to a short allowance though he be an heire to great possessions Wee are Wards as yee heard even now and wee are under a guardian though wee are rich in reversion happinesse and heaven and all things being ours yet God keepes us low here Let us desire that the time of our wardship may be expired that wee may come to that happinesse which he hath promised that wee may awake and sing and be happie in a more full enjoyment of God and this is the desire of those that are truly faithfull When Christ saith He will come and appeare What doe the Saints answer Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Rev. 22.2 If a naturall carnall man should speake forth that which lies at the bottome of his heart when Christ saith He will come he would say O Lord never come I am not conformed to thine Image I am not made a new creature by hearing of thy Gospel O let me never see the face of Christ But the man that knows the love of God and truly understands he everlasting Gospel when he heares Christ say I come presently there is this eccho by which he answereth the Lord Christ in his owne Spirit Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly When the Judges are in their circuits malefactors tremble and quake but an innocent man that hath a good cause expects and deâ—â—res to have it heard and is glad that they are â—ome so wicked and ungodly men who are theeves robbers murtherers and malefactors guiltie of all sinnes and lie in imâ—risoned shackled in their own consciences when they heare that the Lord Jesus shall ride is circuit and appeare as a Judge unlesse they have seared consciences they cannot but tremble and quake But the other when Christ shall be as a Judge to the wicked he shall be as a Saviour to them therefore they cannot but desire the coming and appearing of the Lord. Wherefore let us desire the appearing of the Lord Jesus let us not live as the men of the world that are afraid and tremble quake when they heare of a Judgement day Christ coming to judge every man according to his workes but let us continue in the assurance of Gods grace beleeving that our sinnes are pardoned Let not the coming of Christ be our feare but our desire let us desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wait as one doth upon one that he would speake with for the Sonne who shall deliver us from the wrath to come and shall put a Crowne of glory on our heads which he hath promised to all those that love him Againe that I may draw to a conclusion let this sweeten all miseries troubles and afflictions that we shall meet with here below If wee meet with persecution with imprisonment with hatred in the world with reproaches from men let this be sufficient to sweeten all Consider the day is coming it is at hand Christ is at the dore Jam. 5.10 and you shall awake and sing while these that now rejoyce shall howle and lament Beloved Thinke it not strange concerning the fiery triall which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you But rejoyce in as much as yee are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed yee may be glad also with exceeding joy 1 Pet. 4.13 14. God leads his people to happinesse by straits Heaven is a Palace of glory a spacious place but the way to it is narrow the gate is straite by which wee must enter in unto it Let the joyes provided for us at the end of our journey sweeten unto us the troubles and difficulties of the way God intended to make Job a great man but before God brings him to his full height of greatnesse God first brings him to the dunghill So God will bring us first to the dunghill he will lay us in the dust and then make us such glorious creatures as you have heard the Saints shall be at the resurrection Joseph was to be ruler in Aegypt but first he must be laid in prison so God layes his first in prison he brings them to a low condition to be nothing in the world and afterward layes them in the prison of the grave and then hee raiseth them to be Kings Priests Rulers and Judges with the Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore let this meditation of the resurrection sweeten trouble and perfume the grave unto us And let it likewise sweeten all the comforts that wee enjoy here by looking upon them as pledges of the joy which wee shall have at the resurrection Let it sweeten the mercies of this day which will have little relish in them without this Alas what is it to looke on Nationall deliverances mercies victories and conquests over our enemies unlesse you see your happinesse in the Lord Jesus What is it if the Land have peace if thou hast not peace of conscience by beleeving What is it if the enemies of thy body of the State and Kingdome be wholly routed and put under the feete of those that desire to stand for the liberties of the Subject if in the meane while thou be a vassall and a slave to the Prince of darknesse What is it for thee to be free from corporall enemies and yet to be under the power and led captive by the enemy of thy soule What is it if thou be a freeman in thy body and a slave in thy soule to all lusts filthinesse and ungodlinesse What is it to keepe such a day as this and to rejoyce in a carnall way for outward mercies when thou doest not spiritually rejoyce in the first place that God hath freed thee from the enemies of thy eternall salvation Rejoyce not onely as a Heathen may for nationall blessings but rejoyce as a Christian seeing God reconciled to thee in the Sonne of his love let the joy of the resurrection both sweeten thy troubles and adde spirituall fewell to the flame of thy joy for temporall mercies Truly wee then rejoyce in temporall things and in creature-comforts and mercies aright when we rejoyce in them in a spirituall way when wee see all sweetened to us in the Lord Jesus Therefore improve to the full this doctrine for the heightening of your joyes this day Let there not be an evill heart of unbeliefe in any to keepe him from rejoycing Though there were great plentie of Corne in Samaria yet the Lord that would not beleeve what the Prophet said though he saw it he did not taste of it 2 Kings 7.19 I tell you of great plentie and happinesse I have set it before your eyes as God hath enabled me but unlesse you beleeve you shall never taste of this heavenly Manna you shall never drinke of these rivers of pleasure Here is a cup of salvation you that have the lips of faith drinke and your soules shall be refreshed and comforted in the enjoyment of it but if you lie in unbeliefe you may want the joy and comfort that
the same assistance of Gods grace draw some usefull conclusions from the premises and so put a period to my discourse for the present First this doth discover unto us the usefulnesse and excellency of the unfained faith of the elect As Noah was preserved from the destruction which came upon the old world by going for his safety into the Arke so by the foot of faith wee walke into our Arke Christ Jesus for the Salvation of our soules The world of sin is a dismall wildernesse full of fierie Serpents by faith we eye Jesus Christ as our brasen Serpent and set footing in the heavenly Canaan of gods grace while the sinfull Sodome of the world is destroyed with the raine of fire and brimstone by faith like Righteous Lot wee escape out of it when with Peter wee are readie to sinke and perish in the Sea of sinne by Faith we touch the saving arme of the Lord Jesus and are preserved when wee drinke the deadly poyson of finne by faith we take in Jesus Christ as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or antidote and the deadly poyson doth not hurt us but we are miraculously preserved Faith beholdeth Christ crucified before us Gal. 3.2 and evidently set forth who hath nailed the Law of workes our sinne and death to his owne crosse and wee who deserved damnation are saved through grace Christ is the man who is an hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest Isa 32.2 sin is a noxious and a destroying wind as wind in the cavernes of the earth is a cause of an Earth-quake so finne is the cause of destroying Earthquakes in the earthly hearts of men but Christ is our hiding place in which through beleeving wee are safe The Devills infernall windes and blastes destroy many a soule with which he filleth it with hellish errours and impieties to its destruction Acts 5.3 Christ filleth his people by breathing upon them in the Spirit of grace for their salvation but Christ is a shelter from the infernall blastes of Satan And while carnall and unbeleeving men are as a ship under sayle and the Devill unto them is as a powerfull winde violently blowing them to destruction Acts 26.18 Christ by enabling his people to beleeve doth blow them with the pleasant gales of his sweet spirit to the havens of peace and safetie Though there are infectious and destroying windes upon earth yet there are none in Heaven so though the men of the earth are infected with the winds of sinne and Satan to their ruine yet they who live in the Heaven of Gods grace by faith Jesus Christ is a defence unto them When darknesse and tempests are in the Spirits of men from the Law which they have broken Christ who rebuked the tempests of the Sea Mat. 8.2 doth rebuke tempestates mentis Hier the tempests of our troubled minds and consciences and by beleeving there is a great calme in the soule Sinne in the soule is like Jonah in the ship which bringeth a tempest with it but Christ through faith doth cast this Tempest-raiser into the sea of his Fathers grace and the soule is quieted and filled with joy and peace in beleeving The Philosopher saith that Logick to a rationall and learned man is the instrument of instruments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which he shall make little proficiencie in other Arts and Sciences So faith is the Organ or instrument to the spirituall man by which hee is made partaker of the wisdome and spirit of the Lord in which he is to doe all things and without which he can doe nothing Secondly this discovers the reason why the Devill and his agents doe so much oppose the Doctrine of faith and the preaching of it He is an enemie to mans salvation and therefore he is an enemy to the Doctrine of faith through which wee are saved The Devill doth what hee pleaseth to those who are without faith as being unable to resist him Unbeleeving men are like the Israelites without a shield or Speare to defend themselves Jude 5.7 And the Devill doth lead them captive at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as wild beasts are mastered and ruled by those who have taken them in a snare or net so the word fignifieth but when wee beleeve to Salvation we are furnished with power to oppose him who seeketh our damnation when we beleeve we are armed against his encounters and fitted against his opposition Faith is the soules defensive Shield by wich all his fierie darts are quenched Eph. 6.16 and therefore it is that he doth alwayes raise opposition persecution and reproaches against the Doctrine and prosessors of Faith Thirdly seeing salvation is by faith examine thy selfe concerning thy salvation by trying thy faith Men that are not in the faith who have not Christ in them are not approved Christians 2 Cor. 13.5 Know yee not your owne selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except yee bee reprobates The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except yee be unapproved It is possible that a man may be in a state of unbeliefe and yet no reprobate But he that cannot prove that he hath faith cannot prove himselfe to be a Christian or in a state of Salvation Querie it in thy soule whether thou hast such a faith as we have spoken of Yee have heard that wee are saved through faith which is a supernaturall gift of the Spirit by which those things which the naturall man cannot apprehend concerning salvation are made plaine to the soule Supernaturall things cannot be knowne but by something which is supernaturall As the things of nature are knowne by the light of nature things of reason by the light of reason So the things of eternall life and salvation by the supernaturall gift of faith which is the evidence of the supernaturall things of the Gospel which are invisible Heb 11.1 Abraham beleeved against hope Rom. 4.18 So a spirituall man beleeveth the things of Glory and eternall life which the short line of naturall reason cannot reach or fathome and which naturally he cannot hope for or expect Is thy faith who dost Professe thy selse a child of Abraham such a faith as Abrahams faith was who is the Father of the faithfull Secondly true beleevers see their salvation by faith alone Though a man have many seeds together in his hand yet hee may know the various and diverse natures of those severall seeds So though a justified man have many precious seeds of the Holy Spirit in his heart yet he knoweth the severall natures of them all Though he hath love to God in his heart as well as faith in God yet hee knoweth the nature of Faith which alone is avaylable to Justification Trie whether thou hast been enabled to flie to the strong Tower of Gods grace for safety against Hell sinne and Devills by the silver wings of Faith without the helpe of workes for Justification Thirdly a beleever seeth justification cannot be by grace
of God So there is a two-fold faith there is the faith or perswasion of a mans own heart and a perswasion of the Spirit of God And as the visions of a mans owne heart are false dreames lies and deceits and are justly reprehended by the Prophet Jerem. 23.26 So the perswasions of a mans owne heart they are false dreames and lying perswasions we are to give no credite to them As we should not believe a commonlyer So we are not to believe the perswasions of our own hearts The same Prophet in the 28. ver compareth lying Prophesies to chaffe and the Prophesies of truth to wheat what saith he is the chaffe to the wheat So true faith is like unto wheat and faith of our selves is like unto chaffe As the winde driveth away the chaffe Psalm 1.4 So the blasts of Gods wrath and the winds of temptation will blow away the chaff of a false faith while true faith shall be preserved by God and we through it shall be preserved unto the day of redemption Wherefore brethren we are to try whether or no we doe truly believe Examine your selves saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.5 Whether ye bee in the Faith As we have a touch-stone to trye gold so God hath left a spirituall touch-stone by which true faith may be tryed As there are counterfet pieces of gold which can bee hardly distinguished from true gold until they are brought to the touch-stone so there is a counterfeit faith which can hardly be distinguished from true faith untill it be brought unto the spiritual touch-stone Therefore it wil be the wisedome of every one of you to try what faith you have It is not enough to be perswaded that you shall be saved and that Christ is yours and that your names are written in heaven Alas there are false perswasions as well as true There are multitudes of Libertines who turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and make their bellies their Gods and minde earthly things Phil. 3. And yet have strong perswasions that they are in the grace and favour of God There are Pharisees who are perswaded that they are in the love of God the Pharisee had an assurance and gave God thankes for it too Luke 18.11 God I thanke thee I am not as other men are And yet hee was but an hypocrite all the while deluded with the proud conceits of his owne righteousnesse The unbelieving Jewes professed with a great deale of boldnesse and confidence that God was their Father John 8.41 We have one Father even God And yet our Saviour tells them plainely that though they had these strong perswasions that God was their Father yet in truth the Devill was their Father Ye are saith he vers 44. of your Father the Devill A man may be perswaded that Christ will save him and goe to hell and be damned with that perswasion We see by experience that many Apostates who have made a profession of Christ have had strong perswasions of the love of God have fallen from the Gospell to prophanenesse Arminianisme and diabolicall Familisme Our blessed Emanuel doth plainly prove this truth unto us by acquainting us with some who when they shall be brought before his judgement-seate shall be confident of their interest in him whom neverthelesse hee will not own to be his Matth. 7.21 22. Not every on that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven Many shall say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devills and in thy Name done many wonderfull workes Yet you see what Christ will professe unto them I never knew you depart from me yee workers of iniquity As if he had said It is true you had a strong perswasion that you should be heires in my Kingdome it is true you thought that you should be saved if any in the world were saved but I tell you for all that I know you not depart ye workers of iniquity Wherfore it concerns all men to know whether their faith be a right faith Self-ish faith is no right faith if it arise from no higher a fountaine then our own natural reasons wisdomes and understandings our faith is from our selves and we may carry it to hell with us and find as good faith there in the Devills as this is Though this which I have spoken concerning the tryall of faith doth chiefly concerne such who are deceived with a false faith of their owne making yet it will be very advantagious for the true Saints likewise to try their faith Wherefore before I presse this farther upon such who are under a spirit of delusion I shall speak a word unto the Saints unto this purpose Consider that that man who hath true faith may likewise have much false faith There may bee a great deale of dead faith in him who hath a living faith Where there is true gold there may be much drosse and in that Professor in whom there is the golden faith of the Gospell there may be a great deal of drossie faith which is nothing worth A Christian hath two contrary natures in him Hee hath flesh as well as spirit And as there are perswasions in him flowing from the spirit so there may be perswasions flowing from the flesh Saints sometimes when they are in a luke-warm and back-sliding condition are apt to please and content themselves with the workings and perswasions of their owne spirits And they may finde that much of their joy and comfort doth not proceed from true faith wrought by the operation of God but from the lying cheating counterfeit working and operation of their owne spirits Will you know one principall ground and reason why some true Saints are so unfruitfull dead-hearted formall and luke-warm in the profession of the Gospell it is because the Devil cheats them with the workings and perswasions of their own spirits When God perswades the heart of his love our hearts are inflamed with an holy love to God and are willing to doe or suffer for the glory of God but when wee content our selves with the working of our owne spirits there is idlenesse sloath neglect of Christian duties coldnesse formality and lukewarmness so that there is little difference between us others Again it concerns you all to try your perswasions For if any of you cozen and cheate your selves with the perswasions of you owne spirits the time will come that you who kindle these sparks and walke in the light of your owne fire and in the speaks that ye have kindled This shall ye receive from the hand of the Lord ye shall lye down in sorrow Isa 50.11 When you expect heaven you will be cast downe to hell when you shall be confident that Christ is yours and shall bee ready to plead the goodnesse of your cause in the face of Jesus you shall finde that you were deceived by
that will never doe thee good it will never bring thee true comfort A man that hath not a better perswasion than this shall never see the face of God with joy 3dly Faith which is not of our selves doth carry us out of our selves A faithful man hath his life not in himselfe but in Jesus Christ He liveth not by the principles of the first but second Adam He hath his spirituall being in the Father and in his Sonne Jesus Christ He is joyned to the Lord and is one spirit Hee seeth the Father in the Son and the Sonne in him and the Father in him through his Son According to the promise of our Saviour John 14.20 Ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Paul speaking of the spirituall Thessalonians affirmeth that they are in the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 1.1 By faith we enjoy the glory of union The glory which thou hast given me I have given them that they be one even as we are one John 17. Though we have not the glory of equality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet we have the glory of likenesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though we are not united to the Father so immediately as Christ is by himselfe and in himselfe yet we are united to him mediante Christo by the meanes and mediation of Christ Jesus This is the honour which is given to those who trust by a lively faith in the name of the Sonne of God 4ly Faith which is not of our selves doth carry us beyond the world A believer looking upon Christ overcomming the world for him doth through faith overcome the world by him 1 John 5.4 Whatsoever is born of God overcommeth the world and this is the victory that overcommeth the world even your faith Therefore the Saints are said to be cloathed with the Sun and to have the Moon under their feet Rev. 12. Because being through faith cloathed with the righteousnesse of Christ who is called the Sun of righteousnesse Mal. 4.2 They trample upon all sublunary things as worth nothing in comparison of Jesus Christ Fifthly He that truly believeth in Christ is anointed with the spirit of Christ and assured of his abiding for ever in Christ 1 John 2.27 The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him God should lose his earnest if it were possible for us to miscarry to the losing of our soules after wee have this earnest from him which bindeth him to bring us to heaven and happinesse This spirit perswades us that we are the sons of God that God will lose none of his sons Hee that hath this spirit knoweth that no man that hath the spirit can speake what he feeles from the work of the spirit of adoption in his owne heart Hee admires grace when hee lookes on God reconciled in Christ to sinners lookes on himselfe reconciled to God in believing and when he feeleth the spirit of God witnessing with his spirit that he is the childe of God hee can goe boldly to the Throne of grace knowing Christ as his elder brother God his Father in him Selfe-deceiving hypocrite dost thou not begin to be convinced that thy faith is not the true faith of the Gospell by that which hath been spoken concerning this faith which is not of our selves but the gift of God 6. As I told you even now There is never true faith but true love follows it Love is an ndividual companion of faith Therefore such as have faith and never have love accompanying of it may be confident that their perswasion concerning the grace and goodnesse God in Christ is but a carnal and not a spirituall perswasion True faith worketh by love therefore if mine work not by love it is a false faith this is an undenyable argument Brethren mistake me not in this point unto which I now am speaking mis-apprehending my meaning as if I bid you love God the brethren that you may believe be justified no but I tell you now that where true lively and justifying faith is there love will follow When we doe in the light of the spirit apprehend Gods love to us and the love of Christ in giving himselfe for us wee cannot but love God againe and love Christ who hath loved us and given himselfe for us So that where there is no true love there is no true faith If it be truth that where fire is there will be heat it will necessarily follow that where there is no heat there is no fire So if where true faith is love will follow it will necessarily follow that where true love doth not follow there true faith did not precede 1 John 4.19 Wee love him because he first loved us He that loveth not God hath not apprehended Gods love to him As farre as thou believest in a spirituall way the love of God shall constrain thee to love God Tantum diligimus quantum scimus love is answerable to the measure of our faith or knowledge Hee that hath Pauls faith shall have his love We say that love is the load-stone of love magnes amoris amor So Gods love doth draw forth our hearts in love to God God in Christ when he is presented unto us for our justhification doth appeare to us as such a lovely object that we cannot but love him The greek proverb is that loving is wrought by seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so when by faith we see the love of God in Jesus wee cannot but love God And therefore John saith 1 John 4.8 That he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love Wherefore that faith by which thou art perswaded of the love of God to thy soul which carries thee not back again in love to God I dare speak it in the presence of God that that perswasion is not wrought by the spirit of grace but is the worke of thine owne carnall and naturall heart If any man saith the Apostle love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. 16.22 Let him not be accounted as one inalbo fidelium in the list of the faithfull Let him be excommunicated look not upon him as a true Christian Peter though hee had denyed Christ not long before yet he was confident that he loved that Christ whom he had denyed when Christ asked him Simon sonne of Jonas lovest thou me he saith unto him yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee John 24.15 When Christ the second and third time proposed the same question unto him he remained still confident of his love And appeals to Christ the searcher of all hearts as to one who knew the truth of his love v. 17. Hee said unto him Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee I shall but adde one thing more because I shall God willing have an opportunity to enlarge my self in this point when
tanquam ad epulas invitata as though she had been invited to a banquet We read of some when they came to lay downe their lives they were sorrie that they had no more lives to lose for the Lord Jesus Tertullian saith that the Christians were so ready to suffer that they were as willing to be devoured by the Lions as the people were desirous of their destruction by the Lyons Eusebius tells us that when as the Proconsul exhorted Germanicus to relent admonishing him of his tender yeares praying him to pitie his owne case being now in the flower of his youth he without intermission inticed the beast to devoure him Eusebius fourth book of the Eccl. Hist What steeled the spirits of these men and carried them above carnall reason and the weak principles of nature but a strong and powerfull perswasion in their spirits that they should have a glorious and joyfull resurrection at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ This is that that the Apostle proves to us Heb. 11.35 Some were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtaine a better resurrection He informeth us that when deliverance was offered they would not accept of it What was the reason they expected a resurrection Threatnings could not terrifie them from the truth nor promises draw them to errour because they were without wavering perswaded of a resurrection This was that that made Polycarpus the Martyr so willing todie for the Lord Jesus Christ which appeareth by his speech when he was tied at the stake I thanke thee that thou hast graciously vouchsafed this day to allot me a portion among the number of Martyrs among the people of Christ unto the resurrection of the everlasting life both of body and soule c. Euseb This was that likewise that made the Saints to be so merry and chearfull upon their death-beds When Hilarion lay sick and in his flesh did feele a little feare of death he presently reproves himselfe and breaketh forth into these words Egredere egredere anima goe forth goe forth my soule hast thou served Christ so many yeares and now art thou afraid to die What difference could there be between the death of Saints and of wicked prophane unbelieving men if there were no resurrection of the dead at all and therefore as you desire to live comfortably and to die happily in the bosome of Christ rejoycing upon your death-beds live constantly in the assurance of the truth of this Doctrine of the resurrection and while others that have seduced ignorant and poore people into Familisme with a brazen face all their dayes shall tremble upon their death-beds being afraid of death and dreading a judgement day which they have denyed like the Emperour Hadrian Animula vagula blandula Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallidula rigida nudula Poore wandring pale quivering soule whither shalt thou goe Platina in the lives of the Popes You shall call for death and not looke on death as a way to the infernall prison but as a passage to immortality in Heaven ye shall see the Lyon death slaine and find nothing but honey in the carkasse you shall rejoyce in confidence that your bodies shall be raised while they shall tremble for feare of a resurrection For I would have you to take notice that God seldome suffers men that are growne to this height of unbeliefe and ungodlinesse to deny the resurrection and Christs coming in the flesh to die without galled and troubled consciences As it is observed by some of many that were professed Atheists who when they came to their death beds though they in their health and strength swimming in a world of pleasure and contentments asserted that there was no god yet when they came to lie on their death-beds none seemed to be more afraid of a God and to tremble so much at his power as these men so none are more afraid of death Hell and a resurrection then some of these that have denyed that there is any Hell or a resurrection I remember the speech of Zeno the Philosopher if I would perswade any man frō Atheisme said he I would lead him to the death-bed of an Atheist when he is gasping out his last breath So if I had not sufficiently perswaded you that there shall be a resurrectiō of the body by what I have brought out of the word of truth if I knew where any of these did lie sick I would carry you to their death-beds and you might see some of them troubled and galled in their conscience that have blasphemously professed that there is no Christ come in the flesh and that there shal be no resurrection of the body hereafter I shall not need at the present to adde many more words for I hope better things of you and such things which accompanie salvation I hope there are few such spirits as these in this Congregation yet I know the Devill is so subtle that where he thinks people are most spirituall and know God most and are acquainted with Christ he sends his imps his Sadduces to trouble and assault them he doth not set so much upon any people to draw them away as upon those that make profession of the Gospel of Christ The Devill knowes such whom he hath safe within his owne command and many of these are not assaulted by these imps but when men seeme to be heirs and boast of the Lord Jesus and professe themselves to be in the spirit of glory and adoption and to have their names written in Heaven and that none are able to separate them from the love of God the Devill sends his evill Angells to such men as these Therefore knowing that you should meet with such spirits I thought good to speake somewhat before that being forewarned you might be fore-armed praemoniti praemuniti that you may goe on in the power of God and the strength of his might though the Devill may buffet you for a time by these wicked instruments and cast his fiery darts into your hearts and spirits to perswade you that there is no resurrection and may certainly know that if there be any truth in the history of the Gospel this is a truth concerning the resurrection And it is the desire of my soule that ye may live continually and constantly in the confidence and assurance of the resurrection of your bodies which being joyned with a lively Faith in Christs death and resurrection will sweeten your lives and crowne your deaths with happinesse Death which came in upon men as a legall curse shall be turned into a blessing unto you it shall not be your feare but desire with Paul ye shall desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ But this Doctrine being layd aside as of no worth or value Christ will appeare unto you but a shadow fancy and forged Chymera of mans braine As the wicked Pope was perswaded who did thus glory in his riches What great riches have we gotten by this fable of Christ
Litle Children love love one another There can be no stronger Argument to love then the consideration of our union Col. 3.15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also yee are called in one body Warre among members is unnaturall that love and peace may reigne and rule in the hearts of Christians God doth make them all one body so the Apostle in the third of the Eph. 6. doth teach us that Jewes and Gentiles are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Parts of the same body One that desired to moderate between the Calvinists and Lutherans wishing them not to be so bitter the one against the other made use of this Argument telling them that Luther and Calvin were reconciled in love together in heaven Let not strife hatred malice and bitternesse prevaile among you Christians for yee shall sweetly agree together as one body in one Spirit at the resurrection Vse 2. There being such a glorius union between us and Christ it should engage the spirits of Saints to be much in the contemplation of it As the bloud and spirits doe runne through the body so this Doctrine of union doth runne through the whole body of Christian Religion Our Justification in the person of Christ our own Justification in our owne persons by Christ cannot bee clearely understood if we be totally ignorant of union with Christ As the Philosopher saith that all morall vertues are linck'd together in justice so all the points of Christianity are concatenated and joyned together in this doctrine of union As the Starre did lead the wise men to Christ shining over the place where Christ was so this Doctrine of our union with Christ shinnig among other truths of Christ in the Scripture doth hold forth unto us a light to direct us through the grace of God into a perfect and comfortable knowledge of all other truths As it doth in an especiall manner beame forth light unto us to confirme us in the Doctrine of the resurrection For you see that the bodies of the Saints are to bee raised because they are united to Christ and one with him Therefore this may strengthen the Faith of every one of us concerning the certainty of the resurrection What saith the Apostle No man yet ever hated his owne flesh but nourished it and cherished it Eph. 5.29 The Lord Jesus Christ cannot hate his owne flesh nor forget his owne body the bodies of the Saints but in love will raise them even while they lie in the dust they are his body Our propriety in a thing doth draw out our affection to the thing Our bodies belong to the Lord and are in his heart and affections even while they moulder in the dust therefore let this truth nierce your understandings and sinke deepe into your memories and be fully perswaded that your bodies shall be raised because they are not so much your bodies as the body of the Lord Jesus The Scripture as you have heard speakes so gloriously of that union which all the Saints have with Jesus Christ in that one Spirit which is in Christ and in every Saint that it seemes to hold forth Christ as incompleat till he have gathered all his members into one body And certainly Christ will not appeare incompleat in his body at the resurrection which he should doe should hee not by his power command the bodies of the Saints to come out of the earth Therefore he will not suffer any part of himselfe to lie in the dust he will not appeare at the generall resurrection without a limb not without a hand not without a finger not without the least member Thou that art the meanest Christian that apprehendest thy selfe to be but as the toe of Christ mayst be strongly perswaded of thy resurrection for I tell thee whâ—â— Christ shall appeare at the great resurrection he will not be without a toe not without the lowest and most inferiour member of his body He will appeare in his fulnesse and all the Saints gathered together and made one with him in body and spirit are his fulnesse and compleatnesse The King when he rides in triumph or to his great Counsell he rides in his Royall Robes and in all his glory When Christ shall appeare the second time he will ride in Triumph as a Conquerour of all Enemies and will ride to his great Counsell or Parliament of Saints who are to judge the Delinquents of the world And the Saints are his glory 2 Cor. 8.23 and therefore they must be raised that hee may be in his full glory If thou looke upon thy selfe and thy body and consider how thou hast dishonoured God in thy body it may bee thou mayst be startled in thy spirit and have such sad thoughts as these Will Christ ever raise this body as his that I have abused to sinne shall this body be glorified which I have dishonoured by base and filthy lusts but when thou hast any such thoughts as these in which the Devill appeares to thee as an Angel of light to make thee question the truth of the glorious resurrection of thy body then looke beyond thy selfe beyond the sinnes that thou hast committed against God in thy body and spirit And think thus with thy selfe This body though I have abused it by lust and intemperance though I have dishonoured God by the sinnes which I have committed and acted aâ— it were upon a stage in this body and flesh of mine yet now the property is altered I am not now to looke on it as my body I am to look on it as the body of the Lord Jesus it is that body that he hath washed from all sinne in his owne bloud it is that body that he died for that he might cleanse it from filthinesse and uncleannesse it is his body he hath right to it and a propriety in it it is his and none of mine Christ will not lose that which belongs to himselfe and therefore it shall be raised in glory We see how unwilling men are to part with that which is their possession and inheritance We know how Naboth answered Abab who would have had his Vineyard 1 King 21.3 Should I give the inheritance of my Fathers unto thee we are the inheritance the possession of the Lord Jesus and he will not lose any part of his inheritance This Argument is of sufficient strength to silence carnall reason if it were throughly weighed by us in the ballance of the Sanctuary For if a man look on himselfe as out of himselfe and the being which he hath in the first Adam and behold himselfe as one with the Lord Jesus in a spirituall onenesse seeing himselfe as such a part of Christ as a hand or a foote may be said to be a part of the bodie and knowing Christ hath undertaken to provide for his body and to owne it for his owne this will establish him in an unshaken considence that the Lord Jesus Christ intends to raise his body and to
know not whether I shall have an opportunity to speak to you againe from these words And seeing I have handled the two former parts in this place I had a desire to finish my discourse from this Text among you Another reason was because I did find some Familisticall spirits here that were troubled with what I delivered being enemies to that Christ who came in the flesh and dyed on the Crosse was raised from the dead and enemies to the Doctrine of the resurrection which is to be wrought by his power and that you may see how little I regard the speeches of these enemies of Christ and the glorious resurrection of Saints I would not seeme for their sakes to desert my discourse therefore I did resolve to goe on with it this day Then thirdly I apprehend it may much further the worke of the day for if we have remembred God aright in our prayses having made mention of his goodnesse to the Land and Nation we have done it spiritually and have more rejoyced in spirituall then temporall mercies And if our joy should end in rejoycing only for tēporal mercies we should rejoyce rather carnally then spiritually Therefore having in the beginning of the day rejoyced for the mercies that God hath shewed to the Land I thinke I shall doe well if I raise you in your spirits by what I shall speake from these words and from the sight of Nationall mercies and temporall deliverances take occasion to draw your eyes to behold by Faith how you and all Saints shall rejoyce when you are delivered from all enemies at the resurrection that so I may sublimate your joy by carrying you higher in the spirit to rejoice in the spirituall things spoken of in the text Awake and sing Ye know we expresse our joy by singing as we may gather from that place Psal 126.1 when the Lord turned againe the captivitie of Sion we were like them that dreame then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing Singing in Scripture is an expression of great joy If any be merrie let him sing saith James So my Evangelicall Prophet to shew what great joy there shall be at the resurrection when the bodies of the Saints shal be raised he bids us awake and sing So that this is the point there will be great joy at the resurrection For the amplifying of which point I shall shew you what cause of rejoycing there will be at the resurrection The spirits and the bodies of the Saints will then be reunited together again which were disunited for many yeares And as the Spirit doth with some regret griefe and unwillingnesse leave the bodie having a naturall desire and appetite being planted into it by the hand of the Creator after union with the bodie so the spirit cannot but rejoyce when it is united againe to the bodie Therefore you shall find the spirits of Saints under the Altar in the Revelation 6.10 crying How long holy and true intimating their desire to be reunited to their bodies And in 2 Cor. 5.4 The Apostle there shewes us that though the Saints be willing to live with the Lord Jesus Christ yet there is an unwillingnesse in them to leave their bodies therefore they had rather have immortalitie swallowed up of life then to lay downe their bodies in the grave if it were the will of God We that are in this Tabernacle saith he groane being burthened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life There seemes in these words to be held forth an unwillingnes in the Saints to be uncloathed of their bodies to put off the cloathing of the flesh We observe in Philosophie that there is a naturall appetite in the soule or forme to be united to that bodie that it once informed and as it leaves the bodie with some unwillingnesse so there is a desire of reunion when they are parted so that re-union will be a cause of joy For as there is joy at the meeting of friends so the body and soule that were long together in this world shall rejoyce when they shall meet together againe This is one ground of joy from their meeting the bodie and the spirit shall meet together there shall be a reunion after there hath been a disunion between them But in the next place there will be a cause of great joy because there will be an absolute perfection both in the body and in the soule God shall be perfection in the Spirit in every facultie of it and God in his glory shall dwell likewise in the body The soule shall be full of God here we have but an imperfect knowledge of God there the soule shall be free from all ignorance having the full vision of God Here we see as in a glasse darkly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enigmatically as the Apostle speaks there we shall see face to face Here we do but as it were see the back parts of God with Moses As the Kings of Persia in State used to keep themselves from the sight of the people God doth as it were hide his face here in comparison of the full discovery which hee will make of himselfe hereafter We doe but sip of the cup of spirituall joy here but there wee shall be filled with the rivers of the pleasures of God Here we have as Austin saith guttulas but little drops of joy but there we shall be filled with joy Here we have a sight of God which doth not fully satisfie but still we desire to know more of God and more of the Lord Jesus Christ but there wee shall be satisfied with the likenesse of God as the Apostle saith Col. 3. v. 4. When Christ which is our life shall appeare then we also shall appeare with him in glorie The Apostle saith 1 Joh. 3.2 Yet it doth not appeare what we shall be it is not evident to us what glorie there shall be in our understandings how our affections shall be ravished and enamoured with the love of God and the Lord Jesus Christ it doth not appear what shal be in our spirits but we know that when be shall appeare wee shall be like him for wee shall see him as he is O what tongue of Rhetorick can expresse this what it is to be like the Lord Jesus Christ to see him as he is there is more in it then the Eloquence of Angels can set forth unto you As they shall have such unspeakable glory in their spirits so likewise there shall be a glory on their bodies Alas our bodies now are but vile bodies weake bodies but what saith the Apostle Phil. 3. ult God shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body or to his body of glory for so it is in the originall As the body of the Lord Jesus Christ at his transfiguration was changed and his face did shine and his whole body did shine with heavenly brightnesse and Celestiall
mightily in him to pervert the Gospel and to bring in Antichristianisme in this way of flaming zeale love and holinesse And if he were now alive he would wonder at his numerous off-spring and progeny which he hath now amongst us But that you may avoid this first rock before yee be engulfed into the deepe and bottomlesse pit of Familisticall Atheisme and Antichristianisme let what hath been spoken to reprove them establish you in the truth of the Gospel and looke upon the best piece of Familisme but as upon refined Popery For wee are not saved by Christ working in us and making us obedient to his Fathers holy will but wee are saved by the righteousnesse of Christ who hath shed his bloud for us And though we deny not but that wee have Christ within us and the Spirit of Grace to subdue our sinnes Yet this is denied that the workings of the Spirit are our justification for wee are justified before wee have these workings which wee feele within us Wee are not justified because we love God and Christ and desire to walke in sinceritie to glorifie God but because wee apprehend the Grace of God in Christ and therefore we love God and Christ and destre in sincerity to walke in all the wayes that God hath made knowne to us in Christ Wee are not justified by the conformitie of our will to Gods will or the onenesse of our will with his but wee are justified by faith before any of those works are wrought in our hearts by the Spirit of Grace He that denies this is ignorant of Christ and the Gospel and is not an honourer of Christ but a Minister of Satan and Antichrist and a deluder of the people Thirdly This is for the reproose of the hypocriticall Protestant who professeth the doctrine of justification by faith without works with his tongue but denieth it with his heart not daring to trust his soule in the armes of a Saviour unlesse he brings good works along with him to procure his welcome and entertainment This man stumbles at the thresh-hold of the doore of Grace being never able to enter into the house of love because he will not adventure his salvation upon the promises of Grace which are made to sinners that have no workes or righteousnesse inherently in themselves He will not goe to God or close with a promise of Grace unlesse he have the sight of righteousnesse in himselfe in the first place He will tell you that good works are not the matter of our justification and yet he will not conclude that he is a justified man untill he see good works in himselfe This man following the law of righteousnesse doth not attaine to the law of righteousnesse because he seeketh it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9.31 32. The Apostle speaks against this pharisaicall opinion when he saith Wee are justified by Grace through beleeving not through working I am not bound to love God and the brethren that I may be beloved of God but I must beleeve that I may love God and my brother The preposterous preaching of sanctification before justification for the evidencing of justification is that which keepeth many poore creatures in bondage for many yeares and ruines many soules How many are gone to Hell who thought they were going to Heaven deceiving themselves with false and unsound assurances And fetching their comforts from the sight of their own works and not from the Grace of God in Christ by a pure act of beleeving If this were the right path to justification we should not be justified in beleeving but in loving and working For I seeing my love to God should conclude Gods love to me But herein is love not that wee loved God but that God loved us and sent his Sonne to be the propitiation for our sinnes 1 Joh. 4.10 And true love is wrought in us by the sight of Gods free love to us in an act of beleeving Therefore if thou hast no assurance of the love of God but that which thou hast gotten from the sight of thine own works and from the conclusions of thine own base and deceitfull heart as the ordinary way of some hath been thou hast no assurance at all When thou shalt lie under a great temptation thou wilt finde no comfort in this assurance And thou shalt finde at the great day when thou shalt appeare before God and Christ that this assurance will not be worth a Rush This building upon thy love to God and not upon Gods free love to thee is to build upon a sandy foundation and not upon Christ by faith And if the Lord convince thee of thy folly thou wilt lay a better foundation of joy and comfort then this can be unto thee For other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. Though a spirituall man can make a good use of marks and signes as of love to God and Saints when he seeth them in the light of the Spirit as fruits proceeding from faith as the roote yet by drawing a conclusion from the sight of such things which we apprehend to be in our selves of our happinesse and good estate before God wee shall not so truely comfort as certainly deceive our selves Fourthly This is for the reprehension of blind ignorant Formalists who place Religion rather in conformity to outward formes of Government and submission to externall Ordinances then in the faith of the Gospel which is operative by love Justification doth not lye in our obedience to the Ordinances of Jesus Christ but in Jesus Christ Wee are not made Saints by being made members of any Church or Congregation but by faith in the head of the Church Woe to him that maketh his obedience and submission to any Ordinance the ground of his comfort as too many zealous Formalists do who run from Congregation to Congregation from one Ordinance to another to get solid comfort to their soules apprehending that they are undone creatures and cannot be true Saints unlesse they be under the true practise of all Ordinances whereas it is a plaine truth revealed in the Gospel of truth that neither submitting to an Ordinance can make a true Saint nor the want of Ordinances un-saint any man that is made one with Christ in beleeving He is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2.28 29. So he is a true Saint who is not a visible member of a Congregation but he whose life of faith is hidden in Jesus Christ He is baptized not whose body is washed with water but whose soule is washed in the bloud of Christ 1 Pet. 3.21 He is a good Communicant and breaks bread who doth not breake bread
testimony of Job Job 1.1 That he was a perfect man and upright one that feared God and eschewed evill And though man may oppose this yet it seemeth by Gods speech to Sathan that the Devili could not contradict it Job 2.3 And the Lord said unto Sathan hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect man upright one that feareth God and escheweth evill Did any thing which was sin or sinful procure this honourable title to David that he was a man after Gods owne heart 1 Sam. 13.14 Doth not the Scripture of truth inform us concerning Zacharias and Elizabeth his wife that they were both righteous before God walking in all the Commandements of God blamelesse Luke 1.6 They did not onely walk in the great Commandement of God concerning faith for Justification but in all the Ordinances and Commandements of God Is not Lot called a just and righteous man who was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked 2 Pet. 2.7 And was his sinfull soule vexed with their evill deeds or his righteous soul speak in the language of Gods Word and ye must acknowledge that it was his righteous soule vers 8. God is not like unto some indulgent parents who by their fond indulgency doe account that to be a vertue which is the fault of their children and them to be vertuous who are vile God calleth nothing righteousnesse which is sin or sinfull Nor those to be perfect and upright which are not so indeed and therefore seeing God doth call his children righteous holy and perfect wee may not be affraid to call them so unlesse wee will be affraid to follow his judgment Object They were righteous before God by Justification and before men by holy walking Ans We deny not their justification before God by faith but withall we affirme that they were righteous before him by their holy walkings As these places doe sufficiently prove with others which we shall hereafter speak of Let us not delude ous soules to think that righteousnesse sanctification is to the eye of men only The purest sanctification of a Saint is not so visible to men as unto God Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visite the fatherlesse and Widowes in their affliction and to keepe himselfe unspotted from the world which will be further manifested by our next argument Arg. 10. Almighty God is a God of pure eyes who cannot behold any iniquity any sinfull thing or sin with an eye of approbation But this God who cannot approve what is sin and sinfull this God approveth and professeth that he is well pleased with the performances of his Saints therefore the performance of the Saints cannot be sin or sinfull The Apostle in Philip. 4.18 Professeth that the worke of the Philippians in sending to relieve his wants was an odour of asweet smell a sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God God hath pure eyes and pure nostrils and therefore if it had been sin or sinfull it could not have pleased his eye nor have beene an odour of a sweete smell unto his nostrills Object They are so but not in their owne nature Answ If they be not so in their own nature they are filthy and odious in their own nature and yet accepted by grace If one thing which is filthy and odious in its owne nature be accepted why should not other things which are filthy and odious in their owne nature be accepted for good workes If this can be made good Whoredome and Adultery will prove good works which hath been asserted by some who have said that the filthinesse of whoredome being done away the action is well-pleasing to Almighty God as well as any good work Arg. 11. One end and intention of God in electing of us was that he might make us holy that he might make us good trees to bring forth good fruit Though God doth not elect us because wee doe believe or because wee doe love yet hee hath elected us that wee may believe and that we may love So that wee frustrate one end that God hath in electing us if we doe not grant that God gives us a new nature and new hearts According to that of the Apostle 2 Thes 2 13. We are chosen unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth And in Eph. 1.4 He hath chosen us in him that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Object We doe apprehend our election imperfectly which is the cause of the sinfulnesse of our works Answ By reason of that which is in the flesh we cannot so perfectly see our election as wee shall doe hereafter Yet in the spirit for the present we doe so fully apprehend it that by Gods grace in the apprehension of it wee are made unblameable and holy before him in love which is all that I contend for I may adde this that if God had chosen us to love joy sanctification and the like which are sin and sinfull that then he had chosen us to sin or to something sinfull which conceit in my apprehension doth carry such an absurdity in the face of it that it needeth not a Confutation Object They are not sin in their morall nature as they ought to be done but they are so as done by us Answ God hath not chosen us unto them as they are considered onely in his command But he hath chosen us unto them as they are to be acted and done by us as it is plain by the words of the Text and therefore this objection hath no strength in it to weaken our argument Arg. 12. If the new creature were sinfull his workes sinful or sin it would nullifie Gods intention in our Justification who doth justifie us when we are unholy that he may make us holy Ephes 2.10 Wee are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good workes which God hath before ordained that we should walke in them Wee are not ordained to walke in any thing which is sin or sinfull but to walke in good workes We are redeemed from sin that we might be purified unto himselfe a peculiar people And grace teacheth us to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world not sinfully but righteously God maketh us good trees by justification and then enables us to bring forth good fruit There must be a root before there can be fruit So God gives us a roote or seed of holinesse before wee can bring forth holy fruit and righteous actions And when the good seed is sown in good ground it cannot but bring forth good fruit Mat. 13.23 which place may give more light for the clearing of that objection where it was said that there could not bee good fruit though the seed were good because the ground is not good Arg. 13. God doth free us from the law of works and doth bring us under the covenant of grace that we may by grace
live under his commands Why are we his subjects why are we his servants but because wee are under his commands and under his laws You know the Jewes said they would not have Christ to be their King but the voyce of every Christian is to cry up Christ to proclaime him King and to owne him only as their Ruler And Christ being King rules and reigns in the hearts of his people by lawes and commandements and precious statutes worthy of such a King Now Christ gives us not a law as Moses gave a law that was grievous to those that heard it but Christ gives a law of love a law of sweetnesse by which hee rules in the midst of his enemies in our hearts what is in the flesh in us is an enemie to Jesus Christ but Christ Jesus sitting upon his Throne as King in our renewed regenerated and enlightned spirit rules in the midst of our sins his enemies which oppose him Christ is not such a King as other Kings other Kings make lawes and adde penalties to their laws for those that break them but they have no power to enable their Subjects to keep them But here is the priviledge and prerogative of our King when Christ makes lawes he doth not only give us lawes and bid us keepe them but he hath power in himselfe by which he enableth us to do that which he commands us to doe If Christ should command us to love should not enable us to doe that which he commands he should be such a Law-giver as Moses that gave a Law but gave no power to doe it But Christ is not such a Law-giver as Moses As he is not a rigid Law-giver to bid Saints doe it upon penalty of damnation or to worke for life and salvation so neither is he like Moses who could give them no power but there is a power and strength goes with Christs commands to enable us to doe what Christ the King commands Therefore if any of you give Christ the glory of his grace by believing that he hath abolished all your sins by his death be not dismayed at the sight of your corruptions Fight the good fight of faith Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world Christ that commands you to obey his Father will enable you to obey his Father Christ reignes in the hearts of his people not only by making known to them the covenant of his owne grace but by supplying them with strength to doe his will Lord give what thou commandest said one and command what thou wilt Christ commands us what to doe and gives us power to doe that which he commands Such a King is Christ that frees his people not onely from the condemnation of sin but from the power and dominion of sin in their spirits lives and conversations Blessed be God saith the Apostle that ye were the servants of sin Are they so still now they are under grace No but being made free from sin ye are the servants of righteousnesse sinne shall not have dominion over you why ye have a new King ye are under grace ye are under King Jesus If a Tyrant should tyrannize over Subjects and depose their lawfull King if this King afterwards should overthrow this Tyrant and deliver his Subjects from tyranny and bondage by overcomming the Tyrant would hee suffer this Tyrant to tyrannize over them or his people to be under the lawes of the Tyrant We were under Satan the Tyrant under his lawes and commands under the law of sinne and concupiscence but Christ comes and overcomes the Tyrant that ruled tyrannically in our hearts and will hee suffer that Tyrant still to rule us by those commands which he gave us when wee were in bondage to him No we shall not be under the bondage of the flesh if we understand the liberty of grace and of the Spirit The Apostle saith that we doe not live nor eate nor drinke nor doe any shing to our selves because Christ dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord of quicke and dead Rom. 14.8 9. Christ dyed and rose that he might be Lord and King and reigne and set up his Scepter of holinesse in the hearts of his people This was prophesied in Psal 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power When Christ as King comes with power his people shall be willing Christ bids them believe and they believe he bids them love and they doe love they run through fire and water they lay downe their honours and riches at his feet and love not their lives unto the death Object The enabling of Christ in working is not of the same extent with his command Answ In the spirituall and regenerate part the power of Christ is as large as his command The fayling is not from the new but the olde man The whole man or person is under the command so that a man yea every man doth sin because he doth not doe in his person as he is a man what is commanded Charge the fault where it is to be charged upon the flesh which is the cause of a mans sin and then look upon grace which hath abolished sin and you shall finde the new man conformable to the will of God and the man good and holy in part to wit in his regenerated part It is further objected that Christ biddeth us to cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit which no man doth It is granted and therefore we deny not but that every man sinneth if we take him physically But as farre as we are in the Spirit wee are cleansed from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit so that the new man doth fulfill it and Christ doth reign in him though the flesh prove a Traytor and rebellious against his commands Arg. 18. Another argument may be brought from the consideration of the Image of Christ If this were true that all the works of the Saints were in their formalitie sinne this would follow that the Image of Jesus Christ were an Image of unholinesse and sin I ground my argument upon that place of the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 Wee all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Here the Apostle shewes that the Saints are changed into the Image of Christ Now if there were nothing but sin and unholinesse sinfulnesse in those who are looked upon as spirituall as some conceive it wil follow that the Image of Christ into which they are changed must be an image of unholinesse If my love be unholinesse I am changed to that image of love which is in Christ and so it would follow that the Image of Christ doth consist in unholinesse Object If there be perfect sanctification in the new man then wee may bee justified by it Answ I deny that it doth not follow We shall have perfect
your owne yee are bought with a price your bodies as well as your spirits are Gods c. 1 Cor. 6.20 the Apostle gives this reason why Christ died and revived and rose againe that he might be Lord of the quick and dead Rom. 14.9 that as a servant is more his Masters then his owne so Christ being the Lord of the resurrection we shall be more his then 〈◊〉 owne we shall be raised as those in whom Christ hath a propriety and Interest we shall be looked on as the inheritance of the Lord Jesus he shall be King and Lord over us all and rule over us His Scepter of glory shall be set up in every heart and his Throne shall be exalted in every spirit Thus My dead body they shall rise They shall rise as mine they are my dead men and they shall be my living men Here you see that Christ will owne them for his when they are in the dust There are some that shall speak to Christ at the resurrection as though they were familiarly acquainted with him whom he will not owne saying Depart from 〈◊〉 I know you not yee workers of iniquitie But Christ will owne his Saints Mal. 3.17 They shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts when I make up my Jewells or speciall treasure and I will spare them as a man spareth his owne sonne that serveth him As men will not part with their Jewells so Christ will not lose the bodies of his Saints they are part of his speciall treasure The fourth consideration is this the bodies of the Saints that shall be raised may be called the body of the Lord Jesus for this reason because Christ in the Spirit shall be the life soule and forme that shall give life and being to the bodies of the Saints at the resurrection As the body is called the body of the Spirit that dwells in it so Christ Jesus dwelling in the bodies of his Saints by his Spirit their bodies may be said to be his body And as a man may say this is my body it belongs to that humane spirit in me because his humane spirit moves lives in it and doth as a Divine power act in it so our bodies being raised may be said to be the bodies of Christ because he shall act as the Spirit forme and soule in them Christ shall be the soule which shall give life and being to all Saints which shall be raised by him The fifth consideration Death cannot dissolve the union which is between Christ and a believer The love of the Father is the urne in which the ashes of dead Saints are preserved Rom. 8.38 39. I am perswaded saith Paul that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Man doth consist of a naturall body and humane spirit And death cannot make a separation between Gods love and our bodies no more then it can make a separation between his love and our soules Among the things which God hath bestowed upon us in Christ the Apostle doth reckon up death 1 Cor. 3.22 which sheweth that it is not a curse but a blessing to Saints It would be a curse unto us did it bring an irrecoverable ruine and destruction to our bodies Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Deaths disability to cast our bodies out of Gods love and protection is that which doth convert death through Christ into a blessing unto us Paul calleth Saints in respect of their bodily death 1 Thess 4.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that sleep in Christ As sleep doth not bereave men of life so death doth not take away from Saints their life which is in Christ As a Philosopher told a tyrant he might kill him but not hurt him so death may kill but cannot hurt a Saint because the union between God and him is indissolvible Rom. 14.8 Whether we live or die we are the Lords And therefore it may be truly said My dead body shall they arise Sixt consideration The bodies of Saints are sanctified by Christ and therefore hee cannot but owne them Sanctification is the marke or seale of Christ As merchants doe set their seales and markes upon their goods which they will owne so Christ will for ever owne that upon which he hath set the seale and marke of his sanctifying Spirit The spirit dwelleth in the body as well as in the Spirit of a Saint and Christ will never cease to own his own house and the place which he hath chosen for his habitation God doth not only honour our bodies by calling them his house but calleth them his Temple 1 Cor. 6.19 Know yee not that your body is the Temple of the holy Spirit It is not a paradoxe then in Divinity that Christ at the resurrection should owne them as his owne Seventh consideration Christ should be incompleat A man that wanteth a member is incompleat and imperfect so Christ should be imperfect and incompleat were he defective in any of his members at the resurrection And therefore all the bodies of the Saints must be raised as his body It is an Argument that some of the Schoole-men make use of to prove the necessity of a resurrection of bodies from the incompleatnesse of the soule when it is separated from its proper body which it did informe and with which in union it made one compositum So the bodies of Saints must be raised that Christ may be compleat in his mysticall body as he is in his owne person The Church is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulnesse of Christ Eph. 1. last because as a body is not full and compleat in his being that wants a member so Christ should not be compleat if any part of him were wanting And therefore the bodies of all Saints must be raised that Christ may appeare in his glory and compleatnesse at the resurrection And thus having opened this Doctrine and illustrated it by these considerations I shall draw some usefull conclusions from it Vse 1. Seeing Christians shall be one body at the resurrection this should teach us to be one here in the bond of love That one member should oppose and fight against another member is against nature And that one Christian should fight against another or take his fellow-member by the throat is against the principles of grace In the 13. of Gen. and the S. ver Abram doth thus speake unto his brother Lot Let there be no strife I pray thee between mee and thee for we are Brethren Christians should not strive or contend one against another because they are fellow-members It is reported of John that in his old age being unable by weaknesse to speake long unto the Congregation he would stand up and in stead of a long Sermon ingeminate this Precept Diligite filioli diligite
care of the bones of his Saints and though the limbes of their bodies be carried from one end of the world to the other and scattered in severall places and climates yet by his power he will bring one limb to another therefore glorifie Christ in your bodies who hath promised to quicken your mortall bodies by his spirit which he hath given unto you Rom. 8.11 In the next place another use may be this to make us willing to sacrifice our bodies for the maintaining of the truths of Christ if Christ be pleased to call us to suffer for him We doe not know but this point may be very seasonable we know not how soone Christ may call for our bodies to lie in prison for some truthes he hath discovered to us which he hath not made known to others why should we be unwilling that Christ should suffer in his owne body Consider that the body which shall lie in prison it is not thy body thou art not able to raise it it is the body of Christ Therefore if it be the mind of Christ that this body shall lie in prison say not My will but thy will be done and if Christ will lead thee further if he will not onely lead thee to be imprisoned in thy body for the profession of the truth but if he call thee to give up thy life to loose it for him that thou mayst find it again in him let this consideration make thee willing to be a martyr and sufferer for the Lord Christ why should not he doe what he will with his owne If he will lead thee to a pillorie to an hot Iron to receive a marke in thy body for him to an halter fire and faggot be contented And be confident that if Christ ever call thee to suffer he will give thee power and strength for to suffer in thy body because he cannot forget to be mindfull of his owne body We know how Christ threatneth those that are ashamed of him and his word in an adulterous and sinfull generation Mark 8.38 Of him saith he shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in the glory of the Father with power and great glory As Christ will not owne but be ashamed of wicked ungodly and unbelieving men that make profession of his name in words without his power in their hearts so Christ will owne the bodies of his Saints and such who truly believe in him and have laid downe their lives for him and they shall find their lives againe at the resurrection of the dead Therefore let this make us willing to suffer I am the more willing to presse this point because I see a spirit of basenesse and cowardlinesse in Christians I find not that courage in the hearts and spirits of Christians that should be in them The complaint of Jeremiah may justly be taken up in our times he saith Jer. 9.3 None were valiant for the truth There is scarce a man that appeares for truth in the height of zeale Men will rather sinne against Conscience to comply with the world then oppose themselves against the corruptions of the world they will rather swimme down with the tyde and streame of the world then oppose the wicked streame of worldly corruptions And it is to be feared that many professors have their eye so much upon the Civill Magistrate from this corruption and unsoundnesse in their hearts they will be of the same Religion with the Civill Magistrate because they will not suffer any thing for the Lord. They looke on Christ in their apprehensions as precious but when they are told of a crucified Christ of a persecuted Christ of a Christ hanging on a tree a Christ to be spit upon condemned and persecuted to suffer in the world with the young man in the Gospel they goe away sorrowfull from such a Sermon they would have Christ and the world together but if they cannot have Christ but they must leave the world they had rather part with Christ then with the world They are like Joseph of Arimathea that tooke Christ and left the Crosse behind him So delicate Professors in our time they will take Christ but they will be sure to leave the Crosse they will be wise in their way they will professe Religion no further then they may hold the world and Religion together One reason of this cowardise and basenesse of spirit is this because they doe not confider that the bodies of Saints are under the care and in the possession of Jesus And that wee cannot glorifie God more then by lying in prison in love to Christ or dying for him if it be his pleasure to call us to seale his truths with cur bloud And if we did confider what a holy flame and Heavenly sparke was in the hearts and spirits of primitive Christians in believing this truth that they accounted it their greatest honour to be dishonoured for Christ their greatest credit to be discredited by the world for him their Liberty to be imprisoned their life to die at a stake for professing this glorious truth of Christ discovered to their soules Phil. 1.21 it would put fire and spirit into us and this lethargie that is upon us would speedily be cured Indeed we are a luke-warme people the discretion and prudence of politick professors in our times hath swallowed up zeale In the times of Popery there was zeale without knowledge in this Kingdome and now wee have knowledge without Zeale And the ground of this is this because either wee doe not meditate on this truth or else because we are rather cold and formall then truly spirituall in the meditation of it which should engage us as we tender the glory of Christ to be more frequent and serious in our contemplations concerning it for the future I find that Christians made much use of this point in former dayes though I doe not wholly justifie their practise for as it is our custome to salute one another when we meete so it was the custome of some Christians when they met one another to utter these words Christus resurrexit Christ is risen They apprehended it sa a point that came with such power on their spirits to enable them to be willing to suffer for the Lord that this was their salutation in the time of persecution assuring themselves that he which was risen in his owne person as head would arise in all Saints as his members And this was that that made them so willing to jeopard their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus We read of Paul Act. 21.13 that when they exhorted him not to goe to Jerusalem because the Spirit in Agabus had made it knowne that he should be persecuted and bound when he came thither Why doe you weep and break my heart saith he I am not onely willing to be bound at Jerusalem but to die there for the name of the Lord Jesus It was a heart-breaking to Paul to tell him that hee should
not goe to suffer at Jerusalem as if it were his greatest suffering not to suffer for the Gospel But we have learned this point by roate and it is a thing few understand wee talke of it in a Parrat-like way and we have mumbled it over in our Creed I believe the resurrection of the body but few have dived into the bottome of it or suckt the sweetnesse and spirituality which lies in it or else we should not be so luke-warme in the cause of Christ but for the future let us looke up to God that he may give us spirituall and Heavenly wisdome that so we may have a more Divine and spirituall knowledge of it He that is the resurrection and the life of Saints is the onely teacher of the Doctrine of the resurrection It is reported of the Pelican that her young being poysoned by the Serpent she doth give them life by her own death and bloud so Christ doth quicken us his members to a life of immortality by his owne death and bloud And doth give us the knowledge of life in the knowledge of his death bloudshedding and resurrection which doth inforce the necessity of our resurrection from his who is our head And this is the perswasion of true Saints And as it is reported of the Phenix that when she is to die she brings spices into her nest which being set on fire she her selfe is burned in the fire and turned to ashes and out of her ashes comes a new Phenix so a true Christian knoweth that though he may be burned and turned into ashes yet out of his owne ashes his body shall be raised againe to a new life of glory which doth arme him against the feare of death and persecution in the cause of Christ Again this doth discover what enemies they are to Christ his Spirit and members who by their wiles subtilty and hellish Logick would destroy the Doctrine of the Refurrection They would rob Christ of his members who doth here lay claime to the bodies of dead Saints They would make the Spirit a lier who doth seale up Saints unto the day of Bedemption Eph. 5.30 And in whom they wait for the redemption of their bodies Bom. 8.23 They would rob Saints of their comfort which God doth give them in the beleeving of the resurrection of the same body which is committed unto the earth I am the more earnest against these men because I know these factors for Antichrist are both active and subtle as the Serpent did indeavour to beguile Eve 2 Cor. 11.3 so these indeavour to undermine men and to draw them from the simplicity of the Gospel One and a chiese part of Christs simple Gospel is the Doctrine of the resurrection of our bodies by the power of Christ when Paul preached this at Athens the Stoicks and Epicures did look upon him as a babler And this piece of the Gospel was alwayes accounted foolishnesse to the learned Greeks And as the Apostle was jealous of them for feare they should be drawne from the simplicity of the Gospel so am I jealous over poore Christians knowing that you shall meet with men that pretend to be spirituall men of great light wisdome knowledge and deep understandings and when you have dived into the bottome of their spirits this is all you shall find in them which they will labour to draw you to assent unto to wit that there is no resurrection but in the spirit no corporall resurrection of the body at all These are like those of whom the Apostle speaketh in his time that corrupt or deale deceitfully with the word of God The metaphor is borrowed from cheating Vintners or cousening Merchants that adulterate their commodities to make them vendible as Beza doth well observe so these that their horrid opinions and blasphemies may be vendible they endeavour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sophisticate the word and adulterate it from the plaine and simple meaning of the Holy-Ghost Therefore let mee in love to your soules once more desire you that you would be watchfull that none of these draw you away from these truthes of God and the Lord Jesus which have been discovered to you and have been sealed upon your hearts and spirits by his owne blessed Spirit The Devill doth sow the tares of Familisme in mens hearts while they sleep But I am confident that you shall believe them though for a time you may be drawn to question them and the resurrection as those in the 1 Cor. 15. and may be deluded by Familisticall fancies and notions as some good Christians have been yet if God hath laid hold on you and drawne you to him in Christ he will not totally leave you to these damnable opinions If it were possible these Serpents would deceive even the Elect but Christ intimates that it is impossible that they should ever deceive the Elect. And the Apostle when he speakes of such men as these 2 Tim. 2.19 saith that the foundation of the Lord stands sure having this seale of his everlasting election the Lord knoweth who are his Therefore let not men deceive you but live in the light of the Gospel and in that Spirit that is given forth in the Gospel Take heed of these Impostors hug not the Devill in Samuels mantle suffer not the Devill to devoure you in a sheeps skin but walke in the plaine simple path of the Gospel of the Lord Christ And that you may doe this give me leave to give you some few directions for the preserving you in the truth and the securing of you from this infection of Familisme First I wish you to apply your selves to the reading of the Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through Faith which is in Christ 2 Tim. 5.15 When these men come unto you it may be they will present you with bookes written in a strange Language stuffed with swelling non-sense and affected phrases that none understand but those that are acquainted with their blasphemous horrid and damnable opinions And will indeavour to lead you from the Scriptures and if yous oppose the truth of Scripture against their delusion some of them will affirme that Peter and Paul when they wrote their Epistles had but a little light were but children they are enlightned men growne up unto the stature of perfection labouring to prove that the bright starre of truth doth shine no where so gloriously as in the old Popish Authors and new Familisticall scriblers which they will present unto you Therefore that you may not be drawne away by these keep to the Scriptures and know that there is no booke in which there is more light then in the Scripture or from which you may expect more light if you looke to God for his spirit to open the mind of God in the reading of it Dulcius exipso fonte bibuntur aquae Waters are sweetest at the well-head Antruthes doe present themselves most sweetly unto us in the Scripture which is the
hee shall more freely and fully shew us the things that neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what they are 1 Cor. 2. Wee have seene great things in the world Crownes Scepters riches worldly pomp and glory but what are all these things they doe not shadow forth the things that wee see here in the Spirit and shall more plainely see hereafter Our fancies and Imaginations worke beyond our eye we fancie greater things then we behold but what eye hath not seene nor eare hath heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what they are wee darkly see here and shall fully enjoy hereafter The Poets in their fancies have fancied golden Mountaines and great things the earth doth not afford such things as they have fancied and minted in their poeticall braines but the things that shall then be discovered to us goe beyond the cogitation and thought and workings of mans heart and spirit and these things shall be gloriously revealed to us by the Spirit of God and the Spirit shall shew us that all these things are ours Wee shall see God ours and Christ ours and all the glory of Heaven ours and see our selves in the Kingdome of Heaven So that there shall be the presence of all things that shall make us happy the confluence of all good things that can bring any blisse tranquillity and joy to the spirit and soule of man So that it is evident there will be great joy if wee consider that there will be every thing wanting that may make us sorrowfull and every thing present that may make us joyfull there will be the absence of all evill and the presence of all good there will be God himselfe who is the summum bonum the chiefe good and this God will unvaile himselfe and shew forth his love and shine forth in his glorie beautie and excellency on the spirits of his people and seeing themselves in this happie and blisfull condition they cannot but sing and rejoyce at the resurrection Here the Saints in believing doe rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 How glorious then and unspeakable will be the joy of the resurrection Againe you may take notice that there will be cause of great joy if you confider that all the joy which wee have here is but a shadow of that joy which the Saints shall have hereafter Nay all the joy in the world here cannot shadow forth that joy that shall be hereafter Consider for what men doe rejoyce here and you shall see that they have the same cause to rejoyce for the same things in a full manner hereafter The resurrection day is the Saints Coronation day and their wedding-day Rev. 19.7 Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made her selfe ready It is Gods and their harvest day Among men the time of harvest is a time of joy They shall rejoyce before thee according to the joy of harvest Isa 9.3 The resurrection is Gods harvest for the gathering in of Saints When a man sowes his seed he sowes it in expectation of a harvest So God sowes his seed he sowes the bodies of the Saints in the earth he layes them in the surrowes he doth it in expectation of a harvest And the people of God were commanded to rejoyce before him in the time of harvest which did typifie the spirituall joy that the Saints shall enjoy at the generall resurrection which shall be their harvest when their bodies shall spring and come out of the dust in their glory and excellency Againe that I may bring you back to remember what the worke of the day is and enlarge my selfe upon that at which I pointed even now we know that we use to have great joy for great deliverances When God hath suffered us even to come to the brinke of ruine and destruction and then doth pull us from it and save us there is joy with shouting We know how neere wee were to ruine wee had almost been destroyed by the enemies that rose up against us but the Lord hath delivered us and seriously considering this deliverance wee cannot but be thankfull and joyfull for the mercy And our joy for the mercy of this day may imperfectly shadow forth and represent unto you the joy which shall be in Saints at the resurrection For wee that were compassed about with so many enemies in the world that had all the Devills in hell against us and all the wicked men in the world holding forth their hands to draw us and lead us into the broad way that leads to destruction and a base malignant party that wee carrie about us within our selves joyning with the Devill the world wicked men against our selves by the power of God shall we be preserved from all these enemies and made more then Conquerours over all our enemies through Jesus Christ that loved us And so shall have cause to rejoyce in our preservation and deliverance Truely we are not able fully to apprehend our deliverance here and that is the reason that Saints rejoyce so little in the God of grace and his mercies We cannot apprehend fully what it is to be freed from sinne that hath layed the foundation of Hell Wee apprehend not what it is to be in the hands and jawes of the Prince of darknesse and then to be pulled out of his hands and jawes by Christ as David recovered his Lamb out of the mouth of the Lyon 1 Sam. 17.34 Wee doe not apprehend what it is to be by nature children of wrath and yet to be crowned with grace glory and immortality through the goodnesse of God but then we shall fully apprehend our great deliverances by the grace of God and the power of the Lamb and shall sing for joy In the 15. of the Rev. the 3. it is said of Saints that they sing the song of Moses wee sing it here in the spirit in part believing with Zacharias that wee are delivered out of the hand of our enemies but then we shall sing it fully in the fulnesse of spirituall joy It is called the song of Moses because it shall be a song for their deliverance out of the hand of all enemies As Moses when the Israelites were delivered from Egypt called the people to play upon Musick and sing prayse to God so that the Heavens answered and ecchoed to their singing and the joyfull noyse that they made to God for their deliverance So when wee shall apprehend that the Lord by his mighty power hath delivered us from the Egyptian Pharaoh the Devill from the house of bondage the Iron furnace of Egypt from the sting of sinne from the power of darknesse from all curses and condemnation from temporall spirituall and eternall death being fully apprehensive of this deliverance wee cannot but be filled with joy in singing prayses
you might have of it here and you may want the enjoyment of it to all eternitie Therefore beleeve what hath been spoken what God hath promised and rejoyce in it here being confident that thou shalt enjoy what God hath promised And what thou hast in spe in hope here thou shalt hereafter have in re in full fruition serving God chearfully joyfully and comfortably in the assurance of happinesse by Jesus Christ at the resurrection thou shalt be happie with God and with Jesus Christ at the resurrection in body and spirit Which God of his infinite mercy grant unto us all Amen Man 's legall righteousnesse is no cause or part of his justification EPHES. 2.8 9. For by grace are yee saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast THERE are two things which men ought chiefly to know Their misery by sin and their happinesse by the grace of God in Christ And by the wicked unfaithfulnesse of our memories wee are more apt to forget these two things then to forget any other points whatsoever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy selfe is a lesson as difficult as it is old and common How hard a matter is it for a man to remember himselfe as to know what he is in himselfe The King of Macedonia thought it needfull that his Page should every morning put him in remembrance that he was a mortall man And every spirituall man doth finde it necessary that the Spirit daily should become his remembrancer to put him in mind that he is a sinful man So likewise it is a hard matter without the power assistance of the Spirit alwayes to know the rich full and free grace of God as it is held forth in the Gospel to poore sinners The last of these as it is the most sweet and excellent lesson so with the greater difficultie it is retained in our memories This is a Doctrine which if it were preached unto us every day wee should forget it every day The daily teaching and hourely learning of it cannot wholly free us from the ignorance of this truth But as farre as we are carnall and fleshly wee are strangers to the knowledge of it So that he that thinkes he perfectly knowes the doctrine of justification by faith alone I dare professe to that man that he knows nothing of this doctrine of justification as he ought to know As long as we live upon the earth we may be learners of this doctrine Paul after he had been a scholler and an aged teacher in the schoole of Christ many yeares did then professe that he endeavoured to forget his own workes and legall righteousnesse in reference to his justification and pressed forward to know more of the mystery of Christ labouring to be found in the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Phil. 3.10 Therefore though I have sormerly spoken of the chiefe point that lieth in these verses yet I know it is needfull and necessary for mee to speake of it againe that you that have heard it opened may heare more of it as well as for those who have not heard the point so clearly fully unfolded unto them to whom God may make my discourse beneficiall if he accompany mee with his presence Wherefore I have pitched upon this subject at this present in which the summe of all divinitie is comprized For faith and love is the summe of all that we preach Faith towards the Lord Jesus and love towards God and all those that are united to him in the same Spirit with our selves And the Apostle layeth down both these in these verses shewing first clearly the doctrine of justificatiō through faith alone without works and then shewing that though we are justified without workes yet how in the Spirit wee are carried forth to performe all good works for he saith Wee are created the workmanship of God unto good works ver 10. In these words these particulars present themselves to your best attentions First that salvation and justification is by grace that is by the free favour of God Yee are saved by grace Secondly He sheweth how we are saved by grace in a way of beleeving not working Yee are saved by grace through faith Many pretend that they look on grace but it is thorough the spectacles of their own works but he that doth truly eye grace he looks on grace in an act of beleeving and not through working Thirdly The Apostle discovers the nature of true faith which is the unfained faith of the Elect. First negatively he informeth us that this faith is not of our selves There is not a fountain in our selves from whence a true and lively faith springs it floweth not from the naturall carnall or rationall principles of the first Adam but from the power of the Spirit of grace Secondly affirmatively he informeth us concerning the nature and originall of it it proceedeth from God and is bestowed upon the creature as a free gift It is not of our selves it is the gift of God Fourthly He shews that as it is by grace so it is not by works as it is by beleeving so it is not by working Not of works Fiftly He gives the reason why it is not by works Least any man should boast If a man could say that God hath justified and saved him for his endeavours labours paines or good workes then a man might boast When he meeteth with one that is without Christ he may say I have done this good worke and the other good worke for Christ I shall be saved and thou shalt be damned But the true childe of God if he meet with a reprobate he sees no cause to boast it is by the grace of God that he is saved when the other is damned Not by works least any man should boast It is the designe and intention of God in justifying a sinner by grace without works to keepe men from pride and boasting Man did fall from happinesse by pride there is no way to attaine happinesse but by humilitie and faith the true way to humilitie is by beleeving for beleeving empties the creature of all works and righteousnesse and shewes that he is nothing in himselfe and that all his treasure glory happinesse riches and perfection lies treasured and laid up in another Fides hominem vacuum Deo adducit ut Christi bonis impleatur Faith bringeth a man in a poore and beggerly condition to Christ that he may be enriched by Christ Lastly The Apostle declareth that though we are saved by faith without works yet wee shall not be unfruitfull in bringing forth good works Wee are the workmanship of God by a new creation And the end of our creation in Christ is this that being in him we may be active to love and good works First I shall endeavour to prove negatively that there is no justification by works And then shew how it is by grace and then how it is in
a way of beleeving and so come to distinguish true faith which is given by the Spirit from the false faith of hypocrites and Libertines which floweth onely from a principle of humane wisdome and not from the powerfull operation of the Spirit of God At this present I shall observe this method First I will shew that we are not saved by works I meane by the works of the Law Then I shall shew that wee are not saved and justified by works which are the fruits of faith or done under the Covenant of grace Thirdly I shall shew that we are not saved by works in which wee yeeld obedience to any Gospel Ordinances though they be Ordinances appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ himselfe to be practised by the Saints I take in this because I have found in my own spirit and in many that I have dealt with a secret and subtle kinde of Poperie by which wee are apt to attribute something to the practise of Ordinances in reference to our justification And hence it is that people are so ready to run into every new way of worship which is brought to light thinking that unlesse they finde out the right discipline and government of Jesus Christ the right Baptisme and Ordinances they are not true Saints nor sufficiently justified Therefore I shall take in this too to shew that as wee are not justified by more inward and spirituall works so neither are wee justified by any outward observation of Ordinances or submitting to any command of the Lord Jesus Christ but onely by our obedience to the first and principall command of the Gospel by which we beleeve justification by grace through Christ without works For the first of these heads I shall briefly shew how it is not by works passing by many things that I have formerly spoken of and I shall onely lay down foure or five considerations for the confirming of this that wee are saved and justified before God and in the Court of our own conscience without any works whatsoever The first consideration may be this Wee cannot be justified by works or by the Law because there was never any man had a legall righteousnesse but the man Christ Jesus This is Pauls undeniable conclusion laid down in Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and come short of the glory of God The devout Jew as well as the prophane Gentile is brought in before the tribunall of God as a guiltie sinner coming short of such a glorious righteousnesse which the Law doth require of him that he may be justified under it The Gentile never walked according to the written Law of nature which is written in his heart nor the Jew according to the Law of his Maker written in Tables of stone All the works of the Law may be reduced to two heads The first are those works that wee doe in obedience to God to shew our love to him Secondly The works that we doe to shew our love to our neighbour Now if we take works in either of these two respects I shall shew that all the men and women in the world come short of such a legall righteousnesse and perfection that the holy just and pure Law of God requires It will be cleare that no man ever loved God as he ought God doth command us that wee should love him with all our heart and with all our strength with the whole streame of our affections But what man did ever love God in that manner Suppose a wife should entertaine many thousand lovers besides her husband could any say that that wife loved her husband So many fins as wee have so many lovers we have so the Scripture cals them Jer. 3.1 Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers that is thou hast followed many sins and lusts base and vile corruptions Now it is thus with all the men in the world wee have all gone a whoring from our God so that though all men yea even Turks and Heathens pretend to love God the great God that made them yet there is no man that ever loved God as he ought That man that thinks that he ever loved God as he ought and as the Law requires he is very blind and not enlightned to this day to see the puritie and spiritualitie of the righteous Law of the just and high God Suppose a Subject should alway contrive rebellion and conspire against the person of his King as defirous to take away his life and to pull the Crowne from his head will any say that this Subject loves the King Thus it is with all men wee are all traytors and rebells against the King of Heaven if we had strength we would take the Crowne from the head of God and set it upon the head of the Devill If it were in our power God should not reigne and be King in the world but the Devill This is in the heart of wicked flesh it brings forth nothing else it loves it self and the devill but hates loaths and abhorres God and had rather that the Devill should sit on the throne then God the Father and the Lambe at his right hand So that a man being unable to obey the Law of God God cannot justifie him by his Law but must pronounce him a rebell for sin is rebellion and spirituall high treason against God In Ezek. 2. when God sent the Prophet to teach the people he tells him what people he should meet with he saith they were such as would not heare him such as would sleight him and would not indure to heare sound and good doctrine and calleth them rebells And he said unto me Son of man I send thee to the children of Israel to a rebellious Nation that have rebelled against me even to this very day You see sinne is called rebellion in the Word of God But some will say certainly I was never such a rebell as you make me I apprehend not that I ever hated God in such a manner Answ If thou dost not see how thou abhorrest God and how in the flesh thou lovest the Devill more then God thou hast not to this day a sight of the just and pure will of God For it is not enough that thou abstaine from grosse sins and prophanenesse that makes a man scandalous to the eye of the world but thou must abstaine from every sin from every vaine thought or else the Law will passe the sentence of condemnation on thee as a rebell If it were possible that a man could so live on earth that he should never dishonour God in any action that he should never dishonour God by any word of his mouth but all his words should be to the glory of that God that made him and to the glory of that wisdome of the Father by which he made all things yet if this man should have but a sinfull ungodly rising in his heart against God the Law would take no notice of all the good deeds of this man all the good words
be justified This is that glorious Gospel which carnall reason cannot apprehend mans learning cannot reach which the worlds wisdome accounteth foolishnesse and which the Devill and worldly men will alwayes oppose and persecute What saith the zealous Pharisee Will the God of love justifie him that hates him Will the God of justice sitting upon the throne pronounce the sinner guiltlesse Yea Pharisee he will What saith the Scripture He justifieth the ungodly What is an ungodly man but he that hates God that is an enemy to God that doth not for the present love God And when a man looks to his grace he must looke on himselfe as an unrighteous as an unholy ungodly man He is not bound to come as the Pharisee but as the Publicane He is not to come thus qualified I love God and the people of God I desire to obey God I am thus qualified therefore I shall be justified and no sinfull man that hath not these qualifications to fit him for justification God bids sinners while they are in their bloud to live Ezek. 16.6 Christ cometh to call sinners to repentance or changednesse of heart by the discoveries of grace For God doth not command us to come as men loving him or loving his people that we may be justified but when we see our selves sinners ungodly and the chiefe of sinners then he commands us to come to the throne of grace and offers justification and salvation to us freely without works as Paul saith This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chiefe 1 Tim. 1.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the first of sinners so it is in the Greek Primus non tempore sed malignitate The first not in time but in sin and malignitie This is the truth which Paul preached and which he accounted not onely worthy of acceptation but all acceptation for the sweetnesse and excellency of it If other truths are worthy of acceptation this is worthy of all acceptation If a man seeth that he hath a heart that will not suffer him to love God that he hates the people of God yet heareth the Gospel preached that there is grace offered to sinners to the chiefe of sinners if this man beleeve if he come and trust the grace of God he hath as good an assurauce for heaven as heaven can give as God gives to any that he intends to save and make happy with himselfe to eternitie By this wee see that wee are not to bring good works because their presence is not necessarily required Though wee see all evill present with us and all good absent wee may rest upon the promises of grace for justification which is the plaine direct way to true and perfect holinesse Now in the next place I shall give you considerations to prove that wee are not justified by works that are done after conversion This will appeare as clearly as that which I have delivered concerning the neediesnesse of the works of the Law for our justification before our justification The first reason which I shall lay down is this Those things are not the cause of justification which follow justification and true faith but good works follow justification and true faith therefore good works are not the causes of justification The cause precedes the effect good works are the effect of justification right reason therefore will teach us that they cannot precede justification The worke of the justification of a sinner is done compleated before works are done and therefore works can have no hand in our justification That old rule is as old as the doctrine of justification and as true as it is old Bona oper a non praecedunt justificandū sed sequuntur justificatū Good works doe not precede in the person who is to be justified but follow the person that is justified From which it will follow that a man is not justified for good works that follow faith because he is justified before he hath those good works good works in order of nature following true faith true faith working by love Gal. 5.6 I am not to love that I may beleeve but I must beleeve Gods love that I may love God Joh. 4.19 Wee love him because he first loved us Wee are first purged from dead works by beleeving and then wee serve the living God Heb. 9.14 God hath sworn that justification shall goe before sanctification Luk. 1.73 He first delivereth us from our sinnes our soules deadly enemies and then wee serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse as Zachariah being filled with the holy Spirit doth sweetly powre forth the holy water of this soule-refreshing truth Luk. 1.74 75. Redemption doth antecede purification He hath redeemed us from all iniquitie to purifie us to himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good works Faith which looketh upon the grace of him who is invisible is the mother-grace Radix bonorum operum fides Faith is the roote good works are the fruit there must be the roote before the fruit But some man may say may wee not see the fruit before wee see the roote as wee see some fruit upon trees while the root lies hid and from the beholding of the fruit may wee not very rationally conclude that there is a root so from the beholding of our good works the fruit of true faith may wee not conclude that there is faith though it be not in it selfe visible unto us To this I answer That this similitude proves not the thing for though it be a truth that good works may appeare first to men yet faith is first visible to us in our own spirits and it is impossible that I should see the truth of good works except I first see the truth of faith Evident sanctification doth evidence unto us the truth of our justification but sanctification is not evident our justification being not evidenced to us in the first place If it be manifested in our spirits to us that our works are good it will presently be manifested unto us that we have true faith But this is not manifested in our spirits that our works are truly good works and such which cannot be done by an hypocrite untill the truth of our faith be manifested unto us I will make this evident by this reason A man must see his good works as done either under the Law or under the Gospel and look upon them either in the glasse of the Law or the glasse of the Gospel if a man look upon them in the glasse of the Law and doe rightly and spiritually understand the Law he shall be so farre from drawing an assurance of his justification from them that he shall behold himself cursed and damned with all his good works For the Law curseth every man that cōtinueth not in the doing of all things which are commanded by God It is indeed a divine looking-glasse in which things to be done or
avoyded are discovered Lex est divinum speculū in quo facienda fugienda refulgent Aug. but it will sentence us to death for the least spot or wrinkle which it doth discover so that it is impossible that a man should see himselfe justified in the glasse of the Law But thou wilt say he may look upon his love sinceritie and works in the glasse of the Gospel And to this I answer that if he look upon them in the glasse of the Gospel which is Jesus Christ then he must put himselfe under the Gospel and look upon himselfe as a man in Christ that so he may see his works good by Jesus Christ which he will never be able to see without the eye of faith which seeth things invisible Heb. 11. and by which wee look upon Christ 1 Joh. 2.1 dwell in Christ Ephes 3.17 Live in Christ Gal. 2.19 And doe living works acceptable to God by the life of Christ in us Heb. 11.4 By faith with open face wee behold as in a glasse the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.18 and see that our good works are the effects of Christs love discovered in himselfe and in his Gospel to our soules And therefore when John doth informe us that we shall know that wee know him if we keep his Commandement He doth propose beleeving as the first Commandement of God without which we cannot assure our selves that we are obedient to his other commands 1 Joh. 3.23 This is his commandement that we beleeve in him whom he hath sent Good works after a man hath faith are not the cause of justification but the consequent they follow a mans justification they doe not precede the act of justification they neither precede the act of Gods grace by which he justifieth a sinner neither doe they precede justification in the Court of Conscience But being justified by faith we have peace Rom. 5.1 in our Consciences This was the doctrine which was frequently preached by those heavenly Carpenters which did first strike at the hornes of the beast Vt dilectio oriatur necesse est praecedere fidem hoe est fiducia misericordiae It is necessary saith Melancthon that faith which is a confidence of Gods mercy doe precede love And in another place Non nititur fides nostra dilectione sed tantum misericordia promissa ut constat nec existere dilectio potest nisi sit apprehensa remissio Faith is not grounded upon our love but the promised mercy of God so that it is manifest that there cannot be true love unlesse remission of sinnes be first apprehended Another reason is from the imperfection of workes wrought by a man after he is justified If any man that is justified look on his works and doe not behold them in the glasse of the Gospel he shall reade his own condemnation for his works There is an imperfection in our works seeing wee doe not love God so perfectly as we should with all our heart all our minde and all our spirit but while the regenerate part through the power of the Spirit runs after God and loves God the fleshly part runneth after sinne and hates God Therefore seeing there is such imperfection in the works that we performe that the best of us are unprofitable servants and that the most holy amongst us doe that for which he may be damned every day if God should not deale with us in the Gospel but in the Law it will follow that a man cannot be justified by the works that he doth after he hath faith and is converted doth works which are wrought by the Spirit of grace It may here be objected that the good works of Saints are perfect For an answer to this I referre the Reader to what shall be delivered from those words That he which is borne of God sinneth not I come now to the next Consideration which is this That wee are not justified by the practise of any Gospel-Ordinances which are commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ There are some who it may be are convinced that they are not justified by works yet I know not what new kinde of Popery they have found out for they thinke to please God by submitting to Ordinances and finding out the true Discipline and government of Christs Church therefore you shall finde a kinde of spirit of bondage in them if they be not satisfied concerning the true discipline government Ordinances of the Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore I shall endeavour to demonstrate this and shew clearly that as we are not justified by works before or after conversion so we are not justified and saved by the submitting to any Ordinance of the Lord Jesus Christ Salvation is not in these there is nothing to be found in these availeable to justification Formes of government and Ordinances doe not make men Christians but a lively faith in the Lord Jesus When Caius Marius Victorinus told Simplicianus that he was turned from Heathenisme to Christianisme and he replyed that he would not beleeve him unlesse he saw him in the Congregation of Christians He wittily thus reprehended the rashnesse of his speech Ergone parietes faciunt Chrisiianos Doe your walls then make Christians So to those that say men are of the world until they are under this or that forme of government and ordinance I may thus speak do these things make Christians Presbytery all government is nothing Independency is nothing dipping is nothing but faith which worketh by love The Apostle clearly proves this poynt Gal. 5.3 I testifie againe to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law Christ is become of none effect to you he shall profit you nothing Wee know that Paul circumcised Timothy after he was a preacher of the Gospel and submitted himselfe to many of the rites Ceremonies of the Jewes shaved his head put himselfe under a Jewish vow yet here he saith if a man be circumcised he is a debtor to the whole Law His meaning is this that if a man submit to circumcision as thinking it will any whit availe him to his justification and salvation that man shall not be saved by Jesus Christ but he is a debtor to the whole Law he is not under grace but under the curse of the Law Act. 15.1 When some preached that there was a necessitie for men to be circumcised and keepe the Law of Moses that they might be justified see how the doctrine was disrellished by the Apostles Peter calleth it a tempting of God and laying a yoke upon the necks of the disciples which they nor their fathers were able to beare Paul though as a spiritual man he could become all things to all men to the Jew as a Jew to the Gentile as a Gentile 1 Cor. 9.20 21 22. That by all means he might save some yet how doth he thunder and lighten in the face of those that laid too much upon
so wee are saved by grace Wee are made happy brought from a cursed condition into a blissfull condition from horror to joy from hell to heaven from the state of nature to the state of Glory onely by the grace of God It is onely by Grace that wee are what wee are By Grace our sins are pardoned by Grace wee have an inheritance with the Saints by Grace wee are the high born sonnes of the great King of heaven and earth by Grace wee are blessed and loaded with all spirituall and temporall blessings in Jesus Christ and are brought to the enjoyment of eternall felicity happinesse and blissfulnesse Thus wee are saved by grace and by grace alone One of the Ancients doth speake excellently to this purpose Nemo se palpet de suo Satanas est de deo beatus est quid est enim de suo nisi peccatum suum Let no man boast of himselfe for of a mans selfe he is a Devill by God a man is made happy What is a man of himselfe but sin Yee are saved by grace Againe salvation in Scripture is taken for salvation before God in the Court of heaven And it is taken for the saving of a partie in his own spirit and conscience if wee take it in the first sence a man is saved in the Court of heaven onely by grace What is the Reason that the accusing mouth of the Law being stopped no Bill no enditement can be brought against the Elect in the Court of Heaven Is it not this because God in his grace justifieth them This is the Apostles argument Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who can implead or bring an action against them before God for breaking his Law He that is the Judge of the Elect is their justifier Grace hath cast out of Heaven the accuser of the Brethren which accused them before God night and day Rev. 12.10 The accuser can bring no enditement complaint or accusation against the Saints there There is no sin in our consciences that can be heard to accuse us in heaven because there is grace for our justification God beholds his Sonne Jesus Christ before his eve upon whom he hath laid all our sins The bloud of Christ doth with powerfull and undeniable arguments plead for those for whom it was shed The straying and stragling sheep which are within the reach of Gods eternall Grace cannot be condemned because the good Shepheard hath given his life for the sheep Joh. 10.11 God knoweth that he hath received satisfaction before hand for their sins by the hand of the Lord Jesus who is not now to pay any thing but hath already made payment for all their debts and is become the Mediator of the new Covenant of Grace which is sealed in his own bloud under which Covenant upon this consideration there can be no remembrance of sin Heb. 10.14 God beholding his Elect in their propitiation and alwayes hearing the sweet voice of their wrath-appeasing advocate making an heavenly melody in his eares And alwayes beholding our happinesse before himselfe in heaven lying wrapt up in his own grace doth acquaint us in his word of truth That wee are saved by grace Secondly If we take salvation in the other sence for salvation in our spirits and consciences and in this sence we are saved by grace There can be no salvation brought home to our hearts but by the sight of grace If wee had the sanctification of all the Saints which have lived since the fall of Man and should looke upon it all as ours to give comfort to our soules and to assure us that wee are in a state of salvation and should not looke above it to behold Gods grace and our sanctification in it and from it it would not give us any solid comfort or assurance of our salvation Nothing can shine in the heart to give it any comfort but what doth shine and give light in the light and beames of this grace Wee never come to see our selves in a condition of safety till wee see the grace of God Looke unto mee and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else Isaiah 45.22 None but God can save us and nothing but the sight of God can bring salvation to us Still wee have some objection or other against salvation and justification till God silence all objections by the sight of his own grace There is that onely in God and in Jesus Christ that will silence all objections If our conscience flie in our faces and tell us that wee have committed many thousands of sins more then wee can reckon or number up yet when God gives us a sight of himselfe his sonne and grace the mouth of conscience is stopped and wee see all our sins swallowed up in his love Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us saith Philip. Joh. 14.8 When God sheweth us himselfe our spirits are at rest When Grace is discovered and Gods light doth shine upon the soule Sin death damnation cannot terrifie the soule But they are filled with a spirit of joy in beleeving their free justification who before through feare of death were subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 Grace appeareth greater and stronger to bring salvation then sinne powerful to bring damnation Our sins the sins of all the men of the world being the acts of creatures are finite but grace that justifieth us is the grace of an infinite God and is boundlesse and infinite Men are unassured of their salvation unlesse this Grace be presented to the eye of their spirits And men and Devills cannot prevaile against us to enforce us to question our justification and salvation when wee looke upon it That peace which the world cannot take from us nor give unto us that joy which neither the Law nor the workes of the Law can convey unto us nor bereave us off that salvation which damned Feinds can never rob us of is communicated to us by the beholding of Gods grace in the face of the Lord Jesus The soule when it hath a sight of this grace it stands with boldnesse at the Throne of Grace and though it feele hellish sin in it selfe yet it is able to dispute with all the Divels in Hell and to maintaine the freenesse fulnesse and compleatnesse of its own justification from all sin by the grace of God in Jesus Christ If the Divell shall then suggest this to a man that he is a sinner The beleeving soule will make this answer It is true I am a sinner but I am not terrified to desparation because I am ungodly but I rejoyce in this that God justifieth the ungodly by his grace Rom. 4.5 If the Divell shall reply But thou art a great sinner and there is a great damnation The believing soule will returne I am not tormented by the great damnation prepared for great sinners but
ungodlinesse wordly lusts He doth not say that grace in the first place teaches us to deny ungodlines worldly lusts but in the first place it brings justificatioÌ„ salvation through beleeving then secondarily the same grace teacheth us to deny ungodlines worldly lusts After we have believed for salvation the holy spirit is given Ephes 1.13 In beleeving we enter into our rest Heb. 4.3 keep the yeare of Iubile see our selves instated in happines and keep a christian Sabbath It is only in beleeving that wee are brought to the enjoyment of that felicity which is by the grace of God in Jesus Christ The Apostles in their Epistles doe not hold forth any truth more frequently then this Gal 5.6 In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by Love And Ro. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When the Keeper of the Prison asked Paul Silas what they should doe to be saved suppofing salvation was only attainable by working they did at one discover unto him his error blindnesse acquainted him with the soul saving truth of the Gospel assuring him that if he beleeved on the Lord Jesus he should be saved Acts â—6 31 We find not rest in our spirits by the â—â—ght of our works love sincerity labours envours but by the sight of Gods grace in Christ Having by these places of Scripture confirmed to you this truth I shall now amplyfie it by shewing unto you more fully how it may be in truth affirmed that we are saved through faith In the first place it is by faith and by faith alone not by faith joyned with workes but by faith without workes I deny not but where true faith is workes will follow yet salvation is through faith without workes When wee are brought into the bosome of the Lord Iesus wee enter not into the bosome of his love by our love and faith together but by faith which produceth Love Our eyes are shut to the beholding all things in our selves and the eyes of our spirits are enlightned to behold what is in Gods Grace and the Lord Iesus Consonant to this is Pauls sweete and comfortable conclusion Rom. 3.28 Wee conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law Love to God and his people is a worke commanded by the Law but according to Pauls conclusion of truth wee are justified by faith without the deedes of the Law therefore we are justified by faith without love to God or his people When God discovers his Grace to a man for his justification hee shewes him that as his evill workes cannot bring damnation unto him so his good workes cannot bee availeable for his justification That assurance of Gods love which some professors have got by the sight of their owne workes being never illuminated in their understandings to behold Gods Grace in the light and beames of Grace is not the true assurance of the gospell but the deceit and lying divination of their owne spirits concerning their owne happinesse for salvation is by faith without workes God doth not require us to doe good workes for salvation in the conscience but doth positively and absolutely exclude them as things which have no influence at al upon that first assurance which he doth give unto his people of his love which is by a pure simple unmixed act of faith The spirit of Grace is never given to comfort us untill God hath stripped us of our owne righteousnesse workes and performances and hath brought us to the Throne of Grace to bee justified by free Grace without any thing in our selves that may make us fit for justification and salvation The Apostle doth lay downe this as a truth seconded by his owne experience and the experience of all true Saints Gal. 2.16 asserting that a man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Iesus Christ even wee saith he have beleeved in Iesus Christ that we might bee justified by the faith of Christ and not by the workes of the Law for by the workes of the Law shall no flesh bee justified It is not as the Papists say that faith which hath love joyned with it which they make the forme of faith by which wee are justified but it is by faith without any workes at all by which wee are justified and have peace of conscience Augustine doth plainely lay downe his judgement in this point according to truth Noli presumere de operibus ante fidem quia peccatorem te fides invenit etsi te fides data facit justum impium invenit quem faceret justum Presume not upon thy workes done before faith because faith findeth thee a sinner faith hath made thee just it found thee wicked whom it should make just The second reason why it is thus by faith alone is because it is by grace unlesse we were justified by faith we were not we could not be justified by Grace This reason the Apostle lays downe Rom. 4.16 Therefore it is of faith that it might bee by Grace As if he should have said unlesse you hold that there is a justification by faith alone without workes you deny Grace if you will bee justified by faith and workes conjoyned you destroy Grace Therefore it is by faith alone that it may be by Grace When we have a true sight of Grace wee see a sufficiency in that Grace to doe us good for our justification and salvation soe that there is nothing needfull necessary besides grace In which respect Luther saith that workes are not necessary to justification but pernitious to salvation the gospell requiring faith only according to that of the Apostle Gal. 3.12 The Law is not of faith the law hath nothing to doe with beleeving that doctrine which bids a man to beleeve that he may bee saved that is the doctrine of the gospell the law biddeth us not to beleeve but the man that doth it shall live in it The law bids us worke but the Gospell bids us beleeve not worke and beleive but beleive only We confound the Covenant of workes and the Covenant of Grace if wee presse an absolute necessity of doing good workes for justification This was the Divinity of the blood-sucker Bishop Bonner who in a Sermon propounding this quest How grace is to be applyed to us for justification doth answer by beleeving rightly and living uprightly joyning faith and holinesse for justification by grace whereas by the Scripture of truth it is manifest that faith alonedoth lay hold of Christ and doth appropriate him unto us And that holinesse doth flow and streame from the apprehension of our free justification by grace through faith alone though faith is not alone but is accompanyed with other fruits of the Spirit which follow it This must be well understood or else we shall nullifie the grace of God wherefore God enableth true beleevers
to see this truth plainly and clearly Vilesceret redemptio sanguinis Christi nec miserecordiae dei humanorum operum praerogativa succumberet si justificatio quae sit per gratiam meretis precedentibus deberetur Ambros Redemption by the blood of Christ would be vilified the prerogative of mans workes would not stoop to Gods mercy if justification which is by grace were due to preceding workes A man that truely beleives he sees not any holinesse or qualification in himselfe that makes him more worthy of salvation then another man he sees that he hath deserved damnation as well as any one who is now in the place of torment and yet hee sees that such is the Grace the unspeakeable grace of God to his poore soule that though he deserve to lye as low in hell as Iudas for his sin yet he shall be raised as high as heaven by the grace of the father made knowne to him in Iesus Christ Brethren if upon examination you finde that your joy comfort and assurance have in the first place proceeded from any workes which you have in your selves which make you conclude that you shall rather be saved then another man your assurance is not a right assurance But if your assurance be right it is by beleeving that which is reported concerning the grace of God that so salvation may be by grace It is possible for men to deceive themselves in obtaining an assurance of Gods love and their happinesse therefore I will a little digresse to open this to the ignorant It may be thou takest comfort to thy selfe by looking on workes wrought by thy selfe and not by looking on Christ it may be thou conceivest that thou lovest God and from thence concludest that God loveth thee though thou hast not seen his free love to sinners this is a bastardly assurance brought forth by thine owne lying spirit and not the true assurance of the Spirit of grace in beleeving In a true assurance by faith God hath the glory of his grace But in this kind of assurance God hath not the glory of his grace therefore it is not a true assurance Another deceiveth his soule and thinketh hee is in a good condition because he resteth upon a promise of God Christ saith Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest A man doth apprehend himselfe to be heavy laden and from the sight of his burthen doth conclude hee hath rest and is in a good condition but hee deceiveth himselfe with a false perswasion for the promise is not made to the qualification of wearinesse but the promise is made to the commers to Jesus Christ Cain was heavy laden with his sin and it lay so heavy on him that he concluded that the punishment was greater then he was able to beare or else that his sin was greater then it could be forgiven and yet died miserable without mercy Wee find that the sin of Judas lay so heavy on him that he repented that he had shed innocent blood yet for all this hee went to his owne place Therefore if thy comfort and assurance come from a sight of what is in thy selfe and not from the discovery of grace as it is layd forth in the Spirit of grace thy assurance will not advantage thee in the day of wrath Though God hath convinced thee of sin and there may be some legall repentance reformation wrought in thee and something which thou mayst miscall a true love to God thou canst not from the sight of these things rightly conclude that thou art in the love of God before a discovery of free love be made forth to thee a sinner For God doth not apply his grace or his Sonne to any man for justification but through beleeving that justification may evidently appeare to the sons of men to bee by his owne grace Which will appeare if in the third place we doe more fully consider that God doth save us through beleeving that hee may have the glory of his grace God as hee is glorious in his grace by which hee justifies sinners so he will be glorified in the hearts and consciences of those who are justified by grace that he may have the ful glory of his grace when he hath justified them Non est quò gratia intret ubi jam meritum occupavit Bern. There is no roome for the glory of Gods grace where the worthinesse of our workes hath filled up the place Where the creature may have glory in his owne workes there God loseth the glory of his grace Where God doth any thing for the creature by grace there it is not of our works otherwise grace is no more grace If it be of workes then it is no more of grace otherwise work is no more work Rom. 11.6 Therefore God will not justifie us in doing the workes of the Law in giving us a sight of any thing that may make us more worthy of justification then other men but he makes knowne his grace to us in a way of beleeving The property of faith is to emptie the creature and to discover the fulnesse of the Creator Our owne workes they puff us up but faith empties us If wee could be justified and saved by that which we have done we might boast and rejoyce in it before God Rom. 4.2 But because God will humble us bring us low lay us upon our backs and tumble us in the dust that we may see our selves nothing and see his grace all in all to us for our justification therefore God justifies us onely in beleeving Faith layes the creature low and sets the grace of God on high that wee may goe to heaven admiring the grace of God to such sinners such base and vile wretches as wee are therefore God will not justifie and save us in the court of our owne Consciences by the sight of our owne workes but onely by the sight of his owne grace thus it is said of Abraham that he staggered not at the promise of God by unbeliefe but being strong in faith he gave glory to God Rom. 4.20 When God comes downe upon us and works faith in our hearts and wee stagger not at the promises of Grace by unbeliefe but give credit to what he hath spoken and promised God hath that glory from us that he will have from all those whom he intends to save Unbeleife robs man of his comfort God of his glory By faith the creature is comforted and the Creator exalted through faith man is emptied of selfe-confidences and filled with God and his praises therefore for this reason are wee saved through faith Againe Fourthly it is by faith because it is onely by beleeving that wee behold the grace that is in God by which he forgives sin Mans happinesse for the present doth not lye in the not having of sin but in the grace of God not imputing sin Nostra justicia est dei indulgentia Gods favour and
justifiing grace through Christ as the cause of that faith by which he is justified and saved And doth know that his juificaticaon is perfected by grace and in the person of the Lord Jesus before it is completed and effected in him by faith Hee well understandeth that Christ and the soule are betrothed by faith and yet he is not ignorant that he is betrothed to God for ever in righteousnesse and in loving kindnesse and in mercy Hosea 2.19 He is enlightned to see a reconciliation by grace in the person of Christ before God before his reconciliation by faith in his spirit He considereth that when he was an enemie he was reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom 5.10 Which reconciliation was before his faith and yet denyeth not reconciliation by faith He knoweth that what he beleeveth concerning Gods grace and his redemption and justification by the blood of Christ was true before hee beleeved it and yet hee beleeveth that faith is his righteousnesse for justification Hee confoundeth not the righteousnesse of faith with the righteousnes of God in Christ by whom he is justified But giveth unto God Christ what is to be attributed to God Christ for justification likewise attributeth to faith what is due to faith not looking upō faith as his righteousnes without the object of it but alwayes looketh upon faith for his justification as it hath reference relation to its object which is the favour of God in Jesus Christ And if he shall be asked whether hee bee more righteous by grace and Christ or by faith He will acknowledge that hee is rather justified by grace and the blood of Christ Ro. 5.19 Seeing more righteousnesse for him in the object o◠faith then in faith by which he beholdeth the object and yet still maintaineth that faith is his righteousnesse for justification according to the mind of the Apostle We are saved by faith Eightly We are saved by faith not for the purity and holynesse of it as it is a gift of the sanctifiing spirit For then upon the same ground we should take in Love and other fruits of the spirit which the Apostle doth shut out as having no influence upon us for our justification which the Apohle doth prove in the following words where he saith that we are saved not of workes Because we are Gods workemanship created to good workes Good workes are not the causes of our new creation and justification but the consequents of our new creation through faith So that it is clear that we are justified before sanctification is wrought in us or good workes done by us We are justified by faith without them By which it is evident that faith as an holy gift or quality doth not save us We are saved therfore by faith as that righteousnesse by which we do at the first lay hold upon his grace in his Son for justification by which wee are united unto God and are made one with him Ioh. 17.21 are puryfied from the guilt of sinne in our hearts Act. 15.9 And have peace with him through our Lord Iesus Rom. 5.1 Whom we see imbrace by faith as the Apostle setteh forth the nature of faith Heb. 12.13 And he that thus beleeveth shall be saved he that beleeveth not shall be damned Ninthly We are saved by faith Because by faith we are not onely enabled to beleeve the generall truth of the gospell concerning his grace to those who beleeve in him but because through faith we are enabled to give credit to Gods truth and to rest upon it in reference and relation to our selves Thus Abraham who for the excellency and exemplarinesse of his faith is worthily stiled the father of the faithfull did beleeve what God did speake unto him not onely as a truth which might be beneficial unto others but hee looked upon Christ in reference to himselfe Gen 15. And saw his day and seeing of it was glad Hee looked upon God not onely as a shield and great reward but his shield and great reward By true faith we receive Chrst and his benefits for our selves Paul doth informe us that his life in the flesh was by faith in the Lord Jesus who loved him and gave himselfe for him Faiths sweetenesse doth lye in this that by it we doe not beleeve Christ to be a Saviour and righteousnesse but our Saviour and righteousnesse Therefore Luther affirmed that the sweetnesse of Christianity lay in pronounes When a man can say my Lord and my God and my blessed Iesus This was the faith which the Apostles preached which will be manifest unto us if we consider their intentions when they exhorted men to beleeve They did not intend that their hearers should beleeve in generall that Christ was the Saviour of the world but that hee was a Saviour to them Thus Paul preached to the keeper of the prison Act. 16.31 Beleeve on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thy house As when they preached the doctrine of repentance or changednesse of the mind their meaning was that every man ought to be changed so when they urge beleeving for salvation their meaning is that wee should beleeve for our owne salvation in particular The generall truth of faith and repentance is to beleeve by a power enabling us in particular for our selves to beleeve and repent Lastly We are saved through faith Because by faith we heare the inward word of salvation The word which soundeth to the outward eare without this inward word bringeth no salvation As the Philosopher told him who reprehended him for publishing and divulging a booke of philosophy that he had published it and he had not published it his meaning was this that it was so darke and mysticall that though it were published yet it was not published to the ignorant and unlearned so the Gospel in the letter is published to men and not published they heare and doe not heare they see and doe not see But by faith wee so heare that our soules live by hearing Isa 55.3 The dead saith our Saviour shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and they that heare shall live Fidei oculi sunt spiritus per quem spiritualia videntur Cypr The Spirit is an eye to a beleeving man by which he seeth and enjoyeth spirituall things wee receive not the Spirit by hearing the Law or doing the workes of the Law but by the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 Eternall life and Salvation is by hearing the inward word of life salvation and grace God bids the Prophet Ezech 38.5 to prophesie over the drie bones that they might live The Lord Jesus is the great invisible Prophet who prophesieth over drie bones and dead-hearted sinners and by hearing inwardly the inward word of this Prophet they live in hearing and believing And therefore it is said that wee are saved by faith Having by these particulars acquainted you with my Judgement concerning our salvation through faith I shall now by
I shall prove unto you affirmatively that true faith is the gift of God Lastly where the grace of the Father in the blood of his Son is apprehended for the covering of sin there is a forsaking of sin When God doth discover this that he will heale back-sliding love freely and turne away his anger Ephraim shall say what have I to doe any more with Idols Hos 14.8 When God pardoneth sin by his grace he will subdue sin by his grace Mic. 7.8 19. That man who hath true faith wrought in his heart he shall seele the power of grace apprehended for his justification ingaging his spirit to deny ungodlinesse according to that of the Apostle Tit. 2 11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and wordly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soberly in reference to our selves 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justly in our relation towards men 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 piously or religiously in reference to God Grace will not suffer us to live gracelesly because we are justified by grace but will throughly acquaint us with our duty towards God towards men and towards our selves If the grace that thou professest teach thee not to deny ungodliness but thou livest in a gracelesse way dishonouring Christ discrediting the Gospell by thy wicked scandalous and evill life thou dost not in deed and in truth apprehend the Gospell If God discovers himself to Abraham as Alsufficient he will command him to walke before him and be upright Gen. 17. Sin shall not have dominion over us if we are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6. Christ will present himselfe unto us as the pattern for sanctification if hee reveale himselfe as the object of our justification Every man who hath a sure and lively hope of salvation by Jesus Christ purifieth himselfe as he is pure 1 John 3.3 He that truly expects happinesse hereafter studies purity here True Saints do desire not only to know but to doe the will of God Psal 143.10 Teach mee to doe thy will O Lord saith the man after Gods own heart thy spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightnesse The spirit of the Gospell will not lead us into the land of prophanenesse but into the land of uprightnesse Gods goodnesse to us will make us in love with holinesse They shall feare and tremble for all the goodnesse and for all the prosperity that I procure unto them saith the Lord Jer. 33.9 The golden chaine of mercy let down from heaven to draw us up unto God doth binde us and oblige us to the service and obedience of God If thou art an old professor of the Gospel and doctrine of grace and livest gracelesly unacquainted with the sanctifying spirit yet hast a strong perswasion that God is thy Father and Christ thy Saviour thy perswasion is not worth one farthing it will doe thee no good Where there is no desire of purity there is no work of true faith for when thou hast a true and a lively faith and thou seest God gracious loving and merciful believe it thy spirit will be carried forth in desires to be made like unto Christ in holinesse Wee all saith the Apostle with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.18 I thou by the lively operation of the spirit hast seene the glory grace beauty and holinesse in Christ for thy Justification thy spirit will be so enamourd with the beauty of holiness perfection in Christ thou wilt desire to see the image and picture of holinesse perfection which is in Christ to be drawne forth upon thy own heart and spirit There may bee some that may thinke that this is strange Doctrine which I have delivered to wit that a man may have strong perswasions concerning his interest in God and Christ and boast much of it and yet be but a hypocrite and reprobate all the while I shall therfore adde one place of Scripture to those which I have delivered for the proofe of this and so for the present I shall conclude Yee shall find it in Micah 3.11 The heads judge for reward and the Priests teach for hire and the Prophets divine for money yet for all this will they leane upon the Lord and say is not the Lord among us none evill can come upon us See here a base vicious and covetous people that sell Justice and the Word of God and yet are confident that they belong to God they would not preach without money in their hand like many of our Priests no penny no pater-noster no money in hand no Sermon no preaching that will not open their mouths further then it is opened with a key of gold or silver yet they professe they are the people of God and make a great shew of Religion and blinde the eyes of poor ignorant people that conclude they are the only zealous holy men in the world though their covetousnesse basenesse and vilenesse in running after Livings and great preferments may appear evidently to children Ye see by this that people may lean upon God desire to be accounted his people and be confident that he is their Father Ioh. 8. And yet may have no true faith but may be self-imposters deceiving themselves with the perswasions of their own spirits whereas true faith is onely from God bestowed upon us by him as a free gift which let the good God worke in our hearts by his grace through Christ Amen SERMON V. Faith is the gift of God EPHES. 2.8 By grace ye are saved through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God THere is nothing doth lay the creature lower in the presence of God then a cleare apprehension of the Creators favour and goodnesse in giving all things freely to the creature The Apostle to beat down the pride of man in spirituall gifts doth make use of this quaere 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou hast not received As if he had said if thou dost but seriously consider that thou enjoyest no spirituall gift but it hath been freely given unto to thee thou wiâ—t not see any cause why thou shouldst be proud of it And in these words for the humbling and abasing of man and for the exalting of Gods grace in Jesus Christ he doth set downe this in the last place That true faith is the gift of God I shall illustrate this two manner of wayes First I will shew you that it is the gift of Gods power For this the Apostle drives at here when he opposeth faith as the gift of God to what he had said before maintaining that it was not of our selves Man being not able to believe of himselfe it will necessarily follow that it is onely the power of Almighty God that is able to enable a man
our selves by our faith love and working of righteousnesse and saith vers 19. That hereby we assure our selves before God therefore this distinction is of no validity in this place though some thinke that it will answer all our arguments Argu. 3. The olde man and the new man are distinguished by their contrary natures and operations But if the new man were sinfull and his operations sinfull The new man would be confounded with the old man who is sinfull in himselfe and his operations but this is contrary to Scripture The old man is corrupt according to deceitfull lusts but the new man after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Eph. 4.22.24 And speaking of these in the Concrete as in us Eph. 5.8 9. he saith to them Ye were sometimes darknesse but now are ye light in the Lord walke as children of the light For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodnesse and righteousnesse and truth Argu. 4. Those works which are commended by Jesus Christ for good works are good works but the workes of the Saints are commended for good works therefore they are good Revel 2.2 Our Saviour saith that he knoweth the workes of the Angel of the Church of Ephesus and his labour and patience that is he approveth or commendeth his workes and so Rev. 3.8 It would be a disparagement to the judgment of Christ to commend sin or sinfull works for good workes And therefore I conclude that they were good works And by consequence that the works which are wrought by a man borne of God are good works Obj. They were washed from their pollution in the blood of the Lamb. Answ When we speak of the new man and his works we look not upon him or his works but in Jesus Christ And thus he is washed from all the sins of the flesh and the works of God in us are well pleasing unto God the worker through Jesus Christ through whom hee did work them in us Arg. 5. Christ doth not present that which is sinne or sinfull to the Father to be accepted but he presenteth our workes 1 Pet. 2.5 Wee offer up spirituall sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ If Christ did present any work that were sinfull he might present our sinful works It is evident therefore that there is something which is good which is presented as well as something in us which is sinfull which is forgiven Malum ex quolibet defectu The lesse defect doth make a thing evil and if there be such a defect in the work of the man who is born of God to make it sin and evill what reason can any man give from Scripture why every sinne should not be presented and accepted as well as those sins which they call good works Arg. 6. The Scripture calleth the works of the man born of God neither sinfull or sinne but works of righteousnesse Faith is called righteousnesse Rom. 4. and Rom. 5. the last Paul calleth the sincerity which was in him speaking of it in the Concrete godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 Paul prayeth that grace may be with all them who love the Lord Jesus in corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doth he pray for such whom hee thought were no where to be found or for all true Saints whom he did know did love the Lord Jesus in incorruption Reply If they be considered as they ought to be done so they are not evill but as they be done by us so the holy Ghost is not affraid to call them menstruous rags even our very righteousnesse not our old man only Isa 64.6 Answ The Prophet doth not speak here of the righteousness of a man underthe Covenant of grace considered under that Covenant For in the precedent verse he doth acknowledge that the righteousnesse of such a man is not as a menstruous ragge Thou meetest him that rejoyeth and worketh righteousnesse But he speaketh of men as looked upon under the olde Covenant and of their works as done under and to be judged by that Covenant which appeareth by the following words Our iniquities like the wind have taken us away And there is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee For thou hast hid thy face from us and we are consumed because of our iniquities We must not judge of this truth by expressions which holy men have made use of in confessing the sins of the whole nation of the Jews in the language of the Jewish nationall Covenant but by those passages of Scripture in which God doth speake of a man as under the Covenant of grace with his works wrought by the spirit of grace 7 Arg. God doth remember the workes of his Saints Heb. 6.10 God is not unrighteous to forget your worke and labour of love saith the Apostle He will remember the good works of men borne of God at the great day of judgement The good workes of some are manifest before-hand and they that are otherwise cannot be hid 1 Tim. 5.15 They cannot for ever be hid because God will make mention of them at that day But hee hath engaged himselfe by oath to remember our sins and sinfull actions Hebr. 8. And therefore the works of the spirituall man are not sin or sinfull Arg. 8. There is no law against the workes of a spirituall man or the fruits of the spirit of grace and therefore they are not sin because where there is no law there is no transgression But there is no law against these This is plain by that passage of the Apostle Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance against such there is no law Object They are here considered as they are precisely the fruits of the spirit and as they ought to be done by us and so they are no sins but consider them as acted by us even with the spirits assistance and so they are defective and sinfull Answ The Apostle doth not speake of the fruits of the spirit as Tully of his Oratour Plato of his Common-wealth Moor of his Utopia as of things no where to be found But he speaks of the spirit as in us and the fruits of it as in us And doth plainly tell us that if we are led by the spirit we are not under the law and that there is no law against the fruits of the spirit But I shall have occasion hereafter to speake more fully of some places where the Apostles and servants of God doe speak plainly of these works as done in us that so I may break the neck of this distinction which is made as a Catholicon or salve for every sore Arg. 9. God doth give a testimony concerning his Saints that they are righteous and holy which is spoken in reference to their spirituall nature and actings and therefore they are righteous and holy The judgment of God is according to truth hee being the God of truth Doth not God give this
be enabled to doe those works which we are not able to doe by vertue of morall commands The covenant of grace and Gospel-promises should be as ineffectuall for sanctification as the law if all that were wrought in us under that covenant were sin or sinfull And therefore it will follow that a man under grace hath a purity of sanctification in him God brings us from Moses who was the Law-giver and delivers us from the Covenant of works in giving us to Jesus Christ who is the giver of grace that he may make us holy in a gracious life and conversation The Apostle sets this forth unto us Rom. 7.6 But now wee are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newnesse of spirit and not in the oldnesse of the letter We are freed from the service of God in the law of works under which wee serve as slaves till wee be brought to Christ that wee may serve as sonnes in obedience to all morall commands under the sweet gracious glorious government of the Lord Jesus Christ who is as well a Law-giver Isa 33.22 to write his lawes of faith and love in our hearts Hebr. 8. As a Saviour to save us from our sins And to cut off all objections against this argument wee may take notice that the fruits of the spirit are not onely called good and holy as they are in the promise or command but they are good and holy and called fruits of righteousnesse as they are wrought in us and by us with the omnipotent help and assistance of the holy Spirit We are called the trees of righteousnesse Isa 61.3 and feare and love are fruits of righteousness as wrought in us Jer. 31. Hebr. 8. The 14th Argument may be drawn from the oath of God If God should not performe this for the Saints God should be perjured which is blasphemy to speak The oath of God binds him God in his word which is the character of his mind hath discovered his hatred of perjury and false swearing we cannot think that God who hates perjury in others should forsweare himselfe but we have not only the promise but the oath of God for this so that unlesse we will say that God for-sweares himself we must subscribe to this truth to witt that God gives his Saints his Spirit and in the Spirit holinesse and righteousnesse I will give you a place for this Lu. 1.73 74. The oath which he sware to our Father Abraham What hath he sworne That he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies here is our Justification we are delivered out of the hands of sin death and the Devill But is this all No He hath delivered us out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve him without fear that is without slavish fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life Some acknowledge that the people of God shall live holily and righteously to men-ward as they speake but that the righteousnesse of sanctification is not to God-ward This place overthrowes this distinction he saith not that wee shall walk holily and righteously before men only as hypocrites may but he saith that we shall serve in holinesse and righteousnesse before him We shall not do such works which Luther and others have called vices vitia affirming that all the works of the regenerated man are vices nor such works which are sinful vitiata as some others speak but such workes which God who cannot lye cals righteous works nay righteousnesse in the abstract we shall serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse not only in the sight of men for oft-times they look on good works as though they were bad but good in the sight of God they come from a sweet fountain therefore the water cannot be bitter or brackish from the fountaine of his owne Spirit in his Saints If the works of the Saints were nothing but sin or sinfull how could the Oath of God be fulfilled that they shall serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life Object Before him in this place as in other places doth meane under his protection Gen. 17.1 Answ Though it may be granted that sometimes before him may signifie under his protection yet it doth not appear that it should be the meaning of the holy Ghost in this place But he doth rather informe us how Saints doe approve themselves before God by sanctification As Paul laboured in godly sincerity to have his conscience void of offence towards God and towards men According to that speech of Hezekiah Isa 38.3 Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight But suppose wee should grant you this it doth still stand true that our service is in holinesse and righteousnesse And can any man be so blinde to thinke that a man shall serve in righteousnesse under Gods protection that hee should not see the righteousnesse which is wrought under his protection and if it be righteousnesse which he seeth then it is righteousnesse before him or in his sight Arg. 15. To deny the purity of the man born of God is to deny one end for which Christ dyed for Christ dyed to bring us to be partakers of a pure Divine nature in which pure nature we are to live move and act holily The place by which I shall confirme this is in Heb. 9.14 The blood of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God shall purge our consciences from dead workes to serve the living God We are therefore washed from sin in our Justification that we may serve God by Sanctification And what spirituall man will call that the service of God which is sin or sinfull For to doe that which is sin or sinfull is to doe the Devils service or else I am to learne that which we need not be taught to wit what it is to doe the Devils service Arg. 16. The resurrection of Christ doth teach spirituall men to act purely in their new nature to the glory of their Father Rom. 6.4 As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we should walke in newnesse of life To walk in newnesse of life is it to walk in the oldnesse of that which is sin or sinfull let any Spirituall man judge Arg. 17. We may draw another argument from the Kingly office of Christ He as a King hath a command over his Subjects but he hath not the command over us when we doe that which is sin or sinfull and therefore wee doe something good as his Subjects in obedience to his commands bona bene Good things must be done well And therefore Christ doth not onely enable us to doe that which is righteous but hee doth enable us to doe it righteously Why is Christ King but that we should
faith which is not accompanied with sanctification and good works As soon may a dead horse carrie a man as a dead faith save him Object This is a slander wee doe not deny sanctification Answ If yee acknowledge sanctification and a sanctified change yee contradict your selves For how can that make a sanctified change in us which is nothing else but sin or sinfull I shall be glad if you will stand to an inward change by love and sanctification But some there are who have affirmed that the distinction between a regenerated an and unregenerated man is but a legall distinction Arg. 22. The holy Spirit which is promised to us and dwelleth in us doth plainly demonstrate this point For as the Spirit is holy formally in it selfe in its owne nature essence and being so it is effectively holy because it makes that man holy who was formerly sinfull If thou be nothing but darknesse if God convert thee thou wilt have a glorious light 〈…〉 understanding if thou have nothing 〈…〉 â—â—linesse in thy will if the Spirit of God live in thee it will be a Spirit of holinesse a Spirit that will shew thee what is of the flesh and what is of the spirit a spirit checking thee if thou step aside into the way of the flesh and a spirit leading thee into the paths of holiness As the Psalmist saith Thy Spirit is good lead me into the land of holinesse and uprightnesse Therefore those that doe not find that Spirit leading them into the paths and wayes of holinesse those men have received a counterfeit spirit to delude them and not the true Spirit of the Lord Jesus Object The spirit is good but our actions are evill by the adherence of sinne in us That holy things may be defiled is plaine by Exod. 28.36.38 Aaron having his plate upon his forehead was to beare the iniquity of the holy things Answ 1. Though sin and holinesse be in the same man yet I deny that sinne by any adhering to holinesse in us doth change holinesse into the nature of it But what is of the Spirit in us doth retaine its spirituall nature and what is of the flesh doth retaine its fleshly nature 2. The Scripture produced doth prove that in doing of holy duties we sin and that Jesus Christ doth beare those sins which wee have granted unto you before But that the fruits of the Spirit in us are those sinnes cannot be proved from this place of Scripture nor from any other Scripture which I know this still doth remaine to be proved Arg. 23. There may bee another argument drawne from that place of the Apostle when hee saith The Spirit beareth witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 The Spirit cannot beare witnesse to our old darke prophane spirits for the naturall man receives not the things of the Spirit for they are foolishnesse to him therefore it must be to our spirit enlightned renewed and filled with the Spirit of God And therefore there is somthing in a Saint besides that which is sinne and sinfull Object This is true but we are not renewed perfectly which is the thing to be proved Answ Perfection in Scripture is opposed to that which is more perfect And in this sence wee doe not affirme that a man is so perfectly renewed as he shall be 1 Cor. 13. 2. Perfection is opposed to that which is sinfull Luke 1. And in this sence we say that he is perfectly renewed that is he is holily not sinfully renewed Arg. 24. I doe ground my next argument upon the words of the Apostle Rom. 14. last Whatsoever is not of faith is sinne And therefore that which is done in faith is not sin If we deny this we shall take away the difference between doing good works in faith and doing good works without faith if both of them be alike sinfull or sinne And therefore I conclude that the work of the Spirit which is done in faith is not sin Without faith it is impossible to please God and therefore by faith it is possible to please him by doing good works Arg. 25. Another argument may be drawn from that place 2 Cor. 13. where the Apostle makes the comparison betweene faith hope and love and prefers love before faith hope for this reason because love is more permanent and of longer continuance than faith and hope when a man comes to heaven hee ceaseth to live the life of faith for then he shall live the life of sight and vision he ceaseth to hope for he enjoyeth that which he hoped for but love shall continue Therefore he saith that love that is the fruit of faith is greater than faith in respect of its continuance That which remaines and endures after this life in the Saints in glory is not sin but love shall remaine and endure after this life therefore it is not sin Object But some say if you looke on this place and take notice of this character and description of love you will scarce find any man in the world that hath such a love and by your argument no true faith For hee saith that love suffereth long it envieth not it vaunteth not it selfe it is not puffed up behaveth not it selfe unseemely seeketh not her owne is not easily provoked thinketh no evill rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Love never faileth Answ Every man that is borne of God hath such a love as farre as he is born of God I say not that he hath it in the flesh in the old man but in the new man Wee have a new man as we have an old man and as wee are sometimes acted by the new man so sometimes by the old man As wee are acted by the olde man we doe nothing but that which is contrary to this love but as far as we are acted in the Spirit by the new man by the power of God and the grace of Christ so far we have such a love as is here set downe Therefore if any man hath not such a love and hath beene perswaded that hee hath true faith I dare preach it in the name of Christ that that man never had true faith for true faith works by such love as the Apostle describes here And he positively saith that if a man have other gifts and such a faith by which hee can remove mountaines and hath not this love that he is nothing I would not trouble weak Christians by this I speak not of them in the flesh but in the spirit as farre as thou art spirituall and livest and walkest in the Spirit thou hast such a love And if upon examination thou shalt finde that thou hast not such a love I say thou art a stranger to God For hee that knoweth God walks in love He that saith be knoweth God and walkes not in love he knoweth not God God is love and he that
the spirit in the new man which doth carry him to the grace of God in Jesus Christ Arg. 7. Pauls best workes were accounted by him but as drosse dung therfore they were not perfect Phil. 3. Answ 1. This may be very well understood of his workes done under the Law As the preceding words do seeme to hold it forth where he speaketh of his Jewish priviledges and Pharisaicall righteousnesse And secondly the words following will seem to carry it this way because hee saith that hee accounteth all things dung for the excellent knoweldg of Christ by which is evident that he speaketh of all things as they stand in opposition to the knowledge of Christ 3. This argument maketh nothing for you because you account this knowledge sinfull But let us take it as you do and an answer is presently at hand to wit that the Apostle doth not speake these words absolutely but comparatively They are all dung in comparison of Christ and in reference to their uselesnesse to justification Dung will as soone justifie a man from sin as that love which floweth from faith Arg. 8. This that the new man sinneth not doth in a very high measure if not altogether overthrow all the offices of Christ 1. His Kingly office as having none to rule not the old man for hee savoureth no the things of God be is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be not the new man for he needs not the government of Christ hee is already perfect and cannot sin 2. His Priestly office which is to make propitiation for the sins of those which shall be saved now the new man who only shal be saved never did nor could not commit any sinne 3. His Propheticall office For whom should he teach the new man needs not his teaching seeing he with all his works is already perfect and can be no otherwise The oldâ— man is not capable of his teaching Answ I have already detected the fallaciousnesse of this argument in answering to the 6th Argument Yet give mee leave to prove in few words that this doctrine doth magnifie Christ in the glory of his spirituall offices First in his Kingly office the glory of a king doth lye in subduing his enemies And in thi the glory of Christ considered as a King doth appeare that hee doth vanquish the enemies of us his Subjects by ruling in our hearts with his Scepter of righteousnesse According to that of the Psalmist that hee shall rule in the midst of his enemies By this wee see his regall power over the old man Again the glory of a King is wrapt up in the willing obedience of his Subjects and this is made good in the new man His people being made willing in the day of his power For what is here objected that the new man needs not the government of Christ It is as if one should say that a man doth make void and overthrow royall government because he maintaineth that the Kings Subjects are willingly obedient unto him But you say that they are perfect and therefore his government is needlesse The spirits of just men are made perfect Heb. 12. And will you therefore conclude that the government of Christ over them is needlesse But to passe this by 2. It will appeare that the Priestly office of Christ is not overthrown but established rather by this doctrine for first we hold that no man liveth as a new man who doth live under the guilt of sin and therefore by the eye of the new man wee are daily to looke upon Christ as a Priest in whom is no sinne who by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 Again the Priest was to offer up the sacrifices of the people for them and by this doctrine we establish Christ in his Priestly office which we could not do if we should say that there were nothing in us but what is sinne and sinfull in us The people were to bring something which was good to be offered up by the Priest to God The blinde lame and sicke were not to be offered unto God Mal. 1.8 Neither is that which we doe that is sin or sinfull offered up by Jesus Christ to the Father but that which is good And thus wee establish Christ in his Priestly office by affirming that there is something good in the new man which is the matter of acceptance 3. Wee doe not overthrow his Propheticall office by this truth For he doth daily teach us in the new man Whereas you say that he needs not his teaching wee say that the new man hath his dependance upon Christ for wisedome knowledg and understanding And as a burning Lampe doth daily stand in need of oyle to be powred into it for the maintaining of the light thereof so we say that a Christian doth daily stand in need of spiritual oyle to be powred into his soule by Jesus Christ that he may shine forth in the light of truth Will you dare to say that the soules of the Just made perfect have no need of the teaching of Christ and that they have no dependance upon him because they are perfect Againe it is necessary in respect of the old man who is filled with hellish darknesse ignorance that Christ be looked upon as the great Prophet that wee may put off the ignorance which is in him may be more in the Spirit of Christ which will lead us into all truth It being the way of Gods working to shine into our dark hearts to enlighten them with the knowledge of his grace in Jesus Christ You may begin to see by what hath been delivered that this doctrine doth not overthrow the offices of Jesus Christ but doth sweetly to the glory of his Father confirm him in them Arg. 9. If the regenerate man work perfectly then is the wages reckoned unto him not of grace but of debt Rom. 4.4 But this cannot be that the wages either of the blessings of this life or the life to come should be of debt unto him and not of free grace seeing the Apostle testifieth that God of his free grace gives us his beloved Sonne and together with him all things Rom. 8.32 Answ This first place which is alleadged doth not reach the point in hand because the Apostle doth there speak of works done under the law for Justification and doth thence conclude that if a man be justified by those works which he doth under the law that then the reward is not of debt but grace because the law being not of faith Gal. 3.12 doth give nothing unto us in a way of grace But we are speaking of workes done and accepted under a Covenant of grace The principall cause of mens errour and mistake in this controversie is because they examine the new man and his workes by the law of works and not by the law of sanctification holinesse and love in the new Covenant of grace If wee did examine his workes
by the law of holinesse which is in the new covenant we should plainly perceive that it is by the Spirit of grace that his workes are freely wrought in him and by this means all legall glorying and carnall boasting is taken away According to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.7 Who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it By which you may plainly see that the argument will not hold good to say that if a man work perfectly under a covenant of grace that his reward is not of grace but of debt I shal therefore give you a short answer to the first part of this argument by distinguishing of a two-fold working 1. under a law of works and there it is true that if a man worke perfectly his reward is of debt 2. Under a covenant of grace where a mans sin is freely forgiven him and by free grace he is enabled to worke righteously and there his reward is not of debt to speak properly but of grace Secondly Though we deny that God giveth any reward to a spirituall man as a debt due unto him for his merits and deservings yet wee affirme that God giveth rewards to a spirituall man who doth good works And therefore it is said that Christ commeth with his reward with him to give every man as his worke shall be Revel 22.12 And Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt for he had respect unto the recompence of reward Hebr. 11.26 And this reward may be called a debt not in reference to mans merrit but in reference to Gods promise of grace as a man by his promise may make himselfe a debter to a beggar And therefore the Apostle speaking unto the Saints Hebr. 6.10 saith That God is not unrighteous to forget the worke of the Saints and labour of love And John exhorteth us that wee lose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward 2 John And in this sense something may be given unto us as a reward of that work of grace which is given unto us before it Our confidence in Gods grace may have a great reward in this respect According to that of the Apostle Heb. 10.35 Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward And this may be an answer to the second part of this argument Arg. 10. If the workes of the regenerate be not evill because the holy Ghost worketh them Then the works of the unregenerate as his love and obedience to his parents are not evill Answ There is a generall concurrence of God as the prime cause in the doing of some things by wicked men and thus God may concur to the doing of a thing yet the thing as done by the wicked man may be evill because not done in faith And it is no solid argument to conclude from hence God did concur in the doing of this thing and therefore it is not sin or sinfull 2ly There is a speciall concurrence of Gods grace and Spirit in the doing of a thing as hee is the principall agent in working good spiritually in the Saints who are under a covenant of grace And when God doth concur w th the speciall powerfull assistance of his grace for the effecting of a thing in a Saint it is safe to draw a conclusion to prove the goodnesse of the thing from the considering of the principall agent which did concurre in the doing of the thing As John doth in these words maintaining that a spirituall man considered as a spirituall man and acting as a spirituall man cannot sin because his seed remaineth in him By which distinction you may see the weakness of your argument with which you would prove the unsoundnesse of my arguing from God considered as the principal agent to the effect And the disparity of Gods working in the regenerate and unregenerate When God doth work in a spirituall man that which is spirituall it is not only good substantially and materially but formally and circumstantially by the grace of God as I have proved at large And therefore this argument is not strong enough to overthrow what hath beene delivered Arg. 11. Either the holy Ghost workes the works of the regenerate man wholly as the sole cause and then it is not wee but the holy Ghost that believes that loves that fears God that repents that prayes for the forgivenesse of his sin c. which were absurd to imagine or else we also work with him in some kind of causality to the producing of those workes that so the works may be said to be ours our loving our fearing our rejoycing our praying If so then are we in this working either perfect or imperfect Agents If perfect agents then is there no ignorance in our understandings no depravation in our wille no perversenesse in our affections The contrary whereof all the truly faithfull find by experience and the Scripture abundantly testifieth But if we be imperfect agents then cannot perfection come out of imperfection no effect can be better than its cause Ans 1 The efficiency of the first cause doth not take away the efficiency of the second cause In God we live move yet it is not God that moveth he though he moveth all things cannot be moved himself immobilis movens omnia Aug. So it is not God that repenteth but we repent The ignorance of which truth hath been the cause of the wicked mistery of Familisme which my soule abhorreth And therefore we shall agree in the truth which is implicitely laid down in the first part of your Dilemma 2ly Whereas you say that all the faithfull grant that man is an imperfect agent I answer that if we take perfect here in this point as it is opposed to that which is sinfull so many Saints doe grant and all should and will as more light is beamed into their soules grant it that the sanctified and spiritual man considered as farre forth as he is a spirituall man doth work as a perfect Agent not as an unholy but an holy man And therefore according to your rule his action must be spirituall and holy And this may give an answer to that argument which is brought from Job Who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane Job 14.4 3ly Whereas you say that no effect can be better than its cause c. This is not universally true A man imperfect by the want of his armes or legs may beget a childe which is perfect and hath its limbs But this not being much to the purpose I shall not contend about it Arg. 12. If the new man never sin Christ came not to save the new man for he came only to save sinners Answ The new man taken in this spirituall and theologicoll sence is not the object of salvation but an elect person guilty