own Insufficiency acknowledging God's Sufficiency which if we did we should find it go better with us and may not the same be expected in the matter of Believing as well as in other Duties 2. None that ever heard this Gospel shall in the Day of Judgement have this to Object none shall have it to say that they would fain have believed but their meer Infirmity Weakness and Inability did imped them for though it be our own Sin and Guilt that we are unable yet where the Gospel comes that is not the Contraversie But that Folks would not come to Christ would not be gathered that when He would they would not for where there is a will to will and to do go together But it 's Enmity at the way of Believing Security Stupidity Senselesness and Carelesness what become of the Immortal Soul that ruines Folks for the Soul that would fain be at Christ shall be helped to Believe the reason is because the nature of the Covenant of Grace and of the Mediator thereof is such that all to whom He gives to will He gives them also to perform and His Faithfulness is engaged so to do It must therefore return to one of these two That either ye will not receive Him or else ye are willing though weak and if ye be willing Faithful is He that hath called you who also will do it but if it halt at your Perversness and wilful Refusal of the Offer there is good reason that in God's Justice ye should never get good of the Gospel nay there is never one to whom the Gospel comes and who doeth not Believe but formally as it were he passeth a Sentence on himself as the word is Act. 13 46. Ye judge your selves unworthy of eternal life which the Apostle gathers from this ground that they did not neither would accept of Jesus Christ offered to them in the Gospel as the event is that follows on the Offer so will the Lord account of your receiving of it Fourthly As for Directions to help and further you to Believe it 's not easie but very difficult to give them it being impossible to satisfie the curiosity of Nature neither can any Directions be prescribed that without the special work of God's Spirit can effectuate the thing the renewing of the Will and the working of Faith being Effects and Fruits of omnipotent Grace yet because something lyes upon all the Hearers of the Gospel as Duty and it being more suitable and congruous that in the use of Means then when Means are neglected Believing should be attained And because oftentimes these that desire this Question to be answered to wit how they may win at Believing are such as have some beginnings of the work of Grace and of Faith We shall speak a few words to such as would be at believing and exercising of Faith on Jesus Christ And 1. Folk had need to be clear in the common fundamental Truths of the Gospel they would know what their Natural Estate is what their Sin and Misery is and they would know the way how to win out of that State Ignorance often obstructs us in the way of Believing How shall they believe on Him of whom they have not heard Rom. 10.14 when Folks Believe not it is as if they had never heard 2. When ye have attained to the knowledge of the common Truths of the Gospel as of your Sin and Misery the nature of the Covenant the Mediator and His Fulness c. Labour to fix well the Historical Faith of them we are sure that many never come this length to believe the History of the Gospel and till that be they can advance no further for as the word is Heb. 11.6 He that comes to God must believe that He is and a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him I say these common simple Truths of the Gospel would well be fixed by a Historical Faith and yet this would not be rested on because though they be excellent Truths yet they may be known and historically believed where Saving Faith and Salvation follow not 3. Be much in Thinking Meditating and Pondering of and on these things let them sink down into your Hearts that the Meditation of them may fix the Faith of them and that they may deeply affect us we would seek to have a morally serious feeling of them as we have of the common works of the Spirit But there are many like the Way sidehearers who as soon as they hear the Word some Devil like a Crow comes and picks it up therefore to prevent this ye would seek to have the Word of God dwelling richly in you ye would meditate on it till ye be convinced of your hazard and get the Affections some way stirred according to the nature of the Word ye meditate upon whether Threatnings or Promises the most part are affected with nothing they know not what it is to tremble at a Threatning nor smile as it were on a Promise through their not dwelling on the thoughts of the Word that it may produce such an Effect 4. When this is done Folks would endeavour a full up-giving with the Law of Righteousness as to their Justification that if they cannot so positively and stayedly win to rest on Jesus Christ and His Righteousness yet they may lay the weight of their Peace with God on no other thing they would lay it down for a certain conclusion that by the works of the Law they can never be justified and would come with a stoped Mouth before God thus tender Christians will find it sometimes easier to give up with the Law then to close with the Gospel as to their distinct apprehension of the thing 5. When this is done Go as it were to the top of mount Nebo and take a look of the pleasant Land of Promises and of Christ held out in them and let your Soul say O! to have the Bargain well closed to have my Heart stirred up to love Him and to rest upon Him O! to have Faith and to discern it in its actings for when the Life of Faith is so weak that it cannot speak yet it may breath and though ye cannot exercise Faith as ye would so as to grip to and catch fast hold of the Object yet essay seriously to do that far as to esteem love and vehemently desire it In this respect the Will is said to go before the Deed though as to God's begetting of Faith there be a contemporariness of the Will and the Deed yet as to our sense the Will outruns the Deed even as in another sense though it makes well for this purpose the Apostle says To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I know not for we ought to have our Will running after Christ and Believing on Him when we cannot attain to the distinct actings of it But it may be here objected and said Is not this Presumption Answ If this were Presumption then
tell you that remission of Sins is preached to you through Christ so we command and charge you to believe on Him and receive this Gospel wherein He is offered for the remission of Sins For clearing of this Use and that we may have the more ready access to Application We shall speak a word to these three First To several kinds of true Faith three whereof are noâ— saving or to the ordinary distinctions of Faith Secondly To the Scripture expressions that hold out the nature of saving Faith Thirdly To some differences betwixt this saving Faith and false and counterfite Faith or these acts of true Faith more generally taken which yet are not saving For the first of these When we speak of Faith we shall draw it to these four kinds ordinarily spoken of and shall noâ— alter nor add to the common distinctions of Faith though there may be moe given The first is Historical Faith which may be called true being it whereby we assent to the truth of a thing because of his supposed fidelity that telleth it as when an Author writes a History we give it credit upon report that he was an honest Man that wrot it So Historical Faith is when People hearing the Word preached or read they assent to the truth of it all and do not question but that Christ came to the World that He was God and Man in one Person that He died and rose the third day and ascended to Heaven that they that Believe on Him shall be saved c. and taking the Word to be God's Word they may give to it a higher assent then they give to any Mans word because God is worthy infinitly worthy of more credit than any Man yea then all Men and Angels too There may be I say in this Historical Faith of Divine Truths a higher or greater assent then there is in believing of any Humane History which may be the reason why many mistake Historical Faith and yet it is but of the same kind and a thing which mâ—ny Reprobates have as John 2. at the close it 's said Many believed on him when they saw the miracles which he did but Jesus did not commit himself unto them they were brought to believe from the Signs which they saw that He was more than a meer Man and that it was the Word of God which He spoke and yet it was but a Historical Faith yea this Faith may be and is in Devils who are said James 2.9 to believe and tremble there are many who if they believe Christ to be God and Man and the Word to be true think it enough yet James having to do with such tells them that the Devils believe as much as that and more thorowly then many that hâ—ve that Historâ—cal Faith he knows God to be true and One that cannot lie and he finds it to his cost he knows that such as Believe cannot Perish for he cannot get one of them to Hell he knows that there is a time set when Christ will come to judge the World and himself among the rest and therefore he says often to Him torment me not before the time and as the Devil hath this Faith so there are many in Hell that have it too the rich Glutton had it therefore he bids go tell his Brethren that they come not to that place of torment and it s told him they have Moses and the Prophets c. which says that he then felt the truth of many things he would not believe before This I speak that ye may know that this Historical Faith is the first step of Faith but it may be in Hell and so in many in whom saving Faith is not it s really a wonder that Folks that are called Christians should own this to be saving Faith and think they are well come too when they are only come the Devils length in Believing yea there are many that never came his length else they would tremble more The second sort of Faith is the Faith of Miracles which is often spoken of in the New Testament as when the Lord sayeth If ye had saith as a grain of mustard-seed ye should say to this mountain be thou removed and cast into the sea and it should be done there was an active Faith to work Miracles and a passiâ—e Faith to receive the particular effect the Mâ—racle did produce some had the Faith of Miracles to heal and others to be healed this is an extraordinary thing and Folks may go to Heaveâ— without it and go to Hell with it though they cannot go to Heaven without Historical Faith hence it 's said Many shall come to me in that day and shall say we have casten out devils in thy Name to whom he will say depart from me ye workers of iniquity And the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 13.2 If I had all faith and could remove mountains if I want charity it avails me nothing this Faith of Miracles availeth not alone to Salvation because it acts not on Christ holden out in the Promises as a Saviour to save from Sin but on Christ as having power and ability to produce such an Effect which may be where there is no quiting of a Man 's own Righteousness and if there be not Grace in the Person that hath it it is an occasion of Pride We call you then to Historical Faith as necessary though not sufficient but not to this Faith of Miracles it being neither necessary nor sufficient A third sort of Faith is Temporary Faith spoken of Matth. 13. and set out under the Parable of the Seed sowen on stony Ground which soon springs up but withers so some Hearers of the Gospel receive the Word with joy and are affected with it but endure not The difference betwixt this and Historical Faith is that Historical Faith as such consists in the Judgement and reaches not the Affections at best it reaches not the affection of Joy for though the Devils tremble yet they are never glad Temporary Faith reaches the Affections and will make a Man as to tremble at the Threatnings as Felix did so some way to delight himself in the Promises of the Gospel and to smack then as it were from the apprehension of the sweet taste and relish he finds in them It is even here as it were told a whole Man that a Physician is come to Town he is neither up nor down with it but tell it to a sick Man and he is fain from an apprehended possibility of a Cure yet the apprehended possibility of the Cure never sends him to the Physician nor puts him to apply the Cure The fourth sort is Saving Faith which goeth beyond all the rest and brings the sick Man to the Physician and to make use of the Cure there may be some measure of true Saving Faith where there is not much Temporary Faith or moving of the Affections and there may be a considerable measure of Temporary Faith where there is no Saving Faith
c. Faith differently acts on Christ and the Promise for obtaining of these Now the Faith that we would insist on is the Fâ—ith that rests on Christ for Pardon of Sin on which all the rest of the acts of Faith depend it 's that Faith whereby a Sinner receives Christ and casts himself over on Him that Faith whereby Union with Christ is made up Thirdly We would premit That there is a great difference betwixt Faith and the Effects of it as Peace Joy Assurance of God's Love and these other Spiritual Priviledges that follow Believing It 's one thing actually to Believe another thing to have the Peace and Joy that follows upon and flows from Believing the one being as the putting out of the Hand to receive the Meat and the other as the feeding on it It 's the first of these we mean and intend to speak of even that Faith whereby we grip Jesus Christ Himself and get a Right to all these Priviledges in and through Him Fourthly We premit That even this Saving Faith hath its degrees as all other Faith hath some have more weak Faith some stronger some have that full Assurance spoken of Heb. 10. or a Plerophory not only as to the Object that it 's sufficient but as to the apprehending and obtaining of Life through that Object so that they are able to say neither height nor depth nor any thing else shall be able to separate them from the Love of God in Christ Jesus we say then that Saving Faith hath its degrees though the degree be not that which we speak of but it 's the kind of this Faith whether weaker or more strong whereby a lost Sinner rolls it self over on Christ the Faith which puts the Sinner off the Ground it stood on ever on Him the Faith which brings the Soul from the Covenant of Works to a new holding of Life by Christ and His Righteousness We shall then speak a little 1. To what we conceive this act of Saving Faith is not for precaveating of mistakes 2. What way the Scripture expresses it when then we say that such a thing is not Saving Faith ye would know that thing is not it that ye must lippen to and when we say such a thing is Saving Faith ye would labour to act and exercise Faith according to it First For what Saving Faith is not 1. It is not the knowing that Christ is God and Man that He was Born was Crucified Dead and Buried and Rose again Ask some what true Saving Faith is they will say it 's a true Knowledge Ask them again how long is it since they Believed they will say since ever they knew Good by Ill ye would know that apprehensive or literal and speculative Knowledge is needful but it will not be taken for Saving Faith 2. It 's not a touch of warmness or liberty in the Affections in a natural way which may be in unregenerate Men yea possibly in Pagans as in a Felix who in the mean time have not so much as Temporary Faith because it rises not from the Word but from dispensations of Providence or from Temporary things and if it rise from the Promises of the Word if there be no more it 's but temporary Faith 3. It is not Convictions which many take for Faith and take it for granted if they be convinced of Sin they Believe and will say whom should they Believe on but Christ and yet they never follow the Conviction to put in practice what they are convinced of 4. It 's not simply a Resolution to Believe as others take Saving Faith to be who being convinced that their own Righteousness will not do their turn resolve to Believe on Christ for Righteousness but they will take a convenient time to do it and many maintain their Peace with this though it be no true Peace but a bare resolution to Believe is not Faith ye use to say there are many good Wishers in Hell I remember the words of a dying Man in this Place who thought he believed before and being asked what difference he conceived to be betwixt the Faith he had before and the Faith he now had attain'd to he answered before I thought or resolved to Believe but never practised it now I practise Believing There is such a subtilty and deceit in the Heart that if it resolve to Believe and if it observably thwart not with Faith it will sit down on that as if all were done therefore the Word is To day if ye will hear his voice that is to day if ye will Believe harden not your heart This resolving to Believe is like a Man sinking in the Water and having a Rope cast out to him he resolves to grip it but does it not So many think they have the Promise beside them and resolve to make use of it but do not presently make use of it and the Ship sinks down and they perish while the Promise abides and swims above 5. It is not Prayer There are many who think they Believe when they some way Repent Pray and put their Hand to other Duties and they know no more for Believing but something of that kind it is true indeed Prayer may help to Believe yet it 's not always with Faith it 's not every one that saith Lord Lord that believeth many will seek to enter that shall not be able Folks very often have these two miserable mistakes about Prayer either they put it in the room of Christ or in the room and place of Faith not considering that they are different things for Faith exerciseth it self on Christ as Mediator and Prayer taketh Him up as God the true Object of Divine Worship though if it be not founded on Christ as Mediator it hath no access the acting of Saving Faith is properly on Christ held forth in the Word and Prayer is a putting up of Suits according to the Word There are many that know no more what use to make of Christ then if He had never been incarnate nor had come under that relation of a Mediator and make their Prayers serve to make up all whereas Faith not only respects Christ as God but His Merits as Mediator and His Offices 6. Nor is Faith only a believing this Word of God to be true though we could wish many were come that length it would make a Man tremble to hear the blasphemous words that some will have when they are asked concerning their believing the truth of the Bible but though ye were that length it were not enough the Devils believe and tremble the Faith that we call you to is more then Historical it 's to resting on Christ to cordial receiving of the Message which He sends to you as suppose a King should send an embassage to a Person to woo her to be his Wife it 's one thing to know that there is such a King another thing to believe that he is real in his offer and that the
not mixed with Faith And that for making the Duty acceptable Faith is necessarily requisite we may clearly see Heb. 11.6 where it is expressly said that without Faith it is impossible to please God And how is it that Abel offers a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain it was nothing sure in Cain's Sacrifice it self that made it be casten nor any thing in Abel's that made it be received or acceptable but Faith in the Messiah to come that was found to be in the one and was a missing in the other Is there not reason then to press this Duty on you and to exhort you not to think this a common and easie thing though the most part think it to be so if we look to the benefites of it to the difficulty of it and to the rarity of it in the World there is no Duty had need more to be press'd than this even that Christ Jesus should get the Burthen of your immortal Souls cast on Him by this Saving Faith I shall therefore in the further prosecution of this First Shew what mainly ye would eshew and avoid as that whereat Folk more ordinarily stumble Secondly What it is we would press you to and on what Grounds For the first I know the deceits and mistakes in Men about the Exercise of Faith are so many that they are moe then can well or easily be reckoned up yet we shall in some generals spoken of before hint at a few of them for so long as ye continue in the same Snares they must be still pointed out to you and endeavours still used to undeceive and extract you out of them and therefore 1. Beware of resting on a Doctrinal Faith which before I called Historical We know it 's hard to convince some that they want Faith yet we would have you to consider that it is not every kind of Faith but Saving Faith that will do your turn it 's the want of that which the Prophet complains of And therefore to open this a little ye would consider That there may be really such a Faith as is an assent to the truth of the Word in a natural Man yea in a Reprobate but that Faith will never unite to Christ nor be waited with the Pardon of Sin First I do not say that every one that is in the visible Church hath this Doctrinal Faith to believe a Heaven and a Hell that the Scripture is the Word of God and that all that believe in Christ shall get Pardon of Sin and Life the carriage alace of many testifies that they have not this much whatever fleeting notions they may have of these things or whatever esteem they may seem to put on the Gospel and whatever profession they may make that they believe the truth of it yet in their deeds they deny it for if there were a fixedness in the Doctrinal Faith of the Gospel in Men they durst not for their Souls live as they do Neither yet Secondly Do we say that all they that have this Doctrinal Faith of the Gospel or somewhat of it do believe every passage in it alike but often as they please them they believe them Hence many believe what the Word speaks of Mercy and of Pardon of Sin and will not question that but what it speaks of Holiness and of the severity of God's reckoning with Men for Sin they do not so credit that part of the Word it 's true where the Faith of the one is the Faith of the other will some way be but because the one agrees better with their Corruption than the other therefore the one is not so so received as the other and it 's very frequent with such to be found diminishing from one place and adding to another of the Word of God Nor Thirdly Do we say that all Men do in a like and equal degree believe the truâ—h of the Word there is in some more Knowledge in some less in some moe Convictions in some fewer and though we preach to you all yet there are some that believe not this to be God's Ordinance albeit there are many who will not be saved that takes this Word to be the Word of God and believe what is the meaning of it because the Word it self says it is so And the reason of this is 1. Because there is nothing that is not Saving but a Natural Man may hâ—ve it now this Doctrinal Faith is not Saving and so a Natural Man may have it yea the Devils believe and tremble and James does not dispute with these to whom he writes on this account that they believe not thus but tells them that Historical Faith was not enough and we think a man in Nature may have a great perswasion of the truth of the Word of God and that what it says will come to pass and yet still continue but a Natural Man A second Reason is Because the Scripture speaks so often of many sorts of Faith that are not Saving as Exod. 14. at the close it 's said the People believed the Lord and Psal 106.12 then they believed His Word and sang His praise and John 2.23 many believed on Christ to whom He did not commit himself there was Faith in them which His Signs and Miracles extorted from them which was not Saving and Matth. 13. two or three such acts of Faith are spoken of in the Parable of the Sower that were not Saving however sound they might be in their own kind and 1 Cor. 13. we have such a Faith spoken of as a Man dare not deny the truth of the Word though he should bring his Body to be burnt by his avouching of the same A third Reason is Because as much credit may be given to the Word as is given to any other History that is creditably believed and it 's on this ground that we believe there was such Men as Cesar Pompey Wallace c. and it being certain that there may be impressions on the Consciences of Hearers that this is God's Word backed with some common work of the Spirit and that it is generally received to be the Word of God in the part of the World we live in what wonder is it that Folk believe thus and drink in this Historical or Doctrinal Faith of the Word so as they may even dare to suffer to Death for it and yet in the mean time they may want Saving Faith the Devils being as sure as any Natural Man is that God is true and that His Word will be performed and therefore they say to Christ Art thou come to torment us before the time the Paâ—gs of a Natural Conscience in Men will assure them of a Judgment coming though they tremble to think on it And therefore ere we proceed further take a word of Use from this and it may let you see the great and very general mistake of the most part of the Hearers of the Gospel in resting on this Doctrinal Faith If ye tell them that
they have no Faith they will not by any means take with that they believe there is a Saviour and that He is God and Man and that such as believe on Him shall be saved and on this they rest It 's such as these who think they have believed all their days since ever they had any Knowledge because the Word was always or very long since received in the Place where they lived for the Word of God and they believe it to be so also and know no difference betwixt believing the Word and believing on Christ holden out in it though alace many of you believe not this much for if ye were among the Jews ye might be soon brought to question the truth of the Gospel But though ye had the real Faith of the truth of the Word take not that for Saving Faith for as there is a real Sorrow that is not the Saving Grace of Repentance unto Life so there is a sort of real Faith that hath a real Object and a real being in the Judgement which yet is not a real closing with Christ and so not Saving Faith as suppose a Man pursued by his Enemy should see a strong Castle-door standing open or one in hazard at Sea should see dry Land if he should stand still while the Enemy were pursuing him or abide still in the sinking Vessel the sight of the Castle-door open nor of the dry Land would not save him so it 's not the believing that there is a Saviour come into the World to save Sinners that will save except there be a resting on Him as He is holden out in the Woâ—d of the Gospel Historical Faith is only as it were a looking on the Saviour but Saving Faith grips to Him and rests on Him Historical Faith looks on Christ but acts not on Him closes not with Him and therefore such as have it only and no more sink and perish without getting good of Him We would think it a great matter to get many of you as far on in Believing as the Devil is who believes and trembles the little trembling that is shews that there is but little of this Historical Faith yet as I have often said this is not all ye may have this and yet if ye halt there ye will certainly perish if ye were never so confident to be saved the Apostle doth well distinguish these Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him where these two are presupposed First Believing that God is or hath a Being And secondly Believing that His Promise is sure and sicker that He is Faithful that hath promised and will make His Word good And then thirdly On both these follows a coming to Him as a Rewarder of diligent Seekers of Him The first two take in Historical Faith for to believe that God is is Natural and to believe that God is Faithful in His Promise may be in Natural Men but to come to Him to get the hazard that the Soul is in removed through Jesus Christ is a thing few do attain This then is the first thing we would be aware of not aware to believe the truth of the Word but to be aware of resting on it as Saving Faith it 's not enough to look on Christ and to grant that it is He but the Man must never be satisfied till he get himself rolled on Christ and the weight of his Salvation and Peace laid on Him in His own way The second thing ye would beware of is Some common and quickly transient work on the Affections that may accompany Historical Faith Whether the Affection of Grief or the Affection of Joy be stirred thereby both are unsafe to be rested on when ye can't prove your resting on Christ or where there is no relevant ground to prove it by though ye should tremble as Felix did and be under allaruming convictions of Conscience and fears of your hazard or though ye should be affected with Joy as the Temporary Believer may be and sometimes is what will that profite you it's a great mistake to take some small work on the Affections which at the best is but an effect of Historical Faith for a Saving work of the Spirit Or secondly If it be not an effect of Historical Faith it 's an effect of a challenge of Conscience and smiting of the Heart as in Saul who could say to David Thou art more righteous than I my son David Or thirdly It 's some common work of the Spirit such as was in Simon Magus of whom it is said he believed and who could say pray for me for Folks to conclude on this ground that they are brought out of Nature into a State of Grace is to build upon a Sandy Foundation The Apostle speaketh 2 Cor. 7.10 of worldly Sorrow as well as of a godly Sorrow and as there may be a wordly Sorrow so there may be a carnal Joy a piece of fainness to speak so in Prayer or at hearing of a Preaching or at a Communion which is not Saving Faith some hear the Word with Joy Matth. 13. who yet endure not and John Baptist's Hearers rejoyced in his Light for a season even as a sick Man who hearing as we hinted before that a Physician who is skilful and able to cure him is come to Town he grows fain in the contemplation of a Cure of his Disease but here is the stick when the Physician tells the Man that he must be so and so abstemious and keep himself under such a strict Diet he dow not abide that and so all his joy evanishes There is something like this in Tempory Faith where some remote expectation of Salvation will cause a carnal Joy and Fainness but when it comes to this that a Man is called to quite his Lusts or his Estate or in the World to undergo Trouble and Persecution for the Gospel by and by he is offended he thinks to say so a Fowl in his hand is worth two fleeing and therefore when the Storm blows in his Teeth he turns his Back and runs away Especially we will find this to be with Men in Sickness they will have mints and seriousness and sometimes flashes of Sorrow under Convictions or Challenges and sometimes flashes of Joy that will evanish when they come to Health again When we speak of some common work on the Affections we would take in liberty and some warmness of Spirit in Prayer which no question even unrenewed Men may find more at one time than another as when they are in some great hazard or strait they will be more than ordinary serious in that Duty and yet that may be but an effect of Nature This proves a great Stumbling and Neck-break to many that they think they are well enough if now and then they get utterance in Prayer as sometimes they will get words beyond what they expected and when upon reflecting they find that
assert your Faith when there are scarcely any characters of Unbelief but ye have them or what can be your advantage in keeping your selves carnally Secure when the strong Man in the mean time is in the House and to shut your Eyes and make your Necks stiff and to resolve as it were not only to ly still but to die in your Unbelief I perswade my self that many of you ere long will be made to wonder that ever ye thought your selves Believers and will be galled when ye think upon it that what ever was said to you ye would needs maintain your presumptuous Faith When we bid you suffer the Conviction to sink let none put it from themselves to others but let every one take it Home to himself although we would not have any of you casting loose what is indeed made fast and well secured nor overturning a slender and weak Building though it were to speak so but of two Stone height if it be founded on a right Foundation on the Rock but we speak to you that cannot be brought to suspect your selves when ye have just reason to do so sure this Challenge and Charge belongs to some yea to many and we would ask what ground have ye to shift it how can ye prove your Faith more than others that have none at all that ye hope ye have Faith will not do your turn that 's no solid proof ye cannot come to Christ except made suitably sensible of your distance and of that ye have never been convinced as yet do ye think to roll your selves on Christ sleeping and ye know not how certainly when the Pins of your Tabernacle come to be a loosing ye shall find that your fancied Faith shall not be able to keep out a Challenge ye could never endute to think your selves to be Christ's Enemies or that ye wanted Faith but when Death comes Conscience will awaken and the Challenge will needs be in upon you whether ye will or not many of you think that ye get wrong when your Faith is questioned or reproved as if it were an odd and rare thing to be Graceless or to be living as Members of the visible Church and yet want Faith and it irritats you to be expostulated with in private for your lying in Unbelief But suffer this word now to take hold of you I bâ—seâ—ch you and if ye could once be brought to suspect yourselves and to think thus with your selves What if I be one of those many that Believe not I fear I be in hazard to be mistaken about my Faith and from that put to follow on to see how ye will be able to ward off the Challenge and to prove your Believing to be sound we would think ye were fair on O if ye had the Faith of this Truth that among the many Hearers of the Gospel there are but few that Believe and were brought thereby to examine and try your selves there is no Truth that Christ insists more on than this that strait is the Gate and narrow is the way to Heaven and that but few find it and that there are few that Believe and few that be Saved If ye did once in earnest look on your selves as in Hazard and were brought to reflect on Matters betwixt God and you it might be the Lord would follow the Conviction we desire Him to do it and to Him be Praise SERMON VII ISAIAH LIII I Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed IT 's a sad matter and much to be lamented when the carrying of such good News as is the Report of Jesus Christ in the Gospel becomes unprofitable to them that hear it and thereby burdensome to them that carry it Folks would think that such glad Tydings as make the Heavenly Host of Angels to sing would be very joyful and welcome News to Sinners and also most heartsome to them that carry them and where the former is there the latter will be also where the Word becomes useless and unprofitable to Hearers it is burdensome as to the concomitant and effect to honest Ministers that speak it though Isaiah brought these News in a very plain powerful pleasant and sweet manner to the People he preached to and that frequently yet in the midst of his sweet Prophesies he breaks out with this Complaint who hath believed our report he is carrying glad Tydings yet taking a look of the Unbelief of his Hearers now and then he complains of it to God in his own name and in name of all the Ministers of the Gospel that should come after him We shew that it was a very ordinary thing where the Gospel comes in greatest Plenty and Power for the Hearers therof to meet it with much Unbelief a Truth that was verified in Isaiah his time and that he foresaw would be verified in the Days of the Gospel and therefore it 's our Report not only is it the Report of Isaiah but it is the Report of Christ and of Paul who make the same Complaint and Cite the same words of Isaiah and need we doubt of the truth of it when Isaiah in the Old and Paul in the New Testament thus complain Not to speak of their and our Lord and Master who came to his own and his own received him not and of whom when He came they said this is the heir come let us kill him need we I say doubt of the truth of the Doctrine or to think it strange to see it so in our Time and that we have the same Complaint when the Means at least the Instruments are incomparably far below what they were then though it be still the same Gospel The Prophet's scope is to give Advertisement and Warning to the Hearers of the Gospel for the Time to come of this rise Evil even the abounding of Unbelief in them that hear it 1. That he may prevent the Scandal of the unfruitfulness of the Word where it comes 2. That he may add a Spur of excitement to the Hearers of the Gospel to endeavour to make use of it and not to rest upon Means how powerful and lively soever they be but to press forward to the End they aim and shoot at 3. That he may put Folks to the Tryal and that they may be brought to look in upon themselves whether they be or be not in this black Roll of them that receive not the Report and we think if any thing put Folks to be suspitious of themselves and to commune with their own Hearts about their Souls estate this should do it especially when they consider how this Evil agrees to all Times and yet more especially to the Times of the Gospel and how it is an Evil that abounds not only among the Prophane but among these who are Civil and Zealous too for the Righteousness of the Law it should make them put themselves to the Tryal and not to take every thing to be Faith that they
fancy to be Faith for either this Doctrine is not true that where-ever the Gospel comes it meets with Unbelief in most part of its Hearers and cannot be applyed to this Generation or that there is much Faith in this Generation that we live in that will not be counted Saving Faith If all of you were Believers there were no ground for this Complaint and if we will take Folks on their own word we can hardly get a Person but will say he Believes so that the generality of Mens Hearts run quite contrary to this Truth and therefore we say it is the scope of this Doctrine and the like to give Folks the alarm and to put them to suspect and try themselves I do not mean that any should cast the work of Faith where it is indeed for that is also a part of our Unbelief and ordinarily when Unbelief falleth on the one side the Devil maketh it up on the other and makes tender Souls question their Faith when they begin to Believe as if they could mend Unbelief with Unbelief but it is to such that we speak who cannot be brought to suspect their Faith certainly ye will wonder one day that ye should have heard such a plain Truth and yet would not so much as ask your own Hearts whether there was reason to suspect your want of Faith as it 's said that Christ marvelled at their Unbelief who heard Him so may we at yours and who ere long ye shall also marvel at your selves on this account Before we prosecute this Use and the rest any further we shall speak to another Doctrine and it is the last that follows from these words tending to the same scope to make us scar at Unbelief which the Prophet makes such a heavy ground of Complaint The Doctrine then is That if there were never so many under Unbelief and never so many who refuse to receive Jesus Christ yet Unbelief is a Sin and a most sinful Sin which though Folks had no more will seclude them from Heaven there were no ground for this Complaint if it were not so even as the Prophet would have had no ground to complain of the Peoples Unbelief if there were not many Unbelievers so Unbelief is a very great Sin in whomsoever it is and makes them exceeding sinful Or take the Doctrine thus It is a very great Sin for a People to whom Christ is offered in this Gospel not to receive Him and rest upon Him for Salvation as He is offered to them therein and it ariseth from this ground That where Christ is not received there the Ministers of the Gospel have ground of Complaint for it supposes a great defect in their Duty seing it is their Duty to Believe yea the great Gospel duty on which all other Duties hang and which is called for by many tyes and obligations This is his commandment saith John in his first Epistle chap. 3.23 that ye believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ therefore it must be a great Sin not to Believe There are shortly three things comprehended in this Doctrine speaking now of Unbelief not only as opposite to Historical Faith which we commonly call Infidelity but as it 's opposite to Saving Faith which we shew is that which is called for here 1. That Unbelief or not receiving of Christ is a Sin or a thing in its own nature sinful It 's a Sin as well as Adultery Murther Stealing Lying Sabbath-breaking c. are yea and in the Aggravations of it a Sin beyond these it is as contrary to the Word and Will of God and is as contrary to the Divine Majesty as Drunkenness Murther Adultery or any other Sin is the positive command of Believing being as peremptory plain and particular as these negative ones are the breach of it must be as sinful 2. That there is such a kind of Sin as Unbelief beside other Sins and such a distinct Duty as Believing that if Folks could do all other Duties if this Duty of Believing be wanting they will be still sinful and there will be still ground of Complaint and if Faith be a particular Duty required and distinct from other Duties and Graces as it 's clear it is Gal. 5.21 then Unbelief must be a particular Sin distinct from other Sins though it hath influence on other Sins as Faith hath on other Duties so Rev. 21.8 it 's ranked among the most abominable Sins the reason why we mark this is because there may be some in whom some gross Sins as Adultery Blood-shed and the like do reign and they get that name to be called Adulterers Murtherers c. others may possibly be free of these who yet have Unbelief reigning in them and therefore they get that name to be called Unbelieving and are ranked with the grossest of Evil-doers 3. That even many in the Times wherein the Scriptures were written and in every Age since are found guilty of this Sin and condemned for it who are as to several other things commended hence it 's said Rom. 10.3 of the Jews that they had a zeal of God which in it self is good though not according to knowledge yet it was their main lett and obstruction in the way to Life that being ignorant of God's righteousness they went about to establish their own for as much zeal as they had for the Law of Moses seing they did not receive Jesus Christ and His Righteousness by Faith it made any other good thing they had unacceptable and the reason why we mark this is that Folks may see that it is not only for gross Sins and with gross Sinners that the Gospel complains and expostulats but it 's also for not submitting unto and not receiving the Righteousness of Christ and therefore ye are far mistaken that think your selves free from just grounds of Challenge because forsooth ye are free of Murther Adultery Drunkâ—nness and the like do ye not consider that Unbelievers arâ— in the same Rank and Roll with abominable Whoremongers Sorcerers Idolaters and Dogs and is not Unbelief contrary to the Command of God as well as Murthâ—r Adultery and these other gross Sins and therefore because Folks think little of Unbelief though it be very rife if they be free of other gross Sins 4. We shall add a fourth thing which the Doctrine implyes That Unbelief though there were no other Sin is exceeding sinful and is first The great ground that makes God expostulate with the Hearers of the Gospel and that makes them come under the Complaint John 5 40. Ye will not come to me that ye may have life and Matth. 23.37 How often would I have gathered you and ye would not and for substance it 's the Lord's great complaint of most of His professing People Psal 81.11 I am the Lord thy God open thy mouth wide and I will fill it but my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me and then follows O that my people
to Believe is That the Sinner would actually stretch out that Faith as the Souls Hand for the receiving of Christ and for the Application of Him to himself and would actually cast himself upon the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ for covering that Sinfulness that is in him and would catch hold of and grip to Him that is an able Saviour for keeping the Sinner from sinking under the weight of Sin that he lieth under This is the Exercise and Practice of Faith when it flows from the general Doctrine of the necessity of believing such things to be Truths in themselves and when it 's extended and put forth in Practice that we who are so certainly and sensibly lost must needs share of that Salvation which we believe to be in Jesus Christ and so for that roll our selves on Him The first piece of Sense may be in a Reprobate the second piece of Faith that there is a sufficient Salvation in Christ to be gotten by them that believe in Him may be in a Devil But this third of actual use-making of the Satisfaction of Christ for paying our Debt and rolling our selves upon Him that 's the Faith and Exercise of it that is peculiar to a sound Believer and the very thing that constitutes a Believer and it is that which we commend to you that ye may not stand and please your selves with looking only upon Christ but that ye may cast and roll your selves over upon Him that Christ may get your Weight and that all your Burthens and Wants may be upon Him which to do ye must be enabled by the mighty Power of Grace whereof in the next part of the Verse The second Branch of the Use which follows upon this is That we would desire you not only to follow this way of making your Peace with God but to follow the trying and proving of it to your own satisfaction that ye may be warrantably confident that it is so There is a great difference betwixt these to believe in Christ and to be clear and certain that we do believe in Him As there is a necessity of the first without which there cannot be Peace with God so there is a necessity of the second though not simply as without which there can be no Peace with God yet upon this account as without which we cannot be so comforted in God And seing there are so many who do not Believe who yet think themselves to be Believers and seing there is nothing more common among the Hearers of the Gospel then to reject Christ offered in it and to Misbelieve and yet nothing more common then to be confident that they do Believe There is good ground here to exhort you to put your Faith to the Touch-stone that ye may know whether ye can abide the Trial and whether ye may confidently assert your own Faith upon good ground and abide by it We would think if it were remembred and seriously considered how great a scarcety there is of Believers and how rare a thing it is to get any to receive Christ that Folk needed not be much pressed to put their Faith to the Trial and when there will not be one among many found who will pass under the account of a real Believer with Jesus Christ should not the most part suspect themselves seing the most part that hear the Gospel are the object of this Complaint Who hath believed our report or very few have believed it ye would study to have some well grounded confidence in this that ye are not guessing and presuming and going upon grounds that will fail you at last but that ye be in case to say on solid grounds with the Apostle I know whom I have believed c. There is a Faith and Hope that will make many ashamed and certainly in the day of Judgment when Christ shall have to do with these Persons that never once thought to be thrust away from Him they of all Men shall be thrust away from Him with greatest Shame O! the confusion that will fill and overwhelm them who had a profession of Christ and yet had never the root of the matter in them above and beyond many others Dare many of you upon the confidence ye have look Death in the Face It 's no great matter to be confident in the time of Health but will ye then be able to comfort your selves in the Promises of God do not promise to your selves the things in the Covenant except ye be endeavouring in God's way to be sure ye are Believers indeed Our Life depends upon our Faith but our Consolation depends much upon our clearness that we have Faith and that we are in Christ and therefore there is much need to press this upon you There is no way to rid you of the Terrours of God and to make you comfortably sure of your particular Interest in the Promises of God but by making it sure and clear that ye are Believers in Christ indeed There are three or four sorts of People to whom we would speak a little here 1. There are some who think that if they could do other Duties though they should never do this to wit to make their Calling and Election sure they would be and do well enough Are there not many of you that never so much as set your selves to try whether your Faith would abide God's tryal or not Ah! Ah! an atheistical Indifferency a slighting of the Consolations of God aboundeth amongst many so that they think the Promises and the Consolation that is to be gotten in the Promises are not of so much worth as to be thereby put to take pains to try and see whether they belong to them or not but the Day will come that many of you will curse your selves for your neglecting and slighting of this A second sort are these who because they were never sure of Peace with God themselves and because they were never sure of their own Faith neither ever concernedly endeavoured to be they think it 's all but fancy that 's spoken of assurance of Faith and of Peace with God they think it 's but guessing at the best There is such a sort of Persons who think they may be doing as they dow and need not trouble themselves with such fancies or nice things but if ye ask them what will come of them at last they will tell you they will lippen that to God Think ye it for nought that God hath laid so many Commands on you to make your Calling and Election sure and think ye it for nought that He hath given so many Marks to try it by and that some of the People of God do holily and humbly glory and boast so much of their Communion with God out of their assurance of His love to them and of their special interest in Him do not all these say that there is such a thing as this to be had There is a third sort that please themselves with meer
conjectures about this Matter and the greater their Security be they perswade themselves the more that they have Faith This is as sad as any of the former when they grant all that Folks should make their Calling and Election sure and should endeavour to be sure of their Faith but in the mean time take Peace with the Devil and Peace with their Lusts for Peace with God and a Covenant with Hell and Death for a real Bargain with God This is as true as this Word of God is that there are many that put by all Challenges by this and never suspect their Faith they hope that all shall be well and they must always Believe as if that were the whole Duty of Faith to keep down all Challenges A fourth sort is even of the generation of them that have some thing of God in them who scar in a manner to make all sure and think it is a piece of Humility and of holy and tender walking to maintain Doubâ—ing even as others think it Faith to maâ—â—tain Presumption They are always complaining as if all things were wrong and nothing right in their Case and so foster and cherish Misbelief There is such a thing as this that marreth even serious Souls in their endeavours to make their Calling and Election sure and as long as this is they cannot win to the suitable discovery of this excellent Grace that God calls them to Exercise even Faith in the Lord Jesus Need we make use of Motives to press you to this tryal of your Faith and to this giving of all diligence to make it sure who have especially hitherto neglected it If ye knew any thing of the vexation that Unbelief hath with it and what horrour in Conscience from the sense of distance from God were ye would think it a great matter to be clear in this thing and if it were known and believed how this delusion and unsickerness of Faith destroys the most part of Men in the World even of the visible Church Durst Men ly in their Security as most do without all endeavours to make it sure on good ground that they do indeed Believe Durst they ly still under God's Curse if they thought themselves to be really under it and did not foolishly fancy that it is otherways with them Durst Men treasure up Wrath to themselves if they thought not that the Hope they had were good enough O! but Presumption beguiles and destroys many Souls and particularly this same Presumption of Folks thinking themselves right when they are wrong hath destroyed and doeth destroy and will destroy moe Members of the visible Church then Prophanity Drunkenness Whoredom Theft Desperation or any other of these gross and much abhorred Evils do This is the thing that locks Folk up in their Sin even their Presumption when they say on the matter We shall have peace though we walk in the imagination of our own heart It 's this that makes Men without fear Steal and Lie and commit Adultery c. that they say Is not the Lord among us Is not this the thing that keeps many of you that ye never tremble at the Word of God we have Faith in God say ye we lippen and trust in Him therefore seing Presumption is so rife have ye not need to try your Faith If there were so much counterfeit Money in the Countrey that it were a rare thing to get one good and upright piece of Money ye would think your selves greatly concerned and obliged to try it well lest ye were cheated with base and counterfeit Coyn Is there not need then yea infinitely much more need for them that would be so wise as not to be beguiled about the salvation of their Souls to search and try whether their Faith will abide God's tryal or not Ye will readily move this Question What then are the Characters or Evidences of a solid and sicker Faith that will abide the tryal by which the pretended Faith that is among the Men of this Generation may be examined and put to just tryal I shall first name some direct Scriptures holding out somethings essentially accompanying Faith and then shall add others having more condescending Characters for the more particular differencing of this helping to the decision of this great Question The first Mark whereby ye may try your Faith is The ground and rise of it or that whereby it is begotten and cherished Faith comes saith the Apostle Rom. 10.10 by hearing Doctrinal Faith comes by the preaching of the Gospel and Saving Faith is wrought instrumentally by the same Word of God it being the power of God to salvation it being this Word that is the very ground of our Faith I would ask you where from your Faith comes and what hand the Word of God hath in it There are many that have a sort of Faith not only without but contrary to the Word of God whereby they believe that they will get Heaven while in the mean time the Word of God does directly exclude them Get ye your Faith maintained without ever knowing the necessity of a Promise for that effect Can ye maintain your Peace and not have so much as any foundation in the truth and faithfulness of God to build it upon Love never that Faith that hungers not after the Word that is supposed to be lively without being ever fed by the Word that cannot claim either its rise and original or its growth from the Word I will not say from this or that word in particular or at this or that time read or heard but from the Word of God the Word is the very foundation that Faith builds upon If we look to what either accompanieth or followeth Faith there are some plain Scriptures that will make that clear as Acts 15.9 and put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by faith there was indeed once a great difference between Jews and Gentiles but now when he hath brought both to believe in Christ the difference is removed There is an efficacy in it to circumcise the Heart to purifie it and to banish Lusts out of it for it closes and unites with Christ and so brings him home to dwell in the Heart and where Christ dwells He commands and so whatever opposes Him is banished Faith gives Christ welcome and will give nothing welcome to dwell with Him that 's opposite and displeasing to Him Faith improves Christ for the subduing of its Lusts and mortifying its Corruptions whereas before there might be an fair outside of a Profession and something clean outwardly and much filthiness and rottenness within but when Faith is exercised on Christ it purifies from all filthiness of the Spirit as well as of the Flesh it applys the Promises for that end even to get the inside made clean as well as the outside yea it s main work is to have the inside the Heart purified that being the fountain of all the pollution that defiles the Man and brings
the other necessarily along with it never love that Faith that leaves the Heart as a Swines-sty to Lusts that leaves it swarming with unclean and vain Thoughts or that leaves the Heart just as it was before or that Faith that only cleanseth the outside and does no more such a Faith however esteemed by the Man will never be accounted for true Saving Faith before God I do not I dare not say that Believers will always discern this heart-purity or cleanness but this I say that true Faith will set the Man a work to purify the Heart and will be making use of Christ for that end not only to have the arm of the dominion of Sin broken but to have the Soul more and more delivered from the indwelling power of it and this will the design that he will sincerely drive to get the Heart purified within as well as the outward Man inward Heart-abominations will be grievous and burdensome to him as well as scandalous out-breakings A second place is Gal. 2.20 21. I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life c If ye would know a Companion of true Faith here is one it hath a life of Faith with it There is one life killed and another life is quickened the life that is killed is that whereby the Man sometime lived to the Law I am dead to the Law says the Apostle a Man's good conceit of himself that once he had is killed and taken away he wonders how it came that he thought himself Holy or a Believer or how he could promise to himself Heaven in the condition he was in There is another life comes in the place of that and it 's a life that is quickened and maintained by and from nothing in the Man himself but it 's wholly from and by Christ The Believer hath his holiness and strength for doing all called for Duties and his comfort also from Christ and he holds withall his very Natural Life his present Being in the World from Christ his all is in Christ his stock of life strength and furniture is not in himself but he lives by a continual Traffick as it were on Bills of Exchange betwixt Christ and him when he wants he sends a Bill to Christ and it 's answered in every thing that he stands in need of and that is good for him He is a dead Man and he is a living Man and where-ever true Faith is there the Man is dead and there the Man is living Do not I pray mistake it by thinking that true Faith is but vented puts forth it self only in reference to this or that particular or at this or that particular time only for Fâ—ith must be exercised not only at starts as when when we are under Challenges for Sin or at Prayer but we must design and endeavour to exercise Faith thorow all our Life that is we must by Faith look for every thing that is useful and needful for us from Christ and be always endeavouring to drive on a common Trade of living this way we must be habituating our selves to seek after Peace Strength and Consolation and what else we need out of the fulness that is in Him This Life of Faith is to see the want of all things in our selves and yet to have all things by making use of Christ in all things contenting and comforting our selves that there is Strength in Him though we be weak in our selves and that He hath gotten the victory over all His and our Enemies and that we shall at last through Him be victorious in our own Persons contenting and satisfying our selves that He hath compleat Righteousness though we be Bankrupt and have none of our own and betaking our selves allenarly to that Righteousness for our Justification before God Thus making a Life to our selves in Him He living in us by His Spirit and we living in Him by Faith O sweet and desirable but mysteriouâ— Life The third place is Gal. 5.6 In Christ Jesus neither circumsion availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith that worketh by love He doth not simply say Faith but faith that works by love for Faith is an operative Grace and this is the main vent of it the thing by which it works it works by Love Faith is the hand of the new Creature whereby every thing is wrought it having Life from Christ and we may say that Love is in a manner the hand of Faith or rather like the fingers upon the hand of Faith whereby it handleth every thing tenderly even out of love to God in Christ and to others for His sake Faith works and it works by Love that 's a sound and good Faith that warms the Heart with love to Christ and the nearer that Faith brings the Believer to Him it warms the Heart with more love to others And therefore love to the People of God is given as an evidence of one that is born of God 1 Joh. 5.1 because wherever true Faith is there cannot but be love to the Children of God flowing from love to Him that begets them That Faith that 's not affected with God's dishonour out of love to Him and that can endure to look upon the Difficulties Sufferings and Afflictions of the Children of God without sympathizing and being kindly affected therewith is not to be taken for a sound Faith but to be suspected for a Counterfeit The fourth place is James 2 14. Shew me thy saith by thy works c. True Faith hath always sound Holiness with it in all manner of Conversation in the design and endeavour of the Believer which is withall through Grace in some measure attained What avails it for a Man to say that he loves another when being naked or destitute he bidâ— him depart in Peace be warmed be filled and yet in the mean time gives him nothing that he stands in need of would not such a poor Man think himself but mocked Even so will not God reckon you to be but Mock-believers or Mockers of Faith when ye profess your selves to be Believers in Christ while in the mean time ye have neither indeed Heart-purity nor Holiness in your outside Conversation that is but such a Faith as Devils may have that will never do you good Ye would believe this for a truth that there will never a Faith pass for Faith in God's account and so there should never a Faith pass for Faith in your account but that Faith that sets the Man a work to the study of Holiness that Faith that works by Love that Faith that purifies the Heart and that Faith that puts the Person in whom it is to study to have Christ living in him and himself living in Christ I promised to name a few Scriptures that speak out some more condescending Characters of Faith And 1. I would think it a good token of Faith to have Folk feared for missing and falling short of the Promises
Promises without the including of the effect the giving of the new Heart is not only a perswading to Believe but the actual giving of the new Heart whereof Faith is a special part which Promise is peculiar to the Elect though the offer of it be more large and be further extended and what can that Promise of Gods writing the Law in the Heart be but an effectual inclining of the Heart to the Will of God or inward renovation contradistinguished to the external Ministry that can only hold out His Will in a Book and speak it to the Ear. 3. This may be cleared and confirmed from the nature of the work of Grace which is such a mighty work and so powerful as it is impossible it can be frustrated or disappointed unless we could say that Grace in God or the Grace of God is not so powerful as Corruption in us which were Blasphemy to this purpose the Apostle prayeth in behalf of the Christian Ephesians chap. 1.19 20. that they may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead he speaketh so in this high strain to set out both the exceeding stubbornness of our Nature that needs such a work and the exceeding great power of the Grace of God that worketh irresistably not only in the Conversion of the Elect at first but in all the after-acts of Believing so Eph. 3.7 the same Apostle hath it according to the gift of the Grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power and Col. 1.29 according to his working which worketh in me mightily The Power that worketh in Believers is Gods omnipotent Power which worketh effectually and mightily and if this Power be exercised in the continuing and promoving of Faith as is said before it must be much more exercised in the begetting of Faith yea and what need is there that He should exercise it if not for this end that where He exerciseth it it may also prevail A 4th ground of Confirmation may be drawen from the Lords great end which He hath before Him in this work and that is the gaining of glory to His Grace and to have the whole work of Conversion attributed to it and if this be His end He must and will prevail by His Grace in throughing the work in order to this end if it were left indifferent to Man to yield oâ— not to yield to God as he pleaseth the whole weight of the work of Conversion should not ly upon Grace Mans Mouth should not be stopped but when that question should be asked who hath made thee to differ and what hast thou O man but what thou hast received he should still have something to boast of and the work of his Conversion should at best be halfed betwixt Grace and his own Free-will this would necessarily follow if Grace did not through the work and so God should miss of His end A 5th ground of Confirmation is taken from the consideration of Gods Decree of the Covenant of Redemption betwixt Jehovah and the Mediator and of the Power and Wisdom of God in carrying on this work which we put together for brevities cause From all which it will be clear that there is and must be a necessary connexion betwixt the work of Grace on Believers and the Effect and that it is not in the power of Mans Free-will to resist it which indeed is not freedom but bondage 1. Then We say That if we consider the Decree of Election we will find that where Grace is applied Faith and Conversion must follow otherwise if the work of Grace were not effectual to convert Gods Decree should be suspended on the Creatures Free-will and be effectual or not effectual according as it pleased and is that any little matter to make His Decree depend upon and be effectual or not according to Man's pleasure that which sickereth His Decree and makes it infrustrably to take effect is that He hath effectual Means to bring about His Decree 2 If we consider the Covenant of Redemption betwixt Jehovah and the Mediator we will find that upon the one side the Mediator particularly undertaketh for them that are given to Him that He shall loss none of them and upon the other side we have to speak with reverence of the Majesty of God after the manner of Men the Father's Obligation to make such Persons in due time Believers that Christ the Mediator may see of the travel of His Soul and be satisfied according to that Promise made to Him Psal 110.3 In the day of thy power thy people shal be willing and that other Isa 53.11 He shall see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many c. and accordingly Himself saith John 6.37 All that the Father hath given to me shall come unto me where it is clear that these who are given must necessarily come and He also saith John 10.16 Other sheep have I which are not of this sold them also I must bring and it cannot be supposed without horrour and blasphemy that this determinate solid and sure transaction having all its midses included in it and being as to its end so peremptory shall as to these midses and that end and as to their throughing not be in Gods hand but in the hand of Mans Free-will if it were there O! how unsicker and loose would the bargain and God's design in begetting Faith and in bringing Souls through Grace to Glory be 3. If we consider the Lords Power in beginning and promoving and His Wisdom in carrying on of this work His Power whereby he raiseth the Dead and His Wisdom whereby He leads from Death to Life is it possible to conceive or imagine these to be applied by the Lord in the Conversion of a Sinner but this Doctrine must needs hold that the work of His Grace powerfully applied hath always Faith and Conversion following on it and that the Lord leaveth it not to the option of Elect Souls to believe or not to believe as they please He must not He cannot be frustrate of His end and design but He must bring them to a cordial closure with Christ by Faith in order to their Salvation Use 1. The first Use serves to fix you in the Faith of this great Truth and though we use not neither is it needful to trouble you with long Questions and Debates yet when the like of this Doctrine comes in our way especially in such a time wherein the pure Truths of God and this among the rest are troubled and called in question it is requisite that a word be spoken for your confirmation and establishment and we would hence have you fixed in the Faith of these two 1. Of the impotency of Nature in the beginning or promoving ought of the work of Grace which belongs to
is enough in God and in His Grâ—ce to do their turn How is it then or what can be the reason that we in our Hearts do draw the just contrary conclusion to that which the Spirit of God draws here from this ground when we have the offer of Grace and hear of the power and efficacy of it it should as to our part provoke us to be more busie reasoning thus with our selves that though our Corruption will soon overcome us yet it wi l not it cannot overcome Grace and though the exercise of Faith be above our reach yet it is not above the reach of Grace though we be weak yet Grace is strong and therefore we will work it out And upon the other side we ought to conâ—inue humble and in fear and trembling work it out bâ—cause it 's not we but Grace that doth the work If Grace were well considered there is nothing that would more strâ—ngthen Folks hands to work and upon the other hand there is nothing that would make Folks more watchful and to walk in holy fear considering that we are poor Beggers and thorow our unwatchfulness or conceit and presumption may mar the outlettings of His Grace especially if we grow secure and ungrately forget what we receive from Him 2. I come now to some steps or particular directions implied in this Use because it will be asked What then should Folk do And before I touch on particulars take these two Caveâ—ts in the entry to them 1. That we can propose nothing to be done by you nâ—ither can ye do any thing of your selves that is a gracious act or deed 2. That we understand not that any thing can be done by Men in their Natural state that doth infer or procure and far less deserve the giving of Grace to any but seing God hath given direction to us how to walk in order to the working out of our Salvation we say 1. That it 's safe to us to walk in the way He hath directed us to walk in and in the use of the Means He hath prescribed and much more safe then to lay them aside 2. That there is greater suitableness betwixt the use of the Means and the finding of Grace then there is betwixt the neglect of Means and the finding of it 3. That it aggrees well with Gods way in bringing about the Conversion of Sinners to bring them piece and piece forward sometimes bringing them to the use of external Means and to the performance of outward Duties sometimes convincing them of Sin and letting them see their need of Christ sometimes discovering the worth that is in Christ and bringing them to fall in love with Him ere they actually close with Him and making them in their practice to follow any peep or glimmering of light that is let out to them and to go the length that light discovereth the way and makes it plain as to their duty Now for particular Directions we would 1. Bid you study to be fixed and established in the Faith of these general Truths that relate to Mans Sinfulness and Misery and Insufficiency in Himself that in us that is in ouâ— flâ—sh dwelleth no good thing that naturally we are dead in Sins and Trespasses and cannot quicken our selves and in the Faith of the necessity and powerfulness of Grace and that it 's Christ that must give and work Faith and that Grace can do the turn and prevail where it is put on work ye would also consider and believe the great hazard of missing Grace and the advantage that cometh by it ye would meditate on these things and on the Scriptures that hold them out and on the experiences of the Saints that confirm them that ye may not only have a glance and transient view of them but may be confirmed in the Faith of the truth of them 2. Content not your selves with a general Faith of the truâ—h of this Doctrine but labour to be suitably affected with these things that ye believe and though every affectedness be not special Grace yet I speak to them that are ready to lay the blame and fault on the Grace of God and yet were never affected with their own gracelesness Ye would study to be affected with the gracelesness of your Nature and let it put you to some sanctified disquiet and trouble till with Ephraim ye be made to smite upon your thigh and till ye be put to a holy deliberation and consultation about your own condition a Man that is under the hazard of a civil penalty will think on it again and again it will affect him and he will not be at rest till he be without the reach of it much more should ye be with the hazard that your Souls are in through Sin ye are not excusable so long as ye come not this length 3. Add to this Diligence in the use of all outward Means and Duties whereby and wherein the Lord useth to communicate His Grace abounding always in the work of the Lord as the Apostle exhorteth 1 Cor. 15.58 Be diligent in secret Prayer Reading Meditation Conference Self-examination Hearing keeping good Company and the like which indeed Hypocrites may do yet they cease not for that to be Duties 4. Be sincere and serious in the use and performance of these Means and Duties that which I mean is a moral sincerity and seriousness such as a Man will readily have in a civil Cause that he hath depending before a civil Judge or in hearing of News or the like which is a thing that may be and is often found in Men that are void of a principle of Grace and yet Folk are very often defective in this and make themselves exceeding guilty before God because they come not this length 5. Take heed and beware of entertaining any thing that holds and bars out Grace or of doing any thing that may mar or quench the working or moving of Grace If ye cannot get Christ entertained in your Heart as ye should be sure to give it to no other if ye cannot get Corruption thrust out nor mortified watch against the rising or harbouring of that which ye know to be Corruption and against the incoming or rising of such evils as ye know will keep or put away the Beloved guard also against the neglecting of such Means as by the neglect whereof ye may grieve His Spirit 6. Study and seek after a composed frame of Spirit in your ordinary walk and especially in Duties of Worship Carnal Mirth and Jollity loose Company and suffering the Heart to go a whoring after the things of the World do not only provoke Christ as they are sins but indispose us for Duty and mar the exercise of Grace where it is and keep it back where it is not therefore the wise man saith Eccles 7.3 that sorrow is better then laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better carnal Sorrow is not to be commended but sober sadness or a
for ever possessed in that which eye hath not seen ear hath not heard neither hath it entered in the heart of man to conceive of 3. From the words as we exponed them Observe That our Lord Jesus Christ who suffered and was in suffering brought very low is God We find ordinarily in Scripture especially thorow the New Testament these three going together 1. Christs Humiliation 2. His Exaltation on the back of that And 3ly His Godhead His Humiliation is not readily spoken of without his Exaltation nor his Exaltation without his Godhead because it 's impossible to separate Christs Exaltation from his Godhead his Exaltation being the evidence of his Godhead and the Prophet's scope here being to set but Christ's Exaltation and Philip preaching of it to the Eunuch from this Text it 's doubtless the contemplation of Christ's Godhead that occasioneth this admiring-exclamation who shall declare his generation which we apply not so much to the ineffableness of his generation as to its being an evidence that he is God There are three or four ways whereby the Scripture confirms this let me desire you by the way not to look on this as a little momentuous or but a common Doctrine since there are many so ignorant that we would be ashamed to tell what we hear from some of you concerning the Godhead of Jesus Christ ye would take the better heed to it it being a main pillar of Christian Religion without which our Preaching and your Faith are vain for he is not believed on at all if ye rest not on him as God But to prosecute what we proposed to wit these several ways whereby the Scripture confirms this truth and to this purpose consider 1. The express Titles and Names that are given to him in Scripture and some Scripture-sayings of him which hold it out three whereof we shall instance The first is that of Isaiah 9.6 7. Where when Christ is prophesied of it 's said Unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and what is he He shall be called wonderful Counsellour the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end Here we have these three His Humiliation Exaltion and God-head His Humiliation Unto us a child is born unto us a son is given His Exaltation Of the increase of his governmentâ— and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice And his Godhead is interjected and put in between these two In the names and titles given to him Wonderful Counsellour the Mighty God the Everlasting Father not as personally taken but as the word signifies The Father of Eternity from whom all things have their Being and for the same reason Chap. 7.14 He is called Immanuel God with us A 2d place is that of Phil. 2.6 Who being in the form of God thought it no robbery he did God no wrong to be equal with God he made himself of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant c. wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name c. A 3d. place is that of Heb. 1.2 3. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds what is he by whom he spake to us who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high there is here much of Christs excellency holden forth he is the brightness of the fathers glory and the express image of his person the beam of the Sun is not liker to the Suns light the impression of the seal on the wax is no liker to the seal then the Son is to the Father nay the livelyest resemblances fall infinitely short of a full and exact resemblance the Father and he being the same God and he being compared with the Father not simply as God essentially taken but as the second person of the Trinity compared with him who is the first person O deep and adorable mystery A 2d way to clear and confirm it is to consider his works oft-times joyned with his name The works of Creation Providence Redemption and guiding of his Church so we have it John 1.1 In the beginning was the word the substantial word of the Father the Son of his love called the word either as expressing the Fathers image as a mans word expresseth his mind or because as Prophet of the Church he hath revealed the Fathers will It s said that this word was not only with God but was God and then follows in several Verses together his Works the works of Creation all things were made by him c. the works of Providence are attributed to him John 5.17 My father worketh hitherto and I work and the work of Redemption and his glorious going thorow with it declare him to be the Son of God for none but God could redeem his Church 3ly For clearing and confirming of this truth we may take the express confession of the Saints in Scripture whereon there is much weight laid and I shall name but five or six of their confessions which to this purpose are expressly and fully recorded The 1. Is that of Matth. 16.16 Whom do men say that I am Peter answered thou art the son of the living God and Christ says Blessed art thou Simon Barjona flesh and blood hath not revealed that unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven to let us know that it is not such a little thing to believe Christs Godhead as many take it to be and then he calls himself the rock on which his Church is built Christ's Godhead is the foundation of Christianity A 2d is John 1.49 in Nathanaels words Christs tells him before Philip called thee when thou was under the fig-tree I saw thee and he having gotten this proof of Christs omniscience presently breaks out Rabbi thou art the son of God thou art the king of Israel and that is the first thing his faith evidenceth it self in A 3d. place is John 6.67 68 69. where when Christ is saying to the twelve will ye also leave me Simon answers Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ the son of the living God there is muâ—h in these words we believe and are sure that it is so A 4th place is John 11.27 and it is Martha her confession yea Lord I believe that thou art the Christ the son of
God which should come into the world The 5th place is that of John 20.28 where when Christ bids Thomas reach hither his hand and put it into his side his glory shines so full in his face that he cryes out My Lord and my God and his faith is summed up and compended in that The last place that we shall name is that of Acts 8.37 and it s the Eunuchs confession I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God which is the sum of his faith The 4th and last way of confirmation of this great truth is drawen from the worship which is due unto him and hath been given unto him He is the object of Faith John 14.11 ye believe in God believe also in me He is the object of Prayer Acts 7.59 They stoned Stephen calling upon God saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit and frequently else-where in Scripture he is prayed unto though these two are not too curiously to be separated Use 1. The first Use serves to strengthen your Faith in this that our Lord Jesus Christ who suffered for sinners and is made offer of to them in the Gospel is God equal with the Father and so he is to be closed with and rested on as the brightness of the Fathers glory the reason why we would have you confirmed in the Faith of this is not small for its a most necessary thing and without the faith of it all the work of our salvation will hang louse neither can we have any claim to Eternal Life and therefore we desire you particularly who are ignorant Hearers and who have the name of Christ often in your mouths and yet know not what he is to know remember and believe that he that is the son of Mary is also the eternal son of God being God before he was incarnate and before the World was made and the Maker of all that was made Use 2. The second Use serves to let you know That though it be a most necessary thing to be confirmed in the faith of this Truth that Christ is God yet it 's a greater difficulty to believe and be perswaded of it then the most part take it to be many sad proofs whereof we have in Folks words and moe in their practice Flesh and blood saith Christ Matth. 16. hath not revealed this unto thee It 's a wonder whence many Folks faith comes who never found any the least difficulty in this and it 's a wonder that so few are through in the faith of it so that if they were called and put to it they durst not swear that he is God yea if we would look in a little further we would find that the faith of this is but scarce amongst us not to speak of the gross ignorance of many who will say when asked that he is not equal with the Father or that he was made God and other such like expressions will they have that are abominable to be once named amongst Christians Folks through their ignorance falling into damnable Heresies on the matter and yet not knowing that they do so As if our blessed Lord were a made god and not the same God with the Father For the proving of him to be God proves him to be the same God there being but one God Ye would consider for convincing you that it is thus with many of you 1. The little fear that is in men and women of the Majesty of Christ as God they durst not walk with so little fear of him if they believed indeed that he were God What made the Jews with the Scribes and Pharisees to spit upon him and despise him But because they wanted the Faith of his Godhead And have not ye the same nature in you Ye live in a place where the Faith of Christs Godhead is professed and is not questioned but your practice sayes to beholders that ye believe it not because ye fear him not 2. That your souls do so little welcome the offer of the Gospel that tells that ye believe him not to be God 3. That ye do not place your happiness in Believing on him and in the way of holiness ye say in effect wherefore serves Christ ye care not for him Hence it is that so many live contentedly without him and are not sollicitous about the enjoying of him 4. Even in Believers there is much unbelief of this truth which is sadly evidenced by this that they do not so bless themselves in him and that they do not so reckon themselves to have come well to and to be made up in him as David doth Psal 16. Where he saith and holily glorieth The lines are fallen unto me in a pleasant place c. And by the frequent discouragement that is incident to Believers as if Christ had not the guiding of them and of what concerns them or could not guide all well enough for their good If he were believed to be God it would quash temptations banish discouragement comfort under crosses sweeten every condition induce to holiness restrain from sin And in a word it cannot be told what is in the bosome of this one truth when solidly believed For what can possibly be wanting to the Believer in him that is God He hath the fulness of the Godhead to supply what ever they want and sustains the relation of a Husband to the Believer to make it forth-coming And he is furnished with suitable qualifications to make the application thereof What then could be wanting if this were thorowly believed that he is God Let me say it to you the Faith of this would provoke to more holiness and to study more the power then the profession of Religion and would help to live a more comfortable life in every condition SERMON XXX ISAIAH LIII VIII Vers 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement and who shall declare his generation For he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken THese words are a proof of that which we discoursed in the Lecture concerning Christs wonderful love to his pâ—ople Then which no man hath greater that a man should lay down his life for his friend But he hath commedned his love to us in that while we were yet enemies he died for us This is the great commendation of Christ's love and what will he refuse to his people who in his love hath come this length to them In the former part of this verse we shew that there was a hint given of Christ's Exaltation of the Exaltation and Glory of the Mediator following on the back of his lowest sufferings An ineffable and inexpressible Glory which the Prophet rather passeth with a sort of non-plussing silence then insisteth in the declaration of it Who shall declare his generation We come now to the last part of the words For he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken They are added
of patience and obedience to them But the efficacy of his death was from the beginning of the world He was still in that sense the Lamb slain before his Incarnation as well as since And if it be not meritorious in procuring Salvation to Elect Infants what influence or advantage can it have as to them Either they are not taken to Heaven at all or they are taken to Heaven and yet not in the least obliged to Christ for their being brought thither or if they be obliged to him it is certainly by vertue of the merit of his sufferings for expiating the sins of his people 4. It 's clear from this that in this same Chapter and throughout the Gospel all the benefits that come to Gods people as namely Justification and pardon of sin they are attributed to this as the cause of them as vers 11. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many And if all the spiritual benefits that come to us were procured by his death there must necessarily be vertue in it that procured them and it must be a price and satisfaction in reference to the procuring and purchasing thereof that he laid down in his dying 5. It is clear from the end that God had before him in the work of Redemption and in Christ's Sufferings which was to glorify his Justice as well as his Mercy and that neither of them might be clouded or reflected upon now by Christ's death God's Justice is glorified and he is seen to be just in executing his threatning against sin even in the person of his own dearly beloved Son when he became Surety for sinners but if his sufferings had not a satisfaction in them to Divine Justice though there might be some shew of shewing Mercy yet none at all of a satisfaction to Justice but saith the Apostle Rom. 3.25 26. God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness and that he might be just and the justifier of them which believe in Jesus by this God hath made it manifest that he is a just God that none may preposterously presume upon Mercy nor dare to bourd with sin when it is pursued in the Surety with such severity For Use and Application 1. Do not think these truths to be of little concernment to you as alace they and such like truths of the Gospel are often thought of by many and therefore they are tasteless to them and it 's a weariness to people to hear them spoken of and yet notwithstanding this same truth that we are now upon is a great ground of our faith for if we believe not this that Christ was a propitiation for sin we can have no ground of lippening to him or believing on him but knowing and being confirmed in the faith of this truth we have cordially closing with him ground from it to expect God's favour and to be fred from the curse because Christ as our Surety undertook and accordingly satisfied for us which is the thing that makes his death to be sweet that Christ in his death should demit himself to leave us an example is much yet if we had no more by it it would be but cold comfort except we had it as a satisfaction to Divine Justice to rest upon Though this may be looked upon as doctrinal only yet it comes nearer to our practice then we are aware of and though we have not Socinians in opinion and profession to deal with yet we have two sorts that are Socinians in heart amongst us 1. These that securely sin on still and yet hope to get mercy and who will confess that they are sinners but that for making an amends they will pray and mend their life and they will speak of a number of things but it may be not one word of Christ or of his purchase or of their natural inclination to presume and to slight Christ as if they had nothing yet to look to but a Covenant of works without a Saviour or as if God had removed or would remove the curse threatned without a satisfaction so that Christs satisfaction is not known nor rested on by the multitude of Hypocrites that live in the visible Church and this is easily proven from this that there are but very few who make use of him or stand in awe to sin if it were believed that Justice required and will have satisfaction either of the sinner himself or of a surety in his room and that Christ is the only Surety Folks would either quite their hopes of Heaven or be more in Christs common and that so many mantain the hope of Heaven without a due consideration of a satisfaction to Justice by Christ and without employing of him it declares plainly that they are drunken with this error A 2d sort are these who being wakened in Conscience and sensible of sin yet are as heartless hesitating and hopeless to get peace through him as if he had not satisfied what else does the doubting and despondency of such say but that there is not a compleat satisfaction in Christ's death and that therefore they dare not trust to it otherwise they would wonder that God hath provided such a remedy and yet adventure to rest upon it seing God is as well pleased with it as if they had not provocked him at all or had satisfied his Justice themselves 2ly It serves to let us see what we are in God's common and debt and how much we are obliged to the Mediator when there was a necessity that either he should suffer or that we should perish and that though his sufferings drew so deep as to bring him to prison and to judgment and to put him to a holy sinless anxiety and perplexity that yet he yielded to it and underwent all for our sakes this is our great ground of confidence and the strong stay of the mind of a wakened Believer And should make us wonder at the Fathers love that gave the son and at the Sons love that was so condescending and should make our souls warm towards him who when we deserved nothing but to be hurried away to the Pit was content to enter himself as our Surety and to pay our Debt It should also be a motive to chase souls in to him knowing that where sin is there a satisfaction must be and that there is therefore a necessity to fly to him and to be in him because there is no other way to get Justice satisfied the through conviction whereof is that which through grace not only chaseth the soul to but engageth it to close with Christ and to rest upon him and to give him the credit of its thorow-bearing when it is ready otherwise to sink Now the Lord himself teach you to make this use of this Doctrine SERMON XXXII ISAIAH LIII VIII Vers 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement and who shall declare his generation For he was cut off out of the
Converse with them but also to Hâ—s Doctrine And so sayes that there was no Doctrinal deceit in Him Which is when Men lie of God to Men which is a gross sort of lying and a deceiving of Souls in making them to take that for Truth which is no Truth And in derogating from the Truth and making them take that for Error which is Truth As the Apostle speaks of such that they speak lies in hypocrisie These words There was no deceit in his mouth Look to both especially to the last that is the Doctrinal deceit of corrupt Teaching whereof he was free altogether I say it looks especially to that because he was callumniated traduced and called a deceiver of people That is as if the Prophet had said most untrue of Him There is no deceitful word in all His Doctrine though it was imputed to Him yet he was most free of it Thence Observe That exact Holiness and Blamlessnesse takes in Holiness in a Mans Conversation in respect of practice and soundness in His judgement in respect of Doctrine for if our Lord be a Pattern of Holiness that which was in Him as our Pattern is called for from us even to be pure as He is pure No violence was in his hands He was no Stealer nor Robber nor Oppressor to speak so with reverence And there was no deceit in his mouth The Word and Worship of God was not wronged by Him and He is holden forth for an Example to us in both That which we would say further on this shall be in a word of Use Where we may clear both the Branches of the Doctrine to meet with two exceeding prejudicial Tenets among Men. 1. There are some who if they be not Erronious in their Opinions and Sectaries they think they are well enough and insult over the Infirmities of Poor Folk that fall into these Errors And they will like these spoken of Whore Drink Steal Lie c. And yet lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord among us no evil shall come unto us Such half and divide Godliness They will not be Papists Puritans nor Sectaries but there is much unholinesse in their Practice much Self-seeking Pride Hypocrisie Formality Deceiving Cousening Falshood And they cover all with this That they are sound as to their Profession though only hearing and not doing professing and not practising But they would consider that Christ sayeth not Blessed are they that hear only but blessed are they that do the will of God O! beware of this great deceit it is a piece of Christs Innocency and Holiness That no violence was in his hands There was no sinfull thing in His practice no sinful word came from His mouth Ye shall never be accounted followers of Christ though ye give your bodies to be burnt for the Truth as it is to be feared few of you would do if your Conversation be not suitable God shall never accept of your Testimony therefore divide not these things which God hath put together Let Holinesse be in your practice otherwayes Papists and Quakers yea the grossest and most abominable Heretickes and ye will be utterly disclaimed 2. The other Branch of the Use is That suppose there were never so much apprehended tendernesse in folks walk though they were much in Duty and though they would quite all they had to the Poor yet if Deceit be in their mouth if they corrupt the Truth and teach others so to do there is a want of the half of Holinesse yea in some respect of the best and chief half of it And the Reason is 1. Because the Image of God consists as much in the Truth as in the Practice nay if Practice be not conform to Truth it is no true Holinesse and where Error is drunken in there is in so far an utter unsuitableness to the Holinesse of Christ as well as where prophanity appears in the conversation For there was no deceit in his mouth 2. Because this Word of God prescrives the Doctrine of Faith to be believed as well as Duties to be performed and the right grounding of Faith is a main if not the main thing wherein the Image of God consists to wit in Knowledge and Error is as inconsistent with Knowledge as Ignorance is yea more in so far as it leaves a contrary impression of untruth on the Soul which is worse then simple Ignorance 3. Because when a Person miscarrieth by turning aside from the Truth to Error he also miscarrieth in his Practice at least in so far The right conceiving of Truth being both the ground of our Faith and the Rule of our Practice As for instance let once the conceit and fancie come in of Folks being above Ordinances no Conscience is thenceforth made of sanctifying the Sabbath or Lords day nor of any other Duty of Worship but Men become almost if not altogether Athiests Yea 4. The incoming of Error begets a sort of presumptuous confidence Therefore Christ sayes He that breaks one of these commandments and teacheth men so to do he shall be called the least in the kingdom of God he not only breaks the Command himself but he seeks to engadge others to do so likewise so that an Error from the Truth is a sin against the â—irst Table and so among the greatest Evils And the teaching and propogating of Error is a sin against the Second Table because it hazards the Soul of our Neighbour whereas violence in the hands hurts only his Person or Estate And 5ly If we look to the rise of Error or whence it comes we will find it to be a Fruit of the Flesh Gal. 5.19 And that which flows from our corruption and is therefore ranked in with Witchcraft Adultery Furnication Idolatry Hatred Variance c. 6. If we look to the Scriptures account of it and of the Propogators of it We will find that 2 Cor. 11.13 They are called false apostles deceitfull workers ministers of satan not common sins transforming themselves into the ministers of Christ and no marvel for satan himself is transformed into an angel of light For their work is to gather in Souls to the Devil to hale them as in a Net to him to be Discâ—ples to him Or 7. If we look to the Effects that follow upon Error and upon the propogation of it we will find them to be dreadful for as it is 2 Pet. 2. 1. They draw upon themselves swift destruction And chap. 3.16 They wrest or pervert the Scriptures to their own destruction In all these respects Error in Judgement is as evil if not worse then prophanenesse in practice And if we look thorow the Churches of Christ we will find that there hath been more palpable havock and destruction of Souls since Antichrist arose by his grosse Errors and damnable Delusions then hath readily been by sin in Practice which Men do not own and avouch as they do these Delusions Think therefore seriously on this whoever would be pure as Christ
Faith as it is a laying hold upon Christ 3. When we speak of the necessity of Faith in order to Justification we mean not as if there were such an absolute necessity of it in it self that God could not do otherwayes or Justifie without it but we mean a necessity in respect of the order which God hath laid down and held forth in the Gospel which is by the Knowledge of His Son to Justifie many And from these considerations many Arguments of our Adversaries are made very little regardable yea utterly void For Confirmation of the Doctrine then 1. Consider these Scriptures that expresly limit confine and bound Justification and pardon of Sin to the Person that doth believe So Rom. 1.17 The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith Rom. 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood c. Col. 3.22 God hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Act. 13.38.39 Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses Consult the Scriptures and we will find that Paul clears both these Questions 1. who are Justified All that believe 2. When are they Justified When they believe 2ly Consider these Scriptures that place all men before believing into a state of Wrath and they will furnish a second ground for this as John 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already He lyes under the Covenant of Works and is condemned as considered in himself though God may have a purpose to make a change of his state So Ephes 2.1 2 3. You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past ye walked and were children of wrath even as others c. and v. 12 13. We were sometimes without Christ being alians from the common wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise without hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far of are made near by the blood of Christ and v. 8. By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works least any man should boast it 's Faith that gives the Title which we had not before 3. Consider That the Scriptures do expresly make believing to preceed Justification and make Justification to be an effect or rather a consequent of Faith to which Faith necessarly concurrs as all these places which say that we are Justified by Faith in Christ do clear as Rom. 5.1 Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ which place looks on Faiths concurring in Justification with a kind of causality Rom. 3.22.25 The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe c. Ephes 2.8 By grace are ye saved through faith See more fully to this purpose Gal. 2.16 where the Apostle designedly as it were sets himself to confirm this Truth For speaking of the way how Sinners come to be Justified and as it were entring in the Debate he says Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even as we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ In which place we have three things considerable to make out the point 1. He compares the concurring of Faith to Justification in the Covenant of Gracâ— to the concurring of Works to Justification or to the obtaining of Life in the Covenant of Works as Works did Justifie in the Covenant of Works so does Faith in the Covenant of Grace Now certainly the performing of Works in the Covenant of Works behoved to go before Justification that way therefore the want of Works made Adam to come short of Justification by Works 2. He looks on Faith and speaks of it as concurring to Justification with a respect to Christ and never looks on it in this matter as a Grace considered in and by it self but as acting on Christ in a peculiar manner 3. In expresse words he sayes We have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified which clearly implyes that they could not be Justified before they believed and we may well and easily gather that the Justification here meant is that which is real and actual and not the declaring of a man to be Justified to Himself else Works might declare a man to be Justified to himself as well as Faith But he contradistinguishes Faith and Works here and opposes the one to the other The 1. Use Serves for clearing of this Truth That there is a necessity of Faith's taking hold of and resting on Christ ere we can be absolved and Justified And so both these Errors of Antinomians fall to the ground 1. That by which they assert that these who are Justified were Justified from Eternity and were never under God's Curse And 2. That Faith is not necessary to the attaining of Justification but only to a Persons knowing that he is Justified and so they say that Faith enters us not in the Covenant which is false it being the terms or condition on which God proposeth and promiseth pardon in his Covenant as is clear John 3.18 Whosoever believes shall not be condemned but shall have everlasting life and Mark 16.16 He that believes and is baptized shall be saved with this opposition He that believeth not shall be damned Faith being it which enters us in the Covenant For either Sinners are Justified before they can be in Covenant with God which is an absurdity and inconsistent with Gods Covenant or it 's by Faith that they are entered in the Covenant There is here also a clear discovery and confutation of a 3d. Error of Antinomians concerning the nature of Faith That it is Persons believing that they are Justified No not so For as the Apostle sayes Gal. 2.16 We have believed that we might be justified We believe in order to Justification And to say as Antinomians do would do much to infer universality of Justification as well as of Redemption It 's Gods mercy that this Error is discovered and that we have His Truth pointing out to us that Justification must have Faith going before it and alongst with it The 2d Use Serves to demonstrat the absolute necessity of believing and taking hold of Christ If Absolution and Justification be necessary Faith must be necessary And therefore if Christ be preached to you and if by Him all that believe are Justified Take hold then I beseech you of the Offer receive embrace close with it and let
their Debt This will be clear if we consider all these Scriptures that make offer of the pardon of Sin for it 's offered not in the condition of Faith in a more general Notion of it but on condition of Faith in him So Rom. 5.22 24 25. The righteousnesse of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. John 1.12 To as many as received him he gave power to become the Sons of God even to as many as believe in his name Where the Faith that hath the Promise of Justification and the priviledge of Adoption annexed to it is called the receiving of Christ and believing on his name It may also be cleared and confirmed by good reason 1. Faith does not Justifie as it 's cosidered in it self as an Act but as it relates to and units with Christ as the meritorious cause of Justification 2. Neither does Faith Justifie as it looks to every Object which the Word holds forth But as it respects Christ offered in the Gospel whom it receiveth because there is no other thing that can bear the Souls weight and burden Therefore he as offered in the Gospel must be the Object of Faith as it 's saving and justifying 3. The terms of the Covenant and Gods offer clears it also For Gods offer of Justification is not on these terms that a Sinner shall believe his Word in the general but that he believe on His Son whom He hath sent and receive Him as these Scriptures cited before to wit John 3.16.18 and Mark 16.16 Shew where the terms are set down whereon God offers Life to Sinners 4. If we could imagine a man to have all Knowledge and all Faith if Faith Act not on Christ as Redeemer Cautioner and Surety for such as come to Him it will not avail us nor be counted to us for Righteousnesse which may also confirm this truth The Uses of this Doctrine are such as serve both to clear the nature of Faith and to direct us in our practice The 1. Use Then serves to clear the Truth as the Papists corrupt many Truths so they corrupt this Truth concerning the nature of Justifying and Saving Faith in these Three 1. In the Object 2. In the Subject 3. In the Act of it As for the Object of this Faith they make it to be every thing that God reveals and sometimes they take in their own Traditions the reason is because they give not Faith a Causality in Justification nor the capacity and place of a thing acting on Christ particularly but take it in as a common Grace or at the best as a Grace that is Radical and gives Life to other Graces but never as taking hold of Christs Righteousnesse which quite overturns the way of Justification through Faith in Him for Faith that layeth not hold on His Righteousnesse cannot Justifie and their making the Object of Faith to be so broad doth enervat both the immediat merit of Christs Righteousnesse and the exercise of Faith on it 1. Then we grant that there is a Historical Faith requisit as to the whole Word of God yet we say that the Faith that Justifies is properly that Faith that singles out the Righteousnesse of Christ and takes hold of it So that it 's not our believing that the World was made that there will be a day of Judgement nor our believing that a Saviour of Sinners is come into the World and hath suffered c. that Justifies but it 's a closing with a receiving of and a resting on that Saviour a singling out of the Promise that makes offer of him as for instance where it 's said If thou believe on the Lord Jesus thou shall be saved and pitching on that and resting on him holden out in the Promise Faith gives the Soul footing here whereas before it's case was very desperat 2. We may clear what we are to look to as the object of Justifying and Saving Faith by our putting in these Three Words or Expressions in the Doctrine to wit Christ Jesus his Righteousnesse holden forth in the promise of Gods free grace in the Gospel and which are needful to be taken in though it be not alwayes necessary that we be explicit ln the uptaking of them 1. There is need of taking in Christs righteousnesse because it 's our defence at the Bar of Gods Justiâ—e even as a Debitor whose Debt the Cautioner hath payed hath that to answer when he is charged for it that his Cautioner hath payed it 2. There is need to take in this Holden forth in Gods promise in the gospel because though Christ be the Object of Justifying Faith and His Righteousnesse be the ground of the Souls defence before God yet Gods Promise must be looked on by Faith for the use making of Christ and His Righteousnesse and as a warrand to rest on Him and to expect Justification through Him and thus Faith hath Christs fulnesse or His full and compleat Satisfaction for Righteousnesse and Gods Faithfulnesse impledged that the Believer shall be accepted through it And it s on this ground that Faith sometimes looks on God as Able sometimes as Faithful Therefore it 's said Heb. 7.25 He is able to save to the uttermost and Heb. 11. Sarah judged him faithful who had promised whereupon there is a closing with the offer in the Promise and a looking to obtain that which is Promised as if they had a Righteousnesse of their own and this the Apostle calls the law of faith Rom. 3.27 Because to Justification there is beside the payment of the Debt a Law declaring the man to be absolved requisit and the Sinner having Gods offer and Promise that upon his accepting of Christs Righteousnesse he shall be Justified instructs that his Debt is payed by his Cautioner and that therefore he ought to be and is accordingly absolved And though Gods Promise be not so properly a Law yet the Apostle calleth it so and it is a solid defence to the Soul that is fled to Christ Who may thus reason I have no Righteousnesse of my own but Christs Righteousnesse by Proclamation is offered to me in the Gospel and I have heartily received it and closed with it and God is faithfull to make good His Promise to me and this looks to Christ as He is revealed in the Gospel 3. There is need to put in this word The promise of Gods free grace because hereby the Sinner is made to see whence the Promise came and of what nature it is and gives ground to take hold of the Promise and of that which is made offer of in it the Promise is of free Grace therefore it 's alwayes called the Covenant of Grace So Rom.
for which cause Faith gets the name of Knowledge here and elsewhere in Scripture the antecedent being put for the consequent For Faith hath alwayes Knowledge with it though Knowledge hath not alwayes Faith 2. That there be an assent to the thing known as when we know that we are Sinners and that it is the Blood of Christ that must cleanse us from Sin we must assent to the truth of these as Christ sayes John 8. If ye believe not Moses his writings how shall ye believe my Words If ye assent not to the truth of that he hath written how can ye believe my speaking both these are in the understanding and if there be no more this makes but Historical Faith 3. When the Soul knows it's a Sinner and under the Curse and that Christ is a Saviour and that there is Salvation to be gotten by such a Mean and that he an able Saviour and hath assented to the truth of these there is a consenting of the heart to that Truth conditionally proposed and made offer of that is to receive Christ as he is offered in the Gospel which in Scripture is called a receiving of Him John 1.12 To as many as received him c. And this is an Act of the Will respecting Christ as offered and a bargain proposed that will make the Soul happy where Faith accepts 4. There is a resting on Christ received as a good bargain which is also an Act of the heart or will called in Scripture a committing our selves to him a leaning on him or rolling our selves on him which we conceive to be the same that Paul hath Philip. 3.9 That I may be found in him When the Soul places it's safety here and lippens to Christs Righteousnesse alone as contradistinguished to it 's own These Two last Acts are properly the essence of Faith as Justifying and they are well holden out in the Catechism where Faith is described to be a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon Christ as he is offered in the Gospel we shall illustrat it in a comparison made use of before to this purpose Suppose there were a number of Rebells that had incurred the Princes displeasure and were guilty of Treason by the Law suppose also the Princes Son or some Courtier hath satisfied for them and procured their Pardon and Peace upon which there comes out a Proclamation that if they will submit and yeeld themselves and lay down their Arms they shall be pardoned and admitted to friendship as if they had never Rebelled These Rebels must know 1. That there is an Act of Favour past and a Proclamation made on such Terms 2. They must have a general Faith and Assent to the thing and that there is no Question but such a thing is done 3. There is a consultation by the understanding with the will if they will admit of and receive it and trust themselves to it And then 4. There is the hearts consenting to accept of the offer of Grace on the Terms of the Proclamation and a resting on it which is a lippening of their Defence to it that if ever they should be called to an accompt they will make use of such an Act of Grace and of the Proclamation for their Defence and safety and lippen to it and to His Faithfulnesse who made the Proclamation believing that He will fulfil His Word and Promise It is just so here in a Sinners acting Faith for Justification We may instance and illustrat it also in the example of the Prodigal wherein we may find something of all this when he had been in the hight of his distraction and madness in his natural condition It 's said He came to himself he knew and believed that there was meat enough in his Fathers house and resolved to go home upon his knowledge follows his resolution and his will consents I will rise and go which supposes his Faith of an offer of meat on condition of his going and then there is that whereon he grounds his Defence I will say father I have sinned I will disclaim all and betake me to thy Grace implyed in the word Father he resolves to table his Defence on this ground and upon this comes home More particularly 1. Knowledge of the Object rested upon is necessary Rom. 10. How can they believe on him of whom they have not heard It is not possible we can believe what we know not And as every other step hath some doctrinal mistake and some practical so hath this The Doctrinal mistake is that Error of Papists unworthy to be refuted They say there is no Knowledge requisit to Faith Yea some of their prime men have said that Faith is rather Ignorance then Knowledge but surely then Faith would not be called Knowledge if it might rather be defined Ignorance but this they maintain to keep the People in Ignorance of the Gospel and it 's the ground of many moe Errors and much Delusion It 's even as a blind man could go well in a slippery place where are many Pits for Knowledge is no lesse necessary to Faith then eyes are to such a man The practical Errors in this are such as we find in many of you who think ye can believe well but ask and put you to it ye cannot tell what many of you are obstinat maintainers of implicit Faith while ye say ye have Faith and yet cannot tell what it is nor whereon it is grounded but we say that Knowledge is so necessary to Faith that if it be not a part of it yet it 's necessarly antecedanious to it and presupposed Therefore if ever ye would be accounted Believers study Knowledge and the Knowledge of Christ Crucified at least so far as to ground your Faith upon It 's sad that so many will maintain the reality of their Faith and yet are grosly Ignorant of the Fundamentaâ—s of Religion Knowledge is the very use of and first step to believing and yet it 's hardly possible to brangle the vain confidence of many whom it 's as impossible to bring to Knowledge 2. There is an Assent requisit to the Object Known which is that we call historical faith and this is to be confirmed in the general Truths contained in the Gospel as that Adam was made according to Gods Image that he fell and brake the Covenant of Works and made himself and all his lyable to Gods Curse That we are by that Covenant under Gods Curse That Christ Jesus the Son of God according to the Covenant of Redemption entered Himself Cautioner for the Elect that He really died and payed their Debt That His purchase is made offer of in the Gospel and that according to the Covenant of Grace there is an real absolution from Sin and an eternal happinesse to be had at the great Day through embracing of Him There must be an assent to the Truth of these things for it is impossible that they who think not themselves Sinners and that mind
not a Day of Judgement and a reckoning will ever close with Christ and lippen to His Righteousnesse I fear there are but few hearers of the Gospel that come the length of Devils in believing and yet all will needs be counted Christians we would here upon the one hand disclaim the Popish Error that plâ—ceth all the essence of Faith in the understanding which is somewhat strange seing they scarce think Knowledge of the thing to be believed necessary The reason is because they know or at least own nothing more of the concurrence of Faith in Justification then is obedience to a Commandement they think it 's a duty obedience to a Commandment to assent to any Truth therefore they take this general historical Faith to be the only Faith as they take Holinesse to be the only ground of their Peace when they are called to an accompt and thus Faith as a part of their Holinesse comes in but they admit of no particular respect to Faiths taking hold of Christs Righteousnesse as the immediat ground of their Peace Upon the other hand we would seclude the vain Faith of many Professors who some way believe all that 's in the Bible so as they question nothing herein They know no other Faith but this yet if this were Justifying Faith the Devil should have it For they believe and tremble They believe there is a God that Christ is the Son of God that they that believe shall not perish that God is Faithful c. But this Historical Faith is not enough 1. Because as I just now said it may be in Reprobats and Devils 2. Because the Scripture expresly differenceth this sort of Faith from saving Faith many were called Believers to whom Christ would not commit himself as it is John 2.24 For though they believed it to be truth which He spake yet they rested not on Him So in the Parable of the Sower Math. 13. There are three grounds that receive the Seed which imports in two of them at least a kind of Believing but the fourth ground is only good 3. Because this Faith Acts upon every revealed Truth alike and assents to all Passages recorded in the Bible alike as one and to that Paul left his cloak at Troas and the like as it Acts on that this is a faithful saying that Christ came into the world to save sinners and such like But according to the ground formerly given Faith as it Justifies Acts on Christ only and therefore this bare assent to the Truth of the Word cannot be Justifying Faith because it Acts no otherways on Christ then it doth upon other things ye would therefore know a difference in your practice betwixt these two The crediting the truth of a thing and your actual receiving and resting upon that Truth As for Example a man proposeth Marriage to a woman and she believes that he is in earnest and not in scorn yet there is a great difference betwixt that and her actual consenting to marrie him So it is here the man may believe that Christ doth really make offer of Himself to him and yet be far from cordial receiving of Him or take it in the example made use of before suppose that some of the Rebells we spoke of believe the Proclamation to be a Truth yet thinking it hard to be under the bands of Government they do not embrace it If it be Objected here That the Scripture often calls Justifying Faith a believing that Christ is the Son of God which is no more then this assent of the Judgement or Historical Faith For Answer it would be considered of whom the Scripture there speaks 1. It is of Jews for the most part who had the Faith of the Messiah generally among them and no question the Believers of them such as the proselyted Eunuch Martha and Mary had the Faith of the Messiah satisfying Divine Justice and of their Justification through His Satisfaction But the great question of the Jews was whether Jesus the Son of Mary was the Messiah or not and it being revealed and believed that he was the other followed they rested on Him of will to say so as the Messiah 2. Believing of Christ to be the Son of God doth not exclude but include their consenting to the receiving of Christ but it holds forth also their assent to and perswasion of that Truth that was then debated that He was indeed the promised Messiah and the Son of God For the Devils confessed Him to be the Son of God and none will say but there was more in their believing Him to be the Son of God then in the Devils believing it who never believe unto Salvation as they did 3. Consider that as sometimes Knowledge is put for Faith so this assent may be put for Faith where yet more is implyed in it especially considering that Rom. 10. Faith is called Faith of the heart with the heart man believeth Now believing with the heart being an Act of the will these Testimonies setting out Faith to be a believing Christ to be the Son of God must imply a lippening to Him following upon it we are therefore never to look on these places as comprehending a bare assent only but as including also and carrying alongst with it the cordial receiving Him and of resting upon Him For the 3. to wit the receiving Act of Faith which differs from the former as we shew in the examples hinted at before It looks to the Covenant of Redemption betwixt Jehovah and the Mediator it accepts of the Terms of the Covenant as they are proposed in the Gospel and consents to the bargain and as God proposes the Righteousnesse of Christ it submits to the same which Paul 1 Tim. 1. calls a saying worthy of all acceptation to be welcomed and believed as such and the Believers mentioned Heb. 11. are said not to have received the promises but to have seen them afar off and to have embraced or saluted them This receiving is no Physical or Natural Act as if we were to receive such a thing by the mouth or bodily hand It 's an Act of Faith in the heart proportioned and suited to this Spiritual Bargain or Marriage proposed in the Covenant of Grace and it 's like a mans consenting to a civil bargain or like a womans consenting to marry a man As when it is said to Sinners ye are naturally dead in Sins and trespasses and under Gods Curse But be it known to you that we preach Remission of Sins to you through the Blood of Christ Faith considers this offer accepts of and welcomes it The 4th and last Act is a resting on him which is still the same Faith but another Act of it Not as if there might be a receiving and not a resting or a resting and not a receiving or as if we were to difference them in respect of time but Faith is said to receive as it respects the Gospel offer of Christ and his Satisfaction and it
and clears it It shall be saith he that many shall be Justified through Faith in Him For he shall bear their iniquities He shall take on and pay their Debt And so as I said it is a reason confirming the former Truth and shewing that it cannot be otherwayes but they must be absolved through Faith in Him because He bears the punishment due to them for their Sin It serves also to clear how Justification is attained by Faith to wit not by any vertue or efficacy that is in Faith abstractly considered as if believing of it self did the turn but by vertue of Christs bearing their iniquities and making Satisfaction for them which Faith layes hold on So that when he said By his knowledge shall many be justified It is not by any efficacy attributed to their believing but by vertue of Christs Righteousnesse and Satisfaction which only Faith gives a Title to and is the midse and way by which a Believer comes to it and so as I have said it serves for explication of the former Truth So that if the question be asked how can Sinners be Justified by believing It 's here answered because Christ shall take on their Debt and the Righteousnesse purchased by Him shall redound to them and be reckoned theirs It 's the same on the matter with that which we have 2 Cor. 5. ult He that knew no sin was made sin for us and what follows That we might be made the righteousness of God in him which clears that this way of Justification which the Gospel holds out is not as I just now said by any efficacy or worth in Faith it self nor by any inherent qualifications in the person that believes but this is the ground of it Christs bearing of our iniquities The Elect were Sinners and Christ hath taken on Him their iniquities Therefore they cannot but upon their fleeing to Him by Faith be Justified when they plead His Satisfaction for their Defence before God their Absolution must needs follow This is the scop of these Words which are as it were the bond knitting all the rest together and containing the foundation whereon our Justification is founded There are only Three Words here that need a little of explication 1. By iniquity is not meaned Sin formally taken We shew when we spake of the 6. v. That Christ was not the Sinner formally considered that being inconsistent with His holy Nature and with the personal union of the Man head with the God-head But the meaning is that He took on Him the punishment due to our iniquities or the punishment that our iniquities deserved 2. When He is said to bear their iniquities it imports a burdensome bearing or His bearing of it with a weight and that there was a weight in it as it 's said verse 3. and 4. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows And therefore the Apostle 1 Pet. 2.24 saith He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree when He was made a curse for us as it is Gal. 3.13 He did bear our Sins by coming under the Curse that was due to us for them In a word His bearing of our iniquities is a real satisfying of the Justice of God for them by interposing His own blessed back and taking on the stroaks that were due to us 3. When it 's said Their iniquities It relats to the many that in the former Words are said to be justified through His Knowledge it 's spoken of the iniquities of the Elect and Believers who through Christ are made friends with God And therefore these being the many they cannot but be Justified because Christ hath come and payed their Debt according to His Ingagement These Words as almost every other verse of this Chapter contain the substance of the Gospel Take shortly Five or Six Observations from them which we shall put together The 1. Is That the Person who is to be Justified by Faith in Christ is naturally lying in iniquities this is supposed while it is said that Christ shall bear their iniquities â—ven the iniquities of them who are to be Justified through Faith in Him So it 's said before The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all and we all like sheep have gone astray These and many other Scriptures nay the whole current of the Scriptures confirm the point and put it beyond debate I observe it for these Ends and Uses which will shew why it is so frequently marked 1. That the freedom of Gods Grace may kyth the more in their Justification They are Sinners even as others are and it 's Grace that makes the diffâ—rence Therefore their Justification must be free If then any would have good or have gotten good by the Gospel and by Christ offered to them therein let them know that it is freely 2. That a Believer who is Justified should be very humble for he was a Sinner as well as others and is still a Sinner in part Therefore it becomes him to walk fortly with a stopped mouth and to be tender and compassionat towards other Sinners There is not a Believer but the weight of his iniquities would have born him down to Hâ—ll had not Christ interposed and taken them on him and therefore he ought to be both humble and thankful 3. That Sinners who have the offer of Christ's Righteousnesse in the Gospel may not dispair how great soever their Sins be Indeed if they resolve to continue in Sin or to Sin that Grace may abound they have no ground to expect pardon the Apostle doth with abhorrency reject the drawing of such conclusions from the Grace of God Rom. 3. But for a guilty Sinner that hath no good in himself to commend him to Christ to lean to and to believe in Him who justifies the ungodly is a Doctrine which the same Apostle approves and gives an open door to them that desire to abandon Sin and to expect Justification through Christ's Satisfaction Thus a door is set open to you to bâ—lieve in Him who justifies ungodly Sinners to betake your selves to Him who is the Saviour 4. To confound and stop the mouths of all Self-righteous men as having nothing to do with Christ He came to take on iniquity and to bear it He came to seek and to save that which was lost and hath not a commission to save Self-righteous Folks For he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and so long as they continue in that condition they cannot look on themselves as persons whom He came to call neither can they take any comfort in or from His coming The 2d Observation is That wherever iniquity is it 's a burden a heavy burden There is nothing more heavy then Sin it being that which presses the guilty person to the lowest Hell It brought the fallen Angels out of Heaven to the pit ye may tâ—ke an instance or two of
to His Death what benefite redâ—unds to them from His Offices of King Priest and Prophet to the slaying of Sin and quickening to holy Duties what benefite or fruit from His Death Alace no more with most then if He had never died what profite or real influence as to any Spiritual change do any to count upon find and think ye all these things to be but words They know Him not that feel not something of the efficacy of His Death and Resurrection in themselves 3. Observe That the Report concerning Christ is the main subject and eâ—rand that has been and is and will be common to all the Ministers of the Gospel to the end of the World It 's our Report it was the Report of all the Prophets Act. 10.43 To him bear all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth on him should have remission of sins they all agree and have a joint Testimony in these 1. In one Subject Christ and the same things concerning Him as that the pardon of Sin is to be gotten in Him and through Faith in Him and no other way c. 2. In one Commission they have all one Commission though they be not all equal all are not Apostles yet all are Ambassadours there is the same Authority for us to report and you to receive the Gospel as if Isaiah or Paul were preaching the Authority depending on the Commission and not on the persons of Men who carry it 3. In one common End which they all have and in one common Object they are sent to 4. In this that they all hold of one common Master being Gifts of one and the same Mediator Eph. 4. When he ascended on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men to some Apostles c. The first Use is To teach you not to think the less of the Testimony or matter testified because of these that testifie to you if Isaiah or Paul were testifying to you ye would get no other Tydings though their life and way would be of another sort and stamp then ours are alace for the most part we are warranded as well as they to make Christ known to you therefore take heed of rejecting this Testimony of this Christ that we bear witness unto it is the same Christ that the Law and the Prophets bear witness to There is not another name given under heaven whereby a sinner can be saved it 's through Him that whosoever be on Him may receive remission of sins in this ye have not onely us but the Prophets and Apostles to deall with yea Jesus Christ and God Himself and the rejecting of us will be found to be the rejecting of them it 's the same Testimony on the matter that it was in Isaiah his time and therefore tremble and fear all ye that slight the Gospel ye have not us for your Party but all the Prophets and Isaiah among the rest and our Lord Jesus Christ who hath said He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me there will be many aggravations of the guilt of an Unbeliever and this will be a main one even the Testimony of all the Prophets that concur in this Truth which they have rejected take heed to this all ye Atheists that know not what it is to take with Sin and all ye Hypocrites that coin and counterfeit a Religion of your own and all ye legal Persons that lean to your own righteousness what will ye say when it shall be found that ye have rejected all these Testimonies ye must either say ye counted them false Witnesses which ye will not dare to say or that ye accounted them true and yet would not receive their Testimony and the best of these will be found sad enough for if ye counted them true why did ye not believe them this will be a very pungent dilemma Use 2. For comfort to poor Believers they have good ground to receive and rest upon Jesus Christ there is never a Prophet Apostle or Preacher of the Gospel but he hath sealed this Truth concerning Christ what needs any sinner scar at Him or be fearful to close with Him will ye give credit to the Testimony of Isaiah and of Peter Acts 10.43 and of the rest of the Prophets and Apostles then receive their Report and set your selves to be among the number of Believers that their Testimony may be rested on We are perswaded there is one of two that will follow on this Doctrine either a strong encouragement to and confirmation of believing and quietly resting on Jesus Christ for pardon of sin or a great ground of aggravation of and expostulation with you for your guilt who care not whether ye receive this Report or not We shall say no more for the time but God bless this to you SERMON II. ISAIAH LIII I Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed THE Prophet Isaiah is very solicitous about the fruit of his Preaching when he hath preached concerning Christ as indeed it is not enough for Ministers to preach and for People to hear except some fruit follow and now when he hath been much in Preaching and looketh to others that have been much in that work he sadly regrates the little fruit it had and would have among them to whom Christ was and should be spoken of a thing that in the entry should put us to be serious lest this complaint of Isaiah stand on record against us seeing he complains of the Hearers of the Gospel not only in his own time but in our time also We told you there were four things in this first part of the Verse 1. The great errand that Ministers have to a People it is to report concerning Christ and beside what we observed from this Head before looking to the Scope we shall observe further 1. The end that Ministers should have before them in preaching Christ and the Gospel is That the Hearers of it may be gained to Jesus Christ by hearing so as they may be brought to believe on Him it 's in a word to gain them to saving Faith in Christ 2. It is implyed That Jesus Christ is only to be proposed as the Object of Faith to be rested on by the Hearers of the Gospel and as the only ground of their Peace there is no name that can be mentioned for the salvation of Souls but this Name only ly and there is no other Gospel can be proposed but that which holdeth Him out to People 3. Observe which is much the same with the former Observation and to which we would speak a little more particularly That by the preaching of the Gospel Jesus Christ is laid before the Hearers of it as the Object of their Faith and proposed to be believed upon by them else there would be no ground of this complaint against them but where-ever this Gospel is preached there is Christ is laid as it were at the
the account on which we go to Him and rest on Him even as a consciencious Duty is that which flows from a Command as obedience to it so one of the main things that qualifies this Faith is a receiving Christ as Christ or as He is holden out in the Gospel which is therefore well put in the description given of Faith in the Catechism and it 's called a believing on Him whom the Father hath sent which is not to Believe on Christ simply but as He is holden out in the Word of the Gospel Presumption may look on Christ and His Fulness and few or none will readily dare to give Him a direct and down-right refusal or to reject Him professedly and avowedly when they hear of such Happiness that is to be had in Him but that which we say qualifies Faith is to desire receive and embrace Him according as He is holden out in the Gospel for wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 when He is lippened to with an Eye to the Promise and when that which makes us rest on Him is the Word of God for though Christ be the material Object of Faith yet the Word is the formal Object whereby we get a Right to Him and there is no gripping or getting hold of Christ but in and according to His Word and therefore the generality of People who on the Matter take the Antinomian way think they have no more to do but to apply Christ and to count Him their own at the very first but thorow their not exercising Faith on the Word of Promise they miss Him this is as I have said a main qualification of Saving Faith even to rest on Christ as He is holden out in the Word and by the Word to take hold of Him and rest upon Him Saving Faith doth not simply rest on Christ because He is Merciful and hath all Fulness in Him but it rests on Him and His Fulness as received in the Word and offered by God in His Word Faith takes God's Faithfulness in His Word and lays hold on Him by that Christ is the thing that makes Hâ—ppy but God's Faithful Promise is the Right by which we get a Title to that thing we would never love nor like of that Faith that knows not the use of the Word that betakes it self to Christ or the things in the Word but meddles not nor hath any dealing with the Word that holds them out when as it is only this Word that gives us warrand to expect that His Fulness shall be made forth-coming for our up-making and for the supply of all our need many desire and expect good of God but get it not because their expectation is not founded on His Word and God's Faithfulness in His Word is not closed withall In a word I would have you to think that Faith is neither an easie nor an insuperably difficult thing but that it is easie to go wrong and difficult to go right and that without God's special and powerful guiding ye cannot believe nor exercise Faith nor walk in the way of believing in Him and dependance on Him that ye may be helped to make a right use of Christ and to build upon Him that ye may not slip nor stumble and fall on the Stumbling-stone laid in Zion on which so many fall every day and break themselves to peices SERMON VI. ISAIAH LIII I Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed IF it were not recorded in the infallible Scriptures of Truth we would hardly believe that there could be so much powerful and sweet Preaching of the most excellent Instruments that ever were imployed and yet that there should be so little Fruit following on it who would believe that Isaiah so excellent so sweet and so evangelick a Prophet should have preached so many pleasant plain and powerful Sermons to a People from the Lord and yet that he should have so many sad complaints as he hath Chap. 6 28 and 58. that he should be put to bring in the Lord saying All the day long have I stretched out my hands to a rebellious People chap. 65. and that here himself should have it to say Who hath believed our report It 's scarce one Man here or there that hath Savingly believed on Christ and this is the third thing in the Words that now we would speak to and it 's a very sad though a very clear Truth The Doctrine is this That there may be much powerful Preaching of the Gospel and yet Unbelief generally among the Hearers of it Or take it with dependance on the former two namely 1. That the great work of the Ministry is to propose and make Christ known to a People 2. That the great Duty of a People that have Christ proposed to them is to Believe on Him Then this 3. Follows on the back of these That a People may have Christ proposâ—d to them brought to their Heart and Mouth and though it be but Believing that is called for from them yet that cannot be obtained from most of them This Gospel-duty of Believing is often slighted by the Hearers of the Gospel this is clearly holden forth here Who hath believed our report we have called for Faith but it 's a rare thing among the multitude of Hearers to get one that believeth Savingly To make out and prove this a little further we would consider this Complaint with these Aggravations of it which will make it the more clear and so the more to be wondred at As 1. These of whom the Complaint is made it is not Heathens but God's own People as the Lord complains Psal 81 10 11. My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would have none of me our Lord Jesus complains of Jerusalem Matth. 23. at the end O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thee and thou wouldst not that the Lord 's own professing People should not believe nor receive the Report that is made of Him hightens the Complaint and aggravates their guilt exceedingly 2. It is not a Complaint as to one Sermon or as to one Time but it 's a Complaint frequently repeated as to many fruitless Sermons and as to many Times yea Generations Isaiah preached long in many Kings Reigns and yet all along his Prophecy he complains of it as Chap. 6.11 How long Lord shall their eyes be blind and their ears heavy c. and Chap. 28.9 Whom shall I teach Doctrine them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts precept must be upon precept and line upon line here a little and there a little and Chap. 65.2 All day long I have streatched out my hands to a rebellious people and here again Who hath believed our report much and long or many years Preaching much plain and powerful Preaching and yet little or no Fruit they are snared and taken and fall backward for all that And this was not in
where there are three sorts of Ground that never bring forth good Fruit and there He speaks not only of the time of His own Personal Ministry but of all times 2. Look to the ordinary and dayly effect or rather consequent of this preached Gospel and it will prove it do not many Perish do not many croud thick in the broad Way that leads to Destruction do not but very few Fruits of Faith appear is there not little lamentably little real Change in the Way and Walk of most to be seen To clear it yet further Go thorow the several Ranks of Persons that in God's account are Unbelievers and lay them by O! there will be exceeding few Believers in Christ found First Then lay by the grosly Prophane that are never so much as civilized Secondly The Ignorant Stupid and Senseless that never have mind they have Souls are never feared for Wrath nor in the least exercised to make their Peace with God Thirdly The Earthly-minded that mind no other thing save the World Fourthly These of a Civil outward Carriage that have some good Works and as they think good Days too and yet come not near Christ to close with Him Fifthly The Hypocrites and that of all sorts both the presuming Hypocrites that will thank God they are better than their Neighbours and yet lippen not to Christ and free Grace through Him but seek to establish their own Righteousness gross as it is and the legal Hypocrites that never denyed their own Righteousness nor submitted to the Righteousness of Christ Lay aside all these I say and we leave it to your own Consciences to judge how few will be found to have Saving Faith and therefore I am perswaded if there be any truth of God delivered to you that this is a truth that though the Gospel be preached to many yet there are but few Hearers of it that do actually Believe in Jesus Christ to the saving of their Souls Use 1. The first Use of it is To beseech you to let this sink deep into your Minds as the Truth of God for these Reasons 1. Because it 's a most useful Truth and if it were believed it would make Folks very watchful over themselves and to tremble for fear lest they be found amongst the multitude that Believe not and put them tâ— secure and sicker their Interest in God and not to rest on a Fashion and Form of Religion without observing what Fruit followeth on the Gospel among the many Evils that undo not a few we think this is not the least that this Truth is never thorowly fixed in them they think there are many Heathens and Turks without the Church and many gross Swearers Drunkards and others such within it that will Perish but none others or at least that they are but very few who among a professing People Perish neither can they be induced to think it 's such a hard matter to get one or a very few that are Believers in a Countrey side so that if Isaiah were now alive to cry Who believes our report each of them would be ready to answer I believe 2. Because for as certain and useful a Truth as this is yet generally it 's not believed Folks cannot think that so few Believe and that Believing is so difficult and rare a thing I would ask you this Question Was it ever a difficulty to any of you to Believe If not what is it that makes Believing so rare what should move the Prophet thus to complain Who hath believed our report I shall shortly give you some Evidences that many of you do not really believe this Truth The first is That so few of you tremble at the Word of God the Historical Faith that the Devils have makes them tremble but ye have not that much this is given as a Property of a suitable Hearer of the Gospel to whom the Lord will look Isa 66.1 2. that he is one who trembles at the Word but the most part of you that hear this Gospel are like these Piâ—lars on which this House stands who are never so much as once moved at the Word ye either take not Faith to be an absolutely necessary thing and that ye cannot but Perish without it or ye think that the Faith ye were Born with will do your turn ye do not Believe that ye are naturally under the power of the Devil and led Captive of him at his will and that without Holiness and a spiritual gracious Frame and stamp on your Heart and Way ye shall never see God what wonder then that ye come not to rest on Christ when the very Letter of the Gospel is not credited A second Evidence is That there is so little preparation made to prevent your eternal Hazard it 's said of Noah Heb. 11. that Noah being warned of God prepared an Ark and this is attributed to his Faith it 's not possible that ye would live so negligently and carelesly if ye believed that the Curse of God were pursuing you and that ye will be brought to reckon for that which ye have done in the Body and that ye will meet with God as an Enemy if this were believed though your Hearts were harder than they are it would make you tremble and put you to other sort of thoughts and seriousness A third Evidence is That there is no Fruit of Faith among many of you for where it is it will not be got altogether smuthered but will kythe and shew it self one way or other and if ye will still assert your Faith I would say to you as James doeth to these to whom he writes Shew me your Faith by your works if ye shall say God knows I answer that ye shall find that to be a Truth that He knows and He will make you know that He does so but alace that poor Shift will not avail you when it comes to the Push O try your Faith then by your Works see what Mortification of Lusts what Repentance from dead Works what grouth in Knowledge what shining of Holiness in your Conversation is attained to many of you as to your very Knowledge are as if ye lived among Heathens many of whom have been as free of Vice and more profitable to others than many of you are and cared as little for the World as many of you do how comes it to pass then that ye have lived as if ye could have Faith and yet have no Fruit ye must either say that Faith is not necessary or that ye may have Faith without Fruit for we are sure your Fruit is not the Fruit of Faith To live honestly as you call it what is that there are many Heathens who have gone beyond you in that we will not say that Moral Honesty is nothing but sure it is not all all the Fruits of meer Moral Honesty are but sour Fruits that will set your Teeth on edge Neither is it your Hearing of the Word only but your Believing and
Doing of it that will profite you it 's very sad that most plain obvious Duties are not at all followed as the studying of Knowledge the exercising of Repentance one of the very first Duties which is never separated from Faith the humbling of the Soul before God the loathing of your selves for all ye have done the Love of God c. for there may be Challenges for gross Evils in Heathens and Fear is not Repentance but Godly Sorrow that causeth Repentance not to be repented of A fourth Evidence is The want of that Work of God's Spirit that accompanies Faith Faith is a special Work of the Spirit and the gracious Gift of God it 's wrought by the exceeding mighty Power of God whereby He raised Christ from the Dead and by that same Power He worketh in them that Believe now knew ye ever what this Work meaned found ye it ever to be a difficult Work to Believe knew ye ever what it was to have the Spirit of God constraining your Heart to Believe I speak not of any extraordinary thing but certainly Faith is not Natural nor cometh from pure Nature and wherever it is it manifests it self by Works and evidenceth the Power of the Spirit in the working thereof There are some sad Evidences of and bitter Fruits that spring from this Root to wit Folks being Strangers to the experimental Knowledge of the Work of Faith As 1. When Men know no more difficulty to get Christ and to rest on Christ then to believe a Story of Wallace or of Julius Cesar 2. When Folks say that they believed all their Days and believed always since ever they knew Good by Ill and though their Faith be no true Saving Faith but a guessing yet they will not quite it yea it 's impossible for Men to get them convinced that they want Faith 3. When Men never knew what it is to be without Faith it 's one of the great Works of the Spirit John 16.8 to convince of the want of Faith Folks will be easily convinced that breach of the Sabbath that Stealing that bearing false Witness c. are Sins where the special Work of the Spirit is not but how many of you have been convinced of the want of Faith we are constrained to say this sad word when we look on this Text that it is lamentably fulfilled in your Eyes and in this our Congregation think not that we wrong such of you who have believed our Report Ah it 's few even very few of you that Receive and Believe this Gospel Use 2. The second Use is for Conviction If it be ordinary for the great part of the Hearers of the Gospel not to Believe let it sink in your Hearts that it is no extraordinary thing that hath befallen you are ye not such Hearers as many of these were who heard Isaiah and Jesus Christ and if so will not this follow that there are many yea even the thick and throng of the Hearers of this Gospel that Believe not and who if Christ were gathering Sinners by this preached Gospel would not be gathered if where the Gospel comes many do not Believe then here in this City where the Gospel is preached to a great multitude of professing Members of the visible Church there are readily many that do not Believe or let me ask of you a Reason why ye do except your selves either this Truth holds not so universally or many of you must fall under it or else give a Reason why you fall not under it the Truth which Isaiah preached hath been preached to you and yet ye remain Unbelieving and Dispisers of the Invitation to the Marriage of the King's Son as the Jews did we are not now speaking of Jews Turks nor Heathens nor of the Churches in general nor of other Congregations but of you in Glasgow that have this Gospel preached amongst you and we say of you that there are few that believe our Report Think it not our Word the Application flows natively from the Text not from necessity of the thing but from the ordinary course of Mens Corruption are not the same Evidences of the want of Faith which we spoke of among you how many are there in their Life Prophane how many rest on Civility and Formality is there not as little Repentance now as was in Isaiah's time as little denying of our own Righteousness and making use of Christ's though the Word be taught by Line upon Line here a little and there a little It may be though ye think that the Doctrine is true in the general ye will not ye cannot digest the Application That among so many of you visible Professors of Faith there are but few real Believers therefore we shall follow the Conviction a little further by giving you some Considerations to make it out that we have but too just ground to make Application of the Doctrine to you especially considering the abounding of Corruption that is amongst you that ye may be put to fear the Wrath that attends Sin and to flee to Christ for Refuge in time 1. Consider of whom it is that the Prophet is speaking and of what Time Is it not of the Times and Days of the Gospel had not the Spirit in dictating this Text of Scripture an Eye on Scotland and on Glasgow and do not our Lord Jesus Christ and Paul apply it in their Days and why then may not we also in ours and when the Spirit speaks expressly of the last Times that they shall be perilous and of the falling away of many should it not give us the hotter alarm 2. Do not all things agree to us as to them is not this Gospel the same is our Preaching any better than theirs nay had they not much more powerful Preaching and if that Preaching which was much more powerful had not efficacy as to many to work Faith in them what may we expect to do by our Preaching are not your Hearts as deceitful are not your Corruptions as strong are ye not as bent to Back sliding as they were what sort of Folks were they that were unfruitful Hearers were they not Members of the visible Church as ye are circumcised under the Old Testament as ye are baptized under the New was it not these who had Christ and His Apostles preaching to them yea they were not among the more Ignorant sort who did not Believe but Scribes and Pharisees and these not of the prophanest sort only but such as came to Church and attended on Ordinances as ye do yea were such as had Gifts and cast out Devils and preached in Christ's Name as you may see Luk. 13.26 Now when there are so many and of such Ranks who get no good of the Word and of such a great many that will seek to enter in and shall not be able to whom Christ will sall say depart I know you not ye Workers of Iniquity What can be the reason that many of you do so confidently
is the arm of the Lord revealed IT 's a great encouragement and delight to the Ministers of the Gospel and it 's comfortable and refreshing to Hearers when the Message of the Gospel is received and our Lord Jesus Christ is welcomed but on the contrary it 's burdensome and heavy when there are few or none that believe and receive the Report when their labour and strength is spent in vain and when all the assemblings of them together that hear the Word of the Gospel is but a trading of the Lord's Courts in vain if there were no more to prove it this Complaint of Isaiah speaking in His own name and in name of all the Ministers of the Gospel is sufficient for as comfortable Messages as he carried and He carried as comfortable Messages as any that we hear of yet there was a general non-profiting by the Word of the Gospel in his Mouth when we meet with such words as these our Hearts should tremble when we consider how general and rife an Evil Unbelief and the not receiving of Christ is how horrible a Sin how abominable to God and how hazardous and destructive to our selves it is and how rare a thing it is to see or find any Number believing and receiving this Message of the Gospel We spoke from these words to these Doctrines First That where the Gospel comes it makes offer of Jesus Christ to all that Hear it Secondly That the great thing called for in the Hâ—arers of the Gospel is Faith in Him Thirdly That yet notwithstanding Unbelief is an exceeding rife Evil in the Hearers of the Gospel Fourthly That it 's a very sinful heavy and sad thing not to receive Christ and believe in Him all which are implyed in this short but sad Complaint Who hath believed our report We would now prosecute the Use and Scope of this The last Use was an Use of Conviction of and Expostulation with the Hearers of the Gospel for their being so Fruitless under it serving to discover a great Deceit among Hearers who think they Believe and yet do it not whence it is that so many are mistaken about their Souls Sâ—ate and most certainly the generality are mistaken who live as if Beâ—ieving were a thing common to all Professors of Faith while as it is so rare and there are so very few that Believe The next Use is an Use of Exhortation to you That seeing Unbelief is so great an Evil ye would by all means eschew it and seeing Faith is the only wâ—y to receive Christ and to come at Life through Him ye would seek after it to prevent the Evil of Unbelief This is the scope of the words yea and of all our Preaching that when Christ and Remission of Sins through Him is preached to you ye would by Faith receive Him and rest upon Him for obtaining Right to Him and to the Promises and for preventing of the Threatnings and Curses that abide Unbelievers We shall not again repeat what Faith is only in short it comes to this That seeing Christ hath satisfied Justice for Sinners and His Satisfaction is offered in the Gospel to all that will receive it even to all the Hearers of the Gospel that Sinners in the sight and sense of their lost condition would flee unto Him receive and rest upon Him and His Satisfaction for Pardon of Sin and making of their Peace with God Is there need of Arguments to perswade you to this if ye be convinced of your sinfulness and of your lost estate without Christ and that there is a Judgment to come when Sinners must appear before Him and be judged according to that which they have done in the Body and if ye have the Faith of this that Sinners that are not found in Christ cannot stand as by the way wo to that Man that is not found in Him if it were a Paul for even he he is only happy by being found in Him not having his own Righteousness but Christs and withall that there is no other way to be found in Him but by Faith which is that which Paul hath for his main scope Phil. 3.9 10. Then to be found in Him by Faith should be your main work and study this is it that we should design and endeavour and to this we have access by the Gospel and it is in short to be denuded of and denied to our own Righteousness as to any weight we lay upon it for our Justification before God and to have no other thing but Christ's Righteousness offered in the Gospel and received by Faith to rest upon for Justification and making of our Peace with God This is it that we command you to flee to and by all means to seek an Interest in that when the Gospel makes offer of Christ and Righteousness through His Satisfâ—ction and commands you to Believe on Him when it lays Him to your Door to your Mouth and Heart that ye would roll and lay your selves over on Him for the making of your Peace and the bearing of you thorow in the day of your reckoning before the Tribunal of God That we may speak the more cleâ—rly to this Use We shall shortly shew you 1. What Ground a lost Sinner hath to receive Christ and to lippen to Him 2. What Warrands and Encouragements a Sinner hath to lean and lippen to this Ground 3. We shall remove a Doubt or two that may stand in the way of Sinners resting on this Ground 4. We shall give some Directions to further you to this And. 5. We shâ—ll give you some Characters of one that is tenderâ—y tâ—king this way of Believing And because this is the way of the Gospel and we are sure there is not a word ye have more need of or that through God's Blessing may be more useful and there is not a word more uncontravertible which all of you will assent to the truth of to wit that there is a great good in Believing and a great evil in Unbelief we would exhort you the more seriously to lay it to Heart O! think not that our coming to Speak and Hear is for the Fashion but to Profite Cast your selves therefore open to the Exhortation and let the word of Faith sink down into your Hearts considering that there is nothing ye have more need of than of Faith and that ye will not find it safe for you to hazard your Souls on your own Righteousness or to appear before God without Christ's Righteousness and that the only way to come by it is Faith This may let you see the necessity of Believing and that it is of your concernment to try how it is with you as to that and therefore again and again we would exhort you in the fear of God that ye would not neglect so great a Salvation which through Faith is to be obtained but lay it to Heart as ye would not have all the Servants of God who have preached the Gospel to you complaining of
though ye have immortal Souls and though this Word be the mean of your Salvation yet there are Hundreds of you that never lay it to Heart that your Souls are in hazard and that this Word must be it that ye must live by and live upon I appeal to your Consciences if ye think upon this seriously want of this Consideration fosters Security breeds Laziness and makes and keeps you Careless and Carnal I shall instance the want of it in three respects 1. Look how ye are affected towards this Word and your own edification by it before ye come to hear it How few are hungering and thirsting or preparing for benefite by it or preparing to meet with God in it In effect ye come not with a design to profite so that if it were known it would be wondred at wherefore ye come to hear the Word as Christ says of some They came not because they saw the miracles but because they did eat of the loaves and were filled so may we say of you that ye come not to profite by the Word but on some crooked carnal design 2. Look how ye carry when ye are come How many sleep a great part of the Sermon so that it 's a shame to look on the face of our Meetings when in every corner some are Sleeping whose Consciences God will waken ere long and the Timber and Stones of the House will bear witness against them Were you in any other Meeting about ordinary Business there would not be such Sleeping But when ye are Waking what is your Carriage for ye may be Waking and your Heart far away or fast asleep how seldom can ye give account of what is said though your Bodies be present your Hearts are wandering ye are like these spoken of Ezek. 33.31 who sat before the Prophet as God's people but their hearts went after their covetousness how often while ye are sitting here is your Heart away some in their Thoughts running after their Trade some after their Merchandice some after one thing some after another This is one sad instance of it that there are many of you who have had Preaching fourty or fifty Years that can scarce tell one Note of it all and no wonder for ye were not attentive in the Hearing of it 3. Look how ye carry after the Word is heard What unedifying Discourse will ye be engaged in ere ye be well at the Door how carnally and carelesly do many rush unto and go away from hearing of the Word and when ye get a word that meets with your Souls Case do ye go to your Knees with it before God desiring Him to breath on it and to keep it warm or do ye meditate upon it Now put these three together your Carriage before in the time and after your Hearing the Word ye will find that there is just cause to say that the most part that hear this Gospel are not serious what wonder then that it do them no good In the end of that Parable of the Sower Matth. 13. Mark 4. and Luke 8. its said by the Lord Take heed how ye hear for whosoever hath to him shall be given c. If ye improve well your Hearing ye will get yet more but so long as ye take no heed how ye hear ye cannot profite A second Ground or Cause is this That the most part of Hearers never come to look on this Word as the Word of God they come never almost to have a Historical Faith of it it 's said Heb. 11.6 He that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that seek Him diligently But when Folk do not really believe that God is what wonder they seek Him not that they fear neither Judgment nor Hell and that they study not Holiness they say in their Hearts they shall have Peace though they walk in the imagination of their own Hearts and that the way to Heaven is not so narrow as Ministers say it is that God will not condemn poor christned Bodies this is the language of many Hearts and of some Mouths Need there any evidences of it be given if ye believed that the way to Heaven is so strait and that Holiness is so extensive could ye possibly with any seriousness reflect on your Heart and Way and not be affrighted But the truth is this Word gets not leave to sink in you as the Word of God therefore sayeth our Lord to His Disciples Luke 9.44 Let these sayings sink into your ears There are these things I fear ye do not Believe and let me not be thought to take on me to judge your Consciences when there are so many that profess they know God but in works they deny Him as it is Tit. 1.16 when we see such things in your Carriage we know that there is a principle of Unbelief whence they spring 1. There are many of you that really believe not there is a God or that He is such as His Word reveals Him to be to wit Holy Just Powerful c. else ye durst not live at feed with Him The fool hath said in his heart there is not a God they are corrupt c. your practical Atheism and Prophanity say ye believe not there is a God 2. Ye never believed the ill of your Nature Do ye think as James bespeaks these he writes to chap. 4.5 that the Scripture saith in vain the spirit that is in you lusts to envy Ye do not think that your Heart is deceitful and desperatly wicked though we should Preach never so much on this Subject yet ye lay it not to Heart ye take it not to you in particular 3. We are afraid that many of you believe not a Judgment and your particular and personal coming to it nay there are among you who are like to these Mockers spoken of by Peter in his second Epistle chap. 3. ver 3 4. who say where is the promise of his coming And as there were in Paul's days some thâ—t denied the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. so there are still who do it on the matter at least Ye have the same corrupt Nature We would think that we had prevailed to some purpose if ye were brought really to believe that there is a God Life to come and a Day of Judgment and if ye did so ye would be more serious in Duty and would come more Hungry and Thirsty to the Word 4. The Mean and Mids of Salvation is not believed to wit That the way to Peace with God is Faith in Jesus Christ and that there is no way to Heaven but the way of Holiness If all your thoughts were spoke out it would be found that ye have another mids than Faith and another way than that of Holiness And to make out this we need go no further then to your Practice we are sure many of you live in Prophanity and yet ye have all a hope of Heaven and what says this but
that ye think not Faith and Holiness necessary but that ye may come to Heaven another way and this is an old Fault and Deceit it was in Moses his days for some are brought in Deut. 29.19 saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my own heart and add drunkenness to thirst though I tipple daily at my Four Hours though I follow my Lusts and Pleasures and take my fouth and fill of the World we cannot be all Saints c. The Lord will not spare that man but His anger and jealousie shall smoke against him and all the curses that are written in this book shall ly upon him and the Lord will blot out his name from under Heaven and though this be not now believed it shall be found verified There are many when they come to Judgment that will know to their cost the truth of many things they never believed before as we find in that rich Man who says to Abraham Send some to tell my brethren that they come not to this place of torment it says as much as that He in his life-time did not believe how terribly-tormenting a place Hell is and it is even so still Though Men and Women have immortal Souls yet they go on following their sinful way and believe not that any evil shall befall them till God's Curse and Vengeance overtake them A third Ground or Cause is That Folk never think themselves in hazard nor suffer their hazard to affect them and therefore they seek not after the Remedy hence the Jâ—ws Scribes and Pharisees rejected Christ why they were righteous Persons whole and needed not the Physiciâ—n And thus it is with many of you ye will take with it that ye are Sinners but not with the gracelesness of your Nature and this makes it that when Life and Reconciliation with God are offered we have almost none to accept of it why so ye are generally in your own opinion good Friends with God already none of you almost think that ye have hatred at God and so ye carelesly and unconcernedly let the opportunity of making your Peace with Him slip over even like these Jews spoke of Joh. 8.44 45. who when Christ said to them Ye have the devil to your father answered he had a devil and that God was their Father that they were come of Abraham and were not born of fornication So it is with many of you ye could never endure to even your selves to Hell nor to take with it that ye were heirs of Wrath as if ye had been born with other Natures then the ordinary Race of Mankind is and this keeps so many of you that ye get no good of this Gospel for it seeks Sinners to pardon them and Enemies to reconcile them and till the Feud be once taken with the Friendship will never be sought after nor will it find Merchants though when once the Enmity is taken with the Gospel hath many sweet peaceful and comfortable words to speak to the Man afterwards A fourth Ground is The love of Money and of the World which is the root of all ill This is given as a main Cause Matth. 13. why the Word profites not The seed is sowen among thorns and the thorns spring up and chock it the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches chocked the Word This is not oppression nor stealing but entanglement with and addictedness to the things of this present World Folks allowing themselves too much satisfaction in their Riches and Pelf counting themselves as if all were well if they have it and grieved if they want it as if there were nothing but that to make Happy being wholly taken up about it and leaving no room for the concerns of their Souls for Prayer and Seeking of God nor for Challenges to work on them they are so wholly taken up with their Callings and Business for they lay it for a Ground that they must be rich and then they give themselves wholly to all things that may contribute to that end and that chockes and suffocates the Word that it never comes up that nothing comes to perfection therefore Christ says Luke 21.24 Take heed ye be not overcharged with surfetting and drunkenness and cares of this life I am afraid that many moe among you who are civil and esteemed vertuous and frugal shall perish in this Pit of Worldly-mindedness then shall perish by Drunkenness Gluttony Fornication or the like and yet there is nothing more frequent in Scripture then words spoken to scar Folk from Earthly-mindedness How hard is it says Christ for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven and such a Man is he that is taken up with Riches and places his Happiness and Contentment in them whether he have more or less of them We speak not this to foster Idleness in any but to press Moderation in the use of lawful things Ye think it enough if we cannot charge you with Oppression Stealing Whoring and the like but this Gospel will charge you with the love of Money and if it find the love of the World in you the love of the Father will not be found in you Doth not your experience tell you that it 's not an easie matter to be much taken up with the World and to win at a suitable disposition for Duties of Religion and to be painful in them A fifth Ground is Folks little prizing of the Gospel and the Benefites that come by it They look not upon it as their Happiness to have Communion with God they who are invited to the Marriage of the King's Son Mat. 22. will not come and the reason is given they made light of it the Offer of the Gospel hath no weight it relishes not If a Market of fine things at a cheap Rate were proclaâ—med ye would all run to it but ye delight not in the Word of God ye prize not the Gospel and the precious Wares that it exposeth to sale amongst you And to evidence and make out this I would ask you these few Questions And 1. I would ask you how often or rather how seldom have you sitten down purposly and thanked God for sending the Gospel to you ye have given thanks for your Dinner but how often have ye given Him thanks that ye have the Gospel Sabbath-days and Week-days 2. How little do many of you wait on the Preaching of it were there a Message sent to you but from some ordinary Man let be from a great Man ye would straiten your selves and your Business too somewhat that ye might hear it and yet it 's a wonder to think how some in this Place except on the Sabbath will hardly be seen in the Church from one end of the Year to the other 3. Had ye any evident to draw of House or Land ye would seek to have it drawn very well and sure but many of you never sought to have the evidents of Heaven made sure ye
never knew all along your life what these things mean'd had need to stand the more in awe and to be affraid when ye come near Death Though it be a sad matter that when we should be Preaching and would fain preach the Doctrine of Faith it should by reason of your Delusion be the great part of our work to be thus digging you out of your Presumption and overturning your carnal and ill-grounded Hope yet we have the greater confidence and the more peace to speak to and insist in these Truths because they ly so near to the great design of the Gospel and to your immortal Souls Salvation and though we were able to preach more plausible and sweet things to you yet if these Doctâ—ines profite you not these would not Sâ—ing therefore they are so profitable we should not weary to speak and ye should not weary to hear them spoken of Would to God ye were seriously â—nd sincerely aiming to be clear and through in the matter of Believing and that ye stood in need and were more capable of more pleasant Truths if so we might have more comforâ—able though we will not say more profitable Doctrines to insist upon to you SERMON XII ISAIAH LIII I Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed WE have spoken at several occasions to this first part of the Verse and before we leave it there is one Use several times hinted at already to which there is good ground to speak it being the design and purpose of these words to hold forth of what great concernment Believing is and of what great difficulty it is and so many being to the ruine of their Souls mistaken about it there is ground to draw this Use of Exhortation from it to wit That then all the Hearers of this Gospel would be exhorted to advert well to this that they make Faith sure in it self and that they make it sure to themselves seing as I said so many are mistaken about it and beguile themselves The more pressingly that the Gospel calls for Faith in Christ and the more weightily the Lord expostulates with the Hearers of the Gospel because of their Unbelief they are doubtless so much the more concerned to receive it in its Offer and also to look well that they content not themselves with guessing at Faith and that they never think that things are well with them except they can give good proof and warrand that they are so and that it is Saving Faith that they have seing there are so many that satisfie themselves as being Believers when yet so few are Believers indâ—ed The sâ—d mistake and disappointment of many should have so much influence upon us as to put us to more watchfulness and to a more narrow tryal of our own state and condition that we may know how it is with us All that we have spoken to the Doctrines of this first part of the Verse may be as so many Motives to stir you up to both these and would to God we could be perswaded to this as the Use of so many Preachings once to admit and take it for granted that it is the Truth of God that there is a necessity an absolute necessity for us to be really rolled and casten over upon Jesus Christ by Faith for attaining of Life through Him Though this be a very common Doctrine and ye would think a very common Use of it yet it is the great thing that God requires in the Gospel and the neglect of it or not receiving His Son the very contest and quarrel that God hath with the Hearers of it and the cause of the ruine of so many Souls that perish under the Gospel We shall therefore propose to you some Considerations that may stir you up to this and briefly answer a Question in each of these two branches of the Use And first For stirring you up to this receiving of Christ by Faith 1. Consider if there be not a standing Quarrel and Contraversie betwixt God and you for Sin and if there be as no doubt there is consider how that Contraversie is to be removed is there any other possible way but by Faith in Christ If we were Preaching to such as had never sinned and were never under the hazard of the. Wrath of God there might possibly be a difficulty to perswade to a receiving of Christ But when ye have all this in your Conscience that there is Sin and a Curse following Sin and that there is no other way for removing that Curse but by Jesus Christ is there not reason to expect that ye should receive this Truth will any of you think to stand and bide it out against God and if not then there is sure a necessity of Believing in Jesus Christ or of lying under the Wrath of God for ever 2. Consider that this Gospel and Word of Salvation is preached to you in particular When we speak of Salvation we do not say that Christ was once preached to the Jews or that in such a far-off Nation there is a door opened for Salvation in the Gospel but we would turn over the words of the Apostle Acts 13.38 to you and say to you in his words Be it known to you therefore men and brethren that through this man to wit Jesus Christ is preached to you remission of sins c. and this brings the Gospel near you even to your door it lays before you the way of access to God by Christ and puts it so closs and home to you that Christ must either have a refusal or a welcome from you The first consideration of your own Sinfulness and Misery might put you to seek after a Saviour though he were at a great distance but this other brings Him to your Heart and Mouth and is it fit think ye to neglect such a fair occasion and will it be wisdom when Salvation follows you and crys after you and Wisdom lifts up its voice in the Streets saying O ye simple ones how long will ye love fooâ—ishness c. to stop your ear or to turn away from Christ and to run upon your destruction Do ye think that this Gospel will be silent always or that your Conscience will be deaf and dumb always There are many Nations that have not the Gospel so near them and it 's hard to know but the day may come when ye would be content to buy an offer of the Gospel at a dearer raâ—e and when there shall not be a Tryster nor a Dâ—ys-man to be had between God and you and these days will then be remembred with horrour which now ye securely slip over 3. Consider what will come of this if ye do not believe the Gospel Know ye not that many perish that hear the Gospel and that upon this same very ground that they did not receive Christ and Salvation through Him offered to them therein and whereof they are now deprived Are there not many this
which may be gathered from Heb. 4.1 that stout confidence that thinks it's impossible to miss the Promises is a suspect and dangerous Faith not to be loved it 's a much better Faith that fears then that Faith that 's more stout except there be a sweet mixture of holy stoutness and fear together It 's said Heb. 11.7 that by Faith Noah being moved with fear prepared an Ark c. Noah had the Faith of God's Promise that he should be keeped free from being drowned by the Deluge with the rest of the World and yet he was mourning and trembling in preparing the Ark If there were much Faith among you it would make many of you more holily feared then ye are Love not that Faith the worse that ye never hear a threatning but ye tremble at it and are touched by it in the quick 2. It 's a good token of Saving Faith when it hath a discovery and holy suspition of Unbelief wairing on it so that the Person dare not so lippen and trust his own Faith as not to dread Unbelief and to tell Christ of it There is a poor Man that comes to Christ Mat. 9.23 24. to whom the Lord faith If thou canst believe or canst thou believe yes Lord says he I believe help thou mine unbelief there was some Faith in him but there was also Unbelief mixed with it his Unbelief was so great that it was almost like to drown his Faith but he puts it in Christ's hand and will neither deny his Faith nor his Unbelief but puts the matter sincerely over upon Christ to strengthen his Faith and to amend and help his Unbelief It 's a suspect Faith that 's at the top of Perfection at the very first and ere ever ye wot There are some serious Souls that think because they have some Unbelief that therefore they have no Faith at all but true Faith is such a Faith that is by and beside suspected and feared or seen Unbelief That Faith is surest where Folk fear and suspect Unbelief and see it and when they are weighted with their Unbelief and cry out under it and make their Unbelief an errand to Christ it 's a token there is Faith there 3. The third Character is That it will have with it a sticking to Christ and a fear to presume in sticking to Him There will be two things striving together an eagerness to be at Him and a fear that they be found presumptuous in medling with Him and an holy trembling to think on it yet notwithstanding it must and will be adventured upon the Woman spoken of Mark 5.28 lays this reckoning with her self If I can but touch his cloathes I shall be whole and she not only believeth this to be truth but crouds and thrimbles in to be at him yet vers 33. when she comes before Christ she trembles as if she had been taken in a fault not having dared to come openly to Him but behind him she behoved to have a touch of him but she durst not in a manner own and avouch her doing of it till she be unavoidably put to it It 's a suspect and unsound Faith that never trembled at minting to Believe there is reason to be jealous that Faith not to be of the right stamp that never walked under the impression of the great distance between Christ and the Person the sense whereof is the thing that makes the trembling I say not desperation nor any utter distrust of Christ's kindness but trembling arising from the consideration of the great distance and disproportion that 's between Him and the Person Faith holds the Sinner a going to Christ and the sense of its own sinfulness and worthlesness keeps him under holy fear and in the exercise of Humility Paul once thought himself a jolly man as we may see Rom. 7.9 but when he was brought to believe in Christ he sees that he was a dead and undone man before I give you these three marks of a true Faith from that Chapter 1. It discovers to a Man his former Sinfulness and particularly his former Self-conceit Pride and Presumption I was saith Paul alive without the Law once c. a man living upon the thoughts of his own Holiness but when the Law came I died he fell quite from these high thoughts A second Mark is A greater restlesness of the Body of Death it becoming in some respect worse Company more fretful and strugling more then ever it did before Sin revived saith Paul though he had no more Corruption in him then he had before but it wakened and bestirred it self more I dare say that though there be not so much Corruption in a Believer as there is in a natural Man yet it strugleth much more and is more painful and disquieting to the Believer and breeds him a greate dale more trouble for says the Apostle on the matter when God graciously poured Light and Life into me Sin took that occasion to grow angry and to be enraged that such a neighbour was brought in beside it it could not endure that as an unruly and currish Dog barks most bitterly when an honest Guest comes to the House so doth Corruption bark and make more noise then it did before when Grace takes place in the Soul There are some that trow they have the more Faith because they feel no Corruption stir in them and there are others that think they have no Faith at all because they feel Corruption strâ—gling more and growing more troublesome to them but the stirring and strugling of Corruption if Folk be indeed burdened and affected and afflicted with it will rather prove their having of Faith then their wanting of it Love that Faith well that puts and keeps Folk bickerring to say so in the Fight with the Body of Death for though this be not good in it self that Corruption stirreth yet Sin is of that sinful nature that it flies always more in their face that look God and Heaven-wards then of others that are sleeping securely under its Dominion A third Mark is When the Soul hath never Peace in any of its Conflicts or Combats with Corruption but when it resolves in Faith exercised on Jesus Christ as it was with Paul in that Chapter after his Conversion That is a sound Faith that only makes Peace at first by Christ but that cannot to say so fight one fair stroke in the Spiritual Warfare nor look Corruption in the face nor promise to it self an outgate from any assault of the Enemy but by Faith in Jesus Christ as it was with the Apostle who toward the end of that Chapter lamentably crys O! wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death yet immediatly subjoyns Faiths triumphing in Christ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord he belike before his Conversion thought he could do well enough all alone but it is not so now when he can do nothing without Christ especially in this sore
Grace of God exercised within Mens Hearts as well as the Word is preached outwardly to the Ear wherever Faith is begotten these two go together the Word without and the power of Grace within the one of which is distinct from the other 2. That this powerful internal and immediate work of Grace within is not common to all the Hearers of the Gospel but a rare and peculiar thing to some to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed it's but one or few of many to whom it 's revealed To these we have spoken already 3. The third is which indeed holds out the scope of all that there is an inseparable connexion betwixt these two the begetting of Faith in the Hearers of the Gospel and the application of this powerful work of the Grace of God for working of it so that where this powerful work of Grace is not there is never Faith nor Conversion wrought and where this powerful work of Grace is there is Faith and Conversion The Prophet makes them reciprocal and commensurable who is the Believer he to whom the Arm of the Lord is revealed and who is the Unbeliever he to whom the Arm of the Lord is not revealed These two are so conjoyned and knit together as they are never separated and so they must stand or fall together That we may be the more clear we shall take up the Doctrine in two distinct Branches The first whereof is That except the powerful work of God's Grace concur the most powerful preaching of the Gospel will never beget Faith in the Hearts of the Hearers of it The second is That where-ever this powerful work of Grace goes along with the preaching of the Gospel or wherever the Lord applyes His Grace with the Word preached there Faith is begotten in the Heart and that Soul is effectually united to Christ and savingly changed The one of these Branches serves to shew the necessity of God's Grace from the consideration of our sinfulness and impotency or inability and of the emptiness and ineffectualness of all outward Means in themselves and so to stop all Mens Mouthes as being utterly unable to contribute any thing to their own spiritual Good or Conversion that being the product of the Grace of God The other Branch serves mightily to commend the Grace of God as being the powerful Arm of the Lord that brings to Believe that calls and converts such and such Persons according to a prior engagement and transaction betwixt the Father and the Son As for the first of these It will easily be believed among Men and Women that have any true sense and feeling of the Corruption of their Nature and find dayly somewhat of the Law of the Members warring against the Law of the Mind and we are perswaded if all that ever received Faith were brought to depone in this matter they would bear witness that there is no Mean that without the effectual Power of the Grace of God can bring a stranger Sinner to close with Christ and believe on Him and if all that are now before the Throne of God in Heaven were called to speak to this great Truth they would put their seal to it and say Not unto us but to thy Name be the glory of our believing we had never believed if it had been left to the power of our own Free-will and if the power of thy Grace had not wrought in us the very Will as well as the Deed or Act of believing Yet because this Doctrine as we said serves to discover the sinfulness and impotency of Nature and how little we are obliged to our selves in this great work and to hold forth the absolute necessity of the Grace of God and how much we are obliged to it in the work of Faith and Conversion and to hold forth withall the emptiness and ineffectualness of all outward Means without this Grace and because it wants not its own considerable opposition from the enemies of the Truth we shall give you some Grounds for confirmation of it The first whereof is drawen from these express instances of Scripture wherein it is clear That there hath been much powerful Preaching and by the most eminent Preachers and yet the generality of People have been fruitless under it and their fruitlesness hath been brought to this very Ground to wit that the work of God's Grace and His out-stretched Arm went not along with it The first instance is Deut. 29.4 That Moses was a skilled Preacher who will deny he being faithful in all the House of God yet says he after much and long Preaching and after many Signs and Wonders wrought the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor ears to hear unto this day where he not only puts a difference betwixt the preaching of the Word without and the work of Grace within but shows the necessity of the concâ—rrence of the work of Grace and lays the great weight of the Peoples profiting or not profiting on the wanting or having of that A second instance is in this Prophet Isaiah were there any among all the Preachers before or since that preached in a more Evangelick strain then he did and yet when he hath complained of the paucity of Believers saying who hath believed our report he fixes and stays on this as the cause to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed And Chap. 6.9 10. he gives an account of the sad Commission he had from the Lord who said to him Go and tell the people Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people sat c. where there is also a clear distinction made betwixt the inward working of Grace and the outward Ministry A third instance and one that is beyond all exception is in our bless'd Lord Jesus who spake as never man spoke and preached with such power and life that even carnal Hearers wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth for he preached with Authority and not as the Scribes and yet Joh. 6.44 when they begin to murmure at Him what says He Murmure not at these things none can come to me except the Father draw him none can Believe except the powerful Grace of God work Faith in him there must be a higher hand then ought ye see or hear a more powerful work then any external Preaching of mine as Prophet of my Church ere a Soul can believe on me and though his Hearers were not free of the guilt of this their Unbelief but had their own sinful accession unto their continuing in it yet our Lord looks in on the soveraign way and work of Grace and holds there telling them that his external Ministry will not do the turn but there must be an inward powerful immediate work of Grace for the working of Faith We add a fourth instance and it is of that chosen Vessel Paul who laboured more abundantly then all the rest of
Souldiers And we esteemed him not That is we the people of the Jews who owe him more respect esteemed him not And hence he concludes that it is no wonder that but few believe on him And so in the words following he goes on to describe his Humiliation and to remove the offence that might be taken at it Surely he hath born our griefs c. As if he had said there is no such cause to skar and stumble at Christ for his lowness and base outward condition for it was not for himself but for us that he became so low and therefore it did not become us to think so little of him His griefs and sorrows are humane infirmities that he subjected himself to for our sake For the wrath of God which he suffered for us is spoken of afterwards And because there is great difference betwixt Christs bearing of infirmities and our bearing of infirmities He being like to us in all things except sin I shall for clearing of this name three distinctions given by Divines when they discourse of this purpose 1. They distinguish and put difference betwixt the taking on of infirmities and the contracting of infirmities The taking on of infirmities is the assuming of the effect without the cause of the infirmity without the sinful defect Contracting of infirmity is the drawing on of the defect with and by the cause Now we draw on the cause with the effect Christ took on the effect but he had no sinful defect in him to draw on such infirmities He might have taken on the nature of man without the infirmities if he had so pleased but he took on the nature and infirmities without the cause 2. They distinguish betwixt these infirmities which are simply natural such as man might have had though he had never sinned and these infirmities which flow from mans nature as fallen and corrupted The first sort may be called Passive and look to suffering as to be hungry thirsty weary sensible of that which hurts the body The second sort may be called Active and are sinful as flowing from sin and tending to sin as inclination to ill and indisposition to good dulness as to the uptaking of Gods mind c. Our Lord took on the first sort of infirmities that are simply natural and may be without sin But he was free of the other that implyes corruption in the nature He was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin saith the Apostle Heb. 4.15 3. They distinguish infirmities in these that are called natural and common to all men as men and these that are personal and acquired as flowing from some defect in generation or are drawn on by some intemperance grossness in the life and conversation As some Families are subject to Diseases that come by Generation Others draw on Diseases by Whoredome Drunkenness and the like Now our Lord was free of these last because being conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin there was no defect in His Generation And being blameless in his life and conversation he could acquire none of these infirmities and therefore the infirmities which he bare are of the first sort that is such as are common to all men and to men as men And hence we think it probable which some say That as our Lord was not sick so he was not capable of sickness being so perfect in his constitution or complexion which makes for the glory of Grace and saith That our Lord behoved to die a violent death there being no principle in him tending to a natural death though notwithstanding he did most willingly to satisfie Justice for sinners And this may serve to explain these words That he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs We come now to observe some things from the words And 1. From the condition our Lord is described to come to the world in Observe That the Messiah the Lords Servant that was to redeem his people was to become man This is here supposed and Prophesied of as the first step of his Humiliation He is called a Man And it is an aggravation of it that he was to be a man of sorrows Or taking our Lord Messiah to be already come we may take the Observation thus That the Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Son of the eternal Father is also a true and real Man A common truth yet a truth fundamental to the Gospel whereof we are not to think the less or the worse because it is a common truth When the fulness of time came saith the Apostle Gal. 4 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law Who as it is Philip. 2. Thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet took upon him the shape of a Servant and was made in likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient c. So Heb. 2.14 It 's said of him That forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same c. And vers 11. Both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren And vers 16. He took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham wherefore in all thinge it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren He was made even like unto us in all things except sin And if we look to the way of grace there was good reason for this that the Redeemer of sinners behoved to be Man 1. If we consider the interposed or adjoyned threatning to the Covenant of Works The day thou eats thou shalt surely die There must be a satisfaction to Justice and the curse threatned must be born 2. The curse must be born by man the Nature that sinned must die the Party offending must satisfie in his own Person or in a Cautioner And 3. By our Lord's becoming Man 1. He came to have a right as being near of Kin to sinners to redeem them And 2. By this the Law hath right to pursue and exact the Debt of him And 3. By this Grace hath access to commend the Redeemer of sinners to sinners Heb. 2.17 18. And 4.15 16. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to he made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest c. And that we have such a Redeemer it makes God to say so trystable and Grace to have access 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus and this gives man access to step in to God 4. This makes the mystery of Godliness to shine the more radiantly and the wisdome and love of God to shine the more conspicuously thorow it 1 Tim. 3.16 Without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh And John 1.14 The Word was made
sympathy from experience of these temptations vexations and sorrows as they are sinless as is clear from Heb. 2. and 4. at the close He knows what hunger thirst poverty contempt reproach and persecution are He knows what it is to be set upon with the violence of a temptation though there was no sin in him to comply with it 5. See here a most real Saviour since he is a suffering Saviour Why did our Lord become thus low But that he might come under the curse in the several degrees of it for the satisfying of Justice for our sins And see in every piece of Christs suffering a reality of the grace and love of God A reality in the Covenant and bargain of Redemption A reality in Christs satisfying of Justice and performing his ingagement according to the tenor of that transaction And seing there is a reality in this Saviour and in his suffering and satisfying of Divine Justice and in the price that he payed to the full Put not this Saviour again to open shame as the word is Heb. 6.6 Trode not the Son of God under foot neither account the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing Do not despite to the Spirit of Grace as it is Heb. 10.29 He hath suffered enough already let him not be a sufferer again O! grieve him not by your unbelief but give him credit by adventuring your souls on him upon his own terms your selves will have the advantage and he the glory This is the pure simple truth of the Gospel Do not only receive it as a truth but receive him that it holds forth and let your hearts close with him and your Faith feed upon him wâ—o becâ—me poor that ye through his poverty migâ—t be made rich Happy they for evermore who are made rich through his poverty and miserable are they and mucâ— more miserable eternally will they be whose practice saith that they think they have another way to be happy then by his sufferings and satisfaction and so disdain and rejâ—ct both him and it SERMON XVIII ISAIAH LIII II III. Vers 2. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him Vers 3. He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not IF our hearts were suitably tender the reading of these words knowing of whom they are spoken would some way prick and wound them It 's hard to determine though it may be we should not make the comparison whether there is more grace in our Lords condescendence or more wickedness and perversness in the unkind and evil meeting that he gets from sinners But surely there is much grace on the one side in his coming so low and much wickedness and perversness on the other side For what meets he with even blessed Jesus who is the glory and praise of all his Saints yea the brightness of his Fathers glory He is despised and rejected and we esteemed him not Even when he thus humbled himself and took on our nature and was and is prosecuting the work of our salvation and evidencing his grace in an inconceivable manner These are the two things that are spoken of here 1. His condescending to be a man and a mean man and which is yet more a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Which if we believed and knew really what he were that it was even he by whom all things were created who is the beginning of the Creation of God the first-born of every creature yea he for whom all things were created for whose glory the world and all things in it were made and continue He for whom all things are as their last end and through whom they are preserved in their beeing and governed in their operations and shall be seen to tend to his glory in the close we wold certainly wonder more at this his condescendence And yet alace it is he that is despised and rejected and that we hid as it were our faces from and would not give him our countenance It is he by whom the world was made that is despised and we esteemed him not And this is the second thing in the words which we are now to speak to even the abominably unsuitable meeting that men give to our Lord Jesus who hath so far condescended as to leave some way his Fathers Glory not to receive a Kingdom of this World but to be trode upon in it as a Worm He is despised and rejected and we will not intertain him nor make him welcome when he cometh We esteem him not Only take this advertisement for clearing of the words and for grounding of the Doctrine that this that is spoken of Christs Humiliation and mans stumbling at it is not precisely to be restricted to his Humiliation in his own person only and mens stumbling at that for it is given as the reason of men their stumbling and offending at Christ in all times But it is to be extended to Christ in his Gospel and Ordinances throughout all ages so it comes in as the reason why so few believe on him If ye ask the reason why men do not now believe and receive Christ in the offer of the Gospel Here it is for we esteemed him not for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant He shall be mean and contemptible-like to the men of the world and in an afflicted condition therefore he is not esteemed therefore he is not believed on These two are the main Doctrines to be spoken to here 1. That Jesus Christ who thus condescends and humbles himself for the salvation of lost sinners is not esteemed of but despised and undervalued which is implied in the words When we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him and is more clearly holden out in the following words He was despised and we esteemed him not 2. That this undervaluing and little esteeming of Jesus Christ is the great ground of folks unbelief or the reason why men do not believe on him even because they think him not worthy the receiving two very clear truths in the words and in experience though as sad in their consequents As to the 1. which is this that our Lord Jesus Christ is usually and ordinarly exceedingly undervalued and little esteemed of by the men of the world to whom he is offered in the Gospel There are two things implied and supposed here in and about the Doctrine that will clear it and be as two reasons of it 1. That he hath no form nor comeliness and no beauty wherefore he should be desired which holdeth out this that men are ordinarily taken up with and seek after worldly grandour or greatness splendour and beauty that 's it that filleth mens eyes
that he should be opp essâ—â— and afflicted and brought as a lamb to the slaughter that he should be numbred amongâ—t the transgressours and that he should die and be buried make his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death all which are clearly fulfille in him and the clearing of his Sufferings whereof we spoke before clears this that not only he suffered but that he was brought so low in suffering 2 For the ground of his Sufferings its â—aid to be the sins of his own Elect He bare our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgrâ—ssions and bruised for our iniquities there was no guile found in his mouth the greatest enemies of our Lord could impute nothing to him Pilat was forced to say that he found no fault in him all which shew that it was for the Transgressions of his People that he suffered 3. As for Mens little esteem of him it is also very clear for He was despised and rejected of men we hid as it were our faces from him He was despised and we esteemed him not the World thought little of him and we that are elect thought but little of him and what is more clear in the Gospel then this where it is told that he was reproached buffeted spitted on despised they criâ—d away with him crucifie him He trusted in God let him deliver him but God hath forsaken him 4. As for the Promises made to him He shall see his seed he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands He shâ—ll see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied and by his knowledge shall many be justified c. what mean all these but that he shall die and rise again and have many Converts that God's work shall thrive well in his hand and that he shall have a glorious Kingdom and many Subjects which is caâ—led afterward his having a portion with the great and his dividing of the sooil with the strong All this was accompl shed in Christ when after his Resurrectâ—on many were win and brought in by the Gospel to believe on him and though Jews and eathens concurred and conspired to cuâ— off all Christians yet his Kingdom spread and hath continued these sixteen hundred years and above 5. As for the effects that followed on his Sufferings or the influence they have on the elect People of God as mâ—ny Converts as have been and are in the World as many Witnesses are there that he is the Messiah every converted pardoned and reconciled Soul seals this truth Hence 1 John 5.7 8 it is said There are three that bear witness in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one and there are three that bear witness on earth the Spirit in his efficacy the Water in the sanctifying vertue of it in changing and cleansing his People and the Blood in the satifying and justifying vertue of it and these three agree and concur in one even this one to wit that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and then it follows He that believeth hath the witness in himself because he hath gotten Pardon through him and therefore can set to his Seal to this truth and say truly Christ is the Messiah The Use is To exhort you to acquaint your selves with these things that serve to confirm this truth the book of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Hebrews are much spâ—nt upon it even to hold out and to prove Christ Jesus to be the true Messiah and Saviour of his People If this be not made sure and sicker we have an unstable ground for our Faith and though it be sure in it self yet so long as it is not so to us we want the consolation of it and there is a twofold prejudice that cometh through Folks want of thorow clearness in and assurance of this truth 1. To the generality of Hearers there is this prejudice that they are so careless and little solicitous to rest on him And as it made the Jews to râ—ject him who to this day stumbâ—e at him on this same very ground that they know him not to be the Messiah the Christ of God in whom is accomplished all that was spoken of the Messiah to Christians not being through in it they do not rest on him nor close with him as the true Messiah 2. There is a prejudice also from it to Believers who having only a glimring light of Christs being the Messiah come short of thar consolation that they might hâ—ve if they were through in the Fâ—ith oâ— it there is this great evil among Christians that they study not to be solidly clear and through in this point to that if they were puâ— to reason and debate with a Jew if there were not a witness within themsâ—lves of it the truth of the Faith of many would be exceedingly shaken 2. From this That he never speaks of Christs Sufferings but he makes applicâ—tion of them he carried our Griefs he was wounded for our Transgressions c. Observe That Believers would look on Christs Sufferings as undergone for them and in their rooms and place We cleared before 1. That Christ suffâ—red for some peculiarly and not for all And 2. Thâ—t Believers would endeavour the clearing of their own interest in his Sufferings and that they have a right to them Now we shortly add this 3d. of kin to the former That B lievers and such as are fled to Christ for refuge would look on his Suffâ—rings as come under for them and these same Scriptures which we cited to confirm these will confirm this The reason why we would have you confirmed in this is Because 1 It is only this that will make you suitably thankful it is this which is a notable ground of that Song of Praise Rev. 1.4 To him that hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood c. 2. This is a ground of true solid and strong consolation even to be comforted in the applicative Faith of Christs purchase 3. It is the Lords allowance on his People which they should reverently and thankfully make use of even to look on Jesus Christ as wounded pierced and lifted up on the Cross for them and by doing this according to his allowance there is a paved way made for application of all the benefites of his purchase 3. From the scope looking on the words as spoken to remove the scandal of the Cross Observe which may be a reason of the former that folk will never take up Christ rightly in his sufferings except they take him up as suffering for them and in their room This look of Christ leads 1. To take up much of the glory of grace and condescending love to sinners 2. It leads to take up Christs faithfulness that came to the world on sinners errand according to the ancient transaction in the Covenant of Redemption as he is brougbt in
may the sinner apply it Answer Not only because it 's free and freely offered but by gripping to it by Faith as the Prophet doth here It 's not only to apply it simply but to step in and rest upon it in the terms it is made offer of so that as on the one part Jesus Christ became really lyable to suffering and satisfied for our sins when he said Lo I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me I delight to do thy will So upon the other part the believing sinner comes to apply the price payed by imbracing the price and acquiescing in the satisfaction and gripping to it as his own and by his being brought to say in Faith Let his wounding be my pardon let his chastisement be my peace and let his stripes be my healing By this means as the Law had a right to Christ for his paying the Elects debt so they by believing get a right to the promise of pardon and healing For if the bargain was ficker on the one side to procure wounding to Christ as if he had been the sinner himself so on the other side the bargain is as sure The Believer is set free and may be as really comforted as if he had a righteousness of his own or had never had sinned Use 2. Therefore there is here wonderful matter of consolation to Believers that what was Justice to Christ is Grace and Mercy to us that which was pain to him is pleasure to us His sorrow our comfort his wounding our pardon his stripes our healing c. Use 3. As ye would not prejudge your selves of these benefites which Christ hath purchased make your peace with God through Christ If your pardon and peace be not obtained this way ye will never get it but ye shall be made to pay your own debt and be lyable to wrath eternally because of inability to pay your debt to the full Therefore step to and make the offer welcome how sinful and undone soever ye be The more sensible ye be ye are the more welcome This is the particular use of the Doctrine O! Let these things sink in your hearts that ye are sinners great sinners under wrath and at feud with God that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of lost sinners and that there is no way to pardon and peace but by closing with him and saying hold on his satisfaction That ye may be drawn to cast your selves over on this everlasting Covenant for obtaining the benefits that Christ hath purchased 〈◊〉 â—d himself bless what hath been spâ—ken for this end and use SERMON XXIII ISAIAH LIII V Vers 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed IT were no small progress in Christianity to know and believe the truths that are implyed and contained in this same verse The Lord by the Prophet is giving a little compend of the work of Redemption by his saving of sinners from death through and by the wounding of the Mediator We did a little open the meaning of the words and gave a sum of the Doctrines contained in them at least of some of them which do contribute to this scope The Prophet is here speaking of Christ's sufferings with a respect to the cause of them and the effect that followed them and shews how this was indeed the mistake and blasphemous imputation that we had of and were ready to put on him even to judge him smitten and plagued of God for his own sins whereas God hath another design He was altogether without sin but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities We were at feud with God and he took on him the chastisement of our peace And this is the effect to procure healing to us We shall now speak a word to three Doctrines further beside what we spoke to the last day which are these 1. That there was an eternal design plot and transaction betwixt God and the Mediator as to Christs suffering for the redeeming of elect sinners before he actually suffered This the Prophet speaks of as a thing concluded For the cause of his sufferings was condescended on and the end and fruit of them was determined which implyes an antecedamus transaction betwixt the Father and him for putting him in the room of sinners And by this transaction Justice hath access to exact the payment of this price He interposed and the Father exacts of him the payment of their debt and seeks satisfaction from him for all that he bargained for 2. That this transaction or design concerning the Redemption of elect sinners is in respect of Christs suffering and satisfying of Justice fully and actually performed he undertook to be wounded and bruised and he was accordingly actually wounded and bruised The transaction as to the engagement in it and efficacy of it took place in Isaiah's time and before his time but as to the actual performance of what the Mediator engaged himself to suffer it is spoken of prophetically by him as a thing done because to be done and now it is done and indeed long ago 3. That the satisfying of Justice by the Mediators Sufferings according to his engagement proves as effectual to absolve justifie and heal these even the grossest Sinners that come under this Bargain and Transaction as if they had actually suffered and payed and satisfied their own Debt themselves these Sins are pardoned through his Sufferings their deadly Wounds are healed by his Stripes as if they had never had a wound their Compt is dashed and scored as clean out as if they had never had any Debt they are acquitted and set free as if they had never been guilty These three Doctrines ly very near the life of the Gospel and the Prophet in this Chapter and particularly in this Verse is often on them Our purpose is only shortly to explicate them to you as a short sum and compend of the tract of the Covenant of Redemption The first of them shews the rise of the work of Redemption The second shews the mids by which it is executed The third holds out the effect and consequence and the end of all For the first then There is we say an eternal transaction betwixt God and Jesus Christ the Mediator concerning the Redemption of Sinners his actual redeeming by being wounded and bruised supposeth this for the Son is no more lyable to suffering not to speak of his suitableness then any other of the Persons of the blessed God-head had there not been an antecedent transaction there was no obligation nor ty on him to be wounded and to enter into the room of Sinners as their Cautioner for payment of their Debt if there had not been a prior engagement neither could his wounding and bruising have proven useful or have brought healing to us if this prior engagement had not been And this is it which
rich man nor to the wise man c. God hath not choâ—en many of these as is clear 1 Cor. 1.26 buâ— say to the righteous or holy man it shall be weâ—l with him and is herâ— any thing that should have so much influence on men and take them so much up as how to be well in the close Folk may have a fighting life of it here and may suffer much and be under reproach for a time as Christ was but if thou be holy ere thy Body be laid in the Grave it shall be well with thy Soul And as for all who have chosen the way of Holiness we are allowed to say this to you that it shall be well with you at death and after death at Judgment and even for evermore To them saith the Apostle Rom. 2.9 who by patient continuance in well-doingr seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life O how many great and good things are abiding all the honest-hearted Students of Holiness Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor heart conceived what they are 3ly It 's ground of expostulation with them that neglect and slight Holiness As it will be well with the Righteous or Holy so they shall have a miserable and desperate lot of it who either despise or neglect Holiness Wo to the wicked saith Isaiah 3 1â— it shall be ill with him Some of you may think that ye are rich and honourable are well cloathed fit in fine Houses and have richly covered Tables when poor Bodies are keeped at the door and are destitute of these things and are ready to bless your selves as being well though ye care not for nor seek after Holiness but wo unto you for ye must die and go to the bottomleâ—s Pit and there ye will not get so much as a drop of water to cool your Tongues in these tormenting Flames neither your Riches nor Honours nor Pleasures will hold off the heat and fury of the vengeance of God nor in the â—eâ—st ease you in your exâ—ream pain but as it is Rom. 2.9 Indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish four sore words wiâ—l be upon every soul of man that doeth evil O dâ— ye believe this â—'s the truth of God and a very plain truth and we are perswaded none of you will dare downright to deny it Holiness will have a sweet and comfortable close and the neglect of it will have fearful effâ—cts following on it what is the reason then that Holiness is so little thought of aâ—d followed do ye believe that ye will die and think ye ever to come to Judgment or to hear that word Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you for I was hungry and ye fed me naked and ye cloathed me c. O what will become of many of you when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels iâ—flaming fire to render vengeance to all them who know not God and who obey not the Gospel and will say to you Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels for when I was hungry ye fed me not c. this is I grant a general truth yet if it be not received we know not what truth will be received and if it were received the practice of Holiness would be more studied there would be less Sin and more Prayer Reading Meditation more seeking after Knowledge and more watchfulness and tenderness in Folks Conversation always in this the Lord shews the connexion that is betwixt Holiness and Hâ—ppiness and hâ—re ye have the copy and pattern of an examplary walk 3ly From this that the holiâ—ess and blamâ—nleâ—eâ—s of Christ here spoken of is marked in him as peculiar to him for it fits him to be a High Priâ—st and proves that only he could be the Priest that â—uited and became us anâ— that no other could do our turn as the Apostle râ—asons Heb 7 26 27 28. For the law maketh men priests that have infirmity but the word of â—he oath which was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated for evermore From this I say Obseâ—ve That all men even the most holy except Christ who was both God and Man a e sinful and not one of them sinless while living here on earth and the reâ—son is becâ—uâ—e 〈◊〉 any were sinless then this that is said here would not be peculiar to our Lord Jesus Christ that He diâ— no violence neither was there deceit â—n his mouth This being a singular character of our High Priâ—st that none of his Types could clâ—â—m to it exclusively agreeth to him so as it agreeth to none other The Scripture is full to this purpose in asserting that not only all mâ—n are sinnâ—rs as considered in theiâ— naturâ—l condition but that even Bâ—lieveâ— are sinful in part for the same Apostle John that saiâ—h 1 Epist 1.3 Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ saith also vers 8. If we say we have no siâ— we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us and vers 10. If we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us and 1 Kings 8.46 and Eccles 7.20 There is no man that doth good and sinneth not plainly insinuating that all have need of an Intercessouâ— We shall not insist in this only from these words compared with the scope making it peculiar to Christ to be without sin and implying that none other are so we would consider the necessity of its being so 1. For differencing and separating of Jesus Christ from all others by putting this dâ—gnity on him of being holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners this is his prerogative and badge of honour above others 2. It 's necessary for this end to demonstrate the need that there is of his offering himself a Sacrifice for sinners and that it was not for himself but for sinners that he offered up himself and that there is a continual necessity of making use of that Sacrifice for if there were not a continuance of sin in part while Believers are out of Heaven there would be no need of this part of Christs office if we were holy and harmless our selves we needed not such an High Priest Use 1. To establish us in the faith of this Truth That among all men there is none that were true men except Christ that is without sin sin is still abiding in them while in this world of none of them all it can be said that they have done no violence neither is there any deceit in their mouth none of them could ever say since Adam fell the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me yea this is a special qualification of Christ Jesus for his Priest-hood that he was without sin and behoved to be so I am not pleading that sinners should take a liberty to sin because there is no perfection to be win at in this life God
though infinitely above what we can conceive with His own under their Temptations and sad Soul-exercises And seing the Scripture holds out such a thing as this That our High Priest is a Man that hath bowels of Sympathy it may sufficiently warrand a Believer to expect much good this and other wayes from Christ He having Grace infinit in Him as God and a tender heart as Man to befriend them and to communicat and let out of that Grace unto them And this is great ground of Consolation to Believers under any Cross and piece of hard exercise to know that we have a Mediator who knows in experience though not the sinfulnesse that accompanies these hard exercises in us yet what these fears are of being shut out from God and how dreadfull a thing it is to be at controversie with Him and is like to these who having come thorow a sad Tryall and Piece of Exercise themselves are thereby the more ready to Sympathize with others under it 5. and lastly The consideration of this may comfort Believers even in their outward afflictions it had been another sort of Crosses that they would have been made to meet with if He had not taken this Cup of Wrath and dunken it for them and therefore they would be comforted and bless God who hath taken this Soul-travel from off them and made way for a Retreat and Shelter for them in Him and it should even shame Believers who are ready to think so much of any little Bit of inward Exercise or of outward Affliction seing our blessed Lord Jesus endured so much not only outwardly and Bodily Affliction but also so much inward Trouble and Soul-travel that thereby their Burden might be made light and their yoke easie Use 3. For Exhortation seing our Lord Jesus was put to such sore Soul-travel sure it layes a great obligation on them for whom he Suffered to endeavour to make some Suitable and Gratefull Return seing therefore we are so much in His Common and Debt we should give Him a friendly meeting in these Four which this calls for 1. It calleth for Love to Him that vented such Love to us 2. It calleth for Faith That seing He gave such a Price for us we should trust our Souls to Him 3. It calleth for Holiness and Obedience even living to Him and to the Glorifying of Him that hath bought us This Argument will sure weigh with you who on solid grounds lay claim to His Purchase 4. It calleth for Thankfulness and Praise in magnifying His Grace and Love that hath so Loved us And are not all these very suitable and becoming that Sinners should Love Him and that these who Love Him not should be Anathema Marenatha accursed to the coming of the Lord that Sinners should believe on Him and be obedient to Him and thankfull 1. If ye believe this Truth this Comfortable and Soul-ravishing Truth let me exhort you and be exhorted and prevailed with tâ— love Our Lord Jesus Christ and to give Him that answerable respect meeting and welcome that becomes If we may plead for any thing from you sure we may plead for this If it be true that He ingadged in such a Bargain in which if He had not ingadged Himself we had inevitably gone to the pit and if He hath actually payed the Pâ—â—e which He undertook to pay let your Consciences speak if it should not melt the hearts of such to whom the benefit of this is offered with Love to Him And if ye have the Faith of the Doctrine can ye deny but this obligation lyeth upon you Look in on your Consciences and Hearts and see if ye be able to shift it and if ye had suitable Palaces for intertaining Him in if ye be not bound to open to Him and give Him patent entry to them and if your Eyes were Fountains Tears if it would not become you to wash His Feet with them and to wipe them with the Hair of your Heads Would to God that you were under the suitable impression of this and that ye were by the Gospel and the Priviledges ye have by it constrained to love the Lord Jesus Christ It may be some of you think if this be all that is called for He shall not want it We assure you it is called for My Son sayeth He give me thine heart But we are afraid that though ye will confess that this is your duty and that ye should have Love to Him yet the most part of you want it For when we speak of Love to Châ—ist it is not a Pretext or Apprehension of Love that will be taken for Love but such Love as hath these Qualifications 1. If Christ be Loved He will be esteemed of as the most excellent Thing or Person the most excellent Bargain the most Kind Friend the most Loving Husband and as the most Full Compleat and absolute Sufficiency or Sufficient One As He is spoken of and esteemed of by the Spouse Can. 5. His countenance is like Lebanon excellent as the Cedars his mouth is most sweet he is altogether lovely The heart is brought to esteem of Him and to prefer Him beyond all that it can set the eye upon It were indeed somewhat if ye were brought under Conviction and through Perswasion of this that Jesus Christ is the incomparable best thing that a Sinner can have a Title to But alace He is dispised and rejected of Men though He be the chiefest of ten thousands And Men play the fool egregiously in preferring other things to Him who is infinitely worthy of the Preference uâ—â—â— and of the Preheminency above them all A 2d Evidence of Love is the hearts longing and panting after the injoyment of Him and after the injoyment of Him as the most excellent Object quite surpassing all other Objects And when the thirst and longing of the Soul is so carried out after Him as it cannot be satisfied without Him which is to be Sick of love for Him as it is Can. 2 5. and 5. v. 8. To be in a manner swooning and fâ—inting because of His absence and even greening to speak so for His presence to have the bent of the Souls Designes and Desires towards making â—f that Glorious Conquest whereof the Apostle speaks Philip. 3. Even to count all things to be but loss and dung and to cast all things as it were over Board to win to him and to be found in him To count of Him as the pearl of price and as the treasure hid in the field For the sake of which ye would strip your selves to the Skin and sell all that ye have to buy it 3. This Love to Christ Jesus hath in it a Satisfying Delight in Him and the Souls blessing of it self in Him it 's contenting it self with Him and it 's rejoycing in that Sweetness which it findeth to be in Him as being the only Attractive Object that hath such a Loveliness in it as breeds Satisfaction Which Satisfaction begets a
many come before Him when it shall be told them That He craved no more Satisfaction from them for all that He Suffered but that they would have improved His Sufferings for their own good and that yet they would not give Him that much Doeth not this say that their is need that we should look well what Fruit there is of His Sufferings that there may be more then if He had not Suffered at all 9. Consider the great weight that will be laid on this Sin of refusing to believe and to Satisfy Him in this to wit in improving of His Sufferings above all other Sins This is a Sin that will be found to be against Equity Thankfullnesse and Ingenuity that when He had done and Suffered so much He was so ill requited Yea it will be found to be a wilfull and malicious Sin That when your Good and His Satisfaction were joyned together ye would rather choise to destroy your selves then to Satisfie Him in saving your selves through Use-making of His Sufferings There are two remarkable Words to this purpose Heb. 6.10 In the 6. Chap. it 's said of such That they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame That is they do displease and anger Him and do what in them lyes to cast reproach upon Him as if He were no Saviour at all or an insufficient Saviour to put Him to Suffer over again in His wanting of Satisfaction for His Sufferings As it is a great pain for a Mother to be in Travel but it 's another and in some respect a greater pain if the Child die in the bringing forth In the 10. Chap. v. 28. It 's called A trading under foot the son of God and an accounting the blood of the Covenant to be an unholy thing And in the 26. v. Before it 's said There remains no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgement And it 's upon this very account As we did at another occasion make use of these two Scriptures to a like purpose and did thus Caution our Application of them against mistakes For what greater indignity can be put on Him then when His Satisfaction depends on the improving of His Sufferings yet people will not do it As nothing pleases Him better then to improve His Sufferings so on the contrary There is no Sin that doth displease Him more then when they are not improven And if ye will not now believe this to be a Truth yet when the Lord shall call you to count for it ye will find it to be a most certain and sad Truth That He called you to believe and that ye would lye still in your Unbelief Ignorance and Prophanity That ye destroyed your own Souls and made His Sufferings as uselesse as to you as if there had never a door been opened to Sinners to Heaven by them Is there any of you that will be able to answer to this challenge If not Then let Him have this Satisfaction by improving of His Sufferings that He may find to say so that His Death hath not been for nought as to you Study to have Him great in your esteem and to have your Souls saved by the vertue and efficacy of His Sufferings otherwayes the challenge will be unanswerable Considering that He declared that this would satisfie Him and ye knew that it would have pleased Him and removed the quarrel and saved your selves And that withall by this means a comfortable sentence at Judgement might have been procured to you And that yet ye disdained to do it And therefore since it stands so with you be intreated to make earnest and greater earnest of believing and of the great work of getting your own Souls saved which He hath thought so much of else it had been better for you that ye had never had a delightsome hour in the World And sad will the encounter be that ye will have with Him and with your own Conscience in that Day when it shall have this to tell you that ye cannot now expect any Good or Favour from the Judge Because when He would have saved you ye would not have it so but would needs run on your own damnation And therefore we say again either give Him Satisfaction by improving of His Sufferings and by making Earnest of the businesse of your Salvation Or resolve to meet with a most terrible Pursuer of the Quarrel against you The Wrath of God is dreadfull but much more the Vengeance of the Mediator who because ye would not give Him His will in your Salvation He shall have it in your Ruine and Destruction 4. There is here a sweet Word of Consolation to poor Souls that faln would have Sin taken away and are afraid to presume Our Lord will never be angry that ye make use of His Sufferings for your own good Nay He accounts it a Satisfaction to Him that ye improve them That when ye find your selves Arrested for Sin ye put it on His Score and draw a Bill on Him to pay your Debt That when you find your selves under that which to you looks like the dominion of Sin ye look to His Cross for Vertue to Crucifie Kill and Subdue it If therefore as I have often said ye would do Him a Favour or Pleasure make use of Him Be assured that the more weight ye lay on Him ye do Him the greater pleasure And this is all the amends that He seeks for all the wrâ—ngs ye have done to Him and all the Satisfaction that He seeks for all the good turns He hath done to you That ye come to Him thus to make use of Him And it is good Reason even all the Reason in the World that He get this amends made to Him and this Satisfaction granted to Him SERMON XLIX ISAIAH LIII XI Verse 11. He shall see of the travell of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities THere are two things of great Concernment for Men to know for sinfull Men to know if any thing be of Concernment The one is how the Justice of God that is provoked may be Satisfied or what it is by which provoked Justice is Satisfied And the other is What the way is how we come to get that Satisfaction applyed to us or what is the way to get the Benefit of it made ours And both of them are Answered in this v. clearly and shortly The first is holden out in the first part of the v. To be the travel of Christs soul Which hath a special look to the Covenant of Redemption and to the Condition on which it is Accomplished and Performed That is His Soul-travel under which all His Sufferings are comprehended The other is in the Latter Part of the verse By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities This holds forth in short the Gospel nay how
ye improved not for God It 's a sore matter that we should Preach and ye should hear these general Truths of the Gospel from day to day and that yet they do not sink into your hearts Ye will not readily denâ— that there is a day of Reckoning coming and that it will be a great favour to be commended of Him in that day and yet how few do by their Practice evidence that they lay weight on it It 's very sad that Religion should be so triffled in Many of you will come to the Church and seem there and in your other carriage as if ye were going to Heaven when in the mean time ye have few serious thoughts either of Heaven or of Hell But in that Day wherein ye shall stand trembling before His Tribunal and shall there receive the Sentence of an evil and sloathfull Servant ye will find to your cost That there was weight in these Truths that now ye take but little notice of 4ly In General Observe That it 's Singular Proper and Peculiar to Our Lord Jesus to be Gods Approven Servant so as to be without all ground of Challenge in the Discharge of His Duty and Trust and indeed there is no Righteous Servant in this sense but He only who according to the very Rigor of the Law was such the Law could not charge Him with any the least violation of it or want of Conformity unto it For He fulfilled all righteousness We spoke to this on v. 9. and shall not now insist on it Only it 's a sore matter that this Truth should be called in question and called an untruth in these dayes and that Men should say that this Designation and Title is not proper to Christ but that it 's common to all true Christians as if they were all free of Sin and that not by the imputation of Christs Righteousness to them but by their own doing of Righteousness Lord save us what a high injury is this to the Son of God And what gross ignorance is here of the corruption of Mans Nature which in the best and holiest of meer Men is never in this Life finally expelled as the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament most convincingly clear and what a wronging is this of the Truth of God which holds forth Our Lord Jesus as singled out to be and who is designed by this Name The Lords righteous servant Now if there were any moe properly so called we could not say that it were meant of Him But it 's not very profitable to insist in speaking of these Dottages and Foolries But to come more particularly to the benefits that flow from and come by this Righteous servant and from the service intrusted to Him and so faithfully managed and discharged by Him By his knowledge saith Jehovah shall he justifie many That is His Service is to absolve Sinners and set them free from the guilt of Sin and from the Curse that Naturally they are under and lyable to Looking on these Words in the Connexion with the former we shall Oâ—serve Three or Four things ere we come to the more closs and particular Consideration of the Words in themselves The 1. of which is this That the Justifying of many Sinners even of all the Elect is the speciall Trust committed by Jehovah to the Mediator It is in this especially wherein His Service consists Would ye then know what is the imployment of this Righteous Servant It is even this He shall justifie many He shall procure their Absolution from the Guilt of Sin and from the Curse of God and shall set them free from the Judgement which the Law hath against them whereby they are oblidged to the Curse for disobedience thereunto This we may consider 1. As it relates to God and so it imports that the justification of a Sinner is very acceptable to Him For it is that for which He hath given a Commission to the Mediator and what He hath Commissioned Him in the performance of it must needs be acceptable to Him Therefore that which is here called the Lords Service is called The Lords pleasure v. 10. To wit to see a poor Sinner brought in by the Mediator and on the accompt of His Satisfaction Justified He is pleased with and takes it well 2. It may be considered as it looks to the Mediator And so it speaks out the Mediators Design and Work it 's that wherein He is imployed and with which He is taken up even to get Elect Sinners brought from under the Curse of God and freely Justified through Himself So that if ye would know what is the Sum and Effect of Christs Errand and Work in the World here it is He came to save sinners as it is 1 Tim. 1.15 He came to seek and save that which was lost To bring home the lost sheep on His shoulder to seek and find the lost Groat to reclaim Prodigals As it is Luke 15. This is His Meat and His Drink His Work and Businesse as Himself sayes John 4.34 My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work And Luke 2. Know ye not that I must be about my Fathers business Which is to rescue poor Sinners from the Devil and to ingage them to God that their Sins may be Pardoned 3. It imports the Mediators Meetnesse for this Service that He is Furnished Fitted and Qualified for as well as taken up with the Justifying of Sinners and setting them free before the Throne of God He hath a full Purse to speak so to pay their Debt Therefore Revel 3.19 He bids Sinners Come and buy of him eye-salve gold and white rayment He hath Eye-salve for the Blind Gold to Inrich the Poor Garments for the Naked and in a Word every thing that is needfull for Sinners It is comfortable to hear that Christ is a Servant But to hear that this is His Service to Justifie Sinners and that He is so well fitted for it makes it so much the more comfortable And were we suitably sensible of Sin and did we throughly believe this Truth our hearts would Laugh within us as Abraham's once did to know that this was given to Christ in Commission to Justifie Sinners and that He is so well fitted for this Businesse that He is Commissioned about and imployed in especially now when He is so bussie about His Work and Imployment for though He be ascended on high yet He hath received gifts for and given them to men even for the rebellious that God the Lord might dwell among them As it is Psal 68. compared with Ephes 4. This is the End of the Ministry and Ordinances even to further this Work of the Justification of Sinners that by acknowledging and making Use of Christ this Work may be brought about and this Effect made to follow this is the End of Fasts and Communions even to Arrest perishing Sinners a while to Tryst and Treat with Him about the concerns of their
Ye are all lyable to appearing before God's Justice-seat Ye are all guilty and by the Sentence of the Law under Gods Curse and Condemned already Because God hath said He that sins shall die We are I say all thus by Nature Use 2. It gives a great commendation to the Grace of God in Christ Jesus it makes Grace wonderfully Glorious That takes the Sinner at this niâ—k and in this pinch We shall not dispute here nor is it needfull nor edifying whether God might have forgiven Sin freely without any intervenient Satisfaction to His Justice seing He hath declared His mind concerning that in His Word Exod. 23.7 I will not justifie the wicked And Chap. 34.7 That will by no means clear the guilty And Gen. 3. The day thou eats or Sins thou shalt surely die This is it that puts Man as considered in his Natural Condition to be as it were in Hell while he is on Earth and puts Him in such a near capacity to the Wrath of God if we may so speak and to the actual undergoing of it That there needs no more but the blowing out of the Breath to put him in the pit yea while He is living he is a Prisoner in Chains till the day of Execution come If Grace reprive him not ye would think much of Grace O! how very much if ye were seriously comparing these two together to be so near Hell and yet as it were to have a Ladder set up for you to ascend to Heaven by And that in such a way as by Christ's becoming a Curse They will certainly never think much of the Grace of God and of the Love of Christ they will never think much of their own hazard nor wil they ever in earnest make use of Christs Righteousness who have not some quick and lively impression and sense of this their Condition by Nature And therefore when ever ye go to Read to Hear to Pray to Meditat c. Take up your selves as naturally arrested before the Court of God and obnoxious to His Wrath This would lay your Pride and make Christs offers in the Gospel lovely to you Use 3. This shews That these who get any good of Christ are much in Christs Debt and Common and have in themselves no cause to boast of it If this be true even of the Elect that they are all once under the Sentence of Condemnation else they could not be Justified and Absolved by Christ Ye that think your selves to be something what have ye to boast of Who hath made you to differ and what have ye but what ye have received It sets you well therefore to be humble and to put a Price upon Christ as the Apostle doth on the same consideration Gal. 2.20 When he sayes Who loved me and gave himself for me That makes Him relish sweetly to the Believer And this is the ground of His Triumph Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again c. This way of Justification makes Christs death Wonderous Lovely and it is on this that the Song of the Redeemed is founded Rev. 1.5 Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever amen And of that new Song Revel 5.9 10. Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood c. It is an evil token when folk can talk at a high rate of their hope of being Justified when in the mean time they have so little estimation of Christ and their hearts are so little warmed with love to Him who is so Lovely to Believers And when they can so confidently make application of His Purchase to themselves and yet cannot tell when their heart was ever in the least measure ravished with the consideration of Christs love neither did it ever relish to them nor were their hearts ever in the least ingaged to Him on that consideration Use 4. All of you who are lying in this Natural Condition and know not what is your hazard who are living in your Prophanity or at best in your Hypocrisee Civility Formality not Regenerat or Born again but have still the same Faith and Love that ye were born with and no other what is your posture ye are not in Christ but lying naked obnoxious to the Wrath and Curse of God condemned already And what if your breath go out in this doleful condition What if a Palsie or Appoplexie overtake you suddenly What if a Stone fall upon you ere ye go home out of this place There is even but that much betwixt you and Hell Ye are lyable to be arrested before the Court of Gods Justice and how will it be with you when ye come there And when it shall be said that such a Person hath broken the Law and therefore Gods Curse is due to him and therefore away with him For he judgeth according to mens works Are there none of you afraid of this Do ye believe it to be a Truth O! that ye did who are lying contentedly and secure in your Natural Condition and yet it does not trouble you Will you yet lye still contentedly in this dreadful state Is it possible that ye can be well in this condition though ye would heap up Riches as the Sand ye cannot look into the Bible nor into your own heart but it curses you Ye cannot look to the Bar of Gods Justice but the Sentence meets you Depart from me ye cursed This is the Truth of God And if ye think there be any here lying still in black nature and we are not sure all renewed think then upon your case O! that ye saw your posture The Hand-writting coming forth on the Wall did not so afright Belshazzar as this Curse would afright you if it were believed And 2ly If this be your Natural Condition and if ye believe it to be truly so we would expostulat with you and even wonder 1. How comes it to passe that so many of you lye still in your Natural Condition and endeavour not a change of your State It will be wondered at by Angels and by all the Elect yea and even by the Reprobat that never heard of Christ That so many heard the Gospel and had the offer of Christ and yet did not stir up themselves to make use of Him Is it not a wonder that Folk can sleep secure under the Curse of God And bless themselves till their iniquities be found to be hatefull To be in this condition and to sleep quietly under it will have a dolefull wakning 2dly How is it that so few take pains to try how it is with them If many of you were lying under a Decreet of
lay down their Arms and come in and if one of them were challenged and called to a Reckoning after his coming in for his Rebellion The ground of his Plea would not be that he never was out in Rebellion but that such an offer was made and that he did hazard his life on it So is it here A Sinner is a Rebel against God by Nature and being in Rebellion hath the Offer of Pardon and Life made to him on condition that he close by Faith with Christs Righteousness and the Sinner doth by Faith give God credit and hazards his Soul on that Whereas unbelief to follow the similitude is as if a Rebell hearing of such a Pardon offered would not think that a sure way to come off but would either plead innocent or take him to some other shift This then is the Faith that I mean of which actually closes with and makes use of Gods Offer of Christs Righteousness for Absolution 3dly Consider the Causes of Justification And there are Three in the Words 1. The Meritorious Cause that hath procured and bought this Benefit is Christs Satisfaction His bearing of our iniquites He shall justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities 2. The Instrumental Cause Condition or Mean or Way how that Benefit is derived to us is Faith called here His knowledge It 's the Faith we spoke of just now Faith taking hold of such a Promise and resting on Gods Faithfulness for the making out of it It 's this which gives the Soul a Title to Christs Righteousness which formerly it had not and makes Christ's Purchase of due to belong to it by vertue of Gods Offer and consequently the benefit of Justification is derived to it by it's taking hold of the Offer which otherwayes it could not partake of 3. The formal Cause wherein Justification properly consists is this even God's Absolving or Judicial pronouncing of the Sinner to be Free and His accounting of Him as righteous on account of Christs Righteousness imputed to Him and taken hold of by His Faith where the Sentence is past we need not curiously inquire It 's like as the Sentence of Condemnation stands in the Word while the Sinner is in unbelief So by believing in Christ He hath Absolution in the Word as John 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned And this Sentence of the Word is as effectuall for Absolving of the Sinner as if the Sentence were pronunced in an immediat way or with an audible voice from Heaven by God with the Sinners name and sirname in it And therefore let me commend this with the other places I named before to you that from them ye may learn to take up the way how a Sinner is Absolved and Justified It 's Christ's Satisfaction that makes the amends and is the Meritorious Cause It is Gods Word that makes Offer of that Satisfaction and it 's our Faith begotten and quickned by Gods Spirit that taketh hold of it and Justification it self it Gods Absolving and Accepting of the Person as Righteous in His sight who is fled to Christ's Righteousness And thus though Gods Grace and Mercy be the Efficient Cause that admits of the Ransome yet neither is Grace in us the Formal Cause nor is Grace in God the Meritorious Cause but it 's that which layes down the way how a Satisfaction shall be provided and accepts of it when provided and of the Sinner on account of it when by Faith he betakes himself to it Use 2. Seing there is such a way of Justification provided and by the Gospel brought to light revealled and made manifest as the Word is Rom. 1.17 and 3.21 Since I say that Mystery which before was hid is disclosed and Life and Immortality brought to Light by the Gospel let me earnestly intreat you that ye would make use of this Mean and way of Justification for the obtaining of Absolution before God The end of Preaching as we said is to reveal this Righteousness and the end of the revealling of it is to ingage Sinners to make use of it Of which though we should Preach to you from the one end of the year to the other if ye do not betake your selves to it so as to close with it and heartily to submit unto it it will all be to no purpose For pressing of this Use a little further consider the great concern and moment of this Application and what may induce you seriously to mind it And to this purpose 1. I would pose and put you to it if ye believe that by Nature ye are lyable to Gods Curse and that ye must compear before His Judgement-seat and if ye be found in Nature when ye compear that it will be a Woful and Dreadful Sentence that ye will meet with from God and if withal ye believe this that by Justification ye may have Sin Pardoned be Reconciled to God and have the Curse removed from you and be put in such a State as if ye had never Sinned If I say ye believe these things to be the Truths of God is not this of your Concernment whether ye be made Friends with God and have your Sins Pardoned or not whether ye shall be Eternally Happy or Eternally Miserable whether ye shall get Gods blessing or lye for ever under His Curse If this I say be of your concernment then surely Obedience to this Exhortation is of your Concernment because there is no other way to win to Absolution but this 2. Consider That it 's the very design of the Gospel and of this benefit that is made Offer of to you therein which all the Nations that have not the Gospel want The priviledge being denyed to them God makes Offer of a way to you how ye may be Justified and ye professe your desire to learn it and to get it practically made use of and Improved and as Paul hath it Philip. 3.8 9 10. That ye may know Christ that ye may win Him and be found in Him And it is the Sum of the Gospel as we have it Act. 13.38 Be it known unto you men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you remession of sins and by him all that believe are justified This is even the time that the Lord is making this Proclamation that was before Prophesied of and Published by Isaiah By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many This is it that is even now Revealed Declared and made Manifest to you that by Christ Jesus alone Righteousnesse is to be attained And if it be of such concernment that for this very end God hath sent His Sone to die and hath sent this Gospel to declare and make offer of this benefit of His Death unto you It 's no doubt greatly of your concernment to make use of it when it comes to you 3. Consider That if the Lords Proclamation of it have not that effect to ingage you to Christ Jesus for the obtaining of Righteousnesse through Him
's said to rest or rely as it respects Christ and his Satisfaction the thing offered and received with regard to the charge to which it is lyable It 's here that it rests and to this it betakes it self as to it's defence when challenged It 's difficult to difference these two or peremptorly to say whether Christs Righteousnesse be received or rested upon yet it 's made our defence because it 's closed with and we make them two Acts of the same Faith though it 's hard to make the one of them to be the effect of the other or the one of them to be antecedent to the other in respect of time at least As a Proclamation of Pardon being made to Rebells they say this Proclamation gives a freedom from the Laws pursuit because they have embraced it and these Rebells make that the ground if ever they be challenged whereon they found their Defence they have this to lippen to and upon this they rest Though none of these Acts can well be said to be before or after the other in respect of time For clearing of this a little more consider that this resting may be looked on either Passively or Actively Passively in respect of the Believers acquiescing in Christ and assuring himself that all shall be well This is not that Act of Faith that is called for to Justification but supposes the Person to be Justified for he must be Justified ere he can rest or acquiesce in it Actively in respect of our resting on him that we may be Justified as the Apostle hath it Gal. 2.16 And this Isaiah 5.6 Is called a taking hold of Gods covenant It is an actual committing of our selves to Him that we may win to peace or a leaning on Him as suppose one were to rest upon a Staff it doth not only imply the effect his having of ease but also and firstly his leaning to or resting on it in order to ease Therefore it 's said Math. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy loaden and ye shall find rest The Act that Justifies is this last and active Act the Act of coming or leaning or resting and the passive Act of acquiescing or assurance is that which follows upon it as a fruit and effect of it And therefore we humbly conceive that it is not safe to define Justifying Faith by Assurance or to say that where-ever Faith is there is Assurance It is rather a resting on Christ that we may have rest and a ground of Defence and reason to be proposed if we should be quarrelled for or charged with the Debt of Sin The Uses are 1. To remove the difficulties as namely it may be asked here is there no confidence not assurance in this Active Act of Faith which is the Essence of it we answer shortly There are Three sorts of confidence pleaded for that are far from the nature of Faith and yet Faith wants not it's own Confidence and Assurance if it be taken in a right sense The 1. is for a man to believe that Christ died for him in particular at the first hand and to think that he hath no more to do but to believe that Christ Died and Suffered for him and that thereupon he is Justified For this layeth a ground for universal Redemption against the current of the Scriptures and can never be a ground of interest in Christ's Righteousnesse It supposes that to be done already and admits not the Soul to concur by believing for coming to the application and yet this is very rise amongst People I believe that Christ died for me and shed His precious Blood for me and so long as they can maintain this presumption and not suffer themselves to admit of any debating and questioning whether they have ground and reason for it or not they think they have Faith enough but this is no Act of Faith nor of the nature of true Justifying Faith which is to take hold of Christ offered that we may come to be absolved through Him Therefore when ever the Scripture puts us to believe It commands us to take hold of Christ offered and not at first hand to believe that he died for us in particular I suppose many are carried away with this presumption that will to their cost at last find it to be otherwayes 2. Others think that all Faith consists in this to believe that God loved them from all Eternity and that they are already Justified which is the Antinomian way They believe not that they may be justified which was Pauls way Gal. 2.16 but they believe that they are Justified And this also presuppons an universal Redemption and to presse it upon you were to bid you all believe that God hath loved you and pardoned you from all Eternity which were to bid you believe a lie for we wot well from the Scriptures of Truth that God hath not loved all from Eternity and yet this is the Faith that many of you presumptuously practises we are all naturally some way Antinomians Papists and Arminians in our practice and the way of Error is more consistent and current with our nature then the way of Truth But O! presumptuous hypocrites will ye darringly and without any ground believe Gods Love to you God shall shake you out of that confidence and blow upon it and make it evanish ye cry out on them that live in Error yet ye practise these same Errors to speak so as fast as ye can we cannot by much Preaching get you brought to the Knowledge of the Truth but ye can drink in Error ere ye hear of it and it will ruin your Souls if Grace prevent not and many of you shall find that thus you have destroyed your selves A 3d. Sort of rotten confidence is that which some have who cannot say they are for the time Justified yet they have a perswasion to get Heaven and to be Justified ere they die or that at death they will be sure of it and they wote well they shall not despair This is also naughty presumption and continued in as hazardous as outer disperation and killeth moe Souls then dispair doth for such rest quietly in their hope of being fred from wrath and having their peace made with God and yet never go to Christ to have it done this is like that mans presumption that sayes tush I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my own heart God is gracious and merciful and I hope he will not be so severe as He is called The Lord calleth this a believing of Him for He sayes in His Word that there is no peace to the wicked and the foolish presumer sayes I shall have peace shall His Word or theirs stand they say Jer. 5.12 and 7 9. The temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord are these they make a fair shew of attendence on ordinances and yet steall murder and commit adultery and say we are delivered to do all these things
to take Christs Righteousnesse and the pardon of Sin through Him freely and what matter of boasting I pray is here none at all Thus this Doctrine contributes both to make these who are seeking pardon and these who have gotten pardon humble Where is boasting then sayes the Apostle it is excluded by what law by the law of works no but by the law of faith as it is Rom. 3.17 The believing Sinner does nothing and hath done nothing towards the procuring of His own Justification but gets all freely We can never think nor speak aright of Justification but it layes our vain humour and stops the mouth from boasting while it saith What hast thou O! man but what thou hast received and if thou hast received it why dost thou boast as if thou hadst not received it We shall close and shut up the whole of this Doctrine by proposing some few considerations as conclusions from it 1. See here a necessity of being acquainted with the Truths of the Gospel and with this Truth in particular concerning Justification whereof alace many are very ignorant seing there are so many wayes to go wrong and so many do go wrong about it we had need to be the more clear in the right way If there were more knowledge of this and of other Truths we might speak and hear with more profite and if ye did not please your selves with meer and airy notions but sought to be settled in what ye hear of other Truths and of this in particular it would contribute much to your peace and rid you of many doubts and difficulties A 2d Consideration is That there is much need to walk in holy fear in studying this and other Truths there are so many wayes to err and a wrong step here is very dangerous It were exceeding profitable to be more in the study of Justification that is of the very marrow of the Gospel and is deservedly accounted to be articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesiae but ye would come to it in fear being jealous of your own ignorance and shallownesse of capacity rightly to take it up especially when new questions are rising and started concerning it And as Paul and David studied this way and held it forth to others as the way whereby they went to heaven and whereby others must come to it So we commend it to you to follow them A 3d. Consideration is If Faith be so necessary to Justification as without it ye cannot be Justified is there not reason that ye should study to be distinct and clear that ye have Faith and that ye are indeed Believers This is one of the great Uses of all this Doctrine If there be no way but Faith and if in studying this one way many go wrong then as ye would make your calling and election sure study to make this sure by puting your selves to the tryal if ye be taking this way as the Apostle most pathetically exhorts 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves if ye be in the faith prove your own selves c. It 's truly matter of wonder to think how so many men and women are so soon satisfied in the matter of their believing which yet is so tickle and difficult a businesse we would have none to be jumbled and confounded about it who desire to be serious in the thing yet we would have all wakened and put to diligence many men have taken pains to be wrong in this matter of Justification and how few of you have taken pains to go right in it and how is it that many of you win so easily at it Seing the Apostle Rom. 9. calls it a stumbling stone to many and a rock of offence Surely 〈◊〉 it be so your coming at it by guess and ignoranly is to be suspected And therefore on this consideration ye would be awakened to put your selves more seriously to the study of it and to try your selves if ye be come well to it for it 's the special yea the only-ground of your peace before God There are many of you who in a manner think it impossible to miscarry in this For ye know that there is no way to be Justified but by Faith and yet if many of you were put to it ye know not the manner nor way how Faith Justifies which shews that it is not so easie a matter as ye take it to be A 4th Consideration is this That in speaking of Justification and Faith's peculiarnesse or peculiar way of concurring in it ye would beware of crying down Works as to their usefulness or necessity This was an error that soon entered in the Church as soon as Paul cleared and pressed the Doctrine of Justification by Faith some arose who as James shews in the 2d Chapter of his Epistle affirmed that Works were not needful but Faith would save them no sayes James that faith is dead and vain that wants works And therefore remember 1. That although we tell you that Works are not properly the condition of the Covenant of Grace yet we say that Faith and Works are never separat in a Justified Person sound Faith cannot but work and put on to the study of Holinesse 2. We say although Works concur not in the obtaining of pardon of Sin yet we say they are needful to Salvation and to folks entry in to Heaven For the Apostle saith Heb. 12.17 That without holiness none shall see the Lord Though it's Faith that makes our friendship yet it 's by holinesse that it 's entertained and it 's holinesse whereby our communion is keeped up with God Therefore Col. 1.12 We are said by it to be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light For it transforms us to Gods Image 3. Works are necessary though not to procure our peace yet for the entertaining of our peace and except we have Works we cannot have a solid proof that our Justification by Faith is real and in this respect James sayes Chap. 2. that Abraham was Justified by Works That is by his Works he was declared to be a justified person As to the Justification of his person he was justified by Faith before Isaac was born but by his offering up of Isaac and other Fruits of his Faith he was declared and manifested to be a Justified man and made suitable to the Covenant that he was ingaged in with God Therefore as the sum of all be exhorted to study the exercise of Faith and Holinesse so as every one of them may have it 's own room and place for that will be your advantage and without this no other thing will advantage you Now God himself that calleth for both Sanctifie and enable us for both SERMON LXII ISAIAH LIII XI Vers 11. For he shall bear their iniquities IT 's a thing that can neither be easily believed nor yet understood how by Christs knowledge or by Faith in Him many shall be justified In these Words the Prophet adds a Reason that both confirms
Original sin as young Serpents before they can sting actually or like Ravenous Birds before they come out of the Nest yet we call these Serpents and Ravenous Birds because they are come of such a kind In our Swadling-clouts we have the venomous and Ravenous Nature to wit Original sin in us And in our Actual sinning we are like Serpents when they come to sting actually or like Ravenous Birds when they come to catch the Prey And our Actual sin is a fruit of Original sin Or take it in this same similitude in the Text there are many Shep that never actually strayed yet they are called straying witless Creatures because they are inclined to stray and ready to stray Or take it in this similitude there are some diseases that follow such a House and Family some are inclined to a Consumption some to the Stone some to one disease some to another which is from some defect of the Body even so it is here that from a defect of our Nature infected by Original sin that all Actual sins flow The 2d Use is for Conviction and Reproof and indeed we cannot well tell where we shall begin here However the first thing that it reproves is our natural Pride Though this be the sinfulness of our very Infancy yet we are ready to look upon our selves as something it 's a true saying though much misapplyed that Job hath chap. 11.12 Vain man would be wise though man be born as an wild â—ssâ—s colt a Colt hath a wild humour and â—s the most witless of Creatures and this same is it that is implyed in that saying of James 4.5 Do ye think the Scripture saith in vain the spirit that is in us lusteth to envy which saith this much that the most part never trow that they have such a spirit in them that 's enclined to all evil bent to have God and every thing that is good 2. Iâ— reproves the great security that is amongst the most part It this be a truth that Mâ—n and Women are thus born under the Curse of God and enclined to every thing that is evil born enemies to God and enclined to aggrege highten the quarrel how comes it then to pass that the great part sleep as soundly and securely as if they were in no hazard If ye were all posed and put to it how many of you can give a solid proof that ye are reconciled that your Peace is made that ye are changed and your nature renewed and the quarrel betwixt God and you taken away and yet if we look up and down ye are generally as sâ—cure and quiet as if ye were born friends with God There are but few taking with a Conviction and saying within themselves Is yonder Doctrine true of me as if the Scripture had spoken in vain whatever it speaks of Original Sin Ah! shall this never be amended will ye never lay your sinfulness to heart shall ye still think nothing of that which gives the occasional rise to the Covenant of Redemption and to Christs Satisfaction all the preaching that ye hear daily if it be not now laid to heart it shall be most terrible and dreadful to you one day and the Peace that ye now have shall end in red War and great bitterness 3. It reproves Folks exceeding great unwatchfulness and their trusting to their own Nature and following their own Council the wise man saith Prov. 28.26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool Is it not reproof-worthy for a man to be as bruitish as the very beast that perisheth as it is Psal 49. and yet to be as little watchful and as much trustful or to trust as much to a mans own guiding as if nothing of a milguiding humour and disposition were in him we may more then allude to these words of our Saviour here If the blind lead the blind shall not both fall into the ditch many of you think that ye are instructed as Scribes in the way to Heaven and will be readâ— to say God forbid we should be ignorant of that and what have we been doing all our days if we be yet to learn that lesson but we will tell you what ye have been doing ye have even been like silly witless Sheep straying all your days And we would the rather speak to this because it is so necessary to be known and believed and yet so little known and credited For 1. Ye will never be rightly humbled nor make use of Jesus Christ nor walk watchfully and soberly In a word ye will never believe and repent till â—e know be convinced of and believe this to be your natural Inclination and the sinfulness of your nature And yet 2. Tho this be so necessary that the want of it mars the fruit of the Word in you and Preaching doth but buff on you to say so How many are there that are as little sensible of it as the very stones of the Wall that are before us or the boards that they lean upon as to their own particular state and condition I would but ask you Is it possible that ye could live so securely and satisfied with your own case if ye believed indeed that ye had such a sinful nature and that ye were lyable to Gods Wrath and Curse or would ye give such way to your natural sinful humours and inclinations and so contentedly slight Jesus Christ and the offers of the Gospel as many of you do and yet we see amongst them with whom we converse Men and Women not only as secure as if they had not such natures but even belshing and foaming out their own shame We would have you therefore to be convinced and know that not only ye are Sinners in the general but that every one of you is such in particular To make it the more clear I shall give you two or three Qualifications that are requisite to a suitable conviction of your sinfulness 1. It would be particular 2. It would be sensible ye would not in bare words take with it that ye are Sinners but ye would see and be convinced that in this and this ye have sinned and ye would be kindly affected with it 3. It would be distinct not a guessing but a thing that from the seeing and feeling of it ye would be clear in 4. It would have such iâ—fluence on the moving of your Aff ctions and such an inward working on your hearts as that ye may loath â—our nature and your self because of it We may see all these in Paul Rom. 7. vers 10. and forward who though he was greatly renewed yet saith he I see a law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind he feels and is very sensible of that which leads him in captivity and he crys out Who shall deliver me c. his affections are mightily stirred with it What I do I allow not c. O miserable man that I am c. If ye believe this to be a
truth and that Paul lived in the faith and feeling of it then judge if there be not just ground to expostulate with most part of you as being yet without the faith and feeling of this moâ— concerning thing The 3â— Use of it serves wonderfully to set forth the glory of the free and rich Grace of God that all this business is made and this transaction entered into that Christ comes to satisfie and doth actually satisfie Justice for a number of such wretches that had gone astray like lost sheep This comes in as he scope we have strayed done the wrong but he hath payed the debt satisfied for the wrong done and from comparing this v. with the foregoing we may take these five Considerations that serve to heighten the glory of Gods Grace and Free-love and to shame Believers that are so little in wondring at it 1. Who is smitten his own Son we sinned and he was smitten even he who was and is the Fathers fellow the Sword awakes against him and we go free 2. What did our Lord suffer He was wounded and bruised the chastisement of our peace was on him he laid on him the iniquity of us all It was not a complemental or fashional suffering but he was arraigned before the Tribunal of Justice and did really pay our Debt and satisfie Justice for our Sins 3. Who exâ—ctâ—d this Satisfaction who did smite him It 's the Lord Jehovah it 's the Father which makes the glory of Grace shine the more It 's God the Father whose Heart was tender to the Son of his love that exâ—cts the full price of him so that as he said of Abraham By this I know that thou lovest me because thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only son Isaac from me we may say by this we know God's love to the Elect when he hath not withheld nor spared his own Son from them but hath laid on him the iniquities of them all 4. For whom did he smite him for Sinners for straying Sheep for Covenant-breakers for such as had gone a whoring from God and were bent to sin against him I mean the Elect. 5. When was it that he suffered for them even when they were straying rejecting despising nodding the head at him spitting in his face and saying away with him even then he is praying and dying for them Now put all these together that such a price shall be exacted of such a Cautioner and for such Sinners and at such a time behold see therein how God commends his love to us as the Apostle speaks Rom. 5.8 In that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us when we were in our sin not praying to him nor in capacity to pray or give him thanks for any thing that he did or suffered he then died for us Is there any thing here but freedom of Grace and does not this exceeding highly commend the love of God that he exacts the Debt due by us of his Son and the wonderful love of the Mediator and Cautioner that at such a time and for such transgressions he should pay such a price Use 4. Seing this was our state that we were Sinners and that yet herein was the love of God commended that he laid oâ— his Son the iniquity of us all then is there not good ground to take with Sin and to make use of the Remedy to take with Sin and to close with Christ We might take occasion here to exhort 1. To Watchfulness and to walking soberly and humbly from this ground that we have such a Nature 2. To exhort every one to Repentance because by Nature ye are all in such a sinful state and condition â—t may be ground of exercising Repentance even long after your justification and peace made with God who are justified with whom it should be as we see it was with David But 3ly Seing by Nature ye are under God's Wrath and Curse and in a state of enmity with him it mainly serves to exhort you to flee unto Jesus Christ and not to rest till ye gâ—t the quarrel taken away It might be in reason thought that Folks would be soon and easily induced to this even to run unto Jesus Christ and to welcome the Gospel with good will for preventing the Curse and Wrath due to them for sin and for subduing of this sinful nature and inclination to stray from God and his Way Therefore seing there is a fountain opened to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness since there is a satisfaction given to Justice for removing the guilt of sin since the Spirit is purchased for mortifying of sin making holy let as many as think that they have gone astray and have turned to their own way as they would not be found still at this distance with God make use of Christ for making their friendship with God it 's the word that Peter useth 1 Pet. 2. ult All we like sheep have gone astray but we are now turned unto the shepherd and bishop of our souls hold O hold you near this Shepherd and make use of his Righteousness for making your Peace If we could rightly understand the words we would see in them 1. A Motive to put us on to believing in Christ and can there be a greater motive then necessity We have sinned and gone astray he is the only Saviour there is no other name given under Heaven whereby Sinners can be saved 2. There is also in them an Encouragement to Believing It was for Sinners such as we are that Jesus Christ suffered all that he suffered which may be ground of hope and encouragement to step forward and if neither our need nor Christ's being a Saviour willing to make Sinners welcome will prevail we know not what will do it It will turn to this and ye will be put to it Whether are ye Sinners and if Sinners whether is it not a desperate thing to ly under Sin and Wrath If ye be not Sinners we have no warrand to propose this Doctrine to you to invite or make you welcome to a Saviour but if ye grant that ye are Sinners will ye contentedly ly under Sin will ye be able to bear it out against God or think ye that ye will be well enough for all that and if ye dare not resolve to ly under Sin I would ask what way will ye win from it think ye it easie to win from under it must not the Justice of God be satisfied some of you think that ye can pray your selves out of Sin but what need was there of Christs sufferings if a satisfaction might have been made to Justice another way and if none but Christ can satisfie it turns to this that by all means ye would make use of him else ye will most certainly drown and die in your sins And this is the thing that we would commend to you that under the sense of sin and in the faith of Gods condescending