thereof for any Doubtfulness in this Point will but harden you in Unbelief Remember well that the Question to be resolved is Whether you be at present in a state of Grace and to resolve it you must be willing to know the best by your self as well as the worst And you must not think that Humility bindeth you to overlook your good Qualifications and to take notice only of your Corruptions But your great work must be to find whether there be not some Drop of saving Grace in the Ocean of your Corruption And it will consist well with Humility to take notice of and own any Spark of true Holiness that is in you because the Praise and Glory of it belongeth not to you but to God Phil. 1.11 And you must try inherent Grace by the Touch-stone not by the Measure by its Nature not its Degree not denying any Lustings of the Spirit in you because of the strong Lustings of the Flesh against the Spirit nor denying that you are Spiritual in some degree and Babes in Christ because you find your selves carnal in a more prevailing degree and the old man bigger than the new Gal. 5.17 1 Cor. 3.1 Especially you are to examine and prove whether you be in the Faith for if you make sure of this you make sure of all the things that pertain to Life and Godliness and if you doubt of this you will certainly doubt of the Truth of any other Qualifications and will suspect them to be meerly Carnal and Counterfeit because it is a known Truth that to the Vnbelieving there is nothing pure and that all that have not truly received Christ by Faith are at present in an unregenerate State though they seem never so Pure and Godly 2 Cor. 13.5 Tit. 1.15 And let not the Issue of this Tryal depend at all upon your Knowledge of the time when or of the Sermon Conference or Place of Scripture by which you were first converted to the Faith though that is good to know too if it may be And some who have formerly lived in gross Ignorance or in a manifest Opposition to true Faith and Holiness may know such Circumstances of their Conversion and may reflect upon them comfortably as the Apostle Paul did who was turned of a suddain from his Persecuting Rage to be a Disciple and an Apostle of Christ yet others sincere Believers may be wholly Ignorant of them as John the Baptist who was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mothers Womb Luk. 1.15 and they that have been trained up religiously and known the Holy Scripture from their Childhood as Timothy 2. Tim. 3.15 Yea and many that are first turned from gross Ignorance and Profaneness to some external Reformation and then in process of time brought nearer to the Kingdom of Heaven by insensible Degrees before they be really new begotten by the Spirit of Faith There are also some that deceive their Souls by imagining that
they know at what time and by what Text of Scripture they were converted and can make large Discourses of the workings of God upon their Hearts and are prone to talk unseasonably with Vain-glorying of their own Experiences when at last all their Experiences are not sufficient to evidence that they ever attained to the least measure of true saving Faith Therefore that we may not unjustly condemn or justify our Faith by proceeding on in-sufficient Evidences in its Tryal our best way is to examine it by the inseparable Properties of a true saving Faith by putting to our selves such Questions as these Are we made throughly sensible of our Sinfulness and of the Deadness and Misery of our natural State so as to despair absolutely of ever attaining to any Righteousness Holyness or true Happiness while we continue in it Are the Eyes of our Understandings enlightned to see the Excellency of Christ and the alone Sufficiency and All-sufficiency of his Grace for our Salvation Do we prefer the Enjoyment of him above all things and desire it with our whole Heart as our only Happiness whatsoever we may suffer for his sake Do we desire with our whole Heart to be delivered from the Power and Practice of Sin as well as from the Wrath of God and the Pains of Hell Do our Hearts come to Christ and lay hold on him for Salvation by trusting him only and endeavouring to trust on him confidently notwithstanding all Fears and Doubts that assault us If you find in your self a Faith that hath these Properties though as small as a Grain of Mustard-Seed and opposed with much Unbelief and manifold Corruptions in your Soul you may conclude that you are in a state of Salvation at present and that your remaining work is to continue and grow in it more and more and to walk worthy of it you should also examine the Fruits of your Faith and try whether you can shew your Faith by your works as you are taught Jam. 2.18 that you may be sure not to be deceived in your Judgment concerning it And though it be true as I have noted that Doubts concerning your Faith will breed doubting concerning the Sincerity of other Qualifications that are Fruits thereof yet possibly you may get such clear Evidences of your Sincerity as may overcome and expell all your Doubts And here you are not only to enquire whether your Inclinations Purposes Affections and Actions be materially good and holy but also by what Principles they are bred and influenced Whether it be by slavish fears of Hell and mercenary hopes of getting Heaven by your Works which are legal and carnal Principles that can never breed true Holiness or by Gospel Principles as by love to God because God hath loved you first and to Christ because he hath dyed and by the hope of eternal Life as the free Gift of God through Christ and dependance on God to sanctify you by his Spirit according to his Promises Remember that the New Testament is the ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 and the Spirit will sanctify us not by legal but by Gospel Principles Take notice further that you need not trouble your self to find out a multitude of Marks and Signs of true Grace if you can find a few good ones Particularly you may know That you are passed from death to life if you love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 i. e. if you love all whom you can in Charity judge to be true Believers and that because they are true Believers and for the Truth Sake that dwelleth in them As Solomon discerned the true Mother of the Child by her Affection towards her Child so the Mother Grace of Faith may be discerned by the Love that it breeds in us toward all true Believers To conclude this Point Happy are you if you can find so much Evidence of the Fruits of your Faith as may enable you to express your Sincerity in these moderate Terms Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly Heb. 13.18 3. Meditation on the Word of God is of very great use and advantage for the attainment and practice of Holiness through Faith in Christ It is a Duty whereby the Soul doth Feed and Ruminate upon the Word as its Spiritual Food and digesteth it and turneth it into Nourishment whereby we are strengthned for every good Work Our Souls are satisfied therewith as with marrow and fatness When we remember God upon our Beds and meditate on him in the Night-watches Psal 68.5 6. The new Nature may well be called the Mind Rom. 7.25 because it liveth and acteth by minding of and meditating on spiritual things Therefore it is a Duty to be practised not only at some limited times but all the day Psal 119.97 yea day and night Psal 1.2 even in our ordinary Employments at home and abroad An habitual knowledge of the Word will not profit us without an active minding it by frequent Meditation Some think that much Preaching of the Word is not needful where a People are already brought to the knowledge of those things that are necessary to Salvation But they that are regenerated by the Word find by Experience that their Spiritual Life is maintained and encreased by often minding the same Word And therefore as new born Babes they desire the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 and would by the Preachers be put often in remembrance of the same things that they may feed upon them by Meditation tho they know them already and are established in the present Truth 2 Pet. 1.12 But here our greatest Skill and chiefest Concernment lies in practising this Duty in such a manner as that it may be subservient and not at all opposite to the Life of Faith We must not rely upon the performance of a daily task of Meditation as a work of Righteousness for the procurement of the Favour of God instead of relying on the Righteousness of Christ as indeed we are prone to do to catch at any Straw rather than to trust only on the Free Grace of God in Christ for our Salvation And the end of our Meditation must not be meer Speculation and Knowledge of the Truth but rather the vigorous pressing it upon our Consciences and the stirring up our Hearts and Affections to the Practice of it And in stirring up our selves to holy Practice we must warily observe how far the several parts of the Truth of God are powerful and effectual for the attainment of this End that we may make use of them accordingly We must not imagine as too many do yea and some great Masters in the Art of Meditation that we can bring our Hearts effectually to the Love of God and Holiness and can work strange Metamorphoses and work or frame in our Hearts any holy Qualifications or Vertue meerly by working in our selves strong Apprehensions of God's eternal Power and God-head his
of Eden rather than the Wilderness of Sinai Act. 9.31 It is the Office of the Spirit our Guide to be our Comforter and not a Spirit of bondage Rom. 8.15 Peace and Joy are great Duties in this way Phil. 4.4 5 6. God doth not drive us on with Whips and Terrors and by the Rod of the Schoolmaster of the Law but leads us and wins us to walk in his ways by Allurements Cant. 1.3 Hos 11.4 See such Alurements 2 Cor. 5.14 15. c. 7.1 Rom. 12.1 5. Our very Moving Acting Walking in this way is a Pleasure and Delight every good Work is done with Pleasure the very Labour of the way is pleasant Carnal Men wish Duties were not necessary and they are burthensome to them but they are pleasant to us because we do not gain Holiness by our own carnal Wrestling with our Lusts and crossing them out of carnal Fear with Regret and Grief and setting Conscience and the Law against them to hinder their Actings but we act naturally according to the New Nature and perform our own New spiritual Desires and Lusts by walking in the ways of God through Christ And our Lusts and Pleasures in Sin are not only restrained but taken away in Christ and Pleasures in Holiness freely given us and implanted in us Rom. 8.5 Gal. 5.17 24. Joh. 4.34 Psal 40.8 Psal 119.14 16 20. We have a new Taste and Savour Love Lust and Liking by the Spirit of Christ and look on the Law not as a Burden but as our Priviledge in Christ 6. It is a high exalted way above all other ways Unto this way the Prophet Habbakuk is exalted when upon the Failure of all visible Helps and Supports he resolves to rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of his Salvation and making God his Strength by Faith his Feet should be as Hinds Feet and should walk upon his high places Hab. 3.18 19. These are the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that God hath set us in being quickned and raised up together with him Eph. 2.5 6. 1. We live high here for we live not by the flesh but by the Spirit and Christ in us with all his fullness Rom. 8.1 2. Gal. 2.20 c. 5.25 We walk in Fellowship with God dwelling in us and walking about in us 2 Cor. 6.18 And therefore our Works are of higher Price and Excellency than the Works of others because they are wrought in God Joh. 3.21 And are the Fruits of Gods Spirit Gal. 5. Phil. 1.11 And we may know that they are accepted and good by our Gospel Principles which others have not Rom. 7.6 2. We are inabled to the most difficult Duties Phil. 4.1 3. and nothing is too hard for us See the great Works done by Faith Heb. 11. Mar. 9.23 Works that carnal Men think Folly and Madness to venture upon they are so great and honourable Atchievements in doing and suffering for Christ 3. We walk in an honourable State with God and on honourable Terms not as guilty Creatures to get our Pardon by Works nor as Bond-Servants to earn our Meat and Drink but as Sons and Heirs walking towards the full Possession of that Happiness to which we have a Title and so we have much boldness in Gods Presence Gal. 4.6 7. We can approach nearer to God than others and walk before him considently without slavish Fear not as Strangers but as such who are of his own Family Eph. 2.19 20. And this prompts us to doing greater things than others walking as free Men Rom. 6.17 18. Joh. 8.35 36. It is a Kingly way the Law to us is a Royal Law a Law of Liberty and our Priviledge not a Bond and Yoak of Compulsion 4. It is the way only of those that are Honourable and Precious in the eyes of the Lord even his Elect and Redeemed ones whose special Priviledge it is to walk therein No unclean Beast goeth there Jer. 35.8 9. No carnal Man can walk in this way but only those that are taught of God Joh. 6.44 45 46. Nor would it have come into our Hearts without Divine Revelation 5. The preparing this way cost Christ very dear it is a costly way Heb. 10.19 20. 1 Pet. 3.18 6. It is a good old way wherein thou mayest follow the Footsteps of all the Flock 7. It 's the way to Perfection it leads to such Holiness which shall in a while be absolutely perfect It differs only in the degree and manner of Manifestation from the Holiness of Heaven there the Saints live by the same Spirit and the same God in all 1 Cor. 15.28 Joh. 4.14 And have the Image of the same spiritual Man 1 Cor. 15.49 Only here we have but the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.23 And live by faith and not by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 And are not full grown in Christ Eph. 4.13 Sanctification in Christ is Glorification begun as Glorification is Sanctification perfected ERRATA PAge 6. l. 18. r. works p. 7. l. 5. Ã fine for not r. yet p. 23. l. 6. Ã fi for that r. there p. 27. l. 18. for either rather p. 33. l. 9. for an r. in p. 36. l. 5. Ã fi r. yet for that p. 41. l. 9. Ã fi r. receiving for recovering p. 42. after them r. it were better if p. 42. l. 2. for God r. Gods p. 46. l. 7. for hope r. Trope ibid. l. 11. for this r. the. p. 46. l. 17. for particulars r. particularly p. 48. l. 4. Ã fi r. for wisely c. r. wisdom by the knowledge of which c. p. 49. l. 19. r. from Christ p. 52. l. 3. Ã fi for has r. had p. 63. l. 19. r. principal act p. 64. l. 13. add after Lord. called hoping in the Lord because c. p. 65. l. 12. for procure r. secure p. 66. l. 5. after right r. to use any Instrument for the actual c. p. 68. l. 4. Ã fi for right title r. right or title Ib. l. 2. Ã fi for condition r. conditional work p. 69. l. 2. Ã fi r. 5ly true c. p. 73. l. 19. put that after first p. 80. l. 21. r. it is p. 85. l. 6. Ã fi for on r. off p. 87. l. 7. Ã fi for it hath r. it is p. 88. l. 22. for lying r. thing p. 95. l. 1. for do r. toyl more p. 97. l. 5. Ã fi r. for the worst p. 108. l. 12. Ã fi r. done away p. 114. l. 8. Ã fi for ways r. wages Ib. l. 16. for which r. what p. 122. l. 18. r. for it prescribeth c. p. 125. l. 6. these words without any farther practice of Holiness add them after the l. 14. p. 160. l. 6. r. this is p. 171. l. 10. de that p. 172. l. 3. Ã fi r. of it it c. p. 194. l. 7. r. to the life of c. p. 196. l. 12. r. by all the c. p. 197. l. 20. free Salvation p. 201.