formali intrinsecâ Justitiâ sed relativâ not with a formal inherent righteousness of our own but with a relative imputed righteousness from another I know this most excellent and most comfortable doctrine of imputed righteousness is not only denyed but derided by Papists Stapleton calls it spectrum Cerebri Lutherani the monstrous birth of Luthers brain but blessed be God this comfortable truth is well secured against all attempts of its adversaries Let their blasphemous mouths call it in derision as they do putative righteousness i. e. a meer fancied or conceited righteousness yet we know assuredly Christs righteousness is imputed to us and that in the way of faith If Adams sin became ours by Imputation then so doth Christs righteousness also become ours by Imputation Rom. 5. 17. If Christ were made a sinner by the imputation of our sins to him who had no sin of his own then we are made righteous by the imputation of Christs righteousness to us who have no righteousness of our own according to 1 Cor. 5. 21. This was the way in which Abraham the father of them that believe was justified and therefore this is the way in which all believers the children of Abraham must in like manner be justified Rom. 4. 22 23 24. Who can express the worth of faith in this one respect if this were all it did for our souls But Thirdly It is the spring of our spiritual peace and joy and that as it is the Instrument of our Justification If it be an instrument of our Justification it cannot but be the spring of our consolation Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God in uniting us with Christ and apprehending and applying his righteousness to us it becomes the seed or root of all the peace and joy of a Christians life Joy the child of faith therefore bears its name Phil. 1. 25. the joy of faith So 1 Pet. 1. 8 9. Believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable we cannot forbear laughing when we are tickled nor can we forbear rejoycing while by faith we are brought to the sight and knowledge of such a priviledged state when faith hath first given and then cleared our title to Christ Joy is no more under the souls command we cannot but rejoyce and that with Joy unspeakable Fourthly It is the means of our spiritual livelihood and subsistance all other graces like birds in the nest depend upon what faith brings in to them take away faith and all the graces languish and dye joy peace hope patience and all the rest depend upon faith as the members of the natural body do upon the vessels by which blood and spirits are conveyed to them The life which I now live saith the Apostle is by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. it provides our ordinary food and extraordinary Cordials Psal. 27. 13. I had fainted unless I had believed And seeing it is all this to our souls Fifthly In the last place it is no wonder that it is the main scope and drift of the Gospel to press and bring souls to believing 't is the Gospels grand design to bring up the hearts of men and women to faith The urgent commands of the Gospel aim at this 1 Joh. 3. 23. Mark 1. 14 15. Joh. 12. 36. hither also look the great promises and encouragements of the Gospel Joh. 6. 35 37. so Mark 16. 16. And the opposite sin of unbelief is every where fearfully aggravated and threatned Joh. 16. 8 9. Joh. 3. 18. 35. And this was the third thing premised namely a discovery of the transcendant worth and excellency of saving faith Fourthly But lest we commit a mistake here to the prejudice of Christs honour and glory which must not be 4. given to another no not to faith it self I promised you in the fourth place to snew you upon what account faith is thus dignified and honoured that so we may give unto faith the things that are faiths and to Christ the things that are Christs And I find four opinions about the interest of faith in our Justification some will have it to justifie us formally not relatively i. e. upon the account of its own intrinsecal value and worth and this is the Popish sense of Justification by faith Some affirm that though faith be not our perfect legal righteousness considered as a work of ours yet the act of believing is imputed to us for righteousness i. e. God graciously accepts it instead of perfect legal righteousness and so in his esteem it 's our evangelical righteousness And this is the Arminian sense of justification by faith Some there are also even among our reformed Divines that contend that faith justifies and saves us as it is the Condition of the new Covenant And Lastly others will have it to justifie us as an Instrument apprehending or receiving the righteousness of Christ with which opinion I must close when I consider my Text calls it a receiving of Christ most certain it is That First It doth not justifie in the Popish sense upon the account of its own proper worth and dignity for then First Justification should be of debt not of grace contrary to Rom. 3. 23 24. Secondly This would frustrate the very scope and end of the death of Christ for if righteousness come by the Law i. e. by the way of works and desert then is Christ dead in vain Gal. 2. 21. Thirdly Then the way of our justification by faith would be so sar from excluding that it would establish boasting expressly contrary to the Apostle Rom. 3. 26 27. Fourthly Then there should be no defects or imperfections in faith for a defective and imperfect thing can never be the matter of our Justification before God if it justifie upon the account of its own worth and proper dignity it can have no flaw nor imperfection in it contrary to the common sense of all believers Nay Fifthly Then it 's the same thing to be justified by faith and to be justified by works which the Apostle so carefully distinguisheth and opposeth Phil. 3. 9. and Rom. 4. 6. so that we conclude it doth not justifie in the Popish sense for any worth or proper excellency that is in it self Secondly And it is as evident it doth not justifie us in the Arminian sense viz. as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere the Act of believing is imputed or accepted by God as our Evangelical righteousness instead of perfect legal righteousness In the former opinion you have the dreggs of Popery and here you have refined Popery Let all Arminians know we have as high esteem for faith as any men in the world can have but yet we will not rob Christ to cloath faith we cannot embrace their opinion because First We must then dethrone Christ to exalt faith we are willing to give it all that is due to it but we dare not despoyl Christ of his glory for faiths sake he is the Lord
metal is delivered into the Gospel mould where it receives the same form and figure that the mould gives as the impress upon the wax doth the engravings in the Seal and this is of principal consideration for there is no receiving Christ upon any other terms but his own proposed in the Gospel to us he will never come lower nor make them easier than they are for any mans sake in the world we must either receive him upon these or part with him for ever as thousands do who could be content to agree to some Articles but rather choose to be damned for ever than submit to all this is the great controversie betwixt Christ and sinners upon this many thousands break off the Treaty and part with Christ because he will not come to their terms but every true believer receives him upon his own i. e. their acceptance of him by faith is in all things consentaneous to the overtures made of him in the written word So he tenders himself and so they receive him as will be evident in the following particulars First The Gospel offers Christ to us sincerely and really and so the true believer receives and accepts him even with 1. a faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. If ever the soul be serious and in earnest in any thing it it so in this can we suppose the heart of him that flys for his life to the refuge City to be serious and in earnest to escape by flight the Avenger of blood who pursues him then is the heart of a convinced sinner serious in this matter for under that notion is the work of faith presented to us Heb. 6. 18. Secondly Christ is offered to us in the Gospel intirely and undividedly as cloathed with all his offices Priestly Prophetical 2. and Regal as Christ Jesus the Lord Acts 16. 31. and so the true believer receives him the hypocrite like the harlot is for dividing but the sincere believer finds the need he hath of every office of Christ and knows not how to want any thing that is in him His ignorance makes him necessary and desirable to him as a Prophet His guilt makes him necessary as a Priest His strong and powerful Lusts and Corruptions makes him necessary as a King and in truth he sees not any thing in Christ that he can spare he needs all that is in Christ and admires the infinite wisdome in nothing more than the investing Christ with all these offices which are so suited to the poor sinners wants and miseries Look as the three offices are undivided in Christ so they are in the believers acceptance and before this tryal no hypocrite can stand for all hypocrites reject and quarrel with something in Christ they like his pardon better than his government they call him indeed Lord and master but it is but an empty Tite they bestow upon him for let them ask their own hearts if Christ be Lord over their thoughts as well as words over their secret as well as open actions over their darling Lusts as well as others let them ask who will appear to be Lord and master over them when Christ and the world come in competition when the pleasures of sin shall stand upon one side and sufferings to death and deepest points of self-denyal upon the other side Surely 't is the greatest affront that can be offered to the divine wisdome and goodness to separate in our acceptance what is so united in Christ for our salvation and happiness As without any one of these offices the work of our salvation could not be compleated so without acceptance of Christ in them all our Union with him by faith cannot be compleated The Gospel offer of Christ includes all his offices and Gospel faith just so receives him to submit to him as well as to be redeemed by him to imitate him in the holiness of his life as well as to reap the purchases and fruits of his death It must be an entire receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly Christ is offered to us in the Gospel exclusively 3. as the alone and only saviour of sinners with whose blood A man may as lawfully joyn Saints or Angels in his mediation with Christ as graces It is gross idolatry to make the works of God a God and it is but a more subtil Idolatry to make the works of Christ a Christ. Burges de Lege and intercession nothing is to be mixed but the foul of a sinner is singly to rely and depend on him and no other Acts 4. 2. 1 Cor. 3. 11. and so faith receives him Psal. 71. 16. I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only Phil. 3. 9. And be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ to depend partly upon Christs righteousness and partly upon our own is to set one foot upon a rock and the other in a quick-sand either Christ will be to us all in all or nothing at all in point of righteousness and salvation he affects not social honour as he did the whole work so he expects the sole praise if he be not able to save to the uttermost why do we depend upon him at all and if he be why do we lean upon any beside him Fourthly The Gospel offers Christ freely to sinners as the gift not the sale of God Joh. 4. 10. Isa. 55. 1. Rev. 22. 17. and even so faith receives him The believer comes to Christ with an empty hand not only as an undeserving but as an hell deserving sinner he comes to Christ as to one that justifies the ungodly Rom. 4. 5. Unto him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifies the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness where by him that worketh not he means a convinced humbled sinner who finds himself utterly unable to do the task the Law sets him i. e. perfectly to obey it and therefore in a Law sense is said not to work for it 's all one as to the intent and purpose of the Law not to work and not to work perfectly this he is convinced of and therefore comes to Christ as one that is in himself ungodly acknowledging the righteousness by which he alone can stand before God is in Christ and not in himself in whole or in part and by the way let this encourage poor souls that are scared and daunted for want of due qualifications from closing with and embracing Christ there is nothing qualifies any man for Christ more than a sense of his unworthiness of him and the want of all excellencies or ornaments that may commend him to divine acceptance Fifthly The Gospel offers Christ orderly to sinners first his person then his priviledges God first gives his son and then 5. with him or as a consequent of that gift he gives us all things Rom. 8. 32. In the same order must our faith receive him The
light Isa. 50. 10. nay a man must be a believer before he know himself to be so the direct act of faith is before the reflex act so that the justifying act of faith lies neither in Assent nor in Assurance Assent saith I believe that Christ is and that he is the Saviour of the elect Assurance saith I believe and am sure that Christ dyed for me and that I shall be saved through him So that Assent widens the nature of faith too much and Assurance upon the other hand straitens it too much but Acceptance which saith I take Christ in all his offices to be mine this fits it exactly and belongs to all true believers and to none but true believers and to all true believers at all times this therefore must be the justifying and saving act of faith Arg. 3. Thirdly That and no other is the justifying and saving act of faith to which the properties and effects of saving faith do Arg. 3. belong or in which they are only found But in the fiducial receiving of Christ are the properties and effects of saving faith only found This therefore must be the justifying and saving act of faith First By saving faith Christ is said to dwell in our hearts Eph. 3. 17. but it is neither by assent nor assurance but by acceptance and receiving him that he dwells in our hearts not by assent for then he would dwell in the unregenerate nor by assurance for he must dwell in our hearts before we can be assured of it Therefore it is by acceptance Secondly By faith we are justified Rom. 5. 1. but neither assent nor assurance for the reasons above do justifie therefore it must be by the receiving act and no other Thirdly The Scripture ascribes great difficulties to that faith by which we are saved as being most cross and opposite to the corrupt nature of man but of all the acts of faith none is clog'd with like difficulties or conflicts with greater oppositions than the receiving act doth about this act hang the greatest difficulties fears and deepest self-denyal In assent a mans reason is convinced and yields to the evidence of truth so that he can do no other but assent to the truth In assurance there is nothing against a mans will or comfort but much for it every one desires it but it is not so in acceptance of Christ upon the self-denying terms of the Gospel as will hereafter be evinced We conclude therefore that in this consists the nature and essence of saving faith Thirdly Having seen what the receiving of Jesus Christ 3. is and that it is the faith by which we are justified and saved I next come to open the Dignity and excellency of this faith whose praises and Encomiums are in all the Scriptures there you find it renowned by the title of precious faith 2 Pet. 1. 7. enriching faith Jam. 2. 5. the work of God Joh. 6. 29. the great mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3. 16. with many more rich Epithets throughout the Scriptures bestowed upon it Now faith may be considered two ways viz. either Qualitatively or Relatively Considered qualitatively as a saving grace it hath the same excellency that all other precious saving graces have as it is the fruit of the Spirit it is more precious than Gold Prov. 8. 11 19. and so are all other graces as well as faith in this sense they all shine with equal glory and that a glory transcending all the glory of this world but then consider faith Relatively as the instrument by which the righteousness of Christ is apprehended and made ours and in that consideration it excels all other graces This is the grace that is singled out from among all other graces to receive Christ by which office it is dignified above all its fellows as Moses was honoured above the many thousands of Israel when God took him up into the Mount admitted him nearer to himself than any other of all the Tribes might come for they stood without the Rail while Moses was received into the special presence of God and was admitted to such views as others must not have so faith is honoured above all its fellow graces in being singled out and solemnly anointed to this high office in our Justification this is that precious eye that looks unto Christ as the stung Israelites did to the brazen Serpent and derives healing vertue from him to the soul. It is the grace which instrumentally saves us Eph. 2. 8. as it's Christs glory to be the door of salvation so it 's Faiths glory to be the golden key that opens that door What shall I say of Faith 't is the bond of Union the instrument of justification the spring of spiritual peace and joy the means of spiritual livelihood and subsistence and therefore the great scope and drift of the Gospel which aims at and presseth nothing more than to bring men and women to believe First This is the bond of our Union with Christ that Union is begun in our vivification and compleated in our actual receiving of Christ the first is a bond of Union on the Spirits part the second a bond of Union on our part Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. and herein it is a door opened to let in many rich blessings to the soul for by uniting us to Christ it brings us into special favour and acceptation with God Eph. 1. 6. makes us the special objects of Christs conjugal love and delight Eph. 5. 29. draws from his heart sympathy and tender sense of all our miseries and burdens Heb. 4. 15. Secondly 'T is the instrument of our justification Rom. 5. 1. till Christ be received thus received by us we are in our sins under guilt and condemnation but when faith comes then comes freedome by him all that believe are justified from all things Acts 13. 38. Rom. 8. 1. for it apprehends or receives the pure and perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus wherein the soul how guilty and sinful soever it be in it self stands faultless and spotless before the presence of God all Inveniri in Christo tacitam habet relationem ad dei judicium in iis nullam invenit condemnationem quia justitiâ qualem esse requirit i. e. perfectâ accumulatâ exornatos nos invenit nempe justitia Christi per fidem nobis imputata Bern. in Loc. obligations to punishment are upon believing immediately dissolved a full and final pardon sealed O precious faith who can sufficiently value it What respect Reader wouldst thou have to that hand that should bring thee a Pardon when on the Ladder or Block why that pardon which thou canst not read without tears of joy is brought thee by the hand of faith O inestimable grace that cloaths the pure righteousness of Jesus upon our defiled souls and so causes us to become the righteousness of God in him or as it is 1 Joh. 3. 7. righteous as he is righteous non
seasonably A sound of judgement is in our ears the Lords voice crieth unto the City and the man of wisdom shall see thy name hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it Mica 6. 9. All things round about us seem to posture themselves for trouble and distress Where is the man of wisdom that doth not foresee a shower of wrath and indignation coming We have heard a voice of trembling of fear and not of peace Ask ye now and see whether a man doth travel with child Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail and all faces are turned into paleness Alas for that day is great so that none is like it it is even the day of Jacobs trouble but he shall be delivered out of it Jer. 30. 5 6 7. Many eyes are now opened to see the common danger but some foresaw it long ago when they saw the general decay of godliness every where the notorious Prophanity and Atheism that overspread the Nations the spirit of enmity and bitterness against the power of godliness whereever it appeared and though there seemed to be a present calm and general quietness yet those that were wise in heart could not but discern distress of nations with great perplexity in these seeds of judgement and calamity but as the Epha fills more and more so the determined wrath grows more and more visible to every eye and 't is a fond thing to dream of tranquillity in the midâ—… of so much iniquity Indeed if these Nations were once swept with the besom of reformation we might hope God would not sweep them with the besome of destruction but what peace can be expected whilst the highest provocations are continued It is therefore the great and present concernment of all to provide themselves of a refuge before the storm overtake them for as Augustin well observes non facile inveniuntur praesidia in adversitate quae non fuerint in pace quaesita O take up your lodgings in the Attributes and Promises of God before the night overtake you view them often by faith and clear up your interest in them that you may be able to go to them in the dark when the Ministers and Ordinances of Christ have taken their leave of you and bid you good night Whilst many are hasting on the wrath of God by prophaneness and many by smiting their fellow Servants and multitudes resolve if trouble come to fish in the troubled waters for safety and preferment not doubting whensoever the overflowing flood comes but they shall stand dry O that you would be mourning for their sins and providing better for your own safety Reader it is thy one thing necessary to get a cleared interest in Jesus Christ which being once obtained thou maist face the storm with boldness and say Come troubles and distresses losses and tryals prisons and death I am provided for you do your worst you can do me no harm let the winds roar the lightnings flesh the rains and hail fall never so furiously I have a good roof over my head a comfortable lodging provided for me my place of defence is the munition of rocks where bread shall be given me and my waters shall be sure Isa. 33. 16. The design of the ensuing Treatise is to assist thee in this great work and though it was promised to the world many years past yet providence hath reserved it for the fittest season and brought it to thy hand in a time of need It contains the method of grace in the application of the great redemption to the souls of men as the former part contains the method of grace in the impetration thereof by Jesus Christ. The acceptation God hath given the former part signified by the desires of many for the publication of this hath at last prevailed with me notwithstanding the secret consciousness of my inequality to so great an undertakement to adventure this second part also upon the ingenuity and candour of the Reader And I consent the more willingly to the publication of this because the design I first aimed at could not be intire and compleat without it but especially the quality of the subject matter which through the blessing and concurrence of the spirit may be useful both to rouze the drousie Consciences of this sleepy generation and to assist the upright in clearing the work of the spirit upon their own souls These considerations have prevailed with me against all discouragements And now Reader it is impossible for me to speak particularly and distinctly to the case of thy soul which I am ignorant of except the Lord shall direct my discourse to it in some of the following suppositions If thou be one that hast sincerely applied and received Jesus Christ by faith this discourse through the blessing of the Spirit may be useful to thee to clear and confirm thy evidences to melt thy heart in the sense of thy mercies and to ingage and quicken thee in the way of thy duties Here thou wilt see what great things the Lord hath done for thy soul and how these dignities as thou art his Son or Daughter by the double title of regeneration and adoption do oblige thee to yield up thy self to God intirely and to say from thy heart Lord whatever I am I am for thee whatever I can do I will do for thee and whatever I can suffer I will suffer for thee and all that I am or have all that I can do or suffer is nothing to what thou hast done for my soul. If thou be a stranger to regeneration and faith a person that makest a powerless profession of Christ that hast a name to live but art dead here it 's possible thou maist meet something that will convince thee how dangerous a thing it is to be an old creature in the new creatures dress and habit and what it is that blinds thy judgement and is likeliest to prove thyruine a seasonable and full conviction whereof will be the greatest mercy that can befall thee in this world if thereby at last God may help thee-to put on Christ as well as the name-of Christ. If thow be in darkness about the state of thy own soul and willing to have it faithfully and impartially tried by the rule of the word which will not warp to any mans humour or interest here thou wilt find some weak assistance offered thee to clear and disintangle thy doubting thoughts which through thy prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ may lead thee to a comfortable settlement and inward peace If thou be a proud conceited presumptuous â—…oul who hast too little knowledge and too much pride and self-love to admit any doubts or scruples of thy state towards God there are many things in this Treatise proper for thy conviction and better information for woe to thee if thou shouldest not fear till thou begin to feel thy misery if thy troubles do not come on till
design thus far And this actual application is the work of the Spirit by a singular appropriation Fourthly and Lastly This expression imports the suitableness of Christ to the necessities of Sinners What they want he is made to them and indeed as money answers all things and is convertible into meat drink rayment physick or what else our bodily necessities do require so Christ is virtually and eminently all that the necessities of our souls require bread to the hungry soul and cloathing to the naked soul. In a word God prepared and furnished him on purpose to answer all our wants which fully hits the Apostles sense when he saith Who of God is made unto us wisdome and righteousness sanctification and redemption The sum of all is Doct. Doct. That the Lord Jesus Christ with all his precious benefits becomes ours by Gods special and effectual Application There is a twofold Application of our redemption one Primary the other Secondary the former is the Act of God the Father applying it to Christ our Surety and virtually to us in him the later is the Act of the holy Spirit personally and actually applying it to us in the work of conversion the former hath the respect and relation of an example model or pattern to this and this is produced and wrought by the vertue of that What was done upon the person of Christ was not only virtually done upon us considered in him as a common publick representative person in which sense we are said to dye with him and live with him to be crucified with him and buryed with him but it was also intended for a platform or Idea of what is to be done by the Spirit actually upon our souls and bodies in our single persons As he dyed for sin so the Spirit applying his death to us in the work of mortification causes us to dye to sin by the vertue of his death and as he was quickned by the Spirit and raised unto life so the Spirit applying unto us the life of Christ causeth us to live by spiritual vivification Now this personal secondary and actual application of redemption to us by the Spirit in his sanctifying work is that which I am engaged here to discuss and open Which I shall do in these following Propositions Propos. 1. The Application of Christ to us is not only Comprehensive of our Justification but of all those works of the Spirit which are known Propos. 1. to us in Scripture by the names of regeneration vocation sanctification and conversion Though all these terms have some small respective differences among themselves yet they are all included in this general the applying and putting on of Christ Rom. 13. 14. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Regeneration expresses those supernatural divine new qualities infused by the Spirit into the Soul which are the principles of all holy actions Vocation expresseth the terms from which and to which the soul moves when the Spirit works savingly upon it under the Gospel call Sanctification notes that holy dedication of heart and life to God our becoming the Temples of the living God separate from all prophane sinful practices to the Lords only use and service Conversion denotes the great change it self which the Spirit causeth upon the soul turning it by a sweet irresistible efficacy from the power of Sin and Satan to God in Christ. Now all these are imported in and done by the Application of Christ to our souls for when once the efficacy of Christs death and the vertue of his resurrection come to take place upon the heart of any man he cannot but turn from Sin to God and become a new creature living and acting by new principles and rules So the Apostle observes 1 Thes. 1. 5 6. speaking of the effect of this work of the Spirit upon that people Our Gospel saith he came not to you in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost there was the effectual application of Christ to them And you became followers of us and of the Lord ver 6. there was their effectual call And ye turned from dumb Idols to serve the living and true God ver 9. there was their conversion So that ye were ensamples to all that believe ver 7. there was their life of Sanctification or dedication to God So that all these are comprehended in effectual application Propos. 2. The Application of Christ to the souls of men is that great project Propos. 2. and design of God in this world for the accomplishment whereof all the Ordinances and all the officers of the Gospel are appointed and continued in the world This the Gospel expressly declared to be its direct and great end and the great business of all its officers Eph. 4. 11 12. And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some pastors and teachers till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ i. e. the great aim and scope of all Christs Ordinances and officers is to bring men into Union with Christ and so build them up to perfection in him or to unite them to and confirm them in Christ and when it shall have finished this design then shall the whole frame of Gospel Ordinances be taken down and all its officers disbanded The Kingdom i. e. this present oeconomy manner and form of Government shall be delivered up 1 Cor. 15. 24. what are Ministers but the Bridegrooms friends Ambassadors for God to beseech men to be reconciled when therefore all the elect are brought home in a reconciled state to Christ when the marriage of the Lamb is come our work and office expire together Propos. 3. Such is the Importance and great concernment of the personal application of Christ to us by the Spirit that whatsoever the father hath Propos. 3. done in the contrivement or the Son hath done in the accomplishment of our Redemption is all inavailable and ineffectual to our Salvation without this It is confessedly true that Gods good pleasure appointing us from eternity to Salvation is in its kind a most full and sufficient Impulsive cause of our Salvation and every way able for so much as it is concerned to produce its effect And Christs humiliation and sufferings are a most compleat and sufficient meritorious cause of our Salvation to which nothing can be added to make it more apt and able to procure our Salvation than it already is yet neither the one or other can actually save any Soul without the Spirits application of Christ to it for where there are divers social causes or concauses necessary to produce one effect there the effect cannot be produced until the last cause have wrought thus it is here The Father hath elected and the Son hath redeemed but until the Spirit who is the last cause have wrought his part also we cannot be
corruptions abide and work in the very same faculties where grace hath its residence it cannot be that our Sanctification should be so perfect and compleat as our Justification is which inheres only in Christ. See Gal. 5. 17. thus are righteousness and sanctification communicated and made ours but then For Redemption that is to say absolute and plenary deliverance from all the sad remains effects and consequents of Sin both upon soul and body this is made ours or to keep to the terms Christ is made redemption to us by glorification then and not before are these miserable effects removed we put off these together with the body So that look as Justification cures the guilt of Sin and Sanctification the dominion and power of Sin so glorification removes together with its existence and being all those miseries which it let in as at a floodgate upon our whole man Eph. 5. 26 27. And thus of God Christ is made unto us wisdome and righteousness sauctification and redemption namely by imputation regeneration and glorification I shall next improve the point in some useful Inferences Inference 1. Learn from hence what a naked destitute and empty thing a poor sinner is in his natural and unregenerate state Infer 1. He is one that naturally and inherently hath neither wisdome nor righteousness sanctification nor redemption all Quin dicitur eum factum esse nobis sapieâ—…tiam justitiam sanctitatem redemptionem rursus nostra dignitas meritum excluduntur ex hoc etiam consequitur ante perceptionem ejus nos fuisse slultos injustos profanos diaboli maâ—…cipia Muscul. inloc these must come from without himself even from Christ who is made all this to a sinner or else he must eternally perish As no creature in respect of external abilities comes under more natural weakness into the world than man naked and empty and more shiftless and helpless than any other creature so it is with his soul yea much more than so all our excellencies are borrowed excellencies no reason therefore to be proud of any of them 1 Cor. 4. 7. What hast thou that thou hast not received now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it q. d. what intolerable insolence and vanity would it be for a man that wears the rich and costly robe of Christ's righteousness in which there is not one thred of his own spinning but all made by free grace and not by free will to jett proudly up and down the world in it as if himself had made it and he were beholding to none for it O man thine excellencies whatever they are are borrowed from Christ they oblige thee to him but he can be no more obliged to thee who wearest them than the Sun is obliged to him that borrows its light or the fountain to him that draws its water for his use and benefit And it hath ever been the care of holy men when they have viewed their own gracious principles or best performances still to disclaim themselves and own free grace as the sole author of all Thus holy Paul viewing the principles of divine life in himself the richest gift bestowed upon man in this world by Jesus Christ how doth he renounce himself and deny the least part of the praise and glory as belonging to him Gal. 2. 20. Now I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and so for the best duties that ever he performed for God and what meer man ever did more for God yet when in a just and necessary defence he was constrain'd to mention them 1 Cor. 15. 10. how carefully is the like Yet not I presently added I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me Well then let the sense of your own emptiness by nature humble and oblige you the more to Christ from whom you receive all you have Inference 2. Hence again we are informed that none can claim benefit by impilted Infer 2. righteousness but those only that live in the power of inherent holiness to whomsoever Christ is made righteousness to him he is also made sanctification The Gospel hath not the least favour for licentiousness it is every way as careful to press men to their duties as to instruct them in their priviledges Titus 3. 8. This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly That they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works It is a loose principle divulged by Libertines to the reproach of Christ and his Gospel that sanctification is not the evidence of our justification and Christ is as much wronged by them who separate holiness from righteousness as if a sensual vile life were consistent with a justified state as he is in the contrary extream by those who confound Christs righteousness with mans holiness in the point of Justification or that own no other righteousness but what is inherent in themselves the former opinion makes him a cloak for sin the later a needless sacrifice for sin It 's true our Sanctification can't justifie us before God but what then can't it evidence our Justification before men is there no necessity or use for holiness because it hath no hand in our Justification is the preparation of the soul for heaven by altering its frame and temper nothing is the glorifying of our Redeemer by the exercises of grace in this world nothing doth the work of Christ render the work of the Spirit needless God forbid he came not by blood only but by water also 1 Joh. 5. 6. And when the Apostle saith in Rom. 4. 5. but unto him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness the scope of it is neither to characterize and describe the justified person as one that is lazy and slothful and hath no mind to work or rebellious and refractory refusing obedience to the commands of God but to represent him as an humbled sinner who is convinced of his inability to work out his own righteousness by the Law and sees all his endeavours to obey the Law fall short of righteousness and therefore is said in a Law sense not to work because he doth not work so as to answer the purpose and end of the Law which accepts of nothing beneath perfect obedience And when in the same Text the ungodly are said to be Deus justâ—… impium antecedenter non consequenter Pareus justified that character describes not the temper and frame of their hearts and lives after their justification but what it was before not as it leaves but as it found them Infer 3. How unreasonable and worse than bruitish is the sin of infidelity by which the Sinner rejects Christ and with him all those mercies Infer 3. and benefits which alone can relieve and cure his misery He is by nature blind and ignorant and
there are so many almost Christians in the world hence are all those vanishing imperfect works which come to nothing call'd in Scripture a morning cloud an early dew had this mighty power gone forth with the word they had never vanished or perished like Embryos as they do So then God draws not only in a moral way by proposing a suitable object to the will but also in a physical way or by immediate powerful influence upon the will not infringing the Liberty of it but yet infallibly and effectually perswading it to come to Christ. Secondly Next let us consider the marvellous way and 2. manner in which the Lord draws the souls of poor sinners to Jesus Christ and you will find he doth it 1. Gradually 2. Congruously 3. Powerfully 4. Effectually and 5. Finally First This blessed work is carried on by the Spirit gradually bringing the soul step by step in the due method and order of the Gospel to Christ illumination conviction compunction prepare the way to Christ and then faith unites the soul to him without humiliation there can be no faith Mat. 21. 32. ye repented not that ye might believe 't is the burdensome sense of sin that brings the soul to Christ for rest Mat. 11. 28. come unto me ye that are weary and heavy laden but without Conviction there can be no Compunction no humiliation he that is not convinced of his sin and misery never bewails it nor mourns for it never was there one tear of true repentance seen to drop from the eye of an unconvinced sinner And without illumination there can be no Conviction for what is Conviction but the application of the light which is in the understanding or mind of a man to his heart and Conscience Acts 2. 37. In this order therefore the Spirit ordinarily draws souls to Christ he shines into their minds by illumination applys that light to their Consciences by effectual Conviction breaks and wounds their hearts for sin in Compunction and then moves the will to embrace and close with Christ in the way of Faith for life and salvation These several steps are more distinctly discerned in some Christians than in others they are more clearly to be seen in the Adult Convert than those that were drawn to Christ in their youth in such as were drawn to him out of a state of prophaneness than those that had the advantage of a pious education but in this order the work is carried on ordinarily in all however it differ in point of clearness in the one and in the other Secondly He draws sinners to Christ Congruously and very agreeably to the nature and way of man So he speaks Hosea 11. 4. I drew them with the cords of a man with bands Fuâ—…ibus hominum i. e. humanis nâ—… quibus trahi ac deduci solent boves of love not as beasts are drawn but as men are inclined and wrought to complyance by rational Conviction of their Judgements and powerful perswasion of their wills the minds of sinners are naturally blinded by ignorance 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. and their affections bewitched to their Lusts Gal. 3. 4. and whilst it is thus no arguments of intreaties can possibly prevail to bring them off from the ways of sin to Christ. The way therefore which the Lord takes to win and draw them to Christ is by rectifying their false apprehensions and shewing them infinitely more good in Christ than in the Creature and in their Lusts yea by satisfying their understandings that there is goodness enough in Jesus Christ to whom he is drawing them First To outbid all temporal good which is to be denied for his sake Secondly To preponderate all temporal evils which are to be suffered for his sake First That there is more good in Christ than in all temporal good things which we are to deny or forsake upon his account this being once clearly and convincingly discovered to the understanding the will is thereby prepared to quit all that which entangles and with holds it from coming to Christ there is no man that loves money so much but he will willingly part with it for that which is more worth to him than the sum he parts with to purchase it Matth. 13. 45 46. The Kingdome of heaven is like to a Merchant man seeking goodly Pearls who when he hath found one Pearl of great price goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth it Such an invaluable Pearl is Jesus Christ infinitely more worth than all that a poor sinner hath to part with for him and is a more real good than the creature These are but vain shadows Prov. 23. 5. Christ is a solid substantial good yea he is and by Conviction appears to be a more suitable good than the creature the world cannot justifie and save but Christ can Christ is a more necessary good than the creature this is for our temporal Conveniency but he of eternal necessity He is a more Durable good than any creature comfort is or can be the fashion of this world passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 31. but durable riches and righteousness are in him Prov. 8. 17. Thus Christ appears in the day of conviction infinitely more excellent than the world he out-bids all the offers that the world can make and this gives the main stroke to this work of drawing a Soul to Jesus Christ. Secondly And then to remove every block out of the way to Christ God discovers to the Soul enough in him to preponderate and much more than recompence all the evils and sufferings it can endure for his sake 'T is true they that close with Christ close with his cross also they must expect to save no more but their souls by him he tells us what we must trust to Luke 14. 26 27. If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple and whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple To read such a Text as this with such a Comment upon it as Satan and our own flesh can make is enough to scare a man from Christ for ever nor is it possible by all the arguments in the world to draw any soul to Christ upon such terms as these till the Lord convince it that there is enough and much more than enough in Jesus Christ to recompence all these sufferings and losses we endure for him But when the soul is satisfied that these sufferings are but external upon the vile body but the benefit that comes by Christ is internal in a mans-own soul These afflictions are but temporal Rom. 8. 18. but Christ and his benefits are eternal this must need prevail with the will to come over to Christ notwithstanding all the evils of suffering that accompany him when the reality of all this is discovered by the Lord and the power of God goes along with
going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God Mans righteousness was once in himself and what liquor is first put into the vessel it ever afterward savours of it 't is with Adams posterity as with Bees which have been accustomed to go their own hive and carry all thither if the hive be removed to another place they will still flye to the old place hover up and down about it and rather dye there than go to a new place So it is with most men God hath removed their righteousness from doing to believing from themselves to Christ but who shall prevail with them to forsake self nature will venture to be damned rather than do it there is much submission in believing and great self denyal a proud self-conceited heart will never stoop to live upon the stock of anothers righteousness Besides it is no easie thing to perswade men to receive Christ as their Lord in all things and submit their necks to his strict and holy precepts though it be a great truth that Christs yoak doth not gall but grace and adorn the neck that Jugum Christi non deterit sed honestat colla Bern. bears it that the truest and sweetest liberty is in our freedom from our lusts not in our fulfilling them yet who shall perswade the carnal heart to believe this and much less will men ever be prevailed withal to forsake father mother wife children inheritance and life it self to follow Christ and all this upon the account of spiritual and invisible things and yet this must be done by all that receive the Lord Jesus Christ upon Gospel terms yea and before the soul hath any encouraging experience of its own to balance the manifold discouragements of sense and carnal reason improved by the utmost craft of Satan to dismay it for experience is the fruit and consequent of believing So that it may well be placed among the great mysteries of godliliness that Christ is believed on in the world 1 Tim. 3. 16. Infer 3. And then Thirdly hence it will follow that there may be more true and sound believers in the world than know or dare conclude Infer 3. themselves to be such For as many ruine their own souls by placing the essence of saving faith in naked assent so some rob themselves of their own comfort by placing it in full assurance Faith and sense of faith are two distinct and separable mercies you may have truly received Christ and not receive the knowledge or assurance of it Isa. 50. 10. Some there be that say thou art our God of whom God never said you are my people these have no authority to be call'd the sons of God others there are of whom God saith these are my people yet dare not call God their God these have authority to be call'd the sons of God but know it not They have received Christ that 's their safety but they have not yet received the knowledge and assurance of it that 's their trouble the Father owns his child in the Cradle who yet knows him not to be his Father Now there are two reasons why many believers who might argue themselves into peace do yet live without the comforts of their faith and this may come to pass either from First The inevidence of the premises Secondly Or the weighty importance of the conclusion First It may come to pass from the inevidence of the premises Assurance is a practical Syllogism and it proceeds thus All that truly have received Christ Jesus they are the children of God I have truly received Jesus Christ Therefore I am the child of God The Major proposition is found in the Scripture and there can be no doubt of that the Assumption depends upon experience or internal sense I have truly received Jesus Christ here usually is the stumble many great objections lye against it which they cannot clearly answer as Light and knowledge are necessarily required to the right 1. Ob. receiving of Christ but I am dark and ignorant many carnal unregenerate persons know more than I do and are more able to discourse of the mysteries of Religion than I am But you ought to distinguish of the kinds and degrees of Sol. knowledge and then you would see that your bewailed ignorance is no bar to your interest in Christ. There are two kinds of knowledge 1. Natural 2. Spiritual There is a natural knowledge even of spiritual objects a spark of nature blown up by an advantagious education and though the objects of this knowledge be spiritual things yet the light in which they are discerned is but a meer natural light And there is a spiritual knowledge of spiritual things the teaching of the anointing as it 's call'd 1 Joh. 2. 27. i. e. the effect and fruit of the Spirits sanctifying work upon our souls when the experience of a mans own heart informs and teacheth his understanding when by feeling the workings of grace in our own souls we come to understand its nature this is spiritual knowledge Now a little of this knowledge is a better evidence of a mans interest in Christ than the most raised and excellent degree of natural knowledge as the Philosopher truly observes praestat paucula de meliori scientia degustasse quam de ignobiliori multa one drachm of knowledge of the best and most excellent things is better than much knowledge of common things So it is here a little spiritual knowledge of Jesus Christ that hath life and savour in it is more than all the natural sapless knowledge of the unregenerate which leaves the heart dead carnal and barren 't is not the quantity but the kind not the measure but the savour if you know so much of the evil of sin as renders it the most bitter and burdensome thing in the world to you and so much of the necessity and excellency of Christ as renders him the most sweet and desirable thing in the world to you though you may be defective in many degrees of knowledge yet this is enough to prove yours to be the fruit of the Spirit you may have a sanctified heart though you have an irregular or weak head many that knew more than you are in hell and some that once knew as little as you are now in heaven in absoluto facili stat aeternitas God hath not prepar'd heaven only for clear and subtil heads a little sanctifified and effectual knowledge of Christs person offices suitableness and necessity may bring thee thither when others with all their curious speculations and notions may perish for ever But you tell me that Assent to the truths of the Gospel is 2. Ob. necessarily included in saving faith which though it be not the justifying and saving act yet it is presupposed and required to it now I have many staggerings and doubtings about the certainty and reality of these things many horrid atheistical thoughts which shake the
assenting act of faith in the very foundation and hence I doubt I do not believe There may be and often is a true and sincere assent found in the soul that is assaulted with violent atheistical suggestions Sol. from Satan and thereupon questions the truth of it and this is a very clear evidence of the reality of our assent that whatever doubts or contrary suggestions there be yet we dare not in our practice contradict or slight those truths or duties which we are tempted to disbelieve Ex. gr we are assaulted with atheistical thoughts and tempted to slight and cast off all fears of sin and practice of religious duties yet when it comes to the point of practice we dare not commit a known sin the awe of God is upon us we dare not omit a known duty the tye of conscience is found strong enough to hold us close to it in this case 't is plain we do really assent when we think we do not A man thinks he doth not love his child yet carefully provides for him in health and is full of grief and fears about him in sickness why now so long as I see all fath rly duties performed and affections to his childs welfare manifested let him say what he will as to the want of love to him whilest I see this he must excuse me if I do not believe him when he saith he hath no love for him Just so is it in this case A man saith I do not assent to the being necessity or excellency of Jesus Christ yet in the mean time his soul is fill'd with cares and fears about securing his interest in him he is found panting and thirsting for him with vehement desires there 's nothing in all the world would give him such joy as to be well assured of an interest in him while it is thus with any man let him say or think what he will of his assent it 's manifest by this he doth truly and heartily assent and there can be no better proof of it than these real effects produc'd by it Secondly But if these and other objections were never so fully answer'd for the clearing of the assumption yet it often falls out that believers are afraid to draw the conclusion and that fear arises partly from First The weighty importance of the matter Secondly The sense of the deceitfulness of their own hearts First The conclusion is of infinite importance to them it is the everlasting happiness of their souls than which nothing is or can be of greater weight upon their spirits things in which we are most deeply concerned are not lightly and hastily received by us it seems so great and so good that we are still apt if there be any room for it to suspect the truth and certainty thereof as never being sure enough Thus when the women that were the first messengers and witnesses of Christs resurrection Luke 24. 10 11. came and told the disciples those wonderful and comfortable tydings it 's said that their words seemed to them as idle tales and they believed them not they thought it was too good to be true too great to be hastily received so is it in this case Secondly The sense they have of the deceitfulness of their own hearts and the dayly workings of hypocrisie there makes them afraid to conclude in so great a point as this is They know that very many dayly cozen and cheat themselves in this matter they know also that their own hearts are full of falseness and deceit they find them so in their daily observations of them and what if they should prove so in this why then they are lost for ever they also know there is not the like danger in their fears and jealousies that would be in their vain confidences and presumptions by the one they are only deprived of their present comfort but by the other they would be ruined for ever and therefore choose rather to dwell with their own fears though they be uncomfortable companions than run the danger of so great a mistake which would be infinitely more fatal And this being the common case of most Christians it follows that there must be many more believers in the world than do think or dare conclude themselves to be such Infer 4. If the right receiving of Jesus Christ be true saving and justifying faith then those that have the least and lowest degree and measure Infer 4. of saving faith have cause for ever to admire the bounty and riches of the grace of God to them therein If you have received never so little of his bounty by the hand of providence in the good things of this life yet if he have given you any measure of true saving faith he hath dealt bountifully indeed with you this mercy alone is enough to ballance all other wants and inconveniencies of this life Poor in the world rich in faith James 2. 5. O let your hearts take in the full sense of this bounty of God to you say with the Apostle Eph. 1. 3. blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and you will in this one mercy find matter enough of praise and thanksgiving wonder and admiration to your dying day yea to all eternity for do but consider First The smallest measure of saving faith which is found in any of the poople of God receives Jesus Christ and in receiving him what mercy is there which the believing soul doth not receive in him and with him Rom. 8. 32. O believer though the arms of thy faith be small and weak yet they embrace a great Christ and receive the richest gift that ever God bestowed upon the world no sooner art thou become a believer but Christ is in thee the hope of glory and thou hast authority to become a son or daughter of God thou hast the broad seal of heaven to confirm thy title and claim to the priviledges of Adoption for to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God To as many be they strong or be they weak provided they really receive Christ by faith there is authority or power given so that it 's no act of presumption in them to say God is our Father heaven is our inheritance Oh precious faith the treasures of ten thousand worlds cannot purchase such priviledges as these all the Crowns and Scepters of the earth sold at their full value are no price for such mercies Secondly The least degree of saving faith brings the soul into a state of perfect and full Justification For if it receives Jesus Christ it must therefore needs in him and with him receive a free full and final pardon of sin the least measure of faith receives remission for the greatest sins By him all that believe are justified from all things Acts 13. 39. it unites thy soul with Christ and then as
non succumbitis Chrysostomus intelligit oneratos legalibâ—… oneribus nos vero in genere intelligimus universos eos qui peccatorum pondere naturaeque corruptae malitiâ quam sentiunt pressi ad ejiciendam pravitatem assequendam justitiam lucta t ur Muâ—… câ—…lus in Loc. two very Emphatical words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye that labour and are heavy laden the word which we translate labour signifies a labouring even to faintness and tiring to the consumption and wast of the spirits and the other word signifies such a pressure by a burden that is too heavy to be born that we do even sink down under it There is some difference among expositors about the quality of this burthen Chrysost. some others after him expound it of burden of the legal rites Ceremonies which was a heavy burden indeed such as neither they nor their fathers could bear under the task and burden of these legal observances they did sweat and toyl to obtain a righteousness to justifie them before God all in vain and this is a pious sense but others expound it of the burthen of sin in general the corruption of nature and evils of practice which souls are convinced have brought them under the curse and will bring them to hell and therefore labour and strive all that in them lyes by repentance and reformation to clear themselves from it but all in vain whilest they strive in their own strength Such are they that are here called to come to Christ which is the second thing namely Secondly The Invitation of burthened souls to Christ. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden come unto me i. e. believe in me lean and rest your burthened souls upon me I am able to ease all your burthens in me is that righteousness and peace which you seek in vain in all the legal rites and Ceremonies or in your repentance reformations and duties but it will give you no ease 't will be no benefit to you except you come unto me Faith is often expressed under this notion see Joh. 6. 37. and Joh. 7. 37. 2. and it is to be further noted that all burthened souls are invited to come All ye that labour whatever your sin or guilt hath been whatever your fears or discouragements are yet come i. e. believe in me Thirdly Here is the encouragement Christ gives to this duty And I will give you rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will refresh you 3. Quid alibi quaeritis quod non licet invenire ego is sum qui possum vos juvare solus Musc. in Loc. I will give you rest from your labour your Consciences shall be pacified your heart at rest and quiet in that pardon peace and favour of God which I will procure for you by my death But here it must be heedfully noted that this promise of rest in Christ is not made to men simply as they are sinners nor yet as they are burthened and heavy laden sinners but as they come to Christ i. e. as they are believers For let a man break his heart with sin let him weep out his eyes for sin let him mourn as a dove and shed as many tears for sin if it were possible as ever there fell drops of rain upon the ground yet if he come not to Christ by faith his repentance shall not save him nor all his sorrows bring him to true rest Hence Note Doct. 1. That some souls are heavy laden with the burthensome sense of sin Doct. 1. Doct. 2. That all burthened souls are solemnly invited to come to Christ. Doct. 2. Doct. 3. That there is rest in Christ for all that come to him under the heavy burthen of sin Doct. 3. Doct. 1. Some souls are heavy laden with the burthensome sense of sin I Do not say all are so for fools make a mock of sin Prov. Doct. 1. 14. 9. 't is so far from being burthensome to some that it is a sport to them Prov. 10. 23. but when a mans eyes are opened to see the evil that is in sin and the eternal misery that follows it sin and hell being linkt together with such strong chains as nothing but the blood of Christ can loose then no burthen is like that of sin a wounded conscience who can bear Prov. 18. 14. For let us but consider the efficacy that the Law of God hath upon the consciences of men when it comes in the spirituality and power of it to convince and humble the soul of a sinner For then First The memory of sin long since committed is refresht and revived as if it had been but yesterday there are fresh recognitions 1. What inward troubles for sin are of sin long since acted and forgotten as if they had never been what was done in our youth is fetcht back again and by a new impression of fear and horror set home upon the trembling conscience Job 13. 26. Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the sins of my youth Conscience can call back the days that are past and draw up a new charge upon the score of old sins Gen. 42. 21. all that ever we did is recorded and entred into the book of Conscience and now is the time to open that book when the Lord will convince and awaken sinners we read in Job 14. 17. of sealing up iniquities in a bag which is an allusion to the Clerk of the Assizes that takes all the indictments that are made against persons at the Assizes and seals them up in a bag in order to a Tryal This is the first office and work of conscience upon which The second namely its Accusations do depend these accusations of Conscience are terrible things who can stand 2. before them they are full they are clear and all of them referring to the approaching Judgement of the great and terrible God Conscience dives into all sins secret as well as open and Prima est haec ultio quod se judice nemo uocens absolvitur into all the circumstances and aggravations of sin as being committed against light against mercy against the strivings warnings and regretts of conscience So that we may say of the efficacy of conscience as it is said Psal. 19. 6. of the influence of the Sun nothing is hid from the heat or power thereof Come saith the woman of Samaria see a man that hath told me all that ever I did Joh. 4. 29 Christ convinced her but of one sin by that discourse but conscience by that one fetcht in and charged all the rest upon her And as the accusations of conscience are full so they are clear and undeniable a man becomes self-convinced and there remains no shift excuse or plea to defend himself a thousand witnesses cannot prove any point more clearly than one testimony of conscience doth Matth. 22. 12. the man was speechless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ille
Gal. 6. 1. You that are spiritually minded restore or set him in joint again in the spirit of meekness considering thy self Israel was commanded to be kind to strangers for saith God you know the heart of a stranger and surely if any case in the world require help pity and all compassionate tenderness this doth and yet how do some slight spiritual troubles upon others Parents slight them in their own children Masters in their servants the more bruitish and wicked they O had you but felt your selves what they feel you would never handle them as you do But let this comfort such poor creatures Christ hath felt them and will pity and help them yea he therefore would feel them himself that he might have compassion upon you If men will not God will pity you if men be so cruel to persecute him whom God hath smitten God will be so kind to pour balm into the wounds that sin hath made if they pull away the shoulder from you and will not be concerned about your troubles except it be to aggravate them God will not serve you so but certainly you that have past through the same difficulties you cannot be without compassion to them that are now grapling with them Inference 4. How unexpressibly dreadful is the state of the damned who must bear the burden of all their sins upon themselves without relief or Inference 4. hope of deliverance Mark 9. 44. where their worm dyeth not and the fire is not quenched O if sin upon the soul that 's coming to Christ for deliverance be so burdensome what is it upon the soul that is shut out from Christ and all hopes of deliverance for ever For do but ponder these differences betwixt these two burdens First No soul is so capacious now to take in the fulness of the evil and misery of sin as they are who are gone down to the place of torments Even as the joyes of Gods face above are much unknown to them that have the foretastes and first-fruits of them here by faith so the misery of the damned is much unknown even to them that have in their consciences now the bitterest taste and sense of sin in this world as we have the visions of heaven so we have the visions of hell also but darkly through a glass Secondly No burden of sin presseth so continually upon the soul here as it doth there afflicted souls on earth have intermissions and breathing times but in hell there are no Lucid intervals the wrath of God there is still flowing it is in fluxu continuâ—… Isa. 30. 33. a stream of brimstone Thirdly No burden of sin lyes upon any of Gods elect so long as the damned do and must bear it our troubles about sin are but short though they should run parallel with the line of life but the troubles of the damned are parallel with the endless line of eternity Fourthly Under these troubles the soul hath hope but there all hope is cut off all the Gospel is full of hope it breathes nothing but hope to sinners that are moving Christ-ward under their troubles but in hell the pangs of desperation rend their consciences for ever So that upon all accounts the state of the damned is inexpressibly dreadful Inference 5. If the burden os sin be so heavy how sweet then must the Inference 5. pardon of sin be to a sin-burdened soul Is it a refreshment to a prisoner to have his chains knockt off a comfort to a debtor to have his debts paid and obligations cancelled What joy must it then be to a sin-burthened soul to hear the voice of pardon and peace in his trembling conscience Is the light of the morning pleasant to a man after a weary tiresome night the Spring of the year pleasant after a hard and tedious Winter they are so indeed but nothing so sweet as the favour peace and pardon of God to a soul that hath been long restless and anxious under the terrors and fears of conscience for though after pardon and peace a man remembers sin still yet it is as one that remembers the dangerous pits and deep waters from which he hath been wonderfully delivered and had a narrow escape O the unconceivable sweetness of a pardon Who can read it and not wet it with tears of joy Are we glad when the grinding pain of the Stone or racking fits of the Colick are over and shall we not be transported when the accusations and condemnations of conscience are over Tongue cannot express what these things are this joy is something that no words can convey to the understanding of another that never felt the anguish of sin Inference 6. Lastly In how sad a case are those that never felt any burden in Inference 6. sin that never were kept waking and restless one night for sin There is a burthened conscience and there is a benummed conscience The first is more painful but the last more dangerous O 't is a fearful blow of God upon a mans soul to strike it senseless and stupid so that though mountains of guilt lye upon it it feels no pain or pressure and this is so much the more sad because it incapacitates the soul for Christ and is a presage and fore-runner of hell It would grieve the heart of a man to see a delirious person in the rage and height of a fevor to laugh at those that are weeping for him call them fools and telling them he is as well as any of them much so is the case of many thousand souls the God of mercy pity them Second Use for Counsel The only further Use I shall make of this Point here shall Use 2. be to direct and counsel souls that are weary and heavy laden with the burden of sin in order to their obtaining true rest and peace And first First Counsel Satisfie not your selves in fruitless complaints to men Many 1. Counsel do so but it 's never the near I grant it 's lawful in spiritual distresses to complain to men yea and it is a great mercy if we have any near us in times of trouble that are judicious tender and faithful into whose bosomes we may pour out our troubles but to rest in this short of Christ is no better than a snare of the Devil to destroy us Is there not a God to go to in trouble The best of men in the neglect of Christ are but Physicians of no value Be wise and wary in your choice of Christian friends to whom you open your complaints some are not clear themselves in the doctrine of Christ and faith others are of a dark and troubled spirit as you are and will but entangle you more As for me saith Job is my complaint to man and if it were so why should not my spirit be troubled Job 21. 4. One hour betwixt Christ and thy soul in secret will do more to thy true relief than all other counsellors and comforters in
in heaven in the full enjoyment of God There is a sweet calm upon the troubled soul after believing an ease or rest of the mind which is an unspeakable mercy to a poor weary soul. Christ is to it as the Ark was to the Dove when she wandred over the watery World and found not a place to rest the soal of her foot Faith centres the unquiet spirit of man in Christ brings it to repose it self and its burden on him It is the souls dropping anchor in a storm which stayes and settles it The great debate which cost so many anxious thoughts is now issued into this resolution I will venture my all upon Christ let him do with me as seemeth him good It was impossible for the soul to find rest whilest it knew not where to bestow it self or how to be secured from the wrath to come but when all is embarqued in Christ for eternity and the soul fully resolved to lean upon him and trust to him now it feels the very initials of eternal rest in it self it finds an heavy burden unloaded from its shoulders it is come as it were into a new world the case is strangely altered The word rest in this place notes and is so rendered by some a recreation 't is restored renewed and recreated as it Recreabo vos nempe à lassitudine à molestia onere Vatab. Erasm. were by that sweet repose it hath upon Christ. Believers know that faith is the sweetest recreation you can take Others seek to divert and lose their troubles by sinful recreations vain company and the like but they little know what that recreation and sweet restoring rest that faith gives the soul is You find in Christ what they seek in vain among the creatures Believing is the highest recreation known in this world But to prevent mistakes three Cautions need to be premised lest we do in ipso limine impingere stumble at the threshold and so lose our way all along afterward Caution 1. You are not to conceive that all the souls fears troubles and sorrows are presently over and at an end as soon as it is come to Caution 1. Christ by faith They will have many troubles in the world after that it may be more than ever they had in their lives Luther upon his conversion was so buffeted by Satan ut nec calor nec sanguis nec sensus nec vox superesset Our flesh saith Paul had no rest 2 Cor. 7. 5. They will be infested with many temptations after that it may be the assaults of Satan may be more violent upon their souls than ever horribilia de deo terribilia de fide Injections that make the very bones to quake and the belly to tremble they will not be freed from sin that rest remains for the people of God nor from inward trouble and grief of soul about sin These things are not to be expected presently Caution 2. We may not think that all believers do immediately enter into Caution 2. the full actual sense of rest and comfort but they presently enter into the state of rest Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 5. 1. i. e. we enter into the state of peace immediately Peace is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Psal. 97. 11. And he is a rich man that hath a thousand acres of corn in the ground as well as he that hath so much in his barn or the money in his purse They have rest and peace in the seed of it when they have it not in the fruit they have rest in the promise when they have it not in possession and he is a rich man that hath good Bonds and Bills for a great summ of money if he have not twelve pence in his pocket All believers have the promise have rest and peace granted them under Gods own hand in many promises which faith brings them under and we know that the truth and faithfulness of God stands engaged to make good every line and word of the promise to them So that though they have not a full and clear actual sense and feeling of rest they are nevertheless by faith come into the state of rest Caution 3. We may not conceive that faith it self is the souls rest but Caution 3. the means and instrument of it only We cannot find rest in any work or duty of our own but we may find it in Christ whom faith apprehends for Justification and Salvation Having thus guarded the point against misapprehensions by these needful cautions I shall next shew you how our coming to Christ by faith brings us to rest in him And here let it be considered what those things are that burden grieve and disquiet the soul before its coming to Christ and how it is relieved and eased in all those respects by its coming to the Lord Jesus and you shall find First That one principal ground of trouble is the guilt 1. of sin upon the conscience of which I spake in the former point The curse of the Law lyes heavy upon the soul so heavy that nothing is found in all the world able to relieve it under that burthen as you see in a condemned man spread a Table in Prison with the greatest dainties and send for the rarest Musicians all will not charm his sorrow but if you can produce an authentick pardon you ease him presently just so it is here faith plucks the thorn out of the conscience which so grieved it unites the soul with Christ and then that ground of trouble is removed for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 11. The same moment the soul comes to Christ it is past from death to life is no more under the Law but Grace If a mans debt be paid by his surety he need not fear to shew his face boldly abroad he may freely meet the Sergeant at the prison door Secondly The soul of a convinced sinner is exceedingly 2. burdened with the uncleanness and filthiness wherewith sin hath defiled and polluted it Conviction discovers the universal pollution of heart and life so that a man loaths and abhorrs himself by reason thereof If he do not look into his own corruptions he cannot be safe and if he do he cannot bear the sight of it he hath no quiet Nothing can give rest but what gives relief against this evil And this only is done by faith uniting the soul with Jesus Christ. For though it be true that the pollution of sin be not presently and perfectly taken away by coming to Christ yet the burden thereof is exceedingly eased for upon our believing there is an heart-purifying principle planted into the soul which doth by degrees cleanse that fountain of corruption and will at last perfectly free the soul from it Acts 15. 9. Purifying their hearts by faith and being once in Christ he is concerned for the soul as
prepared for application First The impossibility of coming to Christ without the teachings of the Father will appear from the power of sin which hath so strong an holdfast upon the hearts and affections of all unregenerate men that no humane arguments or perswasions whatsoever can divorce or separate them for First sin is connatural with the soul 't is born and bred with a man Psal. 51. 5. Isa. 48. 8. It is as natural for fallen man to sin as it is to breath Secondly The power of sin hath been strengthening it self from the beginning by a long continued Custom which gives it the force of a second nature and makes regeneration and mortification naturally impossible Jer. 15. 23. Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots Then may he also do good that is accustomed to do evil Thirdly Sin is the delight of the sinner it is a sport to a fool to do mischief Prov. 10. 23. Carnal men have no other pleasure in this world but what arises from their Lusts to cut off their corruptions by mortification were at once to deprive them of all the pleasure of their lives Fourthly sin being connatural customary and delightful doth therefore bewitch their affections and inchant their hearts to that degree of madness and fascination that they rather choose damnation by God than separation from sin their hearts are fully set in them to do evil Eccles. 8. 11. they rush into sin as the horse rusheth into the battle Jer. 8. 6. And now what think you can separate a man from his beloved Lust except the powerful and effectual teachings of God Nothing but a light from heaven can rectifie and reduce the inchanted mind no power but that of God can change and alter the sinful bent and inclination of the will 't is a task above all Creature power Secondly The impossibility of coming to Christ without the Fathers teachings evidently appears from the indisposedness of man the subject of this change the natural man receives not the things which are of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. Three things must be wrought upon man before ever he can come to Christ his blind understanding must be enlightned his hard and rocky heart must be broken and melted his stiff fixed and obstinate will must be conquered and subdued but all these are the effects of a supernatural power The illumination of the mind is the peculiar work of God 2. Cor. 4. 6. Rev. 3. 17. Eph. 5. 8. The breaking and melting of the heart is the Lords own work 't is he that giveth repentance Acts 5. 31. 'T is the Lord that takes away the heart of stone and giveth an heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 26. 't is he that poureth out the spirit of contrition upon man Zech. 12. 10. The changing of the natural bent and inclination of the will is the Lords sole prerogative Phil. 2. 13. all these things are effectually done in the soul of man when God teacheth it and never till then Thirdly The nature of faith by which we come to Christ plainly shows the impossibility of coming without the Fathers teaching Everything in faith is supernatural the implantation of the habit of faith is so Eph. 2. 8. 't is not of our selves but the gift of God 't is not an habit acquired by industry but infused by grace Phil. 1. 29. The light of faith by which spiritual things are discerned is supernatural Heb. 11. 1. 27. It seeth things that are invisible The adventures of faith are supernatural for against hope a man believeth in hope giving glory to God Rom. 4. 18. By faith a man goeth unto Christ against all the dictates and discouragements of natural sense and reason The self-denyal of faith is supernatural the cutting off of the right hand and plucking out of right eye sins must needs be so Matth. 5. 29. The Victories and conquests of faith do all speak it to be supernatural it overcomes the strongest oppositions from without Heb. 11. 33 34. it subdueth and purgeth the most obstinate and deep rooted corruptions within Acts 15. 9. it overcometh all the blandishments and charming allurements of the bewitching world 1 Joh. 5. 4. all which considered how evident is the conclusion that none can come to Christ without the Fathers teachings The uses follow 1. Use for Information Use 1. Inference 1. How notoriously false and absurdis that doctrin which asserteth the possibility of believing without the efficacy of supernatural grace Inference 1. The desire of self-sufficiency was the ruin of Adam and the conceit of self-sufficiency is the ruin of multitudes of his posterity This doctrine is not only contradictory to the current stream of Scripture Phil. 2. 13. 1 Joh. 1. 13. with many other Scriptures but it is also contradictory to the common sense and experience of believers yet the pride of nature will strive to maintain what Scripture and experience plainly contradict and overthrow Infer 2. Hence we may also inform our selves how it cometh to pass that many rational wise and learned men miss Christ whilst Inference 2. mean time the simple and illiterate even babes in natural knowledge obtain interest in him and salvation by him The reason hereof is plainly given us by Christ in Mat. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven but to them it is not given 't is the droppings and dews of divine teaching upon one and not upon another that dryeth up the green tree and maketh the dry tree to flourish Many natural men have very fine brains searching wits solid judgements nimble fancies tenacious memories they can search out the mysteries of nature solve the Phaenomena satisfie the enquiries of the most curious they can measure the earth discover the motions of the heavens but after all take up their place in Hell When in the mean time the Statutes of the Lord by the help of his teachings make wise the simple Psal. 19. 17. 'T is no matter how dull and incapable the Scholar be if God undertake to be the teacher I remember Austin speaks of one who was commonly reputed a fool and yet he could not but judge him to be truly godly and that by two signs of grace which appeared in him one was his seriousness when he heard any discourses of Christ the other was his indignation manifested against sin it was truly said by those two Cardinals who riding to the Council of Constance overheard a poor shepherd in the fields with tears bewailing his sin surgunt indocti rapient coelum the unlearned will rise and take heaven whilest we with all our learning shall descend into Hell Infer 3. This also informs us of the true reason of the strange and various successes of the Gospel upon the souls of men here we see why Inference 3. the ministry of one man becomes fruitful and anothers barren Yea why the labours of the same man prosper exceedingly at one time and not at
the soul from the body James 2. 26. The body without the spirit is dead Spiritual death is the privation of the principle of spiritual life or the want and absence of the quickening spirit of God in the foul the soul is the life of the body and Christ is the life of the soul the absence of the foul is death to the body and the absence or want of Christ is death to the soul. Eternal death is the separation both of body and soul from God which is the misery of the damned Now Christless and unregenerate men are not dead in the first sense they are naturally alive though they are dead while they live Nor are they yet dead in the last sense eternally separated from God by an irrevocable sentence as the damned are but they are dead in the second sense they are spiritually dead whilst they are naturally alive and this spiritual death is the fore-runner of eternal death Now spiritual death is put in scripture in opposition to a two-fold spiritual life Viz. 1. The life of Justification 2. The life of Sanctification Spiritual death in opposition to the life of Justification is nothing else but the guilt of sin bringing us under the sentence of death Spiritual death in opposition to the life of sanctification is the pollution or dominion of sin In both these fen ses unregenerate men are dead men but it is the last which I am properly concerned to speak to in this place and therefore Secondly Let us briefly consider what this spiritual death is which as before was hinted is the absence of the quickening 2. spirit of Christ from the soul of any man That soul is a dead soul into which the spirit of Christ is not infused in the work of regeneration and all its works are dead works as they are called Heb. 9. 14. For look how it is with the damned they live they have sense and motion and an immortality in all these yet because they are eternally separated from God the life which they live deserves not the name of life but is every where in scripture stiled death So the unregenerate they are naturally alive they eat and drink they buy and sell they talk and laugh they rejoyce in the creatures and many of them spend their days in pleasures and then go down to the grave This is the life they live but yet the scripture rather calls it death than life because though they live yet it is without God in the world Eph. 2. 12. Though they live yet it is a life alienated from the life of God Eph. 4. 18. And therefore while they remain naturally alive they are in scripture said to remain in death 1 John 3. 14. and to be dead while they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. And there is great reason why a Christless and unregenerate state should be represented in scripture under the notion of death for there is nothing in nature which more aptly represents that miserable state of the soul than natural death doth The dead see and discern nothing and the natural man perceiveth not the things that are of God The dead have no beauty or desirableness in them Bury my dead said Abraham out of my sight neither is there any spiritual loveliness in the unregenerate True it is some of them have sweet natural qualities and moral excellencies which are taking things but these are as so many flowers decking and adorning a dead corpse The dead are Objects of pity and great lamentation men use to mourn for the dead Eccles. 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets But unregenerate and Christless souls are much more the Objects of pity and lamentation How are all the people of God especially those that are naturally related to them concerned to mourn over them and for them as Abraham did for Ishmael Gen. 17. 18. O that Ishmael might live before thee Upon these and many other accounts the state of unregeneracy is represented to us in the notion of death Thirdly And that this is the state of all Christless and unsanctified persons will undeniably appear two ways 3. 1. The causes of spiritual life have not wrought upon them 2. The effects and signs of spiritual life do not appear in them and therefore they are in the state and under the power of spiritual death First The causes of spiritual life have not wrought upon them There are two causes of spiritual life 1. Principal and internal 2. Subordinate and external The principal internal cause of spiritual life is the regenerating spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 2. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death 'T is the spirit as a regenerating spirit that unites us with Christ in whom all spiritual life originally is John 5. 25 26. Verily I say unto you that the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live for as the father hath life in himself so hath he given to the son to have life in himself As all the members of the natural body receive animation sense and motion by their Union with their natural head so all believers the members of Christ receive spiritual life and animation by their Union with Christ their mystical head Eph. 4. 15 16. Except we come to him and be united with him in the way of faith we can have no life in us John 5. 40. Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life Now the spirit of God hath yet exerted no regenerating quickening influences nor begotten any special saving faith in natural unsanctified men whatever he hath done for them in the way of natural or spiritual common gifts yet he hath not quickened them with the life of Christ. And as for the subordinate external means of life viz. the preaching of the Gospel which is the instrument of the spirit in this glorious work and is therefore called the word of life Phil. 2. 16. this word hath not yet been made a regenerating quickening word to their souls Possibly it hath enlightned them and convinced them it hath wrought upon their minds in the way of common illumination and upon their consciences in the way of conviction but not upon their hearts and wills by way of effectual conversion To this day the Lord hath not given them an heart opening it self in the way of faith to receive Jesus Christ. Secondly The effects and signs of spiritual life do not appear in them for First They have no feeling or sense of misery and danger I mean no such sense as throwly awakens them to apply Christ their remedy That spiritual judgment lies upon them Isa. 6. 9 10. And he said go and tell this people Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and their ears heavy and
man This is that which is justly called the great mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3. 16. That mystery which the Prophets enquired diligently after yea which the Angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1. 10 12. In this glorious mystery of Redemption thaâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifold wisdom of God or that wisdom which hath such curious and admirable variety in it is illustriously displayed Eph. 4. 10. Yea the contrivement of our Redemption this way is the most glorious display of Divine Love that ever was made or can be made in this world to the children of men for so the Apostle will be understood when he saith Rom. 3. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath set forth or presented his love to man in the most taking manner in a way that commends it beyond all compare to the acceptation of men This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1. 15. It might be justly expected that when this glorious mystery should come to be published by the Gospel in the ears of sinners all eyes should be withdrawn from all other objects and fixed with admiration upon Christ all hearts should be ravished with these glad tidings and every man pressing to Christ with greatest zeal and diligence But behold instead thereof Secondly The desperate wickedness of the world in rejecting the only remedy prepared for them This was long since foretold by the Prophet Isaiah 53. 3. He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desitio virorum Nil habit infoelix paupertas durius in se quam quod ridiculos homines facit Juver and we esteemed him not His poor and mean appearance which should endear him beyond all considerations to the souls of men since it was for their sakes that he emptied himself of all his glory yet this lays him under contempt he is looked on as the very offcast of men when his own love to man had emptied him of all his riches the wickedness of men loaded him with contempt and as it was prophesied of him so it was and at this day is sadly verified all the world over For First The Pagan world hath no knowledge of him they are lost in darkness God hath suffered them to walk in their own ways Acts 14. 16. Secondly The Mahumetans which overspread so great a part of the world reject him and instead os the blessed Gospel which they hiss out with abhorrence embrace the blasphemous and ridiculous Alcoran which they confidently affirm to have come down srom God immediately in that laylatto Hanzili as they call it the night of demission calling all Christians Cafirouna i. e. infidels Thirdly The Jews reject him with abhorrence and spit at his very name and being blindfolded by the Devil they call Jesus Anathema 1 Cor. 12. 3. And in a blind zeal for Moses blaspheme him as an Impostor He came to his own and his own received him not John 1. 11. Fourthly The far greater part of the Christianized world reject him those that are called after his name will not 〈◊〉 nomen 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 viâ—… 〈◊〉 quâ—… 〈◊〉 est quam praevaricatiâ—… divini nominis Cyp. de Zelo. submit to his Government The Nobles of the world think themselves dishonoured by submitting their necks to his yoke The Sensualists of the world will not deny their lusts or forsake their pleasures for all the treasures of righteousness life and peace which his blood hath purchased The worldlings of the earth prefer the dirt and dung of the world before him and few there be among them that profess Christianity who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity The only reason why they are called Christians is because by the advantagious cast of providence they were born and educated in a nation where Christianity is professed and established by the laws of the Countrey and if the wind should turn and the publick Authority think fit to establish another Religion they can shift their sayls and steer a contrary Course But now Reader let me tell thee that if ever God send forth those two grim Sergeants his Law and thine own conscience to arrest thee for thy sins if thou find thy self dragging away by them towards that prison from whence none return that are once clapt up therein and that in this unspeakable distress Jesus Christ manifest himself to thy soul and open thy heart to receive him and become thy surety with God pay all thy debts and cancel all thy obligations Thou wilt love him at another rate than others do his blood will run deeper in thine eyes than it doth in the shallow apprehensions of the world he will be altogether lovely and thou wilt account all things but dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of Jesus Christ thy Lord. To work thy heart to this frame these things are written which the Lord prosper upon thy soul by the blessing of his good Spirit upon them Blessed be God for Jesus Christ. FINIS An Alphabetical Table of the principal points insisted on in this Treatise A. ABortives Spiritual whence they are pag. 369 Absurdity of Believers sins p. 39 Accounts of our time kept in Heaven p. 57 Accusations of Conscience what they are p. 186 Acts of the Spirit sixfold in Conversion p. 197 Acceptation with God what it is p. 311 Acceptation with God what it includes ibid. Acceptance none without Christ. p. 320 Activity for the world what it speaks p. 352 Activity of Christ our pattern p. 507 Adventures of Faith how great p. 82 83 Advocate none like Christ in five respects p. 256 Affections how bewitcht by sin p. 394 Ambassadors of Christ their dignity p. 48 Application what it imports p. 5 6 Application of Christ the end of Ordinances p. 7 Application of Christ of equal latitude with Gods election and Christs death p. 9 Apologies cut off from Gospel-despisers p. 57 Approbation of Christ implied in faith p. 119 Aâ—…ointing how it teacheth p. 139 Alsufficiency of Christ for all our wants p. 196 Altogether lovely Christ only so p. 250 Apostasie an inexcusable sin p. 332. Annihilation better than damnation p. 444 Arminians sense of Justification rejected p. 132 Assent implyed in saving Faith p. 117 Assent three degrees thereof ibid. Assent how discovered to be true p. 140 Aversion from God how discovered p. 84 Awakening out of security how great a mercy it is to the souls of men p. 356 B. BAcksliding an inexcusable sin p. 213. Benefits of Christ how conveyed to us p. 13. Believers more than know themselves so p. 138 Believers why uncomfortable p. 139 Believing the immediate duty of weary souls p. 204 Believers advancement how great p. 281 Boldness of Saints in Prayer p. 313 Blood of Christ its dignity p. 301 Beauty of holiness very great