himself that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of Good Works Tit. 2. 14. For the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all our sins 1 Joh. 1. 7. For he loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood Rev. 1. 5. The Blood of Jesus Christ purgeth our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. Respect I acknowledge in some of these places may be had unto the Expiation of the Guilt of sin by the Blood of Christ as offered in Sacrifice for so in himself he purged our sins Heb. 1. 3. But as they all suppose a Defilement in sin so the most of them respect its cleansing by the Application of the Vertue of the Blood of Christ unto our Souls and Consciences in our Sanctification And 3 moreover where Sanctification is enjoyned us as our Duty it is prescribed under this Notion of cleansing our selves from sin Wash you make you clean Isa. 1. 16. O Jerusalem wash thine Heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved Jer. 4. 14. Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself 1 Joh. 3. 3. Psal. 119. 9. 2 Tim. 2. 20. and the like Expressions of this Duty occur in other places Sect. 2 4 Answerable unto these Promises and Precepts and in the Confirmation of them we have the Institution of the Ordinance of Baptisme the Outward way and Means of our Initiation into the Lord Christ and the Profession of the Gospel the great Representation of the Inward washing of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. Now this Baptisme in the First place expresseth the outward putting away the filth of the flesh by external washing with material water 1 Pet. 3. 21. And that which answers hereunto can be in nothing but the inward purifying of our Souls and Consciences by the Grace of the Spirit of God that is saith our Apostle the putting off the Body of the sins of the flesh Col. 2. 11. which contains the whole Defilement and Corruption of sin And this also was typed out unto us by all the Legal Purifications of Old Wherefore we shall do three things in the Explication of this first Branch of our Sanctification 1 Shew That there is a spiritual Pollution and Defilement in Sin 2 Declare What it is or wherein it doth consist And 3 Manifest how it is removed or washed away and Believers made Holy thereby Sect. 3 For the First it needs not much to be insisted on Our Minds and their Conceptions are in these things to be regulated by Divine Revelations and Expressions And in the whole Representation made unto us in the Scripture of the Nature of Sin of our Concernment therein of the Respect of God towards us on the Account thereof of the Way and Means whereby we may be delivered from it there is nothing so much inculcated as its being filthy abominable full of defilement and pollution which is set forth both in the plain Expressions and various Similitudes On the Account hereof is it said to be abhorred of God the abominable thing which his Soul hateth which he cannot behold which he cannot but hate and detest and is compared to Blood Wounds Sores Leprosie Scum loathsome Diseases With respect hereunto is it so frequently declared that we must be washed purged purified cleansed as in the Testimonyes before cited before we can be accepted with him or be brought to the Enjoyment of him And the work of the Spirit of Christ in the Application of his Blood unto us for the taking away of sin is compared to the Effects of Fire Water Sope Nitre every thing that hath a purifying cleansing Faculty in it These things so frequently occurr in the Scripture and Testimonies concerning them are so multiplyed that it is altogether needless to produce particular Instances This is evident and undenyable that the Scripture which regulates our Conceptions about Spiritual things expressly declares all sin to be uncleanness and every sinner to be defiled thereby and all unsanctified persons to be wholly unclean and how far these Expressions are Metaphorical or wherein the Metaphor doth consist must be afterwards declared Besides there is no Notion of Sin and Holiness whereof Believers have a more sensible spiritual Experience For although they may not or do not comprehend the Metaphysical Notion or Nature of this Pollution and Defilement of Sin yet they are sensible of the Effects it produceth in their Minds and Consciences They find That in sin which is attended with shame and self-Abhorrency and requires deep Abasement of Soul They discern in it or in themselves on the Account of it an unsuitableness unto the Holiness of God and an unfitness thereon for Communion with him Nothing do they more earnestly labour after in their Prayers and Supplications than a cleansing from it by the Blood of Christ nor are any Promises more precious unto them than those which express their Purification and purging from it For these are they which next unto their Interest in the Attonement made by the Sacrifice of Christ give them boldness in their approaches unto God So our Apostle fully expresseth it Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. Having therefore boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus by a New and Living Way which he hath consecrated for us through the Veyl that is to say his flesh and having an High Priest over the House of God let us draw near with a true Heart in full Assurance of Faith having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure Water The Foundation of all our Confidence in our Access unto God the Right and Title we have to approach unto him is laid in the Blood of Christ the Sacrifice he offered the Attonement he made and the Remission of sins which he obtained thereby which Effect of it he declares v. 19. Having boldness by the Blood of Jesus The way of our Access is by pleading an Interest in his Death and Suffering whereby an Admission and Acceptance is consecrated for us v. 20. by a new and living way which he hath consecrated And our encouragement to make use of this Foundation and to engage in this Way is taken from his discharge of the Office of an High-Priest in our behalf And having an High Priest over the House of God let us draw near But besides all this when we come to an Actual Address unto God that we may make use of the Boldness given us in the full Assurance of Faith it is moreover required that our hearts be sprinkled and our bodyes washed that is that our whole Persons be purifyed from the Defilement of sin by the Sanctification of the Spirit And this Experience of Believers we cannot only oppose unto and plead against the stupidity of such
Degree as Universal Sincerity doth require But it may be yet said that indeed hereby he makes us Pure and prevents many future Defilements yet how is Soul freed from those it had contracted before this work upon it or those which it may and doth unavoidably afterwards fall into for as there is no man doth good and sinneth not so there is none who is not more or less defiled with Sin whilest they are in the Body here in this World The Apostle answereth this Objection or Enquiry 1 Joh. 1. 7 8 9. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us But if Sin be in us we are defiled and how shall we be Cleansed God is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness But how may this be done by what means may it be accomplished The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin Sect. 3 2 It is therefore the Blood of Christ in the Second place which is the Meritorious procuring and so the Effective Cause that immediately purgeth us from our sins by an especial Application of it unto our Souls the Holy Ghost And there is not any Truth belonging unto the Mystery of the Gospel which is more plainly and evidently asserted as hath in part been made to appear before The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. He hath washed us from our sins in his own Blood Revel 1. 5. The Blood of Christ purgeth our Consciences from dead Works that we may serve the Living God Heb. 9. 14. He gave himself for his Church that he might wash and cleanse it Ephes. 5. 26. To Purifie to himself a peculiar People Tit. 2. 14. Besides whatever is spoken in the whole Scripture concerning purifying the Unclean the Leprous the Defiled by Sacrifices or other Institutions of the Old Testament it is all Instructive in and Directive unto the Purifying Nature of the Blood of Christ from whence alone these Institutions had their Efficacy and the Vertue of it is promised under that Notion Zech. 13. 1. And this the Faith and Experience of all Believers doth confirm for they are no Imaginations of their own but what being built on the Truth and Promises of God yield sensible Spiritual Relief and Refreshment unto their Souls This they believe this they pray for and find the Fruits and Effects of it in themselves It may be some of them do not it may be few of them do comprehend distinctly the Way whereby and the Manner how the Blood of Christ so long since shed and offered should cleanse them now from their sins But the Thing it self they do believe as it is revealed and find the use of it in all wherein they have to do with God And I must say let Profane and Ignorant Persons whilest they please deride what they understand not nor are able to disprove that the Holy Spirit of God which leadeth Believers into all Truth and enableth them to pray according to the Mind and Will of God doth guide them in and by the working and Experience of Faith to pray for those things the depths of whose Mysteries they cannot comprehend And he who well studyeth the things which he is Taught of the Spirit to ask of God will find a Door opened into much spiritual Wisdom and Knowledge For let the World rage on in those Prayers which Believers are taught and enabled unto by the Holy Ghost helping of them as a Spirit of Supplications there are Two things inexpressible 1 The Inward Labouring and Spiritual Working of the Sanctified Heart and Affections towards God wherein consist those Sighs and Groans that cannot be uttered Rom. 8. 26. God alone sees and knowes and understands the fervent Workings of the New Creature when acted by the Holy Ghost in Supplications And so it is added in the next words Vers. 27. An he who searcheth the Hearts knoweth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is the meaning of the Spirit what it savours and inclines unto It is not any distinct or separate Acting of the Spirit by himself that is intended but what and how he works in the Hearts of Believers as he is a Spirit of Grace and Supplication And this is known only unto him who is the Searcher of Hearts and as he is so And he knoweth what is the bent frame inclination and acting of the Inward Man in Prayer from the Power of the Spirit which they themselves in whom they are wrought do not fathom nor reach the Depth of This he doth in the Subject of Prayer the Hearts and Minds of Believers the Effects of his Operation in them are inexpressible 2 As to the Object of Prayer or things prayed for he doth in and by the Word so represent and exhibit the Truth Reality Subsistence Power and Efficacy of spiritual Mysterious things unto the Faith and Affections of Believers that they have a real and Experimental sence of do mix Faith with and are affected by those things now made nigh now realized unto them which it may be they are not able Doctrinally and distinctly to explain in their proper Notions And thus do we oft-times see Men low and weak in their Notional Apprehension of things yet in their Prayers led into Communion with God in the Highest and Holyest Mysteries of his Grace having an Experience of the Life and Power of the Things themselves in their own Hearts and Souls And hereby do their Faith Love Affiance and Adherence unto God act and Exercise themselves So is it with them in this matter of the actual present purifying of the Pollutions of sin by the Blood of Jesus Christ the Way whereof we shall now briefly enquire into Sect. 4 1. Therefore by the Blood of Christ herein is intended the Blood of his Sacrifice with the Power Vertue and Efficacy thereof And the Blood of a Sacrifice fell under a double Consideration 1 As it was offered unto God to make Attonement and Reconciliation 2 As it was sprinkled on other things for their Purging and Sanctification Part of the Blood in every Propitiatory Sacrifice was still to be sprinkled round about the Altar Levit. 1. 11. And in the Great Sacrifice of Expiation some of the Blood of the Bullock was to be sprinkled before the Mercy-seat seven time Levit. 16. 14. This our Apostle fully expresseth in a great and signal Instance Heb. 9. 19 20 21 22. For when Moses had spoken every Precept to all the People according to the Law he took the Blood of Calves and of Goats with Water and Scarlet-wooll and Hyssop and sprinkled both the Book and all the People saying This is the Blood of the Testament which he hath enjoyned unto you and almost all things are by the Law purged with Blood Wherefore the Blood of Christ as it was the Blood of his Sacrifice hath these two Effects and falls under this double Consideration 1 As he offered himself by the
Eternal Spirit unto God to make Attonement for Sin and procure Eternal Redemption 2 As it is sprinkled by the same Spirit on the Consciences of Believers to purge them from Dead works as v. 12 13 14. And hence it is called with respect unto our Sanctification the Blood of Sprinkling Heb. 12. 24. For we have the Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience through the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus 1 Pet. 1. 2. 2. The Blood of Christ in his Sacrifice is still alwayes and continually in the same Condition of the same Force and Efficacy as it was in that hour wherein it was shed The Blood of other Sacrifices was alwayes to be used immediately upon its Effusion for if it were Cold and congealed it was of no Use to be offered or to be sprinkled Levit. 17. 11. Blood was appointed to make Attonement as the Life or Animal Spirits were in it But the Blood of the Sacrifice of Christ is alwayes hot and warm having the same Spirits of Life and Sanctification still moving in it Hence the Way of approach which we have to God thereby is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10. 20 alwayes Living and yet alwayes as Newly slain Every one therefore who at any Time hath an especial actual Interest in the Blood of Christ as Sacrificed hath as real a Purification from the Defilement of sin as he had Typically who stood by the Priest and had Blood or Water sprinkled on him For the Holy Ghost diligently declares that whatever was done Legally Carnally or Typically by any of the Sacrifices of Old at any time as to the Expiation or Purification of sin that was all done really and Spiritually by that one Sacrifice that is the Offering and Sprinkling of the Blood of Christ and abideth to be so done continually To this Purpose is the Substance of our Apostles Discourse in the Ninth and Tenth Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews And they had Various sorts of Sacrifices wherein to this End the Blood of them was sprinkled they being Propitiatory in their Offering As 1 There was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or continual Burnt-Offering of a Lamb or Kid for the whole Congregation Morning and Evening whose Blood was sprinkled as at other Times And hereby the Habitual Purification of the Congregation that they might be Holy to the Lord and their Cleansing from the daily incursions of secret and unknown sins was signified and carryed on 2 On the Sabbath-day this Juge Sacrificium was doubled Morning and Evening denoting a Peculiar and abounding Communication of Mercy and purging Grace through the Administration of Instituted Ordinances on that Day 3 There was the Great Annual Sacrifice at the Feast of Expiation when by the Sacrifice of the Sin-Offering and the Scape-Goat the whole Congregation were purged from all their known and great sins and recovered into a state of Legal Holiness And other stated Sacrifices there were 4 There were Occasional Sacrifices for every one according as he found his Condition to require For those who were Clean one Day yea one Hour might by some Miscarriage or surprizal be Unclean the next but there was a Way continually ready for any Man's Purification by his Offering unto that Purpose Now the Blood of Christ must continually and upon all Occasions answer unto all these and accomplish Spiritually what they did Legally effect and Typically represent This our Apostle asserts and proves Heb. 1. v. 9 10 11 12 13 14. Thereby is the gradual carrying on of our Sanctification habitually effected which was signified by the continual Daily Sacrifice From thence is especial Cleansing Vertue communicated unto us by the Ordinances of the Gospel as is expressly affirmed Ephes. 5. 25 26. denoted by the doubling of the Daily Sacrifice on the Sabbath By it are we purged from all our sins whatever great or small as was typified in the Great Sacrifice on the Day of Expiation And unto him have we continual recourse upon all Occassions of our spiritual Defilements whatever So was his Blood as to its purifying Vertue to answer and accomplish all Legal Institutions Especially it doth so that of the Ashes of the red Heyfer Numb 19. which was a standing Ordinance whereby every one who was any way defiled might immediately be cleansed And he who would not make Application thereunto was to be cut off from the People v. 20. And it is no otherwise with respect unto the Blood of Christ in our Spiritual Defilements Thence is it called a Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness Zech. 13. 1. And he who neglects to make Application thereunto shall perish in his Uncleanness and that Eternally Sect. 5 Father to clear this whole Matter two things are to be enquired into 1 How doth the Blood of Christ thus Cleanse us from our sins or what it is that is done thereby 2 How we come to be made Partakers of the Benefit thereof or come to be interested therein As to the First it must be observed what hath been declared before that the Vncleanness we Treat of is not Physical or Corporeal but Moral and Spiritual only It is the Inconformity of Sin unto the Holiness of God as represented in the Law whence it is Loathsome to God and attended with Shame in us Now wherever there is an Interest obtained in the Purifying Vertue of the Blood of Christ it doth by the Will Law Appointment of God do these two Things 1. It takes away all loathsomeness in the sight of God not from sin in the Abstract but from the Sinner so that he shall be as one absolutely washed and purified before him See Isa. 1. 16 18. Psal. 51. 7. Ephes. 5. 25 26 27. 2. It taketh away shame out of the Conscience and gives the Soul Boldness in the presence of God Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. When these things are done then is sin purged and our Souls are cleansed 2 ly It may be enquired How we are to apply our selves unto the Blood of Christ for our Purification or how we may come continually to partake of the Vertue of it as it is sprinkled unto that Purpose Now because what we do herein is wrought in us by the Spirit of God my Principal Design being to declare his Work in our Sanctification I shall at once declare both his Work and our Duty in the following Instances 1. It is he who discovereth unto us and spiritually convinceth us of the Pollution of Sin and of our Defilements thereby Something indeed of this Kind will be wrought by the Power of Natural Conscience awakened and excited by Ordinary outward Means of Conviction For wherever there is a sence of Guilt there will be in some kind a sence of Filth as Fear and Shame are inseparable But this sence alone will never guide us to the Blood of Christ for Cleansing Such a sight and Conviction of it as fill us with self-Abhorrency and Abasement as may cause us to loath our selves
who is so and on the other that sundry things that properly belong to Persons are in the Scripture figuratively ascribed unto such things as are not so Thus as to the first head of this Exception the Holy Spirit is said to be poured out to be shed abroad to be an Unction or the like of all which Expressions we shal treat afterwards What then shall we say that he is not a Person but only the Power of God Will this render those Expressions concerning him proper How can the Vertue of God or the Power of God be said to be poured out to be shed abroad the like Wherefore both they and we acknowledg that these Expressions are figurative as many things are so expressed of God in the Scripture and that frequently and what is the meaning of them under their figurative Colours we shall afterwards declare This therefore doth not in the least impeach our Argument unless this Assertion were true generally that whatever is spoken of figuratively in the Scripture is no Person which would leave no One in Heaven or Earth On the other side it is confessed that there are things peculiar unto rational Subsistents or Persons which are ascribed sometimes unto those that are not so Many things of this Nature as to hope to believe to bear are ascribed unto Charity 1 Cor. 13. But every one presently apprehends that this Expression is figurative the Abstract being put for the Cencrete by a Metalepsis and Charity is said to do that which a Man endued with that Grace will doe So the Scripture is said to see to foresee to speak and to judg which are Personal Actings but who doth not see and grant that a Metonymy is and must be allowed in such assignations that being ascribed unto the Effect the Scripture which is proper to the Cause the Spirit of God speaking in it So the Heavens and the Earth are said the hear and the Fields with the Trees of the Forrest to sing and clap their hands by a Prosopopeia Now concerning these things there is no danger of Mistake The Light of Reason and their own Nature therein do give us a sufficient understanding of them And such figurative Expressions as are used concerning them are common in all Good Authors Besides the Scripture it self in other Places innumerable doth so teach and declare what they are as that its plain and direct proper Assertions do sufficiently expound its own figurative Enunciations For these and such like Ascriptions are only occasional the direct description of the Things themselves is given us in other Places But now with respect unto the Spirit of God all things are otherwise The constant uniform Expressions concerning him are such as declare him to be a Person endowed with all Personal Propertys no Description being any-where given of him inconsistent with their proper Application to him Sect. 10 If a Sober Wise and Honest Man should come and tell you that in such a Countrey where he hath been there is One who is the Governour of it that doth well discharge his Office that he heareth Causes discerneth Right distributes Justice relieves the Poor comforts them that are in distress supposing you gave him that Credit which Honesty Wisedom and Sobriety do deserve would you not believe that he intended a Righteous Wise Diligent Intelligent Person discharging the Office of a Governour What else could any Man living imagine But now suppose that another unknown Person or so far as he is known justly suspected of deceit and forgery should come unto you and tell you that all which the other informed you and acquainted you withal was indeed true but that the words which he spake have quite another Intention For it was not a Man or any Person that he intended but it was the Sun or the Wind that he meant by all which he spake of him For whereas the Sun by his benign Influences doth make a Countrey fruitful and temperate suited to the Relief and Comfort of all that dwell therein and disposeth the Minds of the Inhabitants unto mutual Kindness and Benignity he described these things figuratively unto you under the notion of a Righteous Governour and his Actions although he never gave you the least intimation of any such Intention Must you not now believe that either the First Person whom you know to be a Wise Sober and Honest Man was a Notorious trister and designed your Ruine if you were to Order any of your occasions according to his Reports or that your latter Informer whom you have just reason to suspect of falsehood and deceit in other things hath endeavoured to abuse both him and you to render his Veracity suspected and to spoyl all your Designs grounded thereon One of these you must certainly conclude upon And it is no otherwise in this Case The Scripture informes us that the Holy Ghost Rules in and over the Church of God appointing Overseers of it under him that he discerns and judgeth all things that he comforteth them that are faint strengthens them that are weak is grieved with them and provoked by them who sin and that in all these and in other things of the like Nature innumerable he worketh ordereth and disposeth all according to the Counsel of his Own Willl Hereupon it directeth us so to order our Conversation towards God that we do not grieve him nor displease him telling us thereon what great things he will doe for us on which we lay the stress of our Obedience and Salvation Can any Man possibly that gives Credit to the Testimony thus proposed in the Scripture conceive any otherwise of this Spirit but as of an Holy Wise Intelligent Person Now whilst we are under the Power of these Apprehensions there come unto us some Men Socinians or Quakers whom we have just cause on many other Accounts to suspect at least of deceit and falsehood and they confidently tell us that what the Scripture speaks concerning the Holy Spirit is indeed true but that in and by all the Expressions which it useth concerning him it intendeth no such Person as it seems to do but an Accident a Quality an Effect or Influence of the Power of God which figuratively doth all the things mentioned namely that hath a Will figuratively and Understanding figuratively discerneth and judgeth figuratively is sinned against figuratively and so of all that is said of Him Can any Man that is not forsaken of all Natural Reason as well as Spiritual Light chuse now but determine that either the Scripture designed to draw him into Errors and Mistakes about the Principal Concernments of his Soul and so to ruine him Eternally or that these Persons who would impose such a sense upon it are indeed Corrupt Seducers that seek to overthrow his Faith and Comforts Such will they at last appear to be I shall now proceed to confirm the Argument proposed Sect. 11 1. All things necessary to this purpose are comprized in the solemn Form of our
latter words and with Fire are added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the expression is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Holy Ghost who is a Spiritual Divine Eternal Fire So God absolutely is said to be a consuming Fire Heb. 12. 29. Deut. 4. 24. And as in these words He shall Baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire there is a Prospect unto what came to pass afterwards when the Apostles received the Holy Ghost with a visible Pledg of fiery Tongues So there seems to be a Retrospect by way of Allusion unto what is recorded Isa. 6. 6 7. For a living or fiery Coal from the Altar where the Fire represented the Holy Ghost or his Work and Grace having touched the Lips of his Prophet his sin was taken away both as to the guilt and filth of it And this is the Work of the Holy Ghost who not onely sanctifieth us but by ingenerating Faith in us and the application of the Promise unto us is the Cause and Means of our Justification also 1 Cor. 6. 11. Tit. 3. 4 5 6 7. whereby our sins on both accounts are taken away So also his Efficacy in other places is compared unto Fire and Burning Isa. 4. 4 5. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the Daughters of Sion and shall have purged the Blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of Judgment and the Spirit of Burning He is compared both to Fire and Water with respect unto the same cleansing vertue in both So also Mal. 3. 2. Hence as this is expressed by the Holy Ghost and Fire in two Evangelists Matth. 3. 11. Luke 3. 16. So in the other two there is mention onely of the Holy Ghost Mark 8. John 1. 33. the same thing being intended I have added these things a little to clear the manner of this Divine Appearance which also belongs unto the Oeconomy of the Spirit Sect. 18 Now I say that this Appearance of the Holy Ghost in a bodily shape wherein he was represented by that which is a Substance and hath a Subsistence of his own doth manifest that he himself is a Substance and hath a Subsistence of his own For if he be no such thing but a meer influential Effect of the Power of God we are not taught right Apprehensions of him but mere mistakes by this Appearance For of such an accident there can be no substantial Figure or Resemblance made but what is monstrous It is excepted by our Adversaries Crell de Natur. Spirit Sanct. that a Dove is no Person because not endued with an Understanding which is essentially required unto the constitution of a Person And therefore they say no Argument can thence be taken for the Personality of the Holy Ghost But it is enough that he was represented by a subsisting Substance which if they will grant him to be we shall quickly evince that he is endued with a Divine Understanding and so is compleatly a Person And whereas they farther Object That if the Holy Ghost in the Appearance intended to manifest himself to be a Divine Person he would have appeared as a Man who is a Person for so God or an Angel in his Name appeared under the Old Testament it is of no more importance than the preceeding Exception The Holy Ghost did manifest himself as it seemed good unto him and some Reasons for the instructive Use of the shape of a fiery Dove we have before declared Neither did God of old appear only in an humane shape He did so sometimes in a burning fiery Bush Exod. 3. 2 4. Sometimes in a Pillâ—r of Fire or a Cloud Exod. 14. 24. Moreover the Appearances of God as I have elsewhere demonstrated under the Old Testament were all of them of the second Person and he assumed an Humane Shape as a preludium unto and a signification of his future personal Assumption of our Nature No such thing being intended by the Holy Ghost he might represent himself under what shape he pleased Yea the Representation of himself under an humane shape had been dangerous and unsafe for us For it would have taken off the Use of those instructive Appearances under the Old Testament teaching the Incarnation of the Son of God and also that sole Reason of such Appearances being removed namely that they had all respect unto the Incarnation of the Second Person as they would have been by the like appearance of the Third there would have been danger of giving a false Idea of the Deity unto the Minds of Men. For some might from thence have conceived that God had a bodily shape like unto us when none could ever be so fond as to imagine him to be like a Dove And these with the like Testimonies in general are given unto the Divine Personality of the Holy Spirit I shall next consider those Personal Properties which are particularly and distinctly ascribed unto him Sect. 19 First Understanding or Wisdom which is the first inseparable Property of an Intelligent Subsistence is so ascribed unto him in the Acts and Effects of it 1 Cor. 2. 10. The Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God What Spirit it is that is intended is declared expresly v. 12. For we have not received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of the World are not acted by the Evil Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that Spirit which is of God a signal Description of the Holy Ghost So he is called his Spirit vers 10. God hath revealed these things unto us by his Spirit Now to search is an Act of Understanding And the Spirit is said to search because he knoweth v. 11. No man knoweth the things of a Man save the Spirit of a Man which is intimate unto all its own Thoughts and Counsels So the Things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God and by him are they revealed unto us for by him we know the things that are freely given us of God v. 12. These things cannot be spoken of any but a Person endued with Understanding And he thus searcheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deep things of God that is the Mysteries of his Will Counsel and Grace and is therefore a Divine Person that hath an Infinite Understanding As it is said of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa. 40. 28. There is no End Measure or Investigation of his Understanding Psal. 147. 5. There is no number of his Understanding it is endless boundless infinite It is excepted Schilicting de Trinitat p. 605. that the Spirit is not here taken for the Spirit himself nor doth the Apostle express what the Spirit himself doth but what by the Assistance of the Holy Ghost men are enabled to do By that Believers are helped to search into the deep Counsels of God But as this Exception is directly against the words of the Text so the context will by no means admit of it For the Apostle giveth an account how the Wisdom Counsels and
for the Abomination that is in it is required of us And this is the Work of the Holy Ghost belonging to that peculiar Conviction of sin which is from him alone Joh. 16. 8. I mean that self-abhorrency shame and Confusion of Face with respect unto the Filth of sin which is so often mentioned in the Scripture as a Gracious Duty as nothing is an higher Aggravavation of sin than for men to carry themselves with a Carnal Boldness with God and in his Worship whilest they are unpurged from their Defilements In a sence hereof the Publican stood afar off as one ashamed and destitute any Confidence for a nearer Approach So the Holy Men of Old professed to God that they blushed and were ashamed to lift up their Faces unto him Without this Preparation whereby we come to know the Plague of our own Hearts the Infection of our Leprosie the Defilement of our Souls we shall never make Application unto the Blood of Christ for Cleansing in a due Manner This therefore in the First place is required of us as the First Part of our Duty and First Work of the Holy Ghost herein 2. The Holy Ghost proposeth declareth and presents unto us the only true Remedy the only Means of Purification When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb yet would he not heal you nor cure you of your wound Hos. 5. 13. When men begin to discern their Defilements they are apt to think of many Wayes for their purging What false Wayes have been invented to this Purpose hath been before declared and every one is ready to find out a Way of his own every one will apply his own Sope and his own Nitre Though the only Fountain for Cleansing be nigh unto us yet we cannot see it untill the Holy Ghost open our Eyes as he did the Eyes of Hagar He it is who shews it unto us and leads us unto it This is an Eminent Part of his office and Work The principal End of his sending and consequently of his whole Work was to Glorifie the Son as the End and Work of the Son was to Glorifie the Father And the great Way whereby he Glorifieth Christ is by shewing such things unto us Joh. 16. 14. And without his Discovery we can know nothing of Christ nor of the things of Christ for he is not sent in vain to shew us the things that we can see of our selves And what is more so of Christ than his Blood and its Efficacy for the purging of our sins We never therefore discern it spiritually and in a due Manner but by him To have a true spiritual sence of the Defilement of Sin and a gracious View of the Cleansing Vertue of the Blood of Christ is an eminent Effect of the Spirit of Grace Something like it there may be in the Workings of an awakened Natural Conscience with some Beams of outward Gospel-Light falling on it But there is nothing in it of the Work of the Spirit This therefore Secondly we must endeavour after if we intend to be cleansed by the Blood of Christ. 3. It is he who worketh Faith in us whereby we are actually interested in the purifying Vertue of the Blood of Christ. By Faith we receive Christ himself and by Faith do we receive all the Benefits of his Mediation that is as they are tendred unto us in the Promises of God He is our Propitiation through Faith in his Blood as offered and he is our Sanctification through Faith in his Blood as sprinkled And particular acting of Faith on the Blood of Christ for the cleansing of the Soul from sin is required of us A renewed Conscience is sensible of a Pollution in every sin and is not freed from the shame of it without a particular Application unto the Blood of Christ. It comes by Faith to the Fountain set open for sin and Uncleanness as the sick man to the Pool of Healing Waters and waiteth for a season to be cleansed in it So David on the Defilement he had contracted by his great sins addresseth himself unto God with that Prayer Purge me with Hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow Psal. 51. 7. He alludeth unto the purging of the Leprous person the Ordinance whereof is Instituted Levit. 14. 5 6 7 or that more general Institution for the Purification of all Legal Uncleanness by the Water of Separation made of the Ashes of red Heyfer Numb 19. 4 5 6. which our Apostle hath respect unto Heb. 9. 14. For both these Purifications were made by the Sprinkling of Blood or Water with Hyssop It is plain I say he alludeth unto these Institutions but it is as plain they are not the things which he intendeth For there was not in the Law any purging by Hyssop for Persons guilty of such sins as he lay under And therefore he professeth in the close of the Psalm that Sacrifice and Burnt-Offering god would not accept in his Case v. 16. It was therefore that which was signified by those Institutions which he made his Application unto namely really to the Blood of Christ by which he might be Justified from all things from which he could not be Justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 39. and so likewise purifyed In like manner do all Believers make an actual Application unto the Blood of Christ for the purging away of their sins which untill it is done they have a Conscience of sin that is condemning them for sin and filling them with Shame and Fear Heb. 10. 1 2 3. Sect. 6 And this Actual Application by Faith unto the Blood of Christ for Cleansing the Mystery whereof is scorned by many as a thing Fanatical and unintelligible consists in these Four things 1 A spiritual View and Due Consideration of the Blood of Christ in his Sacrifice as proposed in the Promises of the Gospel for our Cleansing and Purification Look unto me saith he and be saved Isa 45. 22. which respects the whole Work of our Salvation and all the Means thereof Our way of coming unto our Interest therein is by Looking to him namely as he is proposed unto us in the Promise of the Gospel For as the Serpent was lifted up by Moses in the Wilderness so was he in his Sacrifice on the Cross lifted up Joh. 3. 14. And so in the Gospel is he represented unto us Gal. 3. 1. And the Means whereby they were heal'd in the Wilderness was by looking unto the Serpent that was lifted up Herein then doth Faith first Act it self by a spiritual View and due Consideration of the Blood of Christ as proposed unto us in the Gospel for the only Means of our Purification And the more we abide in this Contemplation the more Effectual will our success be in our Application thereto 2 Faith actually relyeth on his Blood for the real effecting of the great Work and End for which
it is proposed unto us For God sets him forth as to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood as offered Rom. 3. 25. so to be our Sanctification through Faith in his Blood as sprinkled And the Establishing of this especial Faith in our Souls is that which the Apostle aims at in his excellent Reasoning Heb. 9. 13 14. And his Conclusion unto that Purpose is so evident that he encourageth us thereon to draw nigh in the full Assurance of Faith Heb. 10. 22. 3 Faith worketh herein by Fervent Prayer as it doth in its whole Address unto God with Respect unto his Promises because for all these things God will be sought unto by the House of Israel By this Means the Soul brings it self nigh unto its own Mercy And this we are directed unto Heb. 4. 15 16. 4 An Acquiescency in the Truth and Faithfulness of God for Cleansing by the Blood of Christ whence we are freed from discouraging perplexing shame and have Boldness in the Presence of God 4. The Holy Ghost actually Communicates the cleansing Purifying Vertue of the Blood of Christ unto our Souls and Consciences whereby we are freed from shame and have Boldness towards God For the whole work of the Application of the Benefits of the Mediation of Christ unto Believers is his properly And these are the things which Believers aim at and intend in all their servent Supplications for the Purifying and Cleansing of their Souls by the sprinkling and washing of the Blood of Christ the Faith and Perswasion whereof give them Peace and Holy Boldness in the presence of God without which they can have nothing but shame and Confusion of Face in a sence of their own Pollutions Sect. 7 How the Blood of Christ was the Meritorious Cause of our Purification as it was offered in that thereby he procured for us Eternal Redemption with all that was conducing or needfull thereunto and how thereby he Expiated our sins belongs not unto this place to declare Nor shall I insist upon the more mysterious Way of Communicating cleansing Vertue unto us from the Blood of Christ by Vertue of our Vnion with him What hath been spoken may suffice to give a little insight into that Influence which the Blood of Christ hath into this first part of our Sanctification and Holiness And as for those who affirm that it no otherwise cleanseth us from our sins but only because we Believing his Doctrine confirmed by his Death and Resurrection do amend our Lives turning from Sin unto Righteousness and Holiness they renounce the Mystery of the Gospel and all the proper Efficacy of the Blood of Christ. Sect. 8 3 Faith is the Instrumental Cause of our Purification Purifying their Hearts by Faith Acts 15. 9. The two unfailing Evidences of sincere Faith are that within it purifyeth the Heart and without it worketh by Love These are the Touch-stone whereon Faith may yea ought to be tryed We purifie our Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 20. That is by Believing which is our Original Obedience unto the Truth And hereby are our Souls purified Unbelievers and Unclean are the same Tit. 1. 15. For they have nothing in them whereby they might be Instrumentally cleansed And we are Purified by Faith Because 1 Faith it self is the principal Grace whereby our Nature is restored unto the Image of God and so freed from our Original Defilement Col. 3. 10. Joh. 17. 3. 2 It is by Faith on our part whereby we receive the Purifying Vertue and Influences of the Blood of Christ whereof we have before Discoursed Faith is the Grace whereby we constantly adhere and cleave unto Christ. Deut. 4. 4. Josh. 23. 8. Acts 11. 10. And if the Woman who touched his Garment in Faith obtained Vertue from him to heal her Issue of Blood shall not those who cleave unto him continually derive Vertue from him for the healing of their spiritual Defilements 3 It is by the Working of Faith principally whereby those Lusts and Corruptions which are Defiling are mortified subdued and gradually wrought out of our Minds All actual Defilements spring from the Remainders of defiling Lusts and their depraved Workings in us Heb. 12. 15. Jam. 1. 14. How Faith worketh to the correcting and subduing of them by deriving supplyes of the Spirit and Grace to that End from Jesus Christ as being the Means of our abiding in him whereon alone those supplyes do depend Joh. 15. 3 4 5. as also by the Acting of all other Graces which are contrary to the Polluting Lusts of the Flesh and destructive of them is usually declared and we must not too far enlarge on these things 4 Faith takes in all the Motives which are proposed unto us to stir us up unto our utmost Endeavours and Diligence in the use of all Means and Wayes for the preventing of the Defilements of sin and for the Cleansing our Minds and Consciences from the Relicts of Dead Works And these Motives which are great and many may be reduced unto Two Heads 1 A Participation of the Excellent Promises of God at the Present the Consideration hereof brings a singular Enforcement on the Souls of Believers to endeavour after universal Purity and Holiness 2 Cor. 7. 1. And 2 the future Enjoyment of God in Glory whereunto we cannot attain without being purifyed from sin 1 Joh. 3. 1. Now these Motives which are the Springs of our Duty in this Matter are received and made Efficacious by Faith only Sect. 9 4 Purging from sin is likewise in the Scripture ascribed unto Afflictions of all sorts Hence they are called Gods Furnace and his Fining-Pot Isa. 31. 9. Chap. 48. 10. whereby he taketh away the Dross and Filth of the Vessels of his House They are called Fire that trieth the Wayes and Works of Men consuming their Hay and Stubble and purifying their Gold and Silver 1 Cor. 3. 13. And this they do through an Efficacy unto the Ends communicated unto them in the design and by the Spirit of God For by and in the Cross of Christ they were cut off from the Curse of the First Covenant whereunto all Evil and Trouble did belong and implanted into the Covenant of Grace The Tree of the Cross being cast into the Waters of Affliction hath rendred them Wholsom and Medicinal And as the Lord Christ being the Head of the Covenant all the Afflictions and Persecutions that befall his Members are Originally his Isa. 63. 9. Acts 9. 5. Col. 1. 24. so they all tend to work us unto a Conformity unto him in Purity and Holiness And they work towards this Blessed End of purifying the Soul several wayes For 1 They have in them some Tokens of Gods Displeasure against sin which those who are Exercised by them are led by the Consideration of unto a fresh View of the Vileness of it For although Afflictions are an Effect of Love yet it is of Love mixed with Care to obviate and prevent Distempers Whatever
to the knowledge of that being satisfied with its Truth and that this is the only Way of Cleansing Sin appointed and blessed by God himself their Minds may be exercised about it and so be taken off from resting on those Vain Medicines and Remedies which having nothing else to fix upon their own Hearts and others blind Devotions would suggest unto them 5. But now the great Enquiry is How a sinfull Defiled Soul may come to have an interest in or be partaker of the purifying Vertue and Efficacy of the Blood of Christ Ans. 1 The purifying Vertue and Force of the Blood of Christ with the Administration of the Spirit for its Application to make it effectual unto our Souls and Consciences is proposed and exhibited unto us in the Promises of the Covenant 2 Pet. 1. 4. This all the Instances which need not be recited before produced do testifie unto 2 The only Way to be made partaker of the good things presented in the Promises is by Faith So Abraham is said to have received the Promises Heb. 11. 17. and so are we also and to receive Christ himself Now this is not from their being proposed unto us but from our Believing of that which is proposed as it is expressed of Abraham Rom. 4. 19 20 21. Chap. 10. 6 7 8 9. The whole use benefit and Advantage of the Promises depends absolutely on our mixing them with Faith as the Apostle declares Heb. 4. 1. Where they are mixed with Faith there they profit us there we really receive the thing promised Where they are not so mixed they are of no use but to aggravate our sins and Unbelief I know that by some men the whole Nature and Work of Faith is derided They say it is nothing but a strong fixing of the Imagination upon what is said However we know that if a man promise us any thing seriously and solemnly which is absolutely in his Power we trust unto his Word or believe him considering his Wisdom Honesty and Ability This we know is not a meer fixing of the Imagination but it is a real and usefull Confidence or Trust. And whereas God hath given unto us great and precious Promises and that under several Confirmations especially that of his Oath and Covenant if we do really believe their Accomplishment and that it shall be unto us according to his Word upon the Account of his Veracity Divine Power Righteousness and Holiness why shall this be esteemed a Fanatical fixing of the Imagination If it be so it was so in Abraham our Example Rom. 4. 19 20 21. But this Blasphemous Figment designed to the overthrow of the Way of Life and Salvation by Jesus Christ shall be elsewhere more fully examined God as was said gives unto us great and precious Promises that by them we might be made partakers of the Divine Nature These Promises he requireth us to receive and to mix them with Faith that is trusting to and resting on his Divine Power and Veracity ascribing unto him thereby the Glory of them to believe that the things promised unto us shall be accomplished which is the Means by Gods Appointment whereby we shall be really made partakers of them Such was the Faith of Abraham so celebrated by our Apostle and such was all the true and saving Faith that ever was in the World from the Foundation of it Wherefore 3 This is the only Way and Means to obtain an Interest in the Cleansing Vertue of the Blood of Christ. God hath given this Power and Efficacy unto it by the Covenant In the Promise of the Gospel it is proposed and tendred unto us Faith in that Promise is that alone which gives us an Interest in it makes us partakers of it and renders it actually Effectual unto us whereby we are really Cleansed from sin 4 There are Two things which concurre unto the Efficacy of Faith to this Purpose 1. The Excellency of the Grace or Duty it self Despise their Ignorance who tell you this is but a deceitfull fixing of the Imagination for they know not what they say When men come to the real Practice of this Duty they will find what it is to discard all other Wayes and pretences of Cleansing what it is sincerely and really to give unto God against all Difficulties and Oppositions the Glory of his Power Faithfulness Goodness and Grace what it is to approve of the Wisdom and Love of God in finding out this Way for us and the Infiniteness of his Grace in providing it when we were lost and under the Curse and to be filled with an holy Admiration of him on that Account all which belong unto the Faith mentioned neither is it nor can it be acted in a due manner without them and when you understand these things you will not think it so strange that God should appoint this Way of Believing only as the Means to interest us in the purifying Vertue of the Blood of Christ. 2. Hereby are we as hath been shewn united unto Christ from whom alone is our Cleansing He that declares another Way must make another Gospel 6. Faith in this Case will act it self in and by fervent Prayer When David had by Sin brought himself into that Condition wherein he stood in need of a new universal Purification how earnest is he in his Supplications that God would again purge and cleanse him Psal. 51. And when any Soul is really coming over to the Way of God for his washing in the Blood of Christ he will not be more earnest and fervent in any Supplication than in this and herein and hereby doth Christ communicate of the purging Efficacy of his Blood unto us And these things may in some measure suffice for the Direction and Guidance of those who are yet wholly under the Pollution of Corrupted Nature how they may proceed to get themselves cleansed according to the Mind of God Not that this Order or Method is prescribed unto any only these are the Heads of those things which in one Degree or other are wrought in the Souls of them whom Christ will and doth Cleanse from their Sins Sect. 14 Secondly Instruction also may be hence taken for them concerning whom our Apostle sayes Such were you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 9. Such as are freed from the generall Pollution of Nature by the Washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Those I mean who have been made partakers of that cleansing purifying Work of the Holy Ghost which we have described several Duties are incumbent on them with respect hereunto As 1 Continual self-abasement in the Remembrance of that wofull defiled state and Condition from whence they have been delivered This Consideration is one of them which principally doth influence the Minds of Believers unto Humility and hideth Pride from them For what should Creatures of such
a base and defiled Extraction have to boast of in themselves It is usual I confess for Vile men of the most Contemptible Beginnings when they are greatly exalted in the World to out-goe others in Pride and Elation of Mind as they are behind them in the Advantages of Birth and Education But this is esteemed a vile thing amongst men and it is but one Potsheard of the Earth boasting it self against another But when Believers shall consider what was their vile and polluted Estate with respect unto God when first he had regard unto them it will cause them to walk humbly in a deep sence of it or I am sure it ought so to doe God calls his People to self-Abasement not only from what they are but from what they were and whence they came So he ordained that Confession to be made by him that offered the First-fruits of his Fields and Possessions A Syrian ready to perish was my Father or a Syrian that is Laban was ready to destroy my Father a poor helpless man that went from one Countrey to another for Bread How is it of Soveraign Mercy that I am now in this State and Condition of Plenty and Peace Deut. 16. 4 5. And in particular God wonderfully binds upon them the sence of that defiled Natural Extraction whereof we speak Ezek. 16. 3 4 5. And when David upon his great Sin and his Repentance took in all humbling self-abasing Considerations here he fixeth the Head of them Psal. 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in Sin did my Mother conceive me His Original natural defilement was that which in the First place influenced him into self-Abasement So our Apostle frequently calls the Saints to a Remembrance of their former Condition before they were purged Ephes. 2 11 12 13. 1 Cor. 6. 8 9. and therewith are the Minds of all true Believers greatly affected and greatly humbled When they consider what was their Natural State and Condition universally leprous and polluted with what Remainders of it do still abide it casts them on the Earth and causeth them to lay their mouths in the Dust. Hence proceed their great and deep Humiliations of themselves and Confessions of their own Vileness in their Prayers and Supplications Considering the Holiness of God with whom they have to doe unto whom they do approach they are no way able to express what low Thoughts and Apprehensions they have of themselves Even God himself doth teach them to use figurative Expressions whereby to declare their own Vileness by Nature which abound in the Scripture It is true all Declarations hereof in Prayer and Confession of Sin are derided and scorned by some who seem to understand nothing of these things yea to Glory that they do not Whatever is spoken to express as they are able to the deep sence any have of their Natural Defilement with the Remainder of it their shame and self-Abasement with respect unto the Holiness of God is reputed either as false and Hypocritical or that it containeth such things as for which men ought to be hanged such prodigious Impudence in proclaiming a sencelesness of the Holiness of God and of the Vileness of Sin have we lived to see and hear of But when we have to deal with God who puts no trust in his Servants and chargeth his Angels with Folly what shall we say What Lowliness becomes then who dwell in Houses of Clay whose Foundation is in the Dust and who are crushed before the Moth 2 That Initial Deliverance which Believers have from their Original Pollution of Sin is a Matter and Cause of everlasting Thankfulness When our Lord Jesus Christ cleansed the Ten Lepers he manifests how much it was their Duty to return unto him with their thankfull Acknowledgement though Nine of them failed therein Luke 17. 17. And when of Old any one was cleansed from a carnal Defilement there was an Offering enjoyned him to testifie his Gratitude And indeed the Consideration hereof is that which in an eminent manner influenceth the Minds of Believers in all their Gratefull Ascriptions of Glory Honour and Praise to Jesus Christ. To him say they who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood to him be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Revel 1. 5 6. And there are three Things which concurr to this Duty 1 A due Valuation of the Causes and Means of our Purification namely the sprinkling of the Blood of Christ in the Sanctification of the Spirit As these alone have effected this great Work so they alone were able so to doe Had we not been washed in the Blood of Christ we must have lived and dyed in our Pollutions and have lain under them to Eternity For the Fire of Hell will never purge the Defilements of sin much less will the fictitious Fire of Purgatory cleanse any from them How ought we then to prize value and admire both the Vertue or Efficacy of the Blood of Christ and the Love from whence it was given for us and is applyed unto us And because this Valuation and Admiration are Acts of Faith the very Work it self also of cleansing our Souls is carryed on by them For by the Exercise of Faith do we continually derive Vertue from Christ to this purpose as the Woman did by touching of his Garment for the stopping of her Issue of Blood 2 Inward Joy and Satisfaction in our Freedom from that shame which deprived us of all Boldness and Confidence in God This Internal Joy belongs unto the Duty of Thankfulness For therein is God glorified when we are graciously sensible of the Effects of his Love and Kindness towards us Every Grace then glorifies God and expresseth our Thankfulness for his Love when a Soul finds it self really affected with a sence of its being washed from all its loathsome Defilements in the Blood of Christ and being thereby freed from discouraging oppressing shame to have Filial Boldness in the presence of God 3 Acknowledgment in a way of Actual Prayse Sect. 15 Again We have declared not only that there is in our Natural Frame and Spiritual Constitution a Discrepancy to the Holiness of God and consequently an universal Defilement but that there is from its Pravity and Disorder a Pollution attending every actual Sin whether internal of the Heart and Mind only or external in Sin perpetrated averse to Holiness and contrary to the carrying on of the Work of Sanctification in us And sundry things Believers whose Concernment alone this is may learn from hence also As 1 How they ought to Watch against Sin and all the Motions of it though never so secret They all of them defile the Conscience And it is an Evidence of a Gracious Soul to be watchfull against sin on this Account Convictions will make men wary where they are prevalent by continual Representations of the Danger and Punishment of sin And these are an allowable Motive to Believers themselves to abstain from it in all
Evangelical There are many sins whereby Believers are defiled But there is a Way of Cleansing still open unto them And it is not meerly the Incidence of a Defilement but the Neglect of Purification that is inconsistent with their state and Interest in Christ. The Rule of Communion with God and consequently of Union with Christ in its Exercise is expressed by David Psal. 19. 12 13. Who can understand his Errors cleanse thou me from secret sins keep back thy Servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression The Design of the Psalmist is to be preserved in such a state and Condition as wherein he may be upright before God To be upright before God is that which God requireth of us in the Covenant that we may be accepted with him and enjoy the Promises thereof Gen. 17. 1. He that is so will be freed from that great Transgression or that Abundance of sin which is inconsistent with the Covenant Love and Favour of God And hereunto three things are required 1. A constant humble Acknowledgement of Sin Who can understand his Errors 2. Daily Cleansing from those Defilements which the least and most secret sins are accompanyed withall Cleanse thou me from secret sins and 3. A Preservation from Presumptuous sins or Wilfull sins committed with an high hand Where these thing are there a man is upright and hath the Covenant-ground of his Communion with God And whilest Believers are preserved within these Bounds though they are defiled by sin yet is there not any thing therein inconsistent with their Union with Christ. 7 Our Blessed Head is not only pure and Holy but he is also Gracious and Mercifull and will not presently cut off a Member of his Body because it is sick or hath a sore upon it He is himself passed through his Course of Temptations and is now above the reach of them all Doth he therefore reject and despise those that are Tempted that labour and suffer under their Temptations It is quite otherwise so that on the Account of his own present state his Compassions do exceedingly abound towards all his that are Tempted It is no otherwise with him as to their Sins and Defilements These he himself was absolutely freed from in all his Temptations and Sufferings but we are not And he is so far from casting us away on that Account while we endeavour after Purification as that it draweth out his Compassions towards us In brief he doth not unite us to himself because we are perfect but that in his own Way and Time he may make us so not because we are clean but that he may cleanse us for it is the Blood of Jesus Christ with whom we have Fellowship that cleanseth us from all our sins Sect. 17 Lastly to wind up this Discourse There is hence sufficiently evidenced a Comprehensive Difference between a Spiritual Life unto God by Evangelical Holiness and a Life of Moral Vertue though pretended unto God also Unto the first the Original and continual Purification of our Nature and Persons by the Spirit of God and Blood of Christ is indispensibly required Where this Work is not there neither is nor can be any thing of that Holiness which the Gospel prescribes and which we enquire after Unless the Purification and Cleansing of sin belongs necessarily unto the Holiness of the New Covenant all that God hath taught us concerning it in the Old Testament and the New by his Institution of Legal purifying Ordinances by his Promises to wash purifie and cleanse us by his Precepts to get our selves cleansed by the Means of our Purification namely his Spirit and the Blood of Christ by his Instructions and Directions of us to make use of those Means of our Cleansing by his Declarations that Believers are so washed and cleansed from all their Defilements of their sins are things Fanatical Enthusiastick Notions and Unintelligible Dreams Untill men can rise up to a Confidence enabling them to own such horrible Blasphemies I desire to know whether these things are required unto their Morality If they shall say they are so they give us a new Notion of Morality never yet heard of in the World and we must expect untill they have further cleared it there being little or no signification in the great swelling words of Vanity which have hitherto been lavished about it But if they do not belong thereunto as it is most certain the most improved Moralists that are only so whether in Notion or Practice have no regard unto them then is their Life of Moral Vertues were it as real in them as it is with notorious Vanity pretended cast out from all Consideration in a serious Disquisition after Evangelical Holiness And what hath been spoken may suffice to give us some Light into the Nature of this First Act of our Sanctification by the Spirit which consists in the Cleansing of our Souls and Consciences from the Pollutions of Sin both Original and Actual CHAP. VI. The Positive Work of the Spirit in the Sanctification of Believers 1 Differences in the Acts of Sanctification as to Order 2 The Manner of the Communication of Holiness by the Spirit 3 The Rule and Measure whereof is the Revealed Will of God 4 As the Rule of its Acceptance is the Covenant of Grace 5 The Nature of Holiness as Inward 6 Righteousness Habitual and Actual 7 False Notions of Holiness removed 8 The Nature of a Spiritual Habit. 9 Applyed unto Holiness with its Rules and Limitations 10 Proved and Confirmed 11 Illustrated and 12 Practically improved 13 The Properties of Holiness as a Spiritual Habit declared 14 1. Spiritual Dispositions unto Suitable Acts 15 16. How expressed in the Scripture 17 With their Effects 18 Contrary Dispositions unto Sin and Holiness how consistent 19 2. Power 20 The Nature thereof or what Power is required in Believers unto Holy Obedience 21 With its Properties and Effects in Readiness and 22 Facility 23 Objections thereunto answered and 24 An Enquiry on these Principles after true Holiness in our selves directed 25 Gospel Grace distinct from Morality and 26 All other Habits of the Mind 27 28 29. Proved by many Arguments especially its Relation unto the Mediation of Christ. 30 The Principal Difference between Evangelical Holiness and all other Habits of the Mind proved by the Manner and Way of its Communication from the Person of Christ as the Head of the Church and the peculiar Efficiency of the Spirit therein 31 Moral Honesty not Gospel Holiness Sect. 1 THE Distinction we make between the Acts of the Holy Ghost in the Work of Sanctification concerneth more the Order of Teaching and Instruction than any Order of Precedency that is between the Acts themselves For that which we have passed through concerning the Cleansing of our Natures and Persons doth not in Order of Time go before those other Acts which leave a real and
Understanding That Grace which proceeds from especial Love will carry along an holy quickening sence of it and thereby be excited unto its due Exercise And we do what we can to famish and starve our Graces when we do not endeavour their Supplyes by Faith on that Spring of Divine Love from whence they proceed Sect. 48 3 Seeing we are chosen in Christ and predestinated to be like unto him those Graces of Holiness have the most evident and legible Characters of Electing Love upon them which are most Effectual in working us unto a Conformity to him That Grace is certainly from an Eternal Spring which makes us like unto Jesus Christ. Of this sort are Meekness Humility Patience Self-denyal Contempt of the World Readiness to pass by Wrongs to Forgive Enemies to Love and doe Good unto all which indeed are despised by the most and duely regarded but by few But I return Sect. 49 Secondly The especial procuring Cause of this Holiness is the Mediation of Christ. We are not in this Matter concerned in any thing let men call it what they please Vertue or Godliness or Holiness that hath not an especial Relation unto the Lord Christ and his Mediation Evangelical Holiness is purchased for us by him according to the Tenour of the Everlasting Covenant is promised unto us on his Account actually impetrated for us by his Intercession and communicated unto us by his Spirit And hereby we do not only cast off all the Moral Vertues of the Heathens from having the least concernment herein but all the Principles and Dutyes of Persons professing Christianity who are not really and actually implanted into Christ. For he it is who of God is made unto us Sanctification 1 Cor. 1. 30. And this he is on several Accounts the Heads whereof may be called over Sect. 50 1 He is made unto us of God Sanctification with respect unto his sacerdotal Office because we are purified purged washed and cleansed from our Sins by his Blood in the Oblation of it and the Application of it unto our Souls as hath been at large declared Ephes. 5. 26 27. Tit. 2. 14. 1 Joh. 1. 7. Heb. 9. 14. All that we have Taught before concerning the Purification of our Minds and Consciences by the Blood of Christ is peculiar unto Gospel-Holiness and distinguisheth it Essentially from all Common Grace or Moral Vertues And they do but deceive themselves who rest in a Multitude of Duties it may be animated much with Zeal and set off with a Profession of the most rigid Mortification whose Hearts and Consciences are not thus purged by the Blood of Christ. Sect. 51 2 Because he prevails for the actual sanctification of our Natures in the Communication of Holiness unto us by his Intercession His Prayer Joh. 17. 17. is the blessed Spring of our Holiness Sanctifie them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth There is not any thing of this Grace wrought in us bestowed on us communicated unto us preserved in us but what is so in Answer unto and Complyance with the Intercession of Christ. From his Prayer for us is Holiness begun in us Sanctifie them saith he by thy Truth Thence is it kept alive and preserved in us I have saith he to Peter prayed for thee that thy Faith should not fail and through his Intercession are we saved to the uttermost Nothing belongs to this Holiness but what in the Actual Communication of it is a peculiar Fruit of Christs Intercession What is not so what men may be made partakers of upon any more general Account belongs not thereunto And if we really design Holiness or intend to be Holy it is our Duty constantly to improve the Intercession of Christ for the Encrease of it And this we may do by especial Applications to him for that Purpose So the Apostles prayed him to encrease their Faith Luke 17. 3. And we may do so for the Encrease of our Holiness But the Nature of this Application unto Christ for the Encrease of Holiness by vertue of his Intercession is duely to be considered We are not to pray unto him that he would intercede for us that we may be Sanctified For as he needs not our minding for the Discharge of his Office so he intercedes not Orally in Heaven at all and alwayes doth so Vertually by his Appearance in the Presence of God with the Vertue of his Oblation or Sacrifice But whereas the Lord Christ gives out no Supplyes of Grace unto us but what he receiveth from the Father for that End by vertue of his Intercession we apply our selves unto him under that Consideration namely as he who upon his Intercession with God for us hath all stores of Grace to give us supplyes from Sect. 52 3 He is so because the Rule and Measure of Holiness unto us the Instrument of working it in us is His Word and Doctrine which he taught the Church as the great Prophet of it The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. The in-bred dictates of the Light and Law of Nature in their greatest Purity are not the Rule or Measure of this Holiness much less are these Rules and Maxims which men deduce partly right and partly wrong from them of any such use Nor is the Written Law it self so It is the Rule of Original Holiness but not the adequate Rule of that Holiness whereunto we are restored by Christ. Neither are both these in Conjunction the Dictates of Nature and the Law written the Instrument of working Holiness in us But it is the Doctrine of the Gospel which is the Adequate Rule and immediate Instrument of it My meaning is That the Word the Gospel the Doctrine of Christ in the Preceptive part of it is so the Rule of all our Obedience and Holiness as that all which it requireth belongeth thereunto and nothing else but what it requireth doth so and the Formal Reason of our Holiness consists in Conformity thereunto under this Consideration that it is the Word and Doctrine of Christ. Nothing belongeth unto Holiness materially but what the Gospel requireth and nothing is so in us formally but what we doe because the Gospel requireth it And it is the Instrument of it because God maketh use of it alone as an external Means for the Communicating of it unto us or the Ingenerating of it in us Principles of Natural Light with the Guidances of an awakened Conscience do direct unto and exact the performance of many material Duties of Obedience The written Law requireth of us all Duties of Original Obedience and God doth use these things variously for the preparing of our Souls unto a right Receiving of the Gospel But there are some Graces some Duties belonging unto Evangelical Holiness which the Law knows nothing of Such are the Mortification of sin Godly Sorrow daily Cleansing of our Hearts and Minds not to mention the more sublime and spiritual Acts of Communion with God by Christ with all that
he dwelleth in us God doth it by his Spirit as he dwelleth in us As it is a work of Grace it is said to be wrought by the Spirit and as it is our Duty we are said to work it through the Spirit v. 13. And let men pretend what they please if they have not the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them they have not mortified any sin but do yet walk after the flesh and continuing so to doe shall dye Sect. 19 Moreover as this is the only Spring of Mortification in us as it is a Grace so the Consideration of it is the principal Motive unto it as it is a Duty So our Apostle pressing unto it doth it by this Argument Know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which you have of God 1 Cor. 6. 19. To which we may adde that weighty Caution which he gives us to the same purpose 1 Cor. 3. 16. Know you not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you if any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy for the Temple of God is Holy which Temple are ye Whereas therefore in every Duty two things are principally considered First The Life and Spring of it as it is wrought in us by Grace Secondly The principal Reason for it and Motive unto it as it is to be performed in our selves by the way of Duty Both these as to this matter of Mortification do center in this Inhabitation of the Spirit For 1 It is he who mortifies and subdues our Corruptions who quickens us unto Life Holiness and Obedience as he dwelleth in us that he may make and prepare an Habitation meet for himself And 2 The principal Reason and Motive which we have to attend unto it with all Care and Diligence as a Duty is that we may thereby preserve his Dwelling-place so as becometh his Grace and Holiness And indeed whereas as our Saviour tells us they are things which arise from and come out of the Heart that defile us there is no greater nor more forcible Motive to contend against all the defiling Actings of sin which is our Mortification than this that by the Neglect hereof the Temple of the Spirit will be defiled which we are commanded to watch against under the severe Commination of being destroyed for our Neglect therein Sect. 20 If it be said that whereas we do acknowledge that there are still remainders of this sin in us and they are accompanyed with their Defilements how can it be supposed that the Holy Ghost will dwell in us or in any one that is not perfectly Holy I answer 1 That the great Matter which the Spirit of God considereth in his Opposition unto sin and that of sin to his Work is Dominion and Rule This the Apostle makes evident Rom. 6. 12 13 14. Who or what shall have the principal Conduct of the Mind and Soul Chap. 8. 7 8 9. is the matter in Question Where sin hath the Rule there the Holy Ghost will never dwell He enters into no soul as his Habitation but at the same instant he dethrones sin spoyls it of its Dominion and takes the Rule of the soul into the hand of his own Grace Where he hath effected this Work and brought his Adversary into subjection there he will dwell though sometimes his Habitation be troubled by his subdued Enemy 2 The souls and minds of them who are really sanctified have continually such a sprinkling with the Blood of Christ and are so continually purified by vertue from his sacrifice and oblation as that they are never unmeet Habitations for the holy Spirit of God Sect. 21 2 The Manner of the actual Operation of the Spirit of God in effecting this Work or how he mortifies sin or enables us to mortifie it is to be considered And an Acquaintance herewith dependeth on the Knowledge of the sin that is to be mortified which we have before described It is the vitious corrupt Habit and Inclination unto sin which is in us by Nature that is the principal Object of this Duty or the Old man which is corrupt according unto deceitfull Lusts. When this is weakened in us as to its Power and Efficacy when its strength is abated and its Prevalency destroyed then is this Duty in its proper Discharge and Mortification carryed on in the soul. Now this the Holy Ghost doth First By implanting in our Minds and all their Faculties A contrary Habit and Principle with contrary Inclinations Dispositions and Actings namely a Principle of spiritual Life and Holiness bringing forth the Fruits thereof By means hereof is this work effected For sin will no otherwise dye but by being killed and slain And whereas this is gradually to be done it must be by Warring and Conflict There must be something in us that is contrary unto it which opposing of it conflicting with it doth insensibly and by Degrees for it dyes not at once work out its Ruine and Destruction As in a Chronical Distemper the Disease continually Combates and Conflicts with the Powers of Nature untill having insensibly improved them it prevails unto its Dissolution So is it in this matter These adverse Principles with their Contrariety Opposition and Conflict the Apostle expressely asserts and describes as also their contrary Fruits and Actings with the Issue of the whole Gal. 5. 16 17. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25. The contrary Principles are the Flesh and Spirit and their contrary Actings are in Lusting and Warring one against the other ver 16. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh Not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh is to Mortifie it for it neither will nor can be kept alive if its Lusts be not fulfilled And he gives a fuller Account hereof ver 17. For the Flesh Lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit Lusteth against the Flesh and these are contrary one to the other If by the Spirit the Spirit of God himself be intended yet he Lusteth not in us but by vertue of that spirit which is born of him that is the New Nature or Holy Principle of Obedience which he worketh in us And the way of their mutual Opposition unto one another the Apostle describes at large in the following verses by instancing in the contrary Effects of the one and the other But the Issue of the whole is v. 24. They that are Christs have crucified the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts. They have crucified it that is fastned it unto that Cross where at length it may expire And this is the way of it namely the Actings of the Spirit against it and the Fruits produced thereby Hence he shuts up his discourse with that Exhortation If we live in the Spirit let us walk in the Spirit That is if we are endowed with this Spiritual Principle of Life which is to live in the Spirit then let us Act Work and
is a purging of Sin which consists in the Legal Expiation of it in making Attonement Heb. 1. 3. But the purging of a Sinner or of the Conscience is by Real Efficiency in Sanctification which is here declared to be one End of the Oblation of Christ. So where he is said to wash us from our Sins in his own Blood namely as shed and offered for us Rev. 1. 5. it is not only the Expiation of Guilt but the Purification of Filth that is intended Sect. 4 The Way and Manner how Holiness is Communicated unto us by vertue of the Death and Oblation of Christ I have shewed before at large and shall not therefore here again insist upon it I shall only observe that Holiness being one especial End for which Christ gave himself for us or Offered himself unto God for us without a Participation thereof it is impossible that we should have the least Evidence of an Interest in his Oblation as to any other End of it And as for those who are never made Holy Christ never dyed or Offered himself for them I cannot understand what Advantage it is unto Religion to affirm that the most of them for whom Christ dyed as a Priest or offered himself an Oblation to God shall have no Benefit thereby as to Grace or Glory and incomparably the most of them without any especial Fault of their own as never hearing of him Neither can I find in the Scripture a double Design of Christ in giving himself for Mankind towards some that they may be redeemed from all Iniquity and purified to be his peculiar Ones towards others that they may yet be left under the Guilt and Power of their Sins And it evacuates the force of the Motive unto the Necessity of Holiness from the Consideration of the Oblation of Christ where men are taught that Christ offered himself a Sacrifice for them who are never made Holy Wherefore I say no unholy person can have any certain Evidence that he hath an Interest in the Oblation of Christ seeing he gave himself to purifie them for whom he was Offered Sect. 5 The Intercession of Christ which is his second Sacerdotal Act hath also the same End and is Effectual to the same Purpose It is true he doth Intercede with God for the Pardon of Sin by vertue of his Oblation whence he is said to be our Advocate with God to comfort us in case of Surprizals by sin 1 John 1. 1 2. But this is not all he designeth therein He Intercedes also for Grace and supplyes of the Spirit that we may be made and kept Holy See John 17. 15 17. Sect. 6 Secondly As to the Prophetical Office of Christ the Church or Men alone are its immediate Object and of all the Acts and Duties of it He is therein Gods Legate and Ambassador his Apostle and Messenger unto us Whatever he doth as a Prophet he doth it with us and towards us in the Name of God And there are two Parts or Works of Christ in this Office relating onely to the Doctrine he taught 1 The Revelation of God in his Name and Love in the Mystery of his Grace and Goodness of Truth by his Promises that we may believe in him 2 The Revelation of God in his Will and Commands that we may obey him For the first wherein indeed his Prophetical Office was principally exercised see John 1. 18. Chap. 1. 2. John 17. 6. The Revelation of the Preceptive Will of God made by Jesus Christ may be considered two wayes 1. As he was peculiarly sent to the House of Israel the Minister of the Circumcision for the Truth of the Promises of God unto the Fathers Rom. 15. 8. 2 With respect unto the whole Church of all Ages 1 The first which took up much of his personal Ministry in the Flesh consisted in the Declarations Exposition and Vindication that he gave unto the Church of Divine Precepts for Obedience which had been given before God had from the Beginning and in especial Manner at the Promulgation of the Law on Sinai and the ensuing Expositions of it by the Prophets given Excellent Precepts for Holiness and Obedience But the People unto whom they were given being carnal they were not able to bear the spiritual Light and Sence of them which was therefore greatly Veyled under the Old Testament Not only the Promises but the Precepts also of the Law were then but obscurely apprehended Besides the Church being grown corrupted there were solemn Expositions of Gods Commands received amongst them whose sole Design was to accommodate them unto the Lusts and Sins of men or to exempt men if not totally yet in many Instances from an Obligation unto Obedience to them Our Blessed Saviour applyes himself in the Discharge of his Prophetical Office with respect unto the End of the Command which is our Holy Obedience unto both these in the Declaration of its Excellency and Efficacy Sect. 7 And first he declares the inward spiritual Nature of the Law with its respect unto the most secret Frames of our Hearts and Minds with the least Disorder or Irregularity of our Passions and Affections And then secondly he declares the true Sence of its Commands their Nature Signification and Extent vindicating them from all the corrupt and false Glosses which then passed current in the Church whereby there was an Abatement made of their Efficacy and an Indulgence granted unto the Lusts of Men. Thus they had by their Traditional Interpretation restrained the Sixth Commandment Thou shalt not Kill unto actual Murder and the Seventh Thou shalt not commit Adultery unto actual Vncleanness as some now would restrain the Second Commandment unto the Making of Images and Worshipping them excluding the primary Intent of the Precept restraining all Means and Manners of Worship unto Divine Institution How in his Doctrine he took off these Corruptions we may see Matth. 5. 21 22 27 28. Sect. 8 Thus he restored the Law to its pristine Crown as the Jews have a Tradition that it shall be done in the Dayes of the Messiah Herein did the Lord Christ place the Beginning of his Prophetical Office and Ministry Matth. 5. 6 7. He opened unveyled explained and vindicated the Preceptive part of the Will of God before Revealed to the End that by a Complyance therewith we should be Holy The full Revelation of the Mind and Will of God in the Perfection and Spirituality of the Command was reserved for Christ in the Discharge of his Office And he gave it unto us that we might have a perfect and compleat Rule of Holiness This therefore was the immediate End of this Work or Duty of the Office of Christ. And where we Answer it not we reject that great Prophet which God hath sent to which Excision is so severely threatned Sect. 9 2 The second part of this Office or the Discharge of it with respect unto the Church of all Ages which takes in the Ministry of the Apostles as