mercy annexed to it it ought alwayes to be understood of a sincere spiritual and Evangelical discharge of that duty Compare Matt 7.7 Hos 5.6 with Jer. 29.12 13. So Joel 2.32 Prov. 1.28 with Psal 145.18 is born of God That is an undoubted evidence of his regeneration for how could the heart of a sinn r bring forth such fruit unless there were the â—oot of grace planted in the heart 2. It may be meant in reference to the Doctrines of the Gospel He hath the Witness himself that is he is able to seal to those t uths experimentally from the work they have had upon his own Conscience and the effects wrought by them in his own soul He hath not only heard by report of the awakening convincing and converting power of the Gospel which are a strong witness of its divine original and authority but this witness he hath within himself as having felt that efficacy So that he can say to the Ministers as the men of Sychar to the woman Joh. 4.42 Now we believe not because of your reports for we have found it our selves to be a divine doctrine because it hath subdued our hearts and wrought mightily upon our spirits Or as the stranger that commeth into the Church Assembly upon whom the Word is quick and powerful and sharp as a two edged sword piercing into his bosom and discovering the secrets of his heart O saith he God is in you of a truth surely this is none other than the Word of the Lord of Hosts 1 Cor. 14.24 25. The Arguments produced by the Minister are a witness without him and the energy of the Word upon his heart is a witness within him 3. Or thirdly You may understand it metonymically the witness for the person witnessing q.d. He that believeth hath the Spirit of grace and holiness conferred upon him He is made partaker of the Holy Ghost whose work it is to bear witness unto Jesus No man out of sincere aff ction and true faith can profess that Christ is the Lord but by the instinct of the Holy Ghost Engl. Annot. in loc and without whom they could never believe in Jesus 1 Cor. 12 3. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost that is no man can speak it spiritually from the heart as he ought to speak it so as to subscribe to this principle that Jesus is the Lord and to submit to his Lordship and Government but by the Holy Ghost That 's the first thing I would note in the context The nature and excellency of believing 2. We have the sinfulness of the sin of unbelief the horrid and heinous nature thereof It doth implicitely charge the God of truth with falshood and virtually impeach him as a lyar v. 10. latter part He that believeth not God hath made him a lyar because he believeth not the Record that God hath given of his Son How doth unbelief make God a lyar Answ 1. Not by the contamination or pollution of the divine nature as if the Lord contracted any defilement thereby He cannot be tempted to sin nor tainted with sin Jam. 1.13 The blessed Angels are not tainted with pollution but the nature of God cannot be tainted he is infinitely out of the reach of it Unbelief doth not take from the truth of Gods promise but puts a bar in the Way of our receiving the mercy promised 2 Tim. 2.13 If we believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself And mark what the same Apostle saith Rom. 3.3 4. What if some do not believe shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect God forbid q. d. Let not such a cursed thought enter into your hearts it cannot be but the faith of God that is the faithfulness of God as to his word and promise must abide firm and immutable to such as have an interest therein We make our fellow servants oftentimes sinners by real infection when the guilt is spread into their souls being seduced by us and made partakers with us but God is holy holy holy Isa 6.3 infinitely holy unchangeably holy capable of nothing but holiness Our unbelief doth not hurt him but our selves Job 35.6 2. But it makes God a lyar in a way of calumniation or detraction Unbelievers do really and consequentially though unjustly charge God with this imperfection They say in their hearts the Lord is not a God of truth For did they own the truth of God they would undoubtedly subscribe to his word By questioning the matter witnessed we impute falshood to the person witnessing Tantum valet testimonium quantum auctoritas testantis and this is the very nature of unbelief As it is the damning sin that locketh up a man under the guilt of all his transgressions so it is an exceeding heinous and sinful sin it carrieth a kind of blasphemy in the bowels of it it maketh as if God were a lyar As by believing we seal to the truth of God Joh. 3.33 Non quod dei fidem labefactet corum impietas sed quod per eos non stat quin issum arguant vanitatis Calv. So by unbelief we do in effect lay falshood to his charge O the desperate wickedness of mans heart O the horrid abomination of this great ungodliness and the wonderful patience of God towards unbelieving sinners That 's the second thing to be noted The sinfulness of the sin of unbelief 3. Now the Text is brought in as a Specification of that Record which is propounded as the object matter of our faith and in reference to which unbelievers do asperse and calumniate the God of Heaven as a lyar They will not acquiess in the dictates of the Scripture they call in question the record that God hath left concerning his Son And if it be demanded what this record is or what special matter it doth contain The Apostle informeth you in the subsequent verses This is the record that God hath given us eternal Life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Which words are a Compendium of the Christians Charter An abbreviature of the great deed of gift or conveyance which God hath made of eternal glory and blessedness unto the children of men the record which he hath left touching the way of salvation Wherein you have observable for the distribution of the words these four parts 1. The mercy provided or the blessing conveyed that is eternal life What are we to understand by eternal Life in this place Vita aeterna sumitur 1. Propriè pro beato electorum statu post hanc vitam 2. Impropriè seu Metonymicè pro viâ seu medio perveniendi ad vitam aeternam Ravan I answer 1. Expresly and primarily the enjoyment of God in heaven the blessed Vision and fruition of the Lord in glory the Rivers of pleasures that are at his right hand for ever the
p. 321 Concl. 4. The way of procedure in the business of self-examination is by consulting those marks and signs which are the evidencing properties of union with Christ p. 323 Concl. 5. The marks and signs to be consulted are of three sorts p. 326 1. Exclusive or Negative p. 327 2. Inclusive or Accumulative p. 329 3. Adaequate and proportionate These principally to be minded p. 330 Concl. 6. Such marks and signs of whatever sort whereupon a person may confidently rest in passing judgment upon himself must be clearly deduced from Scripture and bottomed thereon p. 332 Motives to quicken to self-examination as to our union with Christ p. 335 Eight Rules of direction by way of gradation for guidance in this work of self-examination p. 340 Dir. 1. The first and fundamental evidence of union with Christ to be enquired after is whether a sound conversion have been wrought upon us or the grace of regeneration poured forth into our hearts p. 341 Dir. 2. In order hereunto we must be sure to be rightly instructed in the nature of conversion and what a change it makes upon the soul p. 343 Several sorts of counterfeit feigned conversions p. 344 Dir. 3. The grace of conversion is not ever discerned in the first planting of it in the soul and when it is discerned at first it may afterwards be questioned as to the soundness and sincerity of it And therefore enquiry ought to be made into the fruits and effects produced thereby p. 348 Dir. 4. The fruits that will evidence a sound conversion are not some particular duties of Christianity discharged But the main bent of the spirit as to the things of God and the whole tenour of the conversation must be considered on that account p. 351 Dir. 5. That obedience which will prove a sincere conversion must not only be right for the matter what is done But rightly qualified also in respect of the manner how it is done p. 353 Dir. 6. For the right qualifying our obedience that it may be evidential of conversion and union with Christ it must be 1. Spiritual And that in a three fold respect p. 355 2. Universal A threefold universality of obedience p. 358 3. Evangelical Which consists in 4 things p. 363 4. Sincere Wherein sincerity lieth p. 367 5. Of an increasing nature p. 369 6. Stedfast p. 371 Dir. 7. Self-examination if performed successfully must be solemnly undertook with the best intention of the mind and spirit p. 373 Dir. 8. If a person upon most the serious and deliberate examination of himself be still in the dark as to his union with Christ four things to be done in that case p. 374 CHAP. XII Exhortations grounded upon the doctrine of union with Christ 1. To the unregenerate 1. Dare not in any sort to oppose the Saints p. 381 This Exhortation branched into 4 particulars p. 382 Motives to press on this Exhortation p. 388 2. Do not build your hopes of eternal life upon any priviledge or attainment which falleth short of union with the Son p. 393 Exemplified in nine sandy foundations whereupon sinners are apt to build their hopes p. 395 3. With unwearied endeavours labour after this grace of union p. 403 Directions 1. Despair of being saved upon lower terms p. 404 Three cases wherein we must not despair p. 406 Four cases wherein despair is the way to salvation p. 410 Dir. 2. Get the Spirit of Christ What must be done in order to it p. 413 Dir. 3. Endeavor after the uniting grace of faith p. 414 Five encouragements to believing or coming to Christ p. 415 Dir. 4. Lay it seriously to heart That if you perish in a state of separation from Christ you are in the fault and guilty of your own destruction p. 424 2. Exhortations to believers 1. Bless God for this signal grace of your union with Christ p. 425 2. Improve it Six cases wherein it should be improved p. 426 Exhortations to all 1. Learn the Lessons which are from this point to be learnt p. 430 Two spiritual Lessons of a momentous nature instanced in p. 431 2. Discharge the duties that are on this account to be discharged p. 434 1. Bless God for the manifestation of this mystery id 2. Adore the condescension and grace of our Lord Josus Christ p. 435 3. Labour every day more and more to clear it up to your selves that you have the Son by being united to him id Three further evidential properties of this union p. 435 436 437 1 John 5. ver 11 12. And this is the Record that God hath given us eternal Life and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life CHAP. 1. The Context opened the Text explained and the Point of Doctrine deduced IT hath been well observed in the case of Moral Prudence that many never attained to be wise indeed because hindred in the pursuit by an over-weaning conceit of their own Wisdom Multi ad sapientiam pervenissent nisi putâssent se pirvenisse Sen. The like may be truly said of the favor of God and the Kingdom of Heaven Multitudes have fallen short of eternal Life by an over-confident opinion of their interest in it Presumption of finding Mercy with the Lord is one of the principal snares of the. Devil Qui jugum suscipiunt Diaboli Diabolus eos delectat dâ—ipit ne discedant à malo impii usque ad mortem suam whereby sinners are held fast in their impenitence This presumption for the most part is wont to spring from a twofold Fountain 1. Ignorance and misapprehension of the mercy of God 2. Misapplication of the death and righteousness of Christ. I shall endeavor through Divine assistance to contribute a little help against the spreading of this evil and towards the drying up of these poysonous Fountains which have caused the death and ruine of many thousand Souls This I shall do 1. By Shewing the necessity of the Mediation and Righteousness of Christ Satan is not willing to deal roughly with the unregenerate if he could chuse for he stands ever in most danger of losing them when he carrieth himself towards them in so hard a fashion Wherefore he rather flatters and fawns endeavoring to rock them asleep still if he can in the Cradle of security and presumption Whately's New Birth to procure saving Grace for lost sinners 2. By discovering the like absolute necessity of our Union with Christ in order to partaking of that righteousness and receiving the grace which he hath purchased thereby Both these are fully comprised in the Text. I shall only touch occasionally upon the first as it will fall in the way of my insisting designedly upon the latter This portion of Scripture which I have chosen as the basis or subject of the following Meditations may not unfitly be stiled An Abstractor Epitome of the Gospel of Christ whereby life and immortality is
brought to light wherein the way is revealed for restoring fallen sinners to their primitive happiness or conducting souls to everlasting bliss God hath graciously pleased to declare this way by the Scriptures and to leave it upon record in the Word of the Gospel and here we have the substance or summary of that Record viz. That God is the giver of eternal Life and that this life is in his Son c. If you examine the connexion or dependance which the words of the Text have with and upon the foregoing passages of the Chapter You will evidently find our Apostle is herein giving a succinct account of the great foundation-truths which are proposed to be the object of a Christians Faith by closing with which we do eminently and signaly advance the glory of God and by disbelieving whereof we are said to make him a lyar Our faith is to be built upon the word of the Lord to be bottomed upon the Record which God hath given concerning his Son And this saith the Apostle is the Record That God hath given us eternal Life c. The better to clear this coherence and so the genuine import and scope of these words let us a little cast our eyes back upon the context or the verse immediately preceding the Text wherein we may note two things 1. The nature and excellency of the grace of faith or believing on Christ ver 10. former part He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself 1. For the nature of Faith it is a believing on the Son so it is usually set forth in the dialect of the Holy Ghost Act. 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thine house Joh. 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life This is the saving act of Faith which will bring a soul to Heaven a believing on the Son And therefore I might touch by the way on that common distinction as useful to be considered that there is a threefold act of Faith or three waies of Believing in reference unto Christ There is a believing 1. That Jesus is the Christ Credere Christum Christo. In Christum 2. Jesus Christ 3. On the Lord Jesus Christ 1. There is a believing that Jesus is the Christ an assent unto the truth of this principle that he who was born of the Virgin Mary is the true Messiah and Mediator sent of God to be the Saviour of Mankind So the very Devils believe As they know there is one God so they acknowledg this principle that Jesus is the Son of God and the only Redeemer of lost sinners Hence it is that they are so unwearied in their endeavors to hinder poor souls in closing with Christ and that they labour by all manner of false suggestions to draw their affections from the Lord Jesus Mark 1.24 The unclean spirit cried out Let us alone thou Jesus of Nazareth I know thee who thou art the Holy one of God And that herein the Father of lies spake the very truth you will find by the testimony of the Spirit of God himself v. 34. He cast out many Devils and suffered not the Devils to speak because they knew him 2. There is a Believing Jesus Christ i.e. a subscribing to the truth of the Doctrines that he delivered which are contained in the Scriptures the Word of Christ and Preached by Ministers of the Gospel in his name Thus a Simon Magus may believe he may own the verity of Christs Word though in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity Acts 8.12 13. When they believed Philip Preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ then Simon himself believed also Thus Nicodemus believed before he was instructed in the necessity or acquainted with the grace of regeneration he was convinced by the Miracles wrought by Christ that he was a teacher sent of God and consequently that the Doctrines which he taught were the truths of God Joh. 3.2 As a carnal person who never tasted of saving grace may have much knowledg in his understanding of the will of Christ so he may be under such convictions upon his judgment as in a sort to approve the Word of Christ Rom 2.17.18 3. But lastly there is a believing on the Lord Jesus When a man is so powerfully convinced of the evil of sin and his own obnoxiousness to the wrath of God and the heart so fully perswaded of the excellency of Christ and the sufficiency of his Righteousness together with the utter insufficiency of all other wayes of deliverance that thereupon he doth actually close with Christ upon Gospel terms and make application to him casting himself upon the Son of God for Salvation and renouncing all things for the enjoyment of him Although believing on Christ doth not alwayes signify a saving faith as see Joh. 2.23 yet for the most part it doth and so may fitly be made use of by way of distinction It being observed by some that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a phrase peculiar to the Holy Ghost and not used by prophane Authors This is the saving act of Faith A believing on or in the Son Joh. 11.25 26. He that believeth in me though he were dead yet he shall live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye For mark it Sirs that assent of the Judgment unto the great truths of the Gospel which is required of the Lord and is well pleasing in his sight is not a bare naked lifeless assent but a compounded and operative assent such as doth ingage the heart to comply with those truths and brings the whole Soul in subjection unto them Rom. 10.10 With the heart man believeth unto righteousness That 's for the nature of Faith It is a believing on the Son 2. For the excellency and preciousness of thus believing He that doth so hath the witness in himself i.e. in his own Soul and Spirit and Conscience He hath it graven upon the very tables of his heart But what is this witness which a Believer hath in himself Answ You may understand it either of these three waies 1. In relation to his spiritual state He hath a fundamental evidence that he is a child of God and in covenant with him here is sufficient matter if rightly improved whereupon to raise a testimony of this thing It is faith which brings a man under the favor of God and the act of believing is a sure token that the person is endowed with the grace or habit of Faith Spiritual actions as they must proceed from a Divine principle so they are evidences of that principle from whence they do proceed 1 Joh. 5.1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ not with a bare assent of the Judgment but he that believeth it with the heart as before * When a particular duty is produced as an evidence of a state of Salvation or hath a promise of grace and
the second Covenant That Text is very full and worthy to be wrot on our hearts in letters of gold and as with the pen of a diamond Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified 3. The ultimate or compleating act of this justifying faith whereby it becometh such is a fiducial resting or relying upon Christ for righteousness and acceptation with the Lord and for all the spiritual benefits that follow thereupon That which I aim at is this That justifying faith is not absolved and compleated by a bare assent of the understanding but it doth evidently include an act of the heart With the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10.10 If thou believest with all thine heart Acts 8.37 And the special act of the heart is a reliance upon Christ leaving a mans soul in his hands upon the articles of the Covenant of grace leaning upon his merits for acceptance with God receiving him as he is offered to sinners in the Gospel and trusting in him for acceptance and salvation Thus we have it explained Eph. 1.12 13. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ In whom also ye trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the Gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise This is the faith both of Jew and Gentiles We first believed unto whom the word of salvation was first spoken and afterwards ye also believed in Christ What is this believing Why it is a trusting in Christ First the soul heareth the word of salvation promised in Christ and assenteth to the truth of that word and thereupon is perswaded to make his actual application unto Christ and trusteth in him for salvation Psal 2.12 Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him q. d. There is no way of avoiding destruction from Christ but by believing in him resting upon him they are the blessed of the Lord that put their trust in him * Sed multum inter est utruns â—â—isque credat ipsum esse Christum utrum credat in Christum Nam ipsum esse Christum daemones crediderunt Ille enim credit in Christum qui sperat in Christum diligit Christum Aug. Indeed there are many acts of the soul required unto this faith and comprized therein If a man believe in Christ he must have some competent knowledge of the nature of Christ and his mediatory office and satisfaction there must be a firm and lively assent to the truth of the Gospel a sense of the evil of sin and the inability of all other means besides the righteousness of Christ to recover the sinner out of his lost condition But now a fiducial reliance upon Christ for salvation is the last compleating act For when the sinner being driven from all other refuges whatsoever doth not only hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ but actually renounceth every thing for him and embraceth him as his Saviour casting his soul and all his spiritual concernments into Christ's hands and resting upon him alone for salvation as he is offered in the Gospel this is a justifying and saving faith As a self-justiciary relieth upon his own righteousness so a true believer râ—steth upon Christ's righteousness This is set forth by coming unto Christ Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Come unto me that is believe in me place your hope and confidence in my righteousness The Lord Jesus in the Gospel is set forth as a propitiation he was sent to be the Redeemer of lost sinners Now when a person being affected with his lost estate sensible of the wrath of God and the insupportableness of it and labouring under the burden of sin doth come unto Christ as such and make use of him to that end namely to be his Redeemer and doth rest upon him to make atonement for his soul this is to believe with a justifying faith Joh. 6.35 He that cometh unto me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst It is a looking unto Christ alone for redemption and deliverance upon his account As the brazen Serpent was an eminent type of the Lord Jesus Num. 21.8 9. so the Israelites looking up thereunto did signifie our faith in Jesus by whom our diseases are healed When a poor sinner is stung in his conscience with the fiery Serpent of the guilt of sin and being filled with dread in apprehension of the sad consequents of it doth look up unto Christ as held forth upon the pole of the Gospel to be a Saviour and doth rest upon him expecting redemption only through his blood here are the workings of a justifying faith Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up by dying on the Cross or by the publication and tender of his death and righteousness in the Gospel That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life This is the third particular which I intended to commend to you for opening the nature of faith which is the bond of our union with Jesus Christ 4. Wherever and in what soul soever there is this fiducial reliance upon Christ and his righteousness in a saving way there is also as a necessary companion thereof an universal subjection to the will of Christ and a ready submission to his government This I add in the last place to prevent if it be possible the abuse of this doctrine by carnal hearts and to stop the mouth of those clamours which are raised by some against it and the aspersions which they cast upon this evangelical truth as if it were not a doctrine according to godliness Will such be ready to say This doctrine will imbolden sinners in their presumption and vain confidence If to believe savingly on Christ be to rest on him for salvation who will not think that be doth believe What carnal wretch will not say that he doth rely upon Christ But mind it Sirs it is not a thinking or saying he doth rely upon Christ will give a man an interest in him but when he doth rest upon him indeed as he is propounded for a Saviour in the Gospel And such a faith will purifie the heart and cause the person believing to bring forth fruits of holiness in the conversation Else it will be an evidence that he doth but pretend thereunto and doth not rest upon Christ in truth For although it be not the work
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That 's the second thing I intended for the confirmation of this property of a Believers union with Christ viz. the inseparableness of it 3. A little to vindicate this point from the grand exceptions thas are made against it I will lay down only two rules Rule 1. This doctrine of the perseverance of a sincere Believer in the faith or the inseparableness of his union with Christ is so far in it self from being as enemy to practical holiness and new obedience that if rightly improved it will be a mighty incentive and provocative thereunto It will have a powerful influence to inlarge a mans heart to run the steps of God's commandments and to cause him to take heed unto himself to continue upright and undefiled in the way of the Lord. This assertion I maintain to obviate the main cavil and objection that is made against this comfortable truth For there is an aspersion cast upon it as if it were not a doctrine according to godliness as if it did minister occasion to slothfulness and carelessness and carnal security They will be ready to say who are the opposers of this truth if a person be in Christ so as to be sure he shall in no case be separated from him then they will be apt to think they may live as they list that they may take what liberty they please to indulge the flesh and satisfie their lusts and walk in a way of licentiousness seeing whatever they do they shall abide in a state of grace and come safe to heaven at the last Thus a door say they would be opened to all manner of wickedness But mind it Sirs It is a calumny falsely laid to the charge of this doctrine For in it self it is a strong argument and motive unto holiness It is a consideration that may have a tendency to the mortifying sin and awakening the Spirit if rightly pressed on the soul and thus it will be improved by a gracious heart * Hac igitur certitudo perseverantiae non potest consistere cum deliberate proposito peccandi nedum tale quid causari Piis exercitiis procreatur conservatur eadem etiam invicem procreat conservat auget Ames Coron 'T is true there is not the most wholsom herb but a toad or spider may suck poyson from it there is not the most heavenly doctrine but a carnal heart will pervert it unto evil especially such truths as are purely evangelical that hold forth the free grace of God Jude 4. They turn the grace of God into lasciviousness that is not only the experience which they have of the grace of God in the exercise of it in their preservation and affording to them means and seasons for working out their salvation but it seemeth principally to be meant of the doctrine of the grace of God There is no doctrine more influential in its native tendency to the subduing of sin and crucifying the flesh and quickning to a closs walking with God But ungodly men wrest it and writhe it to countenance their filthiness So hath it befallen this particular point of the Saints perseverance though in its proper causality it will help to cleanse a man from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit and make him vigorously to pursue the designes of holiness See what use the Apostle Peter makes of it 1 Pet. 1.5 13. He had before told them that they were elect according to the foreknowledge of God v. 2. and that this grace of election had broken forth in their regeneration from whence they had a lively hope of enjoying the inheritance prepared for the Saints v. 3 4. And then he doth assure them that they were kept by the power of God is the state of grace that they might not fall short of actually possessing what they hoped for v. y. c. And in the close of all he subjoyneth this exhortation v. 13. Wherefore gird up the loyns of your minds be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance but as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation q. d. If God hath graciously taken care of the concernment of your souls will not you be diligent to advance the glory of his grace Will not you be ashamed to sin against him who hath in every respect dealt so bountifully with you If the Lord has not been unmindful of securing your salvation will not you mind his honour and follow his conduct Should not this mightily prevail upon you never to cast off this God but to cleave unto him unto the end O set diligently and industriously about your work be ready and prepared for all the wayes of holiness and to continue stedfast and unmoveable therein Do not walk as the generality of people walk nor as your selves have formerly walked for God hath called you out of the world and prepared for you a kingdom and taketh care of your preservation that you may come to the enjoyment of it This is the proper use of this doctrine which will plainly appear if you seriously weigh these four things 1. That God hath not promised to preserve his people in the state of grace and union with Jesus Christ whether they be holy or no or however they walk But the promise is to keep them in the exercise of grace in the ways of holiness that so they may not be separated from him If any represent it in another dress it is not the Scripture doctrine of perseverance but they endeavour to cast a slurre upon it We do not teach that God hath ingaged to bring his people safely to heaven let them live as they list or that he will keep them from falling away from Christ though they cast off the fear of the Lord and run to all excess of riot But God hath ingaged to inable them to live the life of the just and to cause them to fear his Name and through the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the body that so they may never draw back to perdition 1 Pet. 1.5 Ye are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation It is not said God will keep them by his almighty power whether they believe or no but he will suodue their unbelief and set their faith on work in order to their being secured Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Mark it is not said They shall never depart from Gâ—d though they slight his word and despise his Majesty and reject the fear of his Name But he will maintain in their hearts an holy aw and dread of him that so they may never be cast out of his favour 2. Consider That the
of the Gospel Receive him for your Redeemer as he is tendred therein Believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Joh. 6.29 This is the work of God that you should believe on him whom he hath sent i. e. It is a work exceedingly acceptable unto God it is the great work that he requires to bring you unto his Son that you may have life through his bloud It is that work that makes up the conjunction betwixt him and your souls And therefore what is attributed in one place unto union with Christ is in another place ascribed unto faith Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Joh. 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned Why Because it is faith which makes up the union by believing on Christ we are implanted into him And therefore take the word of direction Jo. 12.36 Believe in the light that you may be the children of light betake your selves by faith unto Christ that you may be found in him And to that purpose be frequent in meditation upon those incouragements which God hath given unto sinners to quicken them to believe on the name of his Son and to help against the misgivings of their own hearts I will instance only in five 1. It is the command of God that which he hath left in special charge upon mens souls to come unto Christ that they may be saved And therefore it evidently followeth that he is willing you should believe for it is that which he mainly desireth that his will be done that his precepts be observed Can you imagine that God should give you a strict commandment backt with many arguments and motives to the observance of it and yet be loath you should obey that commandment This is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3.23 2. God sent his Son into the world upon this very errand and business that he might draw sinners unto him in order to their salvation And the Lord Jesus took our nature upon him and was obedient unto the death the accursed death of the cross to this very end and purpose that sinners might come unto him and obtain eternal redemption through his bloud And can it ever enter into your hearts to think that God is not willing to accomplish what he hath designed to bring about or that Christ is not willing to attain the end of his sufferings What was the Fathers design in sending Christ into the world Why that we might live through him and that he might be a propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 4.9 10. Wherefore hath he published the Gospel of Christ and revealed the glad tydings of salvation through him Why These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name Joh. 20.31 To what end did our Saviour leave the bosom of his Father and sojourn amongst us and bear the weight of his fathers indignation Mark what account himself giveth of it Jo. 12.46 I am come a light into the world that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness And v 47. I came not to judge the world but to save the world And speaking of his death under the fimilitude of lifting up the brazen serpent in the wilderness v. 32. And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me 3. God hath left upon record many precious promises on purpose to invite sinners unto Christâ— from which none are excluded but such as shut out themselves by refusal of the grace which is tendered in them And they are promises of such extent and comprehensiveness as may be sufficient to answer all the objections of a mans spirit against believing in Jesus Joh. 3.15 Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life Act. 13.39 By him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses But will the sinner object I am altogether unworthy to come unto the Son of God Why Sirs It is the due sense of our unworthiness that doth fit us for the ready reception of him and addressing our selves unto him that we may by his righteousness be made worthy Art thou apprehensive of the necessity of being partaker of his death and the merit thereof Dost thou hunger and thirst after the enjoyment of him See then the promise or invitation Isa 55.1 2 3. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money that hath no desert or worthiness of his own to commend him unto God or whereby to purchase the least dram of favour come ye buy and eat yea come and buy wine and milk without money and without price c. O but will the sinner reply I have long stood out against the calls of Christ and will he now receive me graciously if I come unto him Why Hear what he saith Isa 57.17 18 19. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart i. e. He withstood chastizement which is one of the loudest and most awakening calls in the time of his distress he sinned yet more against the Lord Instead of returning he held fast deceit and refused to return He went on frowardly that is perversly and stubbornly against all the dealings of God And yet what followeth v. 18 I have seen his wayes and will heal him I will lead him also and restore comfort to him and to his mourners One would have expected it thus rather I have seen his wayes and I will confound him I will never more have any pity or compassion upon him Nay but faith the gracious God at length he mourns for sin and is humbled for his iniquity and my bowels are turned within me my repentings are kindled together He is coming towards me and I will go forth to meet him I will surely have mercy upon him I will pardon him and guide him in the way of consolation and salvation But what doth this concern me will the heart of a sinner be apt to suggest Am I comprized in this word of comfort Yes if thou mournest for sin and desirest to give up thy self unto Christ and to God by him For it is a promise made without limitation these words are intended for the henefit both of Jews and Gentiles v. 19. I create the fruit of the lips peace peace i. e. My word shall be the means to convey great peace spiritual peace perfect peace lasting yea everlasting peace to him that is afar off and to him that is neer i. e. to the Jews who were a people nigh unto God and to the Gentiles when they shall be gathered to the Church though at that time they were afar off and I will heal him saith the Lord. But will the sinner
may be ready at hand upon all occasions for your guidance and direction in the way to heaven If Truth as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. one saith is of the number of the greatest gifts which the God of heaven could confer on the children of men or they are capable of receiving from the Lord of glory And if those Truths are most worthy of all acceptation which are in their own nature and tendency of the greatest weight and importance Then I hope I may justly expect your loving Reception and diligent Perusal of these Divine Instructions Especially when I call to remembrance your fervent mind and more than usual respect which many of you have formerly expressed towards me If I detain you longer than is customable by way of Preface impute it wholly to the earnestness of my desires of being useful to the promoting your everlasting salvation For I can truly say that since my removal from amongst you I have had you frequently in my thoughts much in my affections and fervently in my Prayers Give me leave to be your Remembrancer That you are a people under manifold Obligations and Ingagements to serve the Lord and to stick fast unto his testimonies 1. You have some of you for a long time made a Profession of Godliness and openly avowed your selves to be the servants of the most High And will you not labour to walk answerably to that Vocation wherewith ye are called If the Principles you own be good they ought to be practised And if they be evil why are they professed When King Alexander had a cowardly Souldier of his own name he is reported to have called him aside and thus to have spoken to him Friend either change thy name or leave thy cowardise The like may be fitly said to Professors of Religion Either sh w forth the power of godliness in your lives or do not take upon you the profession of Godliness Why call ye me Lord Lord if ye do not the things which I say Luk. 6.46 2. You are many of you I am apt to think a people under convictions The clear light of the Gospel which hath shined amongst you hath left at least such impressions on your spirits That you cannot but approve the things that are excellent You cannot but acknowledge the wayes of God to be right and the service of sin to be abominable Ask your consciences to whom I appeal in this case if it be not thus So that I may speak to you as the Apostle Paul to the King Act. 26.27 King Agrippa Believest thou the Prophets I know that thou believest My brethren Do you believe the absolute necessity and incomparable worth of Holiness Do you believe That the fear of the Lord is the best wisdom and the favour of God the chiefest portion That Godliness is great gain and ought to have the supremacy and preheminence above all worldly enjoyments Do you believe that the pleasures of sin are folly and madness and will end at length in everlasting destruction I am perswaded many of you believe it Now Sirs it is a dreadful thing to sin against convictions to disown that in your conversations which you subscribe to in your consciences Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth Rom. 14.22 To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Jam. 4.17 3. You are most of you a people of low estate and poor in the world And will you not secure an interest in the true riches If you have little or no treasures upon earth should it not quicken you to be the more industrious to lay up treasures in heaven that you may not be poor in every respect When Bishop Hooper as I remember was led to his Martyrdom there came to meet him a poor boy that was blind but had received the knowledge of the truth To whom the Martyr spake to this effect See to it that you continue to serve the Lord and that you lose not the knowledge of God for then thou wouldest be blinde both in soul and body So let me say to those of this rank amongst you Well is it if you have chosen the good part which cannot be taken away if you have in heaven an enduring substance else you are poor both in this world and in relation to that which is to come Study to shew your selves men and women approved of God that it may appear you are of the number of those whom the Apostle James makes mention of Chap. 2.5 Whom God hath chosen the poor of this world but rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him 4. You are all of you a people of signal and eminent mercies And if the mercy of God rise up in judgment against you what will be able to plead for you If mercy condemn you how sore will be your condemnation Will ye trample upon the bowels of the compassion of God And tread under foot his loving kindness Deut. 32.6 Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is he not thy father that hath bought thee Hath he not made thee and established thee I will not multiply the mention of Particulars only there are two mercies principally come at present into my thoughts which I would have you never to forget 1. Remember the dayes of old consider the years of some generations at the least Ask your Fathers and they will tell it your Elders and they will shew it That you have been remarkably blessed with Gospel-priviledges and advantages for attendance upon God and communion with him You have had for some good while together a succession of faithful and painful Ministers who rightly divided the word of Truth When some other places were comparatively in darkness you dwelt in Goshen a place of light Keep therefore an holy suspicion and jealousie over your hearts and lives lest you be found guilty of receiving the grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6.1 And to that end let me beseech you often to read and meditate with seriousness and self-application upon these awakening Texts Mat. 11.20 21 22 23 24. 2 Cor. 4.3 4 5 6. 2. Consult your late experiences of the goodness of God That was a special preservation which I would have you to keep fresh in your Memories and constantly to retain the sense of it upon your hearts When it pleased the Lord in the late dreadful year to contend with the Nation by the destroying Pestilence you were as a fire-brand pluckt out of the burning You were exposed to the contagion as well as other places where it violently raged Nay more upon several accounts than some other Towns which it laid almost desolate And the Lord was pleased only to give you thereby an awakening call to Repentance and to suffer the destroying Angel to proceed no further One house amongst you was infected and it swept away all that dwelt therein
by way of Introduction let us now proceed to the Explication of the matter it self The question is this Qu. What are we to understand by a persons Vnion with the Lord Jesus Or How may a man be said to be united unto the Son and so to have the Son Ans To this Question I shall answer two ways by 1. Distinction 2. Description 1. By way of Distinction Our Lord Jesus himfelf in the Sermons which he preached hath made mention of a twofold union with him or of two ways how men and women may be in him 1. By way of visible Profession or external adbaesion only as a dead branch or sprig is in the Tree though it nothing partake of the sap derived from the root as a glass eye or wooden leg is in the body though they do not partake of life with the body in any degree whatsoever 2. By way of spiritual ingrafture and implantation when they are in Christ so as to be quickned by Christ and receive nourishment from him as a living fruit-bearing slip or sience is ingraffed into the stock This distinction you have John 15.1 2. I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Which words are a parable wherein 1. Christ compareth himself to a Vine and it is a very pat comparison both in regard of the mear â—â—ness and lowness of his outward appearance having no form and comeliness that he should be desired in that respect as the vine is the most desplicable in outward view among st the Trees of the garden And in regard of his real worth and excellency although the vine hath no beautiful shape yet it is a very useful and excellent plant so the Lord Jesus is the chiefest of ten thousands he is indeed a plant of renown But principally Christ is here resembled to a vine in regard of the sustentation of the branches and the juicy influence that from him is imparted unto the branches it is by Christ they are upheld and by communications from him they are maintained 2. God the father is likened to the Husbandman by whom the vine is planted and dressed by commission from whom Christ was sent upon his work and furnished with all things requisite thereunto and by whom persons are graffed into him 3. And persons in the visible Churches are signified by the branches in the Vine Of which saith our Saviour there are two sorts some that are dead and withered and others which are living and bring forth fruit And both of them may be said to be in him the one sort by way of profession the other by way of spiritual implantation Every branch in me that beareth not fruit c. I will open this distinction in each of the members of it 1. There is Union with Christ or a being in Christ by way of common Profession or outward adhaerence only when yet they have no saving interest in him or benefit by him Thus all that own the Christian Religion and have a shew of godliness are in him though perhaps they have nothing of the life and substance of godliness They are said to be in his Kingdom in the Church which is his Body and out of that Kingdom they shall be gathered and cast into Hell Mat. 13.41 The Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend Regnum Christi 1. Oecumenieum Oeconomicuin and them which do iniquity not only out of the world in general but out of the visible Church the Mediators Kingdom and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Statim parebunt Christo summo Judici messores Ecclesiae purgatores tollent enim è regno Christi omnia offendicula Marl. in loc As carnal Professors are said to be sanctified through Christ so in a like sence it may be said they are in Christ You read expresly of their being sanctified by the blood of the Covenant who yet drew back unto perdition and trampled that blood under their feet Heb. 10.29 Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy of who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing i.e. There is a sanctification to the purifying of the flesh and a sanctification to the purifying of the conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.13 14. The sanctification external to the purifying of the flesh consisteth in the mans separation from the world and dedication unto God's service by calling and Covenant common to all the members of the visible Church c. Dicks whereby he was separated and set apart from the Heathen and worshippers of false gods and taken amongst the professed people and servants of Christ this I take to be the genuine import of the place for it is an evident allusion to the blood of the Sacrifice sprinkled on the whole body of the Israelites whereby they were sanctified and set apart unto the Lord or as a token of their covenanting with the Lord although with many of them God was not well-pleased they continued weltring in their sins under the power of their unbelief and other wickednesses notwithstanding Now as they are sanctified by Christ so in a like sence it may be said they are in him they belong to him as his disciples and followers by way of profession See Joh. 6.66 Concerning which Union with Christ by way of common profession or external adhaesion only I will intreat you to mind these four Positions 1. Position 1. The principal bonds or ligaments whereby this union is made up by which persons are thus knit unto Christ do mainly consist of four things 1. An approbation or acknowledgment of the doctrines of Christianity 2. An external subjection to the Ordinances of Christ 3. Some common workings upon their hearts and spirits 4. A measure of reformation in their lives and conversations Let us a little touch upon them severally 1. The first bond of this Union by way of external adhaesion is an approbation and acknowledgment of the doctrines of Christianity so as to assent unto the truth and confess at least the goodness and excellency of them so as to close with them in opposition to all contrary ways of Religion It is not enough to the establishment of this Union that a man doth hear the word of Christ so may a Heathen do out of curiosity so may a Jew or Mahometan to blaspheme and cavil but at least there must be some kind of reception and approbation of the word Thus the carnal Professors of whom the Apostle maketh mention for of such he speaketh under the name of Jew's Rom. 2.17 18 21. It was this which made them Jews outwardly
quodam modo conceditur non electis Ames When he doth take salvation in the offers of it and lay it before the conscience and doth press an acceptance of it upon the heart and doth strive with men and women in order to a closure with it upon Gospel-terms This is sometimes called a knocking at the door of the soul Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me By the door understand the heart of a sinner whereby entrance is made into the whole person and possession took as a man entreth into an house by the door the heart which is naturally shut against Christ nay barred and bolted against him by vain thoughts and vile affections and carnal reasonings by pride and prejudice and love of sin and the world Now to this door Christ cometh by the Spirit who acteth in his name and knocketh at the door that is he doth argue and reason the case with mens souls by his internal motions that they would accept of salvation as it is offered He doth expostulate with them why they will be so foolish as to spend their time and strength in seeking after that which is not bread and cannot satisfie And in order to move them to turn to God he doth set salvation before them and assureth them of the enjoyment of it if they will submit to the government of Jesus Christ If any man open the door I will come in unto him c. This I call an internal-conditional application because it is an inward work of the Spirit treating with the heart of a sinner And pray mind it Sirs as it is a common thing so it is a very dangerous thing to stand out against this application of eternal life When the holy Ghost hath been dealing with a mans heart convincing him of the necessity of closing with Christ and he doth break through such convictions God doth many times withdraw the very strivings of his spirit from such a sinner and never dealeth with him further in order to his conversion Prov. 1.23 Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you It is the speech of Christ the eternal Wisdom of God inviting sinners to repentance q.d. I do not only call upon you by my Word but I will send the holy Ghost to treat with you He shall speak over to your consciences what the Minister preacheth in your ears And what is the issue of rejecting this work of the holy Ghost See v. 24. and onward Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsels and would none of my reproof I also well laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind That is when judgments which you were afraid of shall actually seize upon you and make you desolate when the wrath of God shall fall down upon you suddenly in a dreadful and terrible manner When distress and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me How is this to be understood seeing God is alwayes found of such as seek him in sincerity Why the meaning seemeth to be this God will withdraw his spirit and deal with their hearts no further and then they will grow hard and impenitent and though they cry in their afflictions yet it will only be the cry of hypocrities such as the Lord will have no manner of regard unto O my brethren let this dreadful Scripture and these awakening expressions sink deep into your ears that you may not dare to resist the holy Ghost or to send him grieved away from you 3. There is an effectual saving application of the benefits of redemption when they are so applyed to us as to be made ours so that we may say this promise is a part of my heritage and the other mercy is that which I have an interest in And this is effected upon our union with Christ When the holy Ghost doth not only shew us his excellency and propound unto us salvation through his righteousness but doth also mightily prevail upon us to come unto Christ and we get into him then we have a right to all that he hath to bestow upon the sons and daughters of men First we must have the Son and so a right to the inheritance by the Son 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption Mark it Then he is made so to us when we are in him It is one thing for Christ to be made wisdom and righteousness c. i.e. to be set apart as the store-house of all these spiritual good things and it is another thing for him to be made so to us By vertue of God's commission and the qualifications poured out upon the Lord Jesus and that active and passive obedience undertaken and performed by him he is made wisdom and righteousness and fanctification and redemption he is delegated to be God's high-steward or Treasurer for the giving out of these mercies he is become the source and fountain of all saving grace But when we are in him he is made wisdom to us and righteousness to us and sanctification to us and redemption to us so that we are actually made partakers of them These four things seem to comprehend the whole of the provisions made to conduct a sinner to glory 1. Wisdom for the revelation of the mind of God to us 2. Righteousness for our acceptation with the Lord. 3. Sanctification for inabling us to walk as a peculiar people and for carrying on the work of holiness to perfection 4. Redemption for our full deliverance from misery and compleating our happiness And all these are made over to us by vertue of our union with him our mystical oneness with Christ So much for opening the several branches of the Description and for the second general Head concerning the nature of this Union wherein it doth consist CHAP. V. The manner how Christ and a Believer are united cleared up in eight gradual Propositions Six of them insisted on 3. COme we now to the third principal Head propounded to be handled touching the manner of this Union how it is brought about The question is Qu. How is this Vnion wrought and accomplished After what manner is this conjunction made up whereby Christ and his people become one Ans I shall return answer to this question by laying down and enlarging upon eight distinct and gradual Propositions To which I must intreat your heedful and diligent attendance 1. Propos 1. The first Proposition is this That all the children of men
at the same time make his entrance in their whole persons and take seizin and possession of all their powers and faculties unto his use and service The plian meaning is this that the work of sanctification is a through-work wrought upon the whole man there is grace infused into every part and faculty As in the work of mortification all the habits of corruption are subdued so in the work of renovation or vivification all the seeds of holiness are introduced the whole man is purified as Christ is pure The common gifts of the Spirit are bestowed many times singly and apart one from the other but special sanctifying graces are planted together This I lay down that you may not deceive yourselves in this matter by thinking Christ is in you when you are strangers unto him There is great proness in us to mistake upon this account and to flatter our selves in this case for some common workings upon the heart to conclude that saving grace is planted in the heart And therefore mind what I say to prevent this self-cozenage that where a person is cleansed savingly and effectually there is an universal purification of the whole man and all the graces in the seed of them are infused together As all old things pass away so every thing is made new 2 Cor. 5.17 The understanding is renewed with saving knowledge of the mind of God and the will is brought into a blessed subjection to the will of God the conscience is furnished anew with tenderness and faithfulness the affections are renewed by being turned into their right channel and pointed upon their right objects love and delight upon God and hatred and sorrow towards sin and what is displeasing unto the Lord the heart is principled anew with sincerity and singleness and truth put into the inward parts the memory is made a treasury and store-house of good things and the body is fitted to be subservient unto the soul in wayes of holiness Thus I might run over the several branches of this work There is vigour and activity put into the soul to do the will of God commanding and patience to suffer and be contented under the will of God disposing there is the grace of moderation to guide in prosperity and the grace of faith to support under affliction and trouble and the man is prepared and fitted unto every good word and work 1 Thes 5.23 And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole soul and spirit and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Mark it Sirs the work of sanctification is a very extensive and diffusive work it leaveneth the whole man both the inserior and superior faculties of the soul the animal and the rational powers and the body likewise So that it is not some slight trouble upon the conscience for sin or a little touch upon the affections or inclinations towards the Kingdom of God that will evidence you to be sanctified for sanctification ingageth the whole man in an holy compliance with the wayes of holiness and the interest of Jesus As a partial repentance in the exercise of it which striketh at some sins only and leaveth a man in the allowance of others is but a feigned repentance so partial workings upon the heart are but common workings they will not amount to saving grace Jer. 3.10 When Christ entereth by his Spirit into any of the children of men he doth take possession of them wholly and set up his residence in every part and faculty 3. In this work of the entrance of the Spirit into to a mans soul whereupon Christ is said to be in him and to dwell with him and possession is taken for his use and service the soul of that man is altogether passive My meaning is this It is not in the power of any person upon the earth to plant grace in his own soul or to confer the habits of holiness upon himself nor doth he contribute any active assistance in the performance of it but is wholly wrought upon by the mighty power of God and the effectual operation of the holy Ghost We are apt to imagine that it is in our own power to make a saving change within our selves that we can convert and turn to God at any time and repent when we please As Luther said in point of merit there is a Pope in every mans belly so may I say in this case there is a tang of Pelagianism in every mans heart and hence it is they take incouragement to procrastinate and delay in the matters of salvation they think they can repent when they will if it be but upon their death-bed But Sirs it must be a day of power that maketh you willing A as if God should give you up unto your selves you would perish for ever in your unregeneracy The planting grace in the heart is a turning the course of corrupted nature it is as a quickning the dead it is a creating and infusing of how principles into a man * Opus hoc conversionis sive duobus effici non potest Uno a quo fit altero in quo fit Deus est â—â—tor salâ—â—is liberum arbitrium tantum capax Bern. Observetur in primo actu veluntatis qui procedit à gratia praeveniente voluntatem esse motam non moventem Aquin. prima secundae q. 111. of which there is nothing in us by nature but a contrariety and repugnancy thereunto Eph. 2.5 Even when we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together with Christ And v. 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works So that it is not mans free will but God's free grace and his infinite power by which it is wholly wrought and to him alone doth belong the glory of it 4. Although we are wholly passive in this work of regeneration or planting grace into our hearts whereby Christ entereth into and taketh possession of us and we contribute no manner of active affistance therein yet there is something required at our hands in order to the attainment of this grace and that we may be made partakers thereof This is well to be noted that it may prevent our abuse of this doctrine and that we may not turn the grace of God into negligence and slothfulness For will sinners be apt to argue thus if it be God alone by his infinite power who can imprint grace upon our hearts and this he doth without our concurrent assâ—stance then we may fit still and let the Lord perform his own work if he please to convert and sanctifie us we shall be converted and if not all our indeavours are to no purpose But Sirs this is to pervert the grace of the covenant God forbid there should be such cursed inferences drawn from this excellent doctrine although it tendeth to advance and magnifie the free grace and power of God yet it gives no manner of incouragement to the
touching the way to Christ and I go to that Minister to direct me in following after him I leave no stone unturned no means unassayed And if I get but a glimpse of his favour I think all my endeavours well bestowed O how welcome is he to my soul With what unspeakable rejoycing doth it fill me So that I can boast of Christ all the day long How careful am I to preserve my fellowship with him that no clouds for the future may interpose betwixt me and the beams of that Sun of righteousness I might dwell upon the passages of this nature in that book I will but point you to them See the Churches as earnest pantings after Christ as the Hart panteth after the water-brooks cap. 8.1 2 3 4. And her description of him and holy exultation upon the account of her interest in such a Lord and Husband cap. 5.9 10 11 15 Wherein the close of all is observable v. 16. His mouth is most sweet yea he is altogether lovely This is my beloved and this is my friend O ye Daughters of Jerusalem q. d. He is the object matter of my whole affections there is none in heaven but Christ nor any thing upon the earth to be loved and desired in comparison with him He is most worthy to be beloved who cannot but admire such a gracious Redeemer Do not wonder that my heart is so set upon him for he is altogether lovely If you knew but Christ as well as I it would inflame your hearts in desires after him it would even ravish your Spirits in the contemplation of his beauty Never is it possible for any to be so blessed as those who have him for their friend So upon the other hand for the affection of Christ to believers he hath them graven upon the palms of his hands upon the very Tables of his heart Cant. 2.14 O my dove that art in the clefts of the rocks in the secret places of the stairs let me see thy countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely q. d. Thou that art despised amongst men but highly regarded in my sight preserved by my power and righteousness which is stable as the rock that can never be removed I have provided secure fortifications to preserve thee when thou art hunted and persecuted on every hand Come now and let us converse together for therein I take pleasure Mark it nothing is so welcome to Jesus Christ as the voice and countenance of his Saints If they do but chatter as a Crane or Swallow * Isa 38.14 it is as lovely Songs unto him If they send but a sigh or a groan up to heaven it is a refreshment to his Spirit * Jer. 31.18 20. If they offer but a mite it is a sweet oblation before him because of the love which he beareth unto them Whereas the incense of the wicked is but as dung in his sight and the best of their sacrifices but as the cutting off a dogs neck or the offering of swines bloud that is odious and abominable such as his soul hateth See another place to this purpose Cap. 4.9 and so forward Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck How fair is thy love my Sister my Spouse How much better is thy love than wine and the smell of thine ointments than all spices Thy lips O my Spouse drop as the honey-comb honey and milk are under thy tongue and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon But I must forbear only remember what was hinted in the proposition that this intimate love between believers and Christ may be well improved as an evidence of their ingrafture into Christ This moral union may be produced as a proof of the mystical union For he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4.16 And that it may be of use to this end our love to Christ whereby we are knit to him morally must have these four properties It must be 1. A sincere love 2. A serviceable active love 3. A superlative love 4. A love of complacency and satisfaction 1. It must be a sincere and single hearted affection without dissimulation and hypocrisie when the heart of a Christian goeth out after Christ himself and for himself when our love to him is kindled by the contemplation of his own innate worth and excellencies and the spiritual blessings which he hath purchased There may be a kinde of love to Christ for the leaves sake a following after him for some outward advantage When Religion is countenanced to be amongst the servants of Christ is a matter of honour and repute in the eyes of men it may help to advance a mans secular interest and many come after him moved by such considerations But now the heart of a believer is fixed upon Christ for himself though nothing but frowns from men should follow their cleaving unto him although it were likely to bring disgrace and reproach along with it and to expose them to sorrows and sufferings upon every side yet their souls are resolved to have Christ * Id propter se expeti dicitur quod quamvis habeat extra se commoda sepositie quoque ill is ac remot is placet Sen de Benefic with all the incumbrances that attend the possession of him Hereunto the promise is made Eph. 6.24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity i.e. in simplicity and incorruptness having a single aim at the enjoyment of himself 2. It must be a serviceable and active love such as sets a man a doing to advance the glory of Christ by a chearful obedience to his Commandments that maketh him study and contrive how to please the Lord Jesus Such a love as restraineth from the evil of sin whereby Christ is grieved and dishonored Such as constraineth unto holiness and causeth a man to take delight and pleasure in doing the will of Christ from the heart The passion of love Sirs is an active passion that will set the whole man a work to please the party beloved it will make him indefinite to all intents and purposes to all sorts of services and nothing will seem burdensome upon that account John 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them saith our Saviour he it is that loveth me 1 John 5.3 For this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous The grace of love hath a facilitating vertue it maketh difficult things easie and sweetens the whole course of obedience When a man hath a dear affection for Christ he will do any thing and suffer any thing for his sake he will not be afraid to own him in the face of the world though it may cost him all that is dear to him besides 1 John 4.17 18. Herein is
they also may be one in us Not only in Jesus the Mediator but in the Father likewise by means of their being in Jesus So 1 Thess 1.1 Unto the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ It was the end of Christ's sufferings in the flesh that he might bring sinners unto God and by vertue of their union with the Son they are actually brought unto him and knit unto the Father also O what a wonderful advancement is this to sinful dust and ashes To poor despicable creatures that dwell in houses of clay With what astonishment should it fill us What a spring-head of all manner of consolation is here Who would not be a Christian not only almost but altogether Who would not have fellowship and hold a correspondency with the Saints For truly their fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ as the Apostle mentioneth it by way of gloriation and boasting 1 Joh. 1.3 This is the sixth fundamental blessing By having the Son they have the Father also 7. A Believers union with Christ is the ground of all that peace and joy in the holy Ghost which putteth true gladness into the heart and life and sweetness into every condition and providence The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment and the pleasures of sin are poor empty external pleasures In the midst of laughter the heart is in bitterness they have many a secret griping of conscience that spoileth their mirth and many a fearful surprizal upon their spirits that marreth all their jollity Let them be set in the midst of their riotings and revellings their banquettings and carowsings amidst all the content and pleasure that sin and the world can afford and one serious thought of judgment to come will overturn it wholly one flash of hell in the conscience will put an end to their rejoycings It will quickly befal them as it befel Belshazzar The appearance but of the likeness of a mans fingers upon the wall made his countenance change and his thoughts trouble him and the joints of his loyns to be loosed and his knees to smite one against another and that when he was in the top of his gallantry and in the height of his merriment Dan. 5.5 6. O thinks the poor carnal wretch what will become of my precious and immortal soul Can all these enjoyments deliver me from the pit of destruction Who can dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 33.14 But the people of God have such peace as passeth understanding such a sweet calm and tranquillity in their spirits that they can rejoyce with joy unspeakable even in the midst of afflictions The joy of the ungodly is worse than sorrow It is but a fit of madness proceeding from ignorance of the state they are in If they knew but their own condition it would fill them with vexation and horror and anguish of heart But great peace have they that fear the Lord and are in Covenant with him * Meditationes rerum divinarum voluptates sensus non tantum potestate sed etiam suavitate superant Bacon de sap Veter nothing shall offend them Psal 119.165 Their portion is peace peace that is perfect peace nothing but peace and serenity which will put gladness into the heart greater than the joy of harvest Isa 26.3 And pray whence doth this peace arise Why originally from their union with Christ All peace out of him will end in sadness it is but as the crackling of thornes under a pot In him our consolation is stored up and given forth by vertue of our conjunction with him Joh. 16.33 These things have I spoken to you that in me ye might have peace If any of the children of God are under disquietness and perplexities upon their spirits it is for want of the evidences of their union with Christ or through their neglect of the right improvement thereof For here is a fountain to fill up a Believers joy Joh. 15.11 These things have I spoken to you that my joy might remain with you and that your joy might be full What were those things which Christ had spoken to them It was the doctrine of a Believers ingrafture into him and abiding in him and the consequents and concomitants thereof in the sormer part of that Chap. So that no union with Christ no solid peace or satisfaction in the soul no true joy in the Spirit For all manner of consolation and revivings from him depend upon our oneness with him 8. It is a believers union with the Lord Jesus which giveth him deliverance from the sting and curse of death and consequentially from the fear of that king of terrors It is this conjunction with the Son which maketh the last change to be a comfortable and happy exchange that altereth the nature of death from a curse into a blessing So that a Christian is able to bid it welcome and to look it in the face with boldness it being disarmed as far as it is an enemy and having the venom and malignity taken out of it This is a very precious and unvaluable mercy For it is the fear of death which keepeth sinners all their life time in bondage and puts a kind of Coloquintida into every enjoyment O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that is at ease to every impenitent sinner There is a terribleness to the unregenerate in the apprehensions of death upon every account But as it is the passage unto eternity it is the greatest of terrors Job 18.14 Mark it I say there is a dread in the thoughts of it every way Death may be considered in a threefold respect 1. As it is a dissolution between the soul and the body as it parts and separates those ancient friends which have long conversed intimately together And thus it startleth a sinner to think of leaving his old habitation having no better provided in the stead of it But a Believer can triumph in this respect and say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.1 If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2. If you consider it as it is a period and puts an end to all worldly accommodations so it cannot but perplex a sinner The place of his habitation shall know him no more he shall be then stripped and divested of whatever earthly comforts have been dear unto him His heart is glewed unto the world and what anguish and bitterness must it needs create to think of being taken from all But now a child of God hath something to counterballance this loss even a better and far more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 3. As death is a passage unto eternity so it is dreadful indeed O thinks the sinner what will become of my soul for ever When I go hence and be no more upon the Land of the living into what chains of
Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day This is the first thing to be noted 2. For the winning over a sinner to become the Lord Christ's and to surrender up himself into his hands He doth first treat with the sinner to that purpose and doth intreat and perswade him to accept of the grace of the Gospel Just for all the world as it is in order to marriage first the party is wooed before the contract is made so Christ doth woo the soul to become his Spouse and to accept him for an husband To this end he imployeth his Ministers to intreat sinners in his name and sends his Spirit to deal with their hearts and to propound the match unto them Such is his gracious condescension towards fallen man that although the whole benefit of this union redound unto us yet he is pleased to beseech us to close with him 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only free grace and abundant grace but 〈…〉 〈…〉 with salvation unto the children of men so he doth seek unto them and earnestly beseech and intreat them to accept the offers of salvation Gen. 9.27 God shall perswade Japhet * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alliciet scilicet ut suo tompore ad cultum Dei tentoria Shem i. e. Ecclesiam accedat Fut. per Apoc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hiph pellexit allexit c. Buxtorf so the word signifieth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. Mark it The Church of Christ for some ages was well neer confined to the posterity of Shem Abraham and his seed came out of the loyns of Shem. And by Japhet understand the Gentiles who were his off-spring for by them were the Islands of the Gentiles possessed Now saith the Spirit of God the time will come that the Gentiles shall be gathered unto Christ they shall be brought into the Church How or by what means will this be so brought to pass why Christ will woo them and treat with them he will perswade them effectually and prevail by his perswasions 3. In pursuance of this comparison note further That our faith in Christ which is the uniting grace whereby we are joyned to him and made one with him is The consenting of our hearts to take Christ for our Redeemer as he doth tender himself to us and the resignation or giving up our selves into his hands As in the business of marriage it is the consent of parties that makes it The proposal being made the woman accepteth of such a man to be her Husband and accordingly giveth up her self unto him 〈…〉 gether Thus it is in the transactions of matters between Christ and the Church we are contracted to him by our consent to be his and taking him to be our Lord and husband Cant. 2.16 My beloved is mine and I am his Wilt thou have me for thy Husband and Saviour upon the terms of the Gospel saith Christ by his Spirit unto the sinner O Lord answereth the sinner through grace I will I give my full consent and surrender up my self unto thee and thus they are united Therefore it is the great complaint of Christ that he cometh to sinners and they will not accept him Joh. 1.11 He came unto his own and his own received him not Joh. 5.40 And ye will not come unto me that ye might have life And it is said of the Christians of Macedonia when they believed in Jesus they gave themselves unto the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 4. This consent of the heart to be the Lord Christ's and acceptance of him for our Redeemer if it be such as uniteth us to him and maketh us one with him must be a marriage-consent and acceptance My meaning is It must be so qualified and circumstantiated as is required in the consent of persons when they are married togeâ—her That is to say It must have these three properties It must be 1. A present consent and acceprance 2. A full and hearty consent and acceptance 3. An entrie and indefinite consent and acceptance 1. It must be a present acceptance of Christ and closure with him and not only a promise for the future to take him hereafter and to submit to him in time to come For as Casuists and Civilians observe though promises for the future leave an obligation upon the parties promising yet they do not make up a marriag-contract that must be in words de praesenti So when sinners ingage hereafter to give up themselves to the Lord Jesus although it will add to their sin and condemnation to live in the neglect of performing such ingagements yet they are not thereby united unto Christ but still abide under the wrath of God If we would be made one with him we must immediately give up our selves unto him and take him to be our Lord and Saviour Psal 16.1 2. Preserve me O God for in thee do I put my trust O my soul thou hast said to the Lord thou art my Lord. Psal 116.16 O Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant It is not said I will become thy servant hereafter when I have a convenient season and then I will obey thee and put my trust in thee but I thy servant I thy servant q. d. Here am I ready to set upon any service I enter my self now into thy service to abide with thee henceforward even for ever 1 Cor. 7.22 He that is called being free is the servant of Christ If he be effectually called if he answer the invitation of the Gospel he must ingage without delay in Christ's work For it is the present time which is the time of acceptance and the present day which is the day of salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 And the truth is Sirs that bare promises for the future are so far from uniting us to the Son that they are nothing else but the sly endeavours of the heart to put a cheat upon Christ It is by such hypocritical promises that when sinners are convinced of the necessity of closing with Christ they do break through such convictions and get from under the power of them When conscience presseth them hard this is the answer whereby they stop the mouth of conscience hereafter they will become obedient to the Gospel But be not deceived Christ will not be dallyed with but all persons shall know that he searcheth the hearts and the reins and is able to see through their dissimulation and hypocrisie and he will give to every one according to their works Rev. 2.23 2. It must be a full and hearty consent and acceptance with the whole soul of a man It is not a faint wishing and woulding after Christ that will give us an interest in him but
Christ's mind is placed and act in the like manner as his acteth Their hearts must be moulded into the same frame with his heart and so I might instance throughout the whole man Christ must be formed in them Gal. 4.19 And Phil. 2.5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus They must be so clothed with his divine qualities that it may be said they have put on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13.14 2. There must be conformity to the sufferings of his death in a spiritual sense As Christ died for sin so Believers must die unto sin As our Lord Jesus was put to a painful lingring and ignominious death in like sort must their corruptions be mortified and killed For Mark it Sirs The death and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus is not only the meritorious cause through which sin is mortified and a strong evangelical reason why it should be mortified but it is also the pattern and exemplar according to which it is done In the very same way and manner as Christ was put to death for us so are our lusts and corruptions to be crucified within us Hereby we are rendred conformable unto his death Phil. 3.9 and planted together into the â—â—keness of his death Rom. 6.5 3. There must be conformâ—y to the Lord Jesus in his resurrection and ascension into heaven As he rose again from the dead and went up into heaven never to return to corruption any more so must the hearts of believers be raised unto spiritual objects and their affections set upon things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Col. 3.1 Their hearts must be withdrawn from sin and the world never to be ingaged upon them any more but they must live as persons that are revived and made partakers of a new life Rom. 6.4 As he was raised from the dead by the glory of the father even so must we also walk in newness of life 4. Believers must be made conformable unto Christ in the holiness of his conversation They must tread in his steps doing the same work as he did and acting upon the same principles and motives as he acted upon and carrying on the same designs as Christ carried on and serving the Lord in the like manner with cheerfulness delight and alacrity as he served him Eph. 5.2 Walk in love as Christ also loved us And Rom. 15.1 2 3. We ought not to please our selves but every one his neighbour for his good to edification for Christ also pleased not himself c. 5. They must expect to be made conformable to Christ in the troubles and persecutions that befel him upon the earth Therefore it is called a suffering with him that is the same things and in like manner as he suffered Rom. 8.17 If we will be faithful unto Christ we must look to meet with the like usage as he met with and to go through many tribulations into the Kingdom of God This is the second thing to be noted under this comparison 3. According to the purport and tenour of this similitude taken from the foundation and the building Our faith which is the uniting grace is a resting upon Christ and his righteousness The stones are joyned to the foundation by being laid upon it and there resting So when we lay the stress of our salvation upon Christ and cast our burden upon him and there stay our selves as upon a rock thereby we are united unto Jesus and made one with him By nature we are as rough unpolished stones in a quarry without any relation to Christ Now the work of conviction may be compared to the unsettling of these stones and humiliation and legal terrors upon the heart are the hewing of these stones By the first they are removed out of the Quarry and by the other their ruggedness is pared away The grace of conversion is as the fitting and polishing the stones for the building and faith is a putting them upon the foundation and their resting upon it As by the cement of love the stones are coupled one to another so by faith they are knit unto the foundation By the Spirit they are brought unto Christ and so stay upon him Isa 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant and walketh in darkness and hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God Rom. 9.33 Behold I lay in Sion stumbling stone and rock of offence and whosoever believeth on him shall not be confounded Mark it As Christ is a foundation to his people so he is a rock of offence to them that are disobedient they split themselves against this rock they stumble and fall and are broken in pieces If you would be saved by him you must by faith rest upon this foundation For whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded 1 Pet. 2.4 5. To whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house c. See likewise Eph. 2.21 22. This is all that I shall speak under the sixth general Head for the illustration of this Mystery of Union with Christ by those similitudes which the holy Ghost hath made choice of to this purpose That which remains further is the Application of the Point CHAP. X. Inferences drawn from the Doctrine of Union with Christ The excellency and dignity of Believers The peculiarity of the providence of God towards them The miserable estate of Christless sinners FOr Application or practical improvement of this Doctrine I will manage it under these three Heads By way of 1. Information 2. Examination 3. Exhortation 1. By way of Information What are the practical Inferences which may be deduced from this Point of a Believers union with the Son of God and the necessity thereof I will not aim at the ingrossing of all that might be taken in upon this fruitful and spiritual subject Only I shall select these three Inferences which naturally arise from what hath been delivered 1. If believers are united unto Christ and made one with him in order to their salvation then hence I gather That they are the most honourable and most excellent persons upon the face of the earth Why Because they are united unto the Son of God and accordingly they should have the greatest esteem of us and be most precious and lovely in our eyes It is the character of a man that shall see the Lord in Sion that he contemneth a vile person but he honoureth them that fear the Lord Psal 15.1 4. Now here is that which maketh them right honourable above all their fellow-creatures they are intimately joyned unto Christ So that the Saints which are in the earth are the excellent of the earht Psal 16.3 more excellent than their neighbours than all that dwell round about them Prov. 12.26 You know the excellency or worthlessness of any
hominem quem non tellat atque perimat Dominus ut suos conservet Calv. in loc Rather than lose but one of those who are in Christ he will destroy and pluck up whole nations before him He will strike through kings in the day of his wrath and wound the heads over many Countreys Psal 110.5 6. 4. The peculiarity of providence doth appear in this That many outward enjoyments are given to the ungodly and they are set on high for Believers sakes Not that God hath delight in the wicked or is a countenancer of their evil wayes but therefore he doth prosper and advance them because he intends to use them for the good of his Servants Either to exercise their faith and patience and to purge away their dross or sometimes to shelter them from the rage of others It was for Jacob's sake that corn was laid up in Egypt Gen. 45.7 It was for Israel's sake that Cyrus was advanced to the Empire and the treasures of darkness given to him Isa 45.3 4. Your great Statesmen little think of this Their design is by the advancement of persons to make their party strong or to please a friend or to carry on their secular interest one way or other But God over-ruleth all for his peoples sake Unto whom he hath a peculiar regard in all things that are brought to pass under the Sun And no marvel for they are in Christ married unto him and acaccordingly God hath a respect unto them This is the second Inference 3. The last Inference which I mainly intended to inlarge upon is this If there be an indispensable necessity of Union with the Son in order to the partaking of life through him Then the state of all unconverted sinners whatsoever before they are knit unto Christ by the spirit of regeneration taking hold on their persons and working faith in them to take hold on the Lord Jesus is a dead estate For till they are ingraffed into the Son they can have no life from him He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life i. e. he is stark dead utterly dead This is one of the expressions which the holy Ghost hath singled out to set forth the wretchedness and misery of a person in the state of unregeneracy before he is brought unto Christ He is not only defiled with sin but dead in sin Not only in a condition like that of the man that fell amongst thieves in his journey from Jerusalem to Jericho Luk. 10.30 as some would bear us in hand who wounded him and left him half dead But he is quite dead without any spark of spiritual life remaining in him By our Apostacy we brought our selves into a dead condition * Propheta dicit Anima quae peccat ipsa morietur Quamvis mortem ejus non ad interitum substantiae sentiamus Sed hoc ipsum quia aliena extorris sit à Deo qui vera vita est mors ei esse credenda est Orig. and till we are united to Christ we are unavoidably shut up in that condition The Son is the fountain of life unto lost sinners and there is no reception of life from the Son without having the Son And therefore the conversion of a sinner is not as the recovery of a sick man out of his distemper but as the raising of a dead man out of the grave Joh. 5.24 25. It is a passing from death to life For as it is v. 25. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live It is meant of a spiritual resurrection of the first resurrection and the raising of the body is afterwards produced as an evidence of the mighty power of God whereby he is able to work this wonderful change upon the soul v. 28 29. My brethren When a godly man dieth he shall live that is when his body is dead his soul shall live in the presence of Christ and see the face of God in glory but an unregenerate person whilst he liveth is dead that is whilst he liveth the life of nature and the life of sense and the life of reason he is dead spiritually And it must needs be so because he is separated from Christ who is the fountain of life What is said of the widow that liveth in pleasures is true of every impenitent sinner He is dead whilst he liveth 1 Tim. 5.6 How or in what respect you will say are unconverted sinners dead I answer In a fivefold respect viz. In respect of 1. Abomination in the sight of God 2. The putrefaction and rottenness of that condition 3. Utter impotency and inability to what is spiritually good 4. Damnation or liableness to eternal death 5. The abundant evils incident to or the perfect wretchedness of that condition 1. The state of all Christless unconverted sinners is a state of death in point of loathsomness and abomination in the sight of God You know that dead carkasses are loathsom unto the living though a person hath been never so neer and dear to us yet when they are dead we cannot endure their presence Let me bury my dead saith Abraham out of my sight Thus the unregenerate are dead God loaths and abhorreth them and all that is done by them They are as smoak in his nostrils as dead stinking carrion in his sight Prov. 3.32 For the froward is an abomination to the Lord but his secret is with the righteous By the froward understand the wicked of all sorts for they are opposed to the righteous And indeed every ungodly man is perverse and froward in his wayes He riseth up against the light of his own conscience and resisteth the workings of the Spirit and is ready to rebel against the plain counsels of the word He is a prating fool as he is elswhere called his heart is finding fault with this command and cavilling at the other duty in all things he walketh cross to God and holiness and delighteth in crooked paths Let the Lord say what he will he hath some objections against it and is resolved to hold on his own course and therefore is justly called froward And what is the condition of such why they are an abomination to the Lord. I pray think of this you that live in any way of sin you that harbour any secret lust in your bosoms and hide it as a sweet morsel under your tongues and thereby evidence that you are not in Christ Remember I say though you may be rich and great and men may flatter you yet God abhorreth and detesteth you You may have high conceits of your selves but you are a burden to the Spirit of the living God and if you go on in those wayes he will quickly ease himself of you For he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal 5.5 O Sirs How should men hasten their escape out of this sad estate and adore the patience
that hath hitherto spared them and the infinite goodness of that God who still waiteth that he may shew mercy unto them Certainly it is wonderful long-suffering and powerful patience whereby the wrath of God is restrained from taking vengeance upon such Numb 14. v. 17 18. 2. Persons unregenerate and out of Christ are dead in respect of the putrefaction and rottenness of their condition A dead carkass the longer it lieth the more it putrefies and is corrupted so it is with impenitent sinners The longer they lye in their unconverted estate the worse they grow the more their spirits are setled in hatred against God and the greater is their forwardness and proneness to all sorts of abominations And therefore none are so hard to be wrought upon as old sinners that have spent the most part of their time in the service of the devil 2 Tim. 3.13 Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse For custom in sin doth naturally tend to strengthen the habits of sin * Suffocat hominem à veritate avertit abducit à vita est laqueus est barathrum est malum ventilabrum mala consuetudo As it is in any secular trade or imployment the more time a man spendeth in his Trade the more skill he getteth and the more handy he is at his work till he come to perfection in such an Art or Mystery So the more time a sinner spendeth upon his lusts the more cursed skill and wisdom he getteth to make provision for the flesh and to find out wayes to satisfie his lusts and evasions to break through convictions upon his conscience the more handy he groweth to commit any sort of wickedness so that in process of time he will turn a deaf ear unto counsel * Ex voluntate perversâ facta est consuetudo dum consuetudint non resistitur facta est necessitas Aug. conf You read of sinners compared to wild asses used to the wilderness And who can turn them away saith the holy ghost Jer. 2.24 q. d. They are grown obstinate in their rebellions formerly perhaps a reproof would have taken with them but now you had as good speak to a stock or a stone Continuance in sin taketh away the conscience of sin Formerly some workings of a natural conscience might put a stop to mens running to all excess of riot but when the bridle is broken whither will not a wicked man run So that my brethren it is a point of wisdom to seek unto God betimes and for persons that are in their youth to remember their Creator in the morning of their lives We are apt to cozen our selves by promises to repent hereafter when I have a convenient season saith the sinner I will make my peace with God and when I am in a better temper Nay but O vain man * Qui promittit poenitenti remissionem non promittit peccanti poenitentiam now is the most convenient season For besides the slipperiness and uncertainty of a mans dayes upon earth the longer thou liest in a course of sin the harder thine heart will grow and the faster hold will the devil get of thy soul So that deliver thy self as a roe from the hand of the hunter and as a bird from the snare of the fowler Give not sleep to thine eyes nor stumber to thine eye-lids Prov. 6.4 5. 3. Persons out of Christ are in a dead condition in respect of their impotency and inability to that which is spiritually good A dead person hath no power to perform the works of nature as eating and drinking and walking and discoursing and the like because he is dead Thus impenitent sinners are without strength unto the things of God Rom. 5.6 A sincere Christian is dead to sin and the unconverted are dead in sin they have no power of themselves to the works of holiness and righteousness In this sense I principally understand that place Eph. 2.5 Even when we were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickned us that is When all our spiritual abilities were gone If we had been left to our selves we should never have recovered out of our bondage and slavery but must have lain in it eternally without hopes of being delivered and then God came and breathed the Spirit of life into us And Sirs this should awaken us to cry mightily unto the Lord and never to give him rest till he steppeth in for our recovery This should cause us to take diligent heed that we quench not the motions of the Spirit nor provoke him to withdraw his workings from us for if he wholly depart we are undone irremediably I might under this head descend unto particulars by shewing you 1. That unconverted sinners have no power to turn their souls unto God nor to make a saving change upon their own spirits but this I have touched upon before 2. That they are without power to walk in the wayes of holiness or to perform one good action in an acceptable manner When the Lord himself took a view of all mankind in their apostatized condition he found not one that did good no not one Psal 14.2 3. And 3. That they are without strength to resist the temptations of the devil further than they are kept in by the restraining grace of God Satan leadeth them captive as he will 2 Tim. 2.26 As the heart of man is tainted with the principles of the most horrid abominations that ever were forbidden in the Scriptures so if God did not set bounds to the lusts that are within us we should quickly rush into the practise of them Sirs were it not for the restraining grace of the Almighty you would have been murderers as Cain and guilty of witchcraft as Manasses and have been as gross Idolaters as any of the Heathen Nay you would have sinned your selves before this time into hell or without the compass of the promise of mercy and forgiveness Surely this is not a condition wherein a person should quietly rest one moment for if God should pluck up the flood-gates whither would not the violent torrent of a mans corruptions carry him Deut. 18.10 11 12 13 14. I might have shewed you 4. That the unregenerate are so far from having any power by nature to turn themselves unto God or to serve him in truth and sincerity that their hearts are filled with enmity and hatred against God and his wayes and ready to fight against the means appointed to draw them heaven-ward Nay the carnal mind is enmity it self so it is expressed in the abstract Rom. 8.7 As if they were made up of nothing but venom and poyson and wrath and bitterness against God But I must not dwell upon these things The Lord press them upon your hearts and awaken you to follow hard after him and to take fast hold of him and never to let him go till he hath given you clear evidence of your freedom from this sad condition The Lord make you restless in your spirits
till you have secured your deliverance 4. An unregenerate sinner must needs be in a state of death because out of Christ who is the fountain of life and that in respect of condemnation or liableness to eternal death As we say of a malefactor when verdict is brought in against him and sentence is passed upon him to be executed He is a dead man dead in law and assoon as a writ for execution cometh forth to the Sheriff he will be actually put to death In this sense every unconverted sinner is dead legally dead that is He is condemned to be sent into everlasting burnings So that as the Egyptians said of themselves when their first-born were slain We be all dead men Exod. 12.23 The like sad message may I bring to every impenitent person amongst you Thou art a dead man or woman Verdict is past upon thee as guilty and sentence is gone forth against thee to be sent into the chains of darkness only thou art reprieved for a few moments and hitherto there hath been a respite of execution But let me tell thee if God should send a providence to take thee hence in this condition as for ought thou knowest he may do this night thou wouldest as certainly drop into hell and there lye for ever as now thou art upon the land of the living See a full proof of it Joh. 3.18 He that believeth not is condemned already Mark it although he be not actually damned yet he is already condemned and if he go on in his way it is impossible he should escape the damnation of hell How is he condemned already Why the Law of God hath pronounced sentence against him to be cast into prison till he have paid the uttermost farthing which will never be paid The sinner hath wronged and rebelled against an infinite Being and the Law doth sentence him to make a proportionable satisfaction Now seeing he cannot render a satisfaction infinite in worth and valuation he is condemned to torments infinite in duration This is the sentence passed upon the wicked and by reason of their unbelief this sentence stands unrepealed It remaineth in its full force and vigour against them they cannot plead the Gospel pardon for their discharge because that pardon is procured through the blood of Christ and given forth to none but such as are united to him If men were duly sensible hereof how would it disturb their carnal peace and cause their hearts to tremble They would not enjoy a quiet hour till they had made sure their acquital from this dreadful sentence They would not eat in quiet lest the next bit of bread they swallow down should stop their breath and prove as God's executioner to drag them into prison They could not sleep in quiet lest before the light of the morning their souls should be required and sent into the bottomless pit of destruction If this point were believed and laid to heart surely it would fill many closets and families full of complaints and cryings out more than if they were under the sorest temporal scourge How would mens retired chambers be filled with prayer and earnest desires after God to pluck them as fire-brands out of the burning What pains would they take to sue out their pardon in the blood of Christ What welcom entertainment would they give unto the Son of God when he cometh to offer life and salvation to them Exod. 12.30 There was a great cry in the land of Egypt for there was not an house where there was not one dead O my brethren If this doctrine were throughly weighed what a great cry would be heard in many places and Parishes where perhaps there are few houses wherein there are not several persons dead sentenced to be sent into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death How would mens bowels earn with pity towards their carnal relations who spend their dayes in rejoycings and are every moment in danger of dropping into hell What mad men should we reckon ungodly persons to be that go on in mirth and jollity or spend their time in heaping up the dross and rubbish of the earth when in the mean time they are persons dead in Law condemned to hell How many do hardly think a serious thought of eternity from one end of the week to the other when yet there is but a step between them and everlasting burnings But if this were considered how would they run from one Minister to another and from one Christian to another with that question What must I do to be saved I am a condemned person can you give me directions how to get the sentence repealed The Lord cause these things to sink deep into your hearts And a little to drive home this nail of doctrine I will mind you further of these two things 1. As Christless sinners are already condemned so the very glory of God is concerned in their damnation or in the execution of the sentence past upon them if they abide in that condition And that is a matter very dear unto him whereof he is exceeding tender and wherewith he will never part Isa 42.8 God made all creatures for his own glory and he will have it from them one way or other If you do not glorifie his free grace by closing with Christ and submitting unto him he will glorifie his justice and severity upon you in your everlasting banishment out of the presence of Christ It is observeable what is said in the case of Nadab and Abihu when they offered up strange fire which God commanded not and they were consumed in a dreadful manner with fire from heaven Lev. 10.3 Then Moses said unto Aaron this is that the Lord said I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified It is as much as if he had said This I am resolved upon that I will have glory from you one way or other If you do not honour me by a due observance of my word I will vindicate mine honour upon you by pouring down the vials of mine indignation So may I say in this case If you do not glorifie God actively in your conversations he will be glorified upon you in your confusion for this is that which he hath determined to have one way or other If you do not give glory to God by submitting to the terms on which salvation is offered you must of necessity be cast into outer darkness and God will glorifie his righteousness and truth and power and holiness in your utter destruction for by one means or other he will be glorified Rom. 9.22 23. 2. As impenitent sinners are dead in Law sentenced to hell and eternal death so if they go on still in their sins the infinite mercy of God will never save them from that sore ruine and desolation This is the constant refuge unto which they have recourse Be it that the Law condemneth them yet God
and should have been handled under that third particular Obj. The objection is this If unregenerate persons are thus dead in sins and have no power to that which is spiritually good either to turn themselves unto the Lord or to walk in wayes of holiness before the Lord To what purpose then doth he so frequently command them to turn unto him and to make their wayes perfect before him and to cleanse their hearts from wickedness if they have no power to do what is commanded Such injunctions you have often upon record in the Scriptures Ezek. 33.11 Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes for why will ye die O house of Israel Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved And Isa 1.16 Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes To what end now will you say are these injunctions laid upon the unconverted if they are stark dead in their sins and have no strength to do what is injoyned Sol. I answer These commandments do not import any spiritual strength in the wicked for they are dead They have lost the image of God which was the life of the soul For as the soul is the life of the body so the image of God was the life of the soul and this image they put away from them by their apostacy But these commandments have their usefulness many wayes principally upon a fivefold account 1. God doth command the unregenerate to walk in his wayes and that in truth and with a perfect heart not as importing their strength what they are able to do But to shew them their duty what they ought to do * Non mensura nostrarum virium sunt praecepta Dei nec vires nostrae mensura praeceptorum diviâ—orum Nec attemperat Deus mandata sua ad vires hominis peccato corrupti sed ad debitum naturale Wendelin system majus And it is no such strange thing as some persons would perswade us that a man should be in duty bound to the performance of more than in his fallen estate he is able to perform A little to illustrate it by a familiar instancâ— or two Take a servant that by his licentiousness hath made himself drunken and it is still his duty to serve his Master although he hath put himself into a present incapacity for the discharge of that duty His sin and wickedness doth not disannul or cancel his masters right and authority If I lend a sum of money to another and he through negligence and ill husbandry squandereth it away and is not able to pay me yet I may justly and legally call upon him for payment to manifest unto him what he is bound to do This is the very case God gave us power at first to obey his will and to keep all his statutes and to walk in obedience before him and we wilfully put it away from us Eccles 7.29 God made man upright but they have sought out many inventions Now mans wickedness and sinful declension from God doth not invalidate God's authority over us nor enervate the obligation of his Law upon us He may justly come and require the debt of obedience at our hands though we have made our selves unable to tender it As it is in the parable Mat. 25.27 Oughtest thou not to have put my money to the exchangers * Industriam tuam servus debebas demino Marl. So this is the work which we ought to do though by our apostacy we are deprived of ability to do it 2. God doth lay these injunctions and precepts upon the unconverted not as implying any power in them but to make them sensible of their own weakness As sometimes when children will boast of what is above their strength we set them upon the work that they may see their folly and how unable they are to do what they boasted of Why Sirs the heart of man is very deceitful and apt to boast of great matters Most men think it is an easie thing to repent and believe and that they can turn unto God at any time Why let me see you do it saith the Lord. * Ad hoc lex data est ut superbo suam infirmitatem notam faceret Aug. He setteth them upon the performance that he may cause them to see and acknowledge their own insufficiency As Christ dealt with the young man that was full of self Mat. 19.20 21. He thought he was able to keep all the commandments of God and to climbe to heaven by that ladder And what saith our Saviour to him Why If thou wilt be perfect go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven As if he had said Thou thinkest thy self able to do whatsoever is commanded I will trie thy strength Here is a commandment I give go and do it and then it quickly appeareth how impotent and unable he was In this respect all the commandments of the Law are to the unregenerate praecepta probationis precepts for trial As it was with the Israelites they supposed they could have kept all that God had spoken and he giveth them his precepts in their full extent and latitude and leadeth them through the wilderness to humble them and to prove them and to know what was in their hearts Deut. 8.1 2. That is to make them to know what was in their hearts for he knew it well enough all things are naked and open before him But they could not believe it that they had such a proneness to evil and such an aversness and impotency to that which is good But by putting them to the trial God maketh them to know it 3. God is pleased to lay his commands upon the unregenerate to turn unto him and to believe in Christ and the like That they might be stirred up to address themselves unto the Lord to work in them what he requireth to be within them and to inable them to do what is commanded to be done * Praecepta Dei sunt precationum nostrarum materia quia jubet Deus facere quae non pâ—ssumus ut sciamus quid petere ab ipso debeamus Wendel syst majus That out of every precept they might frame a petition for strength and spiritual grace and present it unto the Majesty of heaven Psal 119.4 5. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently O that my wayes were directed to keep thy Statutes So should a sinner say Thou Lord commandest me to convert and turn O that my soul were converted that I might turn unto the most high Thou commandest me to repent O Lord give me repentance not to be repented of Thou requirest me to be holy O make me such a one as I am required to be * Lex data est ut gratia quareretur gratia data ut lex impleretur Aug. And therefore it is observable that what is commanded in one place the
himself But let every man prove his own work and then he shall have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another As if he had said It is no marvel if your hearts beguile you if you do not make a narrow scrutiny into your selves Your spirits are treacherous apt to put light for darkness and darkness for light You will be apt to entertain good thoughts and opinions of your selves when perhaps you have nothing of the life and substance of godliness and your deceitful hearts take hold of every advantage to strengthen those opinions But if you would avoid this cheat you must examine your selves Let every man prove his own work that is every one that would not be thus deceived and in order to the prevention of this self-flattery and cozenage If you were much in self-examination you would not rest in the good opinions of others nor conclude you were holy because they thought well of you or you would not determine of your spiritual estate from the lives of others that therefore you are the children of God because you are not so bad as they or that you were in Covenant with the Lord because others run faster than you in the devils service But upon the through trial of your selves it would be seen whether you have any substantial ground of rejoycing So that let me tell you again If you love your souls if you would be assured to escape everlasting vengeance that you are persons in favour with God and shall arrive with sasety at the kingdom of heaven when all impenitent sinners are bound up in bundles together and cast into hell fire make it appear that you are united to Christ Get knowledge and assurance that you have the Son and to that end be diligent in the search of your selves for self-examination is the way to know it You will say What course shall we take in the search of this matter or in what method shall we proceed in this examination of our selves that thereupon we may know whether we be ingraffed into Christ This is a work and duty in the discharge whereof eternal life it self lieth at the stake if it be not managed aright it may prove the occasion of a mans utter ruine and destruction And therefore I will insist upon it somewhat largely by passing over these three heads of particulars By 1. By shewing you the nature of this duty That you may know wherein your work lieth in this business or what this self-examination is in order to finding out whether you be knit to Christ 2. Pressing upon your spirits some of the principle motives or provocatives to quicken you to set speedily and vigorously upon the discharge of this work 3. Subjoyning in the close some special directions to guide you in the discharge of this work that you may come to a right conclusion whether you have the Son and not be deceived therein 1. To begin with the first of shewing you wherein your work lieth in this business of examining whether you be one with Christ and have the Son or what this duty of self-examination is Which is a mater needful to be a little explained Because it is to be feared that multitudes who are called Christians are much in the dark as to any distinct knowledge of the nature of this work that they are not only strangers to the practise of it but in a great measure as to any clear apprehensions concerning it But I shall not handle it by way of description at large only I will give you some hints of the most material points which have a reference to this work and that will be needful to open our way for the directions I would give you for the right management thereof All that shall be delivered under this head I have gathered into six plain conclusions Concl. 1. The first conclusion is this That self-examination as to our union with Christ is for the matter of it a compounded duty made up of a threefold spiritual and reflexive action in relation to a mans self There is 1. A search or enquiry made into a mans self 2. The probation and trial of a mans self 3. The passing sentence or judgment upon a mans self a mans self Mark it Sirs It doth not lie in one only single act of the spirit but it doth consist of several acts For as there are some complicated sins which carry many transgressions together in the bowels of them So there are some duties which we may call complicated or compounded duties And such is this of self-examination wherein there are many actions folded up together For it comprehends a threefold reflexive act 1. There is an act of inspection or retrospection into a mans self A search or enquiry made into our persons and wayes our inward qualifications and all our performances He that examineth himself must curiously pry and look into his own heart and practise into his principles and conversation and into all the workings of those principles and the manner of them He must descend into and take a narrow view of every corner of his spirit and the several parts of his demeanour As a man would look with a candle into every room and cast his eye into every hole and crany of an house for the finding out any thing which is lost You have it under this very similitude Prov. 20.27 The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly It is the candle of the Lord that is there is a special faculty put into a mans soul by God himself whereby he is enabled to make enquiry into his innermost thoughts and and the secret operations of his own heart in the exercise whereof he may make a narrow scrutiny into himself and look wistly into what is within him or hath been done by him as a man doth that taketh a torch or candle to see that which could not otherwise be perceived * In mente hominis quasi in tabulis obsignatis conscriptum relinquitur quid fecit quo animo quod etiam tandem 〈◊〉 conscientia legitur pronunciatur Ames de consc It is sometimes stiled in respect to a mans wayes which as I shall shew you by and by are a main evidence of our union with Christ or estrangedness from him a thinking upon them Psal 119.59 I thought upon my wayes and turned my feet unto thy testimonies So that then doth a person examine himself when he sits down and looketh into his own soul what graces are there and how they are exercised what corruptions abide within him and how much force and power they have had over him and the like When he doth bethink himself as to his wayes with what care and conscience he hath sanctified the Sabbath how instant and fervent he is on the one hand or cold and careless on the other hand in the duty of prayer how often he doth read the Word and meditate thereupon
with what spiritualness and faithfulness he doth fill up his particular calling and relations When he doth take a review of all his affairs on a spiritual account As a man that hath lost any thing in his travels he goeth over them back again in his thoughts He considereth where he was such a day and what place he lay in the other night and who was in his company and where he was most likely to leave that which he misseth So doth a Christian who is serious inself-examination he doth traverse his wayes back again in his retired contemplations He bethinketh himself what indowments he hath with what circumspection he hath walked how he hath improved this opportunity and redeemed the other part of his time c. This is the first reflexine act whereof this work is compounded viz. An act of inspection or retrospection into a mans self 2. There is an act of probation and trial of amans self When a person that examines himself hath found out the particulars to be observed touching his heart and wayes he doth not rest there but immediately bringeth all to the test and touchstone that he may see of what sort his qualifications are and of what kind his actions have been whether they are of the right metal and stamp as they ought to be and as he would have them to be whether they be such as will pass for currant in the court of Heaven As a careful Goldsmith when he receiveth a sum of mony doth not only count the pieces but if any of them be suspected or look but suspiciously he trieth them whether they be such as will pass in payment So doth a Christian in this spiritual work of the examination of himself touching his union with Christ First he observeth and takes notice what is within him and what hath been done by him and then he trieth what metal they are of that is whether the graces which appear to be within him are saving graces indeed or only counterfeit coin And whether his obedience be evangelical and spiritual obedience or not And whether the sins which he hath committed be such as may be stiled The spots of God's children or no. And the reason of it lieth in this Because in soul concernments especially there is oftentimes a vast difference betwixt reality and appearance Many things at the first view seem to be right and good When upon a stricter enquiry they are found false and rotten And therefore if we would not be deceived all things must be proved and tried This is mentioned as an act distinct from the former Lam. 3.40 Let us search and try our wayes First we must labour to find out our wayes what they have been and then trie them by the light of the Word of what sort they have been wherein they accord with the rule how we have deviated from it or fallen short of living up thereunto This is elsewhere called The weighing of a mans self in allusion to the practise of Tradesmen in their negotiation and traffick They do not only view the commodities which they buy but then they put them into the scales to see if they will hold weight for what they wefe bought So doth a careful Christian as to his demeanour First he observeth his own qual fications and performances and then he he trieth whether they will hold weight in the ballance Job 31.5 6. If I have walked with vanity or if my foot hath hasted to deceit Let me be weighed in an even ballance that God may know mine integrity q. d. Let my actions be throughly fifted and exactly looked and they will be found such as are acceptable unto the Lord. This is the second reflexive act whereof self-examination is made up or compounded 3. There is a conclusive determination or the passing sentence and judgment upon a mans self according to that search and trial As it is in Courts of Judicature amongst men when the cause is throughly opened and witnesses produced and the Law consulted in the case then according thereunto verdict is brought in and sentence pronounced Why Sirs self-examination is the erecting of a Court of Judicature in a mans breast where upon trial of the matter judgment doth pass for or against the person * Conscientia respectu propositionis est lex respectu assumptionis testis respectu conclusionis maximè propâ—iè Judex Therein a man doth gather a conclusion touching his own wayes that they are just or unjust pleasing unto God or provocations of the wrath of God And so concerning his person He draweth an inference and passeth sentence upon himself that he is righteous or wicked a child of God or one of his adversaries united unto Christ or still estranged from him 1 Cor. 11.31 If we would judge our selves we should not be judged And you have mention of the hearts passing sentence in both respects As 1. of condemnation upon supposal of the persons being wicked 2. Of approbation and absolution if righteous 1 Joh. 3.20 If our heart condemn us that is If upon a diligent search it pronounce sentence against us as unsound and such who have dealt falsely and unfaithfully in the Covenant of God And v. 21. Beloved if our heart condemn us not if it acquit and discharge us then have we confidence towards God Job 27.5 6. Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me My righteousness I will hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live q. d. I will conclude that I am a person accepted of God and in Covenant with him that I have walked in uprightness before him whatever arguments you have urged to shake my confidence My righteousness I will hold fast i. e. I have concluded through grace that I am righteous and by this conclusion I will stick I will not pass sentence in mine own wrong This is the first conclusion asserted for opening the nature of self examination Conclus 2. The special faculty or power of the soul by which this work of self-examination is performed is the practical judgment or conscience of a man That is the reflexive eye of the soul whereby a person is inabled to look inward and to take an account of his own heart and wayes There is a twofold spiritual eye whereby a man hath preheminence above all the inferiour creatures 1. There is the eye of the speculative understanding in the exercise whereof he taketh a view of matters without himself at the remotest distance of place or time 2. The eye of the practical judgment or conscience whereby he doth reflect upon himself and animadvert upon his own spirit and wayes So that your work in this respect if you would rightly examine your selves touching your union with Christ is to labour to get an awakened conscience and a well informed conscience and a faithful conscience free from guile and self-flattery It concerneth you to take heed of deadness and security
of these in the work of self-examination as to our union with Christ Why By the want of these a person may conclude negatively that he is not in Christ but by the attainment of these alone he cannot conclude affirmatively that he is in him Therefore I call them negative marks for distinction sake The absence of any of these will be a sign that a person is excluded from this priviledge of having the Son but the presence of them will not prove that he is partaker thereof If a sinner hath no knowledge of divine truths but is grosly ignorant of the fundamentals of Religion he may conclude negatively that he is none of Christ's Prov. 19.2 1 Tim 2.4 But although he hath much knowledge of the principles of Religion he cannot from thence conclude affirmatively that he doth belong to Christ Rom. 2.17 18 21. 1 Cor. 13.2 See it in the case of legal humiliation A man may conclude negatively that he is not a child of God if he were never humbled for sins against the Lord Jer. 44.9 10. But he cannot gather in the affirmative that he is at peace with God only because he hath felt some trouble upon his spirit for transgressing against him 1 Kings 21. v. 27 29. 1 Sam. 24.16 17. In the case of outward reformation a person may determine negatively that he is not in covenant with God if he live in the practise of open sins and the common neglect of external duties Psal 36.1 2 3. But he cannot infer affirmatively that he is one of the peculiar people of God because he hath broken off the practise of some grosser wickednesses setteth upon the discharge of some outward duties Luke 18.11 12. So I might go over the rest Every true Believer is convinced of the evil of sin but all persons under convinction of sin cannot say that therefore they are true Believers All sincere Christians have their consciences awakened and assent to the truth of Scripture-doctrines But it will not follow that all whose consciences are awakened and believe the Scriptures by an historical faith are to be reckoned amongst the number of sincere Christians 2. There are inclusive marks or properties of the second rank which belong only to such as are united to Christ but are not to be found in all of them As now for instance To have such high degrees of this or the other grace as some believers have attained To have such a measure of power over their lusts and corruptions as some eminent Saints have had To be versed in the higher mysteries of godliness as they who have their spiritual senses exercised to discern betwixt good and evil To be strong in the faith as Abraham and renowned for meekness as Moses and eminent for patience as Job and to labour more abundantly as Paul and the like Now what is the use of this sort of marks in the work of self-examination Why from the attainment of them a Christian may conclude affirmatively with a great deal of clearness and undoubtedness that he is a member of Christ But he cannot from the want of them conclude negatively that he is not interested in Christ And this is the reason Because a mans spiritual estate Godward and Christward doth not depend upon the degrees of grace but upon the truth of grace A person may have his heart sound in the statutes of God who hath not arrived at that measure of acquaintance with God as some others have done There are several forms of Scholars in the School of Christ and yet all of them savingly taught by him There are divers ranks of persons in the houshold of faith of different growth and stature babes and children as well as men grown up to their full strength and old experienced disciples Mat. 15.28 Mat. 8.26 1 Joh. 2.12 13. Rev. 3.8 This is well to be observed because the neglect of the consideration of this very thing hathoccasioned the troubles and perplexities of many poor souls that walk in the anguish and bitterness of their spirits They cannot find such workings in their own hearts as sometimes are mentioned to be in the hearts of David and Samuel and Isaiah and Paul and other servants of God in Scripture and from thence they presently draw sad consequences touching themselves that surely their estate is naught and their hearts are rotten Whereas possibly these are workings of spirit that are not ever to be found in all the people of God but only in some that are eminent above others and have attained to an higher pitch of godliness than others Only let me add this as a memento by the way That the weakest believer who hath the least degrees of grace is still pressing after the highest He doth not sit down contented with any measures attained but is still thirsting after more He would if it were possible pluck up corruption by the very root out of his soul and be serviceable unto the Lord at the highest rate and in the most excellent manner Phil. 3.13 14 15. 2 Cor. 7.1 3. There are adaequate and proportionate marks and signs of our union with Christ Such as are of an even size with the state of grace that carry the same breadth with them as interest in Christ doth and run exactly and precisely parallel thereto Properties in the strictest acception that are to be found only in the children of God and are to be found in all of them without exception and at all times and seasons As now for instance To have the Law of God wrote upon our hearts to worship God in Spirit to hate every false way to walk before the Lord as in his sight and presence to resign up our selves unreservedly to Christ and to God by him And these are as two-edged swords that cut both wayes In the examination of your selves and passing judgment upon your selves touching your union with Christ you may conclude from them both negatively and affirmatively If you be without these qualifications you are strangers unto Christ and such as are thus qualified are implanted into him These marks you have plentifully scattered up and down the Scriptures Rom. 8.6 To be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Mat. 10.32.33 Whosoever shall confess me before men him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven But whosoever shalt deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven Ezek. 18.30 Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine But except you repent you shall perish Luke 13.3 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Mat. 5.8 And without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Mat. 5.7 And he shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy Jam. 2.13 He that believeth on him Christ is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already
reality As there is a feigned faith and formal worship and hypocritical obedience so there is a counterfeit conversion Jer. 3.10 Her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart but feignedly saith the Lord. There is much deceit and treachery in this work there may be a turning from sin when it is done in falshood there may be an inward work upon the heart that doth not amount to a saving change or sanctifying of the heart As for instance 1. There may be a kind of abhorrence and forsaking of some wicked wayes to cleave the faster unto others A sinner may shake off some kind of pride to feed his covetousness and in compliance therewith He may leave his profaneness and become an Idolater or superstitious As it was in the case of Micha Judg. 17.2 5. When his mother cursed and bann'd for her money that was stollen this startled his conscience and made him vomit up the sweet morsel which he had swallowed down But the man Micah had an house of Gods an made an Ephod and a Teraphim A sinner may leave his worldliness and become loose and wanton He may cast off his open debauchery and become a secret opposer of the power of godliness For as sin is contrary to grace and striveth against it so there are corruptions which are contrary to one another and fight one against the other Jam. 4.1 2. There is a kind of conversion from sin to civility When a person leaveth his swearing and drunkenness and revelling and the like and becometh a civil man and of an ordinary external demeanour but proceedeth no further Mat. 23.27 28. 3 There may be an abandoning and casting away many miscarriages in the practise when yet the heart still hankereth after them and were it not for some restraints of providence would quickly rush into the actual commission of them What could have been spoken more like to a convert than that of Balaam Numb 24.13 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord to do either good or bad of mine own mind but what the Lord saith that will I speak When yet he loved the wages of unrighteousness and fain would have cursed Israel 2 Pet. 2.15 4. There may be a kind of conversion from sin for the present with a secret purpose of the heart to return to it again in convenient season A sinner may fall out with his lusts and be filled with dislike of them for some present mischief they have done him when he is corrected for them with an outward judgment and yet the heart intend no total divorce or separation Just as friends may fall out in a fit of passion but when they are come to themselves they are easily reconciled again As it was in the case of the Jews Jer. 34.9 10 11 15 16 17. When the King of Babylons army fought against Jerusalem and the Princes and people were in great distress they turned and did that which was right in the sight of the Lord But when the distress was over they returned back again to their sins as fast as ever So it is with many carnal people when they are on their sick beds O how hot are they then against their sins and what a cry will they make as if none were more filled with hatred against sin But when once the sickness is over they quickly repent of their repentance See how far the people went in time of a destroying plague when they were every hour in jeopardy of their lives Psal 78.34 35 36. When he slew them then they sought him that is they prayed to him and they lamented after the Lord they poured out their supplications in the time of chastisement And they returned that is they left their sins and promised amendment and possibly made solemn vows Covenants never to return to them again if God would deliver them but this once they would serve him for ever And they enquired early after God that is earnestly and affectionately as if they were eagerly set upon regaining his favour and nothing would satisfie them without it They enquired after him as if they had been ready to do whatsoever he should command them And they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their redeemer So that this was not only a sudden flash of their spirits but a matter done upon some kind of deliberation they were convinced that it was best for them to serve the Lord and they cast off their sins upon that conviction And yet all was done but in hypocrisie as it followeth v. 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their lips and they lied unto him with their tongues For their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant Now if persons be not rightly instructed in the nature of a true conversion and where the difference is betwixt it and this counterfeit work it is impossible they should rightly judge if themselves are truly converted If they be not rightly informed of the nature of saving grace they cannot rightly determine whether they are partakers of it I am perswaded that this is the original of the presumption and self-deceit of many They presently conclude themselves to be godly because they are not well instructed in the nature of godliness They think that they have repented unto salvation because they know not wherein such repentance doth consist they take the form of godliness for the power of it and a legal repentance for evangelical If they find some convictions and trouble in their spirits for sin they are presently willing to believe it is a conversion from sin If there be found in their hearts some slight affections to the word they apprehend themselves to be savingly wrought upon by the word If in their conversations they leave some old sins and turn over a new leaf they imagine themselves to be new creatures Whereas a saving conversion is another kind of matter it maketh a change in the whole nature of the sinner It is not limited and confined to any particular faculties of the soul but extendeth it self to the renovation of the whole man Jer. 24.7 It doth not only set a man free from some grosser acts of iniquity which a natural conscience will startle at but setteth up a standing enmity in the soul against every false way whether greater or lesser whether they be sins of the flesh or of the spirit Psal 119.104 And this enmity is a lasting irreconcileable enmity such as shall never be rooted out again It is not as the damming up of a stream with mounds and banks which when they are broken it runneth the same way with as great a violence as ever but it is as the cleansing of the fountain and turning the water into another channel Jer. 3.19 A sound conversion doth not only turn the soul from sin but causeth him to return unto the Lord even unto
the Lord and actually ingageth him in all the parts of his service Joel 2.12 Jer. 4 1 2. There is a kind of conversion from sin which is not a returning to the most High when persons take up their rest in negative righteousness and abstaining from some pollutions but cannot endure to be in subjection to the whole government of Christ they hate the positive part of Religion which consisteth in a closs walking with God and studying in all things to approve themselves unto him A sound conversion bringeth a man unto the Lord that he may become his servant and have his fruit unto holiness Rom. 6.22 It is not every strong conviction of the excellency of Religion accompanied with some faint inclinations and resolutions to close with it that will amount to a saving conversion But in every respect it must be an universal work For it is a turning of the whole man from the whole service of sin unto the whole obedience unto the will of God during the whole course of our lives And this is a matter you must give diligence to get right apprehensions of For if you erre in the premises you will mistake in the conclusion deduced from those premises If you know not wherein the nature of conversion and regeneration consisteth you can never rightly pass sentence upon your selves whether you are converted and regenerate Direct 3. The third Rule of direction is this That the grace of regeneration and conversion which is the fundamental evidence of union with Christ is not alwayes discerned in the first plantation of it into the soul or if it be discerned yet it may afterwards be called into question concerning its truth and savingness and therefore for the finding out whether you have that grace you must enquire into the fruits and effects which are produced thereby You must examine your works to prove that you are made Gods workmanship and search into your conversations that it may appear you are partakers of a sound conversion 'T is the exercise of repentance in the life that must manifest the grace of repentance poured forth into the heart and your walking in the wayes of new obedience that must evidence your being made new creatures And the reason of it is Because it is not alwayes perceived in the first infusion of grace into the soul or at least the sinner may be in doubt whether it be a saving work which he finds wrought within him Although he find and feel a present change in his spirit yet he may question whether it be such a change as will speake him a true Convert So that the way to put it out of question is to examine our obedience and practical holiness which is the natural product of the principle of regeneration Hence it is that we are so often pressed to try our works and to observe what fruit we bring forth in order to the knowledge of our spiritual estate 1 Joh. 3.7 Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous And v. 8. He that committeth sin is of the devil Again v. 10. In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother You have many carnal persons apt to boast of the integrity of their hearts It is true will they acknowledge they live in a course of sin and neglect of duty their lives are pestered with divers sorts of abominations yea but will they plead our hearts are good and we mean well and we hope we may have grace within as well as they who are more forward in Religion Why mark it saith the Apostle this is a plain cheat you put upon your selves If false teachers sooth you up in this conceit do not hearken to them they will but delude you to your destruction For if your hearts be good your lives will be answerable If the grace of God be within you it will guide your feet in the wayes of righteousness you must prove your conversion by the holiness of your conversation So that this Rule of advice will be useful on both hands 1. To overturn the presumption of the wicked when they boast of the sincerity of their hearts 2. For relief to the godly when they question the truth of their conversion It is many times the ground of the hard thoughts they entertain concerning their spiritual estate because they never felt those throws and pangs of the new birth which some have felt nor can they tell the time when they were effectually called and converted Why remember Sirs Although this change is visible unto some in the first workings of it yet grace is planted in others imperceptibly And therefore the proof of it depends upon the fruit you bring forth Mat. 3.8 9. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance and think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our father q.d. You must prove the truth of your profession of being the children of God by walking as becometh his children How will you make it appear that you have the grace of repentance unless your conversations be answerable thereunto As the root of a tree is hid in the earth and is not seen with the eye but if you would know what sort the tree is of you must look upon the fruit so it is in spiritual things The habits of grace themselves the root of the matter are the hidden man of the heart they lie deep within and sometimes their entrance is not discerned and therefore you must examine by your works Gal. 6.4 Let every man prove his own work And no wonder that we are required to judge ourselves by this Rule for according to our works Christ will judge us at the last day When he cometh to gather all people before him and to divide them into companies according to their spiritual condition such as are members of his body into one company and such as are strangers to him into another and to pass an irrepealable sentence upon them he will proceed upon evidence drawn from their works Rom. 2.6 7 8 9. Who will render to every man according to his works To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile Rev. 20.13 And they were judged every man according to his works This is the third Rule of Direction That to prove your union with Christ by your conversion you must diligently observe and enquire into the holiness of your conversation what respect you have to the commandments of God For 1 Joh. 3.24 He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him And 1 Joh. 2.5 Whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God
God that it may prove a certain evidence of conversion and consequently of our union with Christ Jesus It must of necessity have these six properties and each of them must be enquired after in the business of self-examination It must be 1. Spiritual 2. Vniversal 3. Evangelical 4. Sincere 5. Thriving 6. Stedfast obedience 1. It must be spiritual obedience answerable to the nature of that God whom we wait upon and whose servants we are His essence is spiritual and such must our obedience to him be if we will serve the Lord acceptably and make it appear that we are of the number of his peculiar people Bodily exercise and a meer external devotion will strike a great stroke in making up the form of godliness but the power of it consisteth in that which is spiritual Joh. 4.23 The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him These are the true worshippers that is such as are so in Gods account whom he will graciously receive and own in their performances When people serve him in a bare external bodily manner he reckoneth them as his greatest enemies their service is but a piece of dissimulation which hath only the shadow of worship For the substance lieth in what is spiritual And such the Father seeketh to worship him i.e. such worship he commandeth and his soul is well pleased with Although it seemeth to be spoken here with a peculiar reference to instituted worship yet it holds strongly as to natural worship also even of all the parts and particulars of his service For the reason which is rendred v. 24. is comprehensive of all Because God is a Spirit So that our obedience if it prove us a chosen generation whom God hath set apart for himself must be spiritual And that in a threefold respect In respect of the 1. Principle from whence it floweth 2. Extent how far it reacheth 3. Subject whereon it is terminated 1. In respect of the principle from whence it proceedeth It must be such obedience as cometh from the heart and wherein the soul and spirit is ingaged Not an honouring him with the lips and drawing neer to him with the mouth when the heart is removed far from him Not a serving him only by a kind of compulsion under some terrible apprehensions of the judgments of God not in a slothful careless and lukewarm manner as if Religion were a weariness to us and we had no mind to our work But when we serve him aright our hearts must be ingaged to approach unto him Jer. 30.21 22. we must be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 And our inward parts must be employed in the works of holiness When a mans tongue doth speak forth the praises of God and his heart joyneth with him in the business when his hands do act in the works of piety and his spirit concurreth in the action and carry him on thereunto this is to serve the Lord with the Spirit Although he calleth for the body also to be imployed in his service as indeed he deserveth the whole man yet not as a picture or image without life and soul but as animated by the heart Prov. 23.26 My son give me thine heart and let thine eyes observe my wayes q.d. A slave will give me his hands and feet and the strength of his body an hypocrite will offer up the outward man but if thou be a son I must have the heart and spirit 2. It must be spiritual obedience in respect of the extent of it how far it reacheth Such as sets us in opposition against spiritual sins as well as fleshly such as causeth us to fight against secret pride and envy and earthliness and unbelief and malice and double-mindedness and the like as well as to obstain from rotten communication and gross outward pollutions It must be such obedience as is exercised in spiritual duties as meditation on the word of the Lord and frequent contemplation of the excellencies of God adoring his Majesty and admiring his works and setting the affections on things above as well as in pleading the cause of holiness and openly walking in the profession of it It must carry us to such works as are performed in the secret recesses of the Spirit and sets us a striving against such corruptions as are forged and fabricated in the spirit which no eye can observe but God and our own consciences 2 Cor. 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves from all the filthiness both of the flesh and spirit Rom. 8.5 They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit Psal 73.1 Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are clean of heart See further Psal 24.3 4. Mat. 6.21 3. In respect of the subject whereon it is terminated It endeth in the further renewing and purifying the spirit and getting more degrees of habitual grace into the heart When we are not only contented to be kept free from the acts of sin but do mourn and lament under the principle of sin and labour to deaden that principle When we do not think it enough to do much for God but fain would have our spirits transformed every day more and more into the image of God Thus it will be if you are converted If a carnal person resist the temptation he thinks his work is done and is apt to glory in himself as if the whole business were dispatched But a convert layeth the ax to the root of the tree he followeth the corrupt stream to the poysonous fountain whence it is derived and nothing will satisfie him but cleansing the fountain and taking revenge upon his lusts that lodge within him Rom. 7.23 24. Paul's actual sins cause him to have an eye upon his heart by which he was turned aside I see saith he another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity unto the law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death This is the first qualification It must be spiritual obedience 2. If you would prove your conversion and consequentially your union with Christ by your obedience It must be universal obedience Not a partial and restrictive serving of God but a following him fully as far as the whole circuit of holiness reacheth As it is said of Caleh Num. 14.24 He followed the Lord fully and that proved him to be a man of another spirit and of a gracious temper indeed sanctified by the holy Ghost because his obedience was universal There is a threefold universality must go to the right qualifying our obedience that it may be evidential of a converted estate It must be universal in relation to the 1. Agent or person obeying 2. Rule of obedience 3. Times and seasons of the performance 1. In relation to the agent or person
talents to the doing of thy will and the advancement of thy glory If hitherto I have served divers lusts and pleasures now I will serve my God even him only If I have for the former part of my life trampled upon thy commandments now I will devote my self wholly to thy fear and to the keeping thy statutes Psal 119.38 Psal 116.16 And 3. Take with you words of prayer and supplication and say unto him Lord Receive me graciously and love me freely and admit me again into thy service It is true that I am altogether unworthy to have the least regard from the God of heaven but I come unto thee through Christ who is worthy I beseech thee mercifully to inrol me amongst the number of thy peculiar people Hos 14.1 2. And my brethren if you do thus unfeignedly give up your selves unto God it will be a present testimony that you are alive from the dead that you are quickned by the holy Ghost Rom. 6.13 4. To put this matter of your conversion out of question Make an immediate entrance upon a course of new obedience Set now upon cleansing your selves further from all sorts of filthiness and actually perform those duties which in your places and stations are to be performed and therein study to approve your selves unto God If thine heart be privy to any corruption that hath been countenanced let it be wholly forsaken and the occasions of sin avoided If any wicked companion hath had too much of thy converse and intimacy now break off society with him If any duty hath been omitted let it be henceforward discharged if slightly performed let it be done in an humble serious and spiritual manner Hereby it will appear that you gave up your selves to be the Lord 's in sincerity that you do not complement only with him as many Professors do who are often professing and protesting to the Lord that they are his servants but still they follow the imaginations of their own hearts Then is the resignment of our selves unto the Almighty done in truth when it doth ingage us presently to walk in the truth I have sworn saith David and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgments Psal 119.106 And such is the language of a true Convert I am the Lord 's and now I will demean my self as being his I have given my self to the most High and now I will be no more at my own disposal I have subscribed unto the Lord and accordingly I am doing his work So that here is the last word of advice for the present proof of your conversion and union with Christ thereupon Yield up your selves unto the Lord and serve the Lord your God 2 Chron. 30.8 Make a present entrance in the strength of the Spirit upon all the wayes of holiness and let that be your constant exercise from henceforth unto the end Thus I have finished the second use of the point by way of examination and trial CHAP. XII Exhortations grounded upon the doctrine of Union with Christ. To the unregenerate and Christless To Believers To all 3. THe last Use of this doctrine is for Exhortation wherein I will study to be more succinct and concise addressing my self in what I have to deliver under this head unto you my brethren under a threefold consideration I shall speak unto 1. The unregenerate who are strangers to Christ 2. Believers who are through grace ingraffed into Christ 3. All of you both of the one sort and of the other 1. To the wicked and unregenerate who are strangers unto Christ and that in a twofold respect In respect to 1. Believers 2. The wicked themselves 1. To the unregenerate and ungodly in reference to Believers Take heed that you be not found opposers of them in any regard whatsoever Remember they are knit to the Son of God and what you do against them he takes it as done against himself whose members they are And how will you stand before Christ at his tribunal if now you despise and set against his servants who are not only dear to him but are in him As Abner said to Assahel 2 Sam. 2.22 Turn thee aside from following me wherefore should I smite thee to the ground How then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother So should you bethink your selves How shall I lift up my face to Christ if I wrong his followers How will the Lord Jesus take it at my hands May not I certainly expect that he will avenge their quarrel upon me in my destruction For they are one with him so that he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye Zech. 2.8 Christ hath a tender regard unto them and is sensible of the smallest injury that is done unto them as we are of the least blow or prick upon the apple of the eye Sirs It is the sorriest office imaginable to be a Persecutor of the Saints it is the worst imployment upon earth to set against believers for they are one with Christ and so in effect it is to fight against him * Doleamus necesse est quod nulla civitas impune latura sit sanguinis nostri effusionem Possumus aequè exitus quorundam praesidum tibi proponere qui in fine vitae suae recordati sunt deliquisse quod vexassent Christianos Sed qui videntur sibi impunè intulisse venient in diem divini judicii Non te terremus qui nec timemus sed velim ut omnes salves facere possmus monendo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fert ad scap And therefore let my counsel be acceptable in the words of Gamaliel Act. 5.38 39. Refrain from these men and let them alone if you love your souls do not meddle with them to their hurt do not harbour so much as an hard thought against them for therein you will be found fighters against God you will be found enemies to the Son of God for they are one with him And is it not a dangerous thing to set against Christ If he plead against you who shall maintain your cause before the Lord If thou make him thine adversary who shall be thy friend If Christ sentence thee to hell for opposing his members who shall be able to save thee from thence If you do but touch the Saints to their hurt you will burn your fingers by it nay you will ruine your souls for ever without a speedy repentance for they are one with Jesus This Exhortation may fitly be branched forth into four particulars 1. Do not scandalize or offend the servants of God See to it that you be not guilty of laying stumbling blocks in their way Be careful what in you lieth that you do not grieve their spirits nor sadden their hearts by your disorderly walking But especially take heed that you lay none occasions of falling in their way which is the offence that the holy Ghost * Illud scandalum dicitur ubi recto itinere ambulanti deceptie aliqua
you bring forth the fruits of righteousness here and endeavour to be holy in all manner of conversation If you live in any course of sin or in the neglect of observing any of God's commandments it is not possible you should come to the enjoyment of God whilst you abide in that estate Never dream of being saved without holiness for such imaginations are but dreams and fancies Heb. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. 1 Cor. 6.9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived c. q. d. It is a plain case that the unrighteous will perish unavoidably it is a token of gross ignorance to think otherwise Do not hope for or expect salvation without righteousness for by such hopes and expectations you will but cheat your own souls Gal. 5.19 20 21. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like Of the which I tell you before as I have told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Mark it if a man live in any of these sins or in any other sin like unto these whether it be filthiness of the flesh or of the spirit open or secret though not here particularly enumerated he cannot enter into eternal life It is a matter as if the Apostle had said which I have studied and the more I think of it the more I am confirmed in it I have preached this doctrine to you formerly and I am still of the same mind and therefore warn you of it again that if you be such persons you cannot be saved 2. Although I counsel you to be much in the works of righteousness yet you must despair of ever being justified or saved upon the account of your righteousness For alas what are the best of our righteousnesses to give satisfaction to the justice of God for the wrong that we have done him If you be pardoned and accepted of the Lord it must be for the sake of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and not by virtue of any thing of your own For the Seripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Gal. 3.22 3. Although you must be active and diligent in the service of God and labour to walk in uprightness before him yet you are utterly to despair of doing this in your own strength It is only strength and aflistance from Jesus Christ that will inable you to be faithful unto Christ If you trust in your own hearts they will deceive you 2 Cor. 3.5 Psal 71.15 16. * Ad evulsionem hominis à statu peccati requiritur 3. ut ex evictione conscientiae desperatiosalutis consequatur respectu nostrarum virium omnis etiam auxilii quod à creaturis haberi potest Ames de cons 4. I would counsel you to work up your hearts to an utter despair of receiving either righteousness or strength from Christ except you get into him Sit down and rest in this conclusion that unless you be united to the Son of God you cannot dwell in the presence of God There is no salvation to be had upon other terms And thus to despair of deliverance in a state of separation from Christ is an excellent means or inducement to drive you unto him Thus the Law is our School-master to lead us unto Christ i. e. by convincing us of our undone condition without him * Lex in vero suo officio est ad gratiam ministra praeparatrix prodest ad justificationem non quod justificat sed quia urgeat ad promissionem gratiae cam facit dulcem desiderabilem Luth. It pursueth us with wrath as the avenger of bloud that we may be forced to hasten into the City of refuge Gal. 3.24 This is the first Direction I intended in order to the attainment of this grace of union Direct 2. If you would be united unto the Son Get the Spirit of the Lord Jesus into your hearts It is only the holy Ghost who is sent in his name that can lead you unto him and ingraff you in him and form Christ within you And if you have not the Spirit of Christ you cannot be his Rom. 8.9 And therefore to this end 1. Be much in prayer to God for this very mercy that he would graciously send the Spirit of his Son into your souls There is an encouraging word to draw forth your fervent supplications in this behalf Luke 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him It is the mercy which he delights to be sought unto for and to be dealing forth in return to the prayers of his Servants 2. Be much conversant with the word of Christ and constant in your attendance upon the Ordinances of the Gospel Be frequent in reading and studying the Scriptures make them the matter of your daily meditations lose no opportunity to acquaint your selves therewith or to wait upon Christ in the wayes of his appointment Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom Col. 3.16 For it is the word and institutions of Jesus Christ which are designed as conduit-pipes to convey the spirit of sanctification into mens hearts And therefore the word hath the promise of conversion annexed unto it because the spirit of conversion worketh in and with and by the word Psal 19.7 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Jam. 1.18 Of his own will he begat us with the word of truth As the word cannot work savingly without the concurrent operation of the holy Ghost So the holy Ghost doth not ordinarily work without the word For the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 1.16 And when our Saviour prayeth for them that should be gathered unto him it is under this expression For them that shall believe on me through their word Joh. 17.20.3 Take heed that you resist not the Spirit by quenching his motions or rising up in contradiction against the convictions that he is pleased to work upon your hearts Readily hearken to his call and comply with him in the tenders of grace If you repel him by the frowardness and perverseness of your spâ—rits you know not when he will return Joh. 3.8 Take therefore the Apostles advice Eph. 4.30 Grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption Direct 3. If you would be knit unto Jesus and so have an interest in him endeavour after the uniting grace of faith in his bloud cast your selves upon his righteousness for salvation according to the proposals
and shall I walk contrary to his commandments O the vileness and baseness of this heart of mine which hath thus drawn me to sin against such a gracious Lord and Redeemer This is the great aggravation of sin and thus will the kindness of God work upon you if you have any principles of ingenuity As Lemuel's Mother pleads with him Prov. 31.2 What my Son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows Give not thy strength unto women c. So may the Lord plead with his own people when they turn aside unto folly What you my children whom I have taken so near unto my self You that I have called out of the world and marryed to my only begotten Son What you that are in Christ the men of my covenant and my intimate acquaintance will you thus rebel against me Is this a good requital of all the love that I have shewed you and the great things which I have done for you See how this consideration melts the hearts of believers into Evangelical sorrow and causeth them to lie down in their shame Ezek. 16.62 63. And I will establish my covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God 2. In case of temptations Improve it to strengthen you and to make you resolute in opposing all sollicitations unto sin Say within thy self Am not I knit unto Jesus Christ and shall I follow the guidance of the prince of darkness Shall I defile my soul with the pollutions of sin who am taken into oneness and fellowship with my Lord and Savior Far be it from me to close with this motion to commit any of these abominations * Sicut exultatis de nobilitatis vestrae titulo ita discere debetis quid agendo unusquisque vestrum fiat Rex Quod vobis ita breviter definiam Regem te omnium esse facit si Christus regnet in te Rex namque regende dictus est Si ergo in te animus regnat corpus obtemperat Si concupiscentias carnis sub jugum imperii tui mittas si vitiorum gentes sobrietatis tuae fraenis arctioribus premas merito Rex diceris qui te recte regere noveris Orig. hom 6. in cap. 5. Jedic Let the swine wallow in the mire and the dogs return to their vomit shall I stain my garments which have been washed in the bloud of the Lamb Should such a man as I flee said Nehemiah cap. 6.11 So shouldest thou argue the case with thine own heart Shall such a one as I turn aside unto sin and follow after lying vanities I am dead to sin and marryed to my Redeemer and how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Romans 6.2 3. In case of wants and necessities Improve this consideration to support you Surely you shall not fail of every thing that is for your good if you are knit to Christ for thereby you have a right to all things And will the just God with-hold from you that which is your right Take therefore no thought and be not of a doubtful mind Is not the Lord Jesus a greater gift than food and raiment and other outward conveniencies Hath God knit you to his Son and thereby secured your everlasting welfare and will he deny you the necessaries for your present subsistence Hath he united you to the Captain of your salvation to guide you to heaven and will not he give you enough to bear the charges of your journey thither Let no such distrustful thoughts enter into your hearts for if he hath given Christ for you and implanted you into him certainly he will with-hold no good thing from you See but with what confidence the Apostle teacheth us to reason Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all How shall he not with him also freely give us all things q.d. It cannot be otherwise If you have a right to Christ God will deny you nothing that is beneficial for you How can you imagine the contrary Do you think he will suffer them that are members of his dearly beloved Son to lack any thing which he knoweth to be fit for them Why your heavenly Father knoweth what you have need of So that be careful for nothing with an anxious heart-dividing * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dividendâ distrahendâ mente Animum nunc huc nunc dividit illuc rapit in partes varias Virgil. or distrustful care but i◠every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God Phil. 4.6 Trust in the Lord and do good So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed Psal 37.3 4. In case of sore afflictions Improve it to comfort you Make use of it as a cordial against fainting fits in the day of tribulation and adversity For if you are knit to Christ be sure that the Lord will lay upon you no more than you shall be inabled to bear Christ himself will see to it that you be not hurt by your distresses for you are his members And do you think he will suffer any thing that is evil to befall the members of his own body further than he knoweth it will conduce to their greater advantage Why In all your afflictions he himself is afflicted and he tenders your concernments as his own for you are one with him Isa 63.8 9. 5. In case of doubts of Christs forsaking you Improve it to keep under and silence your unbelieving surmises Did the Lord Jesus take you into such nearness unto himself and will he now you are near unto him leave you destitute of his loving kindness Will he suffer his members to be torn from him It is a matter cannot be supposed So that see to it that thou be indeed in Christ and then fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame c. For thy maker is thine husband the Lord of hosts is his name and thy redeemer the holy one of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called Isa 54.4 5. 6. Improve it to quicken you to holiness of conversation Make use of it as an argument to inlarge your hearts in running the steps of Gods commandments and to make you strict and diligent in your obedience unto him Live above the world walk not as the generality of people walk Put on the Lord Jesus Labour to be like unto him for you are one with him Let no difficulties move you from your course of godliness Say often within your selves Hath God vouchsafed to give his Son to me and shall I think any thing too dear to part * Qui gratus futurus est statim
dum recipit de reddendo cogitat Sen de Benef. with for his sake Hath the Lord Jesus taken me into such a neer relation unto himself and shall not I love him and serve him with all my strength Surely to this precious Saviour I will cleave and his pleasure I will do and nothing shall separate betwixt my soul and him Take the exhortation in the words of S. Paul Col. 2.6 7. As ye have therefore received Jesus Christ the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving 3. Let me add but a few particulars by way of advice and exhortation to all and so we will conclude our discourse upon this subject If in order to the salvation of sinners by Christ they must be united to him and ingraffed in Christ Then be exhorted all of you 1. To learn the spiritual lessons which are from this point to be learned 2. To practise the duties that are hereupon to be practised 1. Learn the lessons which are from this doctrine to be learned And they are principally two which I shall commend unto you besides what I gave you under the use of information 1. Learn from hence The necessity of regeneration in order to eternal life Except you are persons born again of the Spirit you cannot enter into the kingdom of God Except you be quickned by the holy Ghost it is impossible you should be blessed in the presence of the Lord. Why Because you must have the Son you must be knit unto Christ and it is in the day of regeneration that the knot is tyed whereby the Lord Jesus and a Christian are joyned together It is the grace of regeneration and conversion that removeth a sinner from his own bottom and buildeth him upon the Mediator as upon a sure foundation as hath been largely opened So that believe this point and work it powerfully by meditation and prayer upon your own hearts That no regeneration no salvation It was the doctrine wherewith our Saviour began his Sermon to Nicodemus and he speaketh of it as a matter of great concernment to be studied Joh. 3.3 Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Mark how the assertion is strengthned with a double asseveration to note how hard a thing it is to convince a sinner effectually of this matter and how neerly it doth concern us to be thus convinced It is as if Christ had said The children of men are apt to think otherwise they hope to get into heaven upon the account of their notional knowledge and common priviledges and moral righteousness and the like But it cannot be I tell thee it cannot be take it upon my word Do your hearts question it Verily it cannot be verily it is impossible that any man should be saved except he be sanctified Whence you will say doth arise this absolute necessity of a man's being born again I answer It doth arise from these four things 1. From the stedfastness and unalterableness of the purpose of God Whom he hath predestinated unto life he hath determined to lead thither through the gate of regeneration So that if ever you get to heaven without partaking of this grace it must be by the change of the decree and purpose of God which is in its own nature unchangeable for the counsel of the Lord standeth fast for ever And observe the tenour of his purpose touching the way of life 2 Thes 2.13 God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit Although God doth not elect or save any of the children of men for their holiness yet he doth elect them unto holiness that they may be saved 2. The absolute necessity of regeneration doth appear from the infinite holiness and purity of the God of heaven who will never maintain any converse or fellowship with such as lie dead in their sins nor indeed is it possible they should have communion with God till they are washed and sanctified An unsanctified mind cannot behold him an unholy will cannot enjoy him and unholy affections can take no delight or complacency in him My brethren when persons are called into the state of the favour of God they are called also unto fellowship with him Now what communion hath light with darkness What friendly intercourse can there be betwixt a God of incomprehensible purity and such whose spirits are nothing but sinks of filthiness First you must be made again after the image of God and so fitted for acquaintance with the most high for God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and he hateth all the workers of it Hab. 1.13 Psal 5.4 5. 3. Without a principle of grace planted in the heart there can be no fruits of new obedience brought forth in the life which are of indispensable necessity to our getting safe to heaven Such as are saved by the Lord must be serviceable unto him for Christ will judge us hereafter according to our conversations here As a man soweth that he shall also reap Rev. 2.23 Gal. 6.7 8. Now except you be regenerate you cannot walk in a course of new obedience First there must be a good treasure in the heart before it can be productive of what is good in the life As the principles are so the practise will be Mat. 12.33 34 35. Besides God doith judge of mens works and deeds by the frame of their hearts in the doing of them He doth search the heart and try the reins that he may give to every man according to his wayes and according to the fruit of his doings Jer. 17.10 4. The indispensable necessity of regeneration doth arise from the influence it hath to unite a sinner unto Christ without having of whom there is no partaking of life through his bloud The day of regeneration is the day of espousals between the Lord Jesus and his people It is that which helpeth to make the marriage betwixt them For if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 This is the first Lesson I would from hence commend to your study and meditation 2. Learn from this point of a Believers union with Christ What is the influence of faith in the justification of a sinner or in what sense it is said to justifie us in the sight of God Not by any inherent worth and vertue in it self but because it is the bond that knitteth a sinner to Christ by the imputation of whose righteousness we are made righteous If we are justified it is freely by the grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Only the grace of faith is the instrument to bring us unto Christ and the bond of our union with him that so we may partake of that redemption * Sicut olim in deserto serpens aeneus in ligno punctis à serpentibus medebatur
to it that you study this Doctrine and judge aright concerning it for if the foundation fail upon which our comfort is bottomed all the superstructure must of necessity vanish that is erected upon that foundation All other attainments are as nothing without this If the leading mercy fail upon which others depend we must undoubtedly fall short of those other mercies which have their dependance hereon Why sirs Union with Christ is the very Basis of consolation and the leading mercy Joh. 15.6 If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned The meaning is this A mans profession is nothing and all his common indowments and priviledges are nothing they will not signifie a jot as to save him from destruction he cannot escape the damnation of hell except he get into Christ and abide in him 3. It is dangerous to be ignorant of this mystery and it much concerneth us to get a sound knowledge hereof because this Doctrine of late hath been notably corrupted and perverted It hath been abused to the countenancing of some mens even blasphemous assertions which they have vented under the notion of high attainments They have endeavoured to break down that distinction which is between Christ and his people and to turn the whole substance of the Gospel into Allegories upon pretence of opening this Union And it concerneth us to be well instructed and established in present truths as the Apostle Peter phraseth it in 2 Pet. 1.12 truths which are mostly perverted in the present time or that need special vindication in the present age wherein we live in the defence whereof God calleth us to stand up against the adversaries If we would not be led aside by the error of the wicked and fall from our own stedfastness as we must labour to grow in grace so to increase in the knowledge of Christ 2 Pet. 3.17 18. So much for the second Conclusion to be premised 3. Concl. 3. Instead of curiously prying into and over-much inquisitiveness after this Mystery and the manner of this Union further than is revealed in the Scriptures of truth it should be the great design of mens souls to secure it unto themselves and to make it evident that they are sharers therein Herein lieth the marrow and fatness of this glorious priviledge when we can personally appropriate it to our own souls and say This is a mercy whereof we are partakers Else what sweetness can we tast in the contemplation thereof whilst our selves are strangers thereunto This is the very counsel of the Apostle in another case to his Corinthians 2 Cor. 13.3 4 5. They were enquiring after a proof of Christ speaking in him Why saith he your business lieth in reflection upon your selves to prove that Christ is formed in you The like advice I would give in this present affair And we should the rather give diligence herein upon a threefold account 1. Because hereby we shall be the better inabled to perceive the real meaning of what is delivered in the unfolding of this Mystery We shall easier discern the import of all the particulars mentioned in the opening of it when we have found it made good upon our own souls and feel somewhat wrought within us answerable to the doctrines which are taught concerning it For Sirs Postquam coelitus spiritu houste in novum me hominem nativitas secunda reparavit mirum in modum protinus confirmare se dubia patere clausa lucere tenebrosa c. Cyp. Ep. 2. ad Donat. a little experience of the power of godliness will notably help a man to discern clearly into the mysteries of godliness it will serve instead of many Commentators for the unfolding of divine truths If a Scholar should make a large and eloquent Oration to set forth the sweetness of honey a little taste of it would contribute more to a right understanding thereof than many learned Lectures without it So when persons have tasted the grace of God in this Union matters will be plain and easie unto them that seem dark and intricate and full of obscurity unto others In what a puzzle was Nicodemus as to the Doctrine of Regeneration in his understanding for want of feeling the work of Regeneration upon his heart So that he cried out How can these things be Joh. 3.4 9. And therefore David exhorteth us to tast and see Psal 34.8 that is endeavour to taste that you may the better know and understand the goodness of the Lord. 2. This is to employ these excellent truths which God hath graciously revealed to the end for which they are revealed to us The Lord hath not opened the treasures of his Wisdom in declaring these mysteries only to feed mens fancies and to fill their heads with speculations but to excite and extimulate us to get an interest in these mercies that we should personally apply them to our selves and make sure our claim and title thereto You will find this apparently to be the end of the promulgation of this very Doctrine 1 Joh. 5.13 These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life These things that is these high mysteries of salvation afore-mentioned that it is in the Son and to be enjoyed by vertue of our union with the Son I have written them that you may take them home to your own consciences and pass judgment upon your selves according to the tenour of these words 3. If we learn the nature of this priviledge and do not secure it to our selves it will but tend to the heightning of our condemnation So that better for us we had never known it or heard a word concerning it for this very thing will aggravate our contempt of the grace of God and the reflection upon it will be a continual torment upon our spirits What a cut will this be to a mans conscience when he cometh to die to bethink himself I knew that there was such a glorious priviledge prepared for the children of men and yet would never press after the enjoyment of it I preferred the pleasures of sin and satisfaction of some base lusts before it I was offered the Son and life and redemption through his blood and would not labour to secure it unto my self so that now I am undone eternally and irrecoverably See how Christ sets forth mens wickedness on this account Prov. 1.24 25 26. And it is evident conscience will take advantage from hence to be a tormentor to be a worm gnawing upon the very entrals of a mans spirit How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof O what madness have I been guilty of to know these things and not to make them sure unto my self Prov. 5.11 12 13. CHAP. III. Union with Christ distinguished and the branches of the distinction explicated HAving laid down these things
humanam divinam prout nititur testimonio vel humano vel divino Ames de fid divin verit If it be built upon Education or Custom the Opinions of Learned men or the Traditions of our Fathers and of the Church and the like humane evidence then it cannot amount no higher than to an humane faith And it is to befeared that the faith of the generality of people called Christians is of this sort onely They believe the Christian Religion to be the true Religion and the Bible to contain the word of God Why Because all their forefathers were of that Religion and they were bred and brought up in that way such Ministers have told them so and they see many wise men are of that minde They have the same grounds for their belief as Mahometans and other Idolaters have for theirs And as one well observeth these are Christians rather by chance than by choice If their lot had fallen amongst Heathens and worshippers of stocks and stones for the same reasons they would have been of their Religion they would have opposed the Gospel upon the very same grounds that now they embrace it Divine truths may be believed by a meer humane faith if the testimony be humane upon which they are believed * It being an impossibility that the assent to the matters of faith should rise higher or stand firmer than the assent to the testimony upon which those things are believed My assent to the object believed is according to my assent to the medium on which I believe it Stillingf Rational account p. 112. A divine faith must be built upon a divinetestimony when a man doth believe the word of God from those divine Marks and Characters which are stamped upon it from that mighty and supernatural efficacy which it hath whereby God doth bear witness unto his word Thus the Apostle observeth touching the Thessalonians that they received divine truths upon divine testimony they received it as the â—ord of God for it came to them not in word onely but in power and in the holy Ghost and in much assurance 1 Thes 1.5 i. e. It had such a powerful influence upon their hearts and consciences that thereby they were assured it was of God 2. There is a Temporary faith which goeth a step further than the former When the judgement is not onely convinced of the divine original and authority of the Scriptures but those convictions work in some measure upon the affections that they are taken with the goodness and excellency of them When the heart is carryed out in a kinde of love and liking to the Person revealing and the Doctrines revealed and there are some degrees of inclination towards a closure with those Doctrines onely they are raised in them but for a fit whist they are in a good mood as we say and it endureth but for a time it cannot abide the trial when any great difficulties attend their obedience unto the word then they cast it off And for this reason it is called a temporary faith Such a faith you meet with in some of the followers of Christ whom yet he durst not trust for he knew they were but hypocrites though now they followed him yet shortly they would set against him when the Scene was altered they would betray him and of false friends become his professed enemies John 2.23 24. Many believed in his name when they saw the Miracles which he did Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men Such was the faith of those others mentioned as his Disciples John 6.66 From that time many of his Disciples went back and walked no more with him And therefore it is observable what our Saviour spake to the Jews that believed on him John 8.31 If ye continue in my word then are ye â—â—y Disciples indeed Then are ye my Disciples that is then it will be evident that you are then you will give undeniable proof * â—es tum demum dicuntâ—â— fieri cum inci piunt patefieri that your faith is of the right kind else you may gracious habits the Lord Jesus taketh hold on their souls and by putting forth this habit into act and exercise they receive and take hold of the Lord Jesus Col. 2.6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him i. e. as you have believed on him and imbraced or received him by believing That is the first thing I would commend unto you viz. this Scripture distinction of the sorts of faith 2. This justifying faith hath the Lord Jesut Christ himself for the special immediate object with whom it closeth and upon whom it is exercised It is Christ himself who is primarily tendered in the offers of the Gospel and therefore true faith of this fort goeth forth unto him The special consideration under which a Believer goeth forth to Christ in the actings of faith for justification it is as dying and satisfying the justice of God and therefore usually called faith in his blood and the great incouragement whereupon a Believer is emboldened to act his faith is the tender of the Gospel and the promises thereof but it is Christ himself which is the special immediate object upon which faith as justifying is acted and with whom it closeth The sinner being incouraged by the promise doth embrace Christ in the promise Hence it is commonly stiled faith in Christ and a believing on the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20.21 I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you c. testifying both to the Jews and also the Greeks repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Mark it as repentance hath God for its ultimate object it is a turning from sin and returning unto God even unto him so faith hath Christ for its special object The great fundamental act of faith whereupon finners are justified is conversant about Christ Act. 26.18 That they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified by faith that is in me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by faith that is acted upon me upon Jesus for they are his words It is by faith exerted and acted upon him that forgiveness of sins is conveyed Unto that it seemeth to relate and the other words to come in as a parenthesis as if it had been that they may receive forgiveness of sins by faith that is in me and also an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified It hath sometimes appeared as strange to me to meet with descriptions of the nature of justifying faith without so much as the mention of Jesus Christ the object upon whom it is acted See the process of the workings of the heart of S. Paul in believing and how he taught in the Churches of Christ First he was deadned as to expectation of life from the Law the first Covenant and then he addresseth himself for justification unto Christ by believing on him who is the only Mediator of
faith or faith as it is a spiritual act and work not the works of faith that justifie a sinner in the sight of God yet that faith which giveth him a title to the righteousness of the Mediator by whom alone he can be justified must be an operative and working faith such as purgeth the conscience from dead works and bringeth the soul into subjection unto Christ's Laws and Government To this purpose the words of the Apostle James are observable Cap. 2.14 What doth it profit my brethren if a man say he hath faith and have not works can faith save him It is not said though he have faith and have not works for where there is faith in the heart there will be new obedience in the life but if he say that he hath it if he be a pretender to it can such a dead lifeless pretended faith save him Christ is held forth in the Gospel not only as a Redeemer but as a Lord and a Law-giver and these are inseparably connected and knit together He that presumeth to divide between what God hath joyned together that will accept of Jesus as a Saviour but not as a Soveraign doth not indeed receive the Christ of God but an idol stamed by his own heart Whom he doth save he will rule and govern Heb. 5.9 He became the Anthor of eternal salvation unto all them that obeyed him I shall not need to trouble you with controversal points as whether faith quà justifying under that very notion or consideration doth receive Christ as a Lord This is acknowledged on both hands that the faith which justifieth doth receive Christ in al his offices as a Prophet to instruct and guide us in the ways of God as a King to exercise rule and dominion over us and as a Priest to reconciâ—e and make intercession for us If we come to Christ for salvation we must take his yoke upon us Mat. 11.28 29. For a dividing faith is a false hypocritical faith to whom Christ giveth remission of sins he giveth repentance also He saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost So that if we receive him as a Saviour we must have him as a Sanctifier for he saveth by sanctifying and conducteth sinners to eternal peace by guiding their feet in the ways of peace Thus I have ended together the mystical union betwixt believers and the Lord Jesus which I mainly drove at and intend when I shall speak of it afterwards as the foundation of our communion with Christ and receivings from him as also the sixth Proposition laid down to open the manner of the Conjunction between Christ and his people and their oneness thereupon There are two Propositions more yet behinde which I come now to insist upon that I may finish my answer to the third General Head 7. Propos 7. From this mystical union of a Believer with Christ or being ingraffed into Christ there doth flow another sort of union between them whereof love is the bond which may be well improved as an evidence of the former and it is usually called a moral union Such an oneness as there is between the dearest friends whose hearts are linked together in the bond of amity and mutual affection We say sometimes of intimate friends they are so nearly conjoyned as if they were but one as if the same soul did animate both in their bodies * Amor non est desiderium aut appetitus ut ab omnibus bactenus traditum Nam cum potimur amatâ re non manet appetitus Est igitur affectus quo cum re amatá aut animur aut unionem perpetuamus Scalig. Exerc. 301. Anima est ubi amat potiùs quam ubi animat Deut. 13.6 Thy friend which is as thine own soul So are the Lord Jesus and his peculiar people knit together He hath a very dear and inflamed affection to them He loves them that love him Prov. 8.17 His delights are with the sons of men Prov. 8.31 And on the other hand he is in their hearts so as to live and die together It is the greatest pleasure believers have in the world to be contemplating the excellencies of Christ and conversing with him it is that which doth yield them the most solid content and satisfaction and they are still hungry and thirsting after the further enjoyment of him as if they could never have enough of fellowship and society with him John 21.17 Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time lovest thou me And he said unto him Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee He could hardly bear it to have his love to Christ called in question This union is notably set forth in the Song of Solomon You have many passages for it I will transcribe a few of them See the workings of their hearts towards Christ Cap. 2.3 4 5.6 7. As the apple-tree amongst the trees of the Wood so is my belâ—ved amongst the sons I sate under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste He brought me to the banquetting house and his banner over me was love Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me I charge you O ye Daughters of Jerusalem by the Roes and by the Hinds of the field that ye stir not up nor awake my love till he please as if the Church had said O take heed of displeasing the Lord Jesus there is nothing will cut me so deeply to the heart as if you despise him and sin against him He is the life of my life and the strength of my soul it is acquaintance with him that putteth sweetness into all my accommodations they would be comfortless comforts were it not for Christ I am never better then when I am in communion with him Again cap. 3.1 2 3 4. By night on my bed I sought him when my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and go about the City in the streets and in the broad wayes I will seek him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not The watchmen that go about the City found me to whom I said saw ye him whom my soul loveth It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him into my Mothers house and into the Chamber of her that conceived me as if the soul of a believer should say how much doth my Spirit long after Christ My thoughts are not onely upon him by day but my meditation is concerning him in the night season And if he doth hide his face I have no rest in my Spirit I make use of all means to recover the light of his countenance I pray and seek and cry and watch I converse with this Christian
your selves to an account how the case stands with you Say Have I the son Am I planted into Christ If people are unacquainted with this particular touching themselves it is mostly through the neglect or persunctory discharge of the work of Self-examination As will evid intly appear by these three following considerations 1. Without Self-examination a man can never pertinently and appositely apply the Word of God unto himself nor compare the frame and temper of his soul with the Word of the Lord so as to be able to pass a righteous judgment thereupon My brethren it is the Word of God which is the rule for discovery whether we be in Christ or not as I shall shew you more fully anon but this discovery cannot be made by a bare naked speculation of the truths contained therein except we personally apply the truths unto our selves and compare our selves with them Just as it is in secular matters The Carpenters line and plummet will discover the straightness or crookedness of a piece of timber but this it cannot do by taking a single view of the line unless it be applyed unto the timber The Standard is appointed to shew the justness or falshood of weights and measures but then you must bring them unto the standard and compare them with the standard So the Scripture is the rule for trial of mens hearts whether they be straight or crooked It is the standard to evidence a mans spiritual estate whether his person will hold weight in the ballance of the sanctuary when he cometh to be judged of the Lord but then he must apply this rule unto himself and compare himself with this standard Such persons as would know that they are of God must not only view the light but must also bring their persons and actions unto the light Joh. 3.21 He that doth good cometh unto the light that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in God He taketh the light of God's word and his own soul and purteth them both together that he may see what correspondency there is between the one and the other And it is said of the wicked v. 20. of that Chapter He hateth the light and doth not come unto it that is He cannot endure personally to apply it unto himself You have many carnal people could be content to know the truth in the general notion but they hate it in the particular application to their case But if you would know whether you are in Christ you must apply and appropriate the word of God unto your selves and compare it with your condition Now to bring this home to our purpose This application of the word and comparing our selves with it can never be done aright without self-examination Except the Physician know the constitution and temperament of the patient he can never apply suitable remedies unto him so except we search and enquire into the frame of our souls we can never apply the Scripture properly and suitably unto our souls Except a man search into his wayes and actions as well as into the word he cannot compare those actions with the word But he will be apt upon every turn to run into mistakes and practical errors He will take that word home to himself which doth not belong to him and pass such a sentence upon himself as is not to be passed upon him It is hinted as the ground of mens deceit and self-cozenage because they do not look into themselves Prov. 21.2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes but the Lord pondereth the hearts As if the holy Ghost had said If men did but search their own hearts they would not be so mistaken concerning their wayes nor pass such a false judgment upon themselves They presently conclude that their wayes are right because they do not throughly look into them nor take a view of their spirits which are the principle of action but God ponder eth their hearts 2. If you would know that you are or whether you are united to Christ you must be diligent in the examination of your selves and the reason is Because that is the very means which God hath especially designed to this end and appointed to be made use of to this purpose to bring us unto the knowledge of it This is a Maxim in Religion as clear as the noon-day That if we would comfortably expect any mercy from the Lord or gracious assistance unto any work or business we must look for it in the use of such means as God hath appointed to that end and wherein he is wont to convey such grace and assistance Now self-examination is the means which God hath required to be made use of to bring us to the knowledge of our ingrafture into Christ For Sirs although it is God alone who can powerfully and convincingly make it known to us yet we must not sit still and be idle and say if God will discover it to me I shall know it But we must wait upon him in the way wherein he is wont to meet his people to this end which is in the duty of self-examination If we would have our calling and election made sure our selves must give diligeâ—â—e to make it sure 2 Pet. 1.10 3. Self-examination is the way to arrive at this knowledge whether we are spiritually ingraffed into the Son Because hereby we shall find out those falshoods under which our spirits are apt to lie hid and those deceits whereby our hearts are ready to cheat us in passing a false judgment upon our selves Self-examination will shew us where the cheat lieth and upon what ground it is that we deal treacherously in this matter You read of a people Isa 28.15 who thought themselves to be free from the wrath of God when indeed they were the very generation of his wrath And what was the reason of it whence did this deceit proceed Why they took sanctuary in lies and covered themselves over with falshoods When the overflowing scourge shall pass thorow it shall not come unto us for we have made lies our refuge and under falshood have we hid our selves The meaning I take to be this They built their hopes of deliverance upon rotten pillars and sandy foundations They apprehended themselves to be in a right way when they were not that their hearts were for God when indeed it was a lie for they were set upon sin and idolatry and full of desperate wickedness They thought they were in the service of the Lord and that therefore he would shew them favour when in truth it was a falshood they were in the broad way that leadeth to destruction Now how should a man discover the falshood of these pretences and find out the fallacies whereby our hearts would impose upon us in this case Why By being diligent in the examination of our selves There is a full Text to this purpose Gal. 6.3 4. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth