of these Consolations by Faith in the very first Beginning of a holy Life Besides the Gospel proposeth Peace and Comfort freely to those that are not yet brought to Holiness yet if they have Hearts to receive it they may be converted from Sin to Righteness When the Apostles entred into an House they were first to say Peace be to the house Luke 10.5 At their very first Preaching to Sinners they acquainted them with the glad Tidings of Salvation by Christ for every one that would receive it as a Free-gift by Faith Acts 3.26 13.26 32 38. 16.30 31. They assured them if they would but trust heartily on Christ for all his Salvation they should have it although they were at present the chief of Sinners which was Comfort sufficient for all that duly esteem Spiritual Comfort hungring and thirsting after it And this is a Method agreeable to the Design of the Gospel which is to advance the Riches of the Grace of God in all our Spiritual Enjoyments God will give us his Consolations before our good Works as well as after them that we may know that he giveth us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace and not through the Procurement of our Works 2 Thess 2.16 Fourthly The Nature of the Duties of the Law requireth a comfortable state of the Soul for the Performance of them I have before proved sufficiently that they require a Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God and of our future Happiness and Strength whereby we may be able to walk in holy Obedience Joshuah must be strong and very couragious that he might observe to do according to the Law that Moses the Servant of the Lord commanded him Josh 1.7 I shall instance briefly in the Comforts without which several great Duties cannot be sincerely performed Can we love God and delight in him above all while we look upon him as our everlasting Enemy and apprehend no Love and Mercy in him towards us that may render him a suitable Good for us and lovely in our Eyes What doleful Melody will the Heart make in the Duty of Praise if we account that all those Perfections for which we praise him will rather aggravate our Misery than make us happy What a heartless Work will it be to pray to him and to offer up our selves to his Service if we have no comfortable Hope that he will accept us Is it possible for us to free our selves from carking Cares by casting our Care upon the Lord if we do not apprehend that he careth for us Can we be patient in Affliction with Chearfulness and under Persecutions except we have peace with God and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.1 2 3. What Reason can perswade us to submit willingly according to our Duty to the Stroak of present Death if God be pleased to lay it upon us when we have no Comforts to relieve us against the horrible Fear of intollerable Torments in Hell for ever If we should be called to suffer Martyrdom for the Protestant Religion as our Ancestors in this Nation have done we should find it necessary to abandon the late upstart Notions that have been bred in a time of Ease and to embrace the comfortable Doctrine of former Protestants which through the Grace of God made so many couragious and joyful Martyrs Fifthly The state of those that are to be brought from Sin to Godliness requires necessarily that after they be convinced of the Vnnity of their former false Confidences and of their Deadness in Original-sin and Subjection to the Wrath of God they should have a Supply of new Gospel Comforts afforded to encourage their fainting Souls to holy Practices How little do many Physicians of Souls consider the Condition of their unconverted Patients that are altogether without Spiritual Life and Strength and are or must be convinced He that prescribeth bodily Exercise to a Man lying Bed-ridden under a dead Palsie before any effectual means be used to strengthen him deserveth the name of a merciless insulting Tormentor rather than of a wise and tender-hearted Physician How unreasonable is it to prescribe the immediate Practice of Love to God and universal Obedience to him out of Love as the means of Cure for those that see nothing but Wrath and Enmity in God towards them in their present Condition what is it but to require a Man to work without Strength promising him that he shall have Strength when his Work is done for Comfort and Fortitude is so called because it comforteth and strengtheneth True it is That the Law which is the Ministration of Condemnation obligeth them to Obedience but our merciful God expecteth no sincere Performance of his Law from such impotent miserable Wretches in order to their Salvation by Christ till he hath first delivered them in some measure from those Discomforts slavish Fears and Despondencies that hold them captive under the Law of Sin and Death We may require a strong healthy Person first to work and then to expect Meat Drink and Wages but a fainting famished Person must first have Food or a reviving Cordial to strengthen his Heart before he can work Sixthly Both Scripture and Experience shew That this is the Method whereby God bringeth his People from Sin to Holiness though some of them are brought under Terrours for a while that Sin may be the more imbittered and the Salvation of Christ rendred more precious and acceptable to them yet such are again delivered from their Terrors by the Comfort of God's Salvation that they may be fitted for Holiness and generally a holy Life beginneth with Comfort and is maintained by it God gave to Adam at his first Creation the Comfort of his Love and Favour and the Happiness of Paradise to encourage him to Obedience and when he had left those Comforts by the Fall he was no longer able to obey until he was restored by new Comfort of the promised Seed Christ the Second Adam set God always before his face and he knew that because God was at his right hand he should not be moved therefore his heart was glad and his glory rejoyced Psal 16.8 9. This made him willing to bear his Agony and bloody Sweat and to be obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross God drew the Israelites to Obedience with the Cords of a Man with the Bonds of Love by taking off the Yoke on their Jaws and laying Meat before them Hos 11.4 David telleth us for our Instruction how he was brought to an holy Conversation Thy loving kindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth Psal 26.3 Lord I have hoped for thy salvation and done thy Commandements Psal 119.166 We have several Examples in the New Testament of the Joy that Sinners had in the first receiving of Christ Acts 2.41 And when the Gospel first came to the Thessalonians they received the Word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost 1 Thess 1.4 5.
bring us at last to perfection of Holiness through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we should carefully observe in all things that good Lesson of the Apostle not to think of our selves more highly than we ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every Man the measure of Faith Rom. 12.3 DIRECT XIII Endeavour diligently to make the right use of all meansappointed in the word of God for the obtaining and practising of Holiness only in this way of believing in Christ and walking in him according to your new State by Faith EXPLICATION THis might have been added to the Instructions in the Explication of the former Direction because its Use is the same to guide us in the mysterious manner of practising Holiness in Christ by the life of Faith but the weight and comprehensiveness of it maketh it worthy to be treated of by it self as a distinct Direction Two things are observable in it First That though all Holiness be effectually attained unto by the life of Faith in Christ yet the use of any means appointed in the Word for attaining and promoting Holiness is not hereby made void but rather established This is needful to be observed against the Pride and Ignorance of some carnal Gospellers that being puft up with a Conceit of their feigned Faith imagine themselves to be in such a state of Perfection that they are above all Ordinances except singing Halelujahs And also against the Papists that run into the contrary Extream by heaping together a multiude of means of Holiness which God never commanded neither ever came they into his Heart and that Slander the Protestant Doctrin of Faith and Free Grace as if it tended to destroy all diligent use of the means of Holiness and Salvation and to breed up a company of lazy Solifidians We do indeed assert and profess that a true and lively Faith in Christ is alone sufficient and effectual through the Grace of God to receive Christ and all his Fulness so far as is necessary in this Life for our Justification Sanctification and eternal Salvation But yet we also assert and profess that several means are appointed of God for the Begetting Maintaining and Increasing of this Faith and the Acting and Exercising of it in order to the attainment of its End and that these means are to be used diligently which are mention'd in the Sequel True Believers find by Experience that their Faith needeth such Helps and they that think themselves above any need of them do reject the Counsel of God against themselves like to those Prond Pharisees and Lawyers that thought it a thing beneath them and refused to be baptized of John Luk. 7.30 yet we account no means necessary or lawful to be used for the attainment of Holiness besides they that are appointed by God in his Word We know that Holiness is a Part of our Salvation and therefore they that think that Men may or can invent any means effectual for the attainment of it do ascribe their Salvation partly to Men and rob God of his Glory in being our only Saviour and they do thereby plainly shew That though they draw nigh unto God with their mouth and honour him with their lips yet their hearts are far from him and in vain do they worship him teaching for Doctrins the commandments of men Mat. 15.7 8 9. The Second thing observable and principally design'd in this Direction is the right manner of using all the means of Holiness for the obtaining and practising of it in no other way besides that of believing in Christ and walking in him according to our new State by Faith which hath been already demonstrated to be the only way whereby we may effectually attain to this great End We must use them as helps to the life of Faith in its Beginning Continuance and Growth and as Instruments subservient to Faith the principal Instrument in all its Acts and Exercises whereby the Soul receiveth Christ and walketh in all Holiness by him We must beware lest we use them rather in Opposition than in Subordination to the way of Sanctification and Salvation by Free Grace in Christ through Faith and lest by our Abuse of them they be made rather Hindrances than Helps to our Faith We must not Idolize any of the means and put them into the place of Christ as the Papists do by trusting in them as if they were effectual to conferr Grace to the Soul by the work that is done in the use of them Neither may we use them as works of Righteousness to be performed as Conditions for the procuring of the Favour of God and the Salvation of Christ Neither must they be accounted so absolutely necessary to Salvation as if a true Faith were void and of none effect when we are debarred from the Enjoyment of several of them The holy Scriptures with all the means of Grace appointed therein are able to make us wise unto Salvation no other way than by faith in Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 3.18 and therefore our wise Endeavour must be not to use â—hem in any opposition to the Grace of God in Christ For God's Ordinances are like the Cherubims of Glory made with their Faces looking towards the Mercy-Seat They are made to guid us to Christ for Salvation by Faith alone If any turn them to another use it is a great Violation of divine Institutions as if any Sacrilegious Person had presumed to turn the Faces of the Cherubims from the Mercy-Seat some other way This right use of the means of Grace is a Point wherein many are Ignorant that use them with great Zeal and Diligence and thereby they do not only lose their Labour and the benefit of the means but also they wrest and pervert them to their own Destruction The Jews under the Law of Moses enjoyed many more Ordinances of divine Worship than we do under the Gospel but their Table became their Snare and they fell miserably from God and Christ because the Veil of Ignorance was upon their Hearts that they could not look to the end of those Ordinances even to the Lord Jesus Christ And they sought not salvation by faith but by the ordinances as works of righteousness and by other works of the law for they stumbled at the stumbling stone Rom. 9.31 32 and 10.4 5. 2 Cor. 3.13 14. That you may not stumble and fall by the same pernicious Error I shall shew particularly how several of the principal means of Holiness appointed in the Word of God are to be made use of in that right manner expressed in the Direction 1. We must endeavour diligently to know the Word of God contained in the Holy Scripture and to improve it to this end That we may be made wise unto Salvation through saith which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.15 Other means of Salvation are necessary to the more abundant well-being of our Faith and of our new State in Christ but this is absolutely
the testimony of a good conscience 1 Joh. 3.19 21. that so our Hearts may be more strongly comforted by Faith and established in every good work and that if our ways be evil we may turn from them to the Lord our God through Christ without whom none cometh to the Father Lam. 3.40 Joh. 14.6 But your great care in this work of Self-examination must be to perform it in such a manner that it may not hinder and destroy the Life of Faith as it doth in many instead of promoting it Therefore beware lest you trust upon your Self-examination rather than upon Christ As some do that think they have made their Peace with God meerly because they have examined themselves upon their Sick-Bed or before the Receiving of the Lords Supper though they have found themselves Stark Naught and do not depend on Christ to make them better but on their own deceitful Purposes and Resolutions Think not that you must begin this Work with doubting whether God will extend Mercy to you and save you and that you must leave this a Question wholly under debate until you have found out how to resolve it by Self-examination This is a common and very pernicious Error in the very foundation of this Work which is hereby laid in the great Sin of Unbelief which as soon as it prevaileth doth by its great Influence Dash and Obscure all inward gracious Qualifications of Peace Hope Joy Love to God and his People before they be at all tryed whether they can give any good Evidence for their Salvation And it makes People willing to think their own Qualifications better than they are lest they should fall into an utter Despair of their Salvation and thus it wholly marreth the good work of Self-examination and maketh it destructive to our Souls For to them that are defiled and unbelieving there is nothing pure Tit. 1.15 You should rather begin the work with much assurance of Faith that though you find your Heart never so wicked and reprobate at present as many of God's choicest Servants do often find yet the Door of Mercy is open for you and that God will certainly save you for ever if you put your trust in his Grace through Christ I have formerly shewed that this confident Persuasion is of the nature of saving Faith and that we have sufficient Ground for it in the Free Promises of the Gospel when we walk in Darkness and can see no Light shining forth in our gracious Qualifications If we begin the work with this Confidence it will make us impartial and not afraid to find out the worst by our selves and willing to judge that our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked beyond what we can find out Jer. 17.9 And if we have any holy Qualifications this Confidence will preserve them in their Vigour and Brightness that they may be able to give clear Evidence that we are at present in a State of Grace Mark well the difference betwixt these Two Questions whether God will graciously accept and save me though a vile Sinner through Christ as before was said and whether I am already brought into a State of Salvation The former of these I say is to be resolved affirmatively by a confident Faith in Christ the latter only is to be inquired into by Self-examination Mis-spend not your time as many do in poring upon your Hearts to find whether you be good enough to trust on Christ for your Salvation nor to find whether you have any Faith before you dare be so bold as to act Faith in Christ But know that though you cannot find that you have any Faith or Holiness yet if you will now believe-on him that justifyeth the ungodly it shall be accounted to you for righteousness Rom. 4.5 And if you love Christ and your own Soul mis-spend not your time in examining whether you have committed the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost except it be with a full Purpose to assure your self more and more that you are not guilty thereof for any Doubtfulness in this Point will but harden you in Unbelief Remember well that the Question to be resolved is Whether you be at present in a state of Grace and to resolve it you must be willing to know the best by your self as well as the worst And you must not think that Humility bindeth you to overlook your good Qualifications and to take notice only of your Corruptions But your great work must be to find whether there be not some Drop of saving Grace in the Ocean of your Corruption And it will consist well with Humility to take notice of and own any Spark of true Holiness that is in you because the Praise and Glory of it belongeth not to you but to God Phil. 1.11 And you must try inherent Grace by the Touch-stone not by the Measure by its Nature not its Degree not denying any Lustings of the Spirit in you because of the strong Lustings of the Flesh against the Spirit nor denying that you are Spiritual in some degree and Babes in Christ because you find your selves carnal in a more prevailing degree and the old man bigger than the new Gal. 5.17 1 Cor. 3.1 Especially you are to examine and prove whether you be in the Faith for if you make sure of this you make sure of all the things that pertain to Life and Godliness and if you doubt of this you will certainly doubt of the Truth of any other Qualifications and will suspect them to be meerly Carnal and Counterfeit because it is a known Truth that to the Vnbelieving there is nothing pure and that all that have not truly received Christ by Faith are at present in an unregenerate State though they seem never so Pure and Godly 2 Cor. 13.5 Tit. 1.15 And let not the Issue of this Tryal depend at all upon your Knowledge of the time when or of the Sermon Conference or Place of Scripture by which you were first converted to the Faith though that is good to know too if it may be And some who have formerly lived in gross Ignorance or in a manifest Opposition to true Faith and Holiness may know such Circumstances of their Conversion and may reflect upon them comfortably as the Apostle Paul did who was turned of a suddain from his Persecuting Rage to be a Disciple and an Apostle of Christ yet others sincere Believers may be wholly Ignorant of them as John the Baptist who was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mothers Womb Luk. 1.15 and they that have been trained up religiously and known the Holy Scripture from their Childhood as Timothy 2. Tim. 3.15 Yea and many that are first turned from gross Ignorance and Profaneness to some external Reformation and then in process of time brought nearer to the Kingdom of Heaven by insensible Degrees before they be really new begotten by the Spirit of Faith There are also some that deceive their Souls by imagining that
within themselves waiting for more full enjoyment of Adoption Rom. 8.23 Now seeing the degree and measure of our Reception and Enjoyment of Christ with all the Blessings of our new state in him in this Life is imperfect it followeth clearly that our contrary natural state with its Properties remaineth still in us in some degree and is not perfectly abolished so that all Believers in this World do in some degree partake of these two contrary states Believers have indeed put off the old man and put on the new man where Christ is all and in all Col. 3.10 11. yet they are to put the old Man off and the new Man on more and more because the old Man remaineth still in a measure They are said to be not in the flesh but in the spirit because their being in the Spirit is their best and lasting state as denominations are usually taken from the better part but yet the Flesh is in them and they find work enough to mortify the deeds of it Rom. 8.9.13 Therefore several things which are contrary to each other are frequently attributed to Believers in the Scripture with respect to these two contrary States wherein one place seems to contradict another and yet both are true in divers respects Thus holy Paul saith truly of himself I live yet not I Gal. 2.20 because he did live to God by Christ living in him and yet in another respect according to his natural State he did not live to God Again he professeth that he was carnal sold under Sin and yet on the contrary that he allowed not Sin but hated it he sheweth how both these were true concerning himself In diverse respects he saith in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing And I delight to do the Will of God according to the Inner-Man With my Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of Sin Rom. 7.14.15 John saith He that saith he hath no sin deceiveth himself and is a Lyar 1 Joh. 1. and also that it 's true that whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed i. e. Christ's the new spiritual Nature remaineth in him and he can't sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 3.9 It is true that we are weak and nothing and yet strong and able to do all things 2. Cor. 12.10 11. Phil. 4.13 It 's true that Believers are dead because of Sin but alive because of Righteousness Rom. 8.10 and that when they dye by a natural Death they shall never dye Joh. 11.25 26. They are Sons that have the Inheritance by their Birth-right and yet in some respects may differ nothing from Servants and so they may be under the Law in a sense and yet under Grace and Heirs according to the free Promise at the same time Gal 4.1 2. They are redeemed from the Curse of the Law and have forgiveness of Sins and a Promise that God will never be wroth with them nor rebuke them any more Gal. 3.13 Eph. 1.7 Isa 54.9 And yet on the contrary the Curse written in the Law is sometimes poured out upon them Dan. 9 11. and they have need still to pray that God would deliver them from their Guiltiness and forgive their Debts Psal 51.14 Mat. 6.12 and they may expect that God will punish them for all ther Iniquities Amos 3.2 These contrary things asserted concerning Believers in Scripture do sufficiently manifest that they partake of two contrary States in this Life and this is a plain and easie and ready way to reconcile these seeming Contradictions whatever other ways may be used to reconcile some of them And what reason is there to question that the old Sate remaineth in Believers in some degrees seeing all sound Protestants acknowledge that the sinful Depravation and Pollution of our Natures commonly called Original Sin which is one principal part of this old State doth remain in all as long as they live in this World Now though some penal Evils may be said to remain in us yet we can't suppose that this original Pollution is continued in us and considered in Christ But as considered in our old State derived from the first Adam therefore the first sin of Adam is imputed in some respect even to those that are justifyed by Faith and they remain in a measure as aforesaid under the Punishment and Curse denounced Gen. 2.17 in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye and on this account the same original Guilt and Pollution is propagated to the Children of believing Parents as well as others by natural Generation and if such a great and fundamental part of the natural State continue in Believers as subjection to the Guilt of the first Sin and original Corruption which is one great part of the Punishment and Death threatned and by which we are prone and inclined to all actual Sins why should we not judge that other parts of the same State do likewise continue in them as well as the guilt of their own actual Sins and subjection to the Wrath of God and the Curses and Punishments denounced against them in the Law and why should we not judge that all the Miseries of this Life and Death it self are inslicted upon Believers at least in some respect as Punishments of Sin It may be objected that this Doctrin of a twofold State of Believers in this Life doth much derogate from the Perfection of our Justification by Christ and from the fulness of all the Grace and spiritual Blessings of Christ and from the Merits of his Death and the power of his Spirit and that it greatly diminisheth the Consolation of Believers in Christ But it may be easily vindicated from this Objection if we understand it rightly for notwithstanding this twofold State it still holdeth true that Believers while they are on Earth have all Perfection of spiritual Blessings Justification Adoption the Gift of the Spirit Holiness Eternal Life and Glory in and with Christ Eph. 1.3 in the person of Christ who is now in Heaven the Old Man is perfectly crucifyed they are dead to Sin and to the Law and its Curse and they are quickned together with him and raised up with him and made to sit in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.6 7. and Believers do in their own persons receive and enjoy by Faith all these perfect spiritual Blessings of Christ as far as they receive and enjoy Christ himself dwelling in them and no further Thus far they are in a new State free from the Guilt Pollution and Punishment of Sin and so from the Wrath of God and all Miseries and Death it self while they are in this World Yea all the Guilt Pollution and Punishments of Sin and all Evils whatsoever which they are subject to according to their natural State do them no harm according to this new State but work for their good and are no Evils but rather Advantages to them tending to the Destruction only
with the removal of the charge of sin we receive the Gift of Righteousness Rom. 5.17 and this we have in the Reception of Christ's Redemption and Blood-shed Eph. 1.7 Mat. 26.28 Obs VIII That God aimed in setting forth Christ as a Propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness now under the Gospel in the remission of sins that are past as well as present Of those sins that were past and committed under the Old Testament which was Gods time of forbearing in pardoning long before his Justice was actually satisfied by Christs atonement Heb. 13.8 Rev. 13.8 Mat. 18.26 The ground of those pardons is now revealed by Christs coming Isa 51.5 6. and 56.1 Dan. 9.24 2 Tim. 1.9 10. that this pardon may be no blemish to the Justice of God now satisfied Exod. 34.7 Psal 85.10 By his Righteousness is meant that Righteousness of God mentioned in the Proposition and Ver. 21 22. of which the Text is but a confirmation viz. The Righteousness of God not his Essential Righteousness that which is an Essential property of God but a Righteousness which is upon all them that believe Rom. 10.3 4. Christs Righteousness which is the end of the Law and therefore called God's Righteousness that which Christ wrought for us which is given to us and we receive by Faith that whereby Christ answered the Law for us by which as the price he redeemed us which is called God's Righteousness because it is of God's working and it only hath God's Acceptance and Approbation As Christ is called the Lamb of God because God provided him and accepts him as an Offering Joh. 1.29 Upon the like account Christ's Kingdom is called the Kingdom of God because God's own hand sets it up and maintains it and rules it Eph. 5.5 Christ that became obedient to Death to work this Righteousness was God as well as Man Phil. 2.6 8. and this is that Righteousness which the Apostle opposeth to his own that which is in Christ which he had through Faith and this is the Righteousness of God here and in other places the righteousness which is of God by Faith Phil. 3.9 2. God aimed at declaring in Gospel-times his Righteousness in forgiving of Sins past in the time of God's forbearance under the Old Testament and also in justifying those that believe in Christ at present For it was by the Righteousness of the same Christ that Sins were pardoned under the Old Testament as well as now Heb. 13.8 Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 only the Righteousness was not actually fulfilled and revealed then but it was shaddowed out then by the Sacrifices Ransoms Redemptions c. Heb. 10.1 2 3 9 10. So this was a time of God's forbearance because he pardoned sins as it were without present payment and satisfaction He had patience and did not exact the Debt until Christ paid all Mat. 18.26 but then God promised that he would reveal his Righteousness in due time Isa 56.1 Chap. 51.5 6. Psal 98.2 Dan. 9.24 and this he hath done by the appearance of Christ 2 Tim. 1.10 Observ IX The end of this Manifestation is that God may appear just in forgiving Sins past as well as present and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Here the Essential property of God is exalted and appears glorious in justifying by the fore-mentioned Righteousness of God 1. As God Justifieth freely by Grace he would appear hereby Just in Justifying Sinners for it would be a blemish to Gods Justice to forgive without a Satisfaction and Righteousness performed and therefore though he be Gracious and Merciful yet he will not clear the Guilty Exod. 34.7 Gen. 18.25 Exod. 23.7 And so the Saints of God concluded that God had a Righteousness and Redemption whereby he forgave Sin though it was not then revealed Psal 5◠14 Psal 130.7 8. 143. God would have Justice and Mercy to meet in our Salvation Psal 85.10 2. God would have it appear that he only is Just and therefore saveth us not by our own Righteousness but by his which is indeed the more exalted by our Unrighteousness occasionally though God is not therefore unrighteous in taking vengeance Rom. 3.5 Dan. 9.7 3. God would appear to be the only procurer and worker of our Righteousness and so our Justifier by way of procurement as well as by way of judgment and so he will justifie us by a righteousness of his own and not by our own Isa 54.17 Ch. 45.22 24 25. that we may Glory in the Lord only 1 Cor. 1.30 31. Vse II. It serves for Instruction by way of Encouragement and Consolation That the great happiness of those that are in Christ is I hat their Sins are forgiven and they accounted Just in the sight of the Judge of all the World through the Redemption that is by the Blood of Christ and this benefit contains all Blessedness of Life and the consequences thereof Rom. 4.6 That Man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works hath a blessedness therein and such an extensive blessedness in regard of the Spiritual part as Abraham had comprehending all Spiritual Blessings in Christ for they that be of Faith are blessed with faithful Abraham Gal. 3.9 for this Righteousness being the fundamental Blessing is revealed from Faith to Faith and they that are by Faith Just and Justified through that Righteousness do live by Faith always receiving it and receiving nourishment and comfort by it Rom. 1.17 1. They are delivered from the charge of sin and fault before God Rom. 8.33 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who shall lay any thing to their charge be suffered to bring in at Gods Tribunal any Indictment Charge or Accusation against them 't is God that justifieth them and Christ hath dyed and rose again They are Redeemed from amongst Men being the first fruits to God and the Lamb in their Mouth there is no Guile and they are without fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Throne of God Rev. 14.5 See also Col. 1.2 2. They are delivered from all Condemnation in Sentence and Execution the curse and wrath of God Gal. 3.13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us 1 Thes 1.10 Jesus who hath delivered us from the wrath to come Psal 85.3 Thou hast taken away all thy wrath thou hast turned thy self from the fierceness of thine anger See v. 5.6 The wrath of God is an unsupportable burden and the foundation of all miseries which foundation is razed and a foundation of blessedness laid whereby we have peace with God and are fully reconciled to God Rom. 5.1 2 Cor. 5.18 19. Col. 1.21 22. Ye who were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his fight Now where there is no blame before God there can be no wrath from
the Spirit whereby we are made good Trees that we may bring forth good Fruit. Though they are given before the sincere Practice of the Law yet they are not given to us in our corrupt sinful Nature but in and with the new holy Nature which immediately produceth a holy Practice though it must necessarily go before as the Cause before the Effect and they are no other than Comforts of those spiritual Benefits by which our new Estate and Nature is produced and of which it is constituted and made up as the Comforts of Redemption Justification Adoption the Gift of the Spirit and the like Neither do I intend here any Transport or Ravishment of Joy and Delight but only such manner of Comfort as rationally strengthens in some measure against the Oppression of Fear Grief and Despair which we are liable unto by reason of our natural Sinfulness and Misery This Explanation of the Sense of my Assertion is sufficient to answer some common Objections against it and I hope the Truth of it will be fully evidenced by the following Arguments First This Truth is a clear Consectary from those Principles of Holiness that have been already confirmed I have shewed that we must have a good Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God and of our Happiness in Heaven and of our sufficient Strength both to will and to do that which is acceptable to God through Jesus Christ that we may be rationally inclined and bent to the Practice of Holiness and that these Endowments must be had by receiving of Christ himself with his Spirit and all his Fulness by trusting on him for all his Salvation as he is freely promised to us in the Gospel and that by this Faith we do as really receive Christ as our Food by eating and drinking Now let right Reason judge can we be perswaded of the Love of God of our everlasting Happiness and our Strength to serve God and yet be without any Comforts Can the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace be believed and Christ and his Spirit actually believed into the Heart without any Relief to the Soul from oppressing Fear Grief Despair Can the Salvation of Christ be comfortless or the Bread and Water of Life without any sweet Relish to those that feed on him with hungring and thirsting Appetites God will not give such Benefits as these to those that do not desire and esteem them above the World and certainly the very receiving of them will be comfortable to such except they receive them blindfold which they cannot do when the very giving and bestowing of them openeth the Eyes of a Sinner and turns him from Darkness to Light whereby he doth at least in some measure see and perceive Spiritually the things that concern his present and future Peace and reap some encouraging and strengthning Comfort thereby to the Practice of Holiness Secondly Peace Joy Hope are recommended to us in Scripture as the Spring of other holy Duties and Fear and oppressing Grief forbidden as Hinderances to true Religion The peace of God keepeth our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Phil. 4.7 Be ye not sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength Nehem. 8.10 Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 John 3.3 Fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in Love 1 John 4.18 This is the Reason why the Apostle doubleth his Exhortation to rejoyce in the Lord always as a Duty of exceeding weight and necessity Phil. 4.4 What are such Duties but Comfort it self and can we think that these Duties are necessary to our continuance in an holy Practice and yet not to the beginning of it where the Work is most difficult and Encouragement most needful Therefore we must make haste in the first place to get a comfortable Frame of Spirit if we would make hastâ— and not delay to keep Gods holy Commandments Thirdly The usual Method of Gospel-Doctrine as it is delivered to us in the holy Scriptures is first to comfort our Hearts and thereby to establish us in every good Word and Work 2 Thess 2.17 And it appears how clearly this method is adjusted in several Epistles written by the Apostles wherein they first acquaint the Churches with the rich Grace of God toward them in Christ and the spiritual Blessings which they are made Partakers of for their strong Consolation and then they exhort them to an holy Conversation answerable to such Priviledges and it is not only the Method of whole Epistles but of many particular Exhortations to Duty wherein the comfortable Benefits of the Grace of God in Christ are made use of as Arguments and Motives to stir up the Saints to a holy Practice which comfortable Benefits must be first believed and the Comfort of them applyed to our own Souls or else they will not be forcible to engage us to the Practice for which they are intended To give you a few Instances out of a Multitude that might be alledged we are exhorted to practice holy Duties because we are dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 And because sin shall not have dominion over us for we are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.14 Because we are not in the flesh but in the spirit and God will quicken our mortal bodies by his spirit dwelling in us Rom. 8.9.11 12. Because our bodies are the members of Christ and the temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.15 19. Because God hath made him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.20 21. And hath promised that he will dwell in us and walk in us and be to us a Father and we shall be to him sons and daughters 2 Cor. 7.1 Because God hath forgiven us for Ghrist's sake and accounteth us his dear children and Christ hath loved us and given himself for us and we that were sometimes darkned are now lightened in the Lord Ephes 4.32 5.1 2 8. Because we are risen with Christ and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3.1.4 Because God hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 Because of the many promises made to us 2 Cor. 7.1 Search the Scriptures and you may with delight see that is this the Vein that runneth through Gospel Exhortations and you may find the like Vein of Comfort running through the Prophetical Exhortations in the Old Testament Some may object that the Apostles used this Method in their Writings to Saints that had practised Holiness already that so they might continue and increase therein But to that I may easily reply If it be a Method needful for grown Saints much more then for Beginners that find the Work of Obedience most difficult and have most need of strong Consolation and I hope to shew how we may be able to lay hold