opened and that is this Que. 3. To what purpose are all the promises made to Qualities inherent in Souls and to the workings of the Spirit of grace in hearts seeing Vnion with Christ cannot be evidenced from them Answ 1. For answer First there is no promise the Lord makes to any quality inherent in a soul as a condition upon which the promise should be fulfilled to the soul That is there is no promise that the Lord hath made to any quality so or in such a manner as upon the Lords beholding that quality in the Soul he should repute himself bound to fulfil that promise or to convey that mercy included in the promise to the Soul Nor doth the being of the quality lay any such engagement upon God to perform it Every promise is a part of the Covenant of grace that the Lord holds forth in Christ for the Covenant of grace is nothing else but a bundle of promises All the promises of God in the word bound up in one is the Covenant of grace so that it is a thing consisting of so many Articles of agreement between God and the Soul Now the Covenant of grace should prove no Covenant of grace if any of those promises were made to a quality as a condition upon which the Lord were bound to perform the promise Ans 2. Secondly the promises of God to qualities inherent in Souls are not made to qualities as qualities That is not as they are good dispositions and good inclinations not as they are works of the Spirit of grace begotten in such Souls All inherent qualities in souls are to be considred under a two-fold notion either as they are qualities that is as they are affections and dispositions in a soul Or they are to be considered as they put a soul into such a state or condition as they make a soul either in a good condition or a bad condition Now no soul may look upon any one promise that God hath made to any one quality and look upon that quality in his heart as that good quality that good disposition to which the Lord hath bound himself by promise to convey such or such mercies or benefits As for example should I name most of the conditional promises in the word you will find none of the promises made to qualities are made to them as qualities but as to a state of Want and Penury and Misery out of which the Lord promiseth Refreshment Ease and Relief out of the Bowels of his own mercy 1. To begin with thirsting ones That notable place in Isa 55.1.2 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the Waters and he that hath no Money come ye buy and eat yea come buy Wine and Milk without Money and without Price Come saith he take all sutable refreshment for your poor thirsty souls There is Christ holden forth to thirsty ones in all the precious priviledges tendred to souls in Christ Yet this is not made to thirsty ones as thirsting is a quality or grace flowing from the Spirit of grace in their hearts And that the promise is not made to thirsting Souls as thirsting after Jesus Christ or as thirsting is a quality will appear in three particulars in that the persons to whom those glorious priviledges are tendred in Christ are persons void of any quality or grace proceeding from the Spirit of grace in their Hearts They were so far from any Holy quality as it doth appear from the Text that they had not any one right desire after receiving any Holiness For 1. They are said to be such as are thirsting after false refreshments digging broken Cisterns for their Souls to drink of they spent their Money for that which was no bread that is their desires and endeavours They were the Jews that sought for Justification by the Law and Cerimonies 2. They were such as thirsted to supply their wants in a wrong way and were neglecters of Jesus Christ They spent their labours and desires after wrong objects that which was not Bread things that could not profit And these were the persons to whom the promise was made and therefore it could not be made to any quality 3. The same promise is holden forth to every Soul equally whether thirsting or not thirsting This you may see Rev. 22.17 Let him that is a thirst come there is the same promise yea let whosoever will come and take of the Water of Life freely Every one under Heaven is joyned under as equal a notion as the thirsty ones Therefore the promise cannot be made unto thirsty ones as having such a quality of grace in them but as poor and penurious Souls in a sad condition not knowing how to get their Souls refreshed and their wants relieved So again Mat. 5 6. where the promise seems to have more colour to be made to a quality as a quality Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled This promise is not made to Souls as hungering and thirsting after Righteousness as Holy Dispositions in their Souls but the promise is made to them only as being needy and penurious as being in want and extremity Therefore you shall observe in the promise they shall be filled what is promised Nothing to the quality it self but to the supply of the wants of the poor Soul 2. If you observe the promises made to humbled Souls groaning under the burden of Sin they are not made to any Souls as groaning under the burden of Sin or as groaning under the burden of Sin is a quality or grace in the Soul As for example look that promise Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Now saith the Soul I am burdened and therefore I shall have rest And here I am perswaded many a Soul sits down in his being burdened and not in his coming to Christ and so sits down short of Christ Now that this promise is not made to Souls burdened as burdened but as being in a sad condition ready to sink under grievous pressures appears in two things 1. In regard there is nothing promised by God to the Soul remaining in his present estate The promise holds forth rest and ease to the poor burdened Soul but how Not as the Soul remains in his present estate but through his coming unto Jesus Christ Come unto me and ye shall have rest that is receive me as the only refuge of your Souls and by receiving me by Faith your Souls shall have rest 2. In regard there is nothing promised in this promise to be given to the Soul for the future more then to other Souls that are not for the present burdened under Sin Whatever is holden forth in this promise to Souls groaning under their burden is held forth in other Texts to Souls not groaning under their burdens in as equal a manner There can but two things be held forth First An invitation to believe But there is
no more sutableness held forth in this promise for an invitation for poor burdened Souls to believe in Christ than there is in other promises held forth in Scripture to Souls for present not groaning under the burden of Sin There lies as great an invitation upon every Soul under Heaven as the burdened there lies a command upon every Soul the invitation runs as equally to the dead in Sin under the greatest captivity to Satan as to Souls groaning under the burden of Sin Secondly The second thing that can be held forth in the promise is Rest and Refreshment Now you see that the rest is held forth to them to be received for the future only through believing and so it is held forth to every Soul under Heaven Therefore this promise cannot be made to burdened Souls under Sin as they are so burdened or as they are qualified with any such quality of grace You will say then what is the meaning of the promise The meaning is this God discovers to poor necessitous Souls where they shall have refreshment The voice of God from Heaven is Thou poor necessitous Soul wouldest have refreshment and thou poor burdened Soul wouldst have ease Come to me cast thy burden upon me by faith and take my word saith Jesus Christ thou shalt have rest III. If you look into promises made to mourning Souls As in Mat. 5.5 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted So Isa 61.1 2. speaking of Christ he shall come to comfort those that Mourn in Sion But now those promises are not made to Mourners as having the quality of sorrow in their Hearts as being afflicted for their Sins and grieving for them no not as grieving for the dishonour done to God by their Sins as if the Lord should have respect to that in the promise And that will appear in two things 1. If the promise were to sorrow as a quality in the Soul then it must needs be as it is a good quality Now were the promise made to the Soul as a good quality it were the happiness of the soul to have the good quality increase and continue in his soul Whereas the promise made to the mourning soul is to remove the quality by comfort comfort and mourning being two contraries So that if the promise were made to souls having a good quality in them it were rather a misery to have the promise than a happiness 2. If the promise were made to sorrow as inherent then the soul might claim comfort by his mourning or because of his mourning And so the original of the souls comfort should be in the quality inherent in the soul 4. If you go on to poverty of Spirit Blessed are they that are poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven The promise here is not made to a soul poor in spirit as having that quality in him For then were the promise of giving the Kingdom of Heaven to be held forth to no souls but to those that were thus poor and empty and so the Kingdom of Heaven should be held forth particularly as the Lords not being willing to give it to any souls but to such as are thus poor in spirit that had a true sence of their own nothingness And so the first promise were to be received by a soul as having true holiness and grace in his soul and so consequently the receiving of the promise by Faith should not be the first act of grace in the soul but the sight of grace should be necessary in the soul to make him receive a promise There is a fourth question to be answered before we can pass to the affirmative answer Quest 4. Are not the promises made to faith and believing as believing that through faith a man can only claim right to the promise Saith the soul surely faith is a quality in the soul and if the promises be made to faith they are made to qualities as qualities Answ 1. First I answer That it is apparent that many promises are made to souls actually void of faith Though I dare not say without respect unto believing for the future yet I say without any present believing The most primary principal fundamental promises are made to souls void of faith actually they are made only to sinners and that in their very estate of sinfulness though not properly as they are sinners that is not because they are sinners as if sinners were the qualification of the promise But heinous sinners in that doleful condition the Lord makes the promise to As in 1 Tim. 1.15 that precious promise This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief He looks upon himself only as a sinner in the application of that promise that Jesus Christ came to save him Thus the promises of reconciliation are made to such actually without faith calling them as they are enemies to close with Jesus Christ as a Mediator between God and them to make up reconciliation Thus also that of Luk. 19.20 That Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost another precious promise yet made to souls only lost without respect to any present being of faith in their hearts Answ 2. Secondly I answer that some promises are made for the begetting of faith in souls and therefore not made to faith as being a quality in the soul to which those promises should be made As that promise Ezek. 36.26 A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you The promise is made for the begetting of the habit of faith in the soul whereby the heart should be changed whereby the whole work of redemption should be wrought in the soul Answ 3. Thirdly I answer That no one promise in the whole Covenant of grace is made unto faith as a quality pre-existent in a soul That is as a quality to be remaining in a soul before he claim right to the promise So that no promise is made unto a believer because he doth believe The ground of the promise is not the souls believing nor the ground of the souls particular interest in the promise is not the souls believing though the ground of the knowledge of that his interest is his believing For if faith should be in a soul as a quality to receive the promise then these three things would follow 1. No promise could be fulfilled in and to a soul before it actually believe And then either faith it self must not be a gift from God unto the soul or else the great fundamental gift should be conveyed unto the soul not by vertue of the Covenant of grace nor by vertue of a promise 2. Then no soul might receive a promise nor believe a promise before he saw his own faith That is a soul till he could say the Lord hath infused the habit of faith into my soul he might not receive any promise The
near God he calls for a days-man There is no days-man between us that he might lay his hand upon us both that is there is no mediator to mediate between God and me to bring me near to him till Jesus Christ become a days-man between God and the Soul that by vertue of his mediation there is an union made up God and the Soul stand at enmity there is an high wall of partition built up between God and the Soul Now because the Lord from eternity determined to bring some souls into union with himself therefore for the accomplishing his own will he intends the Gospel instrumentally to draw souls into union with the Lord Jesus for the perfecting union with him self Reas 2. The Lord doth it That he might communicate of his own glorious excellencies into souls Now without this union with the Lord Christ there can be no communications of those excellencies into souls though there may be some influences into souls without this yet not in that glorious way of communicating himself whereby the Lord intends to make himself admired 1. Without this union there can be no communication of the Lords life and image unto souls That is no communicating of the divine dispositions of his own understanding and will into the understanding and wills of his people that they should live a sutable life to his life 2. Without this union there can be no communication of the love of God unto their souls There may be influences of God into souls without union but no influences of love without union and that in two respects 1. In regard the displeasure of Justice is only removed through the union of Souls with Christ And before offended Justice is appeased there can be nothing but wrath in the bosom of God against souls 2. In regard the Adoption is onely purchased by the Lord Christ All the love that the Lord communicates unto any soul is fatherly love the love of Adoption Now adoption comes onely by Christ who purchased Adoption for us I mean materially though originally it comes from God 3. Without this union there can be no communication of any mercy Mercy is love respecting an object as miserable Now man as made miserable by Sin cannot expect the least dram of mercy from God but by a Mediator such a Mediator as shall satisfie Justice Now without union with Christ there is no vertue of Mediation conveyed into the soul and thence none of the mercy of God is conveyed into the soul 4. Without this union there could be no full communication of the Lord unto Souls Though indeed the Lord might glorifie himself in communicating some degrees of his excellency in some way as making himself glorious in Justice and though outward mercies be communicated by the influences of his power in protection and of his wisdom and providence in ordering things 5. There could be no everlasting communication of God without union Were it not for the union of Souls with Christ the sentence past upon souls in the loyns of Adam would be a sentence of death upon them Now the Lord intends to have eternal glory by the eternal communication of himself unto the souls of his Saints and therefore he intends to draw them into union with Christ This the Lord intends in two respects 1. In regard the communication of Gods excellencies are essential unto him It is as natural unto God to be pouring out of his excellencies into souls as it is natural for the Sun to infuse beams of light upon the creatures 2. In regard it is the highest delight and contentment of God to be communicating of himself unto his creatures The Lord takes greatest pleasure in pouring forth his own fulness into the bosoms of empty souls in two respects First in regard the communication of his excellencies unto souls is the manifestation of his own glory The excellency of God is made known by communicating of it to others Then the excellency of his holiness appears when it is poured into souls Then love and grace appear when it is fixed upon the soul of a worthless worm Secondly this communicating of himself is the highest delight and contentment of God in regard it is the pouring forth of himself into his own beloved objects It is so Essential to God to communicate of himself that he takes contentment in it be it to what creature soever be it to an enemy the Lord delights in the act of it in regard he attains his own highest end that ever his eye of intention was fixed upon which is the manifestation of his own glory Much more the Lord takes delight in communicating himself to the souls of his Saints in regard those are chosen to that end Now where there is an object beloved there is always delight in doing good to such an object Therefore the Lord draws souls into union with Jesus Christ that they may be sutable subjects to communicate himself to Reas 3. The Lord intends to draw souls into union with the Lord Christ by revealing the truths of the Gospel because he hath purposed and determined to make the mystical body of Christ the object of his own delight and contentment to all eternity 1. The Lord takes pleasure in dwelling among them and manifesting himself to them 2 Cor. 6.16 It is the priviledge of the Saints to have God dwell among them here much more does the Lord intend to dwell among them to eternity 2. The Lord intends they should be his delight in having sweet familiarity and precious converse with them That converse properly consists in two things First in the Lords opening and revealing to their souls all the secrets of his ways and works that ever were manifested in the world and that in their intended issue and effects That manifestation of the beams of his own glory that shined in all his ways is a kind of familiar talk with the souls of his Saints Secondly it consists in the Lords being among them familiarly without terrifying or affrighting them Then Job shall have his desire Chap. 9.34 Let not his face terrifie me c. 3. That their souls might have perfect communion with him constant communion without interruption and intermission Now when there is a sutableness of the object for the perfection of love then there is a sutableness for the perfection of delight it being nothing but love in rest or love injoying the beloved object Reas 4. The Lord intends this by the Gospel to bring souls into union in regard he intends to manifest the glory of the incomprehensible riches of his own love in and through their souls Isa 43.7 Bring forth my Sons and Daughters that I have created for my glory Now the Lord accounts the manifestation of the riches of his love and compassion to poor worthless man to be one of the most precious bright shining beams of his own glory Therefore when Moses desired his glory to pass before him he proclaimed his name the Lord
Ordinances beneath or without union with the Lord Christ As when the soul aims at no higher ends then sorrow for sin or some reformation of life or drawing the heart to the performance of some duties of worship as private prayer reading or the like then the heart walks contrary to God in Gospel Ordinances Here are two things to be considered First while thy soul satisfies it self in any of these thou dost remain a disobedient one to the Gospel of Christ Let thy sorrow for sin be what it will let thy reformation be outward and inward as thou conceivest the prayers thou performest be what they will so long as thou takest contentment without beholding the union compleated between Christ and thy soul thou art still a disobedient one to the Gospel of Christ There is not the least dram of spiritual obedience in all those duties but the great command being neglected thou art a rebel still to the Crown of heaven Secondly Thou art a stranger to all true Gospel worship Without me ye can do nothing John 15.5 Without me That is while your souls are disjoyned from me It is not only meant without my aid but without an union with me Thou art as far from right praying and hearing in a manner as ever while thou art void of this union 3. The third miscarriage is in the order of the workings of the affections towards God in Gospel Ordinances That is the fixing the intentions of the soul upon obtaining any other ends through Gospel Ordinances before obtaining union with the Lord Christ The soul once sensible of the want of union with Christ beholding his State a divided estate between Christ and his Soul many times longs after an union but propounds to himself a disorderly way of obtaining it he propounds the gaining of holiness and holy qualifications as the means to attain this union with Jesus Christ Saith the Soul while I remain thus it is impossible to gain union Is it possible such a filthy heart while it remains thus should be united to the Lord Christ Now here I meet with a question that will be propounded by the soul Quest Is union with Christ the first intent of God in revealing Gospel truths Does not the Lord require there should first be a mortifying of corruption a drawing the heart from Sin that there should be a cutting off from the old stock that it might be ingrafted into the new vine Jesus Christ Answ In answering this there are two things first to be premised Premise 1. First I must premise this That the revealed will of God is the onely proper object of the souls faith So that we are not to enquire whether the Lord may have any secret intent in his own bosom sometimes to lay a soul exceeding low and rent and tear the heart with sorrow first as intending to use these terrours in the soul instrumentally to draw it into union Premise 2. Secondly I must premise That I speak only of the proper union of the Soul with Christ when we ask whether it be the first effect the Lord intends the Gospel should have upon the heart Now these two things premised I shall answer the question affirmatively That the first effect that God intends the Gospel should have upon the heart is the union of the Soul with Jesus Christ The Lord intends that before he intends the drawing of the soul from any sin before he intends the drawing it to any holiness before he intends so much as to draw it to prayer There is nothing to be imagined that the Lord intends to be wrought in the heart by the Gospel of Christ before the union of the Soul with Christ and that will appear in four particulars 1. The Lord propounds the Lord Christ to the soul lying dead in sin immediately to be received The voice of the Lord is Thou poor lost soul that art now dead in sin that art utterly lost do thou hear and receive the Son of my bosom the Lord Christ to mediate between thee and me and to be a days man to lay his hand upon us both and whereas there is now a division between thee and me I will be reconciled to thee and will be thine and thou shalt be mine We have a notable place in Ezek. 16.6 8. Saith God Thy father was an Amorite and thy mother was an Hittite and when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood live And when I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time was the time of love not only wherein he propounded his love but set his love then I entred into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord God and thou becamest mine If the Lord enter into Covenant with the soul while it lies in its bloud and as it is in its blood the Lord receives it into Covenant then the Covenant of marriage must needs be propounded to the soul while it lies thus dead in sin I might add Rom. 4.4 5 6. Rom. 5.10 Even when we were enemies he did reconcile us to himself There is the union of agreement held forth There is no middle state that God calls the soul unto between enmity and amity but there is an immediate passage from enmity into union into a state of agreement Therefore saith the Apostle Eph. 2.1 You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins If Jesus Christ conveyed life into them when they were dead then he was propounded to them as life also even while they were dead 2. There lies an injunction upon the soul at the present to receive the Lord Christ into union while he lies dead in his sins This is the command of God that ye believe that is that you receive the Lord Jesus whom he hath sent and take him into union with your souls and saith he this is the work of God Now none deny but the command of receiving Christ into union lies upon souls dead in sins for the present And none dare affirm that God commands the soul to walk in disobedience to his great and highest command while he should walk in obedience to an inferiour command Now every moment the soul receives not Christ into union it continues in disobedience Now who can be so blockish as to conceive the Lord allow the soul to stay one moment in disobedience to any command And if so then the Lord requires that the soul should receive Jesus Christ into union that moment that he is propounded 3. It appears because there can no spiritual act proceed from the soul without union compleated Saith Christ John 15.5 Without me the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is separate from me ye can do nothing The least holy spiritual motion that can be imagined cannot be put forth by the soul while it remains without union The dead branches cannot bring forth fruit saith Christ Every branch that is not in me withereth A dead
man cannot walk nor move neither can a dead soul without union with Jesus Christ either walk or move in the least measure So that there cannot be the least step set from one corruption while the soul remains without union I deny not but the Lord may cause the branches of sin to be cut off and the acts of sin to be suspended through the terrours and horrours of the law and fear of the wrath of God but the habit of sin remains the same still and the enmity works as strongly in the bosom against Jesus Christ as before though it doth not appear so much Therefore it is impossible there should be a departing from sin till the soul be brought into union with Jesus Christ much less that it should be acting any holiness or performing any spiritual duty whatsoever Now in regard the Lord requires the soul at the same moment that he receives the Gospel to depart from all iniquity and requires all spiritual duties in their perfection therefore the Lord requires the means to be performed by the soul to yield obedience to the great command that is the receiving Jesus Christ into union 4. There are no degrees tending to the perfection of the union of the soul with Christ nor nothing that can in its own nature tend in an orderly way to the procuring of that union of the soul with Christ I deny not but the Lord may according to his own pleasure use and imploy many things as antecedents going before this union but after the effecting of all these things in the heart that thou conceivest tend in order to union with Jesus Christ the soul is no nearer union than it was before any of these things were effected in the heart The reason is plain there is no medium between union and separation and disjunction The nearest point the soul can stand at is enmity Now all that can be effected in the heart before compleating union takes not away the enmity The soul moralized or civilized humbled and brought to prayer is still an enemy There is but terminus à quo and ad quem the term from which and the term to which without any medium or middle State Nay there is no degree of the union but a soul passeth from a State of enmity to perfect union in one instant in one moment That soul that this moment was an enemy at an infinite distance from God the next moment the Lord coming in by an inevitable light into the understanding and irresistable power into the will is as compleatly united to Christ as any soul in heaven Vse III. The third use is by way of examination to see if the precious Gospel truths have had their effects upon our hearts And to this end search into your hearts to see whether you be united to Jesus Christ Either you are united to Christ or you are not united Either you are sinking in the depths of sin or you are upon the rock Christ and all depends upon the knowing of this Consider these three of four things I. What a cursed stupidity and blockishness 't is not to know whether Jesus Christ be united to thee or at a distance from thee Would we not think that man a block that knows not whether he be alive or dead II. Consider how cursedly thou dost despise the Lord Christ Wilt thou ride an hundred miles to make sure of an earthly estate and shall the great treasure of heaven stand open to thee and either 't is thine or 't is not thine and thou knowest not III. Consider how wretchedly thy soul destroys the vertue of all Gospel Ordinances by disregarding this search While thy soul perseveres carelesly not regarding nor examining whether Jesus Christ be one with thee impossible it is that any of the most powerful Gospel Ordinances should ever convey the least benefit into thy Soul And that in two respects 1. In that thou makest thy self an unsutable subject for every Gospel Ordinance Ordinances have but two ends either to allure thy soul into union or else to seal that union and let thy soul enjoy that blessed fruit thereof Now whilst thou never mindest whether Christ be one with thee or no thou art unsutable for every Ordinance of that kind 2. Thou preventest the efficacy of every Gospel Ordinance upon thy soul What concernment is it of to thy soul when the most precious arguments of love are set forth by the mouth of a messenger of God when thou mindest it not First it prevents the efficacy of all Gospel Ordinances in regard there can be no sense of the want of union while thy soul neglects the search Till the prodigal came to consider he was from his fathers house where there was bread enough he had no desire to return but was content to feed upon husks Secondly there can be no sense of the Lords choosing thy soul into union Though the sense of the want of union be of absolute necessity to every soul before Gospel Ordinances take effect yet this is not sufficient some think there must be a sense of the Lords choosing of the soul before the soul can close in union with Christ and till then there can never be a consent of the will Now how can there be a sense of the Lords choosing thee into union when thou mindest not whether thou beest already united to Christ or no IV. Consider how wrongfully thou usurpest the name of a Christian to thy self when thou regardest not whether union between Christ and thy Soul be made up The name of a Christian at least presupposeth an union of peace then it presupposeth a time when it was made up and if such an union be not made up thou dost wrongfully usurp that holy name to thy self But here may be a Question propounded by the Soul Quest How shall I know whether I be united to Christ or no Or what is it that may evidence the souls union I shall first premise two or three things and then give an answer to the question Premise 1. First I shall premise That the union between the Lord Christ and the Soul may be invisible to the Soul it self Though the marriage knot may be knit yet the soul may not be able to discern it The rational soul is united to the body of a poor infant in the womb while it is a poor Embrio yet the rational soul knows it not through the weakness of the organs by which it should work Thus it may be with the soul It may be begotten to the Lord Christ by his spirit and yet the soul being but a babe in Christ through the imperfection of knowledge may not be able to discern himself united to Christ Premise 2. Secondly I must premise That there may be a true and real union between Christ and the soul and yet the soul may discern many disorders and sad miscarriages in it self when the union was effected or produced in that soul The Apostles themselves at their
first embracing of Christ had strange conceits of a temporal kingdom of Christ and yet no question the union between Christ and their souls was real only through want of clearness of light many disorderly affections were in them which were set in order afterwards Premise 3. Thirdly I must premise also That there is a vast difference to be observed between arguments or confirming signs of union with Christ and evidences of union with Christ Those properly are called evidences that do in their proper nature discover union whenever they are present So that when such things are present the soul cannot question his union with Christ And those cannot properly be called evidences that are not able to clear up union with Christ whenever they are present in the soul Now of that nature are many holy dispositions and holy qualities in the soul that may be present in the soul and not able to clear up the souls union yet these are evidences that may and do clear unquestionably whenever the Lord discovers them The Question you ask is a great question The question is how we shall know our union with Christ That is how we may attain evidences of union our union either being dark or doubtful or else never had clear evidences You that have it do not ask how you shall have it confirmed more and more but how you shall have evidences of your union Now I shall answer First Negatively how you may not Secondly Affirmatively how you may Neg. First negatively how you may not in three or four things Ans 1. First the souls union with Christ cannot be evidenced from any work of the spirit of God that is effected in or upon the soul That is neither by his Illumination Humiliation or Reformation Neither by a restraining work from sin or preventing work of sin or alluring work from sin that the spirit of God hath effected upon the soul All these works are too weak to clear up union to the soul and that upon three grounds 1. In regard all the works of the Spirit upon the Soul that do go before Union may be and are wrought upon Souls that never obtain Union with the Lord Christ As Humiliation sorrow for Sin restraint from Sin some kind of turning the Heart away from Sin some kind of love to the Ordinances of God All those that go before the very instant wherein the Soul is United to Christ may be effected in many Souls that never obtain Union Nay they may be and appear greater in many Souls that never obtained Union than in Souls that attain unto Union with Christ And in regard those works of the Spirit upon Souls are common to Souls that are not United as well as to Souls United thence they are no Evidences of a Souls Union Whatever must evidence Union to a Soul must be proper and peculiar to Souls United that it may be properly said that no Souls that are not compleatly United to Christ can have such a work upon their Hearts Now no such work goes before immediate union but may be common to a Soul never United to Christ For Conviction of Sin and Sorrow for Sin I might instance in Judas In reformation and desire to Ordinances we need go no further than a Wretched Herod Mark 6.20 He heard John Baptist gladly and reformed many things For a Souls Mourning after God apparently we may see it in Esau A Soul out of the sense of want of Union may Mourn most bitterly Now in regard of rhe Commonality of the works to Souls not United as well as unto Souls United they can be no Evidences of Union 2. In regard these works of the Spirit upon the Soul can yield no Divine Witness or Testimony unto the poor doubting Soul Indeed all the works of God Originally are Divine Works and Works of Divine Power yet they have no Power to yield a Divine Testimony Now nothing can be a sufficient ground for the Soul to believe its Union with Christ unless it be a Divine ground The proper object of all Divine Faith must be a Divine ground If it be a Fallible Ground it is a Fallible Faith if an uncertain Ground it is an uncertain Faith if a Humane Ground it is a Humane Faith Now in case upon those grounds as the sight of such works of the Spirit of God the Soul should believe its Union with Christ it should not believe it with a Divine Faith because there is no Divine ground to believe it upon 3. In regard there is no promise of Union with Jesus Christ made by God unto Souls that have these works of the Spirit of God upon them That is no promise to the Soul that is Burdened with Sin or the like I mean thus the Lord doth not engage in any of these promises to Souls that had such and such Works of the Spirit of God upon them that those he would bring into Union and none but those That is because my Soul is burdened with Sin or because the Spirit of God hath now convinced my Soul in this or that manner that therefore I have right to such and such a promise No these Promises are made to Souls in reference to Union with Christ that by Union with Jesus Christ I might have right to these Promises and to the effecting those Qualifications in the Soul too Ans 2. Secondly we cannot evidence our Union by any thing inherent in the Soul That is not by any gracious Quality Habit Inclination or Disposition that is infused from God into the Soul The Graces of the Spirit Communicated to the Soul and dwelling in it are as insufficient to manifest and evidence this interest in Christ as the workings of the Spirit upon the Soul I mean all holy Dispositions and Inclinations that are Communicated to any Soul And that upon these grounds I. In regard of the neer similitude and likeness of Counterfeit Qualities and Graces to all those Holy Qualities and Graces and Habits that can be discovered in a Soul The Devil hath his Artists at work as well as the Spirit of God is at work and there is no precious Jewel of Grace the Spirit frames in the Soul but the Devils Artists can Counterseit a Jewel of as neer Similitude as possible only to delude poor Souls Yea there is such a neerness of likeness in those false Dispositions to those True Precious Holy Qualities as the imperfect sight of the Soul cannot possibly discern the difference when the Union of the Soul is dark As to instance in Poverty of Spirit which is an emptiness of the Soul of all Confidence in it self being nothing in its own eyes Mark what a neer Counterfeit the Devils Artists can make cursed Pride of Spirit so as it can scarce be discerned nay so neer as the Soul commonly mistakes A Soul is convinced of Sin and moved to accept of the Lord Christ tendred Now comes the Devil What such a Cursed Wretch as thou art receive the Lord
Christ tendred The Lord Christ is of Holy Pure Undefiled eyes purer than to behold Iniquity Canst think the Lord will accept of such a forlorn Soul as thine that hath so cursedly Rebelled against him O no saith the Soul I dare not conceive God will look upon me who am such a Cursed Wretch Alas poor Soul thou thinkest this to be Poverty of Spirit when indeed it is Cursed Pride Thou wouldest have some ground of Confidence in thy self that the Lord should accept of thee and thou thinkest it great Humility in thy self like another Peter what Jesus Christ Wash my Feet Now what neer likeness is here between this Pride of Spirit and Poverty of Spirit All the difference is here that the Soul that is truly poor desires never to have any thing in himself to rest upon The Soul hath no hope of ever having any thing as it is in itself and alas this difference is hardly discerned Thus also if you go to Sincerity of Obedience Saith the Soul though I do fail in my purposes yet I hope my Heart is sincere towards God in all that I do and that is given as another evidence of the Souls Union I say it is true but the question is how we shall discern it from the meer working of Ignorance Sincerity is a single eye to the Will of God and to his Honour and Glory in what thou dost but according to the Souls Judgment a Soul acted meerly by the principle of Ignorance may have a single eye at Gods Glory Rom. 10.2 3. The Jews had a Zeal for God but not according to knowledge and so they went about to establish their own Righteousness Hence the Soul will say I think I have Sincerity of heart but I do not certainly know I may be deceived Thus in these chief things there is such a neerness that we can scarce discern the Jewel from the Counterfeit II. In regard those holy Dispositions Inclinations and Habits of Grace do properly proceed from some kind of evidence of a Souls Union and according to the clearness of the Souls evidence of Union so do these Graces increase and according as the Souls Union is eclipsed so do they decrease To begin with that which most promises seem to be made to that is to Mourners Whence does true Mourning for Sin in the Soul proceed Is it not from a sight of the Lord Christ Yea from some sight of the Souls propriety in Christ at least thus far from some sight of probable interest in Christ Is it not from thence the Soul beholds first the cursed nature of Sin Indeed the horridness of the nature of Sin never appears but in the precious glass of the Lords Bowels of Mercy to poor Loveless Souls III. In regard the right nature and truth of those Holy Qualities or Habits of Grace in the Soul cannot be discerned but from the sight of the Union of the Soul with Christ And that in these respects 1. In regard there is not a full conformity in those Holy Qualities inherent in thy Heart to the rule of the Word that doth command those Holy Qualities Should I begin at the lowest which is Sincerity of heart in the Souls Obedience unto God The Soul can seldom I might say never see a Conformity in his Obedience to the rule of the word The rule is in Eph. 6.5 6. it is spoken concerning Servants but it holdeth in every duty Servants be Obedient to them that are your Masters according to the Flesh with fear and Trembling in singleness of your Heart as unto Christ not with eye-Service as men-pleasers but as the Servants of Christ doing the Will of God from the Heart True Sincerity in Obedience to any command it is a singleness of Heart unto Jesus Christ a single eye that is having respect to nothing but Christ alone The species of all the vision of that eye with which he respects the duty being taken from Jesus Christ alone Now how far short shall a Soul see it self of a conformity to the rule When can the soul say his heart was single to Christ in prayer or in any Ordinance Now in regard the soul may behold at all times so great a difference in the holy qualities inherent in his heart to the rule that it ought to be brought to a full conformity to those holy qualities in the heart cannot evidence unto the soul the truth of its union with Christ The truth of them cannot appear in themselves without a sight of the souls union in regard of the imperfection of the souls sight to discern the depths of his own heart Any knowing soul judgeth it self to be far unable to search the depths of his own heart Jer. 17 9. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Thence it is the soul hath never sufficient evidence of the truth of any holy quality in himself from the quality it self to answer all the objections of a carnal heart because that remains unanswered the heart is deceitful 2. In regard the truth of those holy qualities appear only as they do proceed from faith Therefore unless the soul discerns and knows them to be fruits of faith it cannot conclude them to be holy qualities Hebr. 11.6 Without faith it is impossible to please God Now he that discerns faith discerns union with Christ therefore it must needs be that there is a sight of union before a sight of the truth of those holy qualities Answ 3. The third negative answer is this That the union of the soul with Christ cannot be evidenced by any thing done or effected by the soul or that can be effected and done Whether we look upon works internal or works external whether we look upon the inward moving of the affections to to God or whether we look upon the expressions of those affections that is the breaking out of those affections into prayer and constant intercessions with God into reading and hearing and attending upon ordinances into holiness expressed in the conversation by none of these can the union with Jesus Christ be cleared and evidenced Yet for the right understanding of this these three things are to be considered 1. I do not mean that no work of the soul either inward or outward done by the soul is an evidence of the souls union with Christ Though no work of the soul be able to clear the union and evidence it yet the work may be an evidence in it self The inward act of Faith is an infallible evidence of the souls union where the soul is able to understand that act of Faith to be of the right nature the word of God requires Faith to be in the Soul 2. I do not mean neither in this conclusion that the union of the soul with Christ may be evidenced without the souls beholding any work either inward or outward in it self For infallibly and necessarily in the souls beholding its union with the Lord Christ it does
behold some workings in its spirit also some holy act in and upon Jesus Christ At the same time the soul beholds its union with Jesus Christ it beholds its receiving Jesus Christ which is an act of Faith 3. The meaning of the conclusion is this That no works either inward or outward performed by the soul have sufficient light in themselves to manifest themselves unto the soul nor from themselves and their own nature to manifest the union of the soul with Christ Though there is an inward act of soul that is an inseparable evidence of the souls union which is the act of Faith yet that act of Faith in it self considered as is is the meer act and work of the soul hath not sufficient light in it self to discover it self to the soul that it is the inseparable act of the souls union Likewise is every work of the soul inward or outward of the same nature The works of the soul may be works of light and yet the beams of light shine so dimly forth as they cannot discover their own nature to the soul they cannot discover themselves to be those works that the Scripture holds forth to be the infallible consequence of the souls union with Christ And that the works of the soul have not sufficient light in themselves to discover union will appear in divers respects 1. Because all the works of the soul united to Christ may be present in the soul when the union of the soul with Christ is obscure and dark The act of Faith that is the most eminent effect of the souls union with Christ may be very strong in the soul when the soul may be yet dark A clear instance will be given in Mat. 27.46 by the Captain of our Salvation who believed when he hung upon the Cross and exercised Faith in God as appears in those words My God yet the union between Jesus Christ and God the Father as Mediator was dark that made him cry out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me The hypostatical union was firm and as firm as now it is in heaven but the manifestation of that union was obscure when the Lord Christ did bear the greatest burden of the consequence of sin that was possible in bearing the sense of the absence of God from him for a season 2. It appears in regard the union between Christ and the soul is only passive The union is compleat between Jesus Christ and the soul before any one act goes forth from the soul unto Christ It is impossible there should be the least motion of the soul towards the perfecting or compleating of the union between Christ and the soul unless we could conceive there may be motions in dead persons that there may be action where there is no life Now the union being passive there may be a manifestation of the union between Jesus Christ and the soul at the same time at the same moment that the union between Christ and the soul is compleated I do not say it is ordinary but I say there may be a sight of the Lord Christ coming down into the heart in that instant and moment wherein Jesus Christ does take actual possession of the heart and unite it unto himself Now in case the union of the soul should be so evidenced with Christ then should all works either inward or outward in the soul be excluded from having any interest in the manifestation of that union 3. In regard the same kind of works that do arise properly from the union of the soul with Christ though not peculiarly may arise from other principles where there is no union There are three false originals of such outward works 1. God himself may be the Original of such works in some souls though not by vertue of union nor in relation unto union That is though the Lord convey not any influences that are the proper influences peculiar unto union nor though the Lord does not convey those influences into the soul from whence those outward works proceed to bring the soul into union with Jesus Christ Prayer and revealing the truths of God and reading of them and all outward works of a soul may be produced by God in the soul only in relation to other souls that are already united to himself The Lord may convey large streams of gifts and inward affections unto some souls and excite them to the imploying of all those gifts in all outward works of his own worship only in respect to the good of his own peoples souls when the Lord intends not any benefit to the soul that partakes of those gifts Thus the Lord dealt with Cyrus Isa 45.1 and Chap. 44.28 Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus he is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure even saying to Jerusalem thou shalt be built and to the Temple thy foundation shall he laid The Lord did convey strength to Cyrus to carry him on in a glorious work of reforming his worship and to build the Temple when the Lord intended no good to Cyrus I mean so as to bring his soul into union with Christ Thus God furnished John with Zeal against Idolatry for the good of his peoples souls and it redounded little to the good of his soul For ought we know Judas was furnished with as good gifts as the rest of the Apostles and seemed to pray with as much earnestness and publish the truths of Christ with as much Zeal as any of the Apostles whereas none of those gifts that Judas had were conveyed by vertue of the union of his soul with Christ nor were given with an intent to bring his soul into union 2. A second false original of such works is the souls own principle of self Self ends self lusts self intendments may be like the spring that may set all the wheels of the affections on work and produce all those outward expressions in the work of God Certainly it was one of the chief intendments in the Pharisees in all their works of holiness and strictness in their conversation that they might advance themselves outwardly and to eternity and thought to tie God to give them heaven for it 3. The third false original of works that properly flow from union is from the Devil himself The workings of prayer of hearing of meditating or forsaking sin in the conversation may come from the Devil himself he taking his opportunity to sail with the wind and row with the tide He seeing the Affections work towards duties of holiness he presses with all his might to the performance of them that he might weary out the soul with them or else cause the confidence of the soul to be placed in them and the soul to promise it self happiness by them Certainly the Zeal of Paul that he had for God and the law of God was acted by the Devil himself And Saul that was so Zealous to offer sacrifice before he went to battle it was from the Devil Those souls
that are pressed so violently unto prayer as they will neglect their callings to multiply duties of prayer I question not though such excitations come from conscience to urge them yet they are originally from the Devil himself And certainly many a soul hath found the sad effect of the Devil in it in causing the soul to be weary of all duties and to cast them off Now in regard the original of the souls works that it performs is thus questionable whether they have their original from the souls union with Christ or from one of these false principles Thence these works are not sufficient in themselves to manifest the souls union with Christ The question must first be answered whether these duties flow from union with Christ or no before the other question can be answered whether those works be the proper effects of union And till that question be answered the soul can never conclude from his works that he is united to Jesus Christ 4. Nothing that is done by the soul can manifest the souls union in regard the union of the soul with Christ cannot be concluded from works as a necessary truth grounded upon an unchangeable and infallible reason That is the great distinction between opinion and knowledge That knowledg is the apprehension of a truth flowing necessarily from an unchangable ground whereas opinion flowes onely from a probable ground Now the works of the soul can never be an unchangeable ground from whence the soul can conclude himself to be united to Christ in three regards 1. In regard no work simply considered in it self without respect to its original can be concluded to be a fruit or consequence of the souls union The same kind of work may be performed from a false original as well by vertue of influences from the Devil into our hearts as from God Therefore till it discern that the original is from Christ that it was by the very motion and stirring of Christ in the heart that the work was done the soul cannot conclude it to be a consequence of his union Now so long as the work cannot appear to be a consequence of the souls union there can be no infallible ground to conclude that he is united to Jesus Christ 2. In regard no works can manifest union but such as are the peculiar and inseperable effects of the souls union with Christ Now no soul can discern his works to be the peculiar inseperable effect of union unless he can discern and conclude his soul shall continue and persevere to the end in those works But now no Soul can discern or conclude from any thing but from a promise of the God of truth which is only unchangable that he shall persevere in any Holy work whatever and no Soul can lay claim to any promise till he can claim right to Union with Jesus Christ therefore no Soul can see his perseverance in any such work till he see his Union with Christ 3. In regard the Judgment that the Soul passeth upon those works is a deceivable Judgment The heart being a bottomless depth that is unsearchable the nature of all his works cannot be discerned by the weak capacity of the Soul thence the Soul cannot draw that conclusion from them as a certain consequence of his Union with Christ Ans 4. Neither can the Union of the Soul with Christ be thus evidenced from the outward Revelation of the nature and manner of the Union of the Soul with Christ I do not mean that the Union of the Soul with Christ may not be evidenced by the revelation of the nature and manner of the Union of the Soul with Christ The Lord Christ doth ordinarily through those Revelations of his truth cause the impression of truth to remain upon Spirits The Lord by revealing to Souls a Union to be attained by Christ ordinarily draws Souls into Union and by declaring the nature and manner of the Union doth ordinarily discover to Souls thus their Union with Christ Yet the nature and manner of the revelation of the Union considered in themselves is not enough barely considered in themselves to manifest the Union And that will appear in three things I. Because those outward Revelations reach no higher than Reasons eye Now while the light of Truth pierce no farther than the eye of Reason the right Consequences of it are never effected in the Soul That 's the reason that the revelation of the sweetest perswasions of God to allure Souls into Union take no effect upon the Heart of knowing persons because those outward Revelations reach but to Reasons eye and therefore they must hear and learn of the Father before they come to Christ John 6.45 In the same manner is the Revelation of the Union to Souls United as insufficient to satisfy the Soul concerning his Union as those other Revelations of the Lords will to draw Souls into Union 1. In regard the truth to be apprehended which is the Souls particular Union with Christ is far beyond Reasons Comprehension Now while the light reacheth no higher than to Reasons eye Reason not being able to comprehend the truth needs must the truth be inefficacious 2. All the Wranglings and Objections of the Soul against his Union remain in full Power notwithstanding those Revelations to the eye of Reason Till a higher light be set up in the Soul to be Lord Controler as it were of Reason the Soul is never able to believe that is to receive Christ into Union II. In regard those communicate no light to the eye to which those truths are propounded As it is at first in the Lords Conviction of a Soul by the truth the outward revealing of it is insufficient in regard there is no light by those revealings to convey it to the Souls eye for though the truth be made clear and apparent the eye is still blind therefore the Soul is not Convinced So it is in revealing to the Soul its Union the Revelation is insufficient in regard there is no beam of light comes to the Souls eye And though the eye of the Soul have received light from Heaven yet the light to discern the Souls Union must be a new light III. In regard United Souls that fully understand both the nature and manner of Union may be and are frequently yet unsatisfied about their Union Questionless poor Heman in Psal 88. knew well what it was to be accepted of God in Christ and to be one with him and yet was far from apprehending himself to be United but gave up himself for a dead man David when he made that 22 Psalm typically speaking of Christ though applying it to his own condition knew well enough what it was to have the Lord to be his and did hang upon him yet he cried out fearing God had forsaken him Now if the outward Revelation of the nature and manner of the Souls Union with Christ were enough to make the Soul understand its Union then there were no united Soul
that did hear the relation of it and did carefully reflect upon his own heart but must be satisfied about his union but our experience tells us this that the most understanding Souls about union are hardest to be satisfied about their union Thus you have the negative part of the answer opened Now before I proceed to the affirmative there is another question will be cast in upon the neck of this Que. 1. But may the Soul say If none of these can evidence to the Soul his Vnion with Christ are all those Souls evidences of Vnion that they have received from something thus inherent in themselves and done upon them by the Spirit of God rotten and unsound and no evidences Must we now cast away all our thoughts of union with Jesus Christ that were formerly gathered from the sight of such qualifications inherent in our souls Before I come to answer this question I must first premise two or three things 1. That the soul hath not conceived either qualities inherent in his soul or works done by his soul as the cause of his union with God in Christ That these should be the uniting means between Christ and thy soul that have drawn the Lord Christ to come into thy heart and to dwel in thee and so to cause thee to dwell in him This were no less than gross Popery to make any thing in our selves the cause of union 2. I also premise That thou hast not taken qualities inherent in thy self or works done by thy self as the ground upon which thou didst believe thy union with Christ This were a very dangerous sandy foundation for a soul to build upon This were to ground a divine faith upon an humane ground to ground a certain conclusion upon a poor changeable ground And this were to make thy faith of no longer lasting than the constancy of thine heart in such works or the constancy of thy sight in beholding such dispositions in thy heart This is both unsafe and exceeding dangerous 3. I must premise That thou mistakest not the ground of thy evidence conceiving thy self to receive thy evidence from qualities inherent in thy self or works done by thy self when thou receivest it from a promise of free grace alone It may be at the same time when the Lord declared to thee his willingness to accept of thy soul into union with Christ and let thee see thine heart closing with that gracious tender he at the same time lets thee see such holy dispositions in thy soul as the consequence of thy union thence it may be thou didst conclude thy evidence was from these when it was from something in the first place before works But if the question be demanded whether thy qualifications thus considered be evidences I answer negatively and affirmatively First they are no right kind of evidences 1. They are no evidences of Faith That which is an evidence unto the eye of Faith must be some truth of God revealed unto faith with such an authority that for the authority of the speaker and revealer of that truth the soul doth believe it and close with it Now in that manner the word alone is proper evidence unto faith Assurance of faith must always have a divine ground to build upon Now there is no divine ground but a divine word and thine own dispositions and graces are no divine but a humane ground 2. They are no evidence of knowledge Knowledge is the assent of the understanding to a necessary truth built upon an unchangeable ground or reason Now the union of thy soul with Christ could never be rightly taken as a necessary truth built upon thine own works as the unchangable reason of it For as you have heard no works done by the soul can be an unchangeable reason upon which a soul may build such a truth as this that he is united unto Christ in regard thou wert never yet fully certain of the right nature of those thy works or of those dispositions in thy soul from whence thou didst gather those thoughts of thy union with Christ Secondly I answer affirmatively they may be improperly called evidences and they may have begotten an evidence of opinion in thy soul though not an evidence of knowledge Opinion is the assent of the understanding to some truth propounded upon the sight of probable grounds and reasons of the truth of the thing propounded Now the sight of thy gracious dispositions and qualifications may be an evidence of opinion to thy soul that is they may have afforded some probable arguments of thy union with Christ And from thence may have flown these three effects of it 1. Thence may have risen a quiet and calm in the soul a cessation from those perturbations and tumults the soul was disquieted with formerly 2. Hence might flow some refreshments A hope of possibility to the poor sinking soul brings admirable refreshment Much like a man being ready to suffer Ship-wrack at Sea seeing but a ship coming towards him gives him hope of being taken in 3. From hence may arise some flitting joy Though Christ do but pass by as it were and the soul does but see his face through a crevis it refresheth his heart Thus far they may be evidences of opinion unto souls But there are divers things that must be noted about this evidence of opinion least we mistake For though I dare not say but these evidences of opinion in many souls may prove such that in the utmost issue of them may hold to eternity yet it is not without great danger to the safety and comfort of such souls Therefore observe I. That these evidences of opinion in souls do yet fall short of raising those souls into a full conformity to the rules of Scripture about and concerning evidences of union And that will appear in three things 1. In regard these evidences of opinion cannot rise to that fulness of certainty and that strength of confidence that the rules concerning evidences of a souls union do require souls to be raised to When this opinion is raised to the highest degree there cannot be a full certainty Now the Scripture requires souls to attain a full confidence about their union with Christ Heb. 10.22 2. In regard the foundation of the souls consolation in these evidences is laid upon a ground disagreeing to the rule The rule is onely the will of God revealed Now the will of God revealed is that there should be immutable grounds upon which the soul should be built Heb. 6.17 18. 3. In regard the consolation of the soul is unsutable in measure and degree to that which God intends for his peoples souls He intends full consolations to them a plerophery of consolation But how weak are those comforts that flow from those weak fluctuating inherent grounds of the souls qualities or the working of those qualities II. You must note about these evidences of opinion That no soul may justly satisfie or content it self with only those evidences of
of faith building upon the certainty of the Lords word Pre. 2. We must know that the Scripture doth make a distinction between assurances of souls union with Christ As in 1 John 4.16 Saith he We know and believe the love of God the father to us He makes a twofold assurance an assurance of knowledg and an assurance of faith Now indeed both the assurance of knowledg and the assurance of faith may in a large sence be called the assurance of a souls union with Christ in regard they have both the properties of knowledg Knowledg is the gathering of a necessary truth from some unchangable ground Now in both these assurances of knowledg and faith the knowledg of the souls union with Christ ariseth as a necessary truth from an unchangable ground The word of God is the unchangable ground from which the soul by the assurance of faith gathers the conclusion to himself that he is united unto Jesus Christ And the beholding the peculiar inseperable effects of a souls union with Christ is that unchangable ground from whence the soul gathers the assurance of knowledg Pre. 3. Thirdly that both the assurance of faith and knowledg are for the most part associates or companions in the same soul at one time They are for the most part cotemporary that is accompanying one another that when one is in the soul the other is in the soul that when a soul hath assurance of faith he hath also the assurance of knowledg And that for a three-fold reason 1. In regard those graces that are the ground of a souls assurance of knowledge are witnessed or declared by the Spirit of God to be given to the soul Whenever the Lord reveals from his own word unto a soul his willingness to take his particular soul into union with the Lord Christ the Lord doth at the same time witness to the soul his willingness to confer and bestow upon him all the grace his soul wants all the holiness the hungry or empty soul is breathing after He doth at the same time assure the soul he shall have love and delight in God he shall have poverty of spirit and strength over corruption 2. Through the assurance of faith those graces that are the grounds of the souls assurance of knowledg are begotten immediately Now in regard these are thus necessarily begotten thence it is the sight of them cometh to be apparent in the soul at the same time that the sight of a ground for assurance of faith is apparent in the soul 3. The lively workings and motions of all kind of graces are excited and stirred up in every soul by or through the Lords revealing unto the soul a ground for assurance of his faith of his union with Christ It is then the soul mourns for sin more sweetly and melts more preciously in the bosom of God than ever before though it may be there have been some heart-breakings under the sense of his wretchedness formerly It is then the soul is truly poor in himself and loaths and abhors himself more than ever before Pre. 4. Fourthly though they be at the same time for the most part in souls yet the assurance of of faith is the first according to order of nature in the soul For it is impossible there should be infallible evidences of the souls union with Christ drawn from his own graces when there is not some unchangable ground manifested from God unto the soul for the assurance of faith So that the assurance of faith in a right orderly way never flows from the assurance of knowledg but the assurance of knowledg flows from the assurance of faith And that arises upon these two grounds 1. In regard it must be the manifestation of the ground of assurance of faith unto the soul by God that doth procure a ground of the assurance of knowledg in the soul That appears thus The grace or love or favour of God is the ground of the assurance of faith Then the Lord doth draw the the soul to assurance of faith when he doth reveal to the soul his own particular grace and favour to take it into union with Christ out of the meer disposition of his own will alone for no other respect whatever but for his own sake Now the grounds of the assurance of knowledg are the effects of the grace of God revealed or the fruit of it Now those are begotten in the soul not by grace but by the manifestation of grace in particular unto the soul It is through grace revealed that grace hath its right proper effect in a soul and according to the measure of the grace of God revealed to a soul it hath the measure and degree of effect According to that in 1 John 3.2 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is That is when we behold him through that sight we shall be transformed into the Image of God For the clearing of this you may consult with divers places as John 15.16 Saith Christ You have not chosen me but I have chosen you He doth not mean that they had not chosen Jesus Christ now at present as their portion but they did not choose Christ first But the manifestation of Jesus Christ choosing their souls first is the ground of the souls choosing Jesus Christ And according to the light revealing to a soul Jesus Christs choice of him so is the degree of strength wherewith the will closeth with Jesus Christ in the choice again Now the choice of Jesus Christ is the first act of any habit of grace that ever any soul brings forth There is no gracious act truly graciously acted by any soul till the will of the soul be drawn in upon the sight of the Lords choosing him to union with himself upon which the will also chooseth Jesus Christ into union with him And again you may consult with that known place in 1 John 4.19 Saith he we love him because he first loved us Not that from the essence of Gods love their love did proceed though that be true but from the manifestation of Gods love Now as the Apostle tells us Gala. 5 6. Faith worketh by Love The very first operation of the habit of Faith towards Christ is by love The soul at the same time it reacheth out a hand of Faith to grasp hold of Christ it reacheth out also an hand of Love unto Christ Now then observe the Graces and workings of Graces being the only ground for a soul to gather assurance of knowledge from and those Graces not being begotten in a soul but according to the degree of the Lords manifestation unto souls a ground of assurance of their union with Christ Thence it is that assurance of Faith must needs in order of nature go before the assurance of knowledge 2. The effects of grace which are always the grounds of the souls assurance of knowledge remain dark and hidden and obscure to the
soul when the grace of God that is the favour of God to the soul remains obscure and doubtful The truth of graces appears most clearly from their Original from whence they spring from the root upon which they grow in regard other Fruits may have so near a resemblance to them as they cannot be discerned by the eye of the soul that hath so much darkness in it whilst it remains here below But when the original of grace appears when the soul sees his love flowing meerly from the love of God to his soul that even because of Gods love to the soul therefore the soul loves God again it is then that love appears in the soul to be of the right stamp and indeed never till then So that till the love or poverty of spirit or mourning for Sin appear to the soul it self to be that which is the proper effect the proper consequence of the souls union with Christ the soul cannot be satisfied that his graces are of the right stamp Now in regard the effects of grace are doubtful when the grace of God himself to the soul is obscure and hidden Thence it is that the assurance of Faith must go before in order of nature the assurance of knowledge though for the most part not in order of time Now these things considered when you ask how the soul may know his Union with Jesus Christ The question must be concerning this assurance of Faith and not of the assurance of knowledge for you presuppose your selves not to have any union Therefore observe what question you ask you ask how you may gain an assurance of Faith that your particular souls are united unto Jesus Christ Now this question will divide it self into two questions First how souls do attain the first certain infallible evidence of their union with Christ Secondly How souls that do conceive and judge and estimate themselves to have attained their union with Christ may know whether their union be true whether their evidences be right evidences or whether they be delusions The first question must resolve every poor doubting scrupulous soul about his Union But now observe such souls cannot expect satisfaction from me about the union of their souls nor from any thing that man or the Wisdom of man can reveal unto their souls And that will appear in these four respects 1. In regard the producing Faith in the soul is an act of Almighty Power As you may see Ephe. 1.19 When he prays that they might understand the hope of their calling he prays also that they might understand and know the exceeding greatness of his Power to those that believe according to the working of his Mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead It is called a work of the Lords Power and a Mighty Power that is a Power of God as God as an incomprehensible essence For it was no other Power than the Power of God as God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead and the Holy Ghost parallels that Power that draws the soul to believe with the Power of the Godhead 2. The producing the consequence of Faith of assurance in the soul is also another mighty work of the Power of God The consequence is the peace and Harmony in the souls bosom the setling of the poor tossed soul in his own wished for Heaven Now the begetting such Peace in the soul is ascribed to the Power of God Isa 57.18 19. He creates Peace Creation is a work that is proper to God alone as he is God as he is the infinite Divine essence Creation is to make something of nothing and therefore beyond the Power of all Creatures whatever 3. It must be a supernatural Divine light that can reveal to the soul the ground of the assurance of Faith Therefore you shall see Ephe. 1.17 18. how the Apostle desiring that those Ephesians might be brought to understand the depth of the Covenant of grace in their souls he prays to God that he would send into their Hearts the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that they might know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints What is the hope of his calling That is what are the things hoped for and propounded as the objects of hope in the Lords calling souls You see there is a necessity both of the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation Not only of a Spirit of Wisdom that is of an habit of Spiritual Life and understanding infused into the soul but of a Spirit of Revelation that there might be a light of Revelation from the spirit to discover those deep hidden things unto the spirit of understanding that the Lord hath infused into the soul Now all the Revelations of man unto your souls scrupulous about your union can reveal no more than an external and outward light to the outward eye of your understanding And thence it is your scrupulous souls can receive no satisfaction about your union from any thing that can be revealed by man unto your souls But I pray mistake not I do not say the soul may not receive any satisfaction through that as a means but rather I affirm that through those Revelations of truths unto the eye of the natural understanding the Lord doth communicate true light into the spiritual understanding The Lord strikes in with the revelation of truths and puts light upon truths and puts light into the soul to receive those truths 4. In regard the Lord hath appointed a peculiar Officer for that end and hath designed that work of satisfying souls about their union for that Officer as peculiar to him alone Thence you shall see the Lord hath given the Officer a name sutable for that end which is the Comforter John 14.26 and commonly he is called as well by that name alone as the Spirit of God Now the office of the spirit is to lead into all truth John 16.13 and it must be truth that is some revelation of the mind of God that must give such souls satisfaction about their union Now in regard of all this it is evident that souls scrupulous about their union cannot expect satisfaction from any thing revealed by any man to their Souls but only so far as the resolution of this question will give them satisfaction and that 's in two things First in revealing to their Souls the insufficiency of their commonly supposed grounds from whence they seek for evidence of their union Secondly in raising their eyes of expectation to the right original of evidences of union We shall now proceed to the answer of this great question How souls attain the evidence of their union with Christ And yet before this question can be answered it will divide it self into theee Branches First from whence or from what ground souls do attain the infallible evidences of their union with Christ Secondly by what means do souls attain the evidences of their union
or precious habit of love to Jesus Christ in the soul is an effect of the Covenant of Grace it self Now that the Covenant should be made to that which is the proper effect of the Covenant of Grace it self no man can conceive And that demonstration is sufficient to clear all other promises of this nature So if you examine the promise made to fear Psal 34.7 8. The Angels of the Lord pitch their tents about them that fear him It is taken for a promise but it is only the priviledge of the Saints So likewise look to all the promises of obedience Deut. 5.10 The Lord reserves mercy for a thousand generations of them that love him and keep his commandments There is a large promise that seems to be made to obedience But no soul understanding the absolute decree of God from eternity can conceive the obedience of any soul should be the motive that should move God to shew mercy to the soul or body or that God should bind himself to his own people yielding obedience to him to become a debtor to their posterity in respect of their obedience for then the mercies their posterity should enjoy should owe their immediate being and the glory of their being to their immediate ancestors and not to God as the immediate cause of the being of their mercies Therefore these are only declarations of the priviledges of the people of God and all these promises are only manifestations of his goodness to them for the manifestation of the riches of his Grace for refreshing their spirits and for the causing them to be precious in the esteem of others 3. If those promises that seeem to be made to qualities in the soul as unto conditions be not thus then they are only descriptions of the persons of those that God doth interest in the glorious priviledges of Christ by the special peculiar Graces that God communicates to them Or else 4. They are discoveries of the means through which God doth convey those priviledges of Christ and of the Covenant of Grace unto persons Of this nature is that promise which seems to be made to a condition Isa 57.17 Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit This that seems to be a promise made to a soul indued by the Spirit of God with the Grace of Humility it is but either a description of those persons whom the Lord doth interest in his own special favour out of the riches of his own Grace alone Or else it is a precious Cordial given to a poor drooping Spirit as considered in an estate of penury and poverty as one contrite and ready to give up himself Of this nature are all those promises made to believing and repenting He that believeth and repenteth shall be saved The promise of salvation is not made unto faith as a special grace of God in the soul nor to the person indued with that grace But the thing it self properly is no promise but rather a description of the means through which the Lord makes his people partakers of the special priviledg he conveys through Christ and of the persons he communicates them to by their qualities 5. Those words of God that seem to be promises made unto conditions if none of the four former things contain them then they are descriptions given by the Holy Ghost of the way the Lord requires and inables his people to walk in while he communicates of his own free mercy to them Of this nature is that place so mistaken Ezek 36.27 28 29 30 which is the greatest place conceived to be of weight to prove promises to be made to conditions saith the Lord I will do these and these things for you I will bring you into your Land and make you dwell quietly and safely in your Land and I will save you from your Vncleanness c. But v. 37. Thus saith the Lord God I will yet for this be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them Generally the soul conceives here is the promise and the condition of the promise The promise to be the multitude of Mercies And the condition to be the seeking of the face of God But the meaning of the Holy Ghost is nothing else but to describe the way the Lord requires his people to walk in whilst they are in expectation to receive those precious mercies freely promised by God for them Likewise that in 1 Kings 8 47 48. Solomon prays for his people If they bethink themselves in the Land whither they were carried Captives and repent and make Supplication c. Now saith the Soul here is both the promise and the condition of the promise The condition is seeking Gods face humbling themselves for their Sins turning to God with all their hearts And then there is the promise that God will deliver them but they must observe these conditions else God binds not himself to give deliverance Now the true meaning of the Holy Ghost is only this Solomon in praying here at the dedication of his Temple the Typical House of God beseecheth the Lord that the prayers of all his people made towards that Temple that is towards Jesus Christ typified by that Temple and according to the will of God that they might be all acceptable to God Therefore observe Solomon in praying doth only describe the frame of spirit in Gods people when they come to pray which is an humble frame a turning frame from their Sins Neither doth God make the promises in either of both those places to depend upon any of these duties named not so much as prayer it self Therefore for the clearing these Texts I pray consider these things which may be useful for us for the right understanding the Covenant of grace and the nature of it I. That the duties here required by God from his people are the way wherein it is his will his people should walk in receiving mercies They are not precedent in order of time before the Lords intituling the soul to the whole Covenant of grace and every promise contained in it no nor so much as in order of nature That is that it must be presupposed that the soul have performed such and such duties before it can be presupposed the Lord to have interested the soul in every promise of the Covenant of grace And that will appear in these two things First that the act of the Lords will alone before and without any act of the will of man concurring doth fully intitle the soul to every promise of the Covenant of grace Otherwise it should be conceived that there should be some good will in man towards God before there be any good will in God towards man And so some act of good will from man to God should not flow from the acts of Gods good will to the soul Secondly in regard the
things being thus cleared the question that the soul propounds cannot stand The question was whether it was not from the sight of the condition to which the promise was made and fulfilled in the soul that the soul did conclude his right to the promise and so had his evidence of union with Christ There being no condition in the whole Covenant of Grace to which God hath made any promise it cannot be that it should be from the sight of any such condition that a soul should have his evidence of his union with Christ But then the question will be resolved into this question Quest But saith the soul Doth not the Lord first reveal those graces that he describes his own people by to be in souls and then through the sight of them clear to souls that he hath given them the Lord Christ out of his own good will alone through the promise And so it must be through the sight of such graces as God describes to be in his people that a soul must see himself to be one of Gods people Answ 1. Now to this I answer First That the Lord doth reserve to himself his own liberty concerning his own particular word from whence he doth reveal to souls infallibly their union with Christ The Lord doth not bind himself from a revealing unto souls their union with Christ by some word describing the Graces of the people united unto Christ nor from some word only inviting souls unto Christ Answ 2. Secondly I answer That the Lord doth not evidence unto souls their union with Christ without the sight of those graces in some measure or degree that the holy Ghost describes the Lords own people by When the Lord reveals his own free gift of Christ to the soul he doth reveal to the soul his willing accepting of Christ so given And that 's all one as if I should say the soul sees his own faith and so consequently doth see such graces to be in his soul Answ 3. Thirdly I answer That the Lord doth never reveal any Graces of the Spirit to any Soul as the ground or cause of evidencing unto the soul his union with Christ There are two things intended in this First That the Lord never reveals those graces in souls to be that which gives the soul right to the promise of the gift of Christ The Lord never manifests unto any soul that because there are such and such holy dispositions or precious heavenly qualities that he hath communicated to him that therefore he is enclined towards him and is willing to confer the Lord Jesus upon him or to accept him into union through Christ But the Lord reveals himself willing to accept souls into union with himself in Christ as they are considered under the notion of poor despicable worthless Souls without the least good disposition or holy inclination that can possibly be imagined in their hearts Secondly The Lord never reveals those Graces in the Soul to be the foundation of the Souls assurance That is the Lord doth not manifest to the Soul that because there are such Graces or such precious habits in his Soul therefore upon the sight of those the Soul ought to believe the Lords free sender and free gift of the Lord Christ to it The Lord doth not make those Graces to be the foundation of the Souls faith So that the Souls hope and comfort should rest upon the sight of those Graces that God should discover to be communicated to the Soul And that will appear in two things First If the Lord should cause the Soul by discovering Graces to be in him to bottom its hope upon the sight of those Graces then should the Graces of the Spirit in the Soul be the object of Faith and so Faith should not be the evidence of things not seen but rather the evidence of things seen Now the Scripture never propounds any holy quality in the Soul to be the object of Faith considering the quality as being inherent in the Soul It is out of all question the Scripture propounds believing without the sight of any of those qualities as that which every soul ought to seek after with his greatest strength John 20.29 Secondly Should the Lord manifest Graces to be in Souls first so as to bottom the hopes of their union with Christ upon the sight of those Graces then the Lord should not settle the faith of such Souls upon an immutable unchangable ground The Spirit it self in all its workings both in regard of the person in whom it works in regard of the manner and time of such workings is well compared by Christ to the wind that bloweth where and when it listeth And so all the graces of the Spirit and the workings of those Graces may be said to be changable things and should the Lord ground the Faith of a Soul upon a changable ground he should walk contrary to his revealed will Heb. 6.18 he hath given two immutable grounds his word and oath the Lords will is there should be everlasting constant unchangable grounds upon which every act of Faith should be built in relation to the Lord Christ that there may be unmoveable and unchangable consolation Answ 4. Fourthly I answer That the Lord may and doth to some Souls reveal Graces to be in them before he doth evidence unto their Faith their Union with Christ The Lord may manifest that there is some poverty of Spirit some broken heartedness for Sin some precious change before he doth assure unto their Faith their Union with Christ But then there are two things to be noted for the clearing of this conclusion First That the Lord doth not reveal the truth of such Graces to be in such a Soul unquestionably so as to enable the Soul to conclude from thence the acceptance of his Soul into Union with Christ The dreadfull storm of fear and terrour that may be risen upon the soul may be much alayed but alas there will be many a wave go over the Soul still Secondly That the evidence of the truth of those Graces in the Soul holds equal proportion with that evidence the Lord gives to Faith of the Souls Union with Christ or of the Lords free gift of Christ to him The evidence of the truth of those Graces and the evidence unto Faith runs parallel together They are dark and clear together holding one equal proportion And therefore untill God assure the Faith of the Soul that he is willing to accept him into union with Christ the Soul hath not an unquestionable assurance of the truth of those Graces that are in his Soul Answ 5. It is not the discovery of Grace in a poor doubting Soul but the discovery of the Lords absolute uncontroulable will to receive a Soul into union with the Lord Christ that is the ground from whence the Souls Faith is assured of his Union with Christ that is the ground from whence the Soul is assured of his Union with him Now this
I shall desire to clear from divers particulars 1. In regard the immediate ground of the certainty of the promise or of the Covenant of Grace unto the Soul can be nothing else but the gift of God Therefore saith the Apostle Rom. 4.16 It is of faith that it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed And that the immediate ground of the certainty of the promise must be gift alone appears in two things First In regard the foundation of all must be Grace Eph. 1.6 7. That we might be to the glory of his Grace Therefore in Ezek. 16.62 63. I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord There 's the absolute promise What is the end That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord. This is strange one would think that they should be ashamed and consounded when God is pacified and reveals himself to be pacified But here is the mystery of it The Lord lays Grace as the foundation of all his ways towards them purposely that the glory of all that God communicates to Souls might be to himself alone Secondly In regard there can be nothing else the object of faith There are but two things that can be grounds of certainty It must be either Grace in God or Grace in the Soul Either the love of God or the effects of the love of God in the Soul Now the effects of the love of God in the Soul are things seen ad therefore not the objects of Faith Heb. 11.1 2. The discovery of the absolute will of God must be the only ground of assurance in regard faith can discern no certainty of Gods differencing one soul from another but what the Word of God reveals Now the Word of God reveals no other ground of the Lords differencing one soul from another but only his own will Rom. 9.12.18 3. In regard the sight of the certainty of the souls right of receiving Christ into union with himself doth wholly depend upon a sight of the certainty of the Lords will to recieve the soul into union with Christ Though the Spirit of God hath secretly allured the heart from those dark Visions of Christ to embrace him truly so as there is a real union between Christ and the soul yet the soul cannot judg aright of his receiving the Lord Christ so tendred to be given to his soul till he sees that he did receive the Lord Christ upon the right ground 4. In that it is the souls duty to receive the gifts of God in that order wherein the Lord manifests his giving of his gifts Now the order wherein the Lord propounds his gifts is first the gift of the Lord Christ and then the gift of all graces as the adjunct of the gift of the Lord Christ And thence the Lord invites the soul and commands the soul first in order to receive Christ that so it might partake of all the graces of Christ and all those dispositions of Holiness the soul longs for 5. In that the Lord judgeth it sufficient for assuring the Wavering Trembling soul of a poor sinner fearing the indignation of God against him for his sin You shall read Gen. 3.15 That all the promise that God gave to Adam when out of question the poor man was in great distress was only this That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents Head A meer discovery of his absolute free will without respect to any thing in souls themselves that he would deliver solely by a way devised by his own Wisdom by a Mediatour by taking upon him the humane nature and conquering the powers of Hell that did then hold poor souls captive Could Adam have received no evidence nor no assurance of the Lords accepting his soul into union with himself again in Christ from that promise the soul of Adam had been left altogether comfortless there being no description given by God of any graces that his own spirit did communicate to the souls of such that he had accepted into union with himself 6. In regard the patterns holden forth in Scripture of such as have received their union with Christ received the evidence of their union from the Lords absolute promise from the discovery of his will alone to do good unto their souls In Gen. 15.6 7 8 compared with Rom. 4.18 19. you shall see Abraham the Father of all believers he received the evidence of the Lords blessing him in Christ which is all one with taking into union with Christ only by the discovery of the Lords absolute will towards him Another pattern you see Isa 6.5 6 7 In the sense of his own wretchedness crying out Wo is me I am undone c. A Seraphim flew unto him having a live coal in his hand which he took off the Altar and laid it upon his mouth you must conceive it was done in a Vision and said loe this hath touched thy lips and thine Iniquity is taken away and thy Sin purged Here is an absolute promise of the Lords free love to Isaiah It gives him no Characters at all but tells him his Iniquity is taken away and this satisfied the soul of Isaiah as you may see v. 8. by his readiness to obey the command of God here I am send me And the case is every way parallel only this particularizeth the person of Isaiah whereas other promises are holden forth generally but yet every particular soul is as fully included and the promise is as absolutely spoken to every soul receiving it as it was unto Isaiah And it is the light of the Spirit that shines forth in the promise that doth put as much particularity and doth as much particularize the promise to any one soul as this promise was particularized to Isaiah in a Vision So that it is from the Lords absolute will alone that the soul receives a full ground of his union with Christ That 's the first branch of the 5th Conclusion The second branch of the fifth Conclusion was That it was not the discovery of the graces of the scrupulous soul doubtful of his union that did thus evidence unto the soul his union Now the discovery of graces in the soul still dark in his union cannot be in order the first ground from whence the soul doth receive the evidence of his union Though at the very same instant the soul may by the discovering of those graces see his union and conclude his union from the sight of those graces yet in order of nature this is not the immediate ground that gives the certainty to the soul And that will appear I. In regard the gift of the Lord Christ cannot be first received of a soul by Faith as a soul is gratious or by the soul being considered under the notion of a soul that
hath any Graces or Holy Habits or Qualities inherent in him But the first sight of the gift of the Lord Christ to the soul formerly dark about his union must have respect and relation to the necessities of the soul to whom the gift is manifested else the gift cannot be closed with as sutable Thence it must be manifested as a gift of a Mediatour to a poor despicable and desperate Rebellious Wretch against the highest Majesty of Heaven to mediate with the great Commander of Heaven for pardon to such a poor despicable Rebel It must be received as a gift of a days man that may lay his hand upon both partaies upon God and the Soul as at difference to make up an union Whence it is that the Apostle in opening the work of receiving the Lord Christ by Faith considers the soul under the notion of an Ungodly one in the receiving of it Rom. 4 5. II. It cannot be that the discovery of graces should be first in order to such a soul in regard the first manifestation of the gift of God to the soul that hath hitherto set in darkness must be a manifestation unto his Faith of the gift of those very graces And the graces themselves considered as given are no proper objects of Faith and therefore can give no assurance unto Faith But it is only the promise wherein the Lord holds forth his free will both to Christ and those Graces that must be the only ground from whence the soul can receive the evidence unto his Faith of his union with Christ Thus you have the first question opened the ground from whence souls receive the evidence of their union The second thing to be opened is the means by which What means the Lord useth to make the promise efficacious for this end to give the soul assurance of his union with Christ But before we come to answer this question there is another question to be opened that arises from the former Quest But saith the Soul can the Lords absolute promise be the ground from whence the Soul can have the first infallible evidence of his union seeing there is no absolute promise of God wherein he discovers his own will to accept any one particular soul into union with the Lord Christ All the absolute promises saith the Soul are made to the Church and people of God But the Lord in those absolute promises doth not reveal the particular Souls that are his own Therefore How can I or any other know that I am the particular soul in the promise there being no particularizing of any soul Answ For Answer to this Question I shall first open what is generally granted by every soul by way of premise for the right understanding of things And then lay down two Conclusions for the full answer of the question Pre. 1. First it is generally granted by all that it is by vertue of the Lords absolute promise of accepting souls into union with Christ that souls are united unto Christ The absolute promise alone is like Jacobs Ladder it is the Heavenly Ladder upon which the Lord Christ alone comes down into any soul It is the absolute promise that is the precious Golden Chain that binds the Lord Christ to the soul and the soul to Christ That the precious Marriage knot of union is only knit by that Chain of the absolute promise This will appear in three things 1. If it were not by vertue of the absolute promise that the soul were united to Jesus Christ then the absolute good will unto souls were not the primary or first ground of union between Jesus Christ and souls For the promises are nothing else but the Revelations or Discoveries of the Lords good will concerning souls Now thence it is if it were not by vertue of the Lords absolute promise that souls were united then it were not primarily and in the first place by vertue of the determination of the Lords will from eternity And so union with Christ should not be a mercy flowing down from the Fountain of the Lords elective love but rather the first and primary cause of the souls union should be from something in the soul it self and so quite contrary to the stream of Scripture truth it should be of him that willeth and runneth and not of him that sheweth mercy 2. If it were not so then there must be some grace acceptable to God presupposed to be in the soul before union with Christ unto which the Lord hath made some promise of union with him It must be either by vertue of a conditional promise or an absolute promise that the soul is united Now if by vertue of any condition or holy quality in the soul then such a holy quality must be conceived to be in the soul as is acceptable unto God Now if it were possible there could be any holy quality conceived to be in the soul acceptable to God before union then either the soul must receive some holy quality that flows not from Jesus Christ and so deny the fulness of Christ which is contrary to that in Col. 1.9 and John 1.16 Or else we should conclude that some graces some holy qualities should be conveyed into the soul that should not be conveyed by vertue of the souls union and so there should be a Communication of the graces of Christ unto the soul when the soul still remains a stranger to God 3. If there were the least quality acceptable unto God before union then the soul should be a beloved one of God out of Jesus Christ and it should not be by his dearly beloved Son alone in whom the Lord is well pleased Pre. 2. That the first proper actings of Faith in union are ever by or in the way of the application of those absolute promises unto their particular souls That will appear in two things 1. If the first actings of Faith in union were not by particular application of those absolute promises then the Devils Faith should hold equal proportion to the Faith of souls united to Jesus Christ The Devils themselves do as fully believe the truth of all those pretious absolute promises as any united soul and do as fully expect the certain accomplishment of them unto the Church of God 2. Then should the souls dependance upon Jesus Christ be without the sight of the sutable ground for the dependance The first act of Faith can have no ground but the absolute promise of God in regard all those graces that are described in any word of God that should seem to be conditional promises those are not discovered at the first actings of Faith and therefore unless the absolute promises prove a particular ground to the souls apprehension that the soul in that absolute promise sees the Lord particularly tendring himself to accept it into union with Jesus Christ there should be no ground for that dependence Prem 3. It is also granted that this particular application of the absolute promise unto Souls
doth go before the actings of any other holy quality in those Souls Faith being the first habit in order of nature though not in time that 's infused into any Soul It doth also in order of nature work and manifest it self in acting before any other habit whatsoever And therefore the acting of Faith in that particular application of the absolute promise must be before there be a manifestation of any other holy quality to be in the Soul And thence in regard this particular way in applying these absolute promises is without any holy quality in Souls there can be no other word but only the Lords absolute promise to be the ground from whence this faith can arise This is generally granted of all And from thence take notice of these two things 1. That the absolute general promise of God that is holden forth as made unto the people and Church of God alone that is a particular ground of the Souls first confidence or adherence unto Jesus Christ 2. That the general absolute promise of God doth speak particularly to every Soul who attains any right or interest in it Secondly I shall answer affirmatively That it is a particular ground of Faith of assurance or a particular evidence to assure a Souls Faith that he is united unto Jesus Christ And that I shall open in two Conclusions Conclu 1. The absolute promise is sufficient to reveal to a Souls Faith a certainty of his Union in regard there is an equivalency in the absolute promise of God that runs to all Souls to any particular promise that could be made Paul manifested as full a certainty of his acceptance into Union with Christ to be holden forth to him in the absolute promise as if he had had a particular word from heaven saying thou Paul shalt be accepted into union with Christ In 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation What is that That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners Here is as far off a remote promise as can be That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners What then Of whom I am chief As if he should have said The Lord Christ came to save me where he makes Christ sent into the world particularly to save his Soul And certainly the same promise were able to give the Soul that particular certainty that Paul did receive did the same light appear from the promise as did to Paul But that there is such an equivalency in what the absolute promise can give to testifie union to what a particular promise gives appear in two things 1. In the latitude or largeness and extensiveness of the promise it self The promises that are of absolute mercies and are declared to be the absolute will of God concerning his peoples Souls they are all propounded as indefinite propositions that is without any certain bounds In that promise Christ came into the World to save Sinners there is no bounds set to it neither this kind of Sinner or that kind of Sinner such as are thus and thus rebellious but Sinners So Mark 16.15 Go Preach the Gospel to every creature Preach the Gospel What is that Preach the glad tydings of Salvation It is as much as if Jesus Christ should have said Go and tell every Soul my Father is willing to accept their rebellious souls into union with my self And unless this be receive tendered the Gospel is not Preached Exclude the declaring of Gods will to every particular Soul to receive him into Union with the Lord Christ and you exclude the Preaching of the Gospel And that 's the reason the Angel Luke 2.10 when he brings the glad tidings of Jesus Christ saith I bring glad tidings To whom To such a Nation or People No I bring glad tidings to all people There is no other bounds set but the World it self If a man comes under the notion of a creature he comes under the notion of the promise he cannot say but it is the will of God to receive his Soul into Union if he will embrace the Lord Christ 2. It appears in regard of the expresness of the command to every Soul particularly to apply the promise 1 John 3.23 This is the command of God that ye believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ And again this is the Word of God that ye believe in the name of Jesus Christ Now believing can contain but two things Either a giving credit to the truth of what the promise holds forth And surely this cannot be meant for the Devils themselves believe as much Or else a receiving unto their particular Souls what the Lord there tenders in Christ Jesus and if you observe it the Scripture phrase generally holds forth believing in this sence Thence it is that believing and receiving in Scripture are put both for one 1 John 1.12 Now that the extent of this command of believing reaches thus far to a particular application of those absolute promises to themselves will be cleared by two particulars 1. In regard all unbelief and the fruits of it is vertually and eminently forbidden in this command of believing When any positive duty is enjoyned by God the contrary must needs be forbidden by the same law vertually and all the evil consequences of whatever is contrary to the duty enjoyned Now believing being enjoyned virtually unbelief and all the fruits of unbelief are forbidden The fruits of unbelief is doubting and so all doubting of the Lords will to fulfill his promise of accepting the soul into union with the Lord Jesus that 's content and willing to receive Christ into Union with him all this doubting of the will of God is there forbidden vertually in regard it is contrary to the duty commanded because it proceeds from the root unbelief which is directly contrary unto faith 2. In regard the strength of Faith must needs be the extent of the command The Soul is to give credit to the Lord as a thing unquestionably certain that the Lord is willing to receive his poor loveless Soul into Union with the Lord Christ So that in effect the Lord doth in that command to the Soul to believe enjoyn the Soul to receive fulness of assurance from the very promise that the Lord is willing to receive his Soul into union with the Lord Christ Yet do not mistake me I do not say the command is of such an extent that it doth expresly command every one to believe that he is one in Christ for then the promise should command him to believe a lye in regard the greatest number are at enmity But the extent of the command is to assure the Soul of the Lords willingness to receive him into union with Jesus Christ if he be willing to receive him And this the Lord enjoyns the most rebellious wretches wherever the Gospel comes the first command to such rebellious Souls is to believe that God is willing to receive their rebellious Souls into union
with himself Conclu 2. There is as great a fulness of sufficiency in the absolute promise to assure the soul of his union with Christ as there is to give the soul a ground of particular dependence upon God in Christ for union This will appear in two particulars 1. In regard confidence of the particularity of the promise is of the Essence and Being both of faith of dependance and faith of assurance Take away particular confidence of the Lords particular will towards such a particular soul to receive his soul into union with Christ and you destroy the faith of adherence Take away the particular confidence and there remains nothing but a bare general belief of the truth of the promise of God as it is tendered 2. Both the confidence in the saith of dependance and faith of assurance are of one and the same kind Though indeed that the confidence that the soul hath when he once acts faith by way of assurance differs gradually that is in many degrees from the faith of dependance and adherence yet they are both of one and the same kind they are both substantially the same They are but a confidence of the Lords willingness to take his soul into union with Christ he receiving of him Only this differs in a circumstance of time That faith of assurance acts that confidence by way of the time past that the Lord out of his good will alone hath received his soul into union with Christ whereas that confidence that is in the act of dependance or adherence may work thus that it is the Lords will now at this present to receive my soul into union with Jesus Christ Now all men grant that the absolute promise is sufficient to build saith of adherence or dependance upon otherwise you must take away all grounds upon which a soul must believe and you must leave a soul under a command to believe having no bottom upon which to set his faith We shall now proceed to the opening of the second question and that is Quest 2. By what means doth a soul receive the infallible evidences of his union It hath been determined that the absolute promise of God to give the Lord Jesus to every poor despicable loveless forlorn soul that will receive him is the only unchangable ground from whence the soul doth first gather the certain infallible evidence of his union But now saith the soul By what means is the promise made efficacious for this end How comes it to pass that the bare absolute promise of God doth manifest to the particular soul that he is united to Jesus Christ For the answer of this question I must first premise divers things for the right understanding of it and then lay down the answer in positive Conclusions Prem 1. First I must premise That the absolute promise of God hath a fulness of sufficiency in it self to discover at all times to every particular soul in what condition soever under what Temptations in what clouds and darkness soever that the will of God is to receive his particular soul into union with Jesus Christ And that he should accept the good will of God and receive Jesus Christ into union with himself Though indeed the promise works this effect very rarely in souls yet at all times the promise hath that sufficiency in it self and there is no addition made by God to the promise neither by word nor light neither by way of particularizing souls nor by way of comprehensiveness to make it conclude souls Neither doth the soul build upon any thing added to the promise But the promise it self is the absolute ground that the soul always builds upon in receiving evidence from it Now because the promise it self doth not at every time and in every condition manifest unto that soul thus his union with Christ to whom it hath evidenced his union therefore think some souls it is somthing superadded to the promise And some again are ready on the other side to conclude from the position it self that the absolute promise should give the soul assurance of Jesus Christ That it must be from some revelation of God that is added to the promise A kind of revelation of the souls name to be written in the book of life and so the soul should not build upon the word of God but upon some superadded revelation But neither of both these must be conceived But the promise hath always a sufficiency of light to discover to the soul the Lords willingness to receive him into union with himself Only this promise of God or discovery of the will of God to be laid as the Tower of the souls assurance must have a wise Master builder to lay it It is with this foundation as with other foundations when the timber is hewed and squared fit for a groundsel it must have a wise Master builder to lay it for a foundation So the soul must have instruction from the wisdom of God to lay this foundation so as he may see his assurance stand firm upon it Prem 2. Secondly I must premise That whatsoever is imployed by God in a subordination to his will for the effecting any end that is intended by God that 's the means of producing or effecting such an end This I premise that we may understand what is meant by means when we say by what means is this promise made sufficient to give the soul evidence of his union God is to be considered as the primary efficient cause upon which all things have their dependance And all things imployed by God for effecting that are inferiour causes and in respect of God himself they are called means though in respect of created causes some such inferiour causes may be called a principal cause So that whatever is imployed by God for effecting this end of assuring the soul of union with Christ that 's the means by which the promise is made effectual for that use Prem 3. Thirdly I must premise That there are divers and various means that do commonly concur together for effecting one and the same end though they have divers relations unto the end and work diversly for the effecting of it There may be divers kinds of influences from divers things to one and the same end And whatever hath influence into the end comes under the notion of a cause and in respect of the principal cause it comes under the notion of a means So in this great matter of evidencing to a soul its union with Christ there are many things that may and do concur for effecting that blessed end in the soul for enabling the soul to draw from the absolute promise the conclusion that he is united to Jesus Christ though those various things work in a various manner and one have influence into the end and another have another influence and so be looked at as divers in relation to this great matter of assurance Prem 4. Fourthly I must premise That there are four or five
and the same time and they are both but witnessing one and the same thing and helping the soul to draw one and the same Conclusion at the same time III. There is the manifestation of the true inseparable effects of union with Jesus Christ to be in the soul That is the souls beholding the very juice of Jesus Christ the precious Vine flowing down into his soul as into one of his Branches The soul finding the same graces that are in Jesus Christ the head drop down into his Bosom So that the soul concludes he must needs be a Member to the Head having influences from it Now there are three things to be opened about this which are concauses which may clear up to our understandings what may be safely holden forth in these 1. That none of these neither the shining of Faith nor the Testimony of Conscience nor the inseparable effects of union are concauses in evidencing unto the soul the Will of God in taking the particular soul into union with Christ The promise it self affords this light to the soul by the sole aid of the Spirit of God without respect to any Dispositions Inclinations believing qualifications whatever can be imagined 2. These three are only concauses in producing to the soul the effects of that first evidence That is in producing in the soul the conclusion of his own union with Jesus Christ that doth arise from the first evidence of the Lords will to take his soul into union with Christ 3. That it is only the first of those three things which is the shining forth of the light of Faith that 's properly a coadjoyning cause in the making up a souls evidence from the promise of his union with Christ Those two latter do follow after the first clear evidence in the soul of his union with Christ from the promise and so cannot come in as joynt concauses to make up the evidence Answ 3. Thirdly I answer There are indeed three joynt concurring causes for the making up this union to the souls Faith of its union with Christ And that is the Spirit of God the light of Faith and the Witness of Conscience taking the Witness of Conscience only for an experimental knowledge that soul doth receive and hath received the Lord Jesus freely given by God to be one with the soul so that Conscience doth only answer as it were like a precious Eccho to the soul the voice of the Spirit of God to the soul The Spirit of God revealing the light of the promise or applying the promise to the soul The light of Faith shewing the souls receiving of the promise And the voice of Conscience consenting to the voice of the Spirit of God or giving the Echo to the voice of the Spirit of God in the soul Answ 4. Fourthly I answer There be some that may be said to be concauses or joyn concurring causes in the evidencing to the soul his union in the promise Yet they are all but subordinate causes to one prime principal cause which is the Spirit of God Should I take these three which some have conceived to be joynt concurring causes which is the light of Faith the Witness of Conscience and the manifestation of the inseparable effects of union yet all these come in a way of Subordination to the principal Efficient Instrumental cause which is the Spirit of God As you may see if you look upon the light of Faith 1 Cor. 2.12 We have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God You see the internal Vision or internal Light they have of any grace of any gifts is by the light of the Spirit of God put upon those gifts or put into the soul to discern those gifts So likewise of the second the Testimony of Conscience whatever Testimony Conscience would give be it either through practical or experimental reason drawn from the Word of God Or be it only to bear Witness to the souls own act and so taken only for a sense of the souls own beleiving yet also this Witness of Conscience hath its Subordination to that principal cause the Spirit of God As Rom. 9.1 When the Conscience is said to bear Witness of any good act in the soul it s said to be through the Spirit And indead the Conscience being altogether corrupt naturally the habit of Spiritual Light and discerning by which it Judge being only from the Spirit of God Thence it must necessarily follow also that every acting of that renewed light that the Spirit of God hath infused into the Conscience must be by the Spirit of God For out of all question the acting of every habit of grace received doth as well depend upon the Spirit of God as the first infusion of it into the soul did And if you look upon the third also which is the manifestation of all the effects of union that comes under that in 1 Cor. 2.12 All gifts All gifts of grace through union must be discerned through the Spirit of Wisdom in the heart inabling souls to discern the things freely given them of God As the Apostle doth well Illustrate it v. 11 comparing the light that the Spirit which they have received gives to them to discern the gift of God to the light of Conscience to discern what is in man What man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Whereby he makes it evident that the use of the Spirit of God dwelling in the soul is the same for the discovering of all the workings of the soul to it as the use of the Spirit of a man is to discover to him the heart of man as man Answ 5. Fifthly I answer That the Spirit of God alone is the principal most immediate and natural Instrumental efficient cause of the promises evidencing to the soul his union with Christ Though you see there be divers causes that may afar off have some kind of influence yet no Influences further then they have a dependance upon the Spirit of God working in them and through them And however the sight of Faith and the Testimony of Conscience may in some measure be said to be concauses yet the Instrumental efficient cause that hath the Alpha and Omega that which strikes the first and last stroke that assures the souls Faith that he is united to Christ that 's the Spirit of God alone It s that which set on work all other means for that end Now that the Spirit of God alone is this principal efficient instrumental cause I shall clear to you by some demonstrations I. It appears by the general office of the Spirit of God The Spirit is designed to that office alone to reveal truths or to guide souls into all truth as appears John 16.43 When the Spirit of truth is come he will
guide you into all truth and observe why for he shall not speak of himself but whatever he shall hear that shall he speak He shall have a Commission from Heaven as it were to lead them into all truth Now in this guiding the soul into all truth there are two offices that the Spirit of God is designed to First the making known of truth to the soul Secondly the application of truth made known First The making known of truth to the soul It is the office of the Spirit to cast in the precious principles of Spiritual knowledge whereby the soul should be any ways apprehensive of any truth This making known of truth to the soul consists in three things 1. In the communicating of Spiritual light to the soul or in giving the soul a Spiritual eye of discerning We are all like poor Bartimeus born Blind The Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit for they are Foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 Now it is the office of the Spirit alone to make a precious Eye Salve that may restore spiritual sight to the soul and make it capable of discerning truth Therefore it is said in 1 John 5.20 In Conversion we are said to receive a mind to know him that is a disposition to know him an understanding capable of knowing him 2. The Spirit presents truth to that Spiritual eye tâ—â—t that he hath communicated Therefore in Eph. 1.17 The Apostle prays for a spirit of wisdom and revelation Not only a spirit of wisdom that is an internal spiritual habit of spiritual light to discern truth But a spirit of revelation also that is of manifesting the truth unto the Soul 3. In making known spiritual truths the spirit of God removes all impediments that do prevent the discerning of truths presented Though the spirit gives eyes and presents truths there may be such impediments between the Souls eyes and the truth that may prevent the Souls discerning There may be some films or some corrupt humours some film of lust or selfishness that may hinder the sight of the truth Secondly The Spirit makes application of the truth known The first truth that God discovers to a Soul which is his own sin his guilt and danger of condemnation must as well be applied to the Soul by the Spirit as revealed to the Soul by the Spirit Therefore John 16.8 The office of the Spirit is to reprove or convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment to make it clear to the conscience of every particular man that there is a judgment for him that he is one of those sinful wretches that believe not That the Spirit also must make this application will appear in two things 1. In that there should be an equal and proportionable sense of the effects of Sin and Wrath according to the measure and degree of every sinners understanding sin and wrath If it were not the Spirit alone that did make application of the truth made known it could not be then but so far as every Soul did understand what Sin and Wrath was the effect both of the knowledge of Sin and of Wrath would remain in such a heart But alas experience enough teacheth us that many sinners that have large knowledge of the nature of sin and of the consequences and effects of sin which is Wrath and condemnation yet have not the knowledge of this effect in the least manner The effects are two Condemnation in the Souls Judgment Horrour and anguish in the sense of condemnation He that understands sin rightly in the least degree understand it to be damnable therefore the effects of it must needs be condemnation in his own Soul But nothing is more common than for men to confess every sin to be damnable and to confess themselves to be sinners but far off from drawing a sentence of condemnation They will be sure enough of the conclusion though they conclude sin to be damnable yet they will not conclude themselves to be in a damnable condition So if you look upon the second effect that follows the knowledge of Sin and that 's Horrour and Sense of the dreadfulness of that Condemnation Though it may be sometimes a soul goes so far as almost to conclude it self to be in a Damned condition yet far is it from letting it take effect upon his heart so as to lie heavy upon his heart as an intolerable burthen Therefore it is plain not only the revealing of the truth but the application of truth revealed depends upon the Spirit of God The Spirit must say here is thy Sin and yonder is the Pit of Misery before a man can apply those truths to his own soul 2. It must be the Spirit of God that makes the applicationâ— in regard the Terrours and Horrours for Sin are appropriated by the Scripture to the Spirit and to his work alone Whence you shall see Rom. 8.16 Fear is said to be the work of the Spirit of Bondage You have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear that is the Spirit of Bondage again working Fear and Anguish and Vexation of soul in respect of the guilt of Sin 2. The Spirit alone must be the principal efficient cause in evidencing to the soul from the promise his union with Christ in regard of the Spirits particular and peculiar office that it is appointed unto by Jesus Christ The Spirit hath its office and that is to Comfort and Refresh the souls of the peculiar ones of Christ Hence the name of the Spirit is the Comforter John 16.17 Now this being the peculiar office of the Spirit of Christ to comfort those that are the the Members of Jesus Christ it must needs be that that must needs be the principal Instrumental efficient cause in revealing to the soul his union with Christ in the promise And that will appear in two things 1. In regard the Word of promise alone is the ground of all Consolation unto the souls Faith Now the Spirit should give souls but small comfort could he not give them Comfort unto Faith did not the Lord reveal the everlasting Inheritance to be theirs everlasting Union and Communion with Christ to be theirs and then let them see Holiness in them to be a drop of the Inheritance that the soul shall feed it self with to Eternity the Comfort were but small 2. In regard it must be by appropriating the thing promised that the promise is able to afford any Consolation There must be two things for the soul to receive comfort from the promise Propriety and Security The Soul must see propriety or else no love at least no satisfaction to the heart and while there is not the satiating of the soul there is no comfort Comfort is the content the soul hath in beholding his desired satisfaction Now whatever the soul sees it satisfieth not till it hath a propriety in it And till there be a security
in that propriety he is not satisfied fears and doubts arise of losing it again Could the soul see union with Christ unless the voice say thus I am thine and will never separate from thee it would give no true comfort The soul would be more afraid of the loss of that happiness then rejoyce in the present good injoyed 3. It will appear in regard there is nothing sufficient to evidence to the soul his union from the promise satisfyingly but the Spirit There must be an equal authority in the revelation to the soul of his union with Christ to that that was in the revelation to the soul of his Sin Guilt and Subjection to everlasting Damnation before the soul can receive any satisfaction or any true freedom from those dreadful Horrours that possess a soul upon the true revelation of his dreadful estate of Sin Wo and Misery Now its apparent that it is the Spirit of God alone that reveals with Power the Condemnation of the soul through his own Sin And therefore unless the Spirit of God should come again with another voice which hath as great a power to pronounce the absolution of the soul from Condemnation through Christ the soul could never receive any satisfaction nor be free from receiving the sentence of Condemnation in himself IIII. The Scripture it self testifies that it is the proper peculiar office of the Spirit I need quote only that one place Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth Witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God When he would rise to the highest evidence he rises to that the Spirit of God Witnesseth with our Spirit There are two or three things in the Text that will clear it that it must be meant the special operation of the Spirit it self and that by a special peculiar application of the promise 1. It is said it is the Spirit it self Intimating it is not the gifts of the Spirit nor the graces of the Spirit as sometimes the Spirit is taken in Scripture But in a way of distinction from graces he puts the Emphasis upon it the Spirit it self that Witnesseth with our Spirits Intimating that it is the person of the Spirit whose office it is thus to Witness to the soul 2. He puts it as a distinct Witness it Witnesseth with our Spirits 3. It is by particular application It Witnesseth to our Spirits that we are the Sons of God It Witnesseth Adoption Now we cannot believe our Adoption without the Witness of the Spirit and that from a Word and therefore that can be nothing but the application of the promise to the soul Thus you have the second question opened that is by what means a soul doth receive the infallible evidence of his union There is a third question Quest 3. In what manner doth the soul receive the first infallible evidence of his union with Christ It was concluded from the first Question That the absolute promise of God receive any Poor Despicable Loveless Forlorn Soul that would into Vnion with the Lord Jesus was the first infallible ground of the Souls evividence of union And it was eoncluded that there were various means that did concur together to inable the soul to receive his union from this absolute promise Though there was one immediate means that works in the promise assuring the Souls Faith in the promise that he is united to Jesus Christ The Question now remains how this means doth produce this end Or how the Lord worketh in and through these means to make the absolute promise efficacious and effectual to manifest to the poor doubting soul his Vnion with Christ For the opening of it I must premise something for the right understanding of it and then lay down the answer to it in positive conclusions Prem 1. First I must premise That all the Influences that any means whatsoever do contribute unto the evidencing unto any doubtful soul his union with the Lord Christ only produce the same kind of effects in that soul that doth receive the evidence of his union with Christ As suppose it is through seeking the face of God in prayer that the Lord doth at one time bring to mind the absolute promise in the clearness of light it holds forth and makes application of that promise for the satisfying of the soul about his union with Christ And suppose another time the Ministry of the Word is appointed by God for the effecting of this end Still there is the same effect begotten by these various means whereby the soul is inabled to receive the evidence of his union Prem 2. Secondly I shall premise That all the Influences that any means do contribute for the evidencing from the promise the souls union with Christ are comprehended under the Influences of the spirit of God alone So that the efficacy of the word or of prayer or any ordinance towards the effecting of that blessed end in the soul may properly be said to be the efficacy of the spirit of God in regard those means contribute not the least in themselves otherwise than the spirit of God imploys them as his own instruments for assuring to the soul his faith in Christ from the promise Prem 3. Thirdly I must premise That in regard of the manner of the working of the spirit of God for assuring the souls faith of union in the promise that the spirit of God hath not limited himself to any constant particular order in assuring unto souls their union with Christ from the promise The spirit of God is truly the spiritual wind that blows where and how it listeth There is no limitation propounded in the word whereby it should appear the spirit should bind himself to work in the same order in all souls to evidence to them their union with Christ And in like manner the spirit of God hath set no bounds to himself of any degree of those effects that it doth produce to souls whereby the promise is made efficacious to assure to the souls faith his union with Christ but it works variously in the heart Prem 4. Fourthly I must premise that the explication of the manner of the Spirits working in assuring to the Soul from the promise his union with Christ to the full and life of it is altogether unspeakable and inexpressable Surely that in 1 Cor. 2.9 is meant only of those Gospel joys that are the effects of this union that eye never saw nor ear never heard neither did it ever enter into the heart of man as man to conceive the things that God hath laid up for those that love him And likewise well may that place be applied that no man knows the mind of God but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 12. Neither doth any man or Angel know those secret discoveries of the Lords mind and opening of his heart to the Souls Faith whom he doth assure from the promise that he is united unto Christ Prem 5. There is a fifth premise Though the Spirit of God
discerning to be communicated to the soul that doth not come from Jesus Christ Or else that there may be a light remaining in the soul from the relicks of nature which might let the soul see his absolute indispensable necessity of Christ or else he is undone for ever Now observe what a principle of darkness this is It takes away the peculiar office of Jesus Christ which is to open the blind eyes and give them sight Isa 42.7 Rev. 3.18 2. Thou must conceive that the soul should have received Jesus Christ before he is tendred to him Now no man dare own there should be a spiritual light in the soul before the Lord Christ heals his blindness And no man can conceive there should be the discerning of a spiritual object without a spiritual light The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 And for the second that a man should receive Jesus Christ before he be tendered to him this every man abhors as a great absurdity So that it is clear that this is a principle of darkness one of the motes the Devil would keep in the souls eyes But it is to be observed there are two truths about this thing that the Devil misses in propounding it as a glass to the soul 1. That there is no soul that receiveth Jesus Christ but hath a true sight and in some measure a true sense of his want of Christ and of the indispensable necessity of him Though no true spiritual discerning can go before the tender of Jesus Christ yet thus far it is true that at the same instant the Lord allures the heart to accept of Jesus Christ into union he doth beget a true spiritual sight of his absolute necessity of Christ 2. There is a second truth that is narrowly missed here and that is That this spiritual sight of the souls absolute indispensable want of Christ is communicated to the soul by the spirit of God working through the offer of Jesus Christ to the soul Though some conceive there are some things that may be called preparations not begotten by the Gospel but as they distinguish by the Law separate from the Gospel yet they all grant that no true grace either of light sight or sense is conveyed any way but through the Gospel of Christ and is instrumentally an effect of the Gospel of Christ Now that which is an effect of the Preaching of the Gospel of Christ must be an effect of the tender of Christ to the soul for that is the effect of the Gospel to tender Jesus Christ to the poor despicable loveless soul Now that this is a principle of darkness I shall prove from Scripture All those promises of Scripture that offer Christ freely must be expunged if this be a principle of light as Isa 55.1 Rev. 22.17 John 6.37 Where the invitation is free whoever will let him come If he have but a will let him be what he will A Second principle of darkness is That there must be a sight of the actings of the good will of God to the Soul Principle of darkness before the Soul can believe any good will of God intended to the Soul in Christ That is thus saith the Soul surely there must be a fight of some holy disposition there must be a beholding of some readiness to depart from sin and some casting off the principles of corruption there must be a heart seeking after God and praying and supplicating God before the Soul may conceive the Lord intends any good will to it in Christ Now the darkness that is in this principle will appear in opening four consequences flowing from it 1. If any such holy disposition or inclination be to be discerned in a Soul before he is to believe the Lords intending good will to his Soul in Christ then some particular effect of savour or some acting of the Lords good will should be received by a Soul besides the Lords promise and so should not be conveyed through the receiving of the promise unto the Soul And so consequently the Lord should convey Grace into Souls out of and beyond the bounds of his own Covenant of Grace 2. If any of these actings of Grace were to be seen in the Soul before it believes the Lords good will then should special Grace be conveyed to the Soul before engrafting into Christ So that life should come down from Jesus Christ into the Soul and it should partake of the influences of Jesus Christ and of the Graces of Christ before he receiveth Jesus Christ himself And upon this ground the Soul should bring forth good fruit before it be engrafted into Jesus Christ and become a good stock or good tree and so expresly contrary to the Scripture an evil tree should bring forth good fruit a Soul in enmity to God should bring forth holy dispositions 3. If the Soul should behold the actings of the good will of God towards his Soul before he believes the Lord intends good will to his Soul in Christ then must the Soul conceive that he may see his own Soul beloved actually of God even for the present before the receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ to make atonement or reconciliation to God for him The Soul must then conceive that there should be acts of friendship from God to the Soul before the Lord Christ should step in to make up the union of peace and agreement before there should be reconciliation 4 If the Soul should of necessity see the actings of Grace in his Soul before he see the Lord intends good will to his Soul in Christ then a divine word should not be the primary or principal ground of the Souls faith but rather the Graces or the actings of Gods good will discerned in the Soul and consequently all the foundation of such a believing Soul should be meerly in the Soul it self Now nothing is more directly contrary to the whole tenor of Scripture holding forth the ground of faith than this Abraham who is set forth as a pattern of Believers his faith was onely built upon the word of God giving authority to it from the authority of the Speaker Rom. 4.20 21. A third Principle of Darkness is this That it is Presumption for the soul to beleive or to receive the promise of Jesus Christ Principle of darkness so long as the soul seeth nothing but rebellion and Disobedience and Enmity in his heart against God This is another Hell-bred principle of darkness that smells much of the smoke that comes out of the bottomless pit to darken the light of the Lord Jesus And that this is a principle of darkness will appear by some few considerations 1. In regard there can be no rebellion nor no enmity healed but by vertue received from Jesus Christ Sin receiveth its deadly wound only upon the Cross of Jesus Christ and it is by vertue of the application of the
intendment of the death of Jesus Christ that any lust cometh to be crucified in any Soul He alone is the Spiritual Physician that heals all distempers He alone is the spiritual Conqueror to subdue all the powers that lift up their heads against the glorious Crown of Heaven Now there can be none of this vertue received from Jesus Christ but only by fleeing unto Christ and there is no fleeing unto Christ but by believing So that upon this consideration that must needs be a principle of darkness that should keep off from the only healer of all his rebellion conceiving he may not receive him while he is rebellious seeing he can never be otherwise but rebellious nor can ever have the actings of his rebellion abated in a right way but by receiving of Jesus Christ 2. The neglect of receiving the Lord Jesus revealed in the Gospel to the soul maketh the Rebellion to be of a more Scarlet Die The more gloriously the Lord reveals his mind to a soul the more dreadful is the Rebellion of that soul that neglects Obedience to that mind of God revealed Now before the tender of the Lord Jesus there was but a little Glory of the revelation of the mind of God in the Law that which is accounted no Glory in respect of the revelation of the mind of God in the Gospel 2 Cor. 3.10 There is such a transcendent glory in the revelation of the mind of God in the Gospel that every one that neglects that Glory so revealed proves a transcendent Rebel a Rebel of the highest kind Hebr. 2 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation 3. In regard the Lord Christ must be received by every soul to take away all the Rebellion and all the Degrees of Rebellion that every soul hath contracted the guilt of to himself Wo everlasting to that soul that commits but one act of Rebellion to cast it upon Jesus Christ The weight of that one Rebellion will sink the soul in hell for ever And therefore in regard every act of Rebellion must be cast upon the Lord Jesus the soul ought therefore upon the sight of his Rebellion to come to the Lord Jesus and receive him that he may free the soul by taking that Rebellion upon himself For seeing it is impossible but all those Rebellions must at last be cast upon the neck of Christ and Christ must bear them the argument would keep off the soul for ever from receiving the Lord Christ as well as keep off for a time in regard the principle of Rebellion cannot but be acting so long as the union is not made up between Christ and the soul Yet there are two things to be observed about this that are truths 1. That it is Presumption indeed for any soul to receive the Lord Jesus that he might have liberty to Rebel This indeed were to Sin that Grace might abound This were to take the Devil by the right hand and to make a League a Covenant of Death with him This were odious and abominable in the eye of the Lord Jesus 2. This is truth that it is Presumption for any soul to live or walk in any Wickedness in respect the Lord Jesus hath satisfied for his Rebellions In these two cases it were cursed desperate Presumption for a soul to have a thought of the Lord Christ belonging to him But to apply the Lord Christ to the poor Rebellious soul that hath nothing but rebellion working in his heart to God that there might be a Friendship between Christ and him that the Wall of Enmity might be broken down and that there might be a precious amity between God and him to come thus is no Presumption but the command of God to every soul Fourthly A fourth Principle of darkness is this Principle of darkness That the person of the Lord Christ considered as filled with all glorious excellency Grace Holiness and all compleat perfection is to be the object of the souls Faith That is thus that the soul is to receive the Lord Christ his own person and to receive him out of love to his person and that the soul comes but Hypocritically so long as he receives him by any other act of Faith that doth not work towards the excellencies that are in the person of Jesus Christ Saith the soul every one would be content to have Jesus Christ as a Saviour to save from Sin but this is but an Hypocritical coming to Jesus Christ This is another woful principle of darkness And this will appear by divers Considerations 1. The Lord Christ as a Saviour is propounded to the soul as the first proper object of his Faith That is as Jesus Christ was made Sin and made a Curse through Sin for poor despicable sinful souls that is to say Jesus Christ Crucified for Sin to save poor sinfull souls that must otherwise have sunk under the burden of Sin into the pit of everlasting Wo. This you shall see is the way in which Jesus Christ was represented to believing souls both in the time of the Law and in the time of the Gospel In the time of the Law it is apprehended the greatest representation of Jesus Christ was those typical Sacrifices the shedding of the blood of Bulls and Goats for the Remission of Sin as you may see Hebr. 9.22 Without shedding of blood there was no Remission Now this was to signify Jesus Christ Crucified as the object of those beleiving Jews Faith Look also into the times of the Gospel and you shall find Jesus Christ as a Saviour as Crucified for Sin to be looked at as the first object of every Beleivers Faith considering Faith as saving You shall see it in 1 Cor. 2.2 That Paul comprehends all his Preaching under this to manifest Jesus Christ Crucified to be the object of their Faith that is Jesus Christ as a Saviour as dying for Sin Therefore Faith is called Faith in the Blood of Christ Rom. 3.24 25. Also the Sacraments appointed for the Sealing of tâ—â— promise do hold forth Christ as a Saviour Look upon the Sacrament of the Lords Supper It holds forth the rending and breaking of the Body of Christ and the pouring out of his Blood and therefore it is called the Remembrance of his death Look upon the other Sacrament the Burying under Water and Rising from under the Water holds forth Jesus Christ Dying and Rising Thus primarily and properly they hold forth Jesus Christ as a Saviour And that the Lord Christ thus as he is a Saviour is the first object of Faith properly as saving will appear in two particulars 1. In regard the formal reason or the special respect and consideration of Jesus Christ as he is the object of Faith considered as saving must be something that is in Jesus Christ that doth procure that Salvation Jesus Christ considered as the object of uniting Faith must be considered under some notion whereby he doth procure this union and merit or purchase
the union Between the act and the object there must be a Similarity a kind of likeness and neer Similitude and Relation 2. Jesus Christ considered in his personal excellency in his precious Beauty and Glory is rather the object of Love than the object of Faith that is the object of Assiance and Dependance Christ is not properly to be depended upon as he is Holy but as he is appointed by God as a Rock to lay the hope of Salvation upon that is as a Mediator and Saviour II. It appears it is a Principle of Darkness In regard the most special access of Souls unto Christ is as he is a Saviour unto souls The most pressing arguments that are prest upon souls to constrain them to come to Jesus Christ are that they might come for Salvation You shall see it in that Declaration of the Commission of the Apostles themselves 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Now we are Embassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye Reconciled to God As if he should say thus God hath appointed his Gospel that we should go out to poor rebels to invite them to come and accept of propositions of peace And you see the reason of this v. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him That is that we might have the righteousness that God doth convey through him And in Heb. 7.25 you shall see what is held forth to be the office of Jesus Christ now in heaven He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them I pray observe it here is the lowest act of faith expressed coming to God by Christ and you see the coming is for Salvation 3. Christ considered as a Saviour is primarily sutable unto souls Christ in his personal excellency is sutable unto Angels and Angels will count it their glory to have him their Head and be married to him as a Spouse But it is only as he is considered as a Saviour that he is primarily sutable unto Souls here below in regard the first thing that is necessary for such Souls is Salvation And thence you shall see it is the name that God puts upon him his name shall be called Jesus a Saviour and the reason is why For he shall save his people from their sins Mat. 1.21 So that it appears this is another principle of darkness to perswade souls not to come to Jesus Christ for Salvation Yet there are two things to be observed here 1. That many excellencies that are contained in the person of Jesus Christ by vertue of the hypostatical union of the humane nature with the second person in the Trinity may have efficacy upon a soul to allure him to come God may let the beams of his beauty so shine forth as may ravish the heart in his coming and though primarily the Souls faith is established upon him as a Saviour yet his love may at the same time close with all the excellencies of Jesus Christ 2. The love of the personal excellency of Jesus Christ is an infallible consequence of the Souls coming to Christ and flows and proceeds from the Souls receiving the Lord Christ as a Saviour though there be no such true love before coming to Jesus Christ for Salvation The fifth Principle of Darkness is That there must be a proportion between the Souls sorrow for sin Principle of darkness and sin it self before it may apply the promise of Jesus Christ Saith the Soul it is common among Divines to lay down this principle That a Soul must drink so many buckets full of the tears of repentance as he hath drank of the stoln waters of sin And to this purpose saith the soul you shall see that great sinners had always great sorrow Those that were the murderers of Christ Act. 2.36 37. were pricked at the heart they were much wounded before they had a promise applyed to to them So it is observed saith the Soul that Paul that was formerly Saul being a notorious sinner a blasphemer a murderer of the Saints he was filled with abundance of sorrow before God applyed comfort to him Act. 9. compared with Rom. 7.11 Sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me So Luke 7.36 37 The woman that was a great sinner and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sinner the woman that was a sinner Say Divines every one is a sinner but this woman is called a sinner by way of eminency passing the ordinary degree of sin now this woman had great sorrow v. 38. before she received any word of pardon from Christ she wept and washed his feet with her tears As she drank in buckets full of sin so she wept buckets full of tears Now that this is a principle of darkness I shall make it clear thus 1. That there is an impossibility that there should be any proportion between a souls sorrow for sin and a souls sin Every iniquity is a transgression that hath a kind of infiniteness in regard of the object against whom it is committed which is against the infinite God Now the sorrow of the soul can never rise thus high because it can never be so sutable to the will of God as the other was directly contrary to his will So that you must understand the meaning of all Divines to be this as some of them distinguish it not that there should be an Arithmetical proportion but a Geometrical proportion between sin and sorrow That is not that there should be a proportionable sorrow to sin but the greater sorrow where there have been the greatest sins 2. It appears In that the Lord hath left himself to his liberty in the afflicting Consciences for sin before and in and after Conversion God is a free agent and according to his own pleasure he fills one soul with greater degrees of honour and terrour and lets him lie longer under woe and anguish before he give him any quiet of spirit He strikes one soul to death with the keen arrow of compunction shoots at the heart of him whereas he lets another sinner be set upon the rock higher than himself some souls God doth prick their hearts with a needle and others he puts a sword to them like a Chyrurgion that lanceth one sore above another and yet brings both to a perfect cure You read of nothing in Lydia but only the Lord opened her heart And Paul was struck with trembling and astonishment You read of nothing in the Jaylor but crying out what to do to be saved being in fear of perishing and presently God gives him joy in believing and calms his spirit 3. In regard there is no command nor injunction from God that a soul should attain the least degree of sorrow for sin before he should dare to apply the Lord Jesus and
And indeed if we look over all those Famous men as Calvin Greenham and that skilful Physician Mr. Rogers c. not one of a Thousand Ministers but we may extract some such Passages as these from them as Take heed you apply not Comfort too soon after you be Wounded Take heed you take not away the Corrosive and apply healing to soon If you take away the Tent saith one of them before the corrupt matter be healed it will heal of it self too soon and break out most dangerously Thus if the Tent of Fear and Horrour and Soul-Affliction for Sin be taken out of the Wound of the soul too soon the soul take Comfort too soon the Wound will be ready to heal too soon and so will either break out more dangerously or else it will be the everlasting death of the soul But observe how souls mistake this ground in conceiving these expressions to be sufficient ground upon which to build such a Conclusion 1. The meaning of these Divines in giving these cautions to take heed of applying Comfort too soon is only this that such as deal with Afflicted Consciences must take heed they do not too readily assure them that the promise of Life in Jesus Christ belongs to them and that they are certainly accepted in the Covenant of Grace Now indeed these Comforts may be applied to the soul too soon for this is not nor ought to be the first application of Jesus Christ to souls The very first act in the soul in its application of the Lord Jesus to it self is not that the Lord Christ is my Saviour and that he hath Redeemed my soul and Purchased Life and Eternal Salvation for me Thus indeed a soul might apply Jesus Christ too soon But the first application of Jesus Christ to the soul is the applying the Lords Tender of the Lord Christ unto the particular soul It is an assuring of the soul from what it beholds in the Declaration of the Will of God from his Word that it is his Will to receive his soul into union with Jesus Christ and that it is the Will of God concerning him that he do embrace Christ to be one with him 2. Observe That it is upon different grounds that a soul doth receive assurance unto his Faith that he is united to Jesus Christ and that other souls do manifest any Confidence that the soul is united to Jesus Christ There is one ground for the souls own apprehension that the promise belongs to himself and it is upon another ground that any soul may apply a promise by way of assuring the soul that he hath an interest in the promise This will appear in two things 1. The ground from whence the soul receiveth assurance to his own Faith of his union with Christ is invisible to all others when it is first visible to the soul it self The Lord may and doth frequently by his own Spirit so open the very secrets of his Heart and Mind unto a particular soul and his willingness his longing desire to accept him in Christ as he doth beget yernings in the soul to Christ and beget a blessed close between Christ and that soul but alas no other eye but his own seeth this blessed close 2. Those grounds upon which any other may assure a soul that he is united to Jesus Christ are but the Consequence of the souls own Apprehension of Christs acceptance of it into union with him So that observe If the spiritual Physician should apply Comfort in their sence to the soul that is assure the soul of his present interest in the Covenant of Grace he may do it indeed too soon because he can have no ground for such a Confidence that he is united to Jesus Christ till he hath applied Jesus Christ in particular to his own soul and that application hath brought forth some preceious Fruit that is till it hath brought forth Contrition and Godly Sorrow Emptiness Nothingness a sight of the souls own Sinking Perishing condition till it hath brought forth Gasping and Longing and Panting after Jesus Christ no Spiritual Physician hath any ground to assure or tell the soul that he is Confident that he is united to Jesus Christ and this is that that these Divines call Comfort And therefore they propound three or four things as necessary to be discerned by every Spiritual Physitian before he apply Comfort to them First say they it is necessary that the Spiritual Physician behold the soul Wounded in the sense of his Sin sensible of the Wrath and Indignation of God that is due unto his Sin and sensible of the unavoidableness of Wrath and Indignation Secondly say they it is necessary the Spiritual Physician should discern in the afflicted soul a Sincere Cordial Upright Single Purpose and Intention an absolute Resolution to abandon all those Sins a purpose to Hate them and Loath and Abhor them Thirdly say they that he must discern a sincere purpose to be constant in a Universal way of Obedience unto Jesus Christ to receive him as his only King and Ruler and Governour to be obedient to his Will alone Fourthly It is necessary that he discern earnest Longings and Pantings and Breathings after Jesus Christ an unsatiable thirst after him such a thirst as none can quench but Jesus Christ alone such a thirst as makes him so prise Jesus Christ that if all the World were turned into a Mountain of Gold it were nothing to him in respect of Christ and this thirst say they must be discerned by the Spiritual Physician to be only after the imputed Righteousness of Christ that is that he may be free from Sin and have the Pardon pass'd from Heaven to his soul and have the Righteousness of Christ to stand pure and clean and Innocent before God and then say they the Spiritual Physician may apply Comfort to the soul So that it is apparent from their own Principles what they mean by cautioning souls to take heed they do not apply Comfort to afflicted Consciences to soon And yet further these Divines in their application of Comfort also acknowledge it can be but in a conditional way that any one can lawfully aver to a soul and assure it from the Word that the promise of Life belongs to him and that be is in the Covenant of Grace For say they it must be only upon this condition that those things I named before be Truly and Really and Sincerely to be found in the soul So that in effect there is no Comfort that is applyed by them unto the afflicted Conscience And I must confess I see not any safety that can be concluded from the Word of God in application of Comfort in this way unto afflicted Consciences in regard it must rather establish the soul upon a Humane Authority than a Divine II. A second ground of this Principle is this That the promise of Life and Salvation doth not strait way belong to every soul that is Wounded and Terrified
and Afflicted in Conscience but it is only to such as are truly afflicted that is such whose Hearts are truly Broken and truly Contrite Isa 66.2 Now herein are two mistakes to be observed 1. That though it should be true that the promises of Life and Salvation are made only to such as were thus Broken and Contrite the contrary to which you have heard formerly opened yet first the tender of the promise of the gift of Jesus Christ is made to souls that have not the least degree of Contrition nor the least degree of Sorrow That is to say the Lords Declaration of his Will to receive every soul that will into union with Jesus Christ is as well propounded to souls not having the least degree of Contrition in their Hearts as it is to those that are the most Contrite and the most Broken 2. If the promise of Life and Salvation were made only to those that were Contrite yet that Contrition could proceed from nothing else but the particular application of the Lord Jesus to himself All fulness is appointed by the Father to dwell in Christ and whatever grace the soul receives must be an Influence that flows down from the grace of Jesus Christ III. There is a third ground and that is this That it is for the Glory and Honour of God and for the advantage of the soul that it should lie under affliction of Conscience and under the Burden of his Sin some time before he doth apply the Lord Jesus Here I must Premise one thing and that is That the Glory and Honour of God is the result of all his ways to his people The Lord being the Fountain of Wisdom cannot work without an end And his own self alone that is the manifestation of his own Glory is the highest end Therefore of necessity in all the ways of God that end must be attended This Premised I answer That properly and by it self the souls lying under the Spirit of Bondage or affliction of Conscience for Sin is neither for the Glory of God nor for the souls advantage It is ordinarily concluded that the soul lying under the Spirit of Bondage doth make for the manifestation of the Glory of God 1. In the Glory of his Justice to the Soul Saith the soul it makes much for the magnifying the Justice of God in the eye and Heart that the soul hath deserved according to justice to be plunged into the everlasting Pit of Wo that he is liable to all the dreadful Torments that the Wisdom of God can invent against such a cursed Rebel for breaking such a Righteous and Holy Law And it magnifies justice also in the eyes of others when others shall see that those souls do acknowledge themselves that they did expect nothing according to the strictness and of justice but everlasting Wrath and Indignation 2. That it doth make for the magnifying of God in his mercy Say they it makes mercy more sweet to the soul and more highly to be prized by it when the spirit of bondage hath lain upon the soul and afflicted the conscience for a time Now though at first view it should seem thus yet properly the afflicting the soul for sin that is the spirit of bondage working fear and terrour for sin doth not magnifie God neither in his justice nor mercy First It doth not magnifie God in his justice properly And that will appear because the magnifying of the justice of God in the heart of any is only by causing it clearly to apprehend his own infinite worthiness to lie under the wrath and indignation of God to all eternity Now the soul is thus made apprehensive of his worthiness to have the utmost justice of God executed upon him only through receiving the Lord Jesus tendered There are two things that must necessarily concur to make up this apprehension of his worthiness to have justice executed in his utmost indignation upon him and so consequently to make justice to be sanctified in any soul 1. A spiritual discerning to behold the nature of sin Now this must be received from Jesus Christ and that by infusion of influences from Christ to the soul by vertue of union between Christ and the soul A spiritual object cannot be discerned in the spirituality of it but by a spiritual eye Now both the justice of God and sin when looked upon aright it must be by a spiritual eye that is sutable to apprehend such an object 2. There must be a discovery of the dimensions of sin that is the height length and breadth of it before there can be a sanctifying the justice of God in the heart Now the dimensions of sin are only discovered to the soul through the application of the Lord Jesus tendered Till the soul seeth the right object against whom sin is committed he never seeth sin in the heinousness and abominable wickedness of it Now the soul never apprehends God aright till he beholds him in Jesus Christ as the object against whom he hath committed all his wickedness So that the aggravations of a souls sin appearing only from the right apprehension of Jesus Christ thence it appears it doth not make for the glory of the justice of God that the soul should lie a time under affliction of conscience for sin in regard the Justice of God is more exalted and magnified in the heart in one moment in the right application of the Lord Jesus than it can be in twenty years should the soul lie under the affliction of conscience all that time not applying the Lord Jesus to himself Neither can the justice of God be more magnified in the eyes of others in case the spirit of bondage lieth upon it for a season before the tender of Jesus Christ more than it can by the application of that tender immediately as soon as he is tendered The justice of God is magnified before others only by discovering before them his thoughts of himself of his own unworthiness and desert according to justice to be everlastingly tumbling up and down in the gulf of wo and misery Now the clearest apprehension of the unspeakableness of his own unworthiness proceeds only from the tender of Jesus Christ to his soul Secondly Hence also it necessarily follows That the name of God is not properly magnified in his mercy in the soul that partaketh of it by the spirit of bondage working upon the heart for a season before the application of the Lord Jesus to the soul The more clearly the soul apprehends its own wretched rebellion and cursed trechery against the Crown of the Lords glory the more clear is the Lords mercy manifested to the soul Now this is made more apparent by the application of the Lord Jesus to himself than it could be though the soul could discern the dreadfull everlasting burnings Nay if he could discern by a sense and feeling the justice of God reaching of him though he were in hell for a season and should partake of
the punishment of the Devils that could only make him see the merit of sin but it could not make him see himself worse than a Devil There is a Second branch of this ground and that is for the souls advantage and benefit that he does for a time lie under the heaviness and weight of his own iniquity and not dare to apply the Lord Jesus There are also two reasons rendred of that 1. Say they it doth drive the soul more vehemently to the Lord Jesus for justification life and salvation and set the soul in a more hot persuit af-Jesus Christ so as not to be satisfied without him 2. Say they it hath advantage for sanctification in regard fear makes him depart from iniquity and pursue more vehemently after holiness from Jesus Christ For answer to this First I must premise thus much That the Lord can and doth improve every providence whatever for the fulfilling of his own will in a soul So that the Lords will being effectually to draw a heart to the Lord Christ to make him partake of holiness and of union with himself the Lord can and it may be doth improve the affliction of the souls conscience for sin for that end to put him upon a violent pursuit after Jesus Christ But I say this is only accidentally But properly and by it self the souls resting under affliction of conscience for his sin before the applying the Lord Jesus to himself doth not in any measure make for the benefit of the soul in pressing the soul one step towards Jesus Christ either for justification or sanctification either for life union with God in Christ or holiness And that will appear in two things 1. In regard all apprehensions of God out of Christ do but drive away the soul from the presence of God and terrifie and amaze and astonish and afright the poor soul I mean thus so long as the soul looks upon God and doth not behold the Lord willing to accept his poor despicable soul in that precious Mediator the Lord Jesus the more it beholds the justice of God and the more it feels of the effects of his justice in the conscience the further the soul runs from God No sooner had Adam transgressed the will of God and had his conscience wounded but he fled from the presence of God when God called him Thus when Judas was sensible of his sin against God presently he went and hanged himself 2. In regard it is only through the infusion of the habit of grace into the soul that the heart is any way drawn towards Jesus Christ Saith Christ John 6.44 No man can come unto me except the father draw him So the Spouse Cant. 1.4 Draw me we will run after thee The heart is altogether opposite to leave those cursed ways of enmity against Jesus Christ after the longest time that ever any soul lay under the affliction of conscience for sin till the Lord by an infusion of a precious habitual disposition from Christ inclines the soul to receive Jesus Christ tendered Now that this is a principle of darkness we shall make it appear divers ways 1. The similitude it self by which the soul illustrates this principle of darkness is meerly impertinent and improperly applyed to the souls case The similitude you know was that there must be corrosives applyed to the wound to eat out the dead flesh before a healing medicine be applied Now this is improperly applied to the souls case in regard there is no medicine to be applied neither corrosive nor lenitive but only the Lord Christ himself for he is the only balm of Gilead It is Jesus Christ alone by the power of his own death in the flesh that slew sin and it is he only that hath power against sin and hell Ps 68.18 he led captivity captive That is Sin Death and the Devil that led poor souls captive Now Jesus Christ being the only Medicine to heal Souls I shall retort the Souls own Similitude against it self by way of contraries You say there must be a corrosive applied to the Soul before a lenitive that is before there be a healing medicine there must be some gnawing thing some tent to ransake the wound Now I say Jesus Christ being the only medicine the danger will be far greater in not applying the Lord Jesus presently in regard there is no salve either corrosive or lenitive that is applied to the Soul wherein Jesus Christ is neglected If it be dangerous to the body to apply lenitives before corrosives then how dangerous is it to leave the Soul without any medicine at all 2. Jesus Christ is the very powerfull corrosive I is only he that must let the wound be ransaked to the bottom I mean he only doth give in light to see into the bottom of the wound It is only he that must eat out all the corrupt matter unless you can think that sin can be killed without the application of the power of the death of Jesus Christ and then indeed is Christ dead in vain 3. It is impossible that any soul should too soon answer the call of God Now observe the Lord calls thy soul whatever thou art at this moment to apply Jesus Christ tendered Saith God Thou poor rebell and traytor to the Crown of Heaven I command thee to receive the Lord Jesus It is my will thou shouldst receive Jesus Christ as a Mediator to make up a union between thy self and me Now dost think thou canst answer too soon to this call You read of the five foolish Virgins Mat. 25. That for want of being ready presently to hear and answer when the Bridegroom should come they were shut out and could never enter into the Bridegrooms Chamber to have Communion with Jesus Christ You read also Mat. 22.7 That when the King invited the people to the Marriage of his Son that is the Lord Jesus because they neglected that call the King was exceeding wrath 4. A soul can never too soon come into a capableness of doing any thing that may be acceptable to God God calls for prayer at thy hand this night dost think it is too soon to be in a posture wherein thy prayer may be heard Is it too soon to come from under the hatred of God to be in a state of amity and love It is more clear than the Sun at noon day that it is a cursed principle of darkness that the soul should take heed that it doth not too soon apply to himself the Lord Jesus tendered But though this be a principle of darkness yet by some Hell-bred Devilish Policy the Devil can improve it both ways for though he cast in this principle to hinder souls from coming to Christ yet on the contrary he perswades some in a confused disorderly way to apply in some kind the Lord Jesus too too soon And therefore there are two or three things to be anexed to this principle of darkness 1. Though the Lord Jesus cannot be applyed
Principle of Darkness there is first something to be premised First that the soul understand what is meant by comfort Secondly What is meant by applying comfort to the soul By comfort is meant only that strength and that Life and Refreshment that a soul receiveth from the apprehension of the good of any object And to apply the Lord Jesus for comfort the soul is to receive the Lord Jesus with all his Glorious Priviledges that are sutable for the Poor Needy Despicable Loveless soul according as God the Father tenders him to the soul To speak more plainly to receive the Lord Jesus as he is offered freely to be given by God to the Poor Despicable soul to make up a League and Amity and Love between the Father and the soul to break in sunder those Chains wherewith the soul was clogged by Sin to everlasting Destruction and in a word for the perfecting of the souls Happiness both here and for Eternity Now I shall answer directly to that first Foundation upon which this first Principle of Darkness is built And I say it is impossible that the applying of the Lord Jesus for the comforting of the soul should make the soul in danger to miscarry through Presumption but rather the contrary it is the greatest preservative against Presumption And that will appear in three or four particulars I. In regard the more the comforts of the soul are enlarged through the application of Christ the more clear is that cursed Root of Self-Confidence rooted out of the Heart The Comforts of Jesus Christs in their own nature do empty the soul of it self and all Self-Confidence in regard it removes the soul from all imaginary dependance upon its self either for Comfort here or for Mercy and Happiness to Eternity The souls perfect nothingness in it self is only by beholding the Lord Jesus as the Father hath given him to the soul Therefore it is said in 1 John 3.2 3. We know not yet what we shall be but then we shall be like him for we shall know him as he is And Eph. 3.19 The Apostle prays that they may comprehend with all Saints what is the Height and Bredth and Length and Depth of the Love of God which passeth knowledge That is to know this to their own souls And what is the end of all That they may be filled with the fulness of God This fulness of God can be wrought by nothing but by the full comprehension of Jesus Christ and all his Comforts II. In regard it raiseth the souls thoughts of Jesus Christ in a transcendent manner and fills the Heart with a high estimation of him When the soul applies most incomprehensively the Lord Jesus in all his Priviledges for the refreshing of his soul then doth the soul see most largly into the Incomprehensive Gulf of the excellency of Jesus Christ and when the soul seeth Jesus Christ most clearly as altogether incomprehensible then is the Heart filled with the highest thoughts that can be of Jesus Christ III. The application of the Lord Jesus for the comforting of the soul in the largest manner that can be doth beget a more precious fear in the heart than all the Terrours Sights and Visions of the Indignation of God against the soul for Sin can possibly beget All the Reason that can be given why it should endanger the soul to Presume is only this that the applying Christ in two large a measure in his comforts should make the soul without fear Now the soul is never so filled with Holy Fear as when it hath the largest comprehension of Jesus Christ The Reason is plain The larger comprehension the soul hath of Jesus Christ the more natural is the love to Jesus Christ Now love is extended upon Jesus Christ when it rests upon him or fetcheth in Joy through beleiving And according as love is extended so is fear extended Love and Fear go hand in hand you cannot divide them a man of large love is a man of large fear The reason is plain The more dear any object is to the soul the more a man feareth to lose it IIII. When the Lord Christ is applied most for Comfort then doth a Holy Jealousie rise high in the heart When Love rises high Jealousie rises high Jealousie is compounded of Love and Anger or Love and Hatred Where Love runs out largely in Zeal there is a Zeal of Hatred against all that should deprive us of it Put a Fearful man and a Jealous man together to Watch over a Beloved object and you need not fear their Sleeping Thus Fear and Jealosie meeting together in the soul will make it Watchful least there should be the least outgoing of the Heart from Jesus Christ Secondly Neither can it dry up the Repenting or Penitent Tears too soon It is as impossible that the Springs of Godly Sorrow should be sealed up by the application of the Lord Jesus in the largest measure for the comforting of the soul as it is impossible it should make the soul Presume The Foundation of this Principle of Darkness is laid upon a two-fold mistake First that the discerning eye of the soul whereby Sin should be discerned should be closed up with the sight of the apprehension of large comfort from Jesus Christ Secondly that the sight or apprehension of a defect of comfort in the Lord Jesus for his soul for the present should be the Original of true Godly Sorrow and so that Godly Sorrow should Perish when the comforts of the Lord Jesus sutable to his needy soul appear Now it is apparent that the eye of the soul whereby he may see his own Wretchedness Merit and Desert is more clear by the sight of enlarged comfort from Jesus Christ I. The eye of the soul receiveth more Divine light to discover Sin in the nature of it by how much in a greater degree the soul apprehends enlarged comforts through the application of the Lord Jesus This is that precious eye-salve spoken of Rev. 3. that Christ inviteth souls to come and buy of him That 's the reason Mary wept so much and washed the feet of Jesus Christ with her tears Christ tells you it was because she loved much And what was the cause of that love but only the apprehension of the glorious priviledges to her in Jesus Christ 2. The apprehension of a defect of comfort in the Lord Christ sutable to the Soul for the present cannot be a spring or head from whence the stream of Godly sorrow flows Godly sorrow must arise from the clearest most spiritual sin Now you see the clearest discerning of sin in a Spiritual manner doth arise from the clear discerning of those enlarged comforts through the application of the Lord Jesus And indeed as those increase so doth Godly sorrow increase The greatest comforted Soul is the greatest mourning Soul Now you see the foundation is too weak to bear up this principle and also that it will appear to be a principle of darkness
There can be but two senses in which this proposition can be taken First It must either be meant thus That the Lord Christ must not be applyed for comforting of Souls too much that is not applyed to comfort the Soul in his necessity with two great a confidence Now there it crosses the precious heavenly light that shines from the Sun of righteousness the Lord Christ in regard it is the great command that the Soul ought to receive him whole with all his priviledges propounded to the Soul with a full assurance of faith And so Abrahams faith is commended that he did not doubt at all Rom. 4.18 19 20. Or Secondly the application of the Lord Christ for comforting the Soul too much must be meant thus That he may be applyed too confidently to the Soul with too large a comprehension of the infinite riches of all excellencies that are treasured up for the Soul in the Lord Jesus Now to apply the Lord Jesus for comfort too much this way doth also directly oppose the Scripture 1. It is commonly the frequent prayer of the Apostle for the Saints that they might have the fullest comprehension of Jesus Christ to their Souls Eph. 1.17 18. He prays that their understandings may be enlightned that they may know what is the hope of his calling that is that they might know the glorious things that they are called to in Jesus Christ So Eph. 3.18 He would have them know the exceeding riches of his grace to them that believe He would have them comprehend the dimensions of the love of Christ to them 2. It is the desire of Jesus Christ that all his people might have fulness of joy John 15.11 These things have I spoken unto you that your joy might be full That 's also the Apostles prayer Rom. 15.13 The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost 3. It is according to the degree wherein the Soul comprehends the excellency treasured up in Jesus Christ for his Soul that it partaketh of the excellency of Christ and is changed into the the likeness of Christ 1 John 3.2 So that it is a principle of darkness that clearly contradicts the word of truth to say the Soul must not apply the Lord Jesus too much that is with too large a comprehension of the priviledges of Jesus Christ to his Soul But there are two things to be opened about this for the clearing of it 1. Though Jesus Christ cannot be applyed for comforting the Soul too much be the Soul in what condition it can be yet the Lord Christ may be looked into for comforting a Soul too much That is when Souls look upon Jesus Christ for comfort without receiving him as he is tendered by God to the Soul Though Christ be the object of all true comfort to the Soul yet it is Christ as he is in Union with the Soul for it is not the goodness of an object simply and absolutely considered that doth send down strength and life into the heart in beholding of it but it is the goodness of an object appropriated to its self 2. Jesus Christ may be applyed by others for comforting their Souls too much I mean to affirm to any particular Soul that the Lord Jesus with his glorious priviledges is his this is applying Jesus Christ for comforting them too much the reason is plain in regard it is out of Gods way Though these two Cautions are to be observed yet it is a principle of darkness that is necessary to be removed before there can be a certain evidence of the Souls Union with Christ There is one Principle of darkness more and that is this That a Soul must discern his peculiar right to Principle of Darkness and interest in the particular promise before he believe it is the will of God to receive his particular Soul into Union with Christ The meaning of the Soul is this that he must behold some promise pass'd over to him by Jesus Christ before he can believe it is the will of God to receive him into Union with Christ This principle being so cunningly forged in Hell that it is scarce discerned from a principle of light we shall endeavour to help you to discern it to be a principle of darkness I find three foundations upon which this principle is built 1. That it cannot possibly be lawfull for every Soul to believe that it is the will of God to take him into union with Christ For saith the Soul then the greatest part of the world should be put upon it to believe a lie 2. That it must be through a Souls right to some promise that he cometh to have a right to Jesus Christ Now this is a false foundation because there can be no interest nor right the Soul can have to one promise of God before the Soul is bound to believe that the Lord will receive his soul into Union with Christ 1. In regard the first promise is Jesus Christ himself and the very primary object of faith is Jesus Christ himself This you shall observe Gen. 3.15 The first promise that was given to Adam was that the seed of the woman should break the serpents head which is nothing but a promise of Jesus Christ 2. When the promise was first renewed to Abraham it was in these words In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed What is that seed It is Jesus Christ Gal. 3.16 So the Apostles in their preaching laid Jesus Christ as the first object of faith Believe in the Lord Jesus 3. A third foundation of this principle is this That only those promises that are made unto holy qualiqualities in sanctified Souls are assuring promises or promises that can assure unto a Souls faith that the Lord will receive him into union with Christ Saith the Soul there are inviting promises and assuring promises now inviting promises speak so general as none can discern his union from thence but the promises to the graces they in a manner particularize Souls Now hence the Soul concludeth thus it must of necessity be a necessary precedent before a Souls assurance that God will take him into union with Christ that he see some holy quality in his own spirit to which the Lord hath made some such promise Now observe the gross darkness and blindness in conceiving inviting promises not to be able to give assurance to a Souls faith of union with Christ It will appear in two or three things 1. Then the Soul must conceive that those promises that the Lord propounds in the inviting of the Soul to Christ may not be believed with a fulness of confidence and assurance Now 1. Thence the Soul must conceive that some portions of the word of God have not sufficient authority to be believed undoubtedly by the Soul Now what an high indignity is offered to God in entertaining such a thought that any
one Iota or Tittle from the great God should not be able to command a fulness of belief from every soul 2. The Soul maketh all these inviting promises to be meerly in vain For if these inviting promises do not sufficiently reveal the Lords will to receive a poor loveless Soul that hath been at enmity to union with the Lord Jesus so as to make the Soul believe it with firmness of confidence then they are altogether useless they can be no incentive and motive to invite the Soul to Jesus Christ 2. The Soul must say thus That those inviting promises may not lawfully be applyed particularly unto particular Souls with that fulness of confidence Now herein is great injury done to the truth as will appear in two things 1. The Soul must deny those portions of the word to be believed by any one Soul under heaven Now herein the Soul shews much impudence and boldness to set limits to the will of God where he is pleased to set no limits 2. Then those inviting promises should not be the object of justifying faith according as it doth justifie For questionless that which is called justifying faith according as it doth justifie or in the exercise of it in that justifying way that doth particularly apply those promises to the particular Soul 3. There is one imagination more of the Soul upon which it grounds this conceit that the inviting promises of God are no grounds of assuring the Soul of union with Christ and that is this That a Soul may with a fulness of assurance believe the Lords will to be to receive his particular Soul into Union with Jesus Christ and yet the Soul at the same time be doubtfull and questioning of his Union All that is possible for the Soul to say in this is only thus much that a Soul may believe with all fulness of assurance the Lords will to take the Soul into Union with Christ habitually though not actually and so be questioning his Union with Christ though he do believe it habitually But alas this comes nothing to the purpose for indeed though it may be said truly that a Soul hath the habit of faith to believe it is the will of God to take Souls into union with Christ yet a Soul cannot be said properly habitually to believe this for indeed the weakest believers that have the lowest degree of faith have the act of faith from whence this habit of faith proceeds and so he doth in some degree believe the Lords will to receive his Soul into union with Jesus Christ in the promises Thus I have done with the first kind of beams the Devil forges to cast into the Souls eye There is a second kind of Beams of Darkness and those are Dark Distempers Though the Devils grand policy be to keep false principles in the souls judgment whereby the soul may discern all in a false way that God propounds to him yet he hath another policy to flee to and that is Distempers in the Heart Now these are also dangerous and keep the soul from assurance of union with Christ while those remain in the soul Therefore that is a second work of the spirit to pluck out those dark distempers And these are also divers The first Dark Distemper is Spiritual Pride It is Natural Pride working Spiritually though sometimes it is Spiritual Pride Dark Distemper And that is a kind of humor or swelling in the Spirit Or it is a kind of lifting up the spirit in a crossness and aversness to the will of God This the Devil causeth to grow like a wen upon the souls spiritual eye whereby he prevents the souls seeing what the promise holds forth to him There are two special workings of this distemper whereby the soul is prevented from discerning what the promise holds sorth 1. It inclineth the soul to have his thoughts taken up chiefly in looking after and seeking out some excellency and goodness in the soul it self whereupon it might stay its soul and uphold its sinking spirit And hence you shall observe though the heart little mind it and think it self far enough off from pride the souls eye is always upon his own prayers and duties of worship upon his own tears mourning and groaning upon the desires of his own heart and its workings toward God upon his own hungering and thirsting after God And all the soul complains of under this distemper is commonly that which a soul would little think proceeds from pride that he cannot find any goodness in himself Whereas if the truth be found out and the heart searched to the bottom he thinketh he hath much goodness 2. It maketh the heart averse to the thoughts of receiving all that ever he shall have only through meer gift alone The proud heart will not be beholding to God in Christ for all but would have all in his own way Hence ariseth a three-sold distemper 1. The soul insnarles it self in the interpretation of the promises and interprets all the promises against it self Thence the souls thinks concerning every promise it is but given to aggravate my condemnation 2. Hence ariseth a conclusion in the soul that it must not nay sometimes that it will not receive the Lord Jesus till it find such and such dispositions as the soul conceives necessary to be in it self Saith the soul if I could find my heart enlarged towards God and my deadness and coldness removed if I could find a mighty fervency of the spirit of prayer in my heart I could think indeed that the promise of the Lord Jesus might belong to me So that here the soul sits waiting for and pursuing after something that he might bring with him to the Lord Christ that he might come with his peny to take his penyworth of that which God propounds in Jesus Christ 3. From this aversness to receive all from free grace ariseth a neglect and disregard of searching into the promises what they hold forth Propound the promises to the soul alas saith the soul what is this to me none of these promises belong to me Now thence the soul is kept in his dolefull blindness and darkness through want of gazing upon the promise and looking upon the beam of light it holds forth A second Distemper is the rashness and unadvisedness of the soul This rashness is an unadvised sudden drawing up determinations concerning the souls condition Dark Distemper without a due examination of the ground from whence the soul draws that determination and without a due weighing of those conclusions drawn from thence in the ballance of the Sanctuary Questionless this is none of the least distempers nor none of the least beams that the Devil keeps in the souls eye It is one of the most secret dangerous snares that the Devil catches the feet of souls in to put them upon looking on the things of God out of a rational way I know no greater difference between true faith and the hypocrites temporary
of thy judgment declaring the excellency of Jesus Christ tendered that thy affections did work so powerfully 2. It would be considered whether the Lord may not and doth not more frequently stir up higher affections in souls in the first holding forth of the Gospel to them than he always intends afterwards to them Do you think that the Prodigal Luke 15.44 had always those expressions of his fathers delight in his return that he had when he first returned Then there must be the best robe put upon him and a feast and musick But it is a question whether his father put him on such apparel every day and make him a feast every day So the Lord may and I believe doth at the first revealing of his truth give more affections than he intends to continue and more stirrings of grace infused than he intends afterwards constantly to continue yet though there remain not the same activity vivacity liveliness of affection yet there may be the same affection remain nay it may be the affection may be grown in its fixedness and steadiness and in its orderly way of working towards Jesus Christ though it appear not working so powerfully and mightily as it did before You see plainly the conclusion is rashly drawn though from a true principle considered in some sense A third Distemper is fearfulness the timerous disposition of the soul Dark Distemper Now you must rightly understand this distemper for though the Devil cast in the distemper of fearfulness into some souls to keep them from union with Christ yet he casts in the distemper of presumption into more souls to prevent them from seeing the face of God in the glass of the Gospel and so leads their souls into the pit of darkness We shall clear it in two or three conclusions 1. There cannot be too much holy fear possessing any heart That is there cannot be too much awfull reverence of the holy Majesty of God nor too much awfull respect of God as he presents himself cloathed with the precious robe of mercy loving kindness goodness This fear God requires Ps 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared 2. There is a fear which is a terrour and dread and horrour of the avenging justice of the Almighty God There is a fear of displeasing this God appearing in this manner least his anger should be so kindled that flames of indignation should proceed from him to the consuming of soul and body for ever And it is this fear that is too much in the souls of Gods dear ones This kind of fear is but a Judas his fear and a Cain's fear and a Saul's fear 3. There is a natural affection of fear that possesseth the hearts of men and women as men and women That 's this a perturbation or a troubling or perplexing or causing the heart to suffer through the motions of the blood and animal spirits to and fro upon the souls apprehending some evil that he is in danger to suffer This kind of fear is not an evil fear absolutely considered But this fear becomes a sinfull distemper through the inordinateness of it As 1. When it exceeds the bounds of reason That is when the heart is perplexed with some evil he shall suffer and can give no ground of this fear The soul is afraid of the loss of heaven and the glorious priviledges tendered in Christ and can render no good account according to reason why his soul is thus afraid 2. When it exceeds the bounds of Grace That is when it exceeds the bounds God hath appointed in his word when it proves a distracting fear and unfits the soul for the duty God requires at his hand And this distemper arises from three principles and accordingly produces three effects whereby the soul is prevented from discerning the light the promise holds forth 1. Commonly it arises from the sense of the souls own guiltiness The sense of a soul to be a guilty person naturally stirs up fear of punishment according to the disposition of men as men and working with natural conscience it stirs up fear of divine vengeance hereafter and so by this means that sinful fear prevails and clouds the soul 2. It ariseth from the souls apprehension of the height of the consequence of the souls right establishment Fear is begotten by looking upon the danger It is like a man standing upon a high Tower and looking upon the downfall though he stands firm it pales the man and makes him afraid So they standing upon the Tower of Eternity come to be sensible of the great danger and thence arises this fear of heart 3. This fear ariseth from the darkness and ignorance wherein the soul remains I mean his ignorance of the way of the right establishment of the soul his ignorance of the nature and large extent of those promises that God vouchsafes to his soul Like a blind man that is in continual fear lest he meet with danger and stumble and fall Walking in darkness strikes a fear naturally in any person much more doth this spiritual darkness produce fear in the soul Now this darkness thus risen hath three effects to prevent the soul from the sight of the promise held forth 1. It causeth the soul to create strange unheard of dangers to himself through the strength of imagination working by fear The very strength of fancy when this distemper of fear prevails causeth the soul to make new dangers to it self every moment and to fear where no fear is And thence he multiplies one objection upon another and the answering of one objection is but the bringing in of another objection 2. This distemper of fearfulness doth prevent the souls right use of the appointed means for the Prevention of real danger discovered The soul thinking to escape presumption by receiving Jesus Christ lest it have no right to him prevents it self of the use of the right means to come to Christ it makes the soul mindless of what the promise holds forth 3. This distemper darkens the reason of the soul and clouds the precious divine light that God hath infused into it It looks upon God in Christ through the dark glass of fear and so is driven from God in Christ rather then drawn to a close with fuller confidence Now there are two things the spirit of God is to do for the removing of this distemper 1. The Spirit of God presents the Lord in his love compassions and tender nature cloathed with the nature of loving-kindness and thereupon begins to allay that passion of fear to prevent the rage and dominion of it The spirit presents the Lord as it were coming down with a still gentle voice speaking to the soul in a precious alluring soul-conquering heart-inamouring way and thereby the heart begins to have dispositions begotten in it to close with God to draw near to God whereas it stood before afar off afrighted and astonished 2. The spirit useth to expostulate with the
Scripture speaks of 1. There is a Jealousie over others least they should miscarry Which is a holy supition mingled with a holy fear of their departing from God and also joyned with a strength of desire of their keeping close unto God This kind of jealousie was in the heart of Paul 2 Cor. 11.2 I am Jealous over you with a Godly Jealousie that I may present you as a chast Virgin unto Christ 2. There may be a jealousie in the heart that is occasioned upon the sight of good in others and the excellency they have attained to That 's a kind of emulation That you shall read of Rom. 11.11 Paul tells the Jows that God had not cast them off altogether out of a purpurpose that they might fall but that through their fall the Gentiles might be called that the Jews might be provoked to Jealousie that is that they might be provoked to a kind of emulation to envy to go beyond the Gentiles Thus a Christians heart may be Jealous least another go before him and attain to a greater degree of holiness then his Soul attainneth to This is a Godly Jealousie 3. There is a Jealousie over the deceitfulness of the heart least the cursed heart should delude it and prove treacherous and joyn hand in hand with the Devil in some cursed Plot against the Soul This is a Godly Jealousie if it be kept within bounds This Jealousie over the heart if it be right is a compounded affection made up of two simple affections of the zeal of love and the zeal of hatred Or rather it is a kind of third thing that ariseth from both these that is a zeal of love to God and the ways of God and a zeal of hatred against whatever is contrary to the will of the blessed God so that there arises a kind of suspition of every thing that may possibly step in to dishonour God This Jeaiousie hath but two objects to which it can work 1. All things that may step in to be corrival with God That is whatever might strive to insinuate into the heart to steal away the heart from God or to be co-sharer with God to be a fellow beloved one with God himself Thus the world and all the world afords comes in to be the object concerning which the Soul exerciseth this Jealousie the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life these strive with all their strength to be corrivals with God in the heart to have as equal a share in the heart as God and to be as highly loved and honoured as God Now over these things the heart may be exceeding Jealous and ought to maintain a constant Jealousie 2. The second object of Jealousie is the Souls own act towards God That is whatever working there may be towards God there may be a disposition in the heart to deal fainedly and hypocritically Now in that regard because the heart is treacherous against it self a heart false to God filled with enmity against God therefore all the actions and motions of the heart are the objects upon which this Jealousie may be exercised in a right holy godly way There may be five acts of Jealousie in every Soul lawfull nay that ought to be 1. The Soul may be so Jealous of it self as to call his heart to a strict account concerning all the motions of it throughout all the whole course of his conversation He may be so suspitious as never to give credit to his heart in any thing any further than it can give a good account to him in all the motions of it First It may call its heart to account in what degree it hath wrought towards any of those objects To call the heart to account whether the affections did not run out too much after the world Secondly It may call its heart to account concerning the occasions it hath had to deal with any object whatever 2. The Soul may discover the danger and spread forth all the evil before the treacherous heart The Spirit of Jealousie may work so far that it may strive to put a bit and bridle into the wanton heart to restrain it It may strive to propound principles that may prevent its treachery 3. A soul may cry mightily to God with all his strength to prevent the wretched deceitfulness of his own heart To discover all the hidden by-paths that his own heart hath to walk in to give him light from heaven to see every step that his heart sets 4. The Soul may summons his own deceitful heart to appear before the Lord to act as in the sight of the heart-searching God in its closing with the Lord Christ tendered 5. It may so work as to cause the soul to renounce all confidence in it self of an uprightness in his own heart in its closing with the Lord Christ tendered So that thus far you see there is a Holy Jealousie of Spirit over the cursed deceitful heart that may possess yea ought to possess any Godly Soul But there is a distempered Jealousie too that darkens the Soul and prevents the Souls receiving assurance to his faith from the promise of his union with Christ and that is when this Spirit of Jealousie works in these four or five ways 1. When the Spirit of Jealousie prevails so far as to obtain the sole command of the heart Now this Jealousie cometh to be the rage of a man so as it becomes a distempered passion in stead of a holy affection So as instead of putting the soul into a precious way of searching out the deceit of his own heart it rather draws conclusions against it self without weighing and examining what the deceits of the heart are that are suspected 2. When this Jealousie makes the Soul negligent or careless of the use of the means to find out the truth of what it suspects So that in stead of this the heart sits down under those fears and suspicions crying out my wretched heart will deceive me I dare not think of receiving the Lord Jesus tendered 3. When the Soul is so overcome with Jealousie that it takes no account of it self of the ground of the working of the Jealousie It is the ordinary distemper of Souls that are overcome with this Jealousie that they never look out to the precious promises wherein the Lord engages himself to prevent the deceitfulness of the heart and its departing from God 4. When this Jealousie so prevails as it is taken up by the Soul as a sufficient Plea against the Souls present believing and receiving the Lord Jesus tendered When the Soul sets this Jealousie over his own deceitfull heart like a bulwark against all that can be propounded to him to make him give credit to the will of God and to yield obedience to the Lord Christ tendered when the heart thinks it is enough that he is able to say truly the very desire of my Soul is to yield obedience to the command of God in
whence to draw a conclusion of his contrary state to the state of other Christians that he beholds to excel him in so a high a measure When it riseth to this it becomes a sinful dark distemper and that will appear in divers things 1. This may prove a measuring of Gods love by the acts of his love 2. It may be an arguing meerly from a Souls want of light to discern Gods good will to him in Christ 3. It makes the Soul draw a conclusion of the total want of the being of Grace while a Soul thus concludes because he seeth no Graces shining forth in himself as he doth in others that therefore he is not beloved of God in Christ it may come to argue in this manner because I see my Soul is not such a burning and shining light as such a Christian therefore I am not so much as smoaking flax 4. This argument from the defect of Grace may be an argument from the Souls infirmity It may be but an argument from the Tyranny that some lust hath exercised over the Heart to the concluding it is under the voluntary service of his lust 5. It may be a reasoning from the want of fruitfulness in Christianity to the want of Christianity it self and the want of all fritfulness whatsoever Now when the Soul is about to draw such conclusions as these from its measuring it self by other Christians let these things be observed 1. He must first assure himself that the defect he beholds in his own Soul is a sinful defect Four things the Soul must be assured the defect comes not from before he can be assured the defect is Sin First That it is not barely through the suspension of the influence of the comforting Spirit of Christ Secondly It must be assured that the defects he beholds in his own Soul of the Graces of others be not through the Lords suspending the arbitrary influences of the quickning Spirit of Christ You must conceive there are influences that are for the Souls Being and influences that are for the Souls well Being These influences of the quickning Spirit of Christ that are for the Souls Being are never withdrawn But the influences that are for the Souls well Being are communicated in various degrees to various Souls which therefore I call arbitrary influances of the Spirit of Christ that is such as God disposes of according to his meer pleasure to the Soul in divers degrees at divers times and to divers Souls in divers times Thirdly The Soul must be assured that the defect he beholds in his own Soul in respect of the Graces of other Christians proceeds not only from the defects of gifts thar others furnished with the same Graces injoy above him Gifts are like a pretious cundit-pipes that the Lord hath appointed to let out the streams of the Spirit of Jesus Christ through Now if another Soul hath more abundance of those kind of gifts more readiness of Capacity quickness of Understanding greater depths in the apprehension of the things of Christ clearness of light more readiness of expression Then thy Soul may be deceived in judging a greater degree of Grace in such a Soul than in thy Soul in regard he hath a greater opportunity of expression of Grace and a greater aptness to hold forth Grace received than thou hast Fourthly The Soul must be assured that it is not from the defect of the means and opportunity only without any negligence of any means by the Soul that his defect of Grace proceeds from 2. The Soul must be assured that those defects that he beholds in himself are such defects as are altogether inconsistent with the state of the union of the Soul with Christ Whatever gives a true and sufficient demonstration of its cause must be an effect that proceeds properly from such a cause only that cannot proceed from another cause 3. The Soul must be also sure that Spiritual Rashness and Wilfulness or Ignorance or Temptation do not overcloud his Judgment in his searching out and trying the defects in the Soul Therein I shall advise to three things 1. The Soul ought to be sure that he trust not his own light alone 2. The Soul ought to bring all things both in their substance and in their circumstances that are worthy to be weighed to the rule of the Word alone 3. A Soul must endeavour that his Judgment be settled by God That 's thus The Soul that hath his Judgment past upon his own defects and the nature of them to be such as is inconsistent with the state of union with Christ must endeavour to draw near to God to bring himself into the presence of the Heart searching God with a serious apprehension and meditation that all the secrets of his Spirit are open before God and then and there in this frame to view over again and meditate upon that Judgment that he finds himself ready to pass against his own Soul and then observe whether his Spirit then dare pass this conclusion against himself III. When a Soul in measuring himself by others makes the defect of Grace in himself to be the matter of discouragement of his Soul and matter of impediment to the exercise of his Faith in Christ That is when the Soul by looking upon some other Christians and beholding many pretious gratious holy dispositions shine forth like so many Stars in the lower orb when he sees much holy fire drop down from Heaven into their Hearts that drop forth in their Conversations and looks upon himself and sees a defect in all Sees his own Heart overgrown with dulness stupidness blockishness carelesness forgetfulness of God regardlesness of Communion with God in Christ and the Soul makes these defects of Grace apprehended in himself matter of discouragement to his Soul to beat it off and to keep it back from the exercise of Faith Then this distemper of Judging themselves by others prevails too far 1. It is a joyning with the wretched corrupt opposit Heart against Christ and the furnishing the Soul with matter of cavil and scruple against the blessed tenders of receiving the love of Jesus Christ 2. By this the Soul maketh that part of his duty that he seems to perform to be nothing but disobedience The Soul by looking upon the Graces that shine forth in any Christian seems to do a part of his duty because it is one thing commanded and in reflecting upon his own Heart in the sight of those Graces seems to do another part of his duty but both these are made disobedience when the Soul makes the defect of Grace he finds in himself when he looks upon the Graces of others discouragements to himself in exercising Faith 3. The Soul crosses God in his highest end which is to make the excellencies of Jesus Christ shine forth in the Souls of his People IV. The fourth case wherein a Soul doth measure himself too much by others so as it becomes a sinful distemper is when the
disproportion a Soul finds out between himself and other Christians his Graces and their Graces his Duties and their Duties are made a sufficient ground for the Soul to draw a final conclusion of his own estate from As thus when a Soul argueth in this manner I see there are none of those pretious workings of the Spirit of God in my Spirit that I behold and see apparent are in the Spirits of such and such Christians they have their Hearts so powerfully drawn by Jesus Christ to close with him in a way of union that they are inabled by a mighty power from God to believe but saith the Soul I do not find that God draws my Heart and comes with a mighty power to constrain my Soul to close with the Lord Jesus tendred and therefore surely God never intended good to my Soul That this is a dark and sinful distemper will appear in divers things for there may be many disproportions between one Christian and another that are not sinful disproportions 1. There may be a disproportion without a mans sin in the manner and order and degree yea in the very Being of all the workings of God in the Soul before the actual union of the Soul with Christ by any act of believing First There may be a disproportion in the fear of Conscience that other Christians have had upon them before their actual consent to the Lord Christ tendred and the fear of Conscience that thou hast hitherto had Secondly A disproportion may be in the grief of mind for sin that other Christians have had upon them for sin before their union with Christ and the grief of mind thy Soul hath hitherto had upon thâ—â— Thirdly There may be a disproportion in the effects that fear of Conscience and grief of mind do naturally produce in Souls As doubtfulness and multitude of scruples and objections against thine own Soul These indeed are the common effects that grief of mind and the fear of conscience produce And there may be a great disproportion between thy doubtings and the doubtings of other Christians and yet no sin neither as appears in this because neither fear of Conscience nor doubt of mind nor scruples and objections against the Soul do in the least commend any Soul to God As all things are sin before union with Christ so is the fear of Conscience and grief of mind sin and all those doubts and objections sin and therefore have not the least vertue in them to commend a Soul to God 2. There may be a disproportion in the degrees of Grace without sin First There may have been a difference in the time of the growth of his Grace and the Graces of others by which he measures himself It may be he yet remains but a green tender plant in the House of the Lord and measures himself by an old flourishing green Olive in Gods house Secondly There may be a difference in the helps and means of growth The field is not blamed because it is not so fruitful as the garden when the garden is daily watred and dressed 3. There may be a disproportion in the actings of Grace and yet no sin First In regard there may not be the same necessity to occasion to act Grace in thee that is in others The occasions are like the Wind to the Ship that set the Ship a going They are but the heavenly Winds as it were that blow upon Grace that set Graces a working and various Graces must and ought to work according to the variety of occasions Now according to the necessity of the Soul so God binds himself in Covenant to provide for the Soul Secondly The Graces of other Christians may be acted by an extraordinary influence of the quickning Spirit of Christ I call it extraordinary in regard it is that which is not common at all times to all Christians that have some of the influences of the quickning Spirit of Christ so that by some extraordinary gale from Heaven his Graces may be acted and through thy want of those quicknings of the Spirit of Christ thy Graces may not be so acted and yet not sin Thirdly There may be a difference in the outward excitation and quickning unto the actings of Grace A Soul stands not only in necessity of the inward breathings of the Spirit of Christ but of the outward excitation too in regard it is through the outward excitation that the Lord hath appointed those inward breathings of his quickning Spirit Now if other Christians by whom thy Soul do measure it self should injoy more excitations that is that they have more Bellows blowing upon Grace in their Hearts than thine though there may be difference in the acting the bare disproportion may not be thy sin Secondly There may be many sinful disproportions that yet destroy not the Being of the Souls union with Christ 1. There may be a disproportion in Faith it self First There may be a want of most of the highest and excellent operations of Faith and yet not the Being of union destroyed Secondly Faith may be oppressed with doubting and distrust and yet not be suppressed Thirdly There may be the want of almost all stedfastness stability and constancy in the acting of Faith so that a Soul can seldom keep his Heart in a believing frame one moment and yet that sinful defect may not nullifie the union with Christ 2. There may be a sinful disproportion in all the Spiritual life of the Soul and yet the union with Christ hold That is all the principles of Spiritual motion towards God may be unactive when thou seest others full of life and activity and yet this sinfull disproportion doth not destroy the union Now it appears to be a sad distemper thus to measure the Soul by others 1. In regard there is such a disproportion between the one and other Christians that can possibly be found out discovers nothing but the heinousness of the Souls sin in its neglect of union with Christ Now from hence to conclude God intends no good to the Soul is contrary to the blessed will of God revealed Isa 55.7 where God hath promised abundantly to pardon to multiply to pardon 2. In regard when the greatest disproportion between the one and other Christians is found out yet thou art one of those that Jesus Christ now comes to woo and perswade and beseech to be one with his Father Now I shall shew you the grounds of this distemper upon which it is built or whence it arises in Souls I. It is commonly built upon this principle That the Lord maintains a proportion in his Gifts and Graces unto his people Now what a dark blind principle is this For the clearing of it 1. You must conceive the Lord doth equally dispense to all his peoples Souls all kind of Graces He leaves suitable dispositions in the Heart to yield obedience to all his blessed will Thus far the Lord proportions Grace but then the Lord doth not proportion the
degrees of Grace First In regard of the concord and agreement in the whole Body of Christ that is necessary to be attained It is for the bettering of the union of the Body of Christ that Christians have particular different Graces as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 12.25 26. Secondly It it necessary to preserve the beauty and comliness of the Body of Christ that the whole Body should be so compacted together that one member should not receive all the excellencies of the other members Thirdly That there might be a full manifestation of the absolute freedom of God in the manifestation of all his Graces The Lord will not only have the glory of his free love in dispensing Grace to whom he pleases but the glory of his free Grace in dispensing it in what manner and degree he please 2. From the necessity of different degrees of Grace arises a necessity of the dispensation of various Gifts II. The second distemper upon which this principle doth arise is this That the Soul doth conceive there must be a large portion of Grace go before the Souls attaining unto the assurance of Faith that he is united to the Lord Christ And thence the Soul seeks into the Lives and Hearts of other Christians and measures himself by those thinking upon a sight of a conformity in himself to them in their Graces and Duties he might then proceed to the actings of Faith in a way of assurance and then have some confidence of his union with Christ And hence so long as the Soul conceives a defect in himself in those Graces he beholds to be in other Christians he sits down discouraged from the exercise of Faith That this also is a vile principle of darkness must be also made appear Yet first for the clearing of it I must premise two things I. That the very act of Faith in a way of full assurance of the Lords accepting the Soul to be one with him in Christ is a most superlative degree of Grace II. That every Soul that attains unto that assurance of Faith to receive with a fulness of confidence the Lords good will concerning his own Soul to accept him to be one with him in the Lord Christ doth attain a large portion of all kind of Graces also There are the special workings of the love of God in the Spirit of holiness where-ever there is this assurance unto Faith of the Souls union with Christ To make it clear 1. There is a large portion of knowledge Ignorance of God is the mother of all vice the very womb wherein unbelief is conceived withal its Brats withal its scruples and objections whatever And according to the degree wherein that Ignorance of God is healed so is the degree of the Souls attaining towards the assurance of Faith 2. There is a large portion of Spiritual life begotten in the Soul 3. There is a large portion of contentment in God and Christ 4. There is a large portion of love to God in Jesus Christ communicated to him Love begets love and according to the degree wherein a Soul apprehends the love of God to his Soul in Christ so is the answerable degree of the workings of love towards God in Christ again 5. There is a large portion of raisedness of Spirit above all things below I give but a taste of the large portion of Grace which of necessity must be in Souls where Faith of assurance is attained But now to speak more directly to the principle it self notwithstanding this yet the principle it self is a dark principle I. In regard there is no necessity of a large portion of Grace going before the Souls assurance of Faith to prepare the Soul for assurance Only in this sence that the habit of Grace prepares the Soul for the acting of Grace so the habit of Faith is received before there be an act of Faith and so a Soul may be said to be prepared for assurance unto Faith II. There is no necessity of any large portions of Grace to give the Soul any better ground to act Faith in fulness of assurance and confidence The only ground of the Souls confidence of the Lords will to accept his loveless Soul into union with Christ is the Lords word wherein he reveals that his blessed will Now the Lords word speaks as plainly and reveals his will as clearly to the Soul not having the least portion of Grace to accept his loveless Soul into union with Christ as it doth to those that have the largest portion of Grace III. There is no necessity of any portion of Grace to make the actings of Faith of assurance to be the Souls duty Even when a Soul is a rebel when he is an enemy the Lord doth as strictly command him from Heaven to give credit to his blessed Word revealing his good will to accept his loveless Soul if he will be one with him in Christ as he doth command the Soul to believe it after the communication of all Grace IV. Those very portions of Grace great or small that are attained to when the Soul hath assurance unto Faith they are all attained through the Souls believing with that fulness of assurance Faith is the Alpha and Omega of Sanctification and of the whole work of Grace The Sixth and last dark distemper is Dark distemper The Souls unconstancy This unconstancy is of two kinds the one in the thoughts and imaginations the second is the unconstancy of the Souls determinations and conclusions Naturally we are unstable as water seldom stay a moment in the same place For the right understanding of this distemper there must be divers things opened I. We must know it is not a strict close unmovable adherence to their determinations of truth that are once drawn up in a Soul that these commands require from any Soul that may be as bad a distemper on the other hand Therefore observe there are three cases in which a Soul may be too much settled and adhere too fast to his own conclusions 1. When the Soul sticks fast to any conclusion without Spiritual divine light compelling and constraining the Soul to it 2. When a Soul is so taken with any determination that he hath drawn up in his own Spirit concerning truth that his own Spirit will not suffer him to take a right view of any thing that the Scripture seems to propound to the contrary 3. When a Soul is so affected with any determination drawn up in his own Spirit that he hath a prejudicial opinion against whatever seems to contradict that his own determination II. You must know there are cases wherein there must and ought to be alterations and changes in a Souls own determination concerning Truth and concerning the State of his own Soul And those cases are especially two 1. Where there is clearer evidence concerning the object conveyed into a Soul 2. When there is a clearer evidence in regard of the Soul it self which we commonly call a clearer
embrace the loveless Soul that makes the bowels of the Soul yern towards Christ again 4. The Soul must discern the sufficiency of the promise to assure the Soul of what it longs after Now it being of necessity that all these must be discerned in the promises of acceptance of the Soul into union with Christ before the Soul can be satisfied from the promises that he is united to Jesus Christ an hours view or a days view in an ordinary way I mean unless the Spirit cast in superlative light extraordinary will not suffice a Soul to discern all these through the promise II. This inconstancy in the Souls resolutions exposes the Soul to the violence of all temptation This will appear in three things 1. In regard the sword of the Spirit to fight against the Temptations with is made void The sword of the Spirit is the pretious word of God Eph. 6.17 Now the Soul being unsettled in his own determinations concerning the truth of the Word of God to his own Soul in particular he hath no pretious use of that pretious sword the Word of God to resist the tempter with 2. The habit of Faith is weakned I mean the readiness of the disposition of Faith to be in exercise is in a great measure hindred The Heart is more indisposed to the exercise of Faith by how much the seldomer Faith is drawn out to exercise 3. Carnal reasonings of the Heart grow strong The more any corruption prevails the more strength it gets Sin is never decrepit the older it grows the stronger it grows Thus carnal reasoning of the Heart growing old by the constant prevailing over the Soul it grows stronger All these concurring a Soul is in a dreadful measure exposed to the tyranny of all Temptations First Temptations that batter down the hopes of Election Secondly Temptations unto slavish fear and dread and horrour of execution of present vengeance Thirdly A Soul is exposed to the power and violence of that temptation that it is wicked abominable presumption for his wretched Soul to have a thought that God will be willing to accept him in Christ III. Through that inconstancy the Devil himself is provoked to tempt It is observed in Scripture that the rule the Lord gives concerning our fighting with Satan is to resist and the rule concerning fighting with sin is fleeing 1 Pet. 5.9 Now it is thought it is upon this occasion the Lord gives this rule because fleeing gives the Devil advantage and makes him more violent in his temptations There is nothing that gives the Devil discouragement in tempting but a sight of an impossibility of prevailing IV. The inconstancy of the Soul in these resolutions and determinations prevents the increase and growth of all the knowledge of Jesus Christ You shall observe in 2 Pet. 3.18 That the Holy Ghost urging the Saints to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ he gives them an admonition to take heed they fall not from their own steadfastness intimating thus much while their Souls remain unstable in receiving and giving credit to those pretious Truths of Christ that were revealed there could be no growth in the knowledge of Jesus Christ V. This inconstancy of the Soul doth leave it like a lost one in a meer wilderness It leaves it wandering in devious paths it knows not whither When the Judgment of the Soul is thus unstable concerning those pretious principles forenamed the Soul is left without a Pilot without a Compass so that the Soul knows not how to steer its course to the pretious haven of happiness So that this distemper must be healed before the Soul can discern its union with Christ Now the Spirit heals this distemper two ways 1. By vouchsafing a clear and full manifestation to the Soul of those pretious forenamed principles by casting in such a high degree of divine light as makes the truth of those forenamed conclusions out of question It is according to the evidence the Soul receives of a truth that the judgment is settled either more or less firmly upon it Now the Spirit doth so manifest those pretious Truths and so clears the Eye as it seeth them without scruple and then the Judgment begins to be settled with some firmness upon them 2. The Spirit heals it by a continuation of the first manifestation of those Truths So that a fulness of evidence of the Truth that the Soul concludes upon remaining in the Soul the Soul remains in a fixed settled way cleaving and sticking to those Truths so concluded upon Now thus you have the second work of the Spirit in that first general effect of it upon the Heart opened which is the removal of all impediments that hinder divine light and you have seen what beams of the principles of darkness and also what dark distempers are pulled out before the Soul is fit to discern the light of Jesus Christ held forth Now the third work of the Spirit in this illumination is the Spirits acting by its own power the Divine light communicated to the Soul It is necessary not only that a Soul receive a faculty from the Spirit but also the acting of the faculty too Though all acts of the renewed man be firmly the acts of the Mind yet they are originally the acts of the Spirit it self So that also in this case concerning illumination there is a necessity not only that the Soul hath a seeing Eye but that it must also have the seeing of the Eye from the Spirit Though the Soul hath an Eye disposed to see the divine light that the promise discovers yet there must come in a power from the Spirit also whereby the Soul may be inabled to act that very power received As it is in the cleared Eye it hath a fitness to see any colour but it must be acted by the rational Soul otherwise the inward disposition of the Soul effects nothing that 's the reason the Eye sees not in sleep because the rational Soul is bound up as it were in its operations Thus it is with the divine man though influences be communicated from Jesus Christ to the Soul that the Soul hath a spiritual Eye rightly disposed to see spiritual objects yet there must be also the Spirits power to act that very Eye that is so disposed to see the spiritual object So that thus the Spirit comes in by a renewed power and as it were blows up those holy sparks of divine light that are communicated to the Soul and makes them to work in their own proper natural way to make them see that pretious divine light that the promises of the Lord discover to the poor dark Soul Thus you see the first work or the first effect that the Spirit of God hath upon Souls towards the revealing to them from the promise that they are united to the Lord Jesus The Spirits Irradiation II. We are now to proceed to the second work of the Spirit upon Souls in
be one with them After Christ was gone into heaven and had left pleading with undone sinners with his own blessed lips you see Eph. 4.11 12. he sends out others in his own room such as might be Embassadors representing his own person to beseech and pray undone sinners to accept of reconciliation with the father through their union with him 2. By revealing that the Lord Christ took care to furnish such as he sent forth to allure undone sinners into union with him with a sutable spirit for that work Therefore before Jesus Christ would go to his father John 20.22 he goes to his Disciples and giveth them a Commission to allure souls into union with himself and when he had given them the Commission he breathed on them and said Receive ye the holy spirit 3. By revealing the Lords assimilating those whom he betrusts to reveal himself to lost sinners Not only in furnishing them with abilities of the spirit but also in conforming them in their very dispositions unto his own likeness he conveyed his own bowels of mercy and pitty and compassion into them that their bowels might yearn towards the gathering lost sinners into communion with him as the bowels of Jesus Christ himself yearned This you shall see Eph. 1.8 That Paul tells them he longed after them all in the bowels of Jesus Christ That is I longed after your perfection in union and communion with Christ in the bowels that Jesus Christ hath infused into me as some interpret it But indeed the interpretation may rather be of Jesus Christ in the same bowels that Jesus Christ longed after souls in the same kind of pitty and compassion that Jesus Christ had working in his bosom towards undone sinners 4. By revealing the Lord Jesus chusing out some desperate sinners on purpose to be as patterns of love before the eyes of other lost sinners that he would take into union with himself This is declared by the spirit 1 Tim. 1.15 16. to be the end of God to shew mercy to that blasphemer that persecuter that injurious one to Jesus Christ that he might shew forth a pattern to other sinners that should hereafter believe on him 5. By revealing the Lord Christ to have improved all his interest in those that are his own to engage them to help forward the work in gathering lost sinners into union with him As in John 21.15 16 17. when Jesus Christ was to leave the earth and would engage Peter to do some great thing for him he engaged him to reveal himself to poor miserable souls that 's under the term or notion here of feeding his Lambs and Sheep IV. For the evidencing the willingness of the Lord Christ to accept into union every loveless sinner that will embrace him the spirit reveals the absolute engagement of Christ by his own joy and by his own glory that is supernatural to embrace every loveless sinner that is willing to entertain him The Lord Christ considered as head to a mystical body may be said to be imperfect till all sinners that shall ever belong to him be gathered in And Jesus Christ even wants his Joy and Glory that he shall enjoy as a Mediator so long as there is but one lost sinner belonging to that mystical body to be gathered in Therefore it is impossible for Jesus Christ to reject one sinner that shall embrace him unless he will reject himself There is a third beam of divine light and that is Third beam of divine light The insatiable longing and thirsting of the Lord Jesus to embrace every soul into union that would be united to him The spirit is leading the soul from one degree of satisfaction to his faith to another till at last he cometh to give a full ground of satisfaction to the soul to make his union with Christ appear that faith hath ground not only of confidence but of triumph Now the spirit doth evidence this unto the soul for his satisfaction two ways First The spirit reveals the grounds from whence the longings of Jesus Christ after union with the soul do proceed Secondly The spirit reveals the expression of those longings of Jesus Christ by himself First The spirit reveals the ground whence those longings proceed 1. The spirit evidenceth the near alliance and precious relations that Jesus Christ accounts himself to have unto all those lost Sinners that long after union with him or that ever shall be brought into union with him 1. The Spirit reveals that the Lord Christ accounts all those lost Souls his Brethren Therefore Christ in John 20.17 when he sends Mary to tell the blessed news of his resurrection to his Disciples saith he Go tell my brethren that I ascend unto my father and your father to my God and your God Go tell my brethren That is those that are joynt adopted ones by my father as my brethren the joynt beloved ones as I am beloved of the father as Mediator Now from hence the spirit manifests that the soul of Christ cannot but long after union with all those souls that will embrace him into union 2. The spirit reveals that the Lord Christ accounts all those that shall embrace him to be as his Spouse as those that are to be married to him Jesus Christ hath infinite longings after himself and his own glory and then Eph. 2.28 He that loveth his wife loveth himself therefore Jesus Christ doth but love himself and his own glory in desiring the union of souls with himself and therefore his longings cannot be less than infinite and incomprehensible 3. The spirit evidenceth that Jesus Christ accounts all souls that shall embrace him as his own members without which he is not compleat as Mediator The fulness of Christ mysticall is the Church and he accounts not himself perfect till all his mysticall body be gathered to him Now hence the spirit manifests infinite longings in the bosom of Jesus Christ after every soul that would be one with him as he longs after his own good 4. The spirit reveals that the Lord Christ accounts every soul that will embrace him to be a part of his own glory Christ accounts not his own glory to be full till all those lost souls that ever shall embrace him be perfectly and compleatly joyned to him Now hence the spirit manifests that there cannot but be infinite longings in the bosom of Jesus Christ after the union of such souls with himself as would have union with him or are willing to embrace him seeing he cannot but infinitely long after the perfection of his own glory And seeing he cannot long after his own glory in the perection of it but he must long after the union of every lost soul that will embrace him into union with himself 2. The spirit also remembers the soul of those dreadful sufferings of Jesus Christ for all those souls that ever shall embrace him Now from thence the spirit evidenceth three ways that there cannot but be such longings of
united to him to Write his Law in their Hearts that is to conform their spirits to all his Blessed Will to make their Hearts answerable and sutable to the union with Christ and all the ways of God that they ought to walk in by vertue of that union 6. The Spirit manifests the Lords undertaking the preservation of the Soul by his own power to the full everlasting injoyment of all the fruits of union This the Spirit may and doth reveal it may be from that in Ezek. 36.26 27. when the Lord declares it to be his own resolution concerning those he accepts to be partakers of those promises of Love through union with Christ that his own Spirit shall dwell within them and he will cause them to walk in his Statutes and do them and keep them that they shall not depart from him That it shall not be in the power of the Soul to bereave it self of all those pretious fruits of that blessed union with the Lord Jesus but the Soul must of necessity unless the Almighty power of God should fail injoy the fulness of all love and communion as the consequence of the union with Christ And for the further evidence of this the Spirit may and doth reveal it by two things First The Spirit remembers the Soul that the Lord hath made it his own chosen delight to be carrying on the Soul towards the injoyment of that fulness and perfection of love and through his union even the perfection of communion Secondly The Spirit reveals the Lord to hang the highest manifestation of his glory upon the filllng those with all fulness of love and mercy that are received into that union with the Lord Jesus And hereby the Spirit satisfies the Soul and convinceth it that the Lord himself is so interested in perfecting the fruits and consequences of the Souls union with Christ that unless the Lord should deny himself there is an impossibility of the Lords failing to preserve the Soul by his own power unto the perfect and full injoyment of the perfection of communion as the consequence of the union with Christ The Sixth beam of Light the Spirit manifests from the Gospel is this Sixth beam of Divine Light The Spirit manifests the compleat sufficiency yea the abundancy and superabundancy of security that is given to secure Souls of their injoyment of all the Gospel thus discovers to them Now for the making this beam of light shine forth in its Beauty and Glory the Spirit may and doth evidence many things I. First The Spirit evidenceth the Lords entering into Covenant with Jesus Christ the Mediator and engaging himself in that Covenant to effect the mercy and love that the Gospel discovers for every Soul that shall embrace him Two things are to be opened here First That the Lord did thus enter into Covenant with Christ Secondly What security the believing Soul hath from thence of the Lords effecting of what is so discovered in the Gospel First That the Lord did thus Covenant with Christ himself is apparent 1. In regard all the whole bundle of the promises that make up the whole Covenant of the Gospel they run primarily to Christ and in his name To shew that God and Christ were the Covenanters together that the Covenant was struck up between the Father and the Son from before the foundations of the World were laid If you observe the first promise that ever God the Father gave or the first discovery of Gospel that ever was unto Souls in Gen. 3.15 The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head There is the whole Gospel the whole Covenant but observe in whose name it runs in the name of Christ The seed of the Woman that is Christ that is Christ mystically including his Members too but it is Christ primarily He shall break the Serpents head that is shall triumph over Satan shall get the victory over Hell and spoil him that hath formerly taken Souls captive 2. It appears in regard Christ himself takes God the Father as his God John 20.17 I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God So that hence it appears that God the Father hath engaged himself in a solemn Covenant unto Jesus Christ as Mediator from before the foundations of the World were laid to effect what ever the Gospel discovers for every Soul that should embrace him And it is from thence that Christ prays in John 17.24 Father I will that those that thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Secondly We may see what assurance this affords unto Souls of their unquestionable infallible injoyment of all that the Gospel thus discovers There is a two fold security from hence 1. In regard God the Father stands engaged in a solemn Covenant to effect all that the Gospel thus discovers unto those Souls that have in believing received Christ to be their Husband and Head 2. The believing Soul is to know and understand the Lord Christ to have represented every Soul that shall embrace him in entering into Covenant with the Father Though the Covenant runs to Christ it was but as Christ was the first Elect of God representing all the other Elect it was but as Christ was a common person a second Adam that had all that should believe in him in his person as the first Adam had all that were to come out of his loins included in him and bound up in him in the first Covenant II. Secondly The Spirit reveals the Father to have paid the highest and dearest price for the effecting it and for every Souls embracing Christ what the Gospel discovers in the surest way unto Souls apprehensions This the Spirit reveals in discovering God the Father to have given the dearly beloved of his Soul for that end to bring about Gospel mercies to be conveyed to Souls in the surest way to Souls own conceptions and apprehensions According to that in John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. For the clearing of this there must be two things opened First That the Father was at the highest cost and charge and did pay the greatest price to effect those mercies for Souls Secondly That one intent of the Father in paying so high a price for Souls was to satisfie Souls of the injoyment of them in their own apprehensions First That the Father paid so high a price for the effecting that mercy and love that the Gospel discovers for Souls that will embrace him will appear in three things 1. In that it cost the Father the abasement for a season of his own essential glory I do not mean as if there could have been an extenuation of the essential glory of God but I mean there was a vailing of that essential glory so as those resplendent beams of his glory shined not forth This the Father did in that his dearly beloved his only begotten Son that had but one
and the same essence and so the same essential glory with himself should take upon him that frail vile despicable nature of Man 2. In regard the Father deprived himself for a season of his highest delight his most infinite contentment for the effecting those Gospel mercies The Fathers delight is in Communion and the higher degree of Communion the higher is the delight of God Therefore it is said Prov. 8.31 That he delights in the habitable parts of the Earth and with the Sons of Men that is because there are Creatures capable of Communion with God there are empty Vessels that he may be pouring out of his transcendent fulness into Now God deprived himself of his own highest delight in withdrawing the communications of himself from that his dearly beloved Son that he was forced to complain My God my God why hast thou forsaken me 3. It cost the Father the very death yea the accursed death of the most dearly beloved of his Soul the Lord Jesus He delivered him up to death for us saith the Apostle Yea it cost the Father the suffering the execution of his full wrath and indignation upon the dearly beloved of his Soul Secondly It must be opened that the Father was at the highest cost and charge in effecting that mercy for Souls that shall embrace the Lord Christ tendered on purpose to make it the surer to Souls apprehensions to give them the fuller security of all that the Gospel discovers This will appear in three things I. In regard there was no absolute necessity in respect of God himself to effect that which the Gospel discovers for Souls embracing Christ in that way at such high cost and charge to himself That will appear in two things 1. In regard there was a fulness of power in the Lords mercy to give absolute pardon unto sinners irrespectively to satisfaction The Lord being the high Soveraign of Heaven and Earth whose sole incommunicable property is that his will is the original of all Law the original of the being of all goodness he hath an absolute power in his own mercy to have given an absolute pardon to every transgression committed against his own Law The Lords Will being the only rule that he walks by and that Will of his being altogether independent hath a power within it self to have given an absolute pardon to every transgression against his Will 2. In regard the Lord in the effecting of the love and mercy that the Gospel discovers to Souls did not proceed according to the exactest rule of Justice Do not mistake me I mean not according to the height and rigor of Justice as Justice which of necessity must have been had the Lord been bound to his Justice to proceed that way That appears in two things First The highest exact rule of Justice admits of no surety in capital Crimes It requires the individual person to be the sufferer of the evil threatned for the breach of the Law that was the transgressor of the Law The voice of exact Justice was only in this wise The Soul that sinneth shall die without any admission of any Surety Now it is apparent that the Lord himself in the bringing about or effecting the Love and Mercy that the Gospel discovers unto Souls he propounds this way to admit of a Surety Those that were the offenders of Justice were not sufferers under Justice but another steps in and bears the stroke of Justice that in regard of his own personal transgression was not guilty of the breach of the Law or of the Offence against Justice Secondly Were it possible for exact Justice to admit a Surety yet not possible for exact Justice to find out a Surety working still as Justice Justice never looks further than the Transgressor himself to exact Justice upon unless it be to lay the merit and desert of the transgressor in some degree upon all that have dependance upon him Never came a thought into Justice as Justice of remitting the least degree of punishment of the Transgressor yet you see in the way that he proceeds he casts about in his own thoughts to find out one sufficient to bear all the burden of wrath and indignation that is due to Transgressors themselves The Lord in his design of glorifying his Justice in effecting Love and Mercy for Souls discovered in the Gospel he proceeds only according to Love it self yea according to nothing else but Love in respect of Souls it being an act of simple absolute pure Love to impute the transgression of the poor guilty Spirit to the spotless Lamb the Lord Jesus as if he had been to have pardoned those Transgressors and to have delivered them clearly from Sin without the imputation of those Transgressions to another Therefore observe the whole Work of Salvation though contrived by the infinite Wisdom of God that Mercy and Justice might meet together and kiss each other it is attributed to Love alone Eph. 2.5 By Grace or Love ye are saved So Tit. 3.4 5. Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us Still the whole Work is attributed to the Fathers Love 2. There was no absolute necessity of Gods being at that cost and charge to procure Love and Mercy for Souls that would embrace him in respect of the Souls themselves that were to be partakers of it That will appear in two things 1. In regard Souls partaking of that Love and Mercy that the Gospel discovers were not the Objects of that Love and Mercy primarily by that cost and charge that the Lord was at in the Death of Christ to effect that Love and Mercy If you observe the whole Current of the Scripture it runs thus God so loved the World that he gave Christ To us a Child is born to us a Son is given So that Christ being a Gift of Love unto the Soul it could not be that they should be made objects of Love primarily by that Gift that is originally in the first place Christ was therefore given because they were first beloved not they beloved because Christ given seeing the Love of God was fixed upon all its peculiar objects that ever it should be fixed upon in that Gift and then Christ himself came forth as a Gift of that fixed Love it could not be that they should be primarily made objects of Love by the Lords effecting that Love and Mercy for them through his great Cost of giving the dearly beloved of his Soul for them 2. Those Souls that shall embrace Christ tendered in the Gospel were the Objects of that Gospel-Love and Mercy discovered in order of nature before the Lords intention to effect that Gospel-Love and Mercy for them by that his own cost in giving his own Son The Lord Christ is discovered as the Means by which God brings about the conveyance of his Love unto his beloved ones and the End is discovered in the Gospel to be the Glory of his own Love
to make his Love glorious in those objects Therefore the End must in order of Nature according to our conception be before the Means though all things are at once and by one Act done by God so that according to our conceptions the Love must be first fixed and setled upon Souls in order of nature I mean the intention of Love must be first unto Souls before the conveyance of that Gift of Love through Christ Thence 't is that the Scripture speaks of Christ not only as given but also called out to the work of Mediatorship Heb. 5.1 He was ordained to be the High Priest by God the Father to offer Sacrifice for Souls 3. There can be no End of the Lords being at that high charge for the effecting of the Love and Mercy that the Gospel discovers to Souls that will embrace him but his own praise and his peoples comfort Seeing there was no necessity I speak of absolute and indispensable necessity all this while I would not be mistaken in a thing of so high a nature I say seeing there was no absolute simple necessity for the Lord to be at such high cost in respect of himself and in respect of Souls to partake of this Mercy but it is done freely of God according to his own wisdom Thence it appears there can be no higher End than the Lords own praise the manifesting the Beams of the Lords transcendent Glory more abundantly in the Eyes of Saints and Angels And this you shall find to be the very End of it Eph. 1.4.6 Saith the Apostle He hath chosen us in Christ That is He hath chosen us as the Members of Christ the first Elect of God and that Head of the Mystical Body that God hath glorified himself in This he hath done saith he before the foundation of the world and therefore he destinated us to the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ Here is the Fathers Love in the Means and in the End v. 6. To the praise of the Glory of his Grace that is of his own Love wherein that is in which Love he hath made us acccepted in the Beloved that is in Christ Now this may be taken rwo wayes Either for his praise actively to be given to him by the Soul that partakes of that Love and Mercy that the Gospel discovers Or else passively to be manifested through this way unto those that partake of that Love and Mercy that the Gospel discovers In both ways the Lord intended to have his glorious Love admired and adored and himself sanctified in the beholding of it through the effecting and conveying of that his Love and Mercy unto Souls through such cost and charge in giving his dearly beloved Son Now observe it There are especially two wayes how the partaker of that Love and Mercy the Gospel discovers doth actively give the Lord the praise of the glory of his Love 1. In admiring the unmeasurable dimensions of his Love in gazing upon the height and depth and length and breadth of his Love so as to see it unmeasurable and bottomless and to adore God in beholding it 2. In their Souls relying with a fulness of confidence upon God for that his Love in Christ It is alwayes in the same degree wherein a Soul takes up its rest in God for any thing that a Soul sanctifies God in his heart therefore Is 8.13 when the Prophet exhorts them to sanctifie God he saith Fear not their fear but make him your fear and your dread as if he should say therein you shall sanctifie him when your spirits take up their rest in him alone Now as God is thus sanctified in the heart in general so he is sanctified in the heart in respect of every particular Attribute of his in this way only when a Souls confidence is in him alone And thus in particular in respect of his Love God hath the praise of the glory of his Love from the Soul when the Heart takes up its full rest in God with a fulness of confidence for all Love through Christ Now observe these being the two special wayes how the Lord hath the praise of his glorious Love from Souls that partake of the Love that the Gospel discovers and then both these proceeding from a Souls apprehension of the certainty and infallibility of the Lords Love in Christ thence it must needs appear that the Lords being at the high cost to effect all that Love and Mercy discovered in the Gospel for Souls through the death of that dearly beloved of his Soul that this must be on purpose done by God for the making that his Love and Mercy that the Gospel discovers more sure and certain unto Souls embracing it in their own apprehensions Thirdly The Spirit discovers the Lords own Bond given out to the persons themselves that shall embrace the Gospel for their assurance of all that the Gospel discovers All the Promises written in the Lords Blessed Book are but as so many Bonds of Gods own writing by the hand of the great Secretary of Heaven the blessed Spirit of God on purpose to confirm and assure Souls of all that the Gospel discovers The Spirit reveals Promise upon Promise to seal to and confirm the same thing as you may see Heb. 6.12 13 14 15. The Promise is said to be given there as a Discovery of the Immutability of the Lords Counsel that is of the infallible and unchangeable certainty of all that the Gospel discovers Fourthly The Spirit riseth higher he adds the confirmation of his own Oath the highest Oath that was possible for God to swear which was by himself that the Soul might have security upon security to his weak apprehension Fifthly The Spirit reveals the adding of the Blood of Christ as the Seal to the Bond. The Spirit manifests the Lord to have employed Jesus Christ to be the Testator to Souls that by the Death of the Testator the Testament or the Will of God revealed in the Gospel might be made unquestionably certain that the Soul might have fulness of security to his poor scrupulous Spirit now security comes in upon security to a superabuddance of it Sixthly The Spirit reveals the Lord to have engaged the Honour and Credit of his ever-blessed Name for the better securing Souls and fuller assuring them of all that the Gospel discovers to them This you shall see in Exod. 33.19 I will proclaim the Name of the Lord before thee saith God to Moses and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy which doth both include a disposition to be gracious and a free disposition to be gracious and it includeth that Grace of his to be ordered only according to his own will Now did not the Lord freely love loveless sinners upon no other ground but his own will which is the very Sum of all that the Gospel saith then this Title of Gods Honour should be defaced and blemished But God saith
be rendred thus forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin and in purifying he will not purifie or in absolving will not absolve not mentioning either wicked ones or guilty ones or any person whatever For indeed it seems to be a kind of contradiction should the words run thus The Lord forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin and will by no means clear the guilty therefore I shall hold to the words as they may be most nearly rendred that is forgiving sin and cleansing from sin he will not cleanse visiting the Iniquitie of the Fathers upon the Children And then if you observe this title of the Lords Honour is only thus much That he is the Lord forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin and upon whom he will visiting the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children including thus much that the Lord doth and will exercise his Mercy his Grace his long-suffering and his abundant goodness unto Souls only upon the motions of his own will upon no other ground but because he will and to no other persons upon no other respect but only to those whom himself freely will And then that includes the last Beam of the Gospel-light after all the other formerly discovered which indeed is the very Mystery of the Gospel it self and that is that all those Gospel-dispensations are only to those persons whom the Lord will and upon no other ground but the Lords Will though they be so tendered to every loveless Soul in general that will embrace him So that thus now you see the first thing cleared That all Gospel-discoveries are at least virtually included in the Lords own Name Secondly It must be cleared That the Soul may behold by believing the Credit and Honour of this blessed Name of God engaged for his security and for the fuller assurance of the Soul of all that the Gospel discovers to it This may be opened two wayes 1. In general 2. More particularly discovering the particular security the Soul may have against all fears and scruples that is possible for the Soul to apprehend in its security First In general it appears That the Soul may behold the Credit of the Lords Name engaged for his security and assurance in regard there is nothing that the Gospel discovers unto Souls but the same is included in the blessed Name of God Two things follow from hence 1. The Soul may be assured that there is an impossibility of the Lords changing that his ever blessed Name The Word is gone out of the mouth of God that that 's his Name for ever and that is his Memorial to all Generations Thence the Soul may assure it self that though Heaven and Earth pass away and melt like wax yet not one Title of what the Gospel discovers can possibly fall to the ground seeing it is impossible that the highest Majesty of Heaven and Earth can change 2. From thence the Soul may conclude That thete is a Necessity for the blessed God to deny himself and to trample under his feet his dearest Glory if the least Title of whatever the Gospel reveals should fail seeing all is included in his Name for ever Secondly The Soul may behold through believing the Credit of the Lords Name to be engaged for his security of what the Gospel discovers in particular against all fears and scruples 1. The Credit and Honour of the Lords Name is engaged That there can be no depth of misery so deep as relief and succour should not be in Christ for the poor perishing sinking Soul That 's the very first Title of the Lords Honour that concurs to make up his Name He is merciful that is he hath bowels of mercy for Souls in the depth of the greatest misery Thence the Soul may conclude that the honour of that blessed Title of the Lords Name must fail that Link in the Golden Chain must be cut asunder should the most unspeakable depth of misery that ever Soul was plunged in be a case hopeless or helpless 2. The Credit and Honour of the Lords ever blessed Mame is engaged that there may be a free receiving of the most loveless Soul into love and favour that hath nothing but what is abominable to the blessed pure eyes of God within him You see the second Title of his Honour is The Lord Gracious that is receiving into favour freely undeserving wretches undesired wretches without respect to any thing in them So that when the poor scrupulous Soul shall begin to fear that there is not ground enough in the Gospel of Jesus Christ for him to roll himself into that blessed open bosom of the Lords love in Christ with a confidence of the willingness of the Lord to accept his loveless Soul into favour then he may behold the Credit and Honour of his Name to be engaged for the Souls security to assure it that the most forlorn Soul that is nothing else but Sin that can do nothing else but sin may be freely admitted into that bosom of his love to be an object of all favour and all kindness whatsoever 3. The Credit and Honour of the Lords blessed Name is engaged for the bearing with the most crooked Soul in his crookedness for a season and his waiting to receive the most crooked Soul into favour and love The Name of the Lord you see is Long-suffering that is he that bears long before he executes any wrath Hence the Credit of the Lords Name is engaged to secure Souls of what the Gospel reveals in three particulars 1. To secure the Sinner of acceptance into favour that hath most desperately and rebelliously for a long time neglected Grace and Mercy 2. Hence the Credit of the Lords Name is engaged for the continuance of his Favour towards the most crooked perverse heart notwithstanding his crookedness So that the Gospel reveals an impossibility for Sin or all the Powers of Hell to force the Soul from the blessed bosom of the Lords love in Christ where it hath once taken up its rest 4. The Credit of the Lords Name is engaged to secure the empty Soul of all fulness of Grace and Mercy that is sutable to his necessity to be contained in the bosom of God in Christ for the Soul embracing him The Gospel saith Eph. 3.8 there is unsearchable riches in Christ and the Lord calls his Name Abundant in goodness what is the difference between these two Riches is nothing but goodness or good things considered as they are in abundance and you see the Lords Name is called Abundant in goodness So that here the Credit of the Lords Name is engaged to secure the Soul against all that can possibly be objected in regard of his own emptiness poverty and nothingness So that 1. In case the Soul fears it hath no strength to yield obedience to what the Lord commands and thereupon begins to fear that all the Gospel discovers to him shall be made of no effect presently through believing the Soul may behold not only that the Gospel hath
himself to be a poor despicable useless wretch a low contemptible worm not having any thing wherein to be serviceable for the Lords honour as others have yea being far deeper drenched into sin than other Souls are Here is a pattern the Lord hath made to stand upon sacred Record of his fulfilling a promise of mercy and love notwithstanding all unlikelihood that can be imagined 2. Under this comes in that particular case of the Souls inability and insufficiency to receive and embrace that mercy and love the Gospel reveals according as the Lord requires That is when the Soul in gazing upon those blessed tenders of love and mercy begins to say within it self I am so dead in sin that I have not the least ability to receive that mercy and love tendered according as God requires and therefore I shall never be the object of Gospel mercy and love seeing I cannot receive it Now in this case also this pretious pattern that the Lord hath given of Abraham may be brought to the Souls remembrance by the Spirit to testifie that the Lords promise of mercy and love to Abraham was fulfilled when he was in the same case when he could do nothing had not the least ability and power to effect what was necessary to be effected by him for the fulfilling of the promise 3. Under this comes in that particular case of the Souls beholding nothing but opposition in his Heart against that mercy and love that the Gospel reveals So that if the Soul should begin to say within it self it cannot be that he should be admitted by God to be an object of that Gospel mercy and love seeing his Heart nothing else but speaks against it Then the Spirit may bring to the Souls remembrance that which the Lord gave as a promise of mercy and love unto Abraham He against hope believed in hope There was not only no hope but all things against hope of that promise being fulfilled to him that he might be a pattern of believing VIII There is an eighth case of wretched treacherous backsliding from God after mutual closures and embraces between God and the Soul In this case the Lord hath given pretious presidents of his Gospel love and mercy that have been communicated unto Souls so backsliding You may first look upon Aaron's case who was none of the least backsliders Exod. 32.2 3 4 5. Aaron that had made choise of God alone to be his God here became a wretched backslider from the pure worship of God according to his own will to an Idolatrous worship to make a graven Image an Idol after the manner of Egypt and to make an Altar too still all contrary to the way of the Lords worship And yet if you look into Exod. 40.12 13. you shall find this very Aaron notwithstanding this backsliding taken to be an object of that love and mercy so as to be chosen Minister of the Lords Sanctuary to be of the very highest office of the Lords worship here below to be made the most immediate type of representing Jesus Christ that blessed true High Priest Another pattern of backsliding you may behold in Solomon in 1 King 7.11 He built an high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab yet this backslider notwithstanding was an object of his special Gospel love and mercy as appears Psal 89.32 33. My love will I never take from him I need not name Peters case and Davids case it is known to you all You see it is apparent the Lord hath given eminent patterns in this case of the Souls backsliding So that herein many particular cases of Souls come in as the case of negligence and slightness of Heart towards God the case of estrangeness from God after it once tasted of communion with him The case of all kind of wretchedness that the Soul can call to remembrance against it self or that possibly the Soul can be guilty of after the injoyment of the discovery of the Lords love and mercy in the Lord Jesus to him So that in case upon any such ground as the Souls wretched wicked dealing with God after union and communion with him and its turning aside from God the Soul should suffer its Confidence to waver concerning the will of God to accept his loveless backsliding Soul into the bosom of his love and mercy then the Spirit may bring to its remembrance those precious parterns that the Lord hath given concerning his acceptance of such backsliding wretches after such discoveries of himself That 's the seventh Particular that the Spirit may reveal and bring to Souls remembrance to shew that the Lord hath given Security upon Security abundance and superabundance of Security to assure Souls of what the Gospel reveals Eighthly The last particular that the Spirit brings to the Souls remembrance or doth or may reveal to it is this That there are peculiar near invaluable Engagements upon God himself in respect of himself to fulfil those precious Gospel-Discoveries to every Soul that shall embrace or accept them The Lord out of his incomprehensible wisdom hath so curiously contrived that Gospel-love to loveless Sinners that he hath sweetly interwoven his own interest with their interest And certainly the Lord hath revealed his own interest thus to be in the compleating of his Gospel-love and mercy to loveless Sinners that shall embrace him on purpose to secure their wavering unstable Spirits and to settle them in a more fulness of confidence in Christ that their Spirits might be filled with joy and peace through believing The engagements that are upon God himself in respect of himself to fulfil Gospel-love and mercy to Sinners that shall embrace him are divers 1. The first Engagement upon God himself in regard of himself from whence Souls may have security is this That the Lord hath chosen every such particular loveless Sinner as shall accept of his Gospel-discovery to be one of his own Family and his own Houshold Hence you shall find in Eph. 3.15 That all Believers are called but one Family And they are called the Houshold of God Eph. 2.19 And in Heb. 3.6 The whole Church is called The House of Christ Now what abundant security may the believing Soul receive concerning fulfilling Gospel-discoveries from the Spirits bringing to remembrance this Engagement of God in respect of himself to fulfil Gospel-discoveries 1. From hence the Soul may behold through believing God himself to be engaged to remove all Jars Differences Breaches and Disagreements from himself and every Soul that shall accept those Gospel-discoveries From thence the Soul may argue sweetly within his own Spirit against all Objections and Scruples concerning its Rebellion and Disobedience and say thus Will not the God of Peace have peace in his own Family in his own Houshold 2. From thence the believing Soul may behold the Lord engaged to compleat and perfect a work of Sanctification in his own Soul if he will embrace the Gospel-discovery though he be altogether unclean though he
sparkling forth of his own Glory through it VI. A sixth Engagement that God hath laid upon himself to fulfil Gospel Discoveries is this That every unlovely Sinner that shall embrace them is prepared from Eternity by the Lords infinite Wisdom to be an Orient bright shining Pearl in the all beautiful Crown of the Lords accidental Glory Mistake me not the mighty Sun of the Lords infinite essential Glory cannot admit either of Augmentation or Diminution I mean either of Lessening or Increasing its Transcendent Brightness But the Lords accidental Glory that is to say the manifestation and Discovery of those precious Beams of his essential Glory may and do admit of Eclipses and Overshadowings and also of an increase and augmentation in their Brightness and Excellency Now every Forlorn Soul that shall embrace Gospel Discoveries is laid as it were as a precious Golden Thred in that rich Broidered Robe of that Glory that the King of Heaven Cloaths himself with to make himself Glorious in the eyes of Saints and Angels This is clearly manifested in Isa 43.6 7 if you compare it with John 1.12 Bring forth my Sons and Daughters saith God whom I have Created for my Glory Now they are only those that receive the Lord Jesus tendred in the Gospel To as many as received him even to them that believe in him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God And hence you shall observe that the people of God are not only said to be Created for his Glory but they are called his glory Isa 46.13 Nay more they are called the Crown of the Lords Glory Isa 62.3 Nay further the Lord looks upon them as his Ornament Ezek. 7.10 And hence also they are called the Portion of God Jer. 12.10 Yea hence the Scripture declares the Saints in Heaven to shine as the Stars in the Firmament Dan. 12.3 In regard they shall be very Bright Shining Pearls that shall stand in the Crown of the Lords Honour Now there are three respects wherein every such Unlovely Sinner embracing Gospel Discoveries is one of the set Pearls that shine forth in the Crown of the Lords Glory 1. In regard the All beautiful Unparalleld Crown of the super added Honour of the Lord Jesus is Composed of all those Souls that shall embrace those Gospel Discoveries Thence it is that such Gospel Embraces are called the Glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8.23 And thence it is that the Church which is the Company of those is called the fulness of Christ Eph. 1.23 Now the Honour of Jesus Christ through the perfect Unity between the Father and the Son is also the Fathers Honour and so consequently every such Soul being one of those Beautiful Flowers in the Garland of Christs Honour he becomes also one of those rich Diamonds wherewith the Crown of the Fathers Glory is richly beset According to that in 1 Cor. 3.22 23. where the whole Glory that Jesus Christ attains as he is Mediatour is revealed to be Terminated and ended in the Fathers Glory All is yours That is all things are finally for your sakes Or rather all things have a natural tendency through the Everlasting Decree of God unto your good And ye are Christs That is and all you by vertue of the same Decree have a natural tendency to all the good you attain unto the good of Jesus Christ All the Glory that is put upon you hath a natural tendency unto the Glory of Jesus Christ to make up the perfection of his Glory And then observe and saith he Christ is Gods That is all the Good the Glory the Honour that Jesus Christ attains through his being the Center wherein all your good meets all that meets in the Father that is all his Honour tends only to the exalting of the Fathers Honour 2. In regard the brightest Beams of the Fathers essential Glory are manifest in every such Soul The Lord from before the Foundations of the World were laid made choice of those Souls to be as so many Christal Glasses through which the Beams of his Incomprehensible Essential Glory should shine forth First In every such Soul is manifest the infinite Unsearchable depths of the Fathers Divine Wisdom The manner of the Fathers Disposing of those souls to suffer them by the free working of their own Wills to lose themselves and bring themselves under the Power of everlasting Wrath and Indignation and then his Wisdom in contriving a way to save the Honour of his own Justice and the Redemption of those Poor Lost Perishing Souls so wonderfully to make the Honour of Mercy and Love and Justice to meet together in one to make Mercy and Justice kiss each other is that which will be the matter of Admiration to all those Inhabitants of the Sacred Palace of Heaven to all Eternity Secondly The Brightest Beams of his unspeakable unconceivable love appear and are manifested to every such Soul The highest perfection of Love that ever the Lord manifested is in Loving such Unlovely Forlorn Loathsome Souls as these and that also while he Rejected and Disregarded Creatures far more Glorious according to their first Creation Thirdly The Almighty Power of the Lord is also Gloriously manifested in every such Soul in that he should create anew those Loveless Sinners that were opposite to their own new Creation I mean their own Regeneration Therein indeed did Power appear in that the Lord did raise the Soul from the lowest degree of Enmity into the neerest Union with himself and that against all the Oppositions that Hell can make and against all the Powers of the Soul it self when both concur together against God Fourthly The Glorious Independency of the Lords Will in all the Motions and Operations of it is manifested abundantly in every such soul The Freedom of the Lord in all his ways doth not shine forth so clearly in any of the Works of God as in that Pretious Mystery of his Election in making of the same lump one Vessel to Honour and another to Dishonour there being no Engagements no Motives to incline his Pretious Will either this way or that way 3. Every such Soul is a set shining Diamond in the Crown of the Lords Honour In regard it is destinated from Eternity to stand as a constant clear Christal Glass through which the Lord would manifest the Transcendency of his own perfection unto all Eternity And it is through those Communications of the Father unto the Soul that the Fathers Glory is discovered and thence it is that the Brightness of the Fathers Glory shall be shining forth Resplendently unto all Eternity in every such Soul Now we are to consider what full security the Spirit may give from hence to every such Soul concerning the Infallible fulfilling of all Gospel Discoveries to the utmost into its Bosom that shall embrace them 1. From thence the Spirit may reveal to the Soul that the Lord stands engaged by the Inseparable Disposition of his own nature which naturally tends to his
Vilest of the Bodies of the Gospel Embracers 1 Cor. 15.43 It is Sown in Dishonour it is Raised in Glory it is Sown in Weakness it is Raised in Power There shall be the exactest Form and Feature the Perfection of Comliness and sweet Proportion a most admirable Congruent Symmetry of all the parts there shall be the sweetest pleasing mixture of the loveliest Colour of Red and White there shall be a continual actuating to the Life both these Colours and Parts so as they shall be Preserved in a perpetual Orient Freshness yea the Materials of Beauty through the Unspeakable Chearfulness of the Heart within and through the admirable excellency that the Soul shall be raised to shall be so actuated to the very Life that the very Beauty of the Body shall Sparkle and Glitter as Bright as the Brightest Glistering Beam of the Sun in the Firmament Dan. 12.3 II. The Scripture reveals the highest perfection to be put upon their Souls It were a work infinite and endless to search into the various glorious excellency and faculties wherewith every Soul embracing Gospel-Discoveries shall be endued Our capacities are narrow here concerning the Soul we know little of it and of its Original yet thus much we may affirm of it from the Scripture that every faculty of the Soul shall be adorned with the most suitable perfection and excellency that it is capable of The understanding shall be extraordinarily and supernaturally irradiated with the highest illumination the largest comprehension The Will shall be extended to the most perfect operation towards God himself all the motions of it working in their perfection terminatively upon God alone which indeed is the very perfection of holiness So as the height of the Souls perfection shall be every way answerable and proportioned to the superexcellent glory wherewith their bodies shall be indued and adorned III. From what the Scripture reveals concerning the beautifying the body with such high perfections and the beautifying of the Soul also I may add a word by consequence That a most admirable unspeakable glory shall appear in the persons of those Gospel-embracers when a body filled with such perfection and a soul raised in a manner infinitely higher shall be united into one to make up one person O what Honour and Majesty will shine from the very countenance of such a Person When Stephen stood before the Face of the Councel through a sweet Vision of Heaven opened his Countenance appeared like the Face of an Angel But O what Beams of Majesty Honour Beauty and Glory will Glitter from the Persons of Gospel Embracers when they shall be Inhabitants in the Palace of Heaven it self Now all this admirable Perfection wherewith every Sinner Embracing Gospel Discoveries shall thus be Cloathed is but the Effect and Consequence of the Pretious Eternal Determination of God to make every Unlovely Sinner Embracing Gospel Discoveries to be as one of the Diamonds that should stand to glitter in the Crown of his own Glory 7. There is a Seventh Ingagement that the Spirit also may reveal the Lord to have laid upon himself in respect of himself to fulfill all Gospel-discoveries into the bosom of every unlovely Sinner that shall embrace him and that is this every such unlovely sinner that shall and will accept the Gospel-Discovery is chosen from Eternity to be a Royal Inhabitant of the Sacred Palace of the Empyrean Heaven there to attend the Majesty of Heaven perpetually to behold the Brightness of his Glory and Majesty When the Lord who from Eternity subsisted only in himself did please from the Motions of his own Will alone to create a World to be a goodly Theatre wherein he would manifest his Power Bounty Goodness and Love then did that Blessed Majesty please to Compose on purpose that Vast Empyrean Heaven and to Beautify and Adorn it with the most Exquisite Excellency and Transcendent Glory to make it shine with the Brightest Beams of Majesty and Glory that it might be a Sacred Palace for himself wherein he resolves to Communicate himself most Beatifically to the Noblest Creatures Elect Saints and Angels and wherein he purposeth to discover the most Transparent Beams of his unspeakable Majesty and Glory that ever Creature should behold Now in like manner the Lord also determined that every of the Souls of Mankind whom he foresaw should fall into a perishing lost condition accepting union and Communion with himself should be one of his Houshould Servants admitted into his Blessed Presence-Chamber in whom he would delight himself by Revealing his Incomprehensible Glory Hence it is that you shall find in Scripture that the Kingdom is said to be given to those Gospel Embracers Luke 12.32 And hence it is that the Saints are said to have an Inheritance Incorruptible that Fadeth not away 1 Pet. 3 4. And hence it is also that every Gospel Embracer is said to be an Heir of Heaven Rom. 8.17 And Heirs of a Kingdom Jam. 2.5 All these Scriptures Compared together abundantly evidence that every such Gospel Embracer is chosen to be a Royal Inhabitant of the Sacred Palace of the Empyrean Heaven Now that they are chosen to dwell there on purpose that they might attend and behold the Beauty of his own Majesty and Glory this is abundantly evidenced from many Scriptures Christ himself speaks it in John 17.24 Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me Now the Glory of Jesus Christ is so Interwoven with the Glory of the Father that they cannot be the Beholders of the Glory of Christ except they be also Beholders of the Glory of God the Father And again in that 1 John 3.8 Now we are the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is So that from these Scriptures joyntly considered we may conclude I. That every Gospel Embracer is chosen to behold the Brightness of his Majesty and Glory by beholding the Divine Essence it self 1. He is chosen to behold the Blessed sweet Simplicity and Indivisible Unity of the Godhead To discern the Lord and to see him to be as one most Pure Simple Act. 2. Every Gospel Embracer is chosen to behold the Sacred and Secret Mystery of the Holy Trinity To behold that one Indivisible Essence of God consisting in three manner of ways To see three Subsistences and but the same Essence 3. Every such Soul is chosen to behold the Eminency of the Divine Essence They are chosen to behold a Transcendency of all Imaginable Perfection that ever their eyes beheld to be Comprised in that one Divine Essence with absolute Perfection 4. They are chosen to behold the Divine Essence in all its most Glorious Operations They are chosen to be admitted into the Presence-Chamber of the Divine Majesty so as to behold all the Records of Heaven
II. Every such Soul is chosen perpetually to behold the Brightness of his Majesty and Glory in Beholding the Glory of Jesus Christ as Mediatour 1. They are chosen to behold the admirable Mystery of the Union of the Divine Person to the Humane Nature That which is now an Inexplicable Mystery to the Believers Eye shall then by Gods choosing them to behold his Glory be Discerned 2. It is chosen to behold all the bright Beams of Glory that appear in the Mystical Union of so many Lost Rebellious Sinking Perishing Souls to the Lord as to one Head 3. Every such Soul is chosen to behold the Transcendent Perfection of the Secret Love of the Lord Jesus to such Unlovely Sinners while they were altogether Loveless while they were altogether Abominable matter of Loathing to his pure Eyes III. Every such Soul is chosen from Eternity to attend upon the Royal Majesty of Heaven in his Sacred Palace that they may behold his Glory in the Brightest manner 1. He is chosen to behold those bright Beams of Majesty and Glory in a positive way 2. It is chosen to behold the Beams of his Transcendent Majesty and Glory in an immediate way There will be no need of Speeches to Represent the Lord to our Understandings as there is now 3. It is chose to behold the Brightness of the Lords Majesty and Glory in a Simple Pure way Not relatively or by Relations as Gospel Embracers for present behold the Light of the Lords Glory As when we conceive of the Glory of the Majesty of Heaven we conceive of him as the most absolute Monarch of Heaven and Earth the King of Kings and Lord of Lords This is but Relation but we shall then see the Lord in a sutable way even as he is 4. It is chosen to behold them fully Not to behold the Reflection only but the Sun it self of Glory 5. It is chosen to behold them everlastingly Hence the Soul may discern God to be engaged by his highest Relation of his own Eternal Contentment to perfect both Union and Communion between himself and every Unlovely Sinner that shall and will accept Gospel Discoveries seeing every such Soul as shall accept Gospel Discoveries is Designed by himself from Eternity to be one of his Royal Attendants in his Sacred Palace that should behold the Brightness of his Majesty and Glory Now before I can pass from this second work of the Spirit upon Souls There are Five or Six things that every Soul of us must remember least we misunderstand the manner of the Spirits irradiating the Gospel unto Souls I. We must observe That the Spirit of the Lord doth in a different manner cause these Glorious Beams of Divine light to shine forth from the promise into dark Souls The Spirit in this Blessed work of Irradiation of the Gospel unto dark Souls doth to some reveal only some of those Pretious Soul Ravishing Beams of Light that you have heard opened To others he causeth more abundance of those Pretious Beams of Light to shine into the heart And from hence various Souls have various Degrees of this assurance of Faith and various Degrees of Joy and Peace slowing forth from that assurance of Faith II. You must also observe concerning this work of Irradiation of the Gospel That the Spirit doth manifest those Beams of Divine Light from the Gospel in different Degrees of Clearness unto Souls III. You must also observe that the Lord doth in a different degree continue the manifestation and Irradiation of the Promise or of the Gospel unto different souls I speak still of those souls that do receive through the spirits Irradiation of the Gospel some assurance unto their Faith of their union with Christ IV. You must also understand that the spirit doth reveal the substance of all this Heavenly Light the Sum and Compendium of all that you have heard and cause it to shine into souls from the promise This the spirit doth cause to shine into every soul that attains unto any degree of assurance of Faith Though the spirit works variously in regard of the clearness of revealing what it doth reveal and variously in regard of the time and continuance of its manifestation of that Heavenly Light unto souls yet those pretious Beams of Heavenly Light that the spirit causeth to Glitter forth from the promises unto souls are of necessity to be revealed unto every soul that attains unto any assurance of Faith V. We must observe that the spirit of the Lord doth out of his own infinite Wisdom select the particular truth of the Gospel whereby he will assure any particular soul of his union with Christ Though those particular Beams of Divine Light mentioned be in the substance revealed to the Faith of every soul to whom the spirit gives union yet the particular wherein the spirit makes the Brightness the Glory the Lustre the satisfying and Over-powering Glory of those Beams of light to appear to the souls eye these are selected by the Wisdom of the spirit it self though it is but the substance also or the effect of those particulars whereby we have revealed those Beams of Divine Light to you VI. You must observe that the spirit doth reveal or manifest all the bright shining of Divine Light from the promise at one and the same moment to the soul when it draws forth the souls Faith unto acts of assurance The spirit may be Instructing the dark soul many Years in the Pretious Mystery of the Gospel of Christ before it raiseth the souls Faith unto assuring acts and may be increasing the strength of the souls confidence gradually in every Ordinance in all those years But yet wherever the spirit draws out the God believing Dispositions that it hath infused into any souls to act by way of fulness of confidence then the spirit presents all this Pretious Light of the Gospel at once and gives the soul one Glorious view of it Thirdly the spirit of the Lord proceeds from Illumination of the soul and Irradiation of the Gospel to the soul to Conviction The Spirits Conviction of the Conscience From the Powerful Efficacy of that Divine light infused into the understanding and the Precious Concurrence of the sweetest light of manifestation of the Gospel unto the Light Inherent ariseth a Powerful Inward Conviction of the Conscience According to that in John 16.9 10. The Spirit shall reprove and convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment It shall Convince the World of Righteousness that is of free Justification of Despicable Forlorn Guilty Sinners through the Lord Jesus alone This Conviction of the soul or of the Conscience it is a clear Unquestionable and Infallible Demonstration given by the spirit to the doubtful soul of the Lords Will that even that his particular Forlorn Worthless Stubborn soul shall be received into the nearest union with himself in Christ Or rather it is a Commanding Power of the Spirit of God exercised upon the soul whereby
any further than the spirit concurs with the Light Revealed Now 1. The spirit causeth the soul to be filled with a Holy Complacency in beholding the Pretious Divine Light that the Gospel Reveals 2. The spirit moves an insatiable Thirst in the soul after the continuance of that Pretious Divine Light shining from the Gospel into his Poor Obscure Heart 3. The spirit melts the Heart by the beholding that Light that the spirit puts into it so as the Heart is made most pretiously Tender and Pliable and Flexible to the Blessed Will of God in every thing 2. The Spirit impels constrains the Soul to believing strongly The Lord rules in the heart of believers by the Royal Scepter of his Word but not as the Word is barely revealed unto a Soul in the letter of it but as the Word is brought into the heart by his own Spirit And therefore when the Spirit sways not the Scepter of the Word in their hearts the word looseth its Imperial Royal Authority that it hath over the Soul and so the Soul lies not under so strong an Obligation to any Duty as it doth when the Spirit brings the Word to the heart 3. The third Act is the inabling the soul powerfully to believe According to that in Phil. 2.13 By him we receive both to will and to do that is both the disposition and the Act of the Disposition both an inward bent of Spirit to believe and power also to act that Disposition This is that mighty Power that works in those that believe Eph. 1.19 So that the Soul that could only Believe waveringly that it was the Lords will to receive his despicable loveless Soul into union with the Lord Jesus shall by the powerful ability of the Spirit infused into the Soul by the Spirit be able to receive it fixedly to believe it undoubtedly unquestionably without the least inconstancy for the present that the blessed God of Love will out of his own free love accept his despicable loveless Soul into the nearest union with the Lord Jesus and himself through him That is the exciting work of the Spirit There is now the fifth and last work of the spirit unto souls for that end to be opened which is the spirits Attestation to the soul The Spirits Attestation that is to say his Witnessing unto the soul that it shall be certainly Infallibly in its Cleaving to Lord Jesus admitted into Union and Communion with him It is the good pleasure of the Lord not only to shew the immutability of his Counsel concerning believing souls and the infallibility of their acceptance into Union and Communion with the Lord Jesus in their souls cleaving to him but it is also the good pleasure of the Lord to shew more than Sufficiency the Unchangableness of his Counsel to such souls According to that Pretious place Hebr. 6.17 The Lord willing more abundantly to shew the Immutability of his Councel Ex Abundanti as Beza Translates the Original The Lord having a Pretious good will to shew in a way more and beyond what was necessary to believing souls the Impossibility of their souls failing of Union and Communion with the Lord Jesus in their cleaving to him he doth therefore now add his Blessed Spirit to be the Comforter of Believing souls not only in a Degree that is necessary for them for which end all those four former Effects of the spirit upon souls were appointed but the Lord appoints the Spirit to be a Comforter beyond what is necessary And therefore after the Spirit hath given to Believing souls a clear Evidence of their Acceptance into Union with the Lord Jesus so as thereby the spirit had filled their souls with strong Consolation Yet the Lord appoints the Spirit to add a higher work which is its Attestation This Attestation of the Spirit is that you shall find Eph. 1.13 In whom also after that ye Believed ye were Sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise Or as the Word may be rendered In whom Believing ye were Sealed which Imports the neer Conjunction of these two Blessed works of the Spirit or the immediate following of the Spirits Attestation upon the Spirits Excitation of their Souls to Believing And this work of the Spirit is that you find also in 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Now he that Establisheth us with you in Christ and hath Annointed us is God who hath also Sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our Hearts And this you shall find also Eph. 4.30 Grieve not the Spirit of God by which you are Sealed unto the day of Redemption And so Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth Witness with our Spirit thaâ— we are the Children of God Now least any should question whether the Spirit doth thus work in a Witnessing way it would be necessary to clear the Interpretation of most of those places from some other Glosses that are Frequently put upon them It is true say some the Scripture speaks of the Sealing work of the Spirit unto Souls but the meaning of the Spirit of Truth is only that by Graces and Holy Dispositions that the Spirit Communicates unto Believing Souls it doth confirm Souls in the certainty of their Acceptance into Union with Christ So that by the receiving of the Spirit by Beliveâ—s spoken of in the Scripture of Truth is only meant Believers receiving the Precious Working of the Spirit in their Hearts in Holy Habits and Dipsositions For Answer I must acknowledge that by the Spirit is frequently meant in Scripture the Holy Dispositions infused by the Sanctifying Spirit into Believing Souls And I must acknowledge also that the Graces or Holy Habits infused by the Spirit in Believing Souls are spoken of as Witnesses unto Souls of their Union with Christ And indeed it is questionless that an effect may Witness its own proper cause And the Scripture speaks expresly that the works of God are Witness of God Act. 14.17 And so Christs works were Witnesses of his Godhead John 5.36 Yet this is not that which is primarily intended in the former Scriptures by the Spirits Sealing the Believing Soul which may appear to you by two or three Reasons I. In regard the Spirits Sealing the Believing Soul is declared to follow the Souls act of Believing in order of Nature As in Eph. 1.13 In whom after ye Believed ye were Sealed Or In whom ye Believing were Sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise Now all the Pretious Holy Habits that the Sanctifying Spirit Infuses into any Soul are in order of Nature Infused before there is any Believing act in the Soul Though the Believing act in a Believing Soul may be Contemporary that is at one and the same time yet the Infusing of all the Holy Habits and Dispositions into the Soul must be conceived to have a precedency in order of Nature before there can be a Believing act I confess some and those learned ones too have imagined that the Sanctifying Spirit should work as an external
for that Believing Soul to question his own Cleaving and Adhering unto Jesus Christ unto all Eternity And that will appear in two things I. In regard there is a sufficient ground revealed to the Soul that hath this Testimony of the Spirit unto his Faith of his Confidence of his Everlasting Cleaving unto Christ as there is of the Lords Acceptance of his Soul into Union and Communion with him in Adhering to him The promises of the Covenant of Grace that are tendred in the Lord Jesus do as perfectly and as clearly contain and include in them strength to inable Souls to Embrace and Accept those Promises as they do contain in them a fulness and alsufficiency of Love and Mercy for those Souls that do Embrace them The Lord that hath said It is my Will that such Perishing Sinking Despicable Souls as will accept my Tender shall be one with me through the Lord Jesus and have Everlasting Communion with me hath also said will Allure and draw your Hearts to Embrace and Accept according to my Will this Union and Communion with me in Christ that I freely tender you According to Jer. 31 32 33. This shall be my Covenant I will put my Law in their inward parts and Write it in their Hearts That is to say I will infuse sutable Dispositions into the Hearts of all the Embracers of the Lord Jesus to Incline Dispose and Inable them to fulfil all my Revealed Will in some Measure and Degree So that the Soul hath as sure a Word Revealed to it to depend upon from whence may arise a Confidence in it that the Lord will Inable him to Cleave and Adhere Everlastingly to Christ as it hath a Word whereupon his Soul may Depend and may be Confident the Lord will accept him into Union and Communion with him in Cleaving unto Christ II. In regard that very Confidence that the Spirit doth produce in the Soul of its Infallible Acceptance into Union and Communion with him is the very act of Cleaving and Adhering unto Christ There are four particular acts of the Soul Included under this Confidence of the Souls Acceptance into Union with Christ in its Cleaving and Adhering to him 1. In this is Included the Election of Union with Christ by the Will of the Soul Now this is but the receiving of Christ that the Gospel requireth To as many as received him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God John 1.12 Now the consent of the Will to close with Christ in Union and Communion that is tendred to it is the very Receiving of Jesus Christ 2. In that very act of Confidence there is Included the Souls Credence or giving Credit to the Word of God When the Soul is Confident of the Lords Accepting of it into Union and Communion with him in the Souls Cleaving and Adhering to him it is only because of such a Word of Promise from the Mouth of Christ to which the Soul giveth Credit or which the Soul Believeth 3. In this act of Confidence there is a Resignation of the Soul wholly unto Christ Such as that which is spoken of in 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am Perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have Committed unto him That is to say I know whose Word it was that I gave Credit to and that I was so Confident of the Truth of That I leaned my Soul upon the Truth of that Word for its Everlasting Happiness So that then in this act of Confidence there is Included that Mutual Interchangable Covenanting that the Word of the Lord requires from Souls in Accepting the Lord Jesus Tendered 4. In this very act of Confidence there is Included a full Dependance of the Soul upon Christ a hanging the Soul upon the Faithfulness of Jesus Christ and his Word So that indeed all the acts that the Gospel Requires from Souls are Included in this one act of Confidence that is produced by this Testimony of the Spirit to the Souls Faith Now the act of the Souls Confidence being also the act of its Cleaving and Adhering unto the Lord Jesus and the Souls Cleaving and Adhering unto Christ being Gradually as strong as the act of its Confidence of Accepting into Union and Communion with Christ in his Cleaving to him Thence it appears that there can be no solid ground of the souls questioning his own Adherence unto the Lord Jesus when the spirit gives this Testimony forementioned unto the souls Faith and produceth 〈◊〉 Confidence in the soul of his Acceptance into Union and Communion with the Lord Jesus in Adhering to him In this very thing lies the whole Mystery of assurance unto Faith The very Confidence that the spirit begets in the soul of the Lord Jesus his Accepting it into Union and Communion with him in Cleaving to him the very act of Confidence is the act of the souls Cleaving to him Answ 2. Secondly I Answer further that whenever the Spirit by its Testimony to the souls Faith doth beget that Confidence in the soul that the Lord will Accept it into Union with himself in his Adhering to him then the soul cannot question his own Adhering unto Christ any more than he questions the Lords Acceptance of his soul into Union and Communion with him in his Adhering to him The spirits Testimony unto Faith is or such a nature that it doth equally beget a Confidence in the soul of his Everlasting Cleaving unto Christ to the Confidence that it doth beget of the Lords Acceptance of the soul into Union with himself in the souls Adhering to him And that will appear in three things I. In regard the spirits Attestation unto Faith is concerning the truth of the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ or of all the promises The spirit in the Irradiation of the Gospel clears that it is the Lords Will to have the whole Glorious work of the Union of Loveless Sinners with the Lord Jesus to have its sole dependance upon himself So that it manifests Believing Strength to inable the soul to Cleave and Adhere to the Lord Jesus fully to be tendered in the Covenant of Grace as well as Union with Christ himself is tendered Now then the spirits Attestation which follows this Irradiation of the Gospel is as large as its Irradiation work I mean the spirit doth in a Judicial Authoritative way Witness the truth of all those Gospel Truths Revealed to the soul So that the soul cannot possibly resist that Determination that the spirit gives into its Bosom Now then there being the same Witness of the spirit unto the souls Faith that the Lord will inable it to Cleave and Adhere to the Lord Jesus that there is unto its Faith that the Lord will Accept into Union and Communion with himself in Christ every soul that will Adhere to him Thence it cannot be that a soul should more question his Adhering unto Christ than he should question the Lords Acceptance of him
into Union through his Adhering to him II. In regard the spirits Excitation of the Believing Disposition into Exercise is General and Universal Now there being strength to Inable the soul to Adhere unto Christ tendered as well as Union with Jesus Christ is tendered and the spirits Exciting work being thus General and Universal it cannot be but the Heart should be Established in the constant Expectation of the one as of the other To be as Confident of the souls everlasting Cleaving unto Christ as of his Acceptance into Union with Christ upon his Cleaving to him III. In regard the spirit doth Adjoyn a Testimony unto the soul that it doth Cleave unto Christ to its Testimony that it gives to its Faith that it shall be admitted to the Lord Jesus infallibly in cleaving unto him The Spirit is so blessed a Comforter that it sends down living streams of refreshing both to faith and spiritual sense when it hath once testified to the souls faith that unquestionably and infallibly that particular soul shall be accepted into union with the Lord Jesus in his embracing of him it then also testifies to the soul that it hath embraced Christ and that the soul is already actually instated in union and communion with him Now having opened the spirits attestation unto the souls faith The spirits attestation unto sense The second act of the attestation of the spirit is it's attestation unto the souls spiritual sense in this we must open three things to you First that there is such a witness of the spirit to the souls sense and feeling besides the former Record that it gives unto Faith Secondly In what respects this witness of the spirit is added unto the spirits witness unto the souls faith Thirdly what this witness of the spirit to the souls sense and feeling is First that there is such a testimony of the spirit unto sense and feeling may appear from that one place alone Rom. 8.16 The spirit it self beareth witness mith our spirits that we are the sons of God this holds forth that there must be a witness of the spirit unto the soul above and besides those holy dispositions or precious gracious habits that the spirit doth communicate unto souls and therefore that there is such a witness of the spirit unto faith Now from hence appears that there is such a witness of the spirit unto the souls sense and feeling in that the spirit is said to give a particular testimony unto particular souls of their actual union with the Lord Jesus The spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the sons of God that we it is not only a determinating sentence that the spirit passeth upon the truth of what the Gospel reveals in general unto every soul that shall embrace him for that is only thus that thou or thou or that particular soul in his accepting the Lord Jesus tendered shall infallibly be one with Christ which is still a testimony unto faith but the Scripture speaks it plainly the spirit gives testimony of their souls real accepting of Jesus Christ tendered The spirits testimony of saith could be only thus much to witness from the promise that this or that particular soul shall be adopted to be a Child of the Blessed Majesty of Heaven in his accepting the Lord Jesus tendered But this testimony is a witness to the particular soul of it's actual adoption already that we are the sons of God therefore this must be a testimony of the spirit unto the souls sense and feeling in regard the proper object of faith is to receive what is promised not receive what is done 2. The spirit is said to be a Co-witness with believers spirits that they are united unto Christ and adopted sons and daughters of God through their union with Christ Saith the Original the spirit doth bare witness together with our spirits so that the spirit is said here to bear witness to the soul of the same things that the souls own spirit that is the renewed understanding or the sanctified Conscience bares witness to Now the renewed conscience in the believing soul can only bear witness unto the souls sense and feeling and therefore the spiris witnessing the same thing that the renewed conscience in a believing soul doth witness it must needs be that this witness of the spirit must be a witness to the souls sense and feeling III. It appears from the peculiar office to which the spirit of the Lord is destinated The spirit is appointed to be the comforter the most superlative eminent comforter now should not the spirit witness unto the souls sence and feelâ—ng spiritually it's union with Christ it could not comfort in the highest manner There are three degrees of spiritual comfort 1. A souls appehension that union and communion with the Lord Jesus is tendered to his despicable lost soul There is a degree of comfort from the possibility that his poor lost sinking soul may be admitted into union and communion with Christ but alas this is weak 2. There is the souls actual embracing this union with the Lord Jesus tendered There is infinite sweetness and peace in that very believing act of the soul though as yet there is no sensibleness in the soul of that his own believing and so no sensibleness of his union with Christ 3. Which is the Top Stone of the Souls Consolation and that is the sensibleness of the souls union with the Lord through believing Now if the spirit should not give such a witness to the believing soul as this to witness to the souls actual close with Christ in union and communion the blessed spririt who is sent from the Lord Jesus on purpose to be a comfort to believing souls should not comfort in the highest manner he should not be the most eminent comforter II. The second thing to be opened is the reasons of the additions of the spirits testimony unto the souls sense and feeling to the testimony that it gives to the souls faith There are five or six reasons of it I. To prevent the souls receiving that determination of its corrupt conscience concerning its everlasting estate In all the various actings of conscience as a Law Witness and Judge it is corrupted by vertue of our first Transgression so that in whatsoever state the soul remains when its conscience worketh according to its natural disposition and inclination it bears false witness and passeth false judgement Now therefore doth the Lord vouchsafe to add the spirits testimony of the souls union unto sense and feeling that the false sentence that conscience passeth upon the soul might not be received by it There are three respects wherein the Lord vouchsafeth to add the spirits testimony to sense unto the the testimony it gives to faith 1. The depravedness and perverseness of conscience in its testimony 2. The unavoidableness of the souls hearing that testimony that conscience gives when the soul is once alive through the life of Jesus Christ 3.
act to it self that it becomes the earnest of the souls inheritance That is that it becomes as a small portion given by the Blessed Majesty of Heaven to the soul in hand in Testimony that it shall injoy the full inheritance The spirit is such an earnest in irradiating the souls believing act three ways 1. In regard the spirit manifests its own presence in the believing soul by its irradiating the souls believing act in discovering to the believing soul that it doth uprightly according to the Will of God believe It doth discover Holiness to be infused into the soul and so consequently discover it self to have taken up its Habitation in the believing soul So that the believing soul by the sight that the spirit puts into the believing act making it Visible to his own eye discerns the presence of the holy spirit in his heart and thus indeed there is a pretious earnest given to the soul of his everlasting union and communion with the Lord Jesus 2. In regard the communion between Jesus Christ and the soul by the sight of his believing act appears to the soul to be begun The soul discerns Jesus Christ and himself to be partakers of one and the same life by discerning infallibly the truth of his own believing act 3. In regard it enters the soul into the very fruition of union with Jesus Christ and so becomes indeed a first Fruit of Heaven gives it actual possession of that highest blessedness that sanctifyed souls shall possess in Heaven The fruition of it consists in two things First In the certain knowledge that it hath of union and communion with Christ Secondly In the sense of the sweetness and comfort of union and communion with Christ Nothing though it be possessed can be said to be enjoyed unless the party possessed of it hath a sense of the sweetness and comfort of the good that he is possessed of III. The third thing observable is the effect of the manifestation or the enlightning of the believing act in the soul That is a pretious sweet consciousness in the believing soul in his very act of believing that he doth rightly believe It is by the spirits irradiation of the pretious Gospel of Jesus Christ to the souls understanding that the soul discerns by faith the bosom of that blessed Redeemer the Lord Jesus ready to receive his loveless perishing sinking soul into the nearest union and communion with him so likewise by the spirits irradiation of the souls believing act the spirit makes the soul see also as clearly that it doth as it were creep into the open bosom of the love of the Lord Jesus IV. The fourth and last thing observable in the description of the spirits witness to the souls sense of its union and communion with the Lord Jesus is the inseparable adjunct or concomitant testimony of the spirit unto sense That 's the determination of the renewed Conscience in the believing soul that he is everlastingly one with Christ This is properly the effect of the spirits testimony unto sense whereas the light of every Grace though they be luminous Bodies and proceed from the spirit of light is such a small light in it self that unless there be an addition by the Spirit unto sense it shines not apparently to the believing Soul and therefore the infallible testimony of the Believers own Spirit or of his renewed Understanding or Conscience is but the consummation or the consequent of the Spirits irradiating the Souls believing act yet it is inseparable from it no sooner hath the Spirit witnessed to the Souls sense that it is one with Christ but the renewed Conscience answers also Thou art one with Christ The witness of the Believers Spirit or of the renewed Conscience is but the Eccho of the witness of the Lords own Spirit according to Rom. 9.1 My Conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost It is the Spirit as it were that puts words into the mouth of renewed Conscience it doth but answer what is the voice of the Holy Spirit as the Eccho answers our voyce Now when the Spirit hath witnessed unto the Souls Faith that in its cleaving to the Lord Jesus his Soul shall be infallibly admitted into Union and Communion with him and in that witness hath drawn out the believing disposition to act in its strength and then casts a brightness and splendor upon the believing act that it shineth thus apparently in the Souls eye yea so apparently that the renewed Conscience bears witness that the Soul doth rightly believe then doth the Soul say with those in 1 John 4.16 I know and believe the Love that the Father of the Lord Jesus bears to this my Loveless Soul then is the poor wavering Soul established and setled as upon an everlasting Rock the Rock of Ages Then 1. All the beginnings of Hell in his own Spirit are past All the condemning Sentences of Conscience that he was wont to hear every day are obliterated and blotted out I mean so long as the testimony of the Spirit thus continues all the Frowns of Conscience are gone 2. All tormenting Fears are banished The inward perplexity anguish and vexation that perplexed the Soul through the fear of his everlasting separation from the Glory of the presence of the Majesty of Heaven all cease and there is a blessed Calm possesses the Soul and then the Soul is brought like a weather-beaten Ship into the sweetest and most commodious Haven of rest 3. The Spirit of Glory possesseth the believing Soul Then is its contentment in union and communion with the Lord Jesus infinite unspeakable then doth it rejoyce yea triumph in the Lord Jesus Rom. 5.3 Thus through this testimony unto Sense added to the testimony unto Faith the Soul is even set down with one foot as it were into the great City of the King of Heaven sweetly expecting his full fruition of that transcendent Glory that it solaceth it self in the sweetest expectation of till time shall come that Faith and Expectation shall cease and Sight and Vision shall only take place Thus you see what the sealing-witness of the Spirit is unto Sense There are now some Cautions that of necessity must be given to you believing Souls to prevent any sad Mistake about this great Mystery Caution 1 First therefore you must understand That though the fulness of the Souls infallible certainty of his union with the Lord Jesus doth depend upon this attestation of the Spirit unto his Faith and Sense yet the Lord doth vouchsafe much comfortable evidence to many believing Souls of their certain and infallible union with the Lord Jesus to whom he doth not send this blessed Spirit thus to avouch and attest to their Souls their Union with Christ 1. The Spirit may and doth by those four former precious effects upon the believing Souls establish their Souls in a sweet Soul-chearing Soul-reviving confidence of the Lords acceptance of them into union with Christ There is the whole Materiality
the spirits of unbelieving souls to receive that suggestion that they are certainly joyned to the Lord Jesus and reconciled to the Father when they are still at enmity That 's the second a dreadful blindness that is fallen upon unbelieving souls 3dly The policie of Hell works in unbelieving Souls to perswade them of their certain union with the Lord Jesus in regard every seeming counterfeit shadow of holiness appears glorious in an unbelieving eye Every vain empty shadow of holiness or holy duties appear very glorious to a Soul under the power of the Prince of darkness whose eye the Prince of darkness hath blinded through unbelief There are two principal reasons why the policie of Hell works against unbelieving Souls to perswade them that they are certainly united to the Lord Jesus I. By the prevailing of this suggestion unbelieving Souls are bound with Adamantine Chains in the Devils slavery 1. In regard the power of all the blessed invitations and the most sweet Soul-melting exhortations unto union and amity and agreement with God in Christ are prevented The unbelieving Soul then looks upon himself as no object of any of those pretious invitations because he thinks he is already united to the Lord Jesus 2. In regard the restraining power of all the Lords menaces and threatnings to the actings of enmity is prevented So that the Soul says within it self upon every threatning from the Lords word that it is not to him he hopes Jesus Christ hath made peace for him God and his Soul he hopes are reconciled in Christ 3. In regard there is enmity against the brightness and lustre and beauty of holiness excited and stirred up in that unbelieving Soul against the conversations of all those Souls that profess union with the Lord Jesus who walk in a higher pitch of holiness than his Soul walks in that it eclipses and condemns his life and vertually Judgeth him still to be a Stranger to the Lord Jesus and void of union with him 4. By the prevailing of this suggestion with unbelieving Souls they are even devoted unto blindness Their Hearts endeavour to expound the truth in a suitable way to themselves yea their Hearts work with a kind of infinite enmity against every truth that they cannot prevent that contradicts their false hopes and soul deluding joys II. The depth of the Devils policie against unbelieving souls is to perswade them of their certain union with Christ in regard the false hopes the Soul-deluding confidence of such unbelieving Souls is a most mighty means to strengthen the hands of wickedness It is the most powerful Orator to perswade other unbelieving Souls to proceed from one degree of wickedness to another without restraint of their wicked Hearts from their full swing in their cursed way Pre. 6. Sixthly There is a Sixth Premise and that is this That the Prince of the power of darkness doth exercise a mighty power upon Souls to effect that politick design of his in casting them into a fools Paradice of imaginary spiritual safety in deluding them with vain hopes of union with the Lord Jesus when they are Strangers and Enemies to him This power that the Devil exerciseth upon Souls for that end is Threefold First There is a power that he exerciseth upon the mind or understanding Secondly A power he exerciseth upon the Conscience Thirdly A power he exerciseth upon the Passions or Affections First The Devil exerciseth a mighty power upon the minds and understandinngs of Souls Satans power upon the mind to delude them concerning their union with the Lord Jesus The understanding is to the Soul as the Compass to the Ship if the Compose be marred the Ship may be easily guided into a devouring Gulf instead of a safe Harbour If the understanding be once deluded the Soul may easily steer his course towards the Gulf of everlasting woe instead of that blessed Haven of everlasting happiness Thence it is that the Devil exerciseth a mighty power upon the understandings and minds of Souls to corrupt and delude those Now this power that he exercises upon the understanding is also various There are Eight degrees or various acts of the Devils power exercised upon the minds and understandings of Souls to delude them about their union with the Lord Jesus I. The first act of the Devils power upon the understanding is his forgery invention and suggestion of false reasons rotten arguments and fallacious means from his high endeavour to perswade Souls of their certain infallible reconciliation or union with God in Christ when they are separated by a brasen Wall of enmity from him There are Six or Seaven false reasons and rotten arguments that he doth ordinarily suggest unto believing Souls from whence he insinuates to them fasly their certain union with the Lord Jesus 1. He suggests to the understandings of some Souls their vast difference and disagreement from other Souls and thence secretly insinuates to them that certainly they are of the number of those that are joyned to the Lord Jesus This the Devil suggested into the mind of the deluded Pharisee Luke 18.12 13. 2. The Devils suggests unto some other Souls their enjoyment of special peculiar priviledges different from the priviledges that the multitude of the World enjoy and thence also insinuates into them their certain infallible reconciliation to God and acceptance with him in Christ This the Devil suggested to those self-deceived Jews John 8.37 38. Say they we are Abrahams children and thence certainly think they we must be Gods Children also 3. The Devil suggests to some other Souls their moral duties and acts of righteousness and from thence insinuates to them that they are certainly accepted with God in Christ This fallacious argument was that whereby the Devil perswaded the young Man mentioned Mat. 19.20 that his Estate was an Estate of spiritual safety Thus also were those poor blind Jews deluded by Satans hellish sophistry Rom. 10.3 They rejected the righteousness that is by Christ that was freely tendred to them upon this ground that their own righteousness their outward observation of the Law was sufficient for their justification before God and acceptance with him 4. The Devil suggests to some other Souls their constant diligent use of the Lords Ordinances appointed for them to worship the Lord in By this kind of false argument did the old Sophister deceive those poor deluded Souls Luke 13.26 Saith they we have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our Streets That is they had the nearest communion with him in his Ordinances they were diligent hearers of the word and waited upon him whereever he brought a messuage to them 5. The Devil suggests to other Souls their forward profession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and thence insinuates into them that surely in their perseverance in that profession they shall be admitted into union and communion with Jesus Christ the Lord is at peace with them their state is good enough This was the
Jesus would Blemish the Equity and seeming right Rectitude of Satans application of such a Lying Argument of the Souls Union with Christ yea it would discover the false application of such a Lying Argument of his Union III. The third Defilement or Corruption of Conscience is its Insensibleness or Regardlesness of Sins Committed when discerned This the Devil Maintains Foments and Increases with all his Power in reference to the Deluding the Soul with a foolish dream of Union with Christ 1. In regard hereby Satan presents the Frequency and Strictness of the Souls enquiring into the nature of his own hopes of Union with Jesus Christ 2. Hereby the positive slightness in the matter of hopes for Union with Christ is Begotten in the Soul Now this slightness of Spirit in the matter of their hoping for Union with the Lord Jesus doth dispose their poor Foolish Souls readily to receive any suggestion from Hell that they are United without any fear of danger whatever 3. Hereby the Jealousie of Satans suggestion to the Soul that he is United is wholly prevented IV. The fourth Corruption or Defilement of Conscience is the Unfaithfulness of its Recording or Registring the Souls Iniquities Now Satan exerciseth this Power upon the Defilement of the Conscience also 1. In regard hereby he doth prevent the Souls whom he Deludeth from discerning or beholding the Contradicting reasons to their reasons from whence they hope that they are United to the Lord Jesus Every Sin is a reason of mighty weight to perswade the Soul that he could never be United and every Aggravation of those Sins but above all the rejecting of Union with Jesus Christ Tendred Now Satan well understanding that his Foolish Suggestions unto Souls that they are United to the Lord Jesus and his Reasonless Reasons to perswade them that they are United would never be admitted of did the Souls to whom he Suggests that they are United discern the Multitude of Reasons that might perswade them it is Impossible that ever they should be United thence it is he doth exercise his utmost Power upon the Unfaithfulness of Conscience in Registring the Souls Iniquities that so it may not bring one of those Iniquities to the Souls Remembrance of a Thousand 2. By this Unfaithfulness of Conscience in Registring the Souls Iniquities the Infiniteness and Unspeakableness of the danger of the loss of Union is Undiscerned also by those Souls The greater Apprehension of Guilt the greater Apprehension of danger in case the Guilt should not be removed from their Souls Now by Satans Fostering up Conscience in its Unfaithfulness in Registring up the Souls Iniquities it Apprehends but a small slighty superficial view of his own Guilt and therefore hath but slighty Thoughts about the loss of Union in case he be Deprived of it V. The fifth Corruption in the Conscience is the Unjustness in passing Sentence upon the Souls Estate Conscience is so Corrupted that it will be passing Unjust Sentences Accusing when it should be Excusing and Excusing when it should be Accusing Now this Unjustness in the Conscience in passing Sentence upon the Soul Satan exerciseth all his Power upon to Augment and Increase it to the utmost that by this means Conscience may be ready to Comply with any Suggestion of his that the Soul is United and according to his bare Suggestion to pass the Sentence upon the Souls Final Estate that it shall be Everlastingly Saved by the Lord Jesus Sect. 3. Thirdly The third Power that Satan exerciseth upon the Affections or Passions There is a Two-fold Power that he exerciseth upon the Affections or Passions There is a Moral Power and a Physical Power I. There is a Moral Power he exerciseth upon the Affections that is by propounding Objects sutable to stir and move those Affections Thus in propounding to the Soul its certain Acceptance with God in Christ and Everlasting Salvation by him he propounds an Object sutable to move false Joy and Delight and Contentment and so by that means heightens the Self-deluding Joying and Rejoycing in those Deluded Souls II. There is a Physical Power he Excerciseth upon the Affections and that is an Immediate Power that he exerciseth upon the humours of the Body through which those sensible motions of the Will work It is the property of Affections to cause the blood and the Animal Spirits to move to and fro from the Heart and thereby to make the Body suffer Now Satan can immediately stir those humours in the Body which the Affections do in their workings also stir and thence raise an Affection beyond its bounds Now Satan exerciseth these two Powers of his upon the Affections 1. In regard hereby the Confidence in Deluded Souls of their Union with the Lord Jesus is occasioned to work with a Mighty Violence with a kind of Irresistableness 2. Hence that Confidence of his Deluded ones that they are United to the Lord Jesus is made Irrational Through the Violent working of such Affections their Judgment is blinded their Reason darkned and obscured and when the matter passeth to the affections all Judgment perisheth then you shall have many Deluded Souls that will hold with much Confidence and Boldness the Conclusion that they shall be saved by Jesus Chyist when they are driven out of all their Reasons whereupon they Build this hope that they are United There are now secondly some Consideratios about the Tryal of a Souls Evidence of his Union received whither it be from God or whether it be a Diabolical Inspiration that are requisite to be Premised before a direct Answer to the Question Pre. 1. First that every Believing Soul to whom the Lord hath vouchsafed a clear Evidence of his Union with the Lord Jesus is powerfully incited by the Subtility of Hell to a Dubious Anxious Solicitous Tryal and Examination of the Evidence of his Union with the Lord Jesus Received The Subtility of Hell works this way in three Respects I. In regard the Believing Souls Evidence of his Union with the Lord Jesus Received is Enervated made of no force by a Souls Consent to a Dubious and Anxious Examination of his own Evidence of Union Received By this means the eye of the Beleiving Soul is off from his Evidence Received and now he Conceives that his Work and Imployment that God calls for at present from his Soul is to find out some other clear satisfying Evidence of the truth of that his former Evidence and whatever light shines from the former Evidence is of no Validity to the Soul unless it be backed with some other light that shines from some other Principle either in the Soul or without the Soul So that there is a Bottomless Depth of the Subtility of Hell appears in this he doth secretly and indiscernably despoyl the Soul of that Pretious Jewel the Evidence of his Union while he solicits him to a Dubious Tryal II. In regard the believing soul is led in a Devious Path to weary his Perplexed soul in wherein
all his labour will be in Vain by consenting to a doubtful Tryal of his own Evidence of Union with Christ received When the soul staggers and wavers in the confidence of the Truth of the Evidence of his Union which Christ received and proceeds in that timerous trembling wavering manner to an Examination of that his Evidence then the soul either seeks for a higher Evidence than what he received formerly Or else he seeks for Infallible Demonstrations from the effects of the former Evidence of his Union with Christ received that that Evidence that he hath received is really from God Now in case the Evidence of the souls union with Christ that the soul hath received were the Evidence from that pretious Witness of the Blessed Spirit of Jesus Christ the soul seeks all in vain to seek for a higher Evidence Or else in case the soul seeks to prove certainly and infallibly that that Evidence of his union with Christ that he hath received was from God by the effect wrought in his own heart the soul also labours in vain in regard there is a necessity that the soul must be dubious and anxious about the truth of all that he conceives to have received from Jesus Christ while the soul is dubious whether it be united to Jesus Christ III. In regard Satan indiscernably gains these advantages against the believing soul by solliciting the soul to this doubtful tryal of his own Evidence of his union By Satan solliciting the soul to a doubtful tryal of the Evidence of his union with Christ received he doth indeed appear in Angelical Glory Cloathed with a Glittering Garment of Heavenly Light He thus bespeakes the poor believing soul Take heed O Soul thou beest not Deluded in this great matter of Eternity Mens hearts are naturally too ready to presume saith Satan take heed least thou Befool thy self with vain hopes Thus he seemeth to be the Messenger of the blessed God to the believing soul sent on purpose to press one of the blessed commands of God unto the Soul that it should try examine and prove it self only he secretly mixeth a cursed principle of darkness with that precious beam of light he incites the believing Soul to a dubious anxious trial and examination of the evidence of his union and so consequently procures the Soul to reject the blessed evidence of his union that the Lord in the riches of his mercy hath vouchsafed to the believing Soul whereas the Spirit intends a pretious believing trial for the Souls more abundant establishment and consolation that it may be filled with joy and glory Pre. 2. Secondly I shall premise That the believing Soul to whom the Lord hath vouchsafed a clear evidence of his union with the Lord Jesus ought not to diminish in the least degree his confidence of the Lords will to accept even his Soul into union with the Lord Jesus whilst he endeavours to try and examine his evidence of union received whether it be from God or whether it be a diabolical inspiration Sueh is the absolute necessity of the Soul in the trying the evidence of his union with Christ to stand fast in this his confidence that in such a degree and measure as that Soul wavers in this his confidence in the same degree is the Soul uncapable of a right examination of the evidence of his union with Christ received So that in case the confidence should wholly fail the Soul is wholly uncapable of a right examination of the evidence of his union with Christ This will appear in two things 1. In regard it is by the acting of this confidence that the Soul is disposed to receive the clear evidence unto faith of his union with the Lord Jesus The Soul is disposed to this two ways 1. By the acting of this confidence the Eye of the Soul is fixed upon that glass through which the light that evidenceth to the Souls faith the Lords will to admit him into union with the Lord Jesus shines The glass wherein the Lord discovers his will to admit him is his word wherein he declares it is his will to admit every Rebel and Enemy that will into union with the Lord Jesus and into union with himself through him Now the Eye of the believing Soul is only fixed and established upon this blessed word of God through the lively actings of the Souls confidence because this is the object of his confidence and the object is only in them when there is acting of faith upon the object 2. It is by the acting of this confidence that a clearness is maintained in the Soul whereby the Soul is suitable to discern that light that doth evidence unto the Souls faith the Lords will to admit it into union with the Lord Jesus The confidence failing a multitude of objections and reasons this way and that way arise in the soul every one of these objections scruples and reasons is like a Mote in the Eye of the Soul which prevents his clear discerning of what the light of the blessed spirit put upon it Now by the acting of this confidence those objections reasonings and scruplings are silenced and suppressed and so a precious clearness is maintained in the soul a readiness to discern whatever beam of Heavenly light the spirit should cause to shine forth from that pretious word that it is the Lords will to admit it into union with the Lord Jesus 2. When this confidence in the Soul fails it makes the Soul uncapable for a just trial and examination of the evidence of its union with Christ in regard the acting of this very confidence of the Lords will to admit the Soul into union with the Lord Jesus is the very matter of evidence unto the Souls sense that it is united actually to the Lord Jesus Now when the act of the Souls confidence ceaseth then is the very matter from whence the Spirit doth manifest to the Souls sense its union with the Lord Jesus taken away How shall the blessed Spirit cause the believing Soul to see its self believing when there are not the believing actings in the Soul It is not the habit of any kind of holiness that the Spirit doth manifest to any believing Soul to be in it self but it is the acting of any holiness whatever that the Spirit doth cause the Soul to discern in it self from whence it discerns actually its union with the Lord Jesus So that then the confidence of the soul failing or ceasing its actings the very original of the souls evidence unto sense of his union with the Lord Jesus is taken away Secondly The believing Soul ought not only to forbear the diminishing of this his confidence in the Lords will to admit his Soul into union with the Lord Jesus while he proceeds to the trial of his evidence of his union with Christ received But he ought also to forbear the diminishing of his confidence that he is actually united to the Lord Jesus already in case the Lord
through a clear evidence hath begotten such a precious confidence in the Soul The believing Soul ought to say concerning that his confidence as Job said concerning his Job 27.5 I will not remove my integrity from me I will not let go this my confidence till I have proved and examined the evidence of my union with the Lord Jesus from whence this confidence did arise This also may appear in two things 1. In regard the diminishing of this confidence in the believing soul before the trial of the evidence of his union with Christ received is an infinite injury to the sweetest Comforter the blessed Spirit who through the manifestation unto the Soul that he is united to the Lord Jesus establisheth the Soul in that pretious confidence The rejecting of that confidence so wrought by the blessed Spirit is a slighting of the spirit in his most precious Office and a disparagement of the very witness of that blessed Spirit 2. It is a most sinful unconstancy and fickleness to reject any thing received before clear demonstration of the errour of the soul in receiving It is contrary to the order rhat the Lord requires should be in all the motions of the soul which is that they should be subject to the power of holy sanctified reason So that this confidence before trial ought to be maintained in its full strength in case such a confidence was begotten by an evidence formerly received that he is actually united to the Lord Jesus Quest But here is a question then by the way would be opened But will the Soul say wherefore then are the commands given by God to prove and examine our selves whether we be in the saith and so consequently to examine the evidence of our union with Christ if we must not be dubious and anxious whether the evidence of our union with Christ received be true or no before we proceed ro the trial and examination of them Answ 1. For answer to this question by the way briefly I answer first that these Commands of Souls examining themselves whether they be in the faith are given universally to all Souls on purpose that deluded souls by the trying and proving themselves might discover their own delusions and discern their lying confidence of their acceptance into union with the Lord Jesus 2. These commands are given on purpose to believing souls to maintain the life of the confidence of the Lords will to admit them into union with Christ and the confidence that they are admitted into union with the Lord Jesus These commands are occasions to Souls truly united to the Lord Jesus to review over the grounds of their confidence of the Lords will to admit them into union with Christ and of the Lords actual admission of them into union Now the more the Soul views the ground of his confidence the more it views that blessed word of God that reveals the Lords will to admit even his Soul into union with the Lord Jesus in case he accepts it and by the Souls gazing upon that blessed word it discerns more of the truth and certainty infallibility and unchangeableness of that word and the more frequently and fully the Soul discerns that the stronger is its confidence in the will of the Lord that he will admit even that his Soul into union with the Lord Jesus and thence there is more occasion for the blessed Spirit to irradiate rhe souls believing act to enable the soul to see and feel it self to believe aright by which means the actual confidence of the souls admission with Christ lives and is maintained in its strength 3. These commands are given that there might be more preparedness against all assaults that are made from Hell against those souls Through this examination believing souls have their confidence maintained in its life and strength and so are fortified against temptation because it discerns clearly the foundation upon which his own confidence stands 4. The Lord gives these commands on purpose to draw forth into exercise all manner of holy dispositions in the believing soul This is done by the renewed view of that light that doth evidence unto the souls faith or unto the souls sense its union with the Lord Jesus Thenâ—… is the pretious subjection of the Heart to the will of God in all things acted then is the correspondent love of the soul answerable to the Lords love to the soul drawn out in its strength then are all the thirstings after near communion with God in Christ acted Pre. 3. Thirdly a third thing to be premised is this That there are many sinful distempers incident to believing souls in the times when they are doubtful of the truth of the evidences of their union with Christ which whenever they do prevail in any soul during their prevalency they do incapacitate those souls for a just trial and true examination of the evidences of their union There are especially four of those sinful distempers incident unto believing souls at such a time 1. There is an impatiency and frowardness of spirit under the obscurity of that truth of their evidence of union with the Lord Jesus incident to every believing soul Indeed our spirits are naturally impatient under every burden but when any Arrows from the Almighty are shot into the Conscience or any Arrow from Hell stick fast there I mean any doubtfulness any terrors and fears of the fulness of their conceived evidence of their union with the Lord Jesus then are their spirits in a superlative manner prone to fret and vex and fume by the prevailing of unruly passion Thus David under the doubtfulness of the Lords fulfilling a promise made to him breaks out into most dreadful impatience in 1 Sam. 27.1 I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul So in Psal 116.11 I said in my haste all men are liars So Psal 31.22 I said in my haste I am cut off from before thine Eyes So the holy man Job Chap. 3.3 and Chap. 6.8 9. Now during the prevalency of this distemper of impatiency and frowardness of spirit under doubting the truth of their evidence their spirits are made uncable of a just trial and examination of the truth of the evidence of their union with the Lord Jesus There are two ways how this sinful distemper doth incapacitate souls for the just examination of the evidence of their union 1. It doth prevent a serious deliberate view of the evidences of their union with Christ that they have received by drawing out the intentions of their Spirits to look upon the grounds of their fears of the falseness of the evidence of their Union When any passion prevails in any Spirit it draws out the whole strength of the Soul that way Now the intention of the soul being drawn out to look upon the object of his fears the grounds of his doubts and the matter of the suspition of the falseness of his union by this the soul is made unsuitable to take any right deliberate
view of the evidences of his union 2. Impatiency of Spirit under the doubtfulness of the truth of the souls evidence of his union with Christ doth occasion every seeming opposition to the truth of the souls evidences to appear greater than it is in its own nature Thence it is frequent with souls under this distemper every suggestion from Hell bears such weight upon the Spirit as it is in a fume upon every such suggestion conceiving there is abundant argument against the truth of his union whereas upon the examination of the same objection by the same soul with a quiet calm spirit those objections appear to be invalid to have no weight nor scarce any colour whereby they should manifest the falseness of the Souls evidence of his union II. The second sinful distemper is an irrationality that the Soul subjects it self to in all the conclusions that it draws up against it self Now whenever a believing Soul subjects himself to this sinful distemper that he endeavours not to suppress every affection of Hope Fear or Joy which is not founded upon some blessed word of God then the Soul doth make it self uncapable of examining and trying justly the truth of his own evidences of his Union 1. In regard the Soul will of necessity be irrational in all its conclusions But when the Soul is irrational in its confusions it is uncapable of a just trial of the evidences of his union it is uncapable of comparing that blessed golden Rule of the Lord word and his own evidences together 2. In regard the thoughts of the Soul are all distracted when any thing is brought to the thoughts for the truth of his union that Soul without examination immediately entertains some hopes Again when any thing is objected to the Soul to prove the falseness of his evidence immediately again the soul entertains fears without examining the reality of what is objected against his evidence and those hopes and fears continuing enterchangeably working make such distraction in the souls thoughts that it makes it uncapable for any deliberate view of the evidences of his union 3. The third sinful distemper is a rashness hastiness or suddenness of spirit Thus some doubting of the truth of their former evidences of their union with the Lord Jesus because of some backsliding from God that they are conscious to themselves of will suddenly from such a place as that Heb. 6.4 concludes that they have sinned presumptuously and that there is no renewing them again by Repentance or unto Repentance The words run thus For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gifts and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they fall away to renew them again unto Repentance whereas did those Souls examine the intent of the Holy Ghost in these words it were easily to discern that the Holy Ghost intend those who finally apostatize from God not intending any slips and falls and backslidings that are incident to every believing Soul were there but a just examination of this portion of the word by collecting it and comparing with another word that would testify many Saints to have had their fallings and backslidings after their tasting of the heavenly gifts and after their being partakers of the Holy Ghost â—…ly in a higher way than the Spirit means here he mean here by partaking of the Holy Ghost only some participation of common gifts of the Spirit other Scriptures testify David and Abram to have had their falls yea almost every Saint after their tasting of the heavenly gift and yet to be renewed again by Repentance Now this distemper doth make the soul uncapable of a just examination of the truth of the evidence of his union with Christ 2 ways I. In regard this rashness makes the Soul uncapable of discerning the depths of Satan whereby he endeavours to obscure the truth of every Believers evidence of his union with Christ This sinful rashness occasions the Soul only to take a superficial of whatever is suggested or propounded Now Satans Suggestions have some sparkling of Angelical Glory some vernish of truth and holiness so that every suggestion of Hell whilst the distemper of rashness prevails in the soul cannot but be judged a sufficient ground to build a doubt and scruple upon and then Satan being always watchful to maintain a dispute that he once began with the Soul to make reply against whatever can be objected against his first suggestion every of these objections of Satan they will be counted sufficient ground for the rash Soul to draw another safe conclusion or to strengthen the Soul in the drawing its former false conclusion 2. This rashness also begets a confusion in the Soul the soul drawing conclusion upon conclusion upon every seeming ground and one conclusion maintains contradicting another a contradition of hope contradicting a conclusion of fear and there being no examination through the domineering power of rashness in the Soul of the truth of the one and the falseness of the other these conclusions begin to fight in nhe Soul at once yea multitudes of conclusions seem contrary each to other 4. The Fourth distemper that doth incapacitate a Soul for the just tryal of the truth of his own evidence is a prejudicial conceit against his own evidences even before any examination of the truth of the evidences of his union This is the sad distemper that prevailed in Asaph Psal 77.2 my Soul refused to be comforted he did refuse to receive any evidence that the Lord would be faithful But certainly this was the distemper of the Church Lamen 3.17 18. Thou hast remove my Soul far off from peace I forgot prosperity or rather as it is rendred by some I forgot God it is most probable she refused to entertain any of those thoughts that the Lord would yet be gracious Hence it is that many Souls under the Power of this distemper do study to wind themselves from under the Power of any truth that should lay hold upon their hearts so as to answer their objections and cavils against their acceptance into union with the Lord Jesus Now this Distemper doth make Souls uncapable while it prevail of a just examination of the truth of their own exidences in regard it causeth slighty unworthy thoughts of their own union Pre. 4. Fourthly it is to be considered that whenever any Soul is declined from or decayed in his former activity and operation of holiness he is then unsutable to examine and to try justly the truth of his own evidence of his union with Christ He is unsutable in these five respects 1. In regard the light of manifestation from the spirit is always suspended when the heart is in this decaying temper in holiness When ever any heart decay in holiness his first original decay is in the activity and strength of the precious believing disposition of the will
of the Lord Jesus to every particular perishing and lost Soul that will accept it is the prime foundation of all the righteous hopes that ever dwelt in a believing Soul all the expecttations and hopes of believing Souls are but the building upon that foundation now when the building of the Souls hope shake the only means to establish the building is to add strength to the foundation This you shall observe was the remedy of the poor distressed Church Lament 3.40 after many distractions in her spirit many tossings and tumblings this way and that way when she had fed upon gaul and wormwood for a long time at last she was constrained to take this course to search and trie her ways and turn again to the Lord she was constrained now to make a new converting work of the matter according as Christ tells his Disciples except ye be converted when they were already converted that is unless you renew the close of your spirits with me whereby you may have power against this particular sin and I conceive this also may be intended by the spirit of God Isa 50.10 in that sweet councel to poor distressed souls in this case that walk in darkness and hath no light that is no refreshment no comforting hope to trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God Here is first a renewed act of Faith immediately commanded to such a distressed soul let him trust in the name of the Lord. Secondly here is a direct act of Faith an act of Faith proper to the soul that did never put forth a believing act formerly Here is an act of Faith required and commanded to be done by these souls without respect to any thing in themselves without respect to their former comforts whether they 〈◊〉 be true or false without respect to their receiving grace whether they have received grace or not received grace It is worth the clearing that this should be the only immediate means to deliver such declined souls from under the fears that the evidences of their union with Christ are but delusions This will appear in three things 1. In regard it is in this renewed act only that the former evidences and manifestations given to such souls of their union with Christ do shine forth in their perspicuity clearness and satisfying power Then only when the soul doth thus close afresh with that union with the Lord Jesus offered to it there is both light within and light without whereby the soul is able to discern the former manifestation unto the soul of its union with the Lord Jesus in their glory and power afresh 2. In regard through this renewed act only the proper effects of evidence of union with Jesus Christ are again stirred up and drawn forth into their powerful operation Now it is the souls apprehension of the want of those precious effects that evidences of union with Christ do naturally beget in believing souls that do occasion the poor distressed soul to suspect his own evidences and to be Jealous they are but delusions Now the only means to deliver these dark and doubtful souls from under the Tyrannical Power of these Jealousies and Suspitions must be this renewed believing act this renewed confidence in that truth of the Lords word wherein he tender Christ in general to every sinner in regard these blessed effects the evidence of union with Christ do naturally beget in souls are only made visible to these believing souls again by that means 3. In regard both the incapacity of souls for the tryal of their evidences and the unsutableness of souls for tryal also are removed by that renewed believing act in regard those distempers are healed These are healed two ways First By a more general influence of that believing act Secondly by a more particular influence First By a more general inffuence of the believing act into those distempers The believing Soul closes with the Lord Jesus tendered so as he accept of a redemption from his sin and from under the power of corruption through Christ the notion under which the Lord makes the proffer of Christ unto sinners is that he should mediate a reconciliation between the Father and the soul shall so accept him that he should beget a precious amity between the Fether and the Soul establish the soul in a state of love that is the soul as well to be filled with love towards the Lord as the Lord to be filled with love towards the Soul Now in a souls acceptance of Jesus Christ thus tendered the soul accepts of Christ necessarily as a Redeemer to redeem him from slavery under those Enemies of the Majesty of Heaven even Sin and Satan so that there must be a State of Amity and Love between God and the Soul Secondly this particular act hath a particular influence into those particular distempers that made the Soul uncapable for a just examination of the evidence of his union with Christ 1. In this renewed belieeving act formerly mentioned there is a precious sweet act of submission in the will of the believing Soul to the will of God Indeed the believing act is the highest submission to the Lord that ever is given by any Soul to him in regard the Soul in that case captivateth all his reason and Judgement only to the Lords authority because the Lord hath spoken so and so concerning his Soul Now from hence this renewed believing act hath a precious influence into the distempered Soul under impatiency to heal the impatiency of the spirit that domeneerd in him for now the will is contented to wait on God it is contented the will of God should be fulfilled in him 2. This believing act hath a particular influence into the Souls rashness to heal that distemper also In this renewed act there is a renewed sense of the believing Souls absolute nothingness Now from the Souls actual sense of his own nothingness proceeds a holy awe a holy reverential fear of the Majesty of Heaven which doth hold in bounds the rash disorderly Spirit so that by this the Spirit is more carefull how it draw conclusions from any precious word of God 3. The believing act hath an influence upon the disorderly affections the irrational affections which did also incapacitate believing Souls for a just examination of their evidences In the believing the Soul doth captivate all the imaginations and thoughts of sense and carnal reason unto the truth and authority of God and so all the disorderly affections jealousies doubts and fears are even captivated and brought under 4. This renewed believing act hath an influence also into the prejudicial conceits or opinions against the evidence of union received to subdue those In the believing act there is a renewed sight of the truth of the souls former evidence unto his Faith of his union with Christ in some degree so that the soul while he was under the power of his fears that the evidence of his union were delusions having lost the
satisfying power of the manifesting light unto his faith that he should be accepted into union with Christ doth now again in this renewed act gain a sight and manifestation of that satisfying power in a manifesting truth that his Soul should be acepted into union with the Lord Jesus Now thence the Lord discerns the causelesness of his own prejudicial thoughts and opinions of his former evidences unto faith and so consequently abhor himself in that he dishonoured the blessed work of the Spirit 5. Through the vertue and efficacy of this believing act that decay in holiness which did make the soul unsutable to take a just impartial tryal of the evidences of his union with Christ are repaired that appears in two things 1. The mind of the believing soul is filled with all the notions conceptions and apprehensions from whence Holy Actings do arise are Maintained and Increased and through the defect of which Holiness Decays and Consumes in any Soul These Holy Notions from whence Holiness proceeds are principally these That there is a fulness of all Love and Mercy tendred freely by God to this Poor Unlovely soul that the Lord is so infinitely rich in his love that he doth pass over all that can be sutable for the poor empty Soul freely to it in Christ Now it is impossible there should be a Renewed Believing act without these Notions being brought fresh to the Remembrance of the Believing Soul 2. All the Holy Affections are excited also to a Renewed exercise by vertue of the Renewed Act. All the Affections are under the command of these two Love and Hatred Now both these are excited to a Renewed Exercise and that with a Mighty strength by vertue of the Renewed Act. Love towards God is nothing but the very reflecting of the Lords love cast upon the soul upon God again The actings of love always proceed from the Apprehensions of the Lords love to the Soul Now in the Believing Act there is an actual view of the infinite unspeakable Riches of Love to the Unlovely Forlorn Soul and thence Love is drawn forth in its very strength towards God again Likewise Hatred which command the other part of the Affections is nothing else but the Displicency tha is in the Will against any object whatever which affections do naturally proceed from the souls love Now therefore the hatred of the soul is properly against Sin and whatever is contrary to God and his Will In the same degree that Love acts in the soul towards God in the same degree doth hatred work towards every thing that is contrary to God Now by the stirring up of these two all the other Holy Affections also are excited into their exercise thence the decays of Holiness are sweetly repaired and the soul put into a sutable temper for the tryal of his own Evidence Answ 2. Secondly I answer That all the Lords Ordinances and Appointments for his peoples souls to injoy Communion with himself in are also mediate and second means of the delivery of those souls from the dreadful Tyranny of the Fear and Jealousie that the Evidences of their union are Delusions Thus Prayer Conference Meditation hearing the Word are all secondary means to wait for the spirit to breath in power from the Lord Jesus to enable the soul in this Renewed Believing Act and to continue the Believing Act in the soul So that you see a sufficient means left for these Distempred or Declined souls that are either Uncapable or Unsutable for a just examination of the Evidence of their Union to deliver them from Fear and Terrour that the Evidences of their Union with Christ Received are Delusions Now in Regard the question is about a matter so practical I shall therefore turn the last Answer into a kind of Advise Beseeching and Intreating every Distempered or Declined soul in Holiness to take this course to strive for deliverance of his soul from under the power of his Tormenting Fears that the Evidences of his union with Christ are Delusions And for that end I desire you would take these four Directions Direct 1. First that you forbear for a little season the Trial and Examination of your own Evidence with the Lord cease a little to Plead your Title with the Lord Spend not all your thoughts about what Evidence you have Received as though there were no good to be expected except your former Evidences were real Direct 2. Secondly let me advise you to take a strict accompt of your own hearts of all your fears and all the grounds of your suspitions whereupon you suspect that your evidences where delusions gather together and sum up all hypocrisie and falseness the unconstancy the loosness the vanity the rashness the blindness that 's now brought to your remembrance to prove your evidences received were but meer delusions gather together all the defects of those precious effects of real evidence from God to any soul of its union with Christ that you apprehend your souls want and further suppose them all to be true take all for a little season for granted suppose that your heart was false and that you were wholly and altogether an Hypocrite that all the workings of your spirit were nothing but common workings of the blessed spirit But then Direct 3. Thirdly search the holy records the Lords blessed word for all the discriptions of those to whom union with Jesus Christ is freely tendered and find out whether thy soul supposed to be in the estate fore-named be excluded from the number of those to whom union with Jesus Christ is freely tendred Search from Scripture whether thou canst find any one Hypocrite any one captivated soul by the Devils deluding reasonings any one false hearted treacherous wretch ever excluded from the number of those to whom the Lord freely offers union with the Lord Jesus search whither any lost Soul any Rebel whether any rational Creature to whom the Gospel of Jesus Christ comes be exclured from the number of those to whom the Lord freely offers union with the Lord Jesus strive beseech you now to gain that clear apprehension that so at last thou maist baffle the Devil in all his arguments and silence him in one word saying well though I have been false to the blessed Majesty of Heaven all this time though I be now under thy cursed power O Satan though thou holdst me fast in thy cursed Chains of Darkness yet thou maist say the blessed Majesty of Heaven he that can never lye tells me that union with the Lord Jesus and so Redemption from thy cursed slavery is freely offered to my Soul still the Lord tells me his will admits me to be still one with Christ if I can be contented that he should mediate a reconciliation between the Father and me Direct 4. Fuorthly Plead with thy opposite contrary mind to make thy heart consent to the blessed word of God wherein he doth offer union with Jesus Christ and himself through Christ to every
Soul that shall accept him Gaze again and again upon the blessed tender say to thy unbelieving mind O my crooked and unbelieving mind Wilt thou not consent to the truth of yonder Majesty of Heaven yonder God of truth it self that cannot lye say O my soul if thou wilt accept yonder union with the Lord Jesus behold what transcendent glory thy soul shall be filled with O my Soul wilt not thou trust to the truth and faithfulness of the Lord when he makes such an offer wil't not be content to subject all thy reasons and sensual Arguments to his Authority Still strive again say O my Heart though thou hast been an Hypocrite though the Devil hath couzened thee these many years though thou hast dealt falsly with the Lord all this time yet the transcendent love of yonder God ceases not to work towards thee O take up thy rest O my Soul credit the Lord upon his word and wait O my Soul for the fulfilling of his word to thee This is the prime effectual infallible means of the deliverance of your poor perplexed tortured Souls by the tyranny of fear that your evidences are delusions And this is the never failing means of discovering to your poor dark obscure souls the truth and reality of these your evidences that your Souls cannot discern Truly Souls of all the directions that ever I commended to you I must set a probatum est upon this remedy It is a tried one Soul it is an approved one an experienced one I beseech you follow it Let your Souls be held no longer poring upon your former evidences as though you had no spring of refreshment but in those Suppose your Heart to be as bad as the Devil possibly can make it yet strive with your unbelieving Mind and Heart to accept anew of union tendered to your poor lost perishing Souls in the Lord Jesus Pre. 5. In the fifth place I shall further premise this That an impartial just and righteous examination of the evidences that any soul hath received of his union with the Lord Jesus can only be taken while those evidences remain in their perspicuity clearness and satisfying power The evidences of a Souls union with Christ being only precious orient beams of Heavenly light sent forth from the blessed spirit of light into the obscure Soul joyned also with a precious exciting power sent forth from the same Spirit to stir up the light inherent in the same Soul too while the evidence is gone it cannot be that any Soul receiving such evidences should justly try weigh examine and prove the reality of those evidences no longer than those evidences do continue There must be light without and light within to enable a Soul to make an examination of any thing And both the light without and the light within being the evidence it self to the soul of its union thence it is there is a necessity of the examination to be prosecuted or followed only while the Soul enjoys those evidences in their brightness clearness and satisfying power The evidences of the Souls union are beams of Heavenly light sent down from the Father of light on purpose to bear testimony to a Soul of union with the Lord Jesus And thence indeed it is necessary that these Witnesses should be heard speak for themselves before any trial of the truth and reality of their testimony can be made by any Soul Now these Witnesses never speak for themselves but while they are actually bearing Witness that is while those precious beams of Heavenly light do actually shine into the obscure soul Now when once those beams of light are withdrawn the soul is now in question whether the Lords will be to admit his Soul into union with Jesus Christ or no. Now that those righteous examinations of the evidences of union can be only taken while the evidences do thus continue actually in the soul this I conceive may be collected from John 7.17 If any man will do his will he shall know nf the Doctrine whether is be of God or whether I speak of my self The words are an Answer to a question that the Jews propounded to Jesus Christ or they are a prevention to a Question that the Jews might have propounded Christ had affirmed that the Doctrine that he taught was not his own but his Fathers that sent him v. 16. Now it might be objected But how can you prove that your Doctrine is your Fathers and not your own How will you manifest it to those that deny your Doctrine to be divine that it is Divine Christ answers If any Man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God As if he should say whosoevers Heart shall be in a precious readiness actually to obey my Fathers will he shall actually know the Doctrine whether it be of God So that two Propositions are laid down in the words the one expresly the other implicitly The first is affirmed by Christ that the discerning of the truth and divinity of pretious Gospel truths is only peculiar to obedient Souls Secondly It is implicitly affirmed That whatever soul is disobedient to the Fathers blessed will cannot during his disobedience discern truth divinity and infallibility of Gospel Truth Now thence may be collected that believing souls do enjoy the spirit of discerning in their way of obedience and do best and most perspicuously and clearly understand the Lords blessed will and see the reality of every truth of the Gospel and the infallibility and certainty of its coming from God Now mark then only believing souls do yield obedience to the Fathers will and do actually obey Gospel truth when their souls receive through believing some evidence at least in some degree that the Lord will receive their souls into union with himself in Christ through their believing in him Every believing act is but the consent of the believers heart to the truth of what the word bears witness of which is in effect nothing but a believers receiving the evidencing light of the blessed word that the Lord will admit his soul into union with himself in the Lord Jesus in his accepting of him So that the believing soul being then only obedient to the will of the Father in the prime way of obedience which is Faith when he is receiving some evidence of his union with the Lord Jesus thence it appears that a just and impartial a righteous examination of the evidences that the soul hath received of his union with the Lord Jesus can only be taken while those evidences do actually continue in their clearness and power For the further clearing of this take these two reasons I. In regard then only the soul is sutably disposed to take the examination That will appear in divers particulars 1. It is only then when the Evidence unto a soul of his union do actually remain that the understanding of the soul is enlightned by the blessed spirit and inabled to conceive of and
to apprehend aright any truth from the blessed Word of God propounded to him Even when the understanding of the soul is renewed and some pretious beam of Heavenly Light Communicated to the poor soul so that in a Metaphorical Sence the blind soul became a seeing soul yet there is a necessity also that the same spirit that Communicated the seeing eye to the understanding should also Communicate the seeing of the eye It is necessary that the same spirit that Communicated the Habit should Communicate also the Act the same spirit that gave a Principle of Divine Knowledge to the soul must also act the same Principle of Spiritual Knowledge to make the soul actually know or understand any Spiritual Holy Mystery aright Now then when the Evidences to the soul of its union with the Lord Jesus actually remains then is the mind and understanding of the soul thus actuated by the Blessed Spirit then is the Principle of Holy Knowledge drawn forth into exercise so that the mind is then inabled to discern into the Mystery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ thence it appears that the soul can only then take a Righteous Examination of the Evidences of his union 2. In regard it is then only that the soul is Conquerer over the natural Enmity of the Mind that oppose the Minds consent to the truth that doth evidence unto the soul its union The Carnal Mind is Enmity against God Now in the same degree the believing soul remains unregenerate enmity still possesses the believing mind and then only hath the Believer conquest over those reliques of enmity that possess the mind when he hath actual evidence of his union with the Lord Jesus now it is only then when the enmity of the mind against God is brought into captivity to the Law of faith that the Soul is suitable to take the examination of the truth of his own evidences of his union with Christ in regard the mind now is disposed to accept or agree unto those truths of the Gospel from whence the Spirit doth manifest unto the soul its union with Christ 3. In regard it is then only that the Soul understands and believes what the true Celestial Star is from whence those beams of light that do really come from Gods evidence unto a Soul his union with Christ must flow and arise The pretious word of the ever-living God to every lost sinner declaring that his will is to admit every of those Souls that will to be reconciled to himself in Christ is that precious bright orient Star from whence those beautiful beams of light that do or may discover unto a soul his union with Christ must arise Now it is then only when the beams of light shine from the Word perspicuously and clearly unto a soul declaring his will to admit of reconciliation with them through the Lord Jesus that they understand and believe this to be the true Heavenly Star from whence the light that evidences unto them their union must flow 4. In regard It is then only that the irresistible power that those precious beams of light contain in them that do evidence unto any soul really from God its union with Christ is ready to take impression upon the heart The irresistible power that the beams of light contain in them is the Authority of the blessed Majesty of Heaven They are nothing but the discovery unto the Soul that the Lord hath spoken it that it is his will to receive the soul into union with Christ Now this irresistible power of these beams of light only take impression upon the Heart according to the lively actings of holiness in the heart And the lively actings of holiness in the heart are only according to the degree of light the soul enjoys discovering unto it the Lords will to receive him into union with the Lord Jesus So that when those beams of Heavenly light shine most clearly in the most transcendent beauty then is the heart filled with the most lively holy actings then do love and fear and joy and delight working their power and strength And therefore it is only that the Authority of God speaking or declaring any thing to the soul take the deepest impression upon the soul 5. In regard the believing disposition in the will of the soul is only then in exercise in its power and strength The prime evidence unto a soul of his union hath been discovered to you to be only an evidence unto faith and in like manner the prime demonstration of the truth of that evidence must be a demonstration given to faith only Reason must not aspire so high to be the Judge of faiths action Still it must be another act of faith that must pass a security upon the former act of faith So that thence when the believing disposition infused into the will of the believing soul is strongest in exercise then only is the soul suitable to take a righteous examination of the evidences of his union with Christ 2. It is only then when the evidences of the souls union with Christ are clear and perspicuous that it is suitable to take examination of his evidences rightly in regard of the evidences themselves which then only appears in their native self-discovering glory It is the inseparable property of those beams of Heavenly light that shine from the word of God to discover themselves really to be from God even by their own native lustre and glory Those beams of light come forth with the name of God written upon their foreheads so that the believing soul no sooner beholds them but he reads the name of God written upon them now this their native self-discovering glory never appears to the soul but when these beams of light actually remain in the soul in their perspicuity and clearness and therefore when the spirit suspends its influences then the soul cannot behold those beams of light what they are Quest There is another Question that here interposeth it self which must of necessity be answered Believing souls will now reply in this manner If an impartial examination of any souls evidences of his union with the Lord Jesus can be only taken while the splendor and brightness of his evidences remain in the soul then what use should souls make of the evidences they conceive they had received of their union with Jesus Christ when the lustre and orient brightness of their evidences be eclipsed and their commanding power enervated or wounded that their evidences cease to witness unto them their union with Christ In order to the satisfaction of souls in this scruple we shall lay down divers Propositions Prop. 1. First whenever the celestial glory of those pretious beams of light that the Lord vouchsafes to cast into any believing soul to evidence his union with Jesus Christ be dark and those invincible and impregnable demonstrations that the blessed spirit gives unto the souls faith to prove and demonstrate its union with Christ be weakned yet it is
suitable for believing Souls that there is a Night and a Day as well in the Spiritual life as in the natural life ought to be a ground to maintain a lively hope that when it is Night Day may break and therefore it is his Duty unquestionably to nourish and cherish such a lively hope 3. From the remembrance of its former evidence the Soul ought to obstruct it self in the obscurity darkness and dreadful blindness of his own mind The believing Soul ought to say within himself O when the Spirit of Jesus Christ irradiated the blessed word of God how clear how unquestionable was it to my Soul that it was the Lords blessed will to receive my Soul into union with Jesus Christ if I will embrace him and though I have now the same word to testifie the same thing to my Soul yet how dark is it to my Soul for the present how hard is it for my poor blind Mind to receive and apprehend that the Lords will is to receive this my Soul into union with Jesus Christ 4. From the remembrance of the Souls former evidence the Soul ought to instruct it self in the mystery of the Lords way towards believing Souls From hence the Soul may learn that the Lord carries on the Soul towards full Communion with himself through Christ as well by sensible decays in Communion as by sensible encreases in Communion And from thence the Soul might instruct it self that joy and peace ravishment of Spirit triumphing acts of faith are not so inseparable from believing Souls but that they may be wanting that they are not absolutely necessary to be constant at least to the Souls attaining unto perfection of Communion so that thus the Soul may learn to adore the Lord in apprehending the unsearchableness of his ways even towards believing Souls the unsearchableness of his Wisdom that neither Man nor Angel can measure 5. From the remembrance of the Souls former evidences whose brightness and glory is now ecclipsed the Soul may instruct it self in the absolute necessity of an intire constant uninterrupted dependance upon Jesus Christ for the Spirit of light and manifestation The Soul ought in remembrance of that full satisfaction that it enjoyed when that blessed Spirit of light gave beams of light to his dark mind to clear up the will of God revealed in his precious word to say O how infinite is the necessity of hanging upon Jesus Christ continually for the constant operation of the Spirit of light into this my dark Heart 6. From the remembrance of the Souls former evidence of his union with Jesus Christ the Soul ought to collect holy Pleas and pretious Arguments to intercede with the Majesty of Heaven for the return of the blessed Spirit of light and manifestation unto his Soul This was the constant practice of all the Saints who had enjoyed any experiences of the Lords mercy and kindness they did endeavour to engage the Lord to return when he seemed to be absent Many are the Arguments that a believing soul may collect from the former enjoyment of evidences of union with Christ to plead with the Majesty of Heaven to return with the same spirit of light and manifestation again to his Soul 1. From the remembrance of the Souls former evidence the soul may remember the pretious suitable disposition that possessed his Heart for the worshipping of the Lord in every Ordinance Now from thence the Soul may raise a pretious Argument wherewith he may go boldly to the Throne of Grace and cry to the blessed Majesty of Heaven when shall that blessed Spirit of light return to this darkned Soul of mine 2. The Soul may remember the readiness the quickness the activity of the Heart in all manner of obedience to the Lords blessed will Now from hence the Soul may fetch a strong Argument wherewith to come before the Throne of Grace O my God may the believing Soul say When thy blessed Spirit of light had the pretious operation upon my Heart what a blessed concurrence was there in this my crooked opposite will to this thy holy will O what an union of love was there between this thy Majesty and my opposite Heart how impatient then was my Soul of any disagreement between my will and thy will how readily was my heart disposed for any thing thy blessed Majesty commanded But now alas Lord now the workings of the Spirit of light are suspended what a disagreement is there between thy Majesties will and my will how strait and narrow and weak and feeble are the inclinations of my Heart now to obedience to thy blessed will Lord may the Soul say Have respect to thine own honour send down the Spirit of light into this dark Heart 3. The Soul may remember how highly the blessed Name of God was exalted and magnified in his Heart when that blessed Spirit of light continued its blessed operation to evidence actually its union with the Lord Jesus Now from thence the Soul from whom the lustre and glory of these his former evidences of union with Christ is now Ecclipsed may argue with the blessed Majesty of Heaven to send down the same Spirit of light and manifestation again to his dark Soul 4. Even when the orient brightness and Heavenly lustre of the Souls former evidences is Ecclipsed and darkned yet then the Soul may remember the capaciousness and enlarged openness of his Heart towards communion with God while the orient lustre of the evidences of his union with Christ did actually remain Now from hence the Soul may gather strength of Argument to appear before the Lord to Petition the return of the blessed Spirit of light and manifestation again to his Soul The Soul may plead that the suitableness and right disposition of the Heart for Communion with the Lord depends upon the enjoyment of the Spirit of light and manifestation 5. Even when the orient brightness of the Souls former evidences are ecclipsed and obscured yet then the Soul may remember how gloriously the lovely beauty and Soul enamouring brightness of the way of holiness was transparent through him when the Heavenly lustre of his former evidences did actually remain in the Soul Now from hence the Soul may gather a pretious Argument whereby he may lay an engagement upon the Majesty of Heaven to send down the Spirit of light again Thence the Soul may plead that the lustre and Heavenly beauty of the ways of holiness to be manifested through him depend upon his enjoyment of the Spirit of light and manifestation 6. When the cammanding power of the evidence of a Souls union with Christ is ceased for the present to evidence to the Soul its union yet then the Soul may remember that the tender compassionate bowels of God have moved within him and yearned toward his Soul formerly Now from thence the feeble almost fainting drooping Soul may still gather more strength and lift up its Head again to claim the Spirit of light and manifestation to
spirit of Jesus Christ is only the spirit of light whatever Holy Dispositions whatever Pretious Heavenly Quality any Believing soul shall discern in it self it must be discerned by a Beam of light from the Spirit of Jesus Christ Secondly The second thing to be opened is That the light that proceeds from the spirit to discover to the soul its union with Christ is the most Potent Invincible Demonstration of its own proceeding from God which begets the most Certain and Infallible knowledge in the soul of his union with Christ That pretious light of the spirit of Jesus Christ doth so clearly discover it self to be from the spirit of Christ that there can be no reason that can make any Addition or Increase of that pretious clearness It shines so brightly with the very Image of the spirit of Jesus Christ upon it as nothing can make it more manifest to be from the spirit than its own light This will appear in divers particulars I. In regard that Beam of light that proceeds from the spirit to discover to the soul its union with Christ discovers nothing but what is infallibly true Not only what is infallibly true in it self but it discovers nothing but what is infallibly true to the souls Apprehension to whom it doth discover it Now when the Principles of a Demonstration are infallibly true then hath it the first property of the highest and most Potent Demonstration II. In regard that light which discovers the first light of the spirit to be the light of the spirit doth also again Evidence it self to be the light of the spirit also Now that 's the highest demonstrative Reason to prove that any thing proceeds from God that is to say that it is discovered by the spirit of God Now that light of the spirits first light doth plainly demonstrate that to the soul that it comes from the spirit of God So that there is no other Medium no other reason that can be imagined higher to prove that the first light from the spirit that discovers to the soul its union with Christ was from God III. In regard it is the most evident perspicuous discovery of those beams of light to be from God that can possibly be given Every reason from whence any Conclusion is Collected must be clearer and more evident than the Conclusion it self Now it is only the light of the spirit of Jesus Christ which is more evident and clear than the Conclusion it self drawn that the Evidences are really from God So that if it were possible for a higher proof to be made of the certainty of the beams of light that discovers to a soul its union with Christ of the certainty of their being from God then this very light that these Beams of light contain in themselves then there must be some light clearer than the very first light that proceeds from the spirit of light and manifestation whose office it is to discover all things to the soul IV. In regard it is that light only that can truly inforce or cause the Conclusion to be drawn that the Beams of light that did discover to the soul its union with Christ were from God Now that 's the highest kind of demonstrative Reason to shew the truth or reality of any thing when the principles that is the reasons from whence the Conclusion is Collected are the cause of the Conclusion Now thus the light of the spirit was those Beams of light that discovered to my soul its union with the Lord Jesus was really from God why because they came from the spirit of God Such Premises as these to say what the spirit of God reveals and discovers that must of necessity proceed from God doth even force the Conclusion to be drawn Whereas nothing else hath so much power in it to cause the Conclusion to be drawn as that light that proceeds from the spirit Now from these things opened you may hence take notice that every soul to whole Faith and Sence the spirit of Christ hath truly Revealed their union with Christ have full satisfaction clear undoubted satisfaction concerning his union with the Lord Jesus in all its most Serious Deliberate Meditations and Contemplations So that so long as those Pretious Beams of light from the spirit do remain actually shining into the soul there is no kind of Doubt Scruple or Darkness in the soul about its union with the Lord Jesus So that any soul that hath received this truâ—… discovery from the spirit of light both unto Faith and Sense of his union with the Lord Jesus need not inquire for any more proofs than his own soul possesseth at that instant that God and his soul are one through Christ § Secondly The second Instrumental cause that shines into any heart really from God to discover to that heart his union with Jesus Christ is the Lords Pretious Word That Heavenly light that shines into any dark and doubtful heart to reveal its union with the Lord Jesus to it clearly is only a pretious spark that sparkles forth from the Pretious Burning Lamp of the Lords Written Word And it is the Blessed Spirit of Jesus Christ that doth as it were Incense and Inflame that burning lamp of the Lords Blessed Word and cause it to send forth those Blessed sparks into dark hearts And it is that same Blessed spirit also that enlightens those dark hearts to see discern and behold those sparks that that burning lamp of the Lords Word send forth So that the spirit of Jesus Christ and the Written Word are but Concauses that joyntly and sweetly joyn together to enlighten the Doubtful soul and clearly reveal its union with the Lord Jesus So that the soul hath for his assurance the hand of the ever Blessed God and the Testimony of God that it is his own hand He hath that secret light that discovers it self to be of God which discovers to the souls faith his union with Christ and to his sense the truth of his own believing act And hath the Written Word which is a Letter Written from the Almighty to loveless souls that bears Witness also to the same thing So that then the second reason next to the prime reason that the light that the soul receiveth proceeds from the spirit of God is this that the soul beholds it clearly shine forth from the Lords Written Word But to clear this there must be two things opened First That a believing soul ought to receive the light that discovers to him his union with the Lord Jesus from the Written Word of God and ought to receive that light as certain and infallible because it shines from the Written Word Secondly That the Lords Pretious Written Word doth discover to particular believing souls their particular union with the Lord Jesus both unto their Faith and unto their Sence First It must be cleared That a believing soul ought to receive the light that discovers to his soul his union with the Lord Jesus from
the written Word and ought to receive it as certain and infallible because it proceeds from the Written Word This appears I. In regard it is the direct Command of Heaven that believing souls should stick and cleave only to that truth that is discovered in the Lords Written Word And that believing souls should be confirmed in the truth of that Pretious Gospel of Jesus Christ because it is contained in the Lords Written Word in the book of the Old and New Testament This you shall find in that 2 Tim. 3.14 15 16. Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them And that from a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee Wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness First it is necessary here to observe the occasion you shall find in the beginning of the Chapter the Apostle had fore-told of perilous times approaching wherein there should be many false Doctors in the World in whose Snares many souls should be taken Captives Therefore least Timothy also should be Insnared the Apostle Writes these Verses on purpose to endeavour to Establish Tymothy's soul in the truth Saith he Continue thou in the things which thou hast Learned knowing of whom thou hast Received them Now the Arguments he useth to settle Timothy in the truth are two First from his Apostolical Call knowing from whom thou hast learned them From an Apostle of Jesus Christ that had received it from Jesus Christ The second Argument is in those next Verses That from a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures The Writings of the Prophets and those Holy Men of God that spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God that the Lord caused to be Written as a Rule Now this being his Argument to continue in the truth of the Gospel Received the Apostle doth illustrate it by three or four things First He discovers to him that those Writings of the Holy Men of God that he had been acquainted with were able to make him Wise unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus that is if his soul did receive those discoveries in those Scriptures by Faith So that the Apostle intimates thus much That it were infinite Folly in Timothy to receive any other Doctrine than what he had taught and what he had learned to be written in the holy Scriptures seeing the Wisdom of God to Salvation was contained in them Secondly He illustrates this Argument by a second reason and that 's taken from the Authority of those Holy Scriptures The matter contained in them saith the Apostle is such as was given by Inspiration of God The matter contained in them was but the Breathing of God into the souls of those men that Wrote it It is Gods Voice to thy soul saith he therefore take heed thou continue in the Doctrine there discovered Thirdly he illustrates this Argument by a reason taken from the use of those Holy Scriptures and that is in these Words It is Profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness It is Profitable for Doctrine that is for all matters of Faith It will instruct thee saith he in every thing that the Lord commands thy soul to believe Yea it is profitable for reproof also for overthrowing all false Opinions that are contrary to the Faith of Jesus Christ Yea for Correction that is for the Reproving all Evil Manners whatever for Correcting all Vitious ways whatever they are Yea for Instruction in Righteousness that is they are profitable to discover what the Will of God is to thee 〈◊〉 full so far as is needful for thee to know Yea the Apostle seems to add a fourth reason to illustrate this Argument and that is in those next Words which he takes for the end of Writing these Holy Scriptures and that is the Perfecting the Man of God That the Man of God might be Perfect throughly Furnished Furnished unto all Perfection II. It appears that the soul ought to receive the light that shines from the written word in regard the written word of the Lord is given by God himself as an everlasting unchangeable rule for the tryal of truth and falsehood Hence it is that Jesus Christ himself when he was to make it manifest to the unbelieving Jews that he himself was the Son of God he fetcheth his highest testimony from the written word as you may observe John 5. in comparing ver 31 and so on and ver 39 together He tells them he would not bear witness of himself least his witness should not have evidenced demonstration enough to bear witness to him because it is from himself but he tells them John the Baptist bears witness to him ver 33. He gives them a second argument from his work ver 36. and ver 37. The Father that sent him bare witness of him but ver 39. to give that that should be an undeniable testimony even unto the apprehensions of the Jews themselves he tells them that the Scriptures the holy writings of those holy men of God they testify of him saith he search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal Life and they are they which testifie of me Hence when Paul began to preach Jesus Christ and to prove that Jesus of Nazereth whom he preached was the Mediator between God and man he perswaded them concerning Jesus both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets Acts. 28.23 and thence it is that in Acts 17.11 That those Men of Berea preached by searching the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Secondly it must be cleared that the written word of God doth particularly reveal unto believing souls their union with Christ both unto their faith and unto their sense First It doth reveal particularly unto their faith their infallible admission into union with the Lord Jesus This appears in regard the Lords testimony that he will admit every soul that will into union with Jesus Christ is absolutely universal without the least acceptation or limitation so that it comprehends every particular soul whatever to whom the Gospel is preached according to that in John 3.15 That whosoever believed on him should not perish but have everlasting Life So in John 6.37 He that cometh to Jesus Christ he will in no wise cast out And in Acts 10.43 That whosover believe in him should have Remission of Sins and that known place Rev. 22.17 Whoever will let him take the water of Life freely wherein it is apparent that every particular soul is included that the Lords testimony to every particular soul is as certain as if the particular soul were named that the soul shall be admitted into union with the Lord Jesus if the soul will accept it if the soul will consent to his truth and
trust to his truth and faithfulness for the fulfilling that his word Now whereas it is objected that no particular word speaks to a particular soul and says thou Thomas and thou John or thou Elisabeth or thou Mary shalt be accepted into union with the Lord Jesus if thou wilt accept him 1. I answer that either every particular is perfectly comprehended in the universal offer and universal command of believing as if the Lord should name every person to whom he speaks or else there can be no faith of assurance concerning any Gospel-truth whatever Else there can be no assurance that our Bodies shall rise again from the dust and appear before the judgement-seat of Christ It is no where said thou Thomas or thou John or thou Mary shalt arise out of the dust again and come to judgement yet I suppose every one that hath the least beam of spiritual light shining down into his soul will acknwledge that the written word of God doth reveal particularly that this soul and that soul even his own soul shall arise from the dust and come to judgemen Now it is apparent that there is as clear a discovery in the written word to any particular souls faith of his certain resurrection from the dead and coming to judgement 2. Either all those particulars are to be fully comprehended in that universal offer and universal unlimited command of believing or else there were no obedience to the will of God commanded to any particular soul whatever nor no disobedience to the will of God reproved It is no where said thou Thomas or thou John shalt worship the Lord in Prayer It is no where said thou Thomas or thou Mary shalt receive me as thy only God and worship me only Likewise no disobedience to the will of God were reproved It is no where said thou Thomas shalt not steal thou John shalt not lye thou Mary shalt not commit adultery yet I conceive thou whose believing disposition is most out of exercise at present darest not say God hath not said to thy soul do not steal do not lye that God hath not commanded thee to worship him in his ordinances appointed So that it is clear the word of God doth reveal to particular souls undoubtedly their certain admission into union with Jesus Christ in case they accept him Secondly The precious written word of God reveals unto particular souls sense their particular union with the Lord Jesus That is to say whenever the spirit of light and manifestation sent from the Lord Jesus shall irradiate the precious written word of God so as to make its own heavenly light shine into a dark heart and also irradiate at the same time or cast beams of light upon the precious believing act that the same spirit of Jesus Christ hath begotten in that soul then that light that the written word of God holds forth particularly declares to such a particular soul its certain actual union with the Lord Jesus Now the written word of God speaks to the sense of a believing soul his union with the Lord Jesus in these two ways 1. In its general description of the nature of that believing act that the Lord requires from the soul Now the written word describing the nature of that believing act that the Lord requires in general and declaring that believing act to be required in the same manner from every soul that written word of God doth particularly reveal unto such a particular souls sense his actual union with the Lord Jesus as thus the written word of the Lord describes the nature of the believing act to be a coming to Jesus Christ Mat. 11.28 to be receiving the testimony of God that he gave concerning his Son selling to its seal that God is true John 3.33 A receiving the Record that God hath given of his Son 1 John 5.7 8 9. To be a receiving of Christ himself John 1.12 To be a will in the soul concurring with what the Lord tenders Rev. 22.17 Now I say in the spirits describing the general nature of that believing act the Lord requires it doth speak particularly to the believing soul when the spirit is so evidencing to him his union with the Lord Jesus and declares the souls certain and infallible union with Jesus Christ As thus the spirit having first revealed to the souls faith the Lords will to admit having sweetly encouraged the soul yea powerfully irresistibly effectually commanded the soul to set to his seal that the Lord is true and to say Lord be it unto thy Servant as thou hast spoken then the same spirit irradiates that written word that describes the general nature of the believing act letting the soul discern that the believing act is a sweet consent of the mind and heart to the truths of the Lord in the tender of the Lord Jesus to him to reconcile the Father and him and then the spirit irradiates also the precious consent of the mind and heart that holy trust and confidence that is then in the soul and then the written word saith particularly that thou dost consent to accept of what the Lord thus tenders in Christ to thee thou art certainly and everlastingly united to the Lord Jesus thou art he who dost receive what the Lord hath propounded in Christ so thee and therefore thou art certainly lodged in the everlasting arms of the Lord Jesus 2. The second way that the written word dclares unto the particular souls sense his particular union with the Lord Jesus is by its description of the constant certain and inseparable operation of the believing disposition describing the manner of the working of the believing disposition or describing the various effects of faith 1. By the written word declaring that the proper operation of faith is by love to Jesus Christ Gal. 5.6 2. By declaring that the proper operation of faith is to abase the soul in it self and make it altogether nothing Rom. 3.27 3. The Scripture doth declare that the proper operation of faith is by purifying the heart cleansing it from all unholy dispositions Acts. 15 9. 4. In declaring that the proper operation of faith is an high and unspeakable estimation of Jesus Christ himself Phil. 3. 8 9. Now thus the written word declaring the proper manner of the operation of faith doth declare particularly unto any particular soul his union with Jesus Christ and so consequently the same written word declares that in whatever heart the believing disposition thus particularly works there is that precious believing act the Lord requires there is that precious faith unfeigned that Jesus Christ commands in his precious Gospel and so it speaks particularly to a particular soul thou dost believe with that precious faith unfeigned that Jesus Christ requires and thus the spirit doth but make this written word of God speak to the souls understanding what it doth always speak in it self which is that that particular soul doth now believe according to the will of God So
that thence it appears the word of God doth speak and declare as particularly to a believing soul his union with the Lord Jesus as if it did speak to any soul by name for that light that discovers to the souls sense and feeling or knowledge his union with Christ is but the discovery of the truth of his own heart in believing the written worb speaks as plainly to a particular souls sense and Knowledge his union with the Lord Jesus that is declares to him that he doth particularly believe as it doth declare to any particular rebellious obstinate sinner that he particularly doth sin the word saith whosoever walks thus or thus transgresseth the will of God now this speaks to every particular soul so sinning Que. But the soul may say how can a soul know that those Books of the Old and New Testament are the Lords own word May there not be some mixture of men That the Scriptures are the writen word of God Answ For answer to the question first negatively secondly affirmatively I. Negatively I answer that the soul cannot be assured by all the powers and possibilities of men no not by any created power that the Books of the Old and New Testament are the written word of God Though I deny not that the testimony of men may give some kind of ground to the soul to believe it and I fear the greatest number among us have no other ground yet no testimony of man can assure the soul sufficiently that these are the Lords written word the matter contained in the written word of God is altogether spiritual and therefore it must be a beam of spiritual light that must satisfyingly and sufficiently discover to a soul that the spiritual matter is the truth of God and did proceed from God 2. All the most exquisite reasoning that the most elevated wits of man can extract are not sufficient to demonstrate satisfyingly unto a soul that the Books of the Old and New Testament are the written word of God himself indeed If it were so then the wisest of men should have been ready to receive the word of God as the word of God whereas the Scripture testifies the most wise have been most oppsite to receive it 1. Cor. 1.26 Scribes and Pharisees the wisest of the People were the greatest opposers to our dearest Redeemer 3. The written word of God barely and simply taken without the Mighty Power of the spirit conrurring with the Word is not able to demonstrate it self to be the Word of God Questionless if it were then whoever had been partaker of the Written Word or had heard the Word Preached that is Written must in like manner have given credit to it whereas the Scripture Testify that when Jesus Christ himself spake of those things he had wrought some Opposed and Blasphemed But then I answer affirmatively I. That the Blessed Spirit of God only is able to demonstrate Clearly Evidently Satisfyingly and Infallibly unto a soul that the Written Word of God is the Written Word of God This the Apostle affirms directly 1 Cor. 2.9 to 12 that the spirit had Revealed those things to them which they by the Power of Reason could never comprehend And that all the things given to them of God are Revealed by the spirit to be so given And the Written Word of God is none of the smallest gifts of God to his people Therefore consequently it reveals that also to be given to them So likewise he affirms that it is the Spiritual Man that Judgeth all things that is of truths that is it is only the Man Begotten by the Spirit of Jesus Christ unto God and led by the light of that Blessed spirit of Jesus Christ that is able to Judge of Truths to Judge what Truths have their Original from God and to Judge what have not their Original thence It is the spirit also saith he that searches the deep things of God that discovers the very Mystery of God to them so as to make the Divinity shine forth in them Whereas the most heightned reason of the Accutest Sons of Adam can discern nothing but Foolishness in the deep Mysteries of Godliness v. 14. And indeed were it not the Testimony of that Blessed Spirit to a Believers Heart that the Books of the Old and New Testament are the Lords Written Word that they have their Original from the Lord himself then the Foundation of Believers Faith were not a Divine Authority neither could a Believer say in believing any truth contained in those Books that he knew whom he hath Believed with a Relation to God himself II. When that ever Blessed Spirit doth reveal to any Believing soul the Written Word to be the Written Word of God then the proper light of the Written Word it self shines forth so gloriously as it discovers it self also to be the Lords Word That is to say the matter of the Lords Written Word appears to be so Transcendent so far surpassing the Capacities of weak men yea the quality of the Word appears to be so Holy so Pure and Undefiled so contrary to the Powers of Hell and the Kingdom of the Devil and so contrary to the Tyranny and Dominion that mans Corrupt Affections naturally desire to bear over him yea the quality of the Word appears to be so Unspeakably Unconceivably excellent that the soul sees infinite reason even in the Word it self to perswade it that it is the Lords Word Yea the manner of the Written Word speaking the very Language it speaks favours so much of Heaven that it appears to the Believing soul to be so Cloathed with Power and Irresistable Authority it appears to have such properties of God himself peculiar unto God Soul-Searching Heart-Dividing Properties finding out the Secrets of the Heart that then the Believing soul is Compassed about with Reason Cloathed in with Reason that appears shineing from the Word it self that satisfys the Believing Soul that it is the Word of the Almighty Majesty of Heaven Divinity is then every way Ingraven upon the Written Word in the Believer So that as the spirit in its casting the Pretious Heavenly Light into the Beliving soul did Write his own name upon those Beams of light and made them appear to the soul to be from the spirit So likewise in the souls discerning the light also to proceed from the Lords Written Word there is the name of God Written upon those Beams of light also that the soul knows as well as believes them to proceed from God himself seeing they shine forth from that Word of his that the soul believes with Confidence yea so Satisfyingly and so knowingly to his full contentment it is the Word of the Blessed Majesty of Heaven Would you know you that are Confident this day that a light did shine into your souls to satisfy you concerning your union with Jesus Christ whether this union be from God or no Would you be assured as well to knowledge as to faith that you
cursed dispositions in his own heart more abased thoughts of himself as he is in himself more distrustful of himself and his own heart being less confident in himself and in the strength of the power of holiness as yet communicated to him And thus those very falls or slips of that believing soul shall tend to their last end to make the soul partaker of more holiness causing the soul to hang more intire with a more precious constant dependance upon the Lord Jesus for the constant influences of the sanctified spirit and so shall exalt the name of God more in that heart and so shall cause the soul to grow more into a conformity to that mystical Head of his the Lord Jesus and so through that conformity to his Head and that mystical glory of Christ the glory of the Father shall be exalted Thus likewise you must consider again that the communication of God himself unto believing souls are secret invisible and insensible and also they are visible and sensible Now those communicarions of God himself unto the believing soul that are visible and sensible those do commonly immediately tend to the accomplishment of the believing souls glory that is to the perfection of the likeness of Jesus Christ in the soul and so consequently it tends also to the perfecting of Christs mystical glory and to the manifestation of the Fathers glory But those communications of God unto a believing soul that are invisible secret and insensible those commonly do tend only mediately to the accomplishment of those fore named blessed ends So that hence also you may collect that whenever any communication of God unto a believing soul doth demonstrate it self to come from God when it is sensible communication then it doth immediately tend to the accomplishment of these three ends This then being considered and it being apparent that all the dealings of God with believing souls are for the accomplishment of those his three blessed intendments from before the foundation of the world was laid then it must be through discerning of one of those three intendments of God effected in the soul that the believing soul must prove that such a beam of light as discovers to him his union with Christ did proceed from God himself Now we shall begin with the highest and so proceed to the lowest All are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods that is for God And from thence we may conclude that the prime and principal reason taken from the effects of a souls union with Christ where by it may be proved that souls evidence proceeds from God is this that the beam of heavenly light that shines into the soul to discover its union with the Lord Jesus doth exalt and magnifie the name of God in the hearts Gods exaltation of himself in the Believers heart was the great design of God from all eternity it was as it were the Alpha and Omega as I may so speak the very beginning and end of the Lords intention only his intention reached further to exalt himself through believing souls before all other Therefore then may the soul prove infallibly the light that discovered to his soul his union with Christ to proceed from God himself when it effects the prime intendment of God from eternity to the believing Soul when it erects a higher Throne from the Majesty of Heaven in its heart when it fills the heart with higher lowder more zealous acclamations of praise and honour and glory and worship to be given for ever to yonder God that the light carries the stamp and impression of Heaven upon it when it begins the work of Heaven in a believing way here then it is an earnest of Heaven when it implys the Soul in the work that it is destinated to from Eternity Pro. 19.6 God hath made all things for himself that is for the manifestation of his own transcendent glory so for the magnifying of his ever blessed name Now when the light that discovers to the soul its union do thus effect Gods general his ultimate end in the believing Soul the Soul may certainly conclude this beam of light did descend down from the Father of Lights Now there are four or five acts in the believing Soul wherein it exalts the name of God 1. Then the Soul exalts the name of God when it is filled with such sensible apprehensions of such transcendent brightness of glory shining sorth from God as the Soul is utterly unable to conceive of or apprehend Now this first act of that believing Soul to exalt God in his heart is the certain and infallible effect of every beam of light that proceeds from God to discover to his Soul his union with the Lord Jesus Indeed every act of the Lords mercy and goodness towards believing Souls is a Precious Christal Glass wherein believing Souls do see an incomprehensibleness of the beauty glory and unspeakable perfection of God and therefore much more unconceivable glory do the believing Soul apprehend in such an high act of the Lords mercy and love as is the discovery of his precious eternal love to the believing Soul through Christ This you shall see apparent in David upon the Lords discovering of his promises made unto his Soul in Christ and made unto his House also in 2 Sam. 7.18 19 20 21. Then went King David in and sat before the Lord then that is after the Prophet had declared the precious promise to his Soul in Christ and he said who am I O Lord God and what is my House that thou hast brought me hitherto Thou art Great O Lord God there is none like thee neither is there any God besides thee ver 22. Mark what sensible high apprehensions of a transcendent glory in God dwelt in Davids heart upon the discovery of such precious promises made to him and his House likewise upon a smaller mercy comparatively though indeed typifying the same mercy upon the deliverance of the Israelites from the hands of Pharoah and drowning their cruel Task-masters in the Red Sea the hearts of the Saints were filled with high apprehensions of the glory of God Exod. 15.11 Who is like unto thee O Lord yea they repeat their admiration twice as if they could not admire him enough who is like unto thee glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders you may behold the same workings of the believing heart 1. John 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that me should be called the Sons of God There are three or four special beams of the glory of Heaven that a Believer apprehends as unspeakable unconceivable incomprehensible when a beam of light shines from God to discover to the Soul its union with Christ 1. There is then such a glorious brightness of the presence of God appears to the believing Soul as it stands amazed to behold it When the Lord lets such a beam of light shine into the dark Soul that it sees the Lords will
is indeed to be one with him in Christ yea that his Soul is already lodged in that precious bosom of the love of the Lord Jesus then the Soul beholds such an unspeakeable preciousness in the Majesty of Heaven that he waited upon such an unbeliever such a crooked opposite wretch so long that the Soul sets down silently to admire and is swallowed to the depth in admiration 2. There is a Soul amazing brightness appears in the Souls eye in the independance of the Lords love When that bright Beam of light shines from Heaven to discover to the Soul its union with the Lord Jesus the Soul seeth that there was nothing that moved the heart of God to have thoughts of love towards him nothing that enclined his blessed will to admit him into union with Jesus Christ but only his precious disposition only his eternal thoughts of kindness that old loving kindness of his from Eternity then the Soul says as David in 1 Sam. 7.21 for thy words sake and according to thy own heart hast thou done all these great things to make thy Servant know them then the believing Soul says though my wretched unbelieving heart could not trust thee yet for thy words sake thou hast fulfilled it according to thine own heart thou hast done it O Lord what could thy purest eye behold in this forlorn Soul of mine What could have moved the Lord thinks the Soul but his own blessed will to chuse such an useless such an unserviceable such an unprofitable such a barren such a foolish yea such a cross hearted wretch as I 3. The glorious irresistible power of the Lords eternal love in Christ to the loveless Soul shineth gloriously When once the light shineth from Heaven that discovered to the believing Soul his union with Christ how many cursed contradictions thinks a believing Soul did the love of Christ suffer from my Soul How often did my vile believing heart give the Majesty of Heaven the lye How many years did I sleight this I stopped my Ears I hearkned to none of his blessed tenders yet then he bored mine Ear and constrained me to hear O think the Soul what a froward perverse hearted Wretch have I been to this dear God of mine Certainly thinks the Soul if rebellion if enmity if the working of a Devils heart could have opposed it it had been turned away from me Fourthly The orient brightness of the Lords infallible truth shines before the Soul These Beams of the Lords glory shines in a peculiar manner before the Souls Eye but there are multitudes of the 〈◊〉 of the Majesty of Heaven that also with these shine in the same moment into the same Soul when a light proceeds from God to discever to a Soul its union then the wisdom of the Lord in contriving the design of Redemption by Christ appears then do the very beauty of justice it self appear in the Lords contriving the Redemption of loveless Souls in such a way wherein justice and mercy might meet together and kiss each other so that indeed a light shines from Heaven that incompasseth the Soul round about that the Soul stands amazed and astonished gazing upon those beams of glory that appear shining forth from the Majesty of Heaven into his Soul II. A second act of a believing Soul wherein the name of God is exalted in the Soul is a sensible apprehension and estimation of the Lord to be infinitely worthy to receive all prefection of glory and honour and praise for ever Now this precious God sanctifying act is also the infallible necessary effect of such a precious beam of light as doth truly shine from the Father of Lights into any Soul to discover his union with the Lord Jesus This was effected in Davids heart upon the Prophets discovering of the Promises made in Jesus to him in 2. Sam. 7.26 Let thy name be magnified for ever saying the Lord of Hosts is the God over Israel yea this act is infallibly produced in a believing Soul by every visible motion of the Lords mercy or love towards the Soul So you may observe in Exod. 15.20 Miriam cried to the rest of the Daughters of Judah sing ye to the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously So Rev. 4.10 11. The four and twenty Elders fell down that sat before him upon the Throne saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power Now there are two things that follow upon the Souls vision of his union with the Lord Jesus by the light of the Spirit of Christ that do necessarily produce this apprehension or estimation in the believing Soul 1. Upon the Souls discovery its union with the Lord Jesus there are lively enlarged actings of love produced in the Soul Every renewed vision of love inflames the Believers heart with love again correspondently Now from those quickned and enlarged actings of love do arise necessarily high estimations and glorious conceptions of the Majesty God that thence the Soul apprehends him infinitely to receive honour and glory for ever 2. Upon the Souls discerning his union with the Lord Jesus there follows an apprehension of the souls union with the Lord Jesus there follows an apprehension of the Souls owing all that he is and enjoys unto God by way of retribution Now from a Souls apprehension that he ows more then he is or have unto God he conceives him infinitely worthy to receive honour and glory for ever and ever from all the creation he himself can never render glory sufficient therefore he esteems it to be but equal that the whole Creation should joyn together to exalt this blessed Majesty III. The third act in a believing Soul wherein the name of God is exalted is a sensible apprehension of the dispicableness worthlesness and nothingness of the Soul it self and all that the circumference of the earth affords without God and in comparison of God Now this God-exalting act in the believing Soul is also the necessary effect of such a precious beam of light shining from the Father of Lights to discover to a Soul its union with Christ then indeed is the Soul a worm and no man then is he empty and poor yea absolutely nothing without communion with that his God yea then is all the Creation but meer shadows flying vanities without that God in Christ then do the quintessence of all the beauty of the whole Creation if it could be abstracted appear but as the drop of the bucket as the dust of the ballance yea as vanity without that God in Christ Thus in Psal 8.4 upon the Psalmists apprehension of the infinite glory of God he immediately cries out into admiration of the nothingness of man Lord what is man IV. The fourth act of the believing Soul wherein the name of God is exalted is the Souls actual prostration or subjections of all its powers and possibilities at the foot of the Lords glorious Majesty Now this precious God sanctifying act in the believing Soul is the
necessary infallible effect of a true beam of light shining from the father of lights into the believing soul to discover its union with the Lord Jesus Indeed there is a necessity of such a discovery to a believing Soul of its union with Jesus Christ preceeding the sweetest act of subjection of himself wholly at the foot of God 1. In regard then when such a light shines into the soul to discover its union with Christ the soul apprehends an infinite disproportion between that which he ows to God and his ability and capacity to pay to him He apprehends Men and Angels are never sufficient to render to the Lord according to his benefits bestowed upon his loveless soul 2 It appears to that soul while there is such a discovery of that his union with Christ to be an infinite injury to the Majesty of Heaven that a thought of his heart should not be subject to his blessed will The heart saith within it self so sweetly hath the Lord passed over himself and all his fulness to this empty loveless soul of mine that it were such an accursed requital as might incense the Lord to be incomplacable should my heart be withheld from giving one subjection to him that thence the soul is constrained by an irresistble power by ineffable bands of love to yield all precious subjection to the blessed will of God V. The fifth and last act that must concurr together with all the Four former to the exaltation of the Name of God is the souls taking up a full acquiescense or rest and contentment in God alone It is an infinite unspeakable injury to the Majesty of Heaven that one desire one inclination in the heart should be a Vagrant to wander hither and thither to seek for its satisfaction out of God Now this precious God-exalting act in the believing soul is necessarily certainly and infallibly produced by a true beam of light shining from Heaven into any believing soul to discover its union with the Lord Jesus Thus you shall observe it was in David Psal 63.3 4 5. Thy loving kindness is better than life My Soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness It should be contentment enough for him to enjoy his love only Thus these Five acts which concur together to the exalting of the Lords blessed Name are all the necessary and certain effects of a true beam of light shining from Heaven into the believing soul to discover to it its union with the Lord Jesus So that whatever Soul is partaker of such a blessed beam of the light of Heaven as do truly discover from God to him his union with the Lord Jesus he hath these pretious God-exalting acts necessarily produced in his soul whereby that light that shines into his Soul discovers it self to have its original from God There is a second branch of this great end of God from eternity from whence a Soul that conceives he hath received satisfying evidences of his union with Christ may gather another evidence of his union and that is the exaltation of God through those believing souls This is that you read of Eph. 1.4 5. He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the World that we should be holy having predestinated us unto the adoption of Children through Jesus Christ to himself to the praise of the glory of his grace That is to the end that his glorious love in Jesus Christ might be made manifest through us to give praise to the Lord to declare the excellency of God to publish and tell abroad the glory of God Now the very end unto which God predestinated believing Souls was to the glory of his love to the end they should be like Silver Trumpets to sound aloud and proclaim his glory So that then this being the great end of God from eternity in his love to believing souls that they might be like so many Golden Pillars whereupon the Lord might write the glorious excellency of his love in great Characters that others might read it thence of necessity this must be the effect and consequence in some degree of the Lords Communications of love unto believing souls all the workings of his love necessarily tending in order to their ultimate end So that then a second reason from whence the Soul may demonstrate to himself that the light that himself hath received to discover to him his union with Jesus Christ is really from God is this that the pretious light that shined into his dark soul to reveal to him his union with Christ did necessarily and certainly effect the exaltation of God through him Now that exaltation of God consists only in this in the Souls declaring or manifesting the brightness and perfection of those excellencies to be in God that God hath revealed to be in him in his pretious word But herein we must descend down into particulars First God is exalted through the Soul when the brightness the lustre the perfection that the Lord discovers in that his love in Christ to unlovely sinners is manifested through the believing soul and made conspicuous before others by the believing soul Thence it is you shall observe in Psal 50.23 saith God who so offereth praise glorifieth me Now the offering praise is nothing else taken strictly but a sincere humble declaration of the glorious workings of the Lords love and mercy to poor despicable worms it is but a publishing the glorious works of God and speaking of the excellency and perfection of God Thence in Isa 43.7 The Sons and Daughters of God are said to be Created for the Lords glory which they accomplish by shewing forth his praise v. 21. It is by making manifest what the excellencies of God in himself are Now then God is exalted in a believing soul when the excellency and glory of the Lords love in Christ revealed to Sinners is made manifest through the Soul This is done Three ways 1. When the Soul doth give a real practical testimony to the fulness and perfection of that love of God in Christ to an unlovely Sinner Now this the believing soul doth practically declare in Four or Five things First By rejoycing fully and gloriously in that love When the Heart can rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory in that love of God that is in Christ then is the blessed Name of God exalted through the soul in regard the soul then declares practically and gives a real testimony to other believing souls and to the World too that the blessed God of Heaven is true that his love is according to what he declared in his blessed word that his love to unlovely sinners contains all kind of happiness contentment glory and excellency that is desirable by a believing soul so far as is suitable for him Secondly When the Soul can despise and disregard all kind of difficulty whatsoever for the enjoyment of the sweet fruit and working of that love of God that is in Christ Thence it is that
Martyrdom for the Name of Christ is accounted such an high honouring of Jesus Christ and that the Lord testifies such respect to those that do suffer for his Name in regard by those their sufferings wherein they seem to slight their Estates their outward Liberty their Lives for the sake of Christ they declare there is all fulness of contentment in him that there is happiness enough for them that all outward contentments the confluence of all the happiness that the Earth doth afford is not to be compared to the enjoyment of the love of God in Christ and to the pretious manifestation and sweetest operation of it Thirdly When the Soul sends forth the whole strength of his soul in his pursuit of the enjoyment of the sweetest discovery of that love and the most pretious operations of it into and upon his soul Fourthly When there is a deadness in the Heart towards all things else in comparison of the love of God that is in Christ Fifthly When the soul can take its fulness of contentment in that love in the absence of all things else When a soul can actually drink such full drafts of the love of God that is in Christ that is to say promise himself such happiness contentment unspeakable perfection of glory in the enjoyment of that love that the Heart says practically it is enough though the Heavens should withdraw their light and the Earth all her advantages that ever she can afford seeing there is the love of my God in Christ that I shall actually enjoy Now further we are to shew you that this manifestation or declaration practically by the believer that all perfection and glory is eminently contained in God in Christ to unlovely sinners is the necessary certain infallible effect of a beam of light shining from God to a believing soul to discover its union with the Lord Jesus So that whenever any beam of light is cast down from Heaven into the dark soul of any believer to manifest certainly its union with the Lord Jesus then certainly also that ever blessed Name of God is exalted through the believing in that that pretious beam of light doth necessarily cause that believer to manifest and declare practically the fulness of the Lords love in Christ that there is all perfection excellency and glory that can possibly be suitable for the believing soul contained in that love eminently transcendently infallibly as will appear further by opening every particular way and means how the believing soul doth practically manifest that there is fulness in the Lords love in Christ to such unlovely sinners as the Lord declares As I. The kind of fulness of joy and rejoycing which is a prime and principal means how the name of God is exalted by a believing soul is the necessary and infallible effect of a beam of light shining from Heaven into a soul to discover its union with the Lord Jesus That you may observe from 1 Pet. 1.8 whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory With joy unspeakable Joy that cannot be uttered either by the Tongue of men or Angels Joy it is full of glory that is full of excellency and sweetness delight and contentment Their believing produced this effect an unspeakable joy in their Hearts Then much more a beam of light from the spirit of light discovering unto faith the Lords blessed will to admit the soul into union with Christ and thereby powerfully enabling the believing soul to believe afresh and also a beam of light from the blessed spirit manifesting the souls believing act unto the soul it self and so discovering both unto faith and sense such unspeakable matter of joy and rejoycing much more must this fill the believing soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory According to that in Eph. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is peace and joy Mark it the proper effect of the spirit of Jesus Christ dwelling in the believing soul is joy then certainly that joy that possesses a believing soul must needs be exceedingly eminently raised to a high strain to a superlative degree when the spirit of Jesus Christ shall dwell so plentifully as it doth when it thus bears testimony to faith and testimony to sense of the Souls union with Jesus Christ Yea such is the nature and power and vertue of a beam of light sent down from God to discover to a soul his union with Christ that it cannot but infallibly produce such a superlative degree of joy and rejoycing in that love of God that is in Christ I. In regard through that beam of light from the spirit and discovering to the Soul its union the enlarged longing restless breathings of that believing soul are in some measure accomplished Now Solomon tells us Prov. 13.12 that the accomplishment of the desire is a tree of life There is such infinite sweetness contentment and satisfaction in the souls attaining his desires that from thence the soul seems to gather Apples of life from a Tree of life II. In regard that light gives the believing soul a pretious taste of his mutual Communion with his God through Christ Every believing act doth occasion some Communion to be between God and the believing soul but much more in that believing act that is heightned by the power of the spirit of Christ to a certainty Then there are large degrees of life and holiness communicated from God to the believing soul and a kind of full communication of all the powers and possibilities of the believing soul to God again then God delights himself in the believing soul sweetly and the soul reciprocally delights himself in God Now the very taste of the communion which is the earnest of the souls full inheritance which is eternal communion with God in Christ that cannot but fill the believing soul with joy and peace III. In regard that light occasions the believing soul to enjoy all that Heaven it self can afford through hope It causes the soul to sit together with Christ by hope Eph. 2.6 It causeth the soul to discern certainly through believing the Lord Jesus as his blessed head to be gone before as an Harbinger to prepare a place for him that the soul by hope sits there already and is saved already 4. That light draws out the actings of faith in such certainty that all the glory of Heaven it self is presented also to the believing soul Faith saith the Apostle in Heb. 11.1 Is the evidence of things not seen That is it is such a disposition as by its pretious working gives things not seen an evident certainty unto the believing soul yea it is the substance of things hoped for The word in the original is very emphatical it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is that which gives a substantial being to things hoped for a being already that the soul not only enjoys all that Heaven affords by hope but through the
certainty of the actings of faith raised by the power of the Spirits working to discover to the soul its union with Christ the soul enjoys all that Heaven affords at present So that needs must a superlative degree of joy possess the believing soul when he in a manner sits in Heaven as enjoying the sweetest communion of the Lords love as gazing upon that precious face of God in Christ and blessing himself also in the contemplation of it to all eternity II. The second means by which the believing soul practically declares that there is all perfection and glory contained in the love of the Lord in Christ to unlovely sinners whereby the name of God is exalted through him is the souls despising and disregarding all difficulties for the enjoyment of that love of God in Christ That is also the necessary the infallible effect of a beam of light proceeding from the spirit of light to discover to a soul his union with Christ This you may observe Rom. 8.34 35. There you find the assuring act of faith concerning the souls union with Christ who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died and ver 37. You shall find the Apostle triumphing over all kind of difficulties trampling under foot persecution necessity famine nakedness piril and sword and professing we are more than Conquerors over all to overcome them so as they are no impediment or hindrance to us but we are able to be more than Conquerors to make advantage even of those difficulties whereby we shall the more closely pursue after Jesus Christ Yea such is the power of that light that discovers to the soul its union with Christ that it doth necessarily cause the soul thus to despise all difficulties for the enjoyment of the love of God in Christ 1. In regard that light enobles and raises the spirit of every one to whom the spirit of light communicates it Heirs views of their great Possessions greatens their Spirits likewise do the believing souls vision of those glorious things prepared for them heighten and elevate their Spirits above all things below 2. In regard the pretious light from the fpirit of light doth present such unparalled such incomprehensible glory to the believing souls view that all things appear as nothing in comparison of that glory that is revealed Now thence it cannot be but difficulties must appear as nothing upon the sight of such glory hence Moses Heb. 11.26 disregarded Pharoahs wrath because he saw God that was invisible and the Apostle calls the afflictions they met with light afflictions because they looked at things that were not seen 2 Cor. 4.17 18. 3. In regard it doth necessarily produce enlarged enlivening actings of love Every believing act produces a proportionable act of love Therefore certainly that high noble act of faith that act of certainty that is drawn forth by the spirit of light at such a time doth produce enlarged acts of love it proportionably doth send out the strength of the soul in love towards God in Christ as well as the strength of the soul goeth out in believing 3. A third means whereby the soul practically declares that there is a fulness of the Lords love whereby the Lord is exalted in the soul is the souls pursuance with his utmost strength the enjoyment of the clearest visions of that love and the sweetest freedom of the actings and workings of that love into and towards the soul Now this also is the necessary effest of a beam of light coming down from Heaven to evidence or reveal to a soul his union with Christ You shall observe in 2 Cor. 5.1 2 4. That Souls certainty of their union with Christ which was the effect of the spirit of light shining into their hearts it did produce such groaning and longing with the strength of their Souls 〈◊〉 the sweetest and clearest enjoyment of the fulness of that love We know saith he there is the act of certainty that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Mark for this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven So ver 4. we groan being burdened and so ver 1. they were willing to absent from the body and to be present with the Lord The strength of their Souls so pursued after the fullest the clearest enjoyment of that love that they desired to breath out their lives to be dissolved that they might have the clearest vision of that love of God in Christ and the sweetest enjoyment of it Neither can it possibly be otherwise considering 1. In that things appear in their despicable nothingness by such a beam of light shining from the blessed Spirit into a believing Soul to discover its union Thence it is that the strength of the soul pursues after the enjoyment of the love of God in Christ only seeing no other object appears worthy to be desired in comparison to the enjoyment of the love of God in Christ 2. In regard the love of God in Christ discovered by that light appears in such a manner as takes up the whole intention of the believing Soul and implies every faculty of it Such a mystery appears in that fulness of the love of God in Christ to unlovely sinners as takes up all the strength of the Souls capacity to view and meditate upon yea it at last appears to be a depth never to be fathomed and so drowns the understanding in a depth of admiration yea that fulness of the Lords love appears so to comprehend all beauties and glories and all things desirable as it is the object of every desire of every motion or reaching forth of the Spirit So that thence it takes up all the intentions of all the faculties of the Soul IV. A Fourth means whereby believing Souls do declare the Lords love to be according as the Lord reveals whereby the Name of God is exalted in the Soul is the deadness of the Heart to every thing in comparison to that love of the Lord in Christ Now even this crucifying of the Heart to all things else in comparison of that love is the infallible effect also of such a beam of light from the Spirit of God to reveal to the Soul its union That 2 Cor. 5.8 is enough to manifest it Their certainty of their acceptance with God produced a willingness in them even to be absent from the body it self a readiness in their Hearts to part with every thing for the enjoyment of that love it choaked and quenched all desires of earthly objects of beauty or excellency so as their Spirits were so dead so void of desire so empty of all thirstings and endeavours after earthly objects as they rather deny to be dissolved to be dead indeed that they might have the full benefit of their union even the full presence of God in Christ And certainly it cannot be but such a light from
the Lord to discover to the Soul its union with Christ must necessarily thus Crucifie the Heart to all things so as to be alive to God in Christ only both in regard the Soul apprehends the doleful sinful miscarriages of his Heart about every of those things what sad snares they are to his Spirit and also he beholds the emptiness and nothingness by comparing things temporal with things eternal and he beholds a full object of all contentment wherein all the desires of his Soul may be concerned together in one wherein is all happiness that his Spirit can breath after and he may bless himself in the full enjoyment of it V. The Fifth means whereby the Soul experimentally manifests the fulness of the Lords love so as the name of God is exalted through him is the fulness of contentment that the Soul takes in the enjoyment of the love of God in Christ only in the absence of all things else Now even this also is produced by such a light evidencing to the Soul his union with the Lord Jesus yea so powerful is this contentment of the Heart in the love of God in Christ in the absence of all things else effected by such a light of Heaven discovering to the Soul his union with Christ that the Soul while the beauty and lustre of that light remains takes not only its full contentment but even more than contentment even glorying in his God in Christ in the want of all things That you may see Rom. 5.1 2. Being justified hy faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and not only so but we glory in tribulation also We glory that is we make our boast of God we bless our selves in him we are able to set the love of God in opposition to all things else and even in tribulations themselves to triumph and glory to conceive our selves so filled with excellence that we even boast our selves of him So that thus all those precious acts of a believing soul whereby he declares and manifests the fulness of the Lords love in Christ to unlovely sinners so as the Name of God is exalted through the Soul by that means all those acts are necessarily and infallibly produced by the power of that light from Heaven that doth discover to any Soul his union with the Lord Jesus And so it appears that this may be a second reason from whence a believing Soul may prove that the evidence of his union with the Lord Jesus received is really from God because it causeth the Name of God to be exalted through him Thus we have opened the first way of the Souls manifestation of that glorious love to be in God that God hath revealed to be in himself that is by the Souls manifesting that unspeakable fulness to be in the love of God in Christ to despicable sinners that all perfections and glorious excellencies whatever that could be suitable to a Soul is compleatly contained in it 2. Secondly A Soul doth manifest that glorious love to be in God which God hath revealed to be in himself unto despicable Sinners By discovering or manifesting such an absolute perfection to be in that love of God in Christ to unlovely Sinners as nothing can prevent and hinder or turn away that love When a Soul shall declare that the infinite multitudes of wickedness that his Soul heaped up before his knowledge of God in Christ and all the infirmities and imperfections that abound in his Soul now yet are no hindrance to the working of the Lords love in Christ to his unlovely Soul yea when the Soul shall triumph against imperfections as Paul did against tribulation and say apparently who shall separate this loathsome Soul of mine from that pretious love of God that is in Christ Jesus Shall my deadness hardness vanity looseness Shall my stubborn opposite backsliding disposition my hopocritical false treacherous disposition separate this loveless Soul of mine from the love of God that is in Christ Nay in all these infirmities and imperfections the love of the Lord in Jesus Christ never ceases its working Nay so glorious is the freedom of that love of God in Christ that it breaks through all such oppositions as my vilest Heart makes against it Then is the Name of God exalted in the glory of his love through the Soul Thus did Paul exalt God when he had been acknowledging that in him that is in his flesh dwelt no good thing Rom. 7.8 That not a spark not a disposition not an inclination to comply with the Lords blessed will dwelt in him and declares the mighty operation of the Law of his members which were the cursed dispositions of his Heart against the Law of his mind which was the blessed disposition in his Heart to comply with God when thus I say he declared that the Law that was in his members was so full of power and might that it maintained a strong battel against Jesus Christ yea that it wounded him and made him a Slave and Vassal to that cursed disposition yet then he exalts God by this occasion breaking out thus Rom. 8.1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus Mark that word now Now seeing the vile rebellious disposition of my vilest Heart cannot turn away the workings of the Lords free love now seeing though my Heart maintain War against the Spirit of Jesus Christ yea such War as leads my Soul Captive also and even enslaves and enthrals and vassalageth me under the power of sin though it be thus yet the love of God in Jesus Christ can never cease it workings He thus declares to the whole World in a kind of triumphing way that the freedom of Gods love is so absolute and perfect that even now though there be such opposition made against the workings of it by the vilest crooked Heart yet there can never be a turning away of that love never a Sentence of Condemnation drawn out by God against any Soul that accepts that his love in Christ This manifestation that there is such an absolute perfection of freedom in the love of God in Christ that nothing can prevent and turn away that love from any soul that embraceth it this is manifested three ways through which the name of God is exalted through the Soul 1. This is manifested by the souls sensible free acknowledgement of its abhorred vileness and loathsomness when the Lord tenders his love in Christ to it yea when the Lord receives his unlovely Soul into the dearest sweetest embrace of his love When the soul shall readily and freely declare nothing but enmity opposition contradiction to the blessed God of Heaven to have been in his vilest heart when that blessed news came down from Heaven to his hopeless Soul that the Lord was ready and willing to admit of reconciliation peace and agreement and love to be between his soul and himself This indeed is a high exaltation of the name of God
name of God might be exalted through believing souls by holding forth the glorious freedom of that riches of love that is in Christ Jesus Now we shall shew you that this exaltation of God in this manifestation of the perfection of freedom of his love in Christ to unlovely sinners is the necessary inseparable infallible effect of a true beam of light shining from Heaven into any dark heart to reveal to that soul his union with the Lord Jesus This must be opened by shewing you those three acts of believing souls whereby they do thus manifest the glorious freedom of the Lords love to the exaltation of God through them that these three acts are necessarily and certainly produced in souls by discerning a beam of light from Heaven to discover to them their union with Jesus Christ First That sensible and free acknowledgement of the souls abhorred vileness even when the tender of the Lords love in Jesus Christ is made to it yea when the Lord grasps it in the everlasting arm of his love that was in Christ even this sensible and free acknowledgement of the souls most cursed wickedness is the necessary effect of a souls receiving a light from Heaven to evidence its union with the Lord Jesus Christ this you may see 1 Tim. 1.14 Paul tells us that he was before a Blasphemer and a Persecutor and injurious yet to me the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant not only abundant having more than a fulness of love but exceeding abundant abounding in the most superlative degree in the most inconceivable manner So the third and fourth Chapters to the Romans seem to be written for that very purpose in a great measure to prove nothing but vileness to have been in those souls whom the Lord accepted into the Bosom of his love in Christ Thus the Apostle endeavours to draw forth free acknowledgments of their abhorred vileness while he is remembring them of the riches of the Lords love in Christ to them We shall make it appear in some particulars that the free sensible acknowledgement of the souls abhorred wickedness when the Lord tenders his love in Christ is the necessary effect of receiving a beam of light from Heaven to discover to the soul his union 1. In regard there is an actual view of the most accursed wretchedness of the soul by the power of a beam of light that shines from Heaven to discover to a soul his union with Christ Any beam of true light that shines into a soul is but a discovery of the Gospel message in its clearness extent and latitude it is but an opening and expounding clearly and satisfyingly to the souls capacity the message of glad tydings that Christ sent to poor despicable sinners now that glad tydings is nothing else but the message of reconciliation to every soul that will accept it and thence it cannot be but the same light must present to the souls view the sight of his enmity and opposition of heart it can not be but at the same moment when the soul apprehends his own reconciliation to God in Christ he must apprehend his own enmity formerly to God in Christ Thence it is that in Ezek. 36.31 In the Prophets foretelling the blessed Covenant of Grace that should be established between God and Souls he doth also prophecy that those with whom the Covenant of Grace should be established they shall remember their own evil ways and doings that were not good and shall loath themselves in their own sight for their iniquities and abominations Now any beam of precious light from Heaven thus necessarily presenting to the soul an actual view of its own abhorred vileness thence it cannot but dispose that believing soul for sensible and free acknowledgement of that unspeakable vileness of his when the tender of that love came to him 2. In regard every beam of light enables the soul to comprehend his sinfulness and most accursed wickedness more largely and fully it causeth him to behold the height and depth and length and breath of his own wickedness according to the glory of God apprehended against whom the soul have sinned so are the souls apprehensions or comprehensions of the height of his own vileness now the glory of the light never shines so clearly and transparently upon any soul as it does when such a beam of light comes from the spirit of light and manifestation to discover the glorious riches of love in Christ to the dispicable unlovely soul admitting the loveless worthless soul into the nearest union so that thence there can never be such full comprehensions of his own sinfulness as there is in the very moment when such a beam of light shines from Heaven upon the soul 3. In regard the affections are all drawn forth to work in their strength against the souls sinfulness by such a beam of light shining forth That manifestation of the riches of the Lords love begets answerable correspondent workings of love in the soul towards God again now those workings of love in the soul towards God draws forth the workings of all the other affections against the souls sinfulness Love and Hatred works towards their contrary objects in like degree In the very same measure that the actings of love are drawn out towards God in the same measure is the hatred of the soul the loathing and abhorring of the sinful disposition drawn out This David declares Psal 119.103 That upon his tasting the sweetness of the Lords words which were the actings of love in the soul of David to the word of God he hates every false way ver 104. and vain thoughts ver 13. His love and hatred wrought equally alike towards their object his love to the Law of God made him hate whatever was contrary to it Now the love of the soul towards God is drawn out in its superlative degree of acting by that clear discovery from Heaven that Jesus Christ and the Soul are one and thence likewise all the affections cannnot but work in their highest degree against all the sinfulness of the Soul both hatred of the sinful disposition sorrow and melting and breaking of heart in remembrance of it anger displeasure and indignation against it fear and dread of those iniquities having power over it Now thence it cannot be but the same beam of light discovering to the Soul his union with Christ should necessarily produce sensible and free acknowledgement of the Souls abhorred vileness seeing it fills the heart with the working of strong affection against his own sinfulness apprehended 4. In regard there are constant actings of faith in the believing Soul while the glory of such a beam of light from Heaven shines into the Soul There are such renewed operations of saith continues while that light shines into a Soul that discovers his union with Christ that there seems during the continuation of that light into the Soul to be but one extended drawn forth act of faith Now seeing there are those constant
worthless unlovely sinners by manifesting such an absolute perfection of the love of God in Christ to sinful Souls as that love is subject to no variation alteration or shadow change When the Soul so walks as he declares practically that the rich love of God in Christ to his unworthy Soul is the same yesterday and to day and the same for ever the foundation thereof standing firm and unmoveable like Mount Sion that cannot be moved then doth the brightness of the Lords glorious love shine through the Soul so as the name of God is exalted through it Thus God glorified himself before the eyes of Balak through the mouth of the false Prophet Balaam to give testimony to the unchangeableness of the love of God in Christ to his People Israel by sending that message to Balaam Numb 23.19 God is not a man that he should lye neither the son of man that he should repent that is not like the sons of men that his thoughts should change what he hath spoken shall it not come to pass His words concerning his People shall certainly be fulfilled So likewise when the Lord by the mouth of the Prophet Malachie intended to lift up his name in his Peoples hearts Mal. 3.6 he discovers to them his precious thoughts of love concerning them in declaring the coming of Jesus Christ with the blessed effect of it and saith he I am the Lord I change not therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed So the Church exalts the name of God by bearing witness to the unchangeableness of his love to her Lament 3.22.22 It is of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed because his compassion fail not Now a Soul manifests the unchangeableness of the Lords love in Christ to his unworthy Soul by its constancy and unmoveableness in that precious confidence of his union with the Lord Jesus that was once raised in his heart by the power of that evidence of his union And doubtless it is for that end that believing Souls might thus exalt the name of God in the unchangeableness of his love towards them that the Lord hath prepared unchangeable Grounds unmoveable Rocks for the feet of their Faith to stand upon he hath added his oath to his word Heb. 6.17 18. That by two immutable things by which it is impossible that God should lye they might have strong consolation that receive Jesus Christ tendered It is for this end that he hath given those unchangeable grounds for faith to build upon 1. That those Ecclipses of the glory of Gods love in Christ in its unchangeableness by the constancy of the actings of Faith might be prevented Surely it was the bowels of the compassions of our tender God in Christ that wrought towards the unlovely Soul that caused him to stoop down so low as to add an oath to his word which gives no security in it self to a Soul more but only a fuller security to our unbelieving hearts in our low apprehensions of God that thereby the precious consolations of his People might not change and it was the ultimate end of God in the workings of those compassions that the glory of his own love might not be vailed by the unconstancy and fickleness of the actings of faith so as Souls should declare by believing when their hearts are filled with holy actings that there was a glorious love in God through Christ to unlovely sinners and when the apprehension of the liveliness of those holy actings in their hearts should cease that then they should again declare that the love of God in Christ is withdrawn again from them 2. That the glory of his love in its unchangeableness might shine forth in its brightness with transparent glory so as the Soul under the saddest defect of holy actings and workings in his own heart might still declare the precious love of God in Christ to his unlovely to be the same sounded upon his own will only which can never be moved The constancy and unmoveableness of the Soul in his confidence of his union with Christ that the evidence of union with Christ begets is always the effect of such a beam of light from Heaven to reveal to a Soul his union so long as the light continues shining into the Soul in its lustre and glory This you may observe of Paul in 2 Cor. 5.5 6. Having received the earnest of the spirit what then we are always confident of everlasting communion with God that is we are confident at all times constantly our confidence is unmoveable Yea doubtless seeing the spirit of light from the spirit of light shining into any Soul is but an act of the conforming office of the Spirit of Jesus Christ it cannot be but that light shining from the Spirit of light to evidence to the Soul its union must necessarily establish the heart in that confidence of his union with Jesus Christ that so long as that light remains the confidence must remain also and that in its power and strength Thus you have the first way opened how the name of God is exalted through a Soul which is by the Souls bearing testimony to the truth of the record that the Lord hath given to his love in Jesus Christ by the souls manifesting the same glory of the love of God in Christ to sinful souls that God himself hath revealed to be in him Secondly God is exalted through the Soul by the souls manifestation that an incomprehensible perfection of purity and holiness dwels in God God hath revealed himself in his word not only to be holy but holiness it self Amos 4.2 The Lord hath sworn by his holeness that is he hath sworn by himself He hath discovered such absolute perfection of holiness to be in him that he hath an absolute unspeakable abhorrency of all that is cross and contrary unto holiness in its perfection Hab. 1.13 yea the brightness of the perfection of holiness dwell in him Exod. 15.11 Now then is the name of God exalted through a Soul when the Soul conceives of God as thus excellent and wonderful in holiness when the Soul declares before the world that his God in Christ is purity and holiness it self Hence it is that the holy Angels are said to cry to the Lord Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts Isa 6.3 and also the office of the dispencers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is described Rev. 4.8 9. by their crying Night and Day without ceasing Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty it is for this reason because the name of God is exalted when there are such manifestations and declarations of an absolute perfection of holiness to dwell in God Now a Soul may manifest this absolute perfection of holiness to dwell in God these three or four several ways I. By a precious sensible acknowledgement of an infinite disproportion and disagreement in his most holy exact exquisite actions when the Soul is most mightily assisted by the spirit of God to the Lords blessed holy
will When a Soul freely declares his righteousness and all the actings of holiness in his heart to be but unholiness compared with the exact perfect holy will of God when it acknowledges with the Church Isa 64.16 That its righteousness is but as filthy rags as a menstruous Cloath all pollution and defilement it self in comparison of that most blessed holy will of God then doth the Soul exalt the Lord by declaring an absolute perfection of holiness to dwell in him And thence it is that confession of sin is necessary for believing Souls though sin be pardoned and though there be large manifestations also of the pardon of sin renewed because those confessions of sin and the large acknowledgements of the vile cursed workings of the corrupt heart and the vast disproportion between the Lords blessed holy will and his unholy will the Soul exalts the name of God by bearing testimony to the perfection of holiness that dwells in God II. By declaring the least aberration or deviation from the Lords blessed will to be just matter of infinite wrath to be executed upon the Soul and just matter of endless perplexity trouble and vexation unto the Soul When a Soul manifests the least stragling wandring thought from God the least indisposedness of the heart to comply with the Lords blessed will to be just occasion for the Lord to let his fiery indignation burn for ever against the Soul then doth the Soul bear testimony to that unspeakable perfection of holiness that dwels in God Then doth the Soul say virtually Thy will O Lord is so perfectly holy that it is infinitely equal that thy will should be obeyed in all things in that thou commandest nothing but is so absolutely and perfectly good that he that neglects obedience to that thy blessed will in the least is worthy to have exact vengeance executed upon him for a cross crooked rebellious-hearted wretch Thus the Church Lam. 3.22 acknowledges it is of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not Likewise the Psalmist Psal 130.3 O Lord if thou shouldst mark iniquitie who shall stand that is to say Lord the least iniquity if thou dost execute the just desert of it upon any Soul none then should ever stand before thee every Soul should perish to eternity Thus God is exalted through the Soul and mark it this is the use of all those self-judgings that believing Souls are so frequent in the true holy use of it is for this reason that you shall hear believing Souls both publick and private passing the sentence of condemnation against themselves though they know the sentence of condemnation shall not pass against them though their pardon is shared in the Court of their consciences yea when the pardon is most evidently sealed to them then you shall hear them most full of those judgements past against themselves saying we are worthy O Lord to be confounded it were but righteous in our God considered in our selves to make us an everlasting abhorrence to his purest eyes Thus by these self judgings they bear publick testimony to the most exact exquisite perfection of holiness that dwels in God III. By manifesting that the least communion with God in Christ doth necessarily sanctifie any Soul in some degree When a Soul declares practically that it is impossible for any Soul to have communion with God in Christ but he shall participate in some degree of the holiness of God the disposition of his corrupt will shall be changed then doth a Soul manifest a perfection of holiness to dwell in God IV. By declaring that a perfection of conformity to the Lords blessed will ought to be the only satisfying object of the desires of any soul When a Soul manifests practically and apparently that no Soul ought to take up any rest in any degree of holiness less then a perfect conformity to the Lords blessed will Now this perfect conformity to the Lords will consists in three or four particulars 1. When he declares that every Soul ought to will every thing that the Lord himself wills 2. When he declares that every object that the will of the Soul ought to close with ought to be closed with only because God wills it 3. when the Soul wills only that which the blessed Majesty of God wills 4. When the Soul wills every thing in the same manner that God himself wills it Now there are four things to be considered in the manner of the Lords willing any thing 1. Whatever the Lord wills he wills with infinite freedom So that then the perfect conformity of the Souls will consists in the freedom of the Souls compliance with the will of God when he wills what God himself wills and wills it freely according as God wills it 2. Whatever the Lord wills he wills purely he wills it because he wills it 3. Whatever the Lord wills he wills with facilility and easiness 4. In the Lords willing that which is holy his will moves necessarily though yet with infinite freedom It is with infinite freedom that the Lord wills holiness but yet there is such a necessity from the essence and being of God that his will wills holiness only and that he can will nothing else but what is holy Thus when the Soul shall practically manifest that the groanings and thirstings and pantings and breathings of every Soul should never cease till there be this blessed union of wills between God and them that their wills should even move as it were in a circle of holiness as the blessed will of God moves then doth a Soul declare that an infinite perfection of holiness dwells in God and then is God exalted through the Soul Now it remains to be opened that the name of God is exalted through every believing Soul in this transcendent glory of his holiness to whom the spirit doth reveal certainly his union with the Lord Jesus This must appear by the manifesting that the spirit of Jesus Christ in revealing to any Soul his union with Christ doth certainly cause the Soul to walk in those ways through which the name of God is exalted in the brightness and perfection of the glory of his holiness through the Soul I. The Spirit of Christ in evidencing to the Soul his union with Christ doth necessarily draw forth those sensible free acknowledgements from the Soul of an infinite disproportion and disagreement in the most exact exquisite action that ever the Soul performed to the Lords infinite holy will This you may observe in Isa 64. comparing ver 4. and ver 6. saith the Church From the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for them that wait for him that is for the believing Soul for waiting is but an extended act of faith And then under those apprehensions of the unspeakeableness of the Lords Love in Christ to every believing Soul she breaks out but
Christ So that then only when the Spirit doth actually evidence unto the Soul with most clearness and perspecuity its union with Christ then do all the engagements that believing Souls apprehend that God have said upon them to bind them to exalt God in his holiness come upon them with power and force so as a constraint comes upon the spirit the Soul being drawn as it were by cords to study and exalt the name of God in his holiness As for instance First when the spirit evidenceth to the Soul his union with Christ the Soul is actually at that time sensible that he was chosen from eternity to be a vessel of honour into whom the holiness of God should be poured that the glory of the Lords holiness might appear So that then the Soul stands strongly bent through the strength of this engagement God hath laid upon him to lift up the name of God in his holiness and to make the holiness of the name of God appear Secondly When the spirit evidenceth to the Soul his union with Christ the Soul is actually sensibl◠that the Lord hath created him anew for that ver end that he might glorifie the Lord in his holiness According to that in Eph. 2.10 We are all his workmanship created unto good works that is created unto holiness to fruits of holiness and so consequently to the manifestation of the glory of the Lords holiness Thirdly When the spirit manifests unto the soul his union with Christ it is actually sensible that the very end of God in the communication of any of his holiness unto him is the manifestation of the glory of his holiness through the Soul Thus then in regard the spirits evidence of a souls union with Christ doth occasion a being actually sensible of deep engagements laid upon him by God to be exalting him in his holiness thence the spirits evidence doth necessarily occasion the Soul to declare that the least degree of communion with God doth make it to participate in some degree of the Lords holiness So that it is evident both from Scripture and Reason that this third Testimony concerning the absolute perfection of the Lords holiness whereby he is exalted through any Soul is the necessary certain infallible effect of the spirits evidencing to any soul his union with the Lord Jesus 4. The fourth way whereby God is exalted through the Soul by bearing witness to the perfection of his holiness is this when a Soul doth declare that a perfection of conformity to the Lords blessed will in every thing ought to be the only satisfying object of the desires of any Soul Now even this precious God magnyfying act of a believing Soul is also the necessary effect of the spirits evidencing to any soul its union with Christ Thus you shall observe that the spirit of Jesus Christ produced this blessed effect in Paul's heart to whom the spirit did vouchsafe the clearest revelation and most Soul-ravishing Testimony of his union with Jesus Christ Phil. 3.12 13 14. Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things that are before I press towards the mark of the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Here are four or five things the Apostle testifies to be the practice of his own Soul for the exalting of the Lord in his holiness and so consequently testifies it to be the effect of the spirit of Jesus Christ in any believing Soul to whom he reveals his union with Christ First He testifies his estimation of himself that he doth account himself as yet to be altogether imperfect unholy I count not my self to have apprehended he testifies that the power and vertue of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was not yet fully made manifest in his Soul that is the sin mortifying vertue of the death of Jesus Christ the quickening and enlivening vertue of the resurrection of Christ is not yet fully attained to in his Soul Secondly He testifies that the only end upon which the eye of his Soul was fixed was ' a perfect conformity unto Christ The fulness of an experimental knowledge of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as he tells you ver 12. he follows after that he may apprehend that for which also he was apprehended of Jesus Christ and also he tells us ver 14. he pressed forward towards the mark and ver 10 that the only end of his was to know Christ that is to know him experimentally in the vertue of his death and the power of his resurrection having the sense of the glory vertue and power of his death and resurrection in his own spirit so that herein he testifies that his Soul stands resolved to be satisfyed with no degree of holiness and therein by consequence testifies that nothing but the fulness of likeness to Jesus Christ shall ever satisfie Thirdly he testifies that all his labours and endeavours after this experience of all the vertue of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are acounted by him as nothing I forget saith he those things that are behind ver 13. not that his Soul was forgetful of those precious experiences that the Lord hath given him of the death of Christ in killing his sin and the power of Christ in enlivening his Soul but he minded not all the degree of the 〈◊〉 of the death and resurrection of Christ that his Soul was partaker of so as to please himself with thoughts that he had attained to what he was commanded he minded them not so as to satisfie himself with that measure though questionless the measure was very large seeing he testifies often that he was more than a Conqueror over all the powers of sin and that he was able to do all things through Christ strengthening of him and that he was ready to abound and ready to want his heart being disposed in a holy temper in all condition ready to sanctifie God in all his providences yet saith he I forget all those that is I do not so remember them as to satisfie my self that I had attained so much The whole form of the expression is but an allusion to Runners in a Race that never look how many paces of ground they have passed over so as to hinder them from running to the mark but they keep their eye singly fixed upon the mark that they are to attain to so saith he forget the things that are behind Fourthly He testifies that the strenght of all his affections the whole intention of his soul is bent towards the attaining the fulness of the experience of the vertue and power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ this he testifies ver 13. reaching sorth unto those things that are before breathing forth still in a metaphorical way he alludes to Runin a Race that run without stretched arms reaching forth towards the mark the word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza renders contending
spirit of Christ complaining to will is present with him but to do is not yet present that when the law of the spirit begins to work the law of the flesh opposeth it by which complaint he doth in effect but breath after a more mighty power of the sanctifying spirit of Christ which might not only beget a compliance in his will to the Lords holy will but might also carry it forth to perfection that might cause his soul not only to bring forth the bud of holiness but the ripe fruit of it and his complaints are but the desiring of a power of the spirit that the Law of the spirit that is the disposition infused by the spirit might overcome the Law of the members that is the corrupt dispositions that were naturally in him so that his soul might be more then conquerer over Sin III. Hence also it is that souls injoyning the evidence of their union with Jesus Christ from the spirit of Christ are constantly enquiring into and searching to find out the secret Iniquities of their own hearts That principle being firmly rooted in them by the spirit of Revelation that discovers to them their union with Christ that a perfect conformity to the Lords will ought only to satisfie the desires oâ— any soul Thence they being always conscious to themselves of a depth of wickedness that secretly possesseth their hearts they are searching after the secret wickedness those vailed and inclosed iniquities that their hearts would even lock up as it were in dark Dungeons that the soul might never discern IV. Hence souls injoyning their evidence of their union with Christ are calling in the assistance of the heart searching God to find out their Iniquities for them According as you shall find David Psal 139.23 24. Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts the holy mans meaning is that the Lord should so search him as to make him understand his own heart and to know his own thoughts see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Thus he crys that the eye of the blessed Majesty of heaven might pierce through his heart to discover all his wickedness and contrary walkings to the will of God that then God might send down a conquering power to deliver him from those corruptions and lead him into the path of holiness that is into a full conformity of the Lords blessed will V. Hence it is that souls injoying the evidence of their union with the Lord Jesus are so delighted with the precious heavenly light of the Lords word in its discovery of the Souls unholiness and in its discovery of the Lords blessed will concerning the Soul Surely it was from hence that David in Psal 19.10 was so delighted with the Lords word that he professed it was sweeter than the honey and the honey comb to him because it revealed the pretious will of God to him and discovered his own heart to him and thence was a help to conform his will to the Lords blessed will that was the only satisfying object of his Souls desires VI. Hence it is also that Souls injoying the evidence of their union with Christ are so frequently breathing after the time of their dissolution It is in regard their Souls never attain the fulness of rest that satisfying object of their desires till the time of their dissolution Hence they groan being burdened with iniquity and secretly cry out O when shall I be worshipping of God purely When shall I be free from this body of sin and death that there may be a blessed union of Wills between thee and me that this my vilest corrupt will shall never oppose and contradict thy will more So that it is evident from experience that the spirits revealing unto any soul its union with the Lord Jesus doth occasion the soul necessarily to declare that a perfect conformity to the Lords will ought only to satisfy the desires of any soul Yea likewise it is evident also from reason that the spirits discovery of a souls union with Jesus Christ doth necessarily cause the soul it self to be satisfied with no portion of holiness but a full conformity to the Lords will I. In regard the spirits evidence of any souls union with Christ doth cause the Soul to discern clearly that a perfect conformity and subjection to the Lords will is infinitely due from every creature Whenever that precious light shines from the spirit of revelation into the soul then the soul is filled with such high thoughts of the transcendency of the Lords glory that thence the soul is convinced that every creature in heaven and earth owes absolute perfect subjection to the Lords blessed will Now hence the soul cannot be satisfied with any degree of conformity to the Lords will less than an absolute perfection of conformity and likewise hence the soul is constrained to declare that absolute conformity to the Lords will ought only to be the center whereon the soul should rest II. The spirits revealing unto any soul its union with Christ doth cause the soul to apprehend so clearly the ravishing beauty and unspeakable lustre of the holiness of the Lords will that thence a full subjection and conformity to the blessed holy will appears as the highest thing that can be desirable by any soul That sweetest discovery from the spirit of Christ unto a soul of its union with Christ makes the soul apprehend the Majesty of Heaven to be so cloathed with a garment of love and makes the soul apprehend such a height and depth and length and breadth of love to be in God towards forlorn unlovely sinners that thence the will of God appears in all things to be so good towards poor sinners as the very beauty of it makes a full conformity in that will in a manner infinitely desired by the soul Yea the soul is then so strongly convinced of the absolute goodness of the blessed will of God in all its motions that thence the soul can take no rest nor contentment while his will disagreeth from that purest holy will that is so absolutely good in all its motions III. The spirits revealing to any soul his union with Christ doth establish that blessed principle in the soul that the most superlative happiness of every soul consists in perfect union and communion with God in Christ the unity and community of wills between God and the soul Through the spirits light cast into the dark soul to discover the souls union with Christ the heavenly brightness and glittering resplendent Glory of the Lords goodness so shines round about the soul that thence the soul discerns clearly that that the highest and most supream degree of the happiness of any soul must necessarily consist in the conjunction and communion of the soul with that infinite goodness in the souls nearest and largest participation of it Thence that blessed principle is rooted in the soul that the union and communion of
fulfill whatever can intervene Therefore I will not make such a Covenant as I made with your fathers which my Covenant they brake observe that but I will make such a Covenant as they shall not be able to break For saith God I will write my law in their hearts and put my fear in them As if he should say I will do all things for them So that there is not one promise that can properly be called a conditional promise Indeed improperly I grant the promises of the Covenant of Grace may be divided into conditional and absolute promises Some promises of the Covenant of Grace may be called conditional in this respect that there are some limits and bounds set to the promises as these two great bounds his own glory and his peoples good And only in three sorts of promises those limitations hold As 1. In all temporal promises of temporal blessings and favours to his own The Lord hath not absolutely promised riches and honour and prosperity to all the Subjects of the Covenant of Grace though godliness hath the promise of this life and that which is to come And though he hath tyed his own sufficiency to supply them yet not so as it admits of no limitation but these two come in the Lords glory and his peoples own good And likewise in dispensing all blessings privatively that is the freeing the soul from all temporal evils from afflictions distress and burdens this freedom is promised in the Covenant of Grace yet it admits of this limitation so far as it may concern the Lords glory So that so far as the glory of God is advanced in his peoples groaning under burdens and sufferings for a time the Covenant is nevertheless fulfilled 2. The promise of Gods giving the common gifts of the spirit God is not bound to them in the Covenant without limitation Therefore in 1 Cor. 12. Those common gifts of the spirit God dispenseth them variously one he fills with them and leaves another poor and weak void almost of any of those gifts of the spirit that the glory of God may be advanced in that dispensation and certainly every soul is not sutable to manage such a treasury of common gifts therefore the other limitation comes in also the souls own good 3. Those conditions or limitations hold only in the promises concerning the measure and manner and order of Gods dispencing himself to souls in privative or positive things All spiritual mercies privative as well as positive that is the preservation of the soul from all temptations and buffettings of Satan the preservation of the soul from all desertions this is also included in the Covenant of Grace But it is in this sence but a conditional promise a limited promise so far as may be for the Lords own honour the soul shall be free from temptations Yet now though in this sence under all these three heads there be continual promises yet that which is absolutely necessary for the soul cannot be said to come under any of these limitations Life and Salvation and everlasting Communion with the glorious Trinity and with the glorious Saints and Angels are so absolutely promised as they come not under these limitations but that which is absolutely necessary for the soul the Lord hath bound himself absolutely to convey to the soul Yet these limited promises cannot properly be called conditional but are absolute in themselves as will appear in three particulars 1. These limited promises thus bounded are not left in the limitations of them unto the persons to whom they are made So that they are improperly called conditional promises in regard conditional promises do imply some condition to be performed by the parties to whom the promises are made Now these limitations of such promises are not in the power of persons to whom they are made that they should judg and determine when for their own good and for the Lords glory they should have such and such promises made good to them but they depend upon the sole wisdom of God 2. These promises bounded with these extents are simply and absolutely determined by God to be fulfilled according as they are propounded Now then is a promise absolute when without respect to any thing whatever that can possibly intervene or be interposed it is undertaken to be fulfilled to the person to whom it is made according to the full extent wherein it is propounded Now in the full extent of the propounding of those promises wherein God may have glory and the soul advantage the Lord hath as absolutely engaged to give all common gifts of the spirit all outward blessings whatever possibly can intervene as he hath also any part of the Covenant of Grace 3. These promises pertaining to the Covenant of grace bounded with limitations are by the infinite wisdom of God bounded with such limitations only as make them to be absolute love and Grace from God to the soul For indeed those limitations are no other than preventions of what might make such promises to have evil interwoven with them as well as good and then should they not be absolutely love For observe all Gods promises of temporal mercy to the soul therein come to be love to the soul because God hath bounded with that limitation so far as shall be for the souls own good and advantage So that from these considerations even those limited promises prove as absolute as all the other promises of the Covenant of Grace So that you see there are no promises belonging to the Covenant of Grace but what are meerly Grace No condition may come in to challenge any thing in the Covenant of Grace Prem 3. Thirdly I must premise That all those promises that seem to be made to conditions in souls they are included under one of these five heads 1. They are made to persons having such conditions in them as put them into a case of want and poverty and so the Lord propounds refreshment to them sutable to their wants and poverty Of this nature are the promises made to thirsty and burdened souls 2. Those may be no promises but revelations of the glorious priviledges that God doth freely bestow upon his own people As to instance in those promises that seem to be made to love to God and Christ John 14.21 He that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Here seems to be a promise made to love whereas it is only a revelation of the precious priviledg that belongs to the people of God and a discovery of the precious purpose of God concerning his own out of the meer disposition of his goodness towards them If any promise should be made to that precious grace of love methinks this should it runs every way in the nature of a promise But yet hence it appears it is no promise made to loving Christ as a condition upon which the promise should be fulfilled in regard that disposition
neither binds it self in order nor degree nor is expressed to the life of it in the soul when he doth assure to the Souls faith his union with Christ yet the Spirit keeps its constant order in respect of the effects it doth produce in the Soul to whose faith it doth assure his union with Christ from the promise The effects of the spirit are such in every Soul in this work that they have such a near relation to the assurance it self that the soul receives from the promise that those effects are altogether unspeakable from that evidence of assurance If those effects perish or decay the certainty and assurance the soul hath from the promise perish and decay And if those effects do but live in the soul the evidence the soul hath from the promise is maintained they live together and die together Now these effects that the Spirit of God doth produce in every soul to whom it doth manifest his union with Christ from the promise in some measure or degree are these five in the opening of which you shall receive the positive answer to this great question First The Spirits Illumination Secondly The Spirits Irradiation of the Gospel to the Soul Thirdly The Spirits conviction of the Conscience in the Soul Fourthly The Spirits excitation or stirring up the habits of faith infused into the Soul Fifthly The Spirits Attestation or witness unto the Soul the Spirits passing the determination finally upon the Souls whole estate These five kinds of effects are produced by the spirit from the promise that the soul is united to the Lord Jesus First The manner in which this Spirit works is by the Illumination of the soul The spirits Illumination You shall read Eph. 1.18 That the Apostle praying that the Ephesians might understand the hope of their Calling that is the great things hoped for in their calling and the glorious priviledges that they are called out to hope and wait for his prayer is that they might have the spirit of wisdom and revelation To what end That the eyes of their understanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of their calling Observe it The very first spiritual work of the spirit of God to this end is for spiritual enlightning of the soul Now the work of the spirit in enlightning consists in three things First In the infusion of greater degree of divine light into the soul Secondly In the removal of all impediments from the eye of the soul or from the understanding of the soul that should prevent the souls seeing or discerning the divine light infused Thirdly In the quickening or stirring up or puting into act and exercise the habits of divine light that the spirit of God hath infused First this Illumination is an infusion of greater degrees of divine light into the soul Infusion of greater degrees of divine light The soul sits altogether in darkness untill the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ shines into it in some measure Eph. 5.8 Now though there be some habitual divine light infused by the spirit of God into the understanding of every soul that is united to Jesus Christ yet there is after union a continual increase of that divine light And therefore you shall see Eph. 1.18 The Apostle prays that the eyes of their understanding might be enlightned Now if you read the whole Chapter you shall see they were Saints that were enlightned already So that this work of the spirits enlightening is the strengthening of the poor weak feeble pur-blind eye of the soul and as we partake of this divine light so we grow up unto the perfect day till we be like Jesus Christ himself in whom is light and no darkness at all The Second thing wherein this work consists is the removal of all impediments that do hinder the exercise of this divine light Removal of impediments of spiritual sight that is infused into the soul By this spiritual light infused the sight of the eye may be strengthened and yet through some distempered humours a film may grow over the eyes that it is able to discern no object some waterish humour or some mote or dust may prevent the seeing of the eye There may be some films of corruption and of distempers many malignant humours as I may say and rheumes that may gather together in the soul and prevent that sight we haâ—◠〈◊〉 from the spirit And therefore it is the next work of the spirit after the infusion of greater degrees of divine light to pluck out of the souls eye all the motes to take off all the films that might hinder the souls spiritual sight Though at first we have received a faculty of seeing we are like the blind man that Christ cured he saw men walking like trees we see the promise afar off There are two sorts of these hellish fogs or mists or beams that the Devil chiefly labours to keep in the souls spiritual eye to prevent the soul from a right use of the divine spiritual light received And both these must be removed by the spirit of God before there can be assurance in the soul by the promise that he is united to Jesus Christ There is first the hellish mist of the principles of darkness Secondly the hellish mist of the darkness of corruption First There is the hellish mist of the principles of darkness These are like the rheumes that distill from the brain into the eyes whereby the sight is prevented Mist of the principles of darkness And the hellish mists of darkness of corruption are like the distemper of Melancholly or Choler that have their original from the Liver and so fume into the souls eyes and prevent his sight Or rather the first is like to a false coloured glass that makes all things look of the same colour It were worth the while to consider of these principles of darkness I shall name but some of the chief of them The first principle of darkness is That the Lord Christ is tendered to no souls but such as truly see Principle of darkness and are truly sensible of their want of Christ Saith the soul I see there is a fulness in the Lord Jesus tendred but saith the soul it is only to such as have a sight of their want of Christ and groan heavily under that want and I know not whether ever I had a sense of my want of Christ alas I have a blockish heart I am an ignorant wretch I have a blind understanding I dare not trust my deceitfull heart I fear I never had a true fight of the want of Christ and therefore I dare not believe least I should presume that Christ is tendered unto me This is a main principle of darkness and that it is so I shall make appear briefly in two things 1. Thy conceving the Lord Christ is tendred only to those that see the want of Christ must suppose either a true spiritual
him from time to time as it dare not trust its Heart when it deals most Plainly and Uprightly Now from this Holy Jealousie there ariseth a Difficulty to settle and Establish the Heart and to free it from all Wavering in its Conscience Now in respect of this the Lord adds this work of the spirits Attestation that the soul may have a full Satisfaction that there may be no inward Misgivings of Heart in its Confidence of the Lords acceptance of it into Union and Communion with the Lord Jesus in its Cleaving and Adhering to him IV. There is a natural Unconstancy that possesseth every such Believing soul in some degree Ever since the Heart of Man was drawn from that first Blessed Center it hath naturally been Unconstant in all its Restings Now from this Unconstancy of the spirit the Heart is exceeding prone to have its Confidence shaken when the spirit hath raised it to a high Degree And in respect of that the Lord Vouchsafeth to add the work of Attestation for the perfect Establishing of the Wavering Soul V. There is all the Concurrent Rage of Hell Imployed against every Soul attaining that Confidence of his Acceptance into Union and Communion with the Lord Jesus in his Adhering to him Now should there not be a Witness from Heaven or greater Authority in the souls Apprehension than any Dictates of the Counsel of Hell the Believing soul would soon call in question the Pretious Word of the Majesty of Heaven and Incline to give Credit to the Dictates of Hells Counsel Therefore in respect to this least the Believing soul through this means should be Robbed of that Pretious Joy and Peace in Believing that the Lord intends the Lord hath Determined that his Blessed spirit should become the souls Comforter by way of Attestation to bear Witness to the certainty of the souls Acceptance into Union and Communion with the Lord Jesus in the souls Cleaving to him that so the Witness of Heaven might be of higher Authority to the soul than all those Cursed Lying Dictates of Hell frequently propounded to that Believing soul Now the second thing to be opened is what this Attestation or Witness unto the souls Faith is What the Spirits Attestation unto Faith is I conceive that this Attestation unto Faith is a Pretious Beam of Heavenly Light darted into the Understanding whereby the spirit clearly Demonstrateth to the Believing soul the Lords Approbation of the souls act of Believing or Confidence and that with such an unspeakable Divine Authority as is irresistable by the soul so that hereby the soul is Established in a Plerophery or more than a fulness of Confidence There are four things in this Description that you must observe I. This Attestation unto Faith is a Pretious Beam of Heavenly Light darted into the Understanding That is the nature of the Witness This is as commonly called by Divines and Christians a secret Voice or a sweet Whispering of the spirit And thence many have sadly Mistaken and Conceived that Witness to be some strange kind of Revelation by a Voice from Heaven But indeed it is therefore spoken of as a secret Voice because it is a secret Beam of Heavenly Light And thence it is rightly called the Witness of the Spirit of the Lord Witnessing with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God Witness that is bear Record give a Testimony Now to give a Testimony is to declare a thing Verbally Now indeed in this respect it is not unfitly called the Voice of the Spirit for a Voice is nothing else but an Expression of the inward Conception of the mind by words Now by this secret Beam of Heavenly Light darted into the understanding the spirit of the Lord doth secretly express the mind of God II. This Attestation or Witness of the spirit unto Faith is such a Beam of Heavenly Light as doth Clearly and Infallibly and Unquestionably Demonstrate or Manifest to the soul the Lords Approbation of his act of Believing or of his act of Confidence All the Unquiet Tossings and Agitations and Perplexing Waverings of souls from what occasion soever they have their Original in some kind of Doubting whether it be according to the Blessed Will of God that their Forlorn Despicable souls should be so Confident of their Acceptance into Union with the Lord Jesus in their adhering to him Now therefore the Light that the spirit casts into the Understanding is on purpose to clear and make it out of all doubt to the soul that it is Infinitely pleasing to the Blessed God that even that particular soul should be so Confident of his Acceptance into Union with the Lord Jesus That is the matter it self that the spirit doth Testify to the soul or the Testimony it giveth III. You must observe in the Description That this Attestation of the Spirit is such a Beam of Heavenly Light that so clears to the Believing Soul the Lords Approbation of his act of Believing or his act of Confidence that it carrieth along with it an Inconceivable Divine Authority It is such a Beam of Light as hath such an Impression of the Majesty of the Blessed God upon it that it is impossible for the Heart to make Resistance IV. Observe in the Description that it Establisheth the Soul in a Plerophery a more than a fulness of Confidence a Triumphing Confidence That is the peculiar Inseparable effect of this Testimony that the spirit gives it fixeth the Wavering Unconstant Soul This is the Spirits Attestation unto Faith Now we shall come to the Spirits Attestation unto Sence But there is an Objection will be cast in that must first be opened whereby the depth of this Unspeakable Mystery may be something more Unfolded Obj. Some Soul may say If the Spirit giveth no other Testimony to the Soul than this That his particular Soul shall be Certainly and Infallibly Accepted into Union and Communion with the Lord Jesus in his Adhering to him and Produce no other Confidence in the Soul than this that I even I this Unlovely Soul of mine in Adhering to the Lord Jesus shall Infallibly have Union and Communion with him to all Eternity then saith the Soul even after the Witness of the Spirit unto the Soul it may remain doubtful of its Union with Christ still seeing by this Testimony of the Spirit unto Faith the Soul is not assured of his own Cleaving and Adhering unto Christ and seeing the certainty that the Spirit giveth by the Testimony to the Souls Faith of his Union with Christ hath its whole Dependance upon the certainty of the Souls Cleaving and Adhering unto Christ Ans 1. For Answer to this Grand Objection First When this Testimony of the Spirit is given unto the Souls Faith and he is assured that his particular Unlovely Forlorn Soul shall certainly and Infallibly be accepted into union with the Lord Jesus in his resting upon Christ for union it is not then possible that there should be any Solid Ground