Marriage Union and Relation John 3.29 1 Cor. 7.2 Mark 12.22 23. Luke 20.33 Of which afterwards II. To have the Son is so to have him as to have him for Eternal Life and so to have him as to have Life by him and from him To have him is unspeakably more than to have him as some think they have him To have the Son you shall hear is more than 1. To have him in your Eye by reading in your Ears by hearing in your Mouths by speaking you come to have him by means but many have means who have not him many have him in the Word and Ministry in the Church in the Creed who have him not in their Minds by spiritual and saving Knowledge nor in their Hearts by Love 2. To have him is much more than to have him in their Mouths and Profession Oh! how many hear him and have him standing at the Door knocking without and let him stand till he is weary of standing and knocking and they have no mind nor heart to listen rise and open having other Guests Friends Companions and things which they naturally and dearly love which they love better than him or that Life that true happy eternal Life which he comes to give to them that will have it Oh! How many have him as they who cried Lord Lord but did not the Will of God Or not as Thomas had him with Interest in and Affection to him My Lord and my God Oh! how many have him coming and going in the Word and Ministry that let him go as he came in at one Ear and out at another The Doors of the Heart are as open for him to go out as they were to let him in Oh! how many have him in their mouths as he is in their Belief in the Congregation as Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who study not the meaning of what they say who shew nothing of him in their Conversation The Devil and rotten Communication may be oftner in their mouths than he except it be to tear his Wounds and prophane his Blood and to cause many to blaspheme that worthy Name by which they are called Oh! how many have him no further into their Souls than their minds and memories as a Stranger or Passenger that have him not in their Hearts as a Ruler or Dweller They have him as the Papists have the Crucifix hanging at their Necks and in their Bosoms that have him not within them by his Spirit for Life and Salvation And are they few who have him but as Judas had him and carnal and worldly Politicians have him for their private Ends to make merchandize of him And to say no more how many delay to have him till a convenient Season They say they intend to have him but they cannot yet determin when for he is held at too high a rate they cannot yet come up to the terms of Repentance and Self-denial When they cannot sin as they were wont they will repent and when they are upon a forced remove out of the World and must leave all then they will deny themselves This is plainly the Sense of them who do not flatly refuse to have him but are not resolved to have him as they must or not at all And that is as followeth Mark the Word it self He that hath the Son hath Life First the Son and then Life by him First Christ himself his Glorious Person full of Grace and Truth and then Life both or neither and both in this order and connexion of which a little more afterwards And then observe that to have the Son is all one as to believe in him John 3.15 16. And to believe on the Son with Trust and Reliance John 3.36 Or to receive him but to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe in his Name John 1.12 They who received first the Son had the Prerogative and Priviledge to become the Sons of God Upon our having the Son as invested in the Office of Mediator for which he put on our Nature we have Life the Benefit of his Redemption and Mediation To have him is to have him by the Application and Union of Faith There is a mutual Act between Christ and the Believer Christ exhibiteth himself unto us and we adhere and dwell in him B. Reynolds Life of Christ 4 to p. 461. saith one of our best Divines upon the Text. To have him is to believe and receive him as to have a Propriety in him and and after a sort a Possession of him as another of our Worthies doth express himself Mr. Ball of the Covenant p. 287. not by way of Dominion for so we are his 1 Cor. 6.19 but by way of Communion and Propriety To have him is to believe and receive him as he is made of God to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 which are the Benefits of Christ as Mediator Worthy Mr. Firmin Real Christian Synopsis pur Theologiae de Officio Christi S. 38. and the gracious effects of his Offices as Prophet Priest and King For these things we need him and these things we have by him To have Christ is to act answerably to the Proposal offer of Christ and everlasting Life through him The matter will be more clear in Particulars I. To believe and to have the Son is to have him in our Understanding and Minds by a clear and unfeigned Assent to the Revelation and Proposal of Jesus Christ as Mediator and Redeemer The Understanding upon the convincing Evidence of what is reported concerning Christ and Life by him doth assent unto it and doth acknowledge the Wisdom and Grace of God in the way to Life Eternal That God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself 2 Cor. 5.19 That God set him forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood Rom. 3.25 is wonderfully approved of This is a faithful Saying that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners and it is received and own'd as true and worthy to be believed When a Sinner is convinced of Sin and Death and that Life is out of his own reach and power and that he must receive it as a gift of Grace and Mercy and that the Author and Giver of Life hath set down this for a Law Rule That whoever would have Life must have Christ The Soul lays aside all Thoughts of coming to Life and Happiness any other way and subscribes to and approves of this wonderful Contrivance of giving eternal Life by Jesus Christ and of making it necessary to have Christ Much of the Nature and Work of Faith is seen in this Assent to and Approbation of this way of attaining Eternal Life And thus Faith may be understood to be an Approbation of the way to Life by its contrary unbelief express'd by a disallowance of God's prescribed way and means 1 Pet. 2.4 unto whom coming as
you were sure of it 4. As you have him for life so make use of him for life not for Notions for Talk for Shews for worldly Advantages Interest in Parties and Hypocritical Ends but for Life to live to God and to live with God for ever Consider I beseech you what encouragements you have to have Life that great thing that one thing needful Life Life Life Eternal For 1. As Great as Glorious as Holy as the Son is yet you who are poor and humble may have him you that are so poor that you know not how to live except he will relieve you and keep you alive may have him I counsel thee to buy of me that is to have of me at the lowest rate yea nothing of worth Gold tried in the Fire that thou mayest be rich c. Rev. 3.18 2. And this you will believe if you believe as you may and ought what his gracious and merciful Design and End was in becoming our Mediator and Redeemer and what the Fathers gracious End and Purpose was in giving and sending him John 3.16 God so loved the World with a love of Benevolence and Compassion that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life 1 John 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because he sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him 3. If you consider his nearness to us in Nature and Blood tho he be the Son of God God over all blessed for evermore yet he is the Son in our Nature and he loveth our Nature tho he hate our Sin and the hatefulness of our Sins and Corruption doth not hinder his Love nor his Compassions Heb. 2.14 15 16 17. 4. If you consider the nearness of his Relation Mediator and Redeemer include and comprehend all Relations and those Relations are for Union and that Union is for Life and Communion He is as near as a Brother Heb. 2.11 For which cause he is not asham'd to call them Brethren c. yea as a Father Vers 13. And again Behold I and the Children which God hath given me Yea he is a Beloved and a Husband a Bridegroom always in the Fervors of his wonderful pure Love Christ so loved his Church as to give himself for it Ephes 5.25.32 2 Cor. 11.2 O! then take encouragement and come directly to him O have him before you go to Bed this Night And now let me direct my Speech to you who are the occasion of this Assembly in this place I have opened the Case plainly to you that you may know where to find Life and Salvation before you die I am under some Discouragement and Temptation because you have lived so long without Christ and know so little of him and have no time to live to express your Thankfulness by holy walking for that unspeakable Gift Christ and Life by him But as late as it is I know what God can do and what you must have before the End or Noon of another Day or you must die in your Sins in those for which you are condemned to die and more than the Hairs of your Head beside even your Thoughts Words Deeds your Omissions and Commissions besides those you know how earnestly you beg'd for life and that for God's sake for Chists sake and that but for an uncertain short beggarly kind of Life with Shame and many other Evils How welcom would the hopes of Life be if I had any to give you Would you not receive the King's Pardon if I brought it to you Would you not have it and never ask one hour to deliberate or demur upon it O that you would have what I have to offer to you upon this one condition of having it and that if you had a longer Life to shew it you would manifest that you have it I come to you in the Name of God and his Son Jesus the Prince of Life and make you a free Offer of everlasting life the life of Justification and Pardon a discharge from Condemnation O! the Patience of God that hath let you live so long O! the Mercy of God that hath let you live to this hour to hear of life of this life and that upon this condition of having his Son Jesus Christ Had you now had him you had never have come to that place in that Condition VVill you have him before you die that you may not die ternally There is but this one way left you need not make Friends and Interests nor make Sums of Mony for this Pardon and Life Have the Son and have life this hour and life for ever O what an Act of Grace is Justification and the pardon of Sin Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his Grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ That which cost Christ his Blood is free to all that are justified Here a free Offer upon acceptance and methinks one of you should acknowledge the difference between this free Offer which will be made good Three were imprisoned for Murder and 200 l. was promised to one to procure a Pardon 100 l. was paid and the other was to be paid whenever the Pardon should come The two Men were executed this Woman's Husband and his Brother-in-law who both agreed that the whole Sum should be paid if her Pardon could be obtained if you have Christ and that costly Pardon which was mightily laboured for and could not be obtained Have you not told us that to use your own words Tenscore Pound was promised to obtain your Pardon and two died without it and you alone was to have the benefit of it and missed of it Now here is Life offered again and that Life indeed more worth than the World yea than a World of Worlds O do not refuse but have it And what I say to you I say to all present before God for you must all die tho not as these Persons are condemned to die and die eternally if you have not Christ but if you have him your Souls shall live for ever and though after your Skin Worms destroy these Bodies yet in your Flesh shall you see God O have the Son and you shall have Life but if not you shall not have Life And so I come to the Second Doctrin or Proposition He that hath not the Son of God hath not Life These Words carry in them a clear and full Determination of the final Case of all And every man that hath not the Son of God As the Word declares so it shall be with every one that hath not the Son Unbelief makes Sinners unfit for and uncapable of everlasting Life The words are clear and decisive there is no darkness nor ambiguity in them Men may think they have many things which make them presume and hope that they shall not die but live But had they all that ever Pretenders had and have not Christ this is a ruled
That the First-born is of the same Nature with the rest of the Children thinking thereby to strip him of his Divine Nature and Godhead and to make him no more than a Man then he would partake of the Nature of every Creature as well as Mans for he is not said to be the First-born of Men only but of every Creature This therefore is a Title of Dignity and Honour as much as to say He is the First-born Heir and Lord of every Creature He is not a Creature nor called first Mr. P. Bayn on the Colos Christianni Schotanni in Collegio Miscellaneorum Theologicorum Disp 1. de prim genitura Sec. 11 12. Zanch. in Col. as tho first made but first and chief in Dignity and Power over all Creatures Psal 89.28 I will make him my first-born higher than the Kings of the Earth All things are subject to him 1 Pet. 3.22 and put under his Feet Ephes 1.22 His Dominion is over all This is the Son of God's Love manifested in the Flesh suffering in our Nature even unto Blood to make Attonement and to procure us the forgiveness of Sin O how happy are they who have him 5. That he is not a Creature not a meer Man or made God which implies the greatest Contradiction Nor a Divine Man as if he were more like God than other Men as the Arians and Socinians dream and feign him to be but that the Son of God the Son of God's Love is true God and hath an undoubted Title to the Dominion of all Creatures is made evident from ver 16 17. in which there are these infallible Proofs of his Godhead 1. All things were created by him that are in Heaven and that are in Earth c. 2. As all things were created by him so they were created for him All things were created by him and for him therefore he was not an Instrument in the Hand of the Creator but the most High God and one God with the Father and Holy Ghost To us there is but One God of whom are all things c. 1 Cor. 8.6 All things are by Christ the Son of God and also for him as their End therefore he is the High God See Rom. 11.36 The Instrument is for the principal Cause That which I as the Principal do use my Servant to do is not for his sake but my own but the end of all these things was no less the Honour of Christ than the Father Reverend Holy Bayn on the Coloss If Christ were the Instrument of God the Creator in the Creation then all things would not be for him for his Service and his Glory who was the Instrument He was an equal Cause with the Father and the Holy Ghost because all things are for him for his Service and Glory therefore he was not an Instrument nor an inferiour Agent but one God with the Father Yet we must observe an Order in the Government and Administration of the Mediatory Kingdom of Christ Christ as God is one with the Father but Christ God-Man as Mediator hath a respect to God the Father John 5.8 Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much Fruit so shall you be my Disciples John 11.4 I have glorified thee on the Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do John 7.18 He that seeketh the Glory of him that sent him is true and there is no unrighteousness in him And Phil. 2.11 And that every Tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father 3. And he is before all things ver 17. before the World and all things in it If he were a meer Creature he could not be before all things he could be but the first of Creatures but being before all Creatures he should not be degraded and debased to be made but a Creature But he is before all things that are made therefore God the Creator of all things for there can be nothing before All things but God as before all Time nothing but Eternity And that Saying of the Reverend Davenant upon these Words Quomodo fuit ante omnia si ante suam incarnationem non fuit Quomodo condidit omnia qui ipse non extitit Expos Rep. P. ad Colos might stop the Mouths of all the Socinians who make the Conception of Christ to be the Principle and beginning of his Filation or being the Son of God grounding their Error upon that Text spoken of before Luke 1.35 How was he before all things if he was not before his Incarnation How could he make all things who was not himself in being Saith that clear and learned Man 4. By him all things consist He supporteth and beareth up all things upholdeth all things by the Word of his Power Heb. 1.3 All things are continued in their Being Place Order and Usefulness by him by whom all things were made He beareth up the World and keepeth things together from falling into confusion and ruin I have been the longer in the Description of the Son that you may know him and that knowing him you may desire him come to him believe in him have him honour him admire him and do all that is required of you Consider one thing before I go to the next Head The Son of God is to be had as he is given and sent of the Father and as he is said to come into the World All which Expressions do signifie to us his Office and Undertaking of a Mediator with the Performance and Benefits thereof The Knowledge of him as such is necessary to and is the beginning of Eternal Life John 17.3 This is Eternal Life to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent as Mediator to mediate Peace between the infinite God and sinful Men. Therefore let me in few Words open to you the meaning of the Word and the reason and nature of the Office of the Mediator as he is called 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all where observe these things plainly 1. The Mediator is a middle Person between Parties 2. The Parties between whom he dealeth as Mediator are God and Man Medius Natura Medians Officio Trelent alii 3. The high Quality of the Mediator is set out by his Humane Nature and by his Names the Man Christ Jesus 4. What he did he gave himself a Ransom for all And by this last Particular we understand three things of great Moment 1. The Condition of all Men they were guilty of an heinous Transgression against God and were fallen under the Curse and Justice of God A miserable Condition 2. What God required and must have or sinful Men must abide and perish under the Wrath and Curse of God there must be a Ransom given and paid for them and that was the precious Blood of the Son of God 1 Pet. 1.18 19. and his Life
lost cursed state of Guilt Uncleanness Bondage and utter Inability to come to Life of your self 2. Have you seen the necessity of a Mediator to make your Peace and to bring you to a reconciled God 3. Have you been and are you still satisfied with Christ And Christ alone His Death Merits Resurrection and Intercession alone not joyning Antichrist as a Head bringing him to Christ and sodering him to you with soft Wax or binding him to you with a Rope of Sand nor adding Saints Merits and Intercessions to his Nor any other devised Supplements and Means of your Peace and Salvation 4. Have you with hearty self-abasement been and are you still a great Admirer of the way of your recovery by Jesus Christ And stand amazed at the Grace Wisdom Righteousness and Love of God in Christ 5. Have you come naked wounded poor and humbled to Jesus Christ upon his Offer and Invitation and taken him understandingly advisedly deliberately heartily and resolvedly through his Grace and Assistance without whom you can do nothing casting away whatever offends him out of his place and House namely your Heart And do you still know that you are dead without him And do you love him and observe him and the longer you are acquainted with him the more and better 2. What Use do you make of the Son Do you reckon him your Life Do you draw your Spiritual Life from him And do you alledg him Rom. 8.34 and plead him for your Discharge against all Accusations and trust him for your Salvation in his own way and your way of Adherence and Obedience 2. Positively All that have him are united to him that 's the immediate Work of the principal efficient Cause the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost or the Spirit who makes Application of Redemption and brings Christ and his Members to be one and the immediate Work and Office of Faith given of God and excited by the Spirit like the opening of a blind Eye to behold an admirable lovely Object or quickning a dead Palsie Hand to receive a Pardon 2. Every one who is united to him and made one is regenerate and born of God 1 John 5.1 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature 3. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit And this having of the Spirit is made a Sign of the mutual Union between Christ and the true Believer 1 Joh. 3.24 And he that keepeth his Commandments of Believing on the Name of his Son Christ and mutual Love to the Brethren vers 23. dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us But how may the true Spirit be known By his Light Life Operations and Fruits As the Soul of Man is known to be a rational Soul by its Operations so is the Spirit of Christ known to be in Believers by his Operation and Effects Take your Aim and Direction in this from one effect of the Spirits uniting us to Christ and dwelling in us and that is Life He that hath the Son and the Spirit of the Son hath Life in him whereby he lives a New Life to God through Jesus Christ Where this Life is it is known by a spiritual sense and motion from Christ and back again unto him 2. By Hunger and Thirst by an Appetite to Spiritual Food As a new born Babe desires the sincere milk of the word 1 Pet. 2.2 3. By Growth and Strength As new born Babes grow and gather strength till they come to be Men by using proper means of nourishment as Milk and stronger meat by abiding in Christ and living by Faith drawing Supplies of Grace by holy Desires and Prayers with all perseverance 4. By Nauseating and loathing refusing resisting and casting out Contraries to it and using Preservatives These things being drawn up for your Service in this little room I return to my Exhortation to persuade you to have Christ to have him for Life for your Necessity is so great that you do not need him for less than your Life and that you would make haste and have him while he is near Isa 55.1 2. Or else you may seek him when you shall not find him John 8.21 And when you have him adhere to him have him and cleave to him for still the same reason continueth it is for your Life What will stir you if the Words of the Text will not Consider the unconceivableness of the loss and what is the consequent of it The greatness of the loss and deprivation and the nearness of it are implied in these Words Hath not Life Oh! Wo Wo to that Soul His state is infinitely worse than his who hath not the Light of the Day to look on nor Eyes to see it Worse than his who hath not a Friend in the whole World not a Rag to his Back not a Farthing in his Purse not a Morsel to eat not as much as a fading Gourd to hide his Head under not the use of a Limb not Skin upon his Back no not a Grave to rest in If every Unbelievers loss were as great as Job's was it were nothing to this Hath not Life It amounts to as much as the loss of God of Heaven and all that is therein The loss of Earth and the present Life is the least part of it This loss cannot be reckoned in the Ages of of the World it is a loss under which there is no support or relief to bear it Miserable Sinners can contribute nothing but Miseries and Sorrows to one another Nor will God himself ever repair it to any of them They who will not have the Son for their Saviour and Redeemer would refuse yea despise all other means and ways of their recovery and readmission to happiness They who do not assent to this wonderful way of God nor consent to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace now revealed would dissent from any other ways if there were any other reserved in the Will of God They who cannot forsake nor give up their Sins which a Disgrace a Shame a Burden a Perversion a Confusion of Nature which every Sinner hath cause to be sick of and in continual pain till he be delivered of it would never accept of Grace and Mercy upon condition of being Holy and pleasing God They who will not have the Son for their Saviour would not have God for their God and Father There being no way left to recover their forfeited Life they are lost for ever who lose it Q. But may not a man who hath not the Son at present have him and Life by him hereafter A. Yes if he have him while it is to day when God waiteth that he may be gracious But if he die before he comes to and receiveth Christ he dies in his Sin and is out of all hopes of Life Oh! who would for any business or any Pretence whatsoever delay the having of the