Prop. 2. That true Christian sanctification which is a work of faith is many times darke to a sincere Christian It is generally granted to be so in the first conversion and in time of temptation and desertion as also when a man looketh at his justification and at the glory of God Woe is me for I am uncleane saith the Prophet Isaiah at such a time there is so much power of flesh even in spirituall Christians specially in young Christians so much power in their lusts and in their passions as will put their best friends to a stand what to thinke of them and much more themselves when as they come to be pressed with the power of their corruptions specially when they compare with such hypocrites as run away with more freedome of spirit than themselves for sometimes their corruptions doe lesse appeare and they are more free from temptations and not exposed to such sinfull courses which sometimes true hearted Christians are subject unto So a poore Christian is discouraged an hypocrite emboldened seeing himselfe more sanctified than the other in view Prop. 3. That true sanctification of a sincere Christian is not discerned by him nor is indeed discernable untill he first discerne his justifying faith A double ground of it so leave it to your christian disquisition and search they are both taken from the necessity of faith both to the acceptance of a mans person and worke there is a necessity of the activenes of faith in a mans sanctification The Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering Gen. 4.4 A mans person must first be accepted otherwise all his worke will not goe beyond the worke of a legall Christian and without faith it is impossible to please God no acceptance therefore without faith It is also necessary to the performance of all spirituall duties for all sanctification is from that faith which Christ doth convey into the soule Now if the just man live by his faith whether it be the life of sanctification or consolation then no Christian can discerne his sanctification to be lively but he must discerne his faith living in it he must see his faith deriving strength and grace and life from Christ or else he cannot approve his sanctification to be the sanctification of the Gospell for as there can be no true sanctification unlesse there be faith whereby the person is accepted and whereby life is received to act in all sanctification so there can be no knowledge of sanctification but there must be knowledg of faith whereby a mans person is accepted whereby strength is conveyed to sanctification for if a poore soule be doubtfull of his acceptance with the Lord he is where hee was notwithstanding his sanctification and wanteth comfort for this doubt remaineth whether he be accepted or no which untill the Lord doe manifest a mans faith unto him by the revelation of the holy Ghost he is still at a losse in it for though true sanctification be an evidence of a mans justification yet it selfe must be first evident Thus we see by this third exposition that a further light is required to the light of sanctification Prop. 4. Notwithstanding this neere resemblance between legall and evangelicall holines yet there is a reall difference between them and such a difference as is discernable to Christians whose wite are exercised in the wayes of the Spirit and in the word of God and is discerned by the revelation or manifestation of the Spirit of God both of the state and worke of good Christians and that ordinarily also for I would not count it extraordinary being that which the Lord by his Spirit doth usually reveale unto his people A reall difference there is both in the Roote and in the Rule and in the Scope which they ayme at and so it will appeare to be at the last day Math. 25.23 Depart from me saith Christ you workers of iniquity I never knew you though they came and told him that they wrought by faith in him indeed they stood in some relation to him but not as members to the head onely as branches to the vine which may be cut off and yet the vine not maimed but if the members should be cut off any one from another then is the body maimed but Christ will not suffer his body to be maimed but take you never so many branches from the vine and it is not maimed but will bring forth more if therefore there be no more fellowship between Christ a Christian than between the branches and the vine you may take them away and yet not hurt the vine But wherein should this relation stand It is very hard to conceive insomuch that those who have been most exact and diligent to enquire into it have professed that it is Angels worke very hard it is so to distinguish them from Gods owne children so as not to discomfort poor christians nor to imbolden hypocrites Wee must be tender therefore that the least of Gods children may not want their bread better leave 99 sheepe than that one poore stray sheepe should not be sought after and better an 100 hypocrites perish than that one poor Christian should want his portion and yet it is not meet that hypocrites should allow themselves in the estate and fellowship of the Saints and yet alwayes blesse themselves in their carnall condition If you shall ask a difference in the Root both of them are partakers of the Holy Ghost Hypocrites may have a tast and a poor Christian will feare that his best fellowship with Christ is but a tast and that manifold experience maketh good Wherein then lyeth the difference Doth the Spirit of God leave the heart of an Hypocrite stony and unmelted It is so indeed with the stony but not with the thorny soile for the hearts of some Hypocrites are melted as iron stones they may come to melt about their owne estates through fear and so all those melt that want not depth of earth as the thorny soile did not but mind you they will grow hard again as iron or lead will doe after it is melted Now look at the Spirit of God when he cometh to work effectually and he doth not onely melt the heart but taketh away the heart of stone and giveth an heart of flesh for it is not enough to breake a stone it will be a stone though it be broken but when the Lord changeth it into flesh then it will be hard no more But though a man may have many temptations yet the Lord will keep his heart soft for ever And this is that which I do believe touching the witnesse of Sanctification unto Justification You see what workes of God are found in Hypocrites and therefore what dangerous deceits we are subject unto if God be not more mercifull Againe you see what state Christians are brought unto when their Conversion and Faith is wrought in them and how it is not grounded upon the sight of their
joy and comfort also which the Lord doth minister to us in a Sanctified course by his Holy Spirit so we grow up and perfect our holinesse which we have received in his name There is growth in grace this Sanctification is not bedrid Christians are not as weak now as they were seven years agoe nor doe they stand at a stay but goe forward in Christianity and hereupon the Apostle exhorteth the Ephesians Chap. 4.16 To speak the truth in love that they may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ Implying that men that enter into the wayes of holinesse ought to grow on unto perfection in the fear of God Job 17.9 And many sweet meanes the Lord hath appointed for this end the communion of Gods people tendeth hereto Prov. 13.20 He that walketh with the wise shall learn wisedome All the Ordinances of God are appointed for this end also to beget and encrease Faith and holinesse therefore a Christian in the use of all these Ordinances doth not stand at a stay but is still thriving and growing and that not in his owne strength but in the strength of Jesus Christ seeking for his acceptance and help in every duty he goeth about and this is that the Apostle doth exhort the Colossians unto Chap. 2.6,7 This ought Christians mainly to attend unto that as you see the branch the more juice it sucketh the more fruitfull it is so also it becometh the people of God to know that the more need we stand in to be fruitfull the more need we have to derive a continuall fresh supply from the Lord Jesus Christ that by his Spirit renewing grace in us we may be enlarged and carried an end in the wayes of God whereas otherwise the hearts of Christians would soon faile to goe on in those things wherein they desire to be growing up unto perfection What is the reason that so many servants of God are not so lively in their profession as they were wont to be many yeares agoe Truly wee attend upon Ordinances but it is onely upon the outward act of them and not upon Jesus Christ in them this is many times wanting in the hearts of Gods people but truly if this be our constant frame and wee doe not recover our selves then is not our sanctification such as floweth from fellowship with Jesus Christ for you shall finde this to be true that there is no gift of Christ nor no sanctification accompanying salvation but it doth knit us neerer and neerer unto Christ and the more wee are filled with true spirituall gifts the more empty wee are of our owne strength and selfe conceits and so wee ought to be otherwise we shall constantly finde this that if the Lord doe not preserve this empty frame in us the more full we are of any gift the more full shall we be of our owne strength and consequently the lesse need shall we feele of Christ and if this be our constant frame it will be a sad argument that our best sanctification will not endure but fall away unlesse we be knit unto Christ by the Spirit of his grace for by all true sanctification we are the more knit unto him so that if any man would know whether the superscription of Christ and his Image be stamped upon his sanctification this you shall ever finde to be the stampe of the grace of Christ that the more you receive from him the more you stand in need of him in so much that notwithstanding all the gifts of the Spirit there is not the ablest Minister of the New Testament but if his gifts flow from the Spirit of Christ and knit you unto Christ you will finde as great need to cleave unto Christ as ever you did the first day when you came trembling into the Pulpit If therefore wee feele our selves full so that the more we have received the more sufficient we are and goe not about the duties we have in hand in feare trembling but in selfe-confidence if this be our usuall and constant practise it is but counterfeit Christianity I doe not say that the gifts are counterfeit for they are from the Spirit of God and men may by them be very serviceable to Church and Common-weale but this is certaine that the stronger and the more your gifts are if you sit loose from Christ the emptier your hearts are of him But you will say may not a Christian be full of himselfe and depend upon the strength of his owne gifts Yes God forbid I should deny that for the best Christians have gone astray in the exercise of their best gifts and hereupon Abraham hath been wanting in faith Moses in meeknes Peter in courage and Sarah in her modesty they have been so apt to trust upon those graces of God wherein they have most abounded that they have principally failed therein but this you shall finde that if they have been overtaken once or twice as the burnt childe dreads the fire so they grow to be more sensible of their need of Christ more fearfull of departing from him more carefull to cleave unto him that they might grow up in his Name unto all well pleasing in his sight If therefore there be a sanctification that standeth at a stay in any man it is a great suspition whether the gifts thereof flow from fellowship with Christ or no if gifts be truly spirituall a man shall usually grow up in them Habenti dabitur Imploy them and multiply them but if you imploy the gifts you have received in your owne strength and you are now full of your owne sanctification truly this is but frothy work and doth not convey true nor lively nourishment and comfort but the comfort and life is to him that in his most spirituall gifts best performances is empty of himselfe and onely full of Jesus Christ to live or dye is his advantage This is the Use which I would commend unto you touching your Christian sanctification Thus we see sundry things have been cleered from this doctrine concerning the Covenant of grace There remaineth another thing to be resolved and cleered from the doctrine for if God in the Covenant of his grace doe give himselfe to be a God to Abraham and to his seede It is then to be enquired How God the Father giveth himselfe and how the Son and how the holy Ghost giveth himselfe for these are the fundamentalls of the Covenant of grace and necessary to be opened for cleering the doctrine of it Quest How God the Father doth give himselfe to be a God in Covenant to Abraham and to his seed that is to the faithfull seed of Abraham Answ All the Persons in Trinity concurre in works ad extra in works upon the Creature They give themselves by a Threefold worke or Act. 1. The first Act of God is having chosen us in his Sonne He gave forth his owne Sonne out of his bosome for the redemption of Abraham his seed
at any time carried aside it is his greatest burthen 2 Sam. 12.8,9 compared with 13. Hath not the Lord sayth Nathan done these and these things for thee Wherefore then hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord Then David confesseth I have sinned It pierced him to the heart to consider it that he should abuse his neighbours wife and kill her husband and above all that he should commit that wickednes against God that had dealt so gratiously with him So that the children of the Covenant of grace will onely tell you that they are free from the Covenant of the Law but not from the Commandment of it for as it is given by Jesus Christ and ratified in the Gospell and as Christ hath given us his Spirit enabling us to keep it wee are under it so farre as to take our selves bound by the Authority of it and if we doe trangresse against it we know it is sin in the sight of God therefore it is that the soule in such a case is sensible of the wrath and displeasure of God whether it be his own sin or the sin of his brethren therefore he runneth unto God for mercy which he would not doe if he did not know that his desert according to the Law did utterly cut him off from mercy else would he never pray for pardon of sin nor rejoyce when the Lord helpeth him to doe that which is right and just in his sight nor blesse the Lord for strengthning him unto obedience unlesse he thought it to be his duty and therefore Vse 2. It is of use also to Teach the servants of God how far we are freed from the Law to wit from the Covenant of it so that we neither looke for justification nor salvation from it and let it not be grievous to any soule that a Christian should say he doth not feare condemnation by his disobedience he will be apt to feare in this kinde untill he be assured of the favour of God but when he knoweth his portion in the Covenant then indeed he doth not feare condemnation by his sin nor doth he thinke that the Lord will cleave unto him because of his fruitfulnes he casteth not off his comfort nor looketh at himselfe as divorced from Christ because of his barrennes nor doth he looke for his daily bread from all his obedience but expecteth all goodnesse and blessing from the treasures of the free grace of God Vse 3. This may also serve to Teach men some discerning of their owne spirits and state if you looke for justification no longer than you are obedient and feare eternall condemnation then you are disobedient if you are afraid of divorce from Christ because of your sins or if you looke for any vertue or challenge right to any promise by vertue of any well-doing of your owne in such a case either you are under a Covenant of workes or you are gone aside to a Covenant of works and if ever the Lord open your eyes and bestow his free grace upon you you will know your redemption from such dependances as these be I know a Christian man that hath not been cleerely taught the distinct differences between these two Covenants may be misled into dangerous wayes that might tend unto the utter undoing of his soule but it is a sin of ignorance and the Lord will not leave his servants but cleare up his truth and grace unto them Vse 4. May serve to Teach the servants of God that desire to walke in a way of constant obedience how to build their faith and hope truly if they be grounded upon your own obedience or righteousnes of sanctification if they depend upon you you will find your hearts ever unsetled you may finde comfort as under the Law you shall for the Law will cast in comforts upon a man because of his obedience if he be marryed to the Law but if you shall believe that Christ is yours and comfort your selves because you have been by the power of the Law constrained to duties and restrained from sin and thereupon build your conjugall communion with Christ you will find your soules full of sadnes and feare ere long especially if you have true grace in your hearts and therefore it is the faithfullnes and tendernes of the grace of God unto his people that when Christians come into this Country though they have been marvellous eminent in our native Country yet here they cannot pray fervently nor heare the word with profit nor receive the Seales with Comfort they wonder what is become of their old prayers and hearings and Sacraments and of their lively spirits in holy duties truly the Lord hath disinabled them as it were from such things because they did build their union and fellowship with Christ upon them that so they might know the freedome of the grace of God that justifieth the ungodly then will the poore soule be glad to seeke after the Lord Jesus Christ and say as the people of God sometimes did Hos 2.7 I will goe and returne to my first husband for then it was better with me than now now the soule will plainly see discerne that he closed not with his true husband when as he built so much hope and comfort upon his duties therefore he will finde himselfe weake and dead as it were to all spirituall duties and can finde no life in them no comfort from them and it is the marvellous goodnes and free grace of God unto such a soule whom the Lord will not suffer to blesse himselfe in his works for if a man should lay the foundatiō of his comforts in them and be ready as it were to take it ill if he should not finde God accepting his works Wherefore have wee fasted and thou regardest it not Isa 58.3 If a man rejoyce in the sparks which he hath kindled this shall he have at the hands of God he shall lie downe in sorrow Isa 50.11 Whereas the light of God shall gratiously breake forth unto the servants of God that wait upon him though they be for present in darknes and see no light trust not therefore in any legall comforts but wait upon the free grace of God both to justifie sanctifie comfort and glorifie your soules This is the way of constant peace and if the Lord doe at any time checke his servants when they walke in by-wayes it is that he might build them upon a sure foundation so that their salvation will not lye upon their obedience nor damnation upon their disobedience This is the way of constant peace and s◅ety unto all the Israel of God Quest 7. This Doctrine may serve in the next place to Answer a seventh Question touching the necessitie of sanctification For it may be demanded If the Lord will give himselfe unto the soule in the Covenant of his grace not onely his Attributes but his Person all that is God is given by vertue of this Covenant If God hath himselfe not onely chosen us
offended be a society or some publick person equivalent 2 In case the party in such acts of judgement be freed from error which was the present condition of the Apostles guided in their administrations by an infallible spirit Object 5. This Synod Acts 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuag 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vid. Schindl Lexi so speaketh as having power to lay the truth of God cleared and declared by it as a burthen upon the Churches v. 28. which our ordinary Synods seem not to have power to doe Resp The notion or tearm burthen may be taken politically i. e. for a truth imposed by virtue of Church power and Authority this though the Apostles as Apostles might doe yet if they did so in this place which we rather conceive not it was extraordinary and Consequently not Exemplary Or the word Burthen may be taken for the charging of the Church to receive and yield Obedience in the Lord unto the truth discussed cleared and orderly commanded to them In which sense if we take it here according as it 's taken in divers places elswhere Pro. 30.1 21.1 Rev. 2.24 then the stile or manner of speaking is exemplary OF THE POWER OF Synods The Third Question Quest 3. WHat is the Power of a Synod Resp The Power of a Synod Is Decisive Directive Declarative of the truth by clearing and evidencing the same out of the word of God non coactive yet more than discretive For the better understanding hereof consider that Ecclesiasticall Power is 1 Decisive in determining by way of discussion and disputation what is truth and so consequently resolving the Question in weighty matters of Religion Acts 15.16,28 16.4 This belongs to the Synod 2 Discretive in discerning of the truth or falshood that is determined this belongs to every Believer 3 Coactive or judicial for we omit to speak in this place of Official judgement in judging of the truth determined Authoritatively so as to impose it with Authority and to censure the disobedient with Ecclesiastical censure 1 Cor. 5.12 Mat. 18.17 This belongeth to every particular Church The judgement of a Synod is in some respect superiour in some respect inferiour to the judgement of a particular Church it is superiour in respect of direction inferiour in respect of jurisdiction which it hath none Quere How and how far doth the sentence of a Synod bind Answ We must distinguish between the Synods declaration of the truth and the politicall imposition of the truth declared by the Synod The Synods declaration of the truth binds not politically but formally onely i. e. in foro interiori i. e. it binds the conscience and that by way of the highest institution that is meerly doctrinall The politicall Imposition of the truth declared by the Synod is Ecclesiasticall or Civil Ecclesiasticall by particular Churches and this binds not onely formally but politically in foro exteriori i. e. it binds the outward man so as the disobedient in matters of offence is subject unto Church censure affirmatively towards their own Members negatively by non communion as concerning others whether Church or Members Supremi Magistratu◠approbatio est supremū ut soquuntar arrestum Fr. Hom. disp 18. Th. 4. disp 17. Thes 3. Civil by the Magistrate strengthening the truth thus declared by the Synod and approved by the Churches either by his meer Authoritative suffrage assent and testimony if the matter need no more or by his authoritative Sanction of it by Civill punishment the nature of the offence so requiring In this orderly proceeding of the Churches and Civil Magistrate together in their respective politicall imposition of the truth cleared and declared by the Synod we are to be understood to speak of such a place wherein the Christian Magistrates walk together orderly referving Ecclesiasticall binding power to the particular Churches where either there is no Magistrate or the Magistrate is wanting in his duty as also civil power to the Christian Magistrate where the Churches are wanting to their duty The Fourth Question Quest 4. To whom belongeth the power of calling a Synod Answ For satisfaction to this Question we shall propound one distinction and answer three Queries Distin The power of calling Synods is either Single Authoritative belonging to the Magistrates Ministeriall belonging to the particular Churches Mixt When both proceed orderly and joyntly in the use of their severall powers Arguments proving the Authoritative Power of Calling SYNODS to belong to the Magistrate 1 Because the Magistrate is Custos utriusque Tabulae i. e. Charged with the custody of both Tables That he is keeper of the second Table is granted that he is keeper of the former is sufficiently proved in the first Question 2 From the recorded and approved examples of godly Kings in the Scriptures David 1 Chron. 23.2 Hezekiah 2 Chron. 29.4 Josiah 2 Kin. 23.1,2 3 From the nature of such great Assemblies Though Synodicall Assembling be spirituall yet meer assembling of a multitude together which a Synodicall Assembly presupposeth is a Civil act and therefore cannot in good policy be suffered without the consent of the Magistrate 4 From the necessary though not essentiall requisites to the being of a Synod as place time manner of meeting peace all which need the consent of the Magistrate in case of violent disturbance the Churches as such having no civill power to defend them cannot but want the assistance of the Magistrate that they may meet and transact the matters of the Synod in safety and quietnesse 5 From the proportion that the Magistrates Con-coactive or calling power of a Synod holds with his confirmation of the conclusions of the Synod the same reason that warrants his confirming power for the better strengthening the observation of the conclusions of the Synod warrants his calling power for the better being of the Synod Arguments proving the Ministeriall Power of Calling Synods which may be fitly called a power of liberty because Churches therein have no Authority one over another to belong unto the particular Churches 1 From that famous example Acts 15. where the Synod meets and site without the call of Civil Authority there being then no Christian Magistrate 2 Because the power of the constitution of Synods as properly such firstly resideth with ariseth from and lastly returneth to particular Churches 3 Because the power of the Magistrate tends not to the being but to the better being of Synods and added thereunto is accumulative not privative i. e. it adds strength to it but takes not any power from it Hence a Synod may in ease be without any consent of the Magistrate but cannot be without some consent explicite or implicite of the Churches 4 Because the Lord Jesus hath invested the Churches with sufficient Ecclesiasticall power in the best Ecclesiasticall manner to attaine their Ecclesiasticall end which yet were not if they had not power of themselves by joynt consent to call a Synod Queries Querie 1 In what case may the Magistrate proceed to call a Synod without the consent of the Churches Answ The Magistrate in case the Churches be defective and not to be prevailed with for the performance of their duty just cause so requiring may call a Synod and the Churches ought to yield obedience thereunto But notwithstanding the refusall he may proceed to call an Assembly and that for the same end that a Synod meetes for namely to consider of and clear the truth from the Scriptures in weighty matters of Religion But such an Assembly called and gathered without the consent of the Churches is not properly that which is usually understood by a Synod for though it be in the power of the Magistrate to Call yet it is not in his power to Constitute a Synod without at least the implicite consent of the Churches Because Church-Messengers who necessarily presuppose an explicite which order calls for or implicite consent of the Churches are essentiall to a Synod Querie 2 In what case may the Churches call a Synod without the consent of the Magistrate Answ In case the Magistrate be defective and not to be prevailed with for the performance of his duty just cause providence and prudence concurring The Churches may both Call and Constitute a Synod The Reason why the Churches can Constitute a Synod without the consent of the Magistrate although the Magistrate cannot constitute a Synod without the consent of the Churches is because the essentialls of a Synod together with such other cause as is required to the being though not so much to the better being of a Synod ariseth out of particular Churches as appears from the following Enumeration of the Causes thereof The Essentiall Cause Remote The Authoritative Call of the Magistrate Next The Ministeriall Call of the Churches The Materiall Cause The Members of the Synod i. e. qualified Church-Messengers The Formall Cause The meeting together of such Church-Messengers in the name of Christ The Finall Cause To confider of and clear the truth in question from the word of God Querie 3 In case the Magistrate and Churches are both willing to proceed orderly in the joynt exercise of their severall Powers whether it is lawfull for either of them to call a Synod without the Consent of the other Answ No they are to proceed now by way of a mixt Call i. e. orderly and joyntly in the use of their severall Powers That which learned Parker speakes of the Power of particular Churches concerning Calling of SYNODS holds also in this case concerning the Power of the Magistrate Their Powers are divers yet in respect of exercise they ought not to be divers nor divided the one from the other as before The Churches desire the Magistrate Commands Churches act in a way of liberty the Magistrate in a way of Authority Moses and Aaron should goe together and kiss one another in the Mount of GOD. FINIS Courteous Reader BY reason of the Death of the Reverend Author and the far distance of his loving Friend the Publisher of this Booke some faults may have escaped the Presse for the which the Printer desireth excuse Vale.