you will undoubtedly fall short of the righteousness of Jesus Christ you do quite put your selves from under his shadow If you rest upon the works of the Law never think to receive benefit by the death of the Mediator of the covenant of peace and reconciliation Christ is become of none effect unto you Now Sirs justification by works is mans natural element upon which his soul is fixed and where he delights to dwell Although the Law is disabled to minister relief unto fallen sinners yet there is a proness in them to follow after it still and to rest their souls upon that foundation This is plain from the pains the Apostle Paul taketh in his Epistles to unsettle men from this bottom to take them off from leaning upon this broken reed especially in his Epistles to Rom. and Gal. Besides you read expresly of mens desires to be under the Law Gal. 4.21 Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law q. d. I perceive that hitherward your spirits have a tendency there is a natural inclination in you to split your selves upon this rock as there is in a stone to deseend downwards towards its center As the Law is a rule of life so it is written upon the heart of a Believer but unregenerate persons cleave to it as it is a covenant of works they make use of it so as to seek justification from thence And this mostly ariseth from that monstrous pride which is fast rooted and rivered in mens hearts they would fain advance something of themselves and are loath to give the glory of their salvation to another It is an harder thing to close with the grace of God and to glorifie free grace in salvation than most persons imagine This is the second Proposition That unconverted sinners are not only separated from Christ but actually joyned unto such objects as are utterly incompatible with their being in Christ 3. Propos 3. Hence it clearly followeth as a third Proposition That the first work which is wrought upon the spirit of a man in order to his conjunction and oneness with the Lord Jesus it is the separation or withdrawment of his soul from these objects unto which he is joyned in opposition unto Christ Till this work be done the finner is not in a neer capacity of having the Son of God of being joyned to the Redeemer First a bill of divorcement must be written and the former husbands put away before the soul can be married to another husband to him that is raised from the dead For Sirs Christ will not be a sharer with another if he have the soul at all he will have it altogether if persons have the Son really they must have him only So that first the soul must be wrought upon to renounce those things which stand in competition with the Lord Jesus that they may be in a preparedness to be knit unto him Psal 45.10 11. Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine car forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty They are words spoken of the mystical marriage betwixt Christ and his Church * Hoc de Ecclesiâ quam ut Christi regis uxorem depingit Vides de Christo esse sermonem qui enim de Solomone diceret Quoniam ipse est Dominus Deus cuus Marian. in loc and they amount to thus much q. d. If you will have Christ you must forsake all things for Christ if you will be joyned unto him you must be parted from all besides him as a virgin that will be espoused to an husband must forsake father and mother and cleave to her husband First you must be broken off from the old stock if you will be ingraffed in the true vine This is a special part of that self denial which is required in the followers of Jesus Mar. 8.34 Whosoever will come after me let him deny himself He must den◠his carnal self and say to his corruptions get ye hence he must deny his legal self by renouncing all confidence in the flesh in his own righteousness as to justification in the sight of God he must be dead to sin and the Law if he will be married to the Son of God See the proof of each 1. He must be dead to sin Gal. 5.24 They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts * Carnens pro radice posuit concupiscentias pro fructibus Caro enim est ipsa naturae corruptae vitiositas unde mala omnia prodeunt Calv. in loc Such as are united to his person must be planted together into the likeness of his death as he died for sin so must they be dead unto sin as Christ was crucified in the flesh so must their corruptions be crucified in them The principle or body of sin must be subdued and the lustings and workings of it must be set against else it will be in vain to pretend that they are knit unto Christ 2. He must be dead to the Law because it is impossible for a man to be coupled to both together It was a defectiveness herein which was the cause of the utter undoing of the carnal Israelites they were fast joyned unto the Law and they could not be taken off from seeking life upon those terms and therefore though they followed after righteousness yet they did not attain it they fell short of righteousness How came it to pass that they fell short of what they sought after Why Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9.31 32. That 's the third Proposition The first work that is wrought upon the spirit of a man in a tendency to his conjunction and oneness with Christ is the separation of his soul from sin and the Law to which he is naturally joyned in opposition to Christ 4. Propos 4. The divorce and separation of a sinner from his iniquity which is of indispensable necessity to the reception of Christ and union with him is principally accomplished by a fourfold act 1. The eyes of the understanding are opened to see the evil of sin 2. The heart is awakened to consider the consequents of that evil 3. The spirit is made to tremble in apprehension of the danger of continuing in sin 4. The grace of mortification is poured out for the subduing of corruption and a secret antipathy put into the soul against it When this work is wrought then the sinner is set free from bondage unto his lusts and is at liberty to be married to another I will briefly touch upon these four steps or acts of the holy Ghost whereby tho divorce is made 1. There is an act of Conviction whereby the eyes of the understanding are enlightened to see the evil of sin and that with application to a mans self and his own transgressions and iniquities For indeed general notions of the evil of sin will never have a
fundamental blessings that have dependance thereon 5. THe next question to be handled is concerning the necessity of this Union Qu. How doth it appear that it is a matter of such absolute and indispensable necessity that if we will have life from the Son we must have the Son or must be thus made one with our Lord Jesus For he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Answ For answer hereunto I will shew you the necessity of this Union by recounting the blessings which are conveyed hereby and that have a necessary dependance hereupon which cannot be received by us except we are in Christ 1. First then in the general A Believers union with Christ or being in him is the foundation of all his communion with him or communications of grace out of his fulness in whatsoever doth appertain either to the quickning and comfort of our hearts here or making us meet to partake of the inheritance of the Saints hereafter In our Lord Jesus is stored up plentiful provision of all things needful to conduct a sinner to glory but it is dealt forth to them alone who are knit unto Jesus It is imparted unto them by vertue of their being in him Except the branch be and abide in the vine it cannot partake of the sâ—p and fatness of the vine so except you be implanted into Christ you cannot be made partakers of his grace or of the treasures of mercy and blessings that are hid in him It is in Christ we are compleat Col. 2.10 that is we have all things derived upon us to make us compleatly happy from the fulness that is in Christ and by vertue of our oneness with Christ The Apostle had laid down this assertion v. 9. That in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily i.e. essentially and substantially Yea but might believers say what is that unto us Yes saith he it is all for your comfort and benefit If you are in him you shall thereby attain from him whatsoever is requisite to make you perfectly blessed So that you need nothing else to each up any defect therein Thus only in the general 2. To descend unto particulars I shall enter upon the enumeration of the several covenant-blessings which flow from our union with the Lord Jesus And I find there are especially 11. fundamental mercies or blessings which are communicated unto the Saints by vertue of their being in Christ and which have a necessary dependance thereupon 1. The grace of justification in the sight of God through the righteousness of Christ imputed to us 2. The grace of adoption or our inrollment amongst the number of the children of God 3. The participation of the supplies of the Spirit to guide us in our journey to the kingdom of heaven 4. The gracious acceptation of our duties and performances 5. A title to the promises of the Gospel which concern this life or that which is to come 6. Vnion with the Father and an intimate acquaintance with him 7. That peace and joy in the holy Ghost which puts life and sweetness into every condition 8. Deliverance from the sting of death and consequently from the fear of that king of terrors 9. A glorious resurrection out of the dust of the earth 10. Boldness and comfort in our appearance at the bar of judgment 11. The actual possession and enjoyment of a crown of glory So that whatsoever grace or mercy is prepared for the Saints it is dealt out unto them in this way from their first entrance into the state of grace to their sitting down upon the throne of glory I will mainly enlarge upon the first and third of these glancing only upon the rest 1. The first blessing that I shall mention as depending upon Union with Jesus Christ is the justification of a sinner in the sight of God upon the account of Christ's righteousness imputed to him whereby the guilt of sin is removed and the person of the sinner is accepted as righteous with the God of heaven Here lieth one argument of the necessity of being thus ingraffed into Christ Because without union with him there can be no justification through his blood nor clothing with his righteousness for acceptance with the Lord. Our righteousness for pardon and justification is in the Lord and we our selves must be in him that we may partake of his righteousness For it will signifie nothing to us except we are in him Eph. 1.6 He hath made us accepted in the beloved And v. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace This is a fundamental leading mercy which maketh way for the conferring of other mercies * Doctrina justificationis est articulus stantis aut cadentis Heclesiae Luth. For till sin be pardoned the curse of the Law cannot be removed from the sinner and this pardon is given forth upon the account of Christ's righteousness imputed to us in order whereunto we must of necessity be in him For in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins I will open to you the force of this argument by taking it asunder into six branches and speaking distinctly to each of them 1. Observe That the grace of justification in the sight of God is made up of two parts 1. There is forgiveness of the offences committed against the Lord. 2. Acceptation of the person offending pronouncing him a righteous person and receiving him into favour again as if he had never offended This is clear from the Scriptures of truth 1. There is an act of absolution and acquital from the guilt of sin and freedom from the condemnation dedeserved by sin The desert of sin is an inseparable accident or concomitant of it * Reatus vel 1. Simplex 2. Redundans 〈◊〉 personam that can never be removed It may be said of the sins of a justified person that they deserve everlasting destruction But justification is the freeing a sinner from the guilt of his iniquity whereby he was actually bound over to condemnation so that the person justified may say Who is he that condemneth He may read over the most dreadful passages of the Law without being terrified as knowing the curse is removed from over his head his fins that brought him under the curse are forgiven and are in point of condemnation as if they had never been This is to be justified to have sin thus forgiven and the penalty remitted Rom. 4.5 6 7 8. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin Mark it what David calleth forgiveness of sin and not imputing of iniquity
S. Paul stiles a being justified This is expressed elsewhere by not remembring transgressions any more Heb. 8.12 And there are three wayes how they shall not be remembred any more 1. God will not remember them so as to upbraid his people with their miscarriages He will never hit them in the teeth with their sins When the wicked seek unto him in affliction and howl for deliverance God doth upbraid them with their wickedness Jer. 2.27 28. Where are thy Gods which thou hast made thee Let them arise if they can save thee in the time of trouble q. d. Why do ye come to me seeing you hate me and cast me off and set up idols in your hearts Get you to them for deliverance for you are none of my servants But when persons are justified their sins shall be as if they had not been God will welcom them into his house and embrace them in his arms and never throw it in their dish how unkind or unthankful or stubborn they have been formerly See it in the return of the Prodigal Luke 15.20 21 22. When he was a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him And the son said unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son But the father said unto his servants bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring upon his hand and shoes upon his feet One would have thought he would have fallen foul upon him and said You are well enough served to depart out of my family you see what it is to think your self wiser than your father What account can you give me of the patrimony you received Do you think I will give you entertainment now you have spent your substance with riotous living and amongst harlots Go to your sinful companions that have made a prey of you and see what relief they will afford now in the day of your distress But here is not a word of such language But welcome my dear son he is a pleasant child my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him Jer. 31.20 2. Their sins shall not be remembred so as to stop the current of God's bounty or to with-hold good things from them When God would have healed Israel their sins came to remembrance and put a stop to the progress of his mercy Hos 7.1 2. But now by the grace of pardon this obstacle is removed out of the way that his compassions may flow down freely upon them * â—et in peccati reatu est luerum cessans damnum emergens Ita condonatio peccati non est tantum ablativa mali sed collativaâ—oni Mic. 7.19 20. 3. He will not remember them so as to condemn them for sin iniquity shall not prove their ruine * Peccata sis velantur ut in judicio non revelentur Joh. 5.24 That is the first part of justification namely the pardon of sin 2. There is the acceptation of the person as righteous in God's sight pronouncing him such and dealing with him accordingly restoring him into that favour again which he had lost by his transgressions Rom. 5. v. 16. compared with v. 19. This is the first thing I would note to shew you the force of this argument That justification for the â—ature of it is the gracious pardon of the sinners transgressions and acceptance of his person as righteous in God's sight 2. In order to our partaking of this grace of the forgiveness of sin and accep ation of our persons we must be able to produce a perfect righteousness before the Lord and to present and tender it unto God And the reason is evident from the very nature of God himself He is infinitely immutably inexorably just as well as incomprehensibly gracious And in the justification of a sinner he doth act as a God of justice as well as of compassion He doth forgive iniquity in a way of righteousness 1 Joh. 1.9 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness God doth not pronounce men righteous when they are not but first he maketh them righteous and then receiveth them as such and pronounceth them to be such * Non igitur docemus credentes sine justitiâ justificari qualem justificationem impii Deus pronunciat esse abominationem Prov. 17. Isa 5. Sed dicimus necesse esse ut in justificatione intercedat interveniat justitia Et quidem non qualiscanque-justitia sed talis quae in judicio Dei sufficiens digna sit ut justa pronuncietur ad vitam aeternam Chemn exam Conâ— Trid. So that if a man will be justified he must be able to produce such a compleat righteousness as wherewith he may stand before the justice of God This is a matter very seriously to be weighed because multitudes deceive themselves herein They hope God will forgive them because he is a God of mercy and of unspeakable compassions but they never consider what entertainment the justice of God will give them nor how they shall stand before his righteousness Why man remember The Lord is infinitely just as well as merciful and if ever thy sins be pardoned it must be by an admirable contemperament or mixture of mercy and justice together I will not enter upon the debate of that question which some have ventilated whether God in his absolute soveraignty could not have forgiven sin meerly as an act of grace without the sinners producing any satisfaction to justice Suffice it us to be assured That God will not and supposing his word and purpose he cannot for he is a God that cannot lie that cannot change or vary in his determinations It was one of the great ends of the Gospel dispensation that God might exalt his justice in the justification of a sinner Rom. 3.26 3. The only matter of mans righteousness since the fall of Adam wherein he can appear with comfort before the justice of God and consequently whereby alone he can be justified in his sight is the obedience and sufferings of Jesus Christ the righteousness of the Mediator There is not any other way imaginable how the justice of God may be satisfied and we may have our sins pardoned in a way of justice but by the righteousness of the Son of God And therefore this is his name Jehovah Tzidkennu The Lord our righteousness Jer. 23.6 This is his name that is this is the prerogative of the Lord Jesus a matter that appertains to him alone to be able to bring in everlasting righteousness and to make reconciliation for iniquity Dan. 9.24 All our obedience to the Law and the good works we can perform throughout the whole course of our lives can never be a sufficient righteousness for us Alas what are they even all out righteousnesses put together but as a
filthy rag and as a menstrous cloth The very imperfections and sinfull mixtures of our most spiritual duties were enough to condemn us It is by Christ alone that they who believe are justified from all things from which they cannot be justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13.39 I will add two considerations further to strengthen this particular besides what hath been delivered when we were speaking of the divorce of a sinner from the Law and to take us off from resting upon a legal righteousness 1. The most eminent and choicest servants of God that ever lived upon earth have utterly disclaimed and disowned their own personal obedience in the point of justification They durst not at any hand put their trust in it but knew it would be too short and that they should miscarry for ever if they relyed thereupon Thus my brethren If any persons under heaven could be justified by the Law and pronounced righteous upon legal terms that is upon the account of their own holiness and good works it would be such as have been most active for God and most useful and upright in their generations and that lived in the neerest conformity unto the Law But even they durst not place their confidence therein but have utterly renounced it Take the instance of Job a man who had not his fellow upon earth as we have assurance of it by the letters testimonial of the God of the spirits of all flesh Job 1.8 Durst he depend on his own righteousness See how he disclaimeth it Job 9.20 If I justifie my self my own mouth shall condemn me if I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse And cap. 42.6 I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes Take the example of David a man after God's own heart who fulfilled all his wills Act. 13.22 What saith he in this case See Psal 130.3 4. If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities who O Lord could stand But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared * Meum meritum est miseratio Domini Bern. Justitia nostra est indulgentia tua Domine Let us descend to Daniel a man greatly beloved and of singular integrity insomuch that when the Lord doth reckon up the most noted examples of piety he is singled out as one Ezek. 14.14 And mark how he renounceth all confidence in the flesh and resteth only upon Christ Dan. 9.17 18. Cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary which is desolate for the Lords sake And v. 18. We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses but for thy great mercies For he had before acknowledged that unto them belonged confusion of face It is true that believers have sometimes pleaded their holiness as an evidence of the sincerity and uprightness of their hearts with God and of their interest in the promises of mercy But they durst not appear in it before the justice of God That is a notable passage of Nehemiah Cap. 13.22 Remember me O my God concerning this and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy q.d. Through grace I have been serviceable to the Lord and expect a blessing thereupon but withal I stand in need of great mercies to cover the defects of those services 2. Such persons as have gone about to establish their own righteousness and attempted to be justified thereby have everlastingly miscarried in that attempt and fell short of heaven and found it to be but a broken reed that could never bear them up before the justice of God You read of some persons that seek to come to heaven and are not able Luk. 13.24 And these are one sort of those persons As such who seek it slothfully and negligently without striving to enter in at the strait gate so they that seek it by their own personal righteousness and expect to be justified thereupon And therefore observe what the Apostle saith to the Galatians whose hearts bankered after that way of justification Gal. 3.4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain if yet it be in vain q. d. If you go on to lean upon your own righteousness and rely not upon Christ all your Religion is in vain Whatever you have done or suffered will never save you from the wrath to come This is the third thing to be observed That it is only the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ by which a sinner can be justified in the sight of God 4. We can receive no benefit by the righteousness of Christ for justification in the sight of God nor can we be pardoned and accepted thereupon until that righteousness become ours and be made over unto us This is evident at the first view How can we plead it with God except we have an interest therein What advantage can it be to us unless it be ours Here is the mistake of many carnal people they hope to have their sins forgiven upon the account of Christ's righteousness and never enquire if that righteousness be theirs Mark it Sirs It must be yours and made over to you or else it will never stand you in stead They shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ who receive the gift of righteousness by him Rom. 5.17 Except they receive it it is nothing unto them It is in it self white raiment and beautiful and glorious apparel but it will never cover our nakedness except it be put on and we are cloathed there with Rev. 3. v. 18. It must be made over to us that we may be justified thereby 5. Observe in the next place That the way wherein or whereby this righteousness of Gods providing is conveyed and made over to us that we may receive the benefit thereof and be justified thereby it is by way of imputation That is the usual expression made use of in this business and the meaning is this God doth reckon the righteousness of Christ unto his people as if it were their own He doth count unto them Christ's sufferings and satisfaction and make them partakers of the vertue thereof as if themselves had suffered and satisfied This is the genuine and proper import of the word imputation when that which is personally done by one is accounted and reckoned unto another and laid upon his score as if he had done it * Imputari dicitur illud alicui quod in aliquo non inhaeret seu existit realiter sed tamen ei adscribitur ac si in ipso realiter inhaereret existeret atque adeo quod in ipsum transfertur Pet. Ravan Thus it is in this very case We sinned and fell short of the glory of God and became obnoxious to the vindictive justice of God and the Lord Jesus Christ by his obedience and death hath given content and satisfaction unto divine justice in our behalf Now when God doth pardon and accept us hereupon he doth put it upon our account he doth reckon it or impute it unto us as fully in respect of the benefit thereof as
the uttermost 2 Cor. 5.14 Do we make void the law through faith God forbid yea we establish the law Rom. 3.31 But now as it is a Covenant of life and doth promise justification unto the observers of it so the death of Christ doth deaden us unto the law it is of notable force and efficacy to take off a man from building and bottoming upon his own legal performances For this very topick the Apostle argueth with the Galatians cap. 3.1 O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you Mark it the great matter wherein the Galatians fell from the truth of the Gospel was by adhaering to the law and seeking righteousness therein Now saith the Apostle a man would have thought the doctrine of Christ's death and crucifixion might have been a strong fence against that error unless you had been under a kind of fascination and witchcraft upon your spirits Hath the great fundamental principle of the death of Christ been so plainly and faithfully preached unto you and set forth amongst you in such lively colours as if he had been crucified before your eyes and are you still so foolish as to rest upon the law Certainly this is an argument of abundant sottishness and madness or else you have quite forgotten the doctrine of Christ's death and neglect to make a due improvement thereof The death of Christ will be of notable use to deaden a man to the law by making a threefold discovery 1. By discovering the sinfulness and damnableness of the evil of sin or transgressionof the law of God in that it could be expiated at no lesser rate than by the crucifying of the Son of God It is not any corruptible thing as silver and gold could make satisfaction for sin but the precious blood of the Son of God and therefore certainly it is an evil of a very heinous nature Thus my brethren a real sight of the greatness of the evil of sin would sooner convince a man of the insufficiency of all his legal righteousness to satisfie for the wrong that is done unto God by it If men think to recompence the Lord by any obedience of their own for the sins whereof they are guilty it is because they have low and slight thoughts of the evil of their sins Now the death of Christ may serve to rectifie such thoughts and to set forth the damnableness of the nature of sin And indeed it was one of the ends which God aimed at in the death of Christ as to save the sinners so to damn the sin Rom. 8.3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh He condemned it that is he made it thereby to appear what a deadly destructive and damnable nature it is of how odious and abominable a thing it is in his sight * He condemned it of that capital crime that it was the meritorious cause of the death of Christ who was most innocent Engl. Annot. By what way was this made to appear Why because nothing could appease his wrath but the crucifying of the Lord Jesus Undoubtedly it must needs be a very accursed thing for which Christ himself was made a curse 2. The death of Christ is of use to deaden a sinner to the law by making discovery of the inexorableness of the justice of God of his severity and strictness in requiring the utmost farthing that is due for satisfaction He did not spare his own Son when he had iniquity laid upon him but he was put to a painful cursed ignominious and reproachful death so that let not the children of men ever expect to be spared if they lie under the guilt of the least ungodliness God the Father did not abate his own beloved Son any part of the punishment surely he will never make abatement unto his adversaries And this was another end of Christ's death to set forth the exactness and inexorableness of the justice of God that he will by no means clear the guilty Rom. 3.25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus * Deus justitiam suam dicitur oftendisse quia non aliter remisit peccata hominum quam pretio iusto redemptionis accepto non ab ipsis hominibus sed a Christo pro nobis satisfaciente Justum ergo se Deus exhibuit in nostro justificatione liberalem seu gratiosum Justitia fuit relatione ad Christum gratia vero relatione ad nos Tolet in Rom. 3. Lastly the death of Christ will serve to take off a man from seeking justification by the law by making a full discovery that there is no other way imaginable to make reconciliation for sin and to deliver sinners from the wrath to come but the death of Christ only For Sirs if there had been any other way could have been found out undoubtedly God would have spared the dearly beloved of his soul he would never have striken and bruised his only begotten Son For as the Apostle argueth If there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law Gal. 3.21 q. d. Had that way been sufficient to save men and women from everlasting destruction God would have taken that way and prevented the sorrows and sufferings of his Son He would never have sent him into the world in such a low and despicable condition nor have brought him into such strairs and agonies as made him sweat drops of blood not would he have poured out upon him the vials of his wrath for the accomplishment of that which might have been otherwise accomplished So that to test for justification upon the law is in effect to frustrate and make void the grace of God in the death of the Mediator For if righteousness come by the law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2.21 Thus much for the fifth Proposition touching the way of a sinners union or conjunction with the Lord Jesus 6. Propos 6. The way of the actual conjunction between Christ and his people when they are thus divorced from sin and deadned to the Law may be conceived thus The Lord Christ by his Spirit taketh possession of them and dwelleth in them and Believers through faith of the operation of the Spirit take hold of Christ and get into him and so they are knit together and become one For this conjunction you must understand is a mutual conjunction * Abide in me and I in you And again He that abideth in me and I in him By which
at the same time make his entrance in their whole persons and take seizin and possession of all their powers and faculties unto his use and service The plian meaning is this that the work of sanctification is a through-work wrought upon the whole man there is grace infused into every part and faculty As in the work of mortification all the habits of corruption are subdued so in the work of renovation or vivification all the seeds of holiness are introduced the whole man is purified as Christ is pure The common gifts of the Spirit are bestowed many times singly and apart one from the other but special sanctifying graces are planted together This I lay down that you may not deceive yourselves in this matter by thinking Christ is in you when you are strangers unto him There is great proness in us to mistake upon this account and to flatter our selves in this case for some common workings upon the heart to conclude that saving grace is planted in the heart And therefore mind what I say to prevent this self-cozenage that where a person is cleansed savingly and effectually there is an universal purification of the whole man and all the graces in the seed of them are infused together As all old things pass away so every thing is made new 2 Cor. 5.17 The understanding is renewed with saving knowledge of the mind of God and the will is brought into a blessed subjection to the will of God the conscience is furnished anew with tenderness and faithfulness the affections are renewed by being turned into their right channel and pointed upon their right objects love and delight upon God and hatred and sorrow towards sin and what is displeasing unto the Lord the heart is principled anew with sincerity and singleness and truth put into the inward parts the memory is made a treasury and store-house of good things and the body is fitted to be subservient unto the soul in wayes of holiness Thus I might run over the several branches of this work There is vigour and activity put into the soul to do the will of God commanding and patience to suffer and be contented under the will of God disposing there is the grace of moderation to guide in prosperity and the grace of faith to support under affliction and trouble and the man is prepared and fitted unto every good word and work 1 Thes 5.23 And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole soul and spirit and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Mark it Sirs the work of sanctification is a very extensive and diffusive work it leaveneth the whole man both the inserior and superior faculties of the soul the animal and the rational powers and the body likewise So that it is not some slight trouble upon the conscience for sin or a little touch upon the affections or inclinations towards the Kingdom of God that will evidence you to be sanctified for sanctification ingageth the whole man in an holy compliance with the wayes of holiness and the interest of Jesus As a partial repentance in the exercise of it which striketh at some sins only and leaveth a man in the allowance of others is but a feigned repentance so partial workings upon the heart are but common workings they will not amount to saving grace Jer. 3.10 When Christ entereth by his Spirit into any of the children of men he doth take possession of them wholly and set up his residence in every part and faculty 3. In this work of the entrance of the Spirit into to a mans soul whereupon Christ is said to be in him and to dwell with him and possession is taken for his use and service the soul of that man is altogether passive My meaning is this It is not in the power of any person upon the earth to plant grace in his own soul or to confer the habits of holiness upon himself nor doth he contribute any active assistance in the performance of it but is wholly wrought upon by the mighty power of God and the effectual operation of the holy Ghost We are apt to imagine that it is in our own power to make a saving change within our selves that we can convert and turn to God at any time and repent when we please As Luther said in point of merit there is a Pope in every mans belly so may I say in this case there is a tang of Pelagianism in every mans heart and hence it is they take incouragement to procrastinate and delay in the matters of salvation they think they can repent when they will if it be but upon their death-bed But Sirs it must be a day of power that maketh you willing A as if God should give you up unto your selves you would perish for ever in your unregeneracy The planting grace in the heart is a turning the course of corrupted nature it is as a quickning the dead it is a creating and infusing of how principles into a man * Opus hoc conversionis sive duobus effici non potest Uno a quo fit altero in quo fit Deus est â—â—tor salâ—â—is liberum arbitrium tantum capax Bern. Observetur in primo actu veluntatis qui procedit à gratia praeveniente voluntatem esse motam non moventem Aquin. prima secundae q. 111. of which there is nothing in us by nature but a contrariety and repugnancy thereunto Eph. 2.5 Even when we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together with Christ And v. 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works So that it is not mans free will but God's free grace and his infinite power by which it is wholly wrought and to him alone doth belong the glory of it 4. Although we are wholly passive in this work of regeneration or planting grace into our hearts whereby Christ entereth into and taketh possession of us and we contribute no manner of active affistance therein yet there is something required at our hands in order to the attainment of this grace and that we may be made partakers thereof This is well to be noted that it may prevent our abuse of this doctrine and that we may not turn the grace of God into negligence and slothfulness For will sinners be apt to argue thus if it be God alone by his infinite power who can imprint grace upon our hearts and this he doth without our concurrent assâ—stance then we may fit still and let the Lord perform his own work if he please to convert and sanctifie us we shall be converted and if not all our indeavours are to no purpose But Sirs this is to pervert the grace of the covenant God forbid there should be such cursed inferences drawn from this excellent doctrine although it tendeth to advance and magnifie the free grace and power of God yet it gives no manner of incouragement to the