Rom. 6. 14. Here you see expresly that there is a freedome from the dominion of sinne even upon this account that we are under the Covenant of grace Though you be not totally freed from the inhabitation of sinne for sinne doth dwell in us whiles we dwell on earth and though you be not totally freed from the rebellion of sinne for peccatum hostis est quamdiu est The flesh lusteâ—h against the spirit Gal. 5. 17. and there is a law in our members warring against the law of our minds Rom. 7. 23. yet you are totally freed from the dominion of sinne which consists in the effectual Rule Command and Sovereign strength of sinne and a free and full and willing subjection or obedience unto the Law and authority of sinne and verily this freedome or deliverance is a wonderful mercy and happinesse unto the people of God whither you consider 1. The great and utmost distance twixt you and God 2. The basenâ—sse of servitude in which every one lives over whom sinne hath dominion for of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage 2 Pet. 2. 19. You were but very slaves to your lusts and to the devil whiles sinne did rule over you 3. The height of enmity As you were the basest of slaves so you were the worst of enemies living not only as aliens without God but as desperate enemies opposing and fighting against God 4. The superfluity of naughtinesse a full contrariety your whole hearts and your whole lives were nothing else but a constant dishonour unto God and contradiction to his Will and Glory 5. The certainty of destruction which would infallibly have attended you had not the mercy and grace of God rescued and delivered you I say certain destruction to your souls as there is a certain destruction to the life of our bodies if we fall into the sea and lie under it 6. The sweet and immediate communion 'twixt the deliverance from the dominion of sinne and admission to the Kingdome of Christ It is a translation from death to life The Apostle joins these together in Colos 5. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and hath translated us into the Kingdome of his dear Sonne 3. They have immunity or freedome from the damnation meritoriously depending upon the guilt of sinne As salvation depends upon the merits of Christ so From damnation for sinne doth damnation depend on the merit of sinne There is so much merit in sinne as to render us obnoxious not only to temporal destruction but also to eternal destruction for the wages of sinne is death even that death which stands in opposition to eternal life Rom. 6. 23. But from the effectual redundancy of this damnation upon your persons you are every one freed who are in Covenant with God For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. And whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life John 3. 15. And the ground of this your immunity from the damnation due unto you for your sinnes is the satisfaction which Christ hath made for your sinnes unto the justice of God and thereupon the obtaining of riches of mercy from your God who according to his Covenant with you blots out and forgives all your sinnes and never remembers them any more For this is a sure truth that remission of sinnes and actual damnation for sinnes are incompatible or inconsistent Now whether this be any cause of comfort that you and your sinnes are parted and that you and hell are for ever separated I leave it to any one of you to judge for mine own part I do look upon four things as very great mercies 1. That I am delivered from the power of sinne 2. That I enjoy the pardon of sinne 3. That I shall never be damned for sinne 4. That I shall be saved notwithstanding all my sinnes 4. They have immunity or freedome from justification by the Law from all legal From justification by the Law tryals for life Although you are not freed from the Law as it is a rule for life yet you are freed from the Law as it is a Covenant of life although you are not freed from the Law as it is the image of the good and holy will of God yet because you are under the Covenant of grace you are freed from the Law as it is a reason of salvation and justification The Covenant of grace takes you off from that Court and that Bar which pronounceth life upon your own good works and pronounceth death upon your own evil works Rom. 3. 28. We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law Gal. 3. 11. No man is justified by the Law in the sight of God for the just shall live by faith As the Law calls for perfect and personal righteousnesse of our own so the Law will not justifie you it will not give life unto you unlesse it finds that righteousnesse in you you live not if you be not perfectly righteous absolution is pronounced upon your own perfect innocency and condemnation is pronounced upon any defect or breach And verily upon this account no man living can or shall be justified therefore here is comfort that being in Christ and in this Covenant of grace ye are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses See the Apostle Acts 13. 39. Your life doth not lie now in your own righteousnesse but in the righteousnesse of Christ nor doth it depend upon your own works but upon the obedience of Christ That expression of Luther is an excellent expression Christus solus me justificat contra mea mala opera sine operibus meis bonis Though my works have been very good yet not those but Christ doth justifie me and though my works have been very ill yet the righteousnesse of Christ can and will justifie me my evil works shall not damne me and my good works cannot acquit me it is Christ it is Christ and not the Law which justifies me 5. They have immunity or liberty from the rigour of the Law The Law in the rigour of it exacts of us a most absolute obedience a most exquisite and full obedience From the rigor of the Law it will not abate us the least grain or scruple if it be not every way adequate for matter and manner and measure your obedience will not passe nor will it be accepted according to the rigour of the Law Cursed is every one who doth not continue in every thing that is written to do it But when once you are under the Covenant of grace when once God is your God and you are his people neither you nor your services are judged by the exactnesse of your services but by the sincerity of your hearts Though much be wanting which the Law prescribes yet if that be present which your merciful God and Father
withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned A branch may be in a tree two wayes One is by a meer corporeal adherence by cleaving and sticking to the body of the tree and so every dead branch is in the tree as well as those that live such branches have no union they are dead and cut off and cast away into the fire Another is by a real participation of the life sap and influence of the root That which makes us to be in Christ any kind of way is Faith and according to the differences of faith are those differences of being in Christ You may read in Scripture of a dead faith James 2. 26. This dead faith takes in an external profession of Christ and a self aiming dependance on Christ to keep us from Hell and get us to Heaven But for all this there is no real union with Christ And we read too of a lively and unfeigned faith of a faith which joynes us and Christ in one Spirit which graffs us indeed into Christ and makes us partakers of the life and grace of Christ O where is this faith this living faith this ingraffing faith this uniting faith is the only precious faith and the only faith which brings us into the Covenant and the only faith which can look on God as our God and promising mercy and salvation unto us If you have not this faith you have no interest in Christ and if you have no interest in Christ you have no interest in God nor in the Covenant of God You cannot own God for yours nor can you own the promises of God as yours as made unto you But here now occurre two serious questions 1. One is How we may know whether our faith be a faith of union which unites Two serious Questions us to Christ 2. The second is How we may attain unto the faith of union which only brings us into the Covenant SECT V. 1. Quest HOw we may know whether our Faith be a Faith of real union with How we may know whether our faith be a faith of union Christ a faith which unites us to Christ indeed Sol. This is a most pertinent question because our real interest in the Covenant of grace depends upon it all depends upon it out of Christ and out of Covenant in Christ and in Covenant And if your faith be an uniting faith then Christ is yours and God is yours and all the good of the Covenant is yours Now there are five things which are to be considered about the faith of union or the faith which indeed unites us to Christ Five things about the faith of union 1. The manner 〈◊〉 it is wrought in the heart 2. The peculiar operations of it upon the soule in relation to this union 3. The very act or acts by which and upon which the soule is indeed brought into union 4. The qualities of this union by faith 5. The choice influences or effects which do alwayes attend that union with Christ by faith 1. If your faith be a faith which unites you to Christ Then it is the work and The manner how it is wrought in the heart It is the work of the Spirit of Christ fruit of the spirit and it is wrought by the Spirit in an uniting way 1. It is the work of the Spirit of Christ None doth or can raise and produce this faith but the very Spirit of God Col. 2. 12. Ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead His mighty power is put forth to produce it Ephes 1. 19. 1 Cor. 2. 5. Your faith stands not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God 2 Cor. 4. 13. We having the same Spirit of Faith In all these places the Apostle speaks of that faith which interests your persons in Christ This faith he calls the Demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2. 4. and the power of God and the operation of God and the Spirit of Faith and in Isa 53. 1. The revealing of the Arm of God Consider this Faith in all the parts and degrees of it you shall finde that every one of them comes from the Spirit of God Faith is sometimes stiled knowledge and believing knowing why the right knowledge of Christ is a fruit or work of the Spirit of God Matth. 11. 25. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes Faith is sometimes stiled acknowledgment Col. 2. 2. The acknowledgement of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ And no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. Faith or believing is sometimes stiled a coming unto Christ and saith Christ himself No man can come to me except the Father draw him Joh. 6. 44. It is called a receiving of Christ Joh. 1. 12. which ability to receive Christ depends only on the will of God verse 13. Well then uniting faith is the sole work of the Spirit of God if any man be brought into Christ and joyned unto Christ this work is wrought by the Spirit of Christ 2. The spirit works this uniting Faith in an uniting way or manner how is that The Spirit works this in a uniting way will you say Thus it is when the Spirit doth work this faith in us he doth it in a Gospel manner the Gospel way is the uniting way accompanying it all along 1. By Evangelical light 2. By Evangelical offers 3. By Evangelical promises 4. By Evangelical efficacy 1. He lets in such a Gospel-light into the soule of a broken and troubled sinner that The Spirit lets in a Gospel light into the soule be is now able to see and to discern the wonderful grace of God in Christ even the glories of Christ the sealing and anointing oâ— him to be the Mediator and Redeemer and Saviour of sinners and the life of the world the Prince of peace the only help and hope of them that are lost Joh. 3. 16. The Gospel saith so and the Spirit makes him to see it so The people that walked in darkness have seen great lâ—ght Isa 9 2. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. 2. When he hath let in such a light that the sinner is convinced of the infinite Enables the soule to apprehend the singular kindness of God in the offers of Christ mercy and grace of God in Christ Then he further enables the sinner to apprehend the singular kindnâ—ss of God in the offers of this Christ unto him unto you is the word of this salvation sent Acts 13. 26. and verse 38. Be it known unto you that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins And the â—pirit accompanies the Gospel in this offer As the Gospel outwardly offers Christ to sinners so doth the Spirit
Christ and why do you not go to God freely to give you Christ What can you say or object when God promiseth to give you all and to give you all upon gracious terms how would you have God to frame and form his Covenant better or otherwise to encourage your hearts to come unto him and rely upon him 〈◊〉 you be wholly beholding to God or would you not are you contented that God should have all the glory of mercies or are you not Is it any disadvantage to the working of your faith that God will pass by all your sins and unworthiness and will love you freely and justifie you freely and save you freely Is there any more reason to distrust God when he saith he will do you good for his own sake then when he saith I will be merciful to your transgressions and will freely bless you Had you rather be under a Covneant of works than of grace would it please you better to come by your mercies upon harder terms You find that you have nothing of worthiness and yet you are not content to receive all from Gods graciousness why do you pray that God would do you good for his own sake and yet you will not believe that that is reason enough to prevail and enjoy I will say no more but this 1. The blessings of the Covenant are worth our enjoying 2. God doth promise to give them 3. His own graciousness is the price or reason of it 4. Upon better or other terms it is impossible to attain them 5. It is for want of faith that we do not justifie this unspeakable loving-kindness of God towards us O beg for faith to believe a God Covenanting to give all good and all good though not for our sake yet for his own Name sake Ezek. 36. 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthinesse and from all your Idols will I cleanse you HAving finished those four general Conclusions I shall now handle the Gifts of the Covenant in particular mentioned in this verse and in the subsequent verses In this verse there is promised unto the people of God the Remission of their sins concerning which you may observe 1. The Efficient I will c. 2. The Matter clean water 3. The Form or Manner I will sprinkle upon you 4. The Power and Efficacy And ye shall be clean 5. The Quantity or Extent from all your filthinesse and from all your Idols will I cleanse you From these parts there are these four Points which do offer themselves to our consideration 1. That forgiveness of sins is promised and one of the first mercies promised by himself unto all his people in Covenant with him 2. Gods promise of forgiveness of sins doth extend to all the sinnes of all his people 3. Though the sins of people have been exceeding great yet when they become Gods people in Covenant even those sins also are forgiven 4. The blood of Christ is the cause and the only cause for which many and great sins are pardoned 5. That God will make unto the Conscience of his people a particular application of forgiveness by the blood of Christ CHAP. II. Doct. 1 THat forgivenesse of sins is promised and it is one of the first promised mercies by God himself unto all his people in covenant with him I will sprinkle c. This is a very comprehensive Assertion Forgiveness of sins one of the first mercies promised by God to all his people in Covenant consisting of many Particular Branches For the opening of it I shall shew unto you 1. What forgiveness of sins is wherein it doth consist 2. That God himself doth make promise of it unto his people 3. That it is promised unto all and every one of his people 4. That it is one of the first mercies promised by God unto his people SECT I. Quest 1. VVHat is forgiveness of sins and wherein doth it consist Forgivenesse of sins described Sol. It is a gracious act or work of God for Christs sake discharging and absolving believing and repenting persons from the guilt and punishment of their sinnes so that God is no longer displeased with them nor will he ever remember them any more nor call them to an account and condemn them for their sinnes but will look on them and will deale with them as if they had never offended him Here we must pause awhile and consider six things First That forgivenesse of sinnes is a gracious act of God there be some acts It is a gracious act of God of God which have a special reference unto his power as the Creation of the world and the resurrection of the dead There be other acts of God which have a special reference unto his Justice as the condemnation and destruction of unbelieving and impenitent sinners And there are some acts of God which have a special reference unto his meer goodness and graciousness there being no Reason or Cause of them on our parts such an act is his Remission or forgiveness of our sins Isa 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my Name sake Eph. 1. 7. The forgivenesse of sins according to the riches of his grace Psal 51. 1. Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindnesse according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Rom. 3. 25. Being justified freely by his grace Not that Repentance is not required in the sinner who is to be pardoned For the Scripture speaks expresly of a turning from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan to God that we may receive forgivenesse of sinnes Acts 26. 18. Not that Believing is not required in the sinner to be forgiven for the Apostle Peter saith also expresly Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 10. 43. but because these are not Reasons or meritorious causes for whose sake God doth forgive any man his sins they declare the effect who are pardoned not the cause why they are pardoned Secondly The forgivenesse of sinnes hath foundation in Christ and in him only It hath foundation in Christ as the Mediatour as the meritorious cause thereof Hebr. 9. 22. Without shedding of blood is no remission Matth. 26. 28. This is my blood which is shed for many for the remission of sins Ephes 1. 7. In his blood we have redemption even the forgivenesse of sins 1 Joh. 2. 12. I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his Names sake Forgiveness of sins hath a double respect One unto our selves so it comes unto us freely from the grace of God as a free gift Another unto Christ so it comes by way of purchase and merit it doth cost us nothing but it did cost Jesus Christ his precious blood to obtain the remission of our sins and to make peace for us Now Christ comes in as the cause of
works 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousness 6. That his obedience unto the Law is propounded as a pattern for us to imitate 1 Joh. 2. 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himsel to walk even as he walked Lastly The Covenant-Faith which is in every one of the people of God as it And so doth the Covenâ—nt faith carries them out to an election of God to be their God so it carries them out unto subjection to God unto obedience Heb. 11. 4. By faith Abel offered up a more excellent sacrifice than Cain Ver. 8. By faith Abraham obeyed God Faith eyes the Word of God for a Rule and warrant and faith propounds unto us the encouragements of the word to quicken our obedience and faith fetches strength from Christ to enable us in all our works of obedience Having spoken these things for the demonstration of the Assertion I shall now speak unto three Questions 1. How this walking in Gods statutes and keeping of his judgements and doing of them may be fixed upon the people of Gods Covenant seeing they are all of them believers and being so are no longer under the Law but are freed and delivered from it 2. What manner of obedience or kind of obedience that is which is required and to be performed by the people of Gods Covenant 3. Why these are in such a special manner thus charged with walking in Gods statutes c. 1. Quest How this walking in Gods statutes c. may be forced upon the people of Gods Covenant seeing they are all under grace and believers and not under How Gods people being not under the Law are bound to obedience the Law as the Apostle expresseth it Rom. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law but under Grace Sol. For a clear Answer unto this Question I will briefly deliver my thoughts in these distinctions First Concerning the Law of God you know there were some of them 1. Ceremonial which consisted in Rites and Ordinances and Shadows typifying Jesus Christ in his sufferings unto which there was a full period put by the death of Christ 2. Judicial which respecteth the Jews as a peculiar Nation and Common-wealth being made and fitted for them as in such a particular polity And all those Judicial Laws especially these de jure particulari are ceased by the cessation of that Nation and polity 3. Moral which are these set down in the Decalogue and are called the ten words or Commandements which God spake and delivered Of the ten Commandements which we call the Moral Law is the question to be understood whether believers or the people in the New Covenant are bound unto them Secondly This Moral Law may be considered either 1. In the Substance of it Or 2ly in the circumstances of it If you consider the Moral Law in the substance of it so it is 1. An eternal manifestation of the mind and will of God declaring what is good and what is evil what we are to do and what we are not to do what duties we How the Moral Law never ceaseth do owe to God and what duties we do owe to our neighbours what worship God requires and what worship God forbids In this consideration the Moral Law never ceaseth in respect of any person whasoever 2. It discovers sinne For Rom. 3. 19. By the Law cometh the knowledge of sin And the Apostle in Rom. 7. 7. I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet In this respect likewise the Law is still in force even unto the people of God it is the glass which shews them unto themselves and the light which manifests the hidden things and works of darkness in them 3. The Rule of life For as the Gospel is the Rule of faith teaching us what to believe so the Moral Law is the Rule of manners teaching us how to live and as to this directing power it is still of force and use unto believers Psal 119. 105. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path Ver. 133. Order my steps in thy Word But then secondly the Law may be considered in respect of its circumstances not as it is a Rule of obedience but as it is a condition of life and as thus considered How it ceaseth 1. It requires a personal and perfect obedience and that under a curse Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all that is written to do it Here now it ceaseth unto the people of God the cursing and condemning power is abrogated Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. 2. It requires an exact obedience as a reason of Justification Do this and live Here likewise the people of God are freed from it who as Luther well speaks shall not be damned for their evil works nor yet shall be justified for their good works but are justified by faith in Christ and the matter of their justification being not inherent righteousness in themselves but only the imputed righteousness of Christ Thus you see in what respects the people of God are freed from and in what respects they are still obliged by the Law The Law hath not power to condem or justifie them and yet it hath a power to direct and instruct them And that it hath such a power unto which we are to conform our selves in obedience may appear thus First By that forementioned place in Matth. 5. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill And in Why the Law hath still a power to command us that Chapter he doth both interpret the Law and commend and command unto his Disciples the duties of the Law And surely it is no way probable that Christ would by his own authority so have confirmed the Law had it been his purpose and business to have cancelled the Law Secondly Paul in Rom. 13. 8. that he might shew and clear that in that one precept of love He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law produceth several precepts of the Law in ver 9. For this Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness Thou shalt not covet And if there be any other Commandement it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self All which were a fruitless proof if the Law had nothing to do with the people of God but utterly ceased to them as to point of obedience In like manner in that place of James 2. 8. If ye fulfill the royal Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye do well but if the Royal Law were abrogated certainly
altogether for sins commands but he devides himself betwixt God and his sinful lusts he will pray but withall he will swear and he will hear the Word but withall he will be drunk he will do many things that are good but withall he will do many things that are wicked Now take heed of this God cannot endure it If God be God follow him 1 King 18. 21. You shall walk in my statutes saith God here i. e. you shall set me up alone and my commands alone and my wayes alone Zeph. 1. 5. I will cut off them that swear by the Lord and that swear by Malcham Rev. 3. 16. Because thou art luke-warm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth Matth. 4. 10. It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Thirdly You must take heed of partiality in walking in Gods statutes We say Take heed of partiality that Lex est copulativa God doth not say you shall do this or do that you shall fear me or you shall love me you shall keep my Sabbath or you shall not take my Name in vain no such matter but the Law is conjunctive and doth require obedience to every commandement of God Jam. 2. 11. For he that said do not commit adultery said also do not kill now if thou commit no adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a transgresser of the Law We read that Jehu did many things which God commanded in order to the destruction of the house of Ahab but yet he disobeyed God in following the sin of Jeroboam which tended to the destruction of his own soul And so Herod heard John Baptist and did many things but yet he kept Herodias his brother Philips wife Right obedience is impartial obedience and he who regards one Commandement of God out of Conscience he doth likewise regard every Commandement of God for there is the same authority stamped on all the Commandements Therefore it is but hypocrisie to regard some of Gods statutes and to disregard others Some men stand much for obedience or duties to the second Table but they mind not the duties oâ— the first Table they seem to make conscience of lying and stealing and killing and adultery but they make no conscience of swearing and taking the Name of God in vain and breaking the sabbâ—th some seem to make conscience of lesser duties but they make no conscience of greater duties and so others â— contrà But God hath not given unto us such a liberty to pick and chuse our work if the Lord commands us the smallest or the greatest duties we are to yield obedience to the one and to the other not neglecting the least nor laying aside the greatest He that is unfaithful in the least will be unfaithful also in the greatest and he that is faithful in the greatest will be also faithful in the least it is a truth that sins of omission will damn a man as well as sins of commission therefore take heed of partiality in keeping of Gods statutes Fourthly You must take heed of resting or relying upon any of your works or Take heed of resting upon duties duties you must endeavour obedience unto Gods Law but you must beware of placing your confidence upon that obedience You must pray and read and hear and mourn and repent and walk holily and humbly with your God and you must live soberly and righteously and godly and fear the Lord and love the Lord and obey his voice and when you have done so to your utmost and to your best then must you cast your Crowns to the ground and weep that you have served your God no more and no better and cry out with the Publican God be merciful to me a sinner and with David Enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal 143. 2. And with him Domine lava quaesâ— lachrymas meas If you advance your duties or works of obedience unto a condition of life to be the matter and reason of your justification before God and say Lord these are my righteousnesses and for these I look to be justified and saved why now as Peter said to Simon Magus Thou and thy money perish with thee So say I now thou and all thy duties will perish together For 1. God commands not works of duty from his people that they should Gods Commands not duties that we should be justified thereby To set up works puls down Christ and faith in him thereby be justified but that thereby himself might be glorified not as reasons of life but as testimonies of love and thankfulness 2. You pull down Jesus Christ and faith in him if you set up any works of yours for life or justification Christ is no Christ unto you and his righteousness is no righteousness unto you if you seek to set up your own works and put confidence in them Gal. 5. 4. Christ is become of nâ—ne effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace 3. It is foolâ—sh and damnable so to do For when you have done all that you can do you are but unprofitable servants The least duties that ever you have performed Iâ—s foolish and damnable have enough in them to damn you There is much sinfulness and much weakness and much shortness in them which if God should mark you could never stand before him Remember this for a certain truth that he who would come to heaven must take heed of his good works as well as of his evil works they will damn him and if he place his confidence upon his good works they will destroy him Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us Fifthly You must take heed of performing duties or obeying Gods statutes Take heed of false ends for false ends As 1. To recompence God 2ly To give him satisfaction for the evil that you have done 3ly To offer them up as purchasers of mercies and blessings 4ly To look on them as your propitiation and peace-makers 5ly Only to quiet and still your consciences 6ly Out of vain-glory and to please men First You must not perform duties nor present them to God as compensations Duties must not be performed by way of compensation or recompence unto God for the blessings and benefits which God hath vouchsafed unto you There is a difference between thankfulness for blessings and requitals for blessings we ought to be thankful unto God and to return praises and obedience after the receit of his mercies offer unto God thansgiving Psal 50. 14. And praise is comely for the upright Psal 33. 1. But to recompence God again by any good that we can do for any good that he hath done this may not be and this cannot be Job 35. 7. said Eliphaz to Job If thou be righteous what givest
Law given on Mount Sinai though materially it respected works yet formally and intentionally it was not then given and established as a Covenant of works by which we should be justified and live this I shall afterwards make evident and therefore shall say no more unto it at the present 5. The Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace do differ in the condition In the condition of life promised of life promised in both Life is promised in both Covenants but upon different conditions Do this and live saith the Covenant of works Believe on Jesus Christ and live saith the Covenant of grace The condition of the one consists in giving The condition of the other consists in receiving The condition of the one is to give in a perfect righteousness of our own unto God and the condition of the other is by faith to receive a perfect righteousnesse from Christ In the Covenant of nature or of works there is forum justitiae where the sentence of absolution passeth if we be found righteous and the sentence of condemnation if we be found unrighteous the question is not then about faith but love not whether you believ'd but whether you obey'd But in the Covenant of grace there is forum misericordiae and the sentence of absolution passeth not upon our doing but upon our believing and the sentence of condemnation passeth upon all unbelievers Now here fall in two notable questions 1. Question Whither faith were not required in the Covenant of works Whether faith were not required in the Covenant of works How faith was rerequired Sol. To this I answer three things 1. Faith was required in the Covenant of works as Faith may be taken either for a dependance on God the only Authour of being and blessing or for an expectation of that good of life which God promised with a reliance upon God for it or for a perswasion of Gods love to him and acceptance of his obedience whil'st continuing upright with God As to these considerations of faith Adam who lived under the Covenant of works had faith and did exercise it for he was bound to acknowledge God as the only fountaine of his good and to depend upon him as so And he was bound to believe the possession of that life which God promised to him whil'st he should continue perfectly obedient and likewise he was bound to be perswaded of the love of God unto him in that course of obedience and also the acceptance of his obediential services unto God 2. But that faith which respected the Covenant of works was different from that faith which respects the Covenant of grace and is now required For 1. How not required That faith was such as looked on a promise of life made by God to a perfect creature and as so continuing but that faith which respects the Covenant of grace looks upon the promise of God in Christ made in respect to us sinners and lost in our selves 2. That faith looked on God as a creatour and preserver but this faith looks on God as a Redeemer and merciful Father 3. That faith was natural concreated with Adam not raised nor infused in a Gospel-way but this faith is now promised and infused in a supernatural way by the Spirit of Christ through the dispensation of the Gospel 4. That faith could not be at all in any but so long as he was perfectly righteous and therefore it ceased upon the cessation of that righteousnesse it was principally grounded upon inherent Righteousnesse But this faith is in a sinner who hath no righteousnesse of his own but relies upon the righteousness of another even the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ 3. Although there was a kind of faith in Adam under the Covenant of works Faith not required in both for the same end yet that faith was not for this end and purpose to be the condition of that Covenant There it was a part of his righteousnesse but was not stipulated as the condition of life as that upon which his life and justification did depend But the faith required in the Covenant of grace comes in purposely as the condition of life and justification for the sinner 2. Quest. Whither the Covenant of grace doth not require works as well Whether the Covenant of grace requires works Works are required in both as the Covenant of nature or of works If so what difference is there then between them as to doing Sol. Questionlesse the Covenant of grace requires good works This is a faithful saying saith Paul Tit. 3. 8. and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which believe in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works Matth. 5. 16. But yet there is a vast difference betwixt the good works as required in the Covenant of works But with a difference and as required in the Covenant of grace They differ in their spring and fountain and they differ in their manner of Wherein this difference lies working but herein especially they differ as to these Covenants that in the one they are a condition of life but in the other Testimonies and Evidences of life in the one they are the matter of life and justification in the other they are nothing at all they are no part no reason they have no intrest or hand at all in the justification of a sinner Faith therein wholly excludes them and fixeth only on the righteousnesse of Christ Although they are alwayes present in the justified man yet they are never present in his justification before God 6. The Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace do differ thus The In the one the least sin undoes the sinner least sin undoes the sinner under the Covenant of works but it doth not so in the Covenant of grace The Covenant of works passeth sentence against you upon the least obliquity Cursed is every one that continueth not in every thing to do it and you have no remedy against this sentence in the Covenant of works But it is not so in the Covenant of grace This is a Remedy and a Sanctuary and a City of Refuge against the sentence passed in the Covenant of works In the other there is a remedy If the condemned and distressed sinner can fly unto and reach to the Covenant of grace Christ will satisfie for him and make his peace and procure mercy for him Nay the Covenant of grace deals more favourably with us It doth not cast us out for every transgression but as a father pities his child that serves him so doth the Lord pity them that feare him Psal 103. 13. Unlesse we utterly violate the Covenant of grace we may yet find grace and mercy If any man sinne we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes
1 John 2. 1 2. 7. The Covenant of works if we could attain unto it would now be matter The one would be matter of glorying in our selves of glorying in our selves If Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory Rom. 4. 2. The elder brother who represented these work-men how did he boast himself These many years did I serve thee neither transgressed I at any time thy Commandment c. Luke 15. 29. I am not as other men said that proud Pharisee you might have challenged life by a debt by the Covenant of works To him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of grace but of debt Rom. 4. 4. You might have earned happinesse if I may so speak at your fingers ends and might have demanded your wages after you had done your work But the Covenant of grace cuts off all boasting and glorying The other cuts off all boasting in our selves Where is boasting then it is excluded by what Law of works nay but by the Law of faith Rom. 3. 27. And Jesus Christ is made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption That according as it is written he that glorieth might glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. You cannot glory in your wisdome for that you have from Christ nor in your sanctification for that you have from Christ c. you have all from Christ therefore all your glorying must be in Christ There is a twofold glorying one in the Testimony of conscience this you may have who are under the Covenant of grace 2 Cor. 1. 12. Another is A twofold glorying in the confidence of our own works This the Covenant of grace doth utterly exclude God forbid that I should glory save in the crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 6. 14. All is of grace by the Covenant of grace all is given and freely given Christ is given and grace is given and mercy is given and life is given and salvation is given and therefore all boasting and glorying in our selves is excluded by the Covenant of grace 8. They differ thus The Covenant of works breeds terrours and fear and The one breeds fear and terror despair If a man expect life by it his heart must sink within him considering how short he is of that righteousnesse therein required for life as also that abundance of unrighteousnesse in himself exposing him to wrath from a just God But the Covenant of grace is a ministration of life and peace and joy and The other is a ministration of life boldnesse you have here a sure refuge to fly unto a sure Rock to stand upon and a sure Anchor to trust unto 9. There are many other differences between them as the impossibility of Other differences summed up life by the one as the case now stands and the certainty of life by the other and the diversity of life promised in the one from that in the other and a difference in respect of the seals for the one and for the other And a difference in respect of extent The Covenant of works was with all men but this with believers only And a difference in respect of Appeals though you may appeal from the Covenant of works to the Covenant of grace yet there is no appeal from the Covenant of grace c. But I shall not stay any longer upon this first particular only by the way make some few Uses from the consideration of both these Covenants 1. Use In what a miserable condition are all unbelievers and impenitent persons who are strangers and forreiners to the Covenant of grace enemies to Christ and therefore utterly disinterested in the Covenant of grace Surely In what a miserable condition are all unbelievers mercy is not to be found in any other Covenant but in this In the Covenant of works you are condemned and accursed by reason of transgression your lives are forfeited you are under the curse cursed is every one c. Neither doth the Covenant of works mitigate or reverse or alter the sentence It admits of no mercy at all Mercy which is the only remedy against it is found only in the Covenant of grace There is the Throne of grace set up and there is the Mercy-seat to be found But unbelievers because they refuse Christ and impenitent sinners because they choose their sinnes exclude themselves from Christ and from this Covenant of grace and therefore they shall live and die accursed and condemned men 2. Vse See and admire the infinite goodnesse of God in making this Covenant Admire the goodness of God in making this Covenant of grace of grace not insisting on the other Covenant of works not holding us unto it to take us as it were out of the hand of justice and to put us into the hand of mercy not to sue the old bond but to make a new treaty that so he might pardon our former transgressions What infinite goodnesse was this Oh! this was exceeding pity and exceeding kindnesse and exceeding goodnesse to take off the yoke of bondage and to bring us into the bond of a new Covenant to set up a Mediatour to make another Covenant where we might yet find life mercy and peace not to deal with us in justice but in mercy not according to the desert of our doings but according to the riches of his grace in Christ 3. Use Here is singular support unto troubled consciences unto all who are Here is support for troubled consciences wounded with the sense of their sinnes and of their own inability to satisfie Gods justice and of their utter unworthinesse of mercy Indeed if you look into the Covenant of works in this condition there is no comfort for you no help for you no hope for you That Covenant speaks not one word of grace of mercy of peace of hope at all but if it sends you sinners it pronounceth you cursed Yet in this case if you look to the Covenant of grace there is hope and help The Covenant of grace looks not at the righteous but at sinners and it holds out a satisfaction made by Christ which could never be made by the sinner and as it hath mercy for sinners so it communicates that mercy freely unto every mourning broken-hearted penitent and believing sinner yea it doth not only comprehend mercy but every grace which makes us capable of mercy and that to be freely given by God to them that seek him 4. Use Take heed of resting upon your own works of seeking life and justification Rest not upon your works from them and for them this is to set up the Covenant of works and this is to seek life and justification in a way where it is impossible for a sinner to find it and you utterly overthrow the Covenant of grace by it The Covenant of works by which if you will be justified supposeth personal perfect and stedfast righteousnesse neither admits it of any
pitied thee to do any of these unto thee to have compassion on thee but thou wast cast out into the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born Ver. 6. And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live Ver. 8. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee be hold thy time was the time of love and I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakednesse yea I sware unto thee and entered into Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine Yea and the Apostle tells us what persons they were whom yet God took into Covenant Titus 3. 3. We our selves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another Ver. 4. But after that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared Ver. 5. Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us In these places we see that there can be nothing found in us either as to our natures or as to our works which might move God to take us into Covenant but enough in both for him to reject us and yet notwithstanding both he is pleased to enter into Covenant with us and save us This must needs be grace and mercy 2. Consider the perâ—ons taken now into Covenant in their former respectivenesse of state and actions towards God The Apostle saith That whiles we were In their former respectivenesse of state and actions towards God yet enemies Christ dyed for us And when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne Rom. 5. 8 10. Surely mercy shewn to enemies must needs be free mercy and to receive enemies into favour this must be gracious favour yet to do this to enemies even in theiâ— hostility for God to take his enemies into his hands of mercy and become a singular friend to them even in the time of their raging and fighting against him this must needs be of grace It was remarkable favour in David to spare the life of Saul his enemies much more in God not only to spare the lives of sinners and enemies but to give them their souls and his Christ and his mercy and his salvation You read of those in Acts 2. 23. they were men who had by wicked hands crucified and slaine the Lord Jesus and verse 13. at the present were â—â—â—â—king at the Apostles as if they had been a company of drunkards These men are full of new wine Yet these men and at this time and in this posture God laid hold on by his grace and convinced them and humbled them and gave them faith and brought them into this Covenant with himself as you may see from verse 37. to 47. The like you read of Saul when he was raging and waxing â—â—d and breathing out persecutions against Christ and against the Church of Christ Being in this woful wretched posture the Lord takes hold of him and left him not untill he had brought him into this blessed Covenant of grace and mercy 3. Consider persons comparatively with other persons you shall finde that the Comparatively with other Persons taking of any person into Covenant is gracious and free in comparing of persons with persons ordinarily God passeth by those on whom we should six admiration and look at some cause and reasons of pre-acceptation and chooseth those and brings in those in whom nothing at all is to be pre-supposed Sometimes he passeth by the greater persons and takes in the meaner persons he passeth by the wise and takes in the foolish he passeth by the mighty and takes in the weak he passeth by the noble and takes in the base 1 Cor. 1. 2â— Not many wise after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called Ver. 27. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world and the weak things of the world Ver. 28. and base things of the world and things which are despised and things which are not Ver. 29. that no flesh should glory in his presence So sometimes of persons whereof some are more notorious and wicked and vile and others are not so abominable he is pleased to leave the lesser sort of sinners and to bring in the vilest of sinners Publicans and Harlots were brought in into the Kingdome of God when the superstitious and righteous Pharisees were excluded Paul the chiefest of sinners was taken in and others were left Mary Magdalon was brought in and others past by and why doth God do this but that men should acknowledge that it is no worthinesse of the sinne that brings him in nor any unworthinesse of the sinner that shuts him out but all springs from the grace of God alone that he brings not in any sinner upon his own account but onely upon the account of free grace 3. Lastly the Covenant is free as to the dispensations and donations of it what Free as to the dispensations and donations of it is that that is all that drops out of this Covenant all that good flowing from it and running down upon us are only gracious flowings only free bounties and gifts The Papists talk of a meritum de congruo whiles we are in the state of nature and of a meritum de condigno after we are in the state of grace But we know no merit but that of sin which deserves damnation and the merit of Christ which deserves salvation All our standing and all our expectation it the grace of God that is the reason of all our enjoyments God doth not give us Christ because we deserve a Christ but because he is pleased freely to bestow Christ upon us God doth not forgive our sins for our own sake but for his own Name sake God doth not love us for any thing in us but he loves us freely because he is pleased to love us God doth not save us for any works of ours but he saves us for his mercies sake God doth not blesse us for our goodnesse sake but he blesseth us only for his Christs sake and his promises sake God doth not justifie us for the sake of our own righteousnesse but he justifies us freely by his own grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Romans 3. 24. Objection But some may say God is not free in doing of his people good because he hath by promise bound himself to do them good Solution I answer 1. It was the freenesse of his grace to make all those promises 2. Though he bindes himself in promises to do us good yet he doth not accomplish those promises upon the reason of our goodnesse or deserts but upon the account of his own mercifulnesse and goodnesse and graciousnesse Obj. But he promiseth many things conditionally and lets
and clear manifestation of the Law written in the heart of man at the first and now revived and set on foot by God himself Sol. This is I confesse somewhat a knotty question and therefore I would speak warily unto it 1. The Law given by Moses Ministerially was partly Moral in the Ten Precepts and partly Ceremonial in the Levitical Types and Ceremonies and partly Judicial in the civil Rules appertaining to the Jews as such a Nation in civil society but the debate will principally fall upon the Moral Law 2. Which may be considered two wayes viz. 1. As to the matter of it as to which I grant that therein is the Covenant of works to be found 2ly As to the form or Sanction of it as given at this time to the people of Israel thus I deny it to be a Covenant of works Although much which was in the Covenant of works be in this Covenant yet this Law or Covenant was not given for this end to the people of Israel to be a Covenant of works unto them that is such a Covenant upon or from which they must expect life upon their doing 3. You must distinguish twixt 1. The intention of God in giving the Law and 2ly The abuse or perverting of that Law I do grant that many of the Jews did set up a Legal Righteousness for their justifications and rested upon the works of the Law as if life came by them against which the Apostle Paul doth notably argue in his Epistle to the Romans and to the Galathians But this was not the intention of God in the Sanction of the Law They never could find a justifying righteousness by the Law or works of the Law under the notion of a Covenant of works Nor did God ever propound it for that end and because I meet with this choice question I will briefly deliver my own judgement concerning it in The question answered in three particulars three particulars 1. That God never did not will set up for sinners a Covenant of Works 2. That he did not in giving the Law to the Israelites set it up 3. That this Covenant on Mount Sinai was a Covenant of Grace at least subserviently and respectively 1. That God never did since the fall set up a Covenant of Works and I will God did never since the fall setup a Covenant of works Demonstraâ—ed give you arguments to demonstrate it 1. He did set up immediately after the fall a Covenant of Grace this the Scripture clearly shews us but a Covenant of works is inconsistent with a Covenant of Grace and a Covenant of grace is inconsistent with a Covenant of works They are mutually destructive one to the other If of works then no more of grace saith the Apostle Rom. 11. 6. So that you must either deny that God did set up a Covenant of grace for sinners which the Scriptures affirm or you must grant that a Covenant of grace is inconsistent with a Covenant of works which the Scriptures deny or you must confess that there is no Covenant of works since the fall set up by God for sinners 2. If God did set up a Covenant of grace for sinners and after that a Covenant of works for sinners Then he did set up a possibility for sinners to be saved and an impossibility also for sinners to be saved The reason whereof is this There is a possibility for a sinners salvation as to a Covenant of grace where mercy may be found and there is an impossibility of a sinners salvation as to a Covenant of works where no mercy is to be found for a sinner But for God to make salvation both possible and impossible for the same sinners were most inglorious and absurd 3. To put sinners upon contradictions is no way suitable with the wisdom and goodnesse of God But if God should have set up a Covenant of works for sinners after he hath set up a Covenant of Grace he should have put the sinner upon contradictions you must believe and you must not believe you must be justified and live by works and you must not do so The Covenant of grace saith you must believe the Covenant of works saith you must not believe That saith believe and you shall be saved this saith do this and live what is this but to build up and pull down to offer mercy and to deny mercy to give life and to take way life 4. To make the Covenant of grace to be changable and void is quite contrary to the intention and purpose of God who hath made that Covenant to he everlasting and never to be altered no more then the Priesthood of Christ is changeable of which God hath said Thou art a Priest for ever But if God should set up a Covenant of works after a Covenant of Grace this would void and frustrate the Covenant of grace It would throw down Christ as a Mediatour and the Righteousnesse of Christ and all the Fabrick of a Sinners salvation by a Christ God did not make a Covenant of works with the Israelites 2. As God never did after the fall make a Covenant of works with sinners so in particular he did not make such a Covenant with the Israelites when he gave the Law unto them from Mount Sinai he did not give that Law for to be a Covenant of works which I shall endeavour to prove thus Demonstrated 1. What Covenant God made with Abraham that Covenant he made with the seed of Abraham Gen. 17. 7. I will stablish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee to be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee But that Covenant with Abraham was the Covenant of grace and the seed of Abraham were those Israelites And if those who are the seed of Abraham were under that Covenant of grace with Abraham they could not be put off to another Covenant of Works in which Abraham was not unlesse you will say that God did act in different Covenants with Abraham and his seed 2. The Apostle saith the Law is not against the promises of God Is the Law then against the promises of God God forbid Gal. 3. 21. And do we then make void the Law through faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Rom. 3. 31. Mark the Law is not against the promises nor doth faith make void the Law both these can very well agree together but so they could not if the Law had been given as a Covenant of works for now the Law would be expresly against the Promises and faith would certainly make void the Law The promises of God are contrary to a Covenant of works and faith is destructive to a Covenant of works If therefore the promises and faith and the Law can consist Then the Law cannot be set up as a Covenant of works 3. That Covenant which God made with Moses and under which Moses stood was no Covenant of works but Moses and the people of
to be separated from me and another thing for me to be separated from sin 1. It is one thing for sinne to be separated from me and it is another thing for me to be separated from sinne For sin to be separated from me is wholly to be rid of it so that sin no more remaines in me For me to be separated from sin is not to love and serve it but cordially to hate it and oppose it he is separated from sinne who hates sinne Now it is not the presence of sinne simply and absolutely which is effectually contrary to union with Christ for then no sinner should ever be in Christ but it is the love and service of sin which is contrary to a union with Christ a man cannot love sinne and yet love Christ neither can he serve sinne and serve Christ But thus it is not with you for though sin be in you yet you love it not and though sin assaults and tempts and perhaps sometimes prevailes yet you serve it not And remember as long as sin is your burden your grief your enemy which you resist which you would destroy with which you will not make peace certainly you love it not nor are you the servant of it Paul who was in Christ found the presence of sin but yet he hated it and the powerful working of sin but yet he refused it and sometimes the captivity of sin but yet he bewailed it and sought to Christ for more deliverance and victory 2. There is a twofold separation from sin There is a twofold separation from sin Radical Gradual One is Radical when by the infusion of grace the heart is changed and alienated from sin The other is Gradual when by the further influence of the Spirit of Christ the powerful presence of sin is more and more mortified and subdued This latter you shall attain unto by vertue of your union with Christ But if you finde the former certainly you are united to Christ If there be but so much grace infused into the heart to alienate it from sin to change the bent and frame of the soule why this cannot be without a union with Christ for this is a new spiritual change wrought in you by the Spirit of Christ and the newnesse of our hearts depends upon that union with Christ which is made by faith and is the lively testimony of it If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5 17. But I never found the powerfull workings of the Spirit Object O but union with Christ depends upon some mighty and powerful workings of the Spirit upon the soule which I never observed nor discerned in my soule Answered Though such a powerful work may not be discerned for the time yet it may appear by the effâ—cts Sol. It is a truth that it doth so The Gospel comes not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost when it inables a soule to believe in Christ and without the mighty working of the Spirit it is impossible to make the heart to believe And although in the present darknesse of the Spirit you discern not nor remember such a mighty working yet perhaps by the effects which may be found in you you shall acknowledge the same for the time was 1. When blacknesse of darknesse covered your mindes so that you were ignorant of God and Christ and your own condition and of the way of salvation But now there is a light set up in your minde by which you know the true God and him whom he hath sent even Jesus Christ and the salvation by him purchased for sinners who believe in him 2. When carnal security possessed your heart so that you could rest quiet in your natural condition but now that spirit of slumber and security is shaken off and your soule is become anxious and sollicitous What shall I do to be saved 3. When your heart was full of your own righteousness you were rich and increased you were whole and needed not the Physitian but now you see your self pâ—ore and wretched and naked and miserable and utterly undone unlesse you may have Christ and be found in him 4. When you were confident and presumptuous of your own power and self-sufficiency O it was easie to repent and no great matter to believe on Christ but now you finde your self without all strength and unlesse you be enabled by the strength and grace of Christ it is not only difficult but also impossible for your heart to close with him by faith 5. When you found your proud spirit slighting the offers of Christ and opposing the word of Christ and resisting and quenching the motions of the Spirit of Christ but now your hearts tremble at these abominations and you lie down at the feet of Christ and your heart is set on Christ O Lord give me Christ O Lord give me an heart to embrace this precious Christ and never to slight thy great love in Christ nor that great salvation any more 6. When you felt the power of unbelief in your hearts working up daily exceptions and hourly fears and strong despaires for ever enjoying Christ for your Christ O now this sin and that sin this slighting and that neglecting and your unworthinesse and Christs unwillingnesse and your inability and Christs command and your dulnesse and Christs silence and your desires and Christs delayes so that no hopes many times lodged within you your hearts were sinking and failing and giving up all But now your hearts are answered and set at liberty and power is found within you to break down this mighty partition wall of unbelief and against all the oppositions which unbelief and Satan can make yet to venture upon Christ and to justifie the invitations and promises of Christ and wholly to come up to all the terms and articles of Christ upon which he is contented to be yours O Christian call'st thou these no workings of the Spirit Or no mighty workings of the Spirit I tell thee that to work and effect these things no lesse power is put forth than the Almighty power of God upon thy soule A greater power than to bring Israel out of Egypt as great a power is put forth as to raise the dead I grant that when the Spirit works with the Law to convince and distresse the conscience there his workings are more vehement and strong to our apprehensions And when the same Spirit works through the Gospel his workings many times are not discerned in their time of working in that sensible and remarkable efficacy but yet when you review the whole work and working of the Spirit as to the production of faith why you will fall down and admire how ever your poore soules could against so many oppositions insufficiencies reasonings conclusions fears doubts despaires be prevailed upon and enabled to come to Christ Ob. O but union with Christ indeed by faith ever takes along with it the presence and communion of the
the heavens What may not a man bear and what losse is he at who knows Christ to be his and a reconciled God to be his c. Eighthly This assurance will ease all our worldly burdens it will take off It will ease all our worldly burdens our hearts and it will take off our vexations cares and thoughts if we know that God gave Christ for us we cannot but know that he will with him freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32. And besides that the more assurance we have of our interest in Christ c. the more our hearts will minde Christ and the benefits by Christ and will be the lesse after other things I have a goodly heritage thou art my portion Psal 16. 5. I have enough nay let him take all c. Ninthly This assurance breeds confidence and comfort in death Why are even It breeds confidence in death good people sometimes afraid to dye but because they are not yet assured they cannot say with Paul Christ loved me and gave himself for me But if assurance be on their hearts then death is welcome Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation said Simeon Luk. 2. 29 30. And I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ said Paul What is death to the assured Believer but a short passage a speedy in-let and conveyance unto that glorious and eternal blessednesse which he knows that Christ hath purchased for him and God reserves for him in heaven Case 5. Whether a person having attained a certain knowledge that Christ dyed for him may ever after that doubt again and question that point again Whether after this assurance he may ever doubt again He may doubt again Sol. I answer plainly he may sensible assurance is very comfortable but yet it is mutable Pauls vision in Acts 10. 11. was drawn up into heaven again yea and his choice revelation was quickly attended with a violent temptation 2 Cor. 12. 7. Reasons whereof may be these First The Divine pleasure the date of your comforts and the Patent of Reasons of it The Divine pleasure them is ad placitum God gives you this assurance that you may taste his kindnesse and goodnesse and he takes it off again that you may acknowledge his authority Secondly The Divine wisdome God would rather have us live by faith than The Divine wisdome sense indeed the life of our assurance is more for our comfort but the life of faith is more for his glory Thirdly Our own foolishnesse not improving aright such gracious manifestations Our own foolishnesse but abusing them to pride and high-mindednesse and sometimes blurring the fair copy of our evidence with foul transgressions Fourthly Subtilty and prevalency of temptations which we did not so watch The subtilty of temptations and fear because of our assurance as if that were security enough c. Object But what comfort and support if this assurance may fail Sol. Much for all that for 1. Though assurance fails yet faith by which we are saved fails not 2. Though assurance fails yet the interest and estate assured shall never fail Christ is still thine and the reconciled God is still thine and reconciliation and remission the estate is sure though particular and contingent effects be not so 3. The Spirit hath more work then only to comfort if he still strengthen thee and supply thee that is comfort to thee 4. Though assurance go away yet it may return again it is as possible to receive it as to lose it 5. In your new fear remember your old assurance I tell thee that assurance once had upon good grounds may serve to support though against many doubts in after-times THE GIFTS OF THE Covenant The second Part. CHAP. I. Ezek. 36. 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthinesse and from all your Idols will I cleanse you I Have heretofore opened unto you divers things about the Covenant of Grace viz. the Nature and Adjuncts of it the difference 'twixt it and the Covenant of Works the condition and the Mediator of the Covenant I now proceed to handle one thing more concerning the Covenant and that is the gifts of the Covenant the gifts which God doth promise to bestow upon those people The gifts of the Covenant which are in Covenant with him This verse which I have read unto you and the subsequent verses do report unto us divers of those gifts which may be considered First As to their order and thus you have the promise first of spiritual gifts or blessings from ver 25. to ver 28. and then you have the promise of temporal mercies from ver 28. to ver 37. Secondly As to their kinds the spiritual gifts or blessings for I shall insist awhile only upon them do respect 1. Our Justification expressed in ver 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you c. 2. Our Sanctification First in the habitual part of it in ver 26. a new heart c. Secondly in the actual part of it in ver 27. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes c. The Text which respects our Justification contains in it a promâ—se 1. Of the pardon of sins I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean 2. Of the pardon of the greatest sins from your filthinesse and from your Idâ—ls will I cleanse you 3. Of the pardon of all their sins from all your filthinesse and from all your Idols will â— cleanse you Before I handle the particular points I would touch upon some things in the general viz. 1. That God doth promise unto his people yea unto his people in Covenant with him spiritual gifts or blessings as well as temporal 2. That the first promâ—ses are the best or of the best things first the spiritual and then the temporal blessings 3. That whatsoever blessings which may or do concern the people of God in Covenant God himself doth undertake to give them unto his people 4. That those gifts which God doth promise to give unto his people in Covenant he gives them not for any worthinesse in them but upon the account of his own graciousnesse SECT I. Doctr. 1 Doctr. 1. THat God doth expressely promise to give unto all his people in Covenant with him spiritual blessings as well as temporal I hardly know any one place of Scripture where the Covenant of grace is insisted upon but God gives his people in Covenant spiritual blessings as well as temporal there you shall finde expresse promises of some one spiritual blessing or other Jer. 31. 33. This shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my
people in Covenant he gives them only upon account of his graciousnesse in Covenant he will and doth give them not for any worthinesse in them but only upon the account of his own graciousnesse In this Chapter you have God undertaking all sorts of mercies for his people and it is observable that both Antecedently and Consequently he disclaims all worthiness of them on his peoples part Ezek. 36. 22. Thus saith the Lord God I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy Name sake ver 32. Not for your sakes do I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you Deut. 7. 7. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor chuse you because ye were more in number than any people for ye were the fewest of all people ver 8. but because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the Oath which he had sworn unto your Fathers hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bond-men from the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt Consider all the blessings of the Covenant for soul or body for this life or for the next life Spiritual or temporal the reason of them lies not in our worthiness but only and altogether in Gods graciousness not in the receivers but only in the giver See it in these particulars First That God loves us and makes a Covenant with us this comes to pass not God loves us from his own graciousnesse for our worthiness but from his own graciousnesse Ezek. 16. 6. When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live ver 8. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time was a time of love and I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakednesse yea I sware unto thee and entered into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine Secondly That God gives his Son Jesus Christ this respects no worthiness in God gives Chrâ—st of his oâ—n graciousness us but his own graciousnesse Rom. 6. 5. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly ver 8. God commendeth his love towards us that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. Thirdly That any man is effectually called unto Christ this doth not arise from Effectual calling is from Gods graciousness any dignity in us but only from Gods graciousnesse 2 Tim. 1. 9. who hath called us with an holy calling not according to our own works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Fourthly That any man is Sanctified and renewed by the Spirit of Grace this So is Sanctification comes not from the account of any thing in us but only from the account of Gods graciousnesse Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour 5. That any man is Justified there is no reason for this in our works but in And Justification his grace Rom. 3. 23. For all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God ver 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Isa 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of sins according to the riches of his grace Sixthly That any man is Saved and comes to the enjoyment of eternal life this depends not upon our worthiness but on Gods graciousnesse Ephes 2. 5. By And salvation grace ye are saved ver 8. By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God ver 9. Not of works least any man should boast Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Seventhly Nay all our temporal blessings do flow not from our worthiness but from his graciousnesse Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered And all temporal blessings him up for us all how shall he not also freely give us all things 2 Sam. 7. 21. For thy Word sake and according to thine own heart hast thou done all these great things to make thy servant know them For the further discussing of this Point I will shew unto you 1. That God doth not enjoyn on his people nor expect from them any worthiness God doth not enjoyn nor expect any worthiness as a reason of his blessings Three Demonstrations of it as a reason of his blessings 2. Why all his blessings are given unto us upon the account of his own graciousness First That God doth not enjoyn on his people nor doth he expect from them any worthinesse as a reason of any of his blessings Indeed he doth command his people to â—eek unto him and to trust upon him for all that good which he promiseth to give unto them But for any personal worthiness as a reason of his goodness and bounty unto us this he neither requires nor expects For First A personal worthinesse of the blessings of the Covenant is impossible on our part we are in an absolute incapacity of meriting any good from the hands of A personal worthiness on our part is impossible God Dan. 9. 7. O Lord Righteousnesse belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day O Lord to us belongeth confusion of face c. Isa 64. 6. We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags Consider either our best doings or our greatest sufferings no merit or worthiness is to be found in either of them For our doings when we have done all that we can Christ saith that we must say and confess that we are but unprofitable servants Luke 17. 10. For our sufferings the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the which glory shall be revealed in us But let me now punctually demonstrate this Assertion that there can be no worthiness or meriting from us for any good thing 1. No gift of God can really merit for us any good from God but all the good that we have is the gift of God Ergo. The fiâ—st Proposition is clear because in receiving what is only given an Obligation rests only upon us but none upon the giver and therefore we merit nothing Simile no more than a beggar can merit from us by receiving an almes
who is the Donor or Giver of all It suits best with God the Donor of all It doth suit best 1. With his will and pleasure Who in this Covenant will appear and be known to be the Lord the Lord merciful and gracious abundant in goodnesse and truth Exod. 34. 6. 2. With his glory and praise which questionably devolves on himself alone seeing all our blessings come only out of his Treasury and from no reason or merit of ours but only from his own graciousness free gifrs redound unto the praâ—se of the giver only Thirdly This way of gracious giving suiâ—es best with us the receivers of blessings It suits best with us the receivers from God For consider us eiâ—her 1 As meer sinners We have no hope or plea from any thing in our selves we are a company of lost people who have undone our selves and are both insufficient to help our selves and also unworthy that God should help us 2. As made believers Faith can finde no ground to plead with God to challenge him to rely on him to expect anything from him but his promise to give and to give graciously A believer neither may nor can rest on any work or worth of his own all is but drosse and dung he trades only with a gracious God in Christ 3. As Petitioners thus also it suites best with us Gods graciousness is the best ground for us to ask upon O save me for thy mercies sake Psal 6. 4. Answer me in thy truth the surest ground to speed Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4. 16. The most fixed and invariable ground God is for ever the Lord merciful and gracious you will quickly finde a want of worthiness in your selves but you shall never find a want of goodness and graciousness in God Vse 1 Are all the blessings which are in the Covenant given by God unto his people not upon the account or reason of their worthiness but of Gods graciousness A threefold error censuâ—ed Then behold a three-fold error worthy to be censured and shunneâ— First Of the Papists who boast so impudently of their meritorious good Of the Papists works merita de Congruo before men are in the state of grace merita de condigno being in the state of grace They can take up all sorts of merits for soul aâ—d bâ—dy nay heaven itself and eternal glory upon the account of their own merits Hear what Bellarmine saith opera nostra propriè merentur faelicitatem de Lib. 5. de 〈◊〉 cap. 16. 17. congruo Hear what Vashquiz saith opera nostra nâ—n habent dignitatem à persona Christi sed à persona à qua procedunt Hear the Anathema of the Council of Trent against all who deny that the works of justified persons do vere mereri vitam In 1. 2. Tom. 2. Disp 214. c. â— N. 44. Aeternam but against this we may oppose the Scripture Not by the works of Righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us saith Paul Tit. 3. 5. Enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified saith David Psal 143. 2. How holy a man was Job and how abundant in good works see Chap. 31. 16 17. and yet saith Job Chap. 9. 15. Though I were righteous I would not answer him but I would make my supplication to my Judge and ver 20. If I justifie my self mine own mouth shall condemn me If I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse Paul how strict was he and as touching the righteousness which is in the Law how blameless And yet he will be found in Christ Not having his own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3. 9. Secondly Of the ordinary sort of Protestants who set out something of their Of the ordinary sort of Protestants own as reasons why God should bless them and save them they mean no body any harm and they serve God devoutly and keep their Church and pay every one their due and say their Prayers and their Belelief and their ten Commandements and cry God mercy when they sin and will not all this deserve heaven and a few blessings on earth Thirdly But most of all to be blamed and that with pity are poor broken-hearted Of poor brokenhearted sinners sinners who discern so much sinfulness and unworthiness in themselves and yet are so difficult to place their hopes in the graciousness of God and are hearking extreamly after something of worth in themselves something in themselves for which God would hear and help them if once they could reach unto it It is a great work to break a hard heart It is a greater work to make a broken heart to look up and trust for mercy It is the greatest work to make such an heart to believe for itself that all mercies and blessings are to be had upon the sole account of Gods graciousness Whether this may arise from our exceeding Guilt which fills us with exceedingâ—â—â— slavish fear or from the pride of our hearts which would be something or from the greatness of Gods kindnesse which is so unusual with man or from the particular genius of unbelief which is gone and hath nothing to say more when once we come to acknowledge Gods graciousness for the sole reason of all our blessings and possessions or from all these conjunctively I will not now dispute but sure I am that the broken-hearted sinner is hardly brought off from boasting on himself and is hardly brought on to commit or venture all his hopes and confidences on the graciuosness of God as the entire cause why God should pardon accept blesse and save him And this is a principal cause why his soule dwells so long with fears and tears and sadnesses Doth God dispence all the blessings of the Covenant unto his people not upon the account of their worthiness but only of his own graciousness Then under the Under the sense â—f unworthinesse let us go to God and trust on him sense of all our want yea and of all our unworthinesse let 's go to God and pray to him and trust upon him to do us good for his own Name sake Here is water said the Eunuch to Philip what doth hinder me to be baptized So say I God promiseth to give all blessings unto his people and he promiseth to give them graciously now what should hinder you from going to God and beseeching and trusting of him to perform his good Word unto you You are grieved for your sins what should hinder â—ou to believe the free forgiveness of them You would fain have your hearts sanctified what should hinder you from going to God and trusting on him freely to make them holy You would have
upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Prov. 20. â—9 Who can say I have made my heart pure I am clean from sin James 3. 2. In many things we offend all 2. By the spiritual conflict 'twixt grace and sin in justified persons Rom. 7 23. I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members Ver. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit agninst the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would There is three-fold state of man 1. Corrupted wherein is nothing but sin and yet all is quiet 2. Glorified wherein is nothing but holiness as in heaven 3. Regenerate where there is flesh and spirit sin and grace 3. By the duties incumbent on justified persons as 1. Prayer to be kept from sin Psal 19. 13. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me Psal 119. 113. Order my steps in thy Word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me and prayer for the pardon of sins committed Psal 25. 11. For thy Name sake O Lord pardon mine iniquity for it is great c. Ver. 18. Forgive all my sins 2. Further mortifying of sin Colos 3. 4. When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear in glory but in the mean time Ver 5. Mortifie your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection c. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having therefore these promises Dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God 4. By the examples of the best men sinning Noah Lot Abraham Jacob Moses David Jehoshaphat Peter and all these when they were in a justified condition 5. Experience What one child of God hath there been or is there in the world who doth not find much sin dwelling in him although he be delivered from the condemnation of sin Rom. 8. 11. and from the dominion of sin Rom. 6. 14. Yet he is not perfectly in this life delivered from the inhabitation of sin and motions and conflicts and actions of sin If any of us who indeed are in Christ and justified by him have ever surveyed the clearest and fairest day of our life when our hearts have been most enlarged and our feet most upheld we shall with all our good find a great mixture of evil so that we daily see as much cause to mourn for our own filthinesse as to blesse God for his goodnesse 2. As sin doth still remain in persons justified so God doth see that remaining God sees that remaining sin sin in them he that made the eye shall not he see all things are naked and open before him Gods seeing is diversly taken in Scripture First Sometimes for his approving Gen. 1. 31. And God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good Jonah 3. 10. And God saw their works that they turnd from their evil way He saw this with an eye of approbation Now in this sense God doth not see sin in any man neither good nor bad neither justified nor unjustified for he is of purer eyes than to behold evil Hab. 1. 13. and cannot look upon iniquity i. e. with approbation or liking Secondly For his wrathful observing and intention to condemn and destroy Jer. 7. 11. Is this house which is called by my Name become a Den of Robbers in your eyes behold even I have seen it saith the Lord ver 12. But go now unto my place which was in Shiloh where I set my Name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickednesse of my people Israel Hos 6. 10. I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel there is the whoredom of Ephraim Israel is defiled c. Gen. 6. God saw the wickednesse of man that it was great upon the earth If you understand Gods seeing of sin for such an apprehension of sin as for it in wrath to judge and condemn and eternally to destroy the sinner in this sence God doth not see sin in any that he pardons or justifies Thirdly Sometimes for his knowing and taking notice of a thing and that with dislike although not so far as finally to condemn Now in this sense God doth see the sins of justified persons The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good Prov. 15. 3. Job 10. 14. If I sin thou markest me Psal 90. 8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light of thy Countenance Psal 51. 4. Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight 2 Sam. 12. 9. Why hast thou said Nathan to David despised the Commandement of the Lord to do this evil in his sight This was that which did so aggravate Davids sin and so much break Davids heart Object But these are places for Believers in the Old Testament whereas they who deny Gods seeing of sin mean it of Believers under the New Testament Sol. The Believers under the Old Testament were justified by Christ their sins were laid upon Christ and taken away by Christ as well as believers under the New Testament 2. Why do they bring most of their proofs for this Opinion out of the Old Testament As God seeth no iniquity in Jacob And thou art all fair my love and they shall be as white as snow and blotted out c. 3. But see for the New Testament Luke 15. 21. where you have the confession of a penitent child I have sinned against heaven and before thee or in thy sight Rev. 2. 4. I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love Thirdly As God sees the sins in justified persons so likewise is he offended God is offended with their sins with those sinnes But of this I shall speak more fully in answer to the next Question Fourthly Gods covering or hiding of sin in Justification is not Exclusive of or inconsistent with Gods seeing of sin in his people being rightly understood for Gods covering of sin is not exclusive of his seeing of sin there is a two-fold covering of sin 1. From condemnation Thus when God forgives sins he covers sins so that they shall never appear and rise up to condemn the person 2. From apprehension and dislike Thus though the person be forgiven and justified yet if he full into sin God sees it and dislikes it yea hates it though for Christs sake be doth forgive the Person Object But how can this be that God should see any sin in believers who have the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ which is perfect and without all sinne Sol. I answer First If the Righteousnesse of Christ were
they have been made the people of Gods Covenant their sins have been forgiven Mary Magdalen had her sins forgiven and Paul had his sins forgiven c. Again of the people of God some are weaker and some are stronger and both of them have their sins forgiven Acts 10. 43. Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins 1 Joh. 2. 12. I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his Names sake Once more of the people of God some have clear and fuller apprehensions of pardoning mercy others have more dark and doubtful disputes about it the strong believer who hath assurance and the weak believer who is troubled with doubts both of them are forgiven all of them may say with Paul Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth Arguments to demonstrate it Ver. 34. Who is be that condemneth it is Christ that dyed And there are four Arguments which demonstâ—ate this truth unto us First All who are in Christ have their sins forgiven them but all the people who are in Covenant with God are in Christ my reason for that is this because only in and by Christ God becomes our God there our relation riseth Ergo. For the first Proposition that is a clear truth viz. That all who are in Christ have their sins forgiven them for Christ himself saith This is my blood which is shed for many for remission of sins Matth. 26. 28. and Matth. 1. 21. He shall save his people from their sins and the Apostle saith there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. And he hath delivered us from wrath to come 1 Thes 1. 10. And that we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement Rom. 5. 11. Now mark if Christ saves his people from their sins and if he shed his blood for the remission of their sins if by Christ they are freed from condemnation and from wrath and God is reconciled unto them and through him they have good reason to joy in God then unquestionably all who are in Christ have their sins forgiven them for else how could they joy in God c. this is one Argument to demonstrate that God forgives all his people in Covenant Secondly All penitent and believing persons have the forgiveness of sins but all the people whom God brings into Covenant with himself are penitent and believing persons Ergo. The first of these Propositions is so clear and open in many places of Scripture that it is needless to quote any plâ—ce you may at leisure peruse all those promises of forgiveness unto repenting and believing persons mentioned before And the second Proposition is as clear for repentance and faith are Covenant gifts and given unto such whom God owns for his people and to none but such for God owns none for his people in a Covenant way who are impenitent and unbelieving Thirdly There are no enemies in the Covenant of Grace none who hate God and none whom God hates none who set themselves against him and none against whom he sets himself but the Covenant of Grace is a Covenant of life and of love and of peace Deut. 30. 6. Hos 14. 4. Cant. 2. 3. Isa 62. 4. 2 Cor. 6. 18. Rom. 5. 1. Ezek. 16. 61. All in this Covenant love God and God loves them they delight in God and God delights in them they walk with God and God is said to dwell in them and to walk in them they have peace with God and God is at peace with them he is their Father and they are his sons and daughters if this be so and so it is if we do believe the Scriptures which say so expresly then assuredly all who are in Covenant have their sins pardoned for such mutual love and such mutual delight and such mutual dwelling and such mutual peace and such mutual relation there cannot possibly be unless sins were forgiven and all enmity slain Fourthly There is no damnation that ever was yet to be found in the Covenant of Grace salvation you find there but damnation was never read of there He that believes shall not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 15 16. there is damnation for refusing not for entring sinners who before they were in Covenant were obnoxious to damnation for their sins are now delivered from it by coming into the Covenant never was or shall any person be damned who is in Covenant and hath God for his God for they are blessed who have the Lord to be their God But if their sins were not forgiven they were not blessed for blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven Rom 4 7. Neither should they be saved but must perish for ever and dye in their sins And thus you see this part of the Proposition of forgiveness of sins cleared also viz. That it is promised to all the people of God in Covenant SECT IV. 4. NOW follows the fourth and the last part of the Proposition namely It is first promised by God unto his people That forgiveness of sins is one of the mercies first promised by God unto his people as here in this place it hath the heart-guard of the Covenant gifts it takes the right hand and the first place of the spiritual mercies promised In this Scripture there is mention of three spiritual gifts which are like Davids three Worthies but this of Justification this of remission of sins is the first of them Beloved you must distinguish between the Covenant it self and the gifts thereof the Covenant it self lies in this I will be your God and you shall be my people this closure and this relation makes the Covenant and when we are thus closed with God in Covenant then come out the gifts of the Covenant which God deals and gives forth unto his people and amongst these first we have a promise mentioned to forgive sins Some may think the reason of this priority to be this because Justification goes before Sanctification I confess that these are distinct works but yet I doubt whether there be a priority of time between them so that a person is first justified and after that he is sanctified For under favour it cannot well be made out that there falls any space or pause of time between those and my reason is this because 1. When a man is once in Christ Christ is at the same time made of God unto him Sanctification as well as righteousness therefore the same Apostle saith If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. 2. It cannot well be admitted that there should be a true union with Christ consisting with a partial communion in benefits absolutely necessary to constitute a Christian and such a one is Sanctification 3. There is such an immediate influence of life and grace upon believing as raiseth a consimilitude and conformity But to
either the power or else the purpose of Gods mercy but this dark and sad conceit falls off again from the soul upon conference upon better information upon prayer upon hearing the Word and upon clear consideration of the Covenant of grace and the terms of it and of the riches of Redemption by Christ this kind of despair doth not prejudice you in the capacity of forgiving mercy but then there is a setled and permanent despair which is total and final wherein the soul is swallowed up and for ever lies under water and never riseth more with any hope of possible mercy conceiving of the guilt of sin so superlatively that neither the merits of the blood of Christ nor the riches of mercy in God can or will reach to the forgiveness of it This poor sinner puts himself out of all capacity of forgiveness and that upon a treble account 1. The infinite dishonour which he puts upon Gods throne of grace and mercy he gives reproach and the lye unto God who saith he is rich in mercy and delights in mercy 2. His utter incompliance with Christ and riches of all Gospel invitations promises and assurances 3. The confirming of his heart in impenitency seeing there is no hope of mercy Seventhly they likewise do put themselves out of a capacity of the forgiveness They who rely upon their own righteousnesse as the cause of fornesse of their sins who do rest and rely upon their own righteousness and good works as the cause of forgiveness 'T is true that you must be holy and righteous and do good works and walk in them and abound in them But if you rely on them as the reasons and causes why God will forgive your sins you will certainly lose the forgiveness of them For 1. What is this but to set up a Covenant of Works and to look for life by the Law and Justification by something of our own and what says the Scripture to this Rom. 3. 20. By the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in thy sight Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he hath saved us Gal. 3. 10. As many as are of the workâ— of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is every one c. 2. This is to take away the Crown from Christ and it is to make Christ to die in vain to lose the end of shedding his blood for the remission of sins the Scripture saith Acts 4. 12. There is no salvation in any other for there is no other Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved but you will have it in your own name Matth. 26. 28. This is my blood which was shed for the remission of sins 1 Joh. 2. 2. He is the propitiation for our sins Eph. 1. 7. In his blood we have redemption the forgiveness of sins Gal. 5. 4. Christ is become of none effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace therefore take heed what you do and how you place your confidences for the remission of your sins you must neither renounce good works nor must you rely on them but only on Christ for pardon else you debar your selves of all benfit by Christ Eighthly Lastly they do put themselves out of a capacity of the forgiveness of their sins who are unmerciful implacable revengeful and will not forgive others They who will not forgive others their offences done against themselves their offences and trespasses or wrongs done against themselves Quest You will say this is strange Doctrine that God will not forgive me if I do not forgive others Sol. 1. Nay it were more strange that thou shouldest expect forgiveness who wilt not forgive thy brother but peruse the Scriptures Matth. 18. 32. O thou wicked servant I forgave thee all that debt ten thousand talents ver 24. because thou desiredst me ver 33. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I had pity on thee ver 34. And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormenters till he should pay all that was due unto him v. 35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if you from the heart forgive not every one his brother their trespasses Math. 6. 15. If you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly father forgive your trespasses 2. Again see the express command for this by Christ in Luke 17. 3. If thy brother trespass against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him ver 4. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again unto thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him Thirdly I now proceed unto a third Position and Conclusion viz. That there Who are in a right capacity of pardon Such as do truely repent Four things demonstrate this Scripture exhortations are some who are in a right capacity and may safety lay hold on and own the promise of the forgivenesse of their sins First All who do truely repent of their sins there are four things will demonstrate this unto us 1. Scripture exhortations to repent that so our sins may be forgiven Ezek. 18. 30. Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins Act. 3. 19. Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out 2. Expresse promises that our sins shall be forgiven upon our repentance Expresse promises 2 Chro. 7. 14. If my people shall turn from their evil way then will I forgive their sin Prov. 28. 13. Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall finde mercy Ezek. 18. 21. If the wicked will turn from all his sins which he hath committed and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die ver 22. All his transgressions which he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him 3. Assurance of the forgiveness of sins upon repentance though they have been Assurance of the pardon of great sins upon repentance very great and hainous Isa 1. 16. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings cease to do evil ver 17. learn to do well ver 18. Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll 4. Expresse Records and Instances of forgiveness unto such as have repented Express instances 2 Sam. 12. 13. And David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said to David the Lord hath also put away thy sin Jer. 31. 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself and Turn thou me and I shall be turned c. Ver.
these two great Gifts of holiness and forgiveness to sanctifie his people as well as to justifie them There Reasons why God doth sanctifie as well as justifie Both have a necessary respect to our salvation may be these Reasons for their Connexion First Both of them have a necessary respect to the salvation of the people of God A man must be justified if he will be saved and a man must be sanctified if he will be saved he cannot be saved without both he cannot be saved unless he be justified Rom. 8. 30. Whom he called them also he justified and whom he justified them he also glorified None are justified but such as are called and none are glorified but such as are justified Mar. 16. 16. He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned He cannot be saved unless he be sanctified Joh. 3. 5. Jesus answered Verily very I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Heb. 12. 14. And holiness without which no man shall see the Lord Here you see a necessity of both of them in reference to salvation we many times think that if our sins are pardoned there needed no more to save us but we are deceived for as forgiveness is necessary so is holiness necessary to our salvation as no unpardoned person so no unsanctified person shall be saved Secondly The people of God do stand in need of them both neither can they be Gods people stand in need of both restored or repaired without both for the sinnes which are in them are 1. Guilty obligations they bind them over to wrath and curse 2. Filthy pollutions they do stain and defile them and make them odious in the eyes of God Under the first notion they are a debt and under the other notion they are a disease and under both they render us needy of mercy and of grace Pardoning mercy alone doth not answer the sinful condition of man for that is a remedy only against the guilt of sin sanctifying mercy is also required to be a recovery from the filthy pollution of sin As if one be a sick Malefactor this man hath a double need he needs a pardon as he is a Malefactor and he needs a healing medicine and plaister as he is sick Now the Covenant of grace is a full remedy to the sinner and it is a full recovery Ergo God promiseth to sanctifie as well as to justifie Thirdly God doth intend an everlasting communion twixt his people and himself God intends an everlasting communion betwixt him aâ—d his people in the Covenant a communion in this life and a communion in the other life and indeed the people of God their fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1. 3. They are made nigh by the blood of Christ and have accesse unto him But they must be sanctified as well as justified for the enjoying of that communion because two things are opposite to our communion with God 1. One is enmity 2. The other is inconformity Whiles God and we are enemies how can there be communion between us Therefore in justification that enmity is removed and slain by the blood of Christ and whiles God is holy and we remain unholy there is such a dissimilitude and inconformity of our natures that there can be no communion neither and therefore God doth sanctifie our hearts by his Spirit that we partaking of the Divine Nature by way of similitude may have fellowship and communion with him Pardon of sins only makes not sufficient way for this communion for notwithstanding that pardoning mercy the heart of man is so sinfull that God cannot endure us being of purer eyes than to behold sin Put away your iniquities from before mine eyes and then come and let us reason together c. Isa 1. Fourthly We cannot glorifie God unlesse he sanctifie us Beloved the people of God are formed by him to shew forth his praise they are the only people We cannot glorifie God without sanctification that do glorifie him and honour him But this cannot be unless he were pleased to sanctifie them God indeed can glorifie himself towards us though we be not holy but we cannot glorifie him untill we are made holy we cannot glorifie him in our hearts for what glory can God have by an unbelieving impenitent hardened sensual ignorant proud ungodly heart Nor in our actions for they are as our hearts are the fruit is as the tree is c. What can a dead or a sick man do for service Fifthly we should have small comfort and peace if the Lord did not sanctifie as well as justifie us to have sinfull lusts still raigning and ruling and breaking out this would make our life uncomfortable Sixthly Are not the people of the Covenant his children and would you have the holy Father to be the Father of unholy children is this to be born of the Spirit Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh and whatsoever is born of the Spirit is Spirit Joh. 3. Vse 1. This serves to reprove those men who divide those things which God Reproof oâ— those who do divide these hath joâ—ned together who are altogether for Justification but nothing at all for Sanctification They exalt the Righteousness of Christ but they cry down the holiness of Christ They would have men to be believers of Christ but they would not have men to be holy and why not holiness as well as Faith because say they holiness cannot justifie us But this is both an Erroneous and Ridiculous Opinion as if Christians had nothing to look after but Justification and as if the gracious works of the Spirit must therefore be rejected because they are not able to justifie us Luther arguing upon this Point saith that we must give In Gal. 3 p. 356. unto every thing that which is proper unto it would you saith he conclude that because your monie and lands and eyes and hands do not justifie you therefore you must reject all these So because holiness doth not justifie you will you conclude that you must reject it As the Righteousness of Christ hath its proper excellency to justifie us so hath holiness its proper excellency to renew us to conform us unto Christ and to make us to walk as becometh men in Christ Besides would God have made Christ to be our Sanctification as well as our Righteousness if holiness did not concern us as well as faith and would he have joyned Remission of sinnes with the sanctifying of our hearts if that alone were all that concerned us Nay Faith is said to sanctifie us as well as to justifie us Vse 2. It also reproves the general presumption of men who think of nothing Reproof of the general presumption of men in order to their salvation but Gods mercy they talk much of mercy and sometimes seem affectionate
in which there may be found some joyes at the hearing of the Word as in Herod and in the third sort of ground and delight in approaching unto God Isa 58. 2. Sixthly The conversation in reforming of some sins which the Apostle calls an Escaping the pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2. 20. and in conscience to some duties as Herod heard John Baptist and did many things Mar. 6. 20. Object But will some of you say doth not the presence of all these things These alone do not argue a new heart certainly conclude the presence of newnesse of heart or of an heart renewed by grace Sol. All these gifts of them alone do not conclude it the effects which may appear unto you in these four Conclusions First A man may attain to all these and yet be a very notorious wicked man Most of these did Herod attain unto if not unto all of them yet the man A man may have these and remain wicked was very vile and wicked and three things did manifestly declare him to be so 1. He kept Herodias his brothers wife Mar. 6. 17. 2ly He took away the life of John the Baptist Mar. 6. 27. 3ly He set Jesus Christ at naught and rejected him Luke 23. 11. That man who will live in a known notorious sin and who will unjustly murder the messenger of God and mock and reject Jesus Christ as vile is a very wicked man but all this did Herod who knew much and heard much and did much and had some temporary affections Ergo Secondly No Hypocrites heart was ever renewed by grace if it were so he An Hypocrite may attain to these were no Hypocrite but an Hypocrite may attain unto all these Knowledge he may have none doubts of it he may excell in it The Pharisees knew the Law yea and knew Christ Faith of assent he may have this they had who believed for a season and this had Simon Magus Some tast and affections he may have such had they in Isa 58. 2 3. and in Heb. 6. Trouble in Conscience he may have for sin committed this had Judas And outward Reformation he may have so far as to seem righteous in the sight of men c. Thirdly Apostates never had truth of Renewing grace for Renewing grace it Apostates may have all this Renewing grace hath power in the heart above common gifts is a living spring immortal and abiding seed a gift of God without repentance the earnest of our glorious inheritance but Apostates may attain unto all common gifts whatsoever see at leasure Heb. 6. 4 5 6. 4. Renewing grace hath the power in the heart which no common gifts have v. g. 1. It separates the heart from the love of all sin 2. It sets the heart upon the mortification of all sin 3. It brings in the whole heart to God 4. It sets out such a new obedience with Spiritual Ingredients and affections and with such a sole entire respect to Gods glory that no common gift doth or can IV. The strange and powerful effects of an awakened and troubled Conscience An awakened and troubled conscience This is the nearest to renewing I hardly know any such nearness to the work of renewing grace as that arises from Conscience awakened and troubled for a person in this condition First Hath a clear sight and an exquisite sense of his sinne not only present but long since committed they seeme to be set in order before his eyes Secondly His very soule is troubled and distressed so that he would give all the world that he had never sinned so and so Thirdly he cannot hold but he must confesse his sins before God and sometimes before men with surpassing lamentations and tears and severe accusings and condemnings of himself Fourthly He puts away all visible sinne and resolves and protests against it yea and bindes his soule with solemn vows never to return to folly more Fifthly He cries out for Christ and how he may get Christ to make his peace Sixthly There is no visible duty but he doth set upon and in such a manner as he never did before prayes most earnestly for mercy hears attentively for any hope of mercy and perhaps associates himself with the people of God and begs their counsel their prayers their pity and their comfort Seventhly He will not in this anguish of conscience come near the occasions of sinne but doth withstand temptations from wicked company and cries out against them as the seducers of his soul Eighthly He sets up a kind of Reformation in his Family which before had perhaps no face of Religion in it but now all notorious profaneness is banished and the neglect of Gods worship is redressed and Prayer is set up in the Family morning and evening and the reading of the Scriptures c. Object Surely will some men say this mans heart is changed and all this could never be unlesse the heart were renewed by grace and some of us never went so far as this can you shew any difference 'twixt those effects of an awakened and troubling conscience and those flowing from renewing grace Sol. These â—ffects I confess are high and with them for the present Differences betwixt these and renewing grace In the Caâ—se many do deceive themselves looking on them as the fruits of renewing grace but there are manifest differences between them First In the Cause or Grounds when they come only from an awakened and troubling Conscience the cause of them is only the sense of Gods dreadful wrath which is such an unsufferable evil that it breakes and tears the senses the sinner will in that condition do any thing and comply with any course How conformable was Pharaoh when the hand of God was heavy upon him and unto what confession and restitution and repentance was Judas wrought when the wrath of God fell upon his Conscience But now when the heart is renewed by grace the man is sensible of his sinning and mourns for his sins and puts away his sins and sets up a course of new obedience not from the meere sense of wrath but from another Cause even from a love to God and an apprehension of Gods love to him which raiseth in him a loathing of all which God loaths and a liking of all that God likes and a desire in all things to walk in all well-pleasing before the Lord. Secondly In the secret Principle which sets the sinner thus awork In the In the Principle troubled sinner it is self-love a poor wretch now plainly sees that he must be damned if he doth not leave and change his sinful course and if he slights Christ and holy duties as formerly he hath done there is in him in this condition an horrible fear of death and of Gods eternal vengeance and he would not fall into the consuining fire no creature likes its own destruction much less an eternal damnation and therefore this troubled sinner will set upon duties and
Every one of Gods people hath so much of the spirit as is necessary to salvation Sixthly Though none of the People of God in this life have the Spirit in perfection yet every one of them hath so much of the Spirit as will bring him to salvation For he hath so much of the spirit as will bring him to Christ and he who hath as much as will bring him to Christ certainly he hath as much as will bring him to heaven Again he hath as much of the spirit as doth sanctifie and renew and regenerate him and therefore he hath as much as will bring him to salvation Matth. 5. 8. The pure in heart shall see God 1 Pet. 1. 3. We are begotten again to a lively hope Ver. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fades not away reserved in heaven for us SECT II Vse 1. DOth the Lord put his own Spirit within his own people Then let Try whether we have the spirit within us all of us look well to this whether we have within our hearts the the Spirit of God yea or no. O beloved think much and often of that expression of the Apostle in Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his he hath no part in Christ who hath no part in the Spirit of Christ There are four Reasons why I should press this great search and great care upon Reasons of this search you to know whether God hath put his own Spirit within you 1. Because many persons have not the spirit of God 2. Because many persons do deceive themselves with a false and lying spirit instead of the Spirit of God 3. Because many have the spirit as to many effects and works yet the spirit is not fully given to them 1. Many persons have not the Spirit of God Many have not the spirit of God They who blaspheme the Spirit First What think you of those who blaspheme and scoff at the Spirit As those Jews did at the effusion of the Spirit upon the Apostles These men are full of new wine Acts 2. 13. And ordinarily among our selves the Spirit of God is jeared derided mocked and reproached in his graces which he bestows upon the people of God O these are men of the Spirit these are the Saints your holy brethren and your holy sisters forsooth they are full of the Spirit Ah thou profane wretch unworthy to live among Christians and unworthy of the name of a Christian who darest thus openly to reproach the holy God and the holy Spirit of God! and the graces in the people of God which are the excellent faculties of the Spirit promised unto all who are in Covenant with God! Is the Spirit of God a scorn unto thee is any work of the Spirit a derision unto thee is holiness the chief of all his works a matter to be scoffed and mocked at O how wicked art thou what a child of the Divel art thou what an Atheist how deep in the guilt of blasphemy will the Lord ever pardon thee can'st thou ever repent can'st thou ever be saved who deridest the Spirit without whom and his holiness without which there is no salvation Secondly what think you of those who do despite to the Spirit of grace Who do despite to the spirit of grace of such you read in Heb. 10. 29. And have done despite unto the Spirit of grace Men do despite to the Spirit of grace many wayes 1. When they have base thoughts of Jesus Christ and his blood treading under foot the Son of God and counting the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing these the Spirit sets forth as most high and precious and worthy of all reverence and acceptation but when sinners come to despise Christ and his blood looking on them but as common and ordinary things and regarding them no more than the dirt under their feet they do now despite unto the spirit of Grace they do now prejudice and disgrace and dishonour and shame him in his Revelation and Commendation of Christ and his blood 2. When they will sinne on purpose to vex and grieve the Spirit when they know Who sin on purpose to grieve the Spirit such or such a work or way is evil and displeasing unto him they will therefore chuse to do it knowing that it is grievous and vexatious to the Spirit as they in Jer. 44. 4. Oh do not this abominable thing that I hate Ver. 5 But they hearkned not nor inclined their ears And verse the 17. profess that they will burn incense unto the Queen of heaven c. Thirdly what think you of those that either have no work of the Spirit within Who have no saving work of the spirit in them them or no saving work of the Spirit within them have those the spirit put within them The spirit is never present in any but there is some work or other of the spirit appearing in them for he is most active and working some way or other in the hearts of those where he is present and dwells Ergo. But in some persons 1. There is no work of the Spirit at all neither highest nor lowest the lowest works of the Spirit within men are illuminations and pulsations when he enlightens sinners to see their sins and moves and stirs them to leave their sinnes and gives them some trouble for their sins But many persons there are who never had any light from the Spirit to see their sins nor were they ever troubled for their sins nor did they ever find those strong motions and perswasions of the Spirit to leave their sins 2. Though in many persons these common works of the Spirit may be found yea so many works as the Spirit useth the Ministry of the Law for as Illumination Conviction Excitation Humiliation and Terror and Fear yet in them we no Evangelical and saving works of the Spirit to be found no works of Regeneration no works of union with Christ no hungring and thirsting after him no faith in him no love in him no holy sorrow no repentance no newness of obedience no walking and living in the Spirit c. Fourthly What think you of those who have in them another spirit quite contrary Who have in them another spirit to the Spirit of God even that spirit which works effectually in the children of disobedience and in whom all the qualities and works of a contrary spirit are manifestly appearing and ruling The Spirit of God is a pure and holy Spirit but they are unclean and unholy The Spirit of God is effective an humble and lowly Spirit but they are proud and lofty and arrogant The Spirit of God is meek and gentle but they are turbulent and furious and violent The Spirit of God is merciful and compassionate but they are unmerciful incompassionate cruel and bloody The Spirit of God is a Spirit of love and of peace but they are full of
shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever He will be mortifying your sins perfecting your graces conquering your temptations subduing your corruptions helping your weaknesses comforting your consciences leading you on in your journey untill you come to the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls As Jesus Christ accomplished all the works for which the Father sent him he gave not over untill he had finished all of them so doth the Spirit of God who is sent and given unto us he proceeds and goes on with all the works for which he is given unto us and that is to communicate and apply unto us all which Christ hath purchased for us even grace and glory even life and eternal life Thus have you heard 1. The Discoveries of the presence of the Spirit 2ly The Benefits and blessedness in the enjoyment of that Spirit SECT IV. 3. Vse I Now proceed unto a third Use which shall be of relief to tender and Reliefe to weak Christians weak Christians who are full of tears and sadness because they can find no discoveries of the presence of Gods Spirit within them or at most very weak and feeble pulses and appearances thereof That which I would say for the support of those weak persons I shall set down in five Conclusions First One may have the real presence of the Spirit and yet sometimes The spirit may be really present and yet not discovered It s in desertions have no sensible discoveries of his presence as to his own apprehension As 1. In the time of desertions when the Lord hides himself from the soul and draws off and leaves it a while to sit in darkness and in silence in such a case though there be actings of the Spirit and puttings forth tears and groans and complaints Will the Lord cast off for ever will he be favourable no more Psal 77. 7. yet the deserted soul discerns them not in a Relative way as working testimonies of the presence of the Spirit 2. In time of great transgressions Then the Spirit as is it were in a swoon and the light appears not and confusion and darkness rise upon our graces David In great transgressions in his great transgressions looks upon all as lost and therefore prayes that the Lord would not take his holy Spirit from him Psal 51. 11. Secondly One may have the Spirit of God within him and yet sometimes as to his own thinking the discoveries may be rather that he hath not the spirit than that he hath Job saith of God he holds me for his enemy Job 13. 24. And David saith cast me not off Psal 43. 2. And the Church saith my God hath forsaken me Isa 49. 14. This is our condition in the times of vile temptation and in the time of sad melancholy and there is no grace in me no faith no love softness of heart no ability to pray all was but hypocrisie there was never any thing in truth wrought within my soul Thirdly There are comforting discoveries of the presence of the Spirit and Other effects of the Spirit there are proper and respective discoveries of this presence as to our present ways and works and needs Perhaps you have not the manifestations of the spirit in the effect of peace and joy and assurance and yet you may have the manifestations of the Spirit in the effects of mourning for sin and conflicting with it and prayer against it and to walk uprightly Perhaps you find not the presence of the Spirit discovering himself in strong and powerful actings in your souls and yet you may find the Spirit discovering himself in making you to hunger after Christ Perhaps you find not the Spirits presence in raising your hearts with his testimony and yet you find his presence in humbling your hearts for the sins into which you are fallen Perhaps you do not find the presence of the Spirit in delivering you from temptations but yet you find his presence in upâ—olding of you against temptations Fourthly There are many things which may befall us in our Christian race When we may conclude our having of the Spirit not withstanding afflictions and course which yet are not sufficient grounds to conclude that God hath not given unto us his Spirit e. g. 1. Afflictions losses and crosses in outward things you may not from these conclude that God hath not given you his Spirit Because 1. The Lord doth correct every son whom he loveth 2. The most holy persons have been afflicted Job was so so was Jacob so was David 3. These are sent for the tryal of our faith and repentance c. and for the improvement of them 2. Oppositions from wicked men by reproaches and slanders and threatnings and injuriousness these are so far from aproving that we have not the And opposition and reproaches Spirit that they rather do demonstrate his presence and work in us Gal. 4. 28. We brethren as Isaac was are the children of promise Ver. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now 1 Joh. 3. 12. As Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother and wherefore slew he him because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous 1 Pet. 4. 4. They think it strange that you run not with them to the same excesse of riot speaking evil of you 3 Inward motions of sin and outward temptations from Satan They have Inward motions of sin and outward temptations Different temptations in our own hearts and do befall the best of Saints Paul found the one in Rom. 7. and the other in 2 Cor. 12. and who of the people of God is free from them 4. Several diversities upon our own spirits sometimes a lowliness a dulness sometimes great confidence and someties many doubtings sometimes rejoycings sometimes mournings sometimes an enlargedness of heart and sometimes a narrowness and restrainedness sometimes an high elevation of heart and sometimes why art thou cast down O my soul sometimes I do believe and yet sometimes O that I could believe sometimes I will not fear what man can do unto me and sometimes I am affraid and that I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul 5. Particular wandrings and sinnings when yet the course of a Christian is Particular wandrings holy and upright in this case we may neither condemn another nor yet our selves as utterly destitute of the Spirit of grace because as a course of sinning ariseth from the want of grace so the particular acts of sinning may arise only from the weakness of grace Fifthly there may be but a very weak measure of grace in a person who yet A weak measure of grace where yet is the Spirit of grace hath the Spirit of grace in truth A Child that is newly born is a living child and yet he is very weak Some Christians are but
work it I say 1. No man on earth can by the sole strength of his parts set forth any one good work indeed a man of much learning and of great endowments and of good utterance may in the virtue of these say and do many good works which we call good he may make a Sermon he may utter a Prayer he may be much in the outward part of duty nevertheless this strength that is in him is nothing as to the spiritual performing of any duty he is not able with all the parts which he hath to look only at Gods glory nor to set out his duties with holy and heavenly affections nor with faith in Christ 2. Therefore if you finde this concurring frame which have mentioned in any of your works or duties assuredly you have attained grace and strength from God to enable you the Spirit of God hath been present with you to help you Secondly By the Antecedents that go before any work or duty of yours of which the performance of it is a consequent or fruit e. g. if it be the fruit following 1. The sense and acknowledgment of your own insufficiency 2. An earnest desire of God to engage his help and assistance 3. The actual and particular application of the promise of God resting on him and expecting Gods assistance now the work that is done is not done in any confidence of our selves but only upon the accâ—unt of Gods strength but to this I have hinted already Thâ—rdly By the Consequents of your duties performed in the strength of By the consequents of our duties God which are quite different from those that are performed in our own strength whether we look unto God or unto our selves First Unto God there is acceptance and answer of all the duties or works done by his strength and assistance but not so of the works done in our strength Secondly Unto our selves where we shall experimentally finde four admirable effects 1. After all the duties or works performed by us in the strength of God we grow more humble as David in 1 Chron. 29. 14. But who am I and who is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly â—fter this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee But after works done in the strength of our own parts we grow more proud as the Pharisees â— 2. After the duties performed in the strength of God we do more exalt and bless the grace of God as Paul 1 Cor. 15. 10. I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me And David Psal 115. 1. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory for thy meâ—cy and for thy truths sake Whereas when we do act in the streâ—gth of our own parts we will rob God of his glory and give praise and blessing unâ—o our selves unto our own wisdom and unto our own zeal and unto our own dexterity and learning 3. When we have performed our work in the strength of God and have indeed discerned his presence with us this will drâ—w out our hearts to depend more upon God for our future works and services It will sweetly raise our hearts uâ—to him O I will trust on him another time for I relied on his power aâ—d sufficiency and he graciously helped and strengthened me Psal 63. 7. Becausâ— thou hast been my help therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I reâ—oyâ—e But it is not thus when we act in our own strength for after such performances we are still more apt to rely upon our selves 4. When we have done our work by the strength of God hereupon our hearts are more endeared to God and so are our resolutions more and more to pray unto God Psal 116. 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication Ver. 2. Because he hath enclined his ear unto me therefore wâ—ll I call upon him as long as I live Thus have I finished the third duty which was to depend upon God for his strength seeing he doth promise to cause us to walk in his Statutes and to do them Fourthly Now follows the fourth and last duty which concerns the people Give the praise of all unto God of God which is to give the praise of all the good which they do unto God alone I may not slightly pass this therefore I will enquire first why secondly whither 1. Quest Why the people of God should be carful to give unto God alone the praise and glory of all the good which they do Sol. Reasons for it briefly are these First His grace is the only cause of all the good which we do it is true that we are the subjects who do repent and who do believe who do love and fear and serve and obey him and walk in his Statutes O but who is the cause that we do all this or any of this from whom is all our fruit found Excellent is that passage of Austine Certum est nos velle cum volumus sed Deus facit ut vellemus certum est nos facere cum faciamus Deuâ— facit ut faciamus we do will good but it is God that makes us to will that good and we do good but it is God who makes us to do that good it is God who works in us to will and to do And hereupon in another place he ingenuously confesseth that his good works were rather Gods works then his own works Quaecunque sunt bona opera mea tua magis quam mea sunt Now if God works all our works for us is it not just that he should have all the glory from us Secondly We should else be injurious unto God who saith Glory is mine 1 Chron. 29. 11. And my glory will I not give unto another Esa 42. 8. Glory if I may so speak is the Lords portion and revenue out of all his works of power and grace and he is very tender of it and therefore we cheat him when we withhold any part of his glory from him nay it is plaine theft to take any part of glory from God unto whom all the glory doth belong Psal 96. 8. for you lay hands of that which is none of your own and without the consent of another who is the true owner and he professeth that he will not part with it it being indeed so properly essential to the crown of his diety Thirdly We do but proudly dishonour our selves in a vain-glorious boasting of that which is none of our own for which God will certainly abase us 1 Cor. 4. 7. For who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it Esa 2. 17. The loftiness of men shall be bowed down and the haughtiness of men shall be made low Luk. 18. 14. Every one that exalteth
new born babes as the Apostle calls them 1 Pet. 2. 2. The graces of the Spirit are sometimes in so weak and so low a ebb that they are compared to a bruised reed and to smoaking flax and to the dawning of of light in the morning and to a grain of mustardseed and to a little leaven in the lump Now here I would shew you three things 1. How one may know that he hath as yet but a very weak measure of the Spirit of grace 2. How one may know that the weak measure of grace is not false but true grace 3. That no Christian should discourage himself because his grace is weak but rather encourage himself because grace is sound although it be weak How to know our grace to be weak 1. Quest How one may know that he hath as yet but a very weak measure of the Spirit of grace Sol. This may be known In our first conversion First By the time of the implantation of it this is a truth that grace begins in weakness if a man be but newly converted his grace cannot be but weak Simile The Christian at first is but as a plant newly set and but as a sick man newly recovered or as the Sun newly risen although it may seem much unto him and he may find many stirrings in his spirit and in his affections yet this grace is but weak it hath but little strength in it Simile As a prisoner who hath been long in captivity and bondage when he is delivered his rejoycing may be great and yet his body may be very weak so when the Lord converts a man and so delivers him from the bondage of sin his heart may exceedingly rejoyce in his mercy that he is translated from death to life and yet his Spiritual strength of grace is very weak in him Secondly By the strength of corruptions The stronger that any mans corruptions By the strength of our corruptions are this is a sign that his graces are but weak I call those sinful corruptions strong which do often prevail upon us and lead us captive which are able to hinder us from doing what is good and to drive and force us to do that which is evil nor are we able to withstand this why this ariseth from weakness of grace Simile When it is with us as with a little Child who is ready to stumble and fall at every straw as we speak at every stone at every chip is not this the weakness of the Child So when every temptation every occasion every strong motion of sin is apt to shake us and stagger us and to surprize us is not grace very weak within us If this be a truth that sin grows weak as grace grows stronger Simile that the darkness is less when the light is clear then this also holds true that grace is weak when sin is strong Simile when grace is like a little light in the mid'st of much darkness By the proportions of actings Thirdly by the proportion of actings Every true grace of the Spirit is of an active nature it is apt to put forth itself Simile in this respect it is like all true fire and light which in the least degrees are apt and do put forth themselves but they have their different proportions in acting a little fire acts but little and a great fire acts much so weak grace hath but a weak operation and strong grace stronger operations weak grace acts most in desires and most in the will and most in tears and most in sighs and groans O that I could believe Lord help my unbelief answered the father of child with tears O that I could mourn that I could obey To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not Rom. 7. 18. Fourthly By the mixture of contrary workings a little of grace and much of corruption a little of faith and much of doubtings a little of hope and By the mixture of contrary workings much of fear a little of sorrow and much of hardness a little of prayer and much of distraction a little of zeal and much of flatness a little that is done and much that is undone a little of knowledge and much of ignorance a little heavenly-mindedness and much of earthliness a little fire and much smoak a little going and much halting c. Fifthly By the aptness to live not by faith but by sense when God draws up all our helps and hopes into his promises and puts us now to fetch all our supplies By aptness to live by sence and comforts from his good and faithful Word Here is my Word that I will pardon your sins and here is my Word that I will subdue your iniquities and here is my Word that I will answer your prayers and here is my Word that I will supply your wants and I will never leave you nor forsake you O but because we feel not the assurance of pardon and because we find not victory over our sins and because we do not see the answet of our prayers and because we cannot discern the means and wayes how our wants may be supplyed therefore our hearts fail us and we are troubled and perplexed and sad thoughts do arise in our hearts and they are much cast down within us If it be thus with us certainly our graces are weak very weak the lesse able are ye to trust an All sufficient and faithful God in his promises but you must have the portion in your own hands you must see or else you will not believe you cannot so stedfastly believe that Gods Bond is sufficient c. Simile The child is but weak which must still be held by the hand c. Sixthly By the prevailing of discouragements If we be apt to be offended By the prevailing of discouragements and discouraged this shews weakness of grace there are discouragements taken from Gods dealing with us as when he delayes our suits and denies some of the requests and tries and exercises us with smart afflictions and suffers temptations to abide on us From the wayes of Christianity the strictness of them and the danger by them and the greatness of them From men that wicked men do so vex and trouble us that good men are so strange and unkind unto us From ouâ— selves that we go on so slowly and exactly and uncomfortably and others get so far before us and attain so much Discouragements from any of these shew that there is in us but small knowledge little faith much fear and weak grace Seventhly By the presence of censoriousness of strife and contentions and envyings 1 Cor. 3. 3. For ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among By the presence of censoriousness you envying and strife and division are you not carnal and walk as men 2. Quest How may one know that the weak measure of grace is not false but true grace and the very effect of
the Spirit of God Sol. One may know that there is a true work of grace although very How a true work of grace may be known though weak By loving Gods image weak First By his apprehension and love of the image of God of this work of the Spirit in whomsoever he finds it His very soul values such a person and doth close with him and is knit unto him 1 Joh. 3. 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren Every one that hath truth of grace doth highly prize all that have grace counts them the excellent of the earth and is most delighted Psal 16. 3. and satisfied in the society of such Secondly By the choice of his heart he chuseth God to be his God and the By our choosing God to be our God wayes of God to be his wayes I have chosen the wayes of truth Psal 119. 30. I have chosen thy precepts Ver. 173. Although he doth not serve his God in fulness yet he doth in sincerity although he cannot walk in his wayes exactly yet in these wayes he will walk he is a servant to none but his God and traveller in no wayes but his Thirdly By the desires of his soul They are holy and heavenly and spirituall though his work is little yet his desires are great though his enjoyment ares By the desires of his soul small yet his desires are high and amongst others there are these five desires where there is truth of grace viz. 1. An earnest desire of Gods love and favour Psal 106. 4. Remember me Five desires in the tâ—uth of Grace O Lord with the favour which thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with thy salvation 2. An earnest desire of Christ a hungring and thirsting after him I will seek him whom my soul loveth Cant. 3. 3. O that God would give me Christ O that I could believe Lord help my unbelief Mark 9. 24. 3. An earnest desire to walk in all well-pleasing before God O that my wayes were directed to keep thy statutes Psal 119. 5. they do not keep them but they desire to keep them Lord increase our faith 4. An earnest desire for more grace as Paul Phil. 3. 12. I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Ver 14. I presse toward the mark A desire of the Word that we may grow thereby is a sign of the new birth 1 Pet. 2. 2. 5. An earnest desire that he might not sin against his God Psal 119. 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee O let me not wander from thy Commandements Fourthly By the conflicts in himself Though there be not a present victory By the conflicts in himself yet there is a present war in every one who hath truth of grace Truth of grace will make a man 1. To love the Law of the Spirit of Christ and to joyn and take part with his good motions and directions and commands The good that I would do saith Paul and I delight in the law after the inward man Rom. 7. 19 22. 2. To hate and oppose the Law of sin Though he doth evil yet he hates it what I hate that I do and though he cannot subdue his sins yet he will oppose them He oppâ—seth and resisteth the pride the filthiness the passions the frowardness the hardness the unbelief of his heart Fifthly By the griefs and complaints of his soul He is grieved that yet sin By the griefs and complaints oâ— his soul hath so much power in him and cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and he is grieved that he is so low and weak and short in obedience unto his loving Christ that he can love him no better fear him no more trust on him no stronger and magnifie him no more And he is grieved that he cannot grieve that he cannot believe that he cannot walk up to the Rule of Christ and unto the desires of his soule By the endeavours and actings of his soul Sixthly By the endeavours and actings of his soul He that is weakest in grace is acting according to the proportion which he hath received Simile As old father Latymer said to his fellow-sufferer I am coming as fast as I can brother So the weakest in grace he is stirring and he is doing as well as he can he is doing his Masters will and if he could do more and better service assuredly God should have it from him and glad he is if he can mend one 3. Quest Why no Christian should be discouraged because of the weak measure Why we should not be discouraged because of our weakness in grace All grace is weak at first of grace wrought in him by the Spirit of God Sol. You should not be discouraged for these Reasons First All the graces of the Spirit do begin in weakness we are at the first but babes in Christ and then young men and strong and then Fathers 1 Joh. 2. 12. 13 False grace is too suddain and too ripe it begins where it should end and therefore it ends usually as soon as it begins But true grace is first but weak nevertheless it shall encrease Secondly It will not rest so but gets from weakness to strength and from Yet its growing strength to strength as the Sun in the firmament Prov. 4. 18. The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day Thirdly The weakest grace doth bring God some honour it will make a It brings God some honour man to honor God inwardly and outwardly Rev. 3. 8. Thou hast a little strength and hast kept my Word and hast not denyed my Name 1. Inwardly by setting up his will and authority in the heart by loving of him fearing of him and trusting on him though but weakly 2. Outwardly by abandoning every evil way by exercisâ—ng our selves in godliness by countenancing the rules and wayes of Christ and walking before God in truth Even the Children in the Temple cryed out Hosanna to the Son of David Matth. 12. 15. whereupon Christ applyed that of David Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise ver 16. Fourthly The weakest grace is the workmanship of the Spirit of God Not It s the workmanship of the spirit of God only our rejoycing but our tears not only our assurances but our very groans are from him Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered So Phil. 2. 13. It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure To will any good this comes from the Spirit of God as well as to do any good Fifthly The weakest grace is able to unthrone sin and dispossess Satan and to set up a throne in the heart for Christ to hold