hony comb with the end of my nod and if this presence of Christ's Spirit I feel now be so sweet what is himself then 3. Thirdly Labour for increase of love familiarity with Jesus Christ by taking notice of him by coming often to him by musing daily on his love as on a fresh thing by banishing slavish false fears of his forgetfulness of you and want of everlasting love towards you and then you know love will carry you speedily to him amor meus pondus meum nay grant that you have been a stranger to Christ yet restore the love of Christ to life again in your Soul and when you come to his ordinances where he dwells your Soul will make its first enquiry for him neither will it be satisfied till it has seen him as we do them we love towards whom we have been greatest strangers Quest 5. Your fifth trouble is you know not how to apply absolute promises to your self as in Heb. 8. because they are made indefinitely without condition Conditional promises you say you can if you can find the qualification that gives you right to the good of the promise within you Answ This useful fruitful question how to apply absolute promises to ones particular deserves a larger time and answer than now in the midst of perplexities I am able yet willing to give For when the Lord saith absolutely without condition that he will take away the stony heart and he will put his fear into his peoples hearts c. and these kind of promises are made to some not to all to those only whom the Lord will and in general to his people Hereupon the Souls of many Christians especially such as question Gods love towards them are most in suspence and therefore when they complain of the vileness of their hearts strength of the lusts let any man tell them that the Lord has undertaken in the Second covenant to heal their backslidings and to subdue their iniquities they will hereupon reply it is true he has promised indeed to do thus for some absolutely tho' they have no good in them but I that feel so vile a heart so rebellious a nature will he do this for me or no and thus the Soul floats above water yet fears it shall sink at last notwithstanding all that God has said I will answer therefore briefly these two things in general 1. I shall shew you to what end and for what use and purpose Go has made absolute promises not only to them that be for the present bâ—â— people but to them that in respect their estates and condition are not 2. I shall shew you how every Christian is to make use of them and how and when he ought to apply them For the first of these 1. First I conceive that as in respect of God himself there are many ends which I shall not mention as being needless so in respect of man there are principally these two ends for which the Lord has made absolute promises 1. To raise up the Soul of a helpless sinful cursed lost sinner in his own eyes to some hope at least of mercy and help from the Lord. For thus usually every mans Soul is wrought to whom the Lord doth intend grace and mercy he first turns his eyes inward and makes him to see he is stark naught and that he has not one dram of grace in him who thought himself rich and wanting nothing before and consequently that he is under the curse and wrath of God for the present and that if the Lord should but stop his breath and cover his face and take him away which he may easily do and this to be feared he will that he is undon forever Hereupon the Soul is awakened falls to his kitchin physick as I spake before prays and hears and amends and strives to grow better and to stop up every hole to amend it self of every sin but finding it self to grow worse and worse and perceiving thereby that he doth but stir not cleanse the puddle and that it is not amending of nature that he must attain to but he must believe and make a long arm to Heaven and apprehend the Lord Jesus which so few know or ever shall enjoy and hereby quench the wrath of God I say finding he cannot do thus no nor no means of themselves can help him to this hereupon he is for saken of all his self-wisdom and of all his vain hopes and now sits down like a desolate widow comfortless and sorrowful and thinks there is no way but death and hell the wrath of a displeased God to be expected And if any come and tell this Soul of Gods mercy and pity to sinners I saith he its true he is even infinitely merciful unto them who are rent from their sins and that can believe but that I cannot do am sure shall never be able for to do therefore what cause have I but to lie down in my sorrow to expect my fatal stroke every moment Reply again upon this Soul tell him that tho' he cannot believe or loosen his heart from sin yet that the Lord has promised to do it that he will subdue all his iniquity and he will pardon all his sin and that he will cause men to walk in his ways c. True saith the Soul again he will do thus for his own people and for them he has chosen but I never had dram of grace in my heart and there is no evidence that the Lord is mine own or that I am his Here again the Soul lies down until the Lord discovers to the Soul that he will do these things for some that have no grace or never had grace for these promises were made to such Hereupon the Soul thinks thus these promises are made for some that are filthy for why should God pour clean water upon them for some that be hard-hearted for why should he promise to take away the stony heart from them c. and if unto some such and I being such a one why may not the Lord possibly intend and include me seeing he has not by his promise excluded nor shut me out Indeed I dare not say he will but yet how do I or men or Angels know but yet I may be one Hereupon Hope is raised to life again seeing God has undertaken the work for the vilest it is possible he may do it for me now when I am vile and can do nothing for my self And thus you may see the first end and use of absolute promises to be as it were twiggs to uphold the sinking Spirits of hopeless helpless distressed Souls 2. The Second end and Use of them is this To create and draw out faith in Jesus Christ in the promises For as the Law begets terror so the promises beget Faith Now no conditional promise firstly begets Faith because he that is under any condition of the Gospel in that man there
is a presupposed faith Its Gods absolute promise that firstly begets faith for faith is not assurance but the coming of the whole Soul to Christ in a promise John 6. 3 5. And then the Soul believes in Christ when it comes to Christ now this God works in the Gospel 1. The Soul is raised up by hope And being raised it Secondly comes to Christ which is faith by vehement unutterable desire And being come to him it 3. Embraceth Christ by love and thus the match is made and the everlasting knot is tied Now as you have heard the absolute promise works hope of relief from Christ and if it works hope it also works a desire or coming to Christ by desire Oh! that thou Lord wouldst honour thy grace thy power thy love thy promise in helping me a poor cast-away And thus faith is created as it were by this absolute promise for it cannot but move the heart of any one that ever felt his want to cry mightily to the Lord for help if he has any hope seeing the Lord has promised to do it for some Oh saith the Soul that thou wouldst do it for me And surely were it not for this absolute promise of God no Soul would desire because he would have â—o hope to be saved or to seek for any thing as from the hands of God And thus you see to what end God makes and to what use a Christian may put these absolute promises 2. For the second thing viz How and How to apply Absolute Promises when a Christian may apply these promises I answer every Christian is either 1. Within Covenant with God and knows it or 2. Within covenant with God and knows it not or 3. Out of covenant indeed for his present estate and condition yet he is in fieri or making towards it 1. If he be in Covenant and knows it then you may easily perceive how and when he ought to apply promises unto himself for he may boldly conclude If God be his God then all the promises of God shall be made good unto him if he be a Son of God he may boldly challengeatall times at the hands of God nay if in some respects at the hands of Justice it self the fulfilling oâ— God the Fathers will delivered in the several Legacies of the promise bought by the blood sealed by the same blood of Jesus Christ that they may and shall be made good unto him that is clear 2. Secondly If he be in Covenant and knows it not and questions hence whether God is his or not and consequently whether the promises belong unto him then the rule is to be observed let him so sue and seek for the good of the absolute promise until by reflecting upon his own acts herein he perceive himself adorned and dignified with the qualification of some conditional promise and then if he can find the condition or qualification within himself then as you judge and write he may conclude that the conditional promise belongs to him if one promise then all Gods promises and therefore that absolute promises are his own because at least one condional promise is For no unregenerate man is within the compass of any one conditional promise of grace unless you will say he is under the everlasting love of God the promises of grace being but the mid-way between the eternal purpose and decree of love and the glorious certain execution of that love in time The promise being the break day of Gods most glorious love which must shine out in time Object But here you will say is the difficulty viz. how I should so seek for the good of absolute promises as therein to find may self within the compass of some conditional one I answer It is done chiefly by three acts 1. By being humbly contented that seeing the Lord has absolutely promised to work and do all for the Soul he intends for to save even when it can do nothing for it self and that he has taken the work into his own hands so that it is his promise offer office and honour to do all that therefore you lie down not sluggishly but humbly at the feet of God and contented to have him to be your God and for ever to be disposed of in any thing by God if he will fulfil his covenant in you contented to part with any sin if he will rend it from you contented to know any truth if he will reveal it to you contented to do any duty if he will enable you contented to shine bright with all his glorious graces if he will create and maintain them in you contented to bear any evil if he will lay his hand under your head and thereunto strengthen you and so seeing the Lord promised to undertake the work for some put out the work and put over your Soul to him that he would fulfil the good that his covenant promiseth in your self Now when you do thus which no question you and many a Soul doth many times reflect upon this act and see if you cannot or may not find your self by it under the condition of some conditional promise and if you do then are you bound to believe all Gods promises are and will be Yea and Amen unto you Now that you do so by this act it self speaks plainly for how many conditional promises are made to the meek Blessed are the meek Mat. 5. and to the humble whom God will raise up For this is not saving meekness to be quietly contented to be or to do or to bear any thing that the Lord will have me from mine own strength and feeling but to be to do or to bear any thing that the Lord will have me if the Lord enable me Many a stout heart would gladly have Christ but if he cannot have him in his own terms viz. Christ and his lusts Christ and the world too or by his own strength and power he will have none of him but desperately casts him away and saith what shall I look after him any more I cannot pray I cannot believe I cannot break this vile and unruly will this stony adamant hearr thus the pride of a mans heart works Now he that is truly meekned and humbled he is contented gladly to have God his God and Christ his Redeemer and that upon Jesus Christ his own terms First on his own covenant now what is that why it is this I will give you the good and work in you the condition to I will give you my self and therefore will not stick to give you an eye to see and a heart to receive too This is the covenant now hereupon a humbled Soul accepts of Christ according to his covenant on his own terms thus viz. Upon that condition Lord that thou wilt humble me teach me perswade me cause me to believe and in every thing to honour thee Lord I am contented gladly and joyfully to have thee do therefore what thou wilt with me Just as
rationally wrapt up in the Covenant of grace Indeed gross scandalous sins nay infirmities when they are given way to and not resisted may keep the soul from the fruition for a time of Gods Covenant but never from the eternal jus and right unto it for as the habit of Faith or Grace gives a man a constant right to the promise and Covenant which seed ever remains which habit ever lasts Jer. 3. 9. so the act of Faith or Grace gives a man fruition of the Covenant and the benefit of the promise and hence by the acting and venting of some sins wherein there is included the neglect of the exercise of grace He that is really in covenant with God may be deprived of the fruition of it yet seeing the seed of God and the habit of grace ever remains he cannot by any sin break his covenant for the covenant of grace is absolute wherein the Lord doth not only promise the good but to begin perfect fulfil the condition absolutly without respect of sin ex parte creaturae Indeed if Gods covenant of Grace did as that of works depend upon man to fulfil the condition having sufficient grace to fulfil it then gross sin might well break the Covenant but seeing God hath undertaken to fulfil the Covenant absolutely not withstanding all the evils and sins of the soul no sin can possibly break that knot and covenant which so firm and resolute love hath once knit And therefore if this be a good argument Infirmities cannot break covenant What cause have I to be humbled for them so as to say It is thy mercy Lord that I am not consumed for them as you write you may upon the same ground say so If the Lord should desert you or you for Take the Lord and so fall into the foulest sin which I suppose corrupt conscience dares not be so bold as to think or allow of 2. Secondly I say the least sins or infirmities do break the first covenant of works and hence you do not only deserve but are under the sentence of death and curse of God immediatly after the least hairs-breadth swarving from the Law by the smallest sin and most involuntary accidental infirmity According to the Tenor of the Law the soul that sinneth shall die and cursed is he that continueth not in all things of the Law Gal. 3. 10. The least sin being ex parte objecti in respect of God against whom it is committed as horrible and as great as the greatest For it being an infinite wrong being the dishonour of an infinite Majesty there can be no greater wrong than an infinite one unless you can imagin a thing greater than that which is insinite and therefore in this respect there is as much venom and mischief done against God in the least as in the greatest sin And therefore it and whosoever commit it deserve death for it as if they had committed the foulest sin in the world and therefore after the least and smallest infirmities you may from hence see what cause you have freely to be humbled and to confess for them how worthy you are to be destroyed yea even to look upon your self as lying under the sentence of the Law and death immediately after the commission of them and so to mourn bitterly for them Object But you will say a Christian that is under the Covenant of Grace is not within the Covenant of Works that Bond is cancelled the last will must stand and therefore he being out of that Covenant no sins of his can be said to break the Covenant for no man can be said to break that Law under which he is not and which he is not bound to keep Answ I answer every Believer has a double being or standing and so there may be put upon him a double respect 1. First he may be considered as united to and having a spiritual being on Christ and so it is true he is under Grace and the Covenant of Grace and not under the Law nor the Covenant of works and hence not being under the Law nor bound to keep it as a covenant of life tho' it be a rule of life no sin can condemn him there being no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. But as Christ is above condemnation and law and death and curse so is he And this truly understood is the foundation of a Christians joy and peace and glory every day yet so as tho' sin doth not condemn him yet he has good reason to say it is mercy and meer mercy Lord that I am not consumed that I am condemned For sin is the same nay grace and Gods love aggravates sin for to sin against the law deserves death without recovery but to sin when grace has received me and loved me when the blood of Christ has been shed abundantly to deliver me from sin Oh this makes the most secret silent sin a crying one So that if you do consider this well you may see what little cause there is to have your heart rising against the deepest humilation for the least sin tho' you be in Christ and under grace For as Daniel when he was put into the Lions den had not the cause to wonder that he was not torn in pieces by them and why because it was not from any defect on their parts to tear him in pieces but from the omnipotent power and mercy and grace of his God that muzzell'd their mouths so tho' no Lion can â—ear tho' no sins can hurt or condemn a Christian as he is considered in Christ yet has not he cause to confess and wonder and say Lord it is thy meer grace and mercy that it is not so which is the act of humilation your letter saith you can hardly come unto and why not because Gods grace puts any less evil in sin but because it is meerly grace that keeps it from spitting that venom which otherwise it would Secondly A Christian may be considered in respect of his natural being in hiâ—â—elf and thus he is ever under the Law and as oft as he sinneth under the sentence of death and as the Apostle speaks by naâ—ure even we justified quickned are the children of wrath as well as others And thus after the least involuntary accidental sin you may easily see what cause you have to lie down deeply humbled mourning under the sentence of death and Gods eternal curse as a condemned man going to execution to feel that fire that shall never go out looking upon your self as you are in your self a forlorn cast-away every moment and this truly understood is the foundation of a Christians sorrow shame and confusion of face self-loathing self-forgetting self-forsaking and condemning every day and believe it Sir it is no small Piece of a Christians skill and work to put a difference between himself and himself himself as he is in Christ and so to joy and triumph and himself as he is growing on
a sick man tells his Physician who comes not to him on these terms If you will make your self half whole then I will cure you and do the rest for you but being utterly unable to cure or to know how to cure himself he tells his Physician I am content you should begin and perfect the cure and so honour your skill and love in me to be contented to take any thing if you will give it me and if I offer to resist that you should bind me and so do any thing with me 2. The second act is earnestly to long and come to Christ to cleave unto Jesus Christ by fervent and ardent desire that he would make good those absolute promises to you seeing that they are made to some and that they do not exclude you for when you ponder well and see what wonderful great things the Lord promiseth to some whose heart cannot but be stirred up to say as that woman in another case Lord give me of that water to drink and as they in the fifth of John Lord evermore give us that bread Now doing this reflect upon this Second act and see if unto it no conditional promise belongs and you shall find an affirmative answer from the word For what is this longing afteâ— the good not of some which many hypocrites do but of all the promises but that which the Scripture calls thirsting who are commanded to come drink of the waters of life freely Isa 55. 1 2. and hungring to which all good things are promised Mat. 5. 6. and which coming to Christ as I spake even now who has given this as the first fruit of eternal election and which kind of people he will never cast away John 6. 37. Now when you see these promises belonging unto you why dare you not conclude but that all these absolute ones are yours also 3. The third act is this Seeing God hath promised absolutely such good things in the Second Covenant but hath not set down the time when or how much grace he will give and seeing only he can help therefore look up and wait upon the Lord in the use of all known means until he makes good what he hath promised to do and perform and work for you Say as beggars that have but one door to go to for bread if none hear or hearing help not lay themselves down at the door and say I will wait here I am sure I perish if I go away or quarrel with them in the house because they help me not so soon as I would and therefore â— will wait for it may be their compassions may move them as they pass by to help me So do you Many a Soul comes and longs for the good of the Promises but if the Lord do not speedily help him he goes with discouragements fears and discontents or despair or sin away and saith one of these two things either I shall never have help or I come not truly and hence I feel no help Oh remember that bread is only to be had at the door to be distributed when the Lord seeth need not when we would or think we have need and therefore wait here and say if I perish here I will at the feet of God and at the feet of the promises and covenant of God c. Now reflect upon this act and see if you may not find some conditional promise annexed unto it which surely you may and I will name you but two Isa 40. 29 30 31. Isa 64. 4. and if the conditional promise belongs to such a Soul you may easily conclude the absolute promises are your own and the chiefest use you are to make of them when you know them that they are your own is to press God to make them good daily to you and to believe as verily and really as if you had the performance of them that they shall It may be you will ask me how shall I know whether I have these conditions truly in me I answer sincerity is a very witnessing grace the frequent meditation of the Scripture will give you much light to judge of the sincerity of them and that which Saint Paul speaks 1 Cor. 2. 12. I say unto you We have not received the spirit of the World but of God whereby we know or may know the things that are freely given to us of God 3. Thirdly If he be out of the covenant but yet God begins to work with some common work of his grace upon him all that I would say to him and all the use he can make of such absolute promises consists in these things 1. Let him consider the freeness of God's promise whereby he may be stirred up to conceive some hope it may be made good to him in time For the promise is very free large excluding none except those that sin unpardonably be their sins and natures never so vile before God and yet not including any by name for that is in the conditional promise and hence such an one is to make this use of it who knows but the Lord may have pity upon me in time and so hang thy hope upon him 2. Let him consider the worth and price of Gods promise bought by blood and for which some men would give a thousand worlds for the benefit comfort of and hereby raise up his heart as by the freeness of it to hope so by the price of it to esteem of the thing promised above pearls and all the honour and pomp of the world 3. Let him consider the fulness of the promise which is a plaister as big as his foâ—e just answerable to all his wants nay infinitely more large than his wants And surely these three things will draw his heart to long for the promise and then you know what is conditionally promised and bequeathed to them that thirst For similitude is the ground of love Now when the fulness of the Promise is seen there will appear such a suteableness and fitness of the promise to his soul that he cannot but long for it thus much for the fifth trouble Quest Your sixth trouble set down in two heads put into one for brevity viz. secret unwillingness to seek God in the strictest solemn services before you enter into them weariness of them while they last and glad when they are gone the reasons which you mention are partly fear of not using them aright together with melancholy lastly the strictness of them Answ It is very true there is abundance of wildness in our hearts which naturally seek to have their liberty abroad and cannot endure to be pent in the narrow room of holy performances extraordinary duties c. no more than children can be pent up from their play And hence it is weary of them and glad to think of their departures and ends And truly it is one of the most grievous miseries that a holy heart can feel and I beseech the Lord of heaven and earth
question to know whether these changes you have sometimes these movings of the Spirit are not of natural temper or Gods Spirit It seems I did a little mistake the meaning because you meant not the main work of grace but occasional stirrings and movings of heart as by reading some pathetical Letter your Spirit is moved with joy or sorrow which it may be will not be stirred at some other time as by drinking a cup of wine the spirit is made more chearful lively c. Answ I answer these three things 1. First That it is very usual for natural affections to be raised by a natural temper as by drinking eating noveltiness of the Gospel John's candle flies were ravished with the Gospel People are naturally moved sometimes by a thundring Minister yet never a whit the more grace c. and it is a good speech of Doctor Ames Arminian universal grace as they describe it may be the effect of a good dinner sometimes 2. That tho' the being of grace depends not upon the temper of the body yet the exercise of grace and many gifts of grace together with the feeling of it doth And hence a good dinner and sometimes wine to a sad melancholy if gracious heart may remove rem prohibentem that may keep grace as joy thankfulness from working and so take the grace and draw it out not create and diffuse the grace The Prophet called you know for a Minstril which some think and that upon good grounds was to raise up his heavy heart and make him chearful and fit to speak the body is the instrument which if it be broken the best grace will hardly sound but if whole then they will 3. If you would know when these things only draw out grace or make a thing like unto grace in the Soul I answer by chese two things chiefly 1. If it be true grace it ever makes you more humble and vile in your own eyes and say Lord why dost thou gâ—ve me any desire to thee any chearfulness in serving thee c. 2. It makes you more thankful to bless the Lord that he thus remembers you for this is a standing rule what ever comes from nature and a mans self it ever builds up it self and returns to self again what ever grace comes from Christ it drives a man out of himself by making him humble and draws him unto Christ that sent him by making him thankful I think all grace and stirrings and movings that have not this double effect in some measure are to be suspected and if they have it is dangerous to doubt whether they are true or no. 5. Again Your fifth thing about providence you say you cannot see a positive providence altho' you do see a negative providence in all your occasions and comforts and crosses you meet withal as namely you can thank God for not taking away your life c. but you cannot see God giving it Answ 1. I answer 1. Consider what I writ to you at first about this question in general 2. Ponder sadly whether any creature or appurtenance to it has its being from it self or from the will and word of God viz. I will have such a man to be and such a memory to be c. I think you will say nothing can make it self therefore here is a positive Providence in life liberty c. 3. Consider whether the same will and word that gives it a being together with all the appurtenances to it doth not also give it act and motion That it is so I thus demonstrate it 1. Every creature is made for an end for no wise efficient but works for some wise end 2. That no creature can lead it self to its end if sinful or irrational 3. God must and doth lead it by its several acts and movings to that end Hence 4. Every act is determined by God And altho' I grant some creatures move freely some necessarily yet it is from a positive will and providence that they move act and see Therefore you see what cause there is to see a positive providence in every thing Concerning the rest of your letter Oh that I had time and heart to writ more yet I hope I have writ enough for this time and the Lord knows whether ever more or no. However I thank you heartily for improving me this way of writing who have my mouth stopt from speaking I wish I had more such friends to deal thus with me and my self more time and a more fruitful head and heart to improve my self this or any other like way for them For who knows what breathings of Gods Spirit are lost for want of writing especially when there is no season of speaking Truly Sir I meet with few that are much troubled in that manner as your self but they go on in an easie quiet and very dangerous way which troubles I perswade my self keep you awaking when other virgins are slumbring and after which I am perswaded the Lord intends to use you for more than common service if you wade well through them however as I said before be not discouraged or too much perplexed in sorrow for them For surely as far as I can guess the Lord is preparing you for himself by them I shall not forget you tho' I never saw you and I beseech you if have any spark of affection toward me kindl'd by these fewlines remember when you are best able to pray for your self to remember to look after me and mine all that go with me on the mighty waters and then to look up sigh to Heaven for me that the Lord would out of his free grace but bring me to that good land those glorious Ordinances and that there I may but behold the face of the Lord in his Temple tho' he never delight to use me there tho' I and mine should possibly beg there and that if the Lord should call me to my solemn work and service for the good of his Church People company that go with me or are gone before me that then the Lord Jesus would reveal his secrets to me enable me the little time I have to live to be fruitful to him and to have a larger heart than ever for him as for yourself I shall desire the Lord to keep you blameless and unspotted in an evil world and that as he has begun so he would perfect crown his divine graces work in you that you may be perserved from national sins which shortly bring national and most heavy plagues And the presence of the Lord may abide with you and in you until the Lord call for you Remember my kind love to your Father whose name I have forgot and by whom I could not send these lines being then hindred by business Now the peace of Jesus Christ be with you keep you upright blameless till death And if I never see you more till the last and great day
for the procuring and meriting of life and this is called his Active Obedience Heb. 7. 26. Q. What follows Christs Humiliation A. His Exaltation which is his glorious victory and open Triumph over all his and our enemies sin Satan and death in the several degrees of it Luk. 24. 26. Phil. 2. 8 9. 1 Cor. 15. 5 7. A. What is the first degree of Christs Exaltation A. His Resurrection the third day whereby his Soul body by the power of the God-head were brought together again and so rose again from death appearing to his Disciples for the space of 40 days 1 Cor. 15. 4. Ioh. 2. 19. Act. 1. 3. Q. What is the second degree of Christs Exaltation A. His Ascension into Heaven which was the going up of the Manhood into the third heaven by the power of the God-head from Mount Olives in the sight of his Disciples Act. 1. 11 12. Q What is the third degree of his Exaltation A. His sitting at the right hand of God whereby he being advanced to the fulness of all glory in both natures governeth and ruleth all things together with the Father as Lord over all for the good of his people Mark 16. 9. Psal 110. 1. 1 Cor. 15. 25. Eph. 1. 20 21 22. 1 Pet. 3. 22. Q. What is the fourth and last degree of his Exaltation A. His return to Judgment which is his second coming into this world with great glory and Majesty to judge the quick and the dead to the confusion of all them that would not have him rule over them and to the unspeakable good of his people Mat. 19. 28. 2 Tim. 4. 1. Acts 17. 31. 2 Thes 1. 7 8 9. Q. Thus much of Redemption the first part of his Recovery What is application A. Whereby the Spirit by the Word and Ministry thereof makes all that which Christ as Mediator hath done for the Church efficacious to the Church as her own Ioh. 16. 14. Tit. 3. 5 6 7. Ioh. 10 16. Rom. 10. 14 17. Eph. 5 25 26. Q. What is the Church A. The number of Gods Elect. Heb. 12. 23 Ioh. 17. 9. 10 11. Ioh. 10. 16. Ep. 1. 22 23. Q. How doth the Spirit make application to the Church A. 1. By union of the Soul to Christ Phil. 3. 9 10. 2. By Commnnion of the benefits of Christ to the Soul Q. What is this Union A. Whereby the Lord joyning the Soul to Christ makes it one Spirit with Christ and so gives it possession of Christ and right unto all the benefits and blessings of Christ 1 Cor. 6. 17. Ioh. 17. 21. Rom. 8. 32. 1 Ioh. 5. 12. Q. How doth the Spirit make this Union A. Two ways first By cutting off the Soul from the old Adam or the wild Olive Tree in the work of preparation Rom. 11. 23 24. 2. By putting or ingrafting the Soul into the second Adam Christ Jesus by the work of vocation Act 26. 18. Q. VVhat are the parts of the preparation of the Soul for Christ A. They are two 1. Contrition whereby the Spirit immediatly cuts off the Soul from its security in sin by making it to mourn for it and separating the Soul from it as the greatest evil Isa 61. 1 3. Jer. 4. 3 4. Mat. 11. 20 28. 2. Humiliation whereby the Spirit cuts the Soul off from self-confidence in any good it hath or doth Especially by making it to feel its want unworthiness of Christ and hence submitteth to be disposed of as God pleaseth Phil. 3. 7 8. Luk. 16. 9. Luk. 15. 17 18 19. Q. VVhat are the parts of vocation of the Soul to Christ A. 1. The Lords call and invitation of the Soul to come to Christ in the Revelation and offer of Christ and his rich Grace 2 Cor. 5. 10. 2. The receiving of Christ or the coming of the whole Soul out of it self unto Christ for Christ by virtue of the irresistable power of the Spirit in the call and this is Faith Jer. 3. 22. Ioh. 6. 44 45. Ioh. 10. 16. Esa 55. 5. Q. Thus much of our Union VVhat is the communion of Christs benefits unto the Soul A. Whereby the Soul possessed with Christ and right unto him hath by the same Spirit fruition of him and all his benefits Ioh. 4. 10. 14. Q. VVhat is the first of those benefits we do enjoy from Christ A. Justification which is the Gracious Sentence of God the Father whereby for the satisfaction of Christ apprehended by Faith imputed to the faithful he absolves them from the guilt condemnation of all sins accepts them as perfectly righteous to eternal life Rom. 3. 24 25. Rom. 4. 6 7 8. Rom. 8. 33 34. Q. VVhat difference is there between Justification and Sanctification A 1. Justification is by Christs righteousness inherent in Christ only Sanctification is by a righteousness from Christ inherent in our selves 2. Cor. 5. 21. Phil. 3. 9. 2. Justification is perfected at once and admits of no degrees because it is by Christ his perfect righteousness Sanctification is imperfect being begun in this life Rev. 12 1. Phil. 3. 11. Q. What is the second benefit next in order to Justification which the faithful receive from Christ A. Reconciliation whereby a Christian justified is actually reconciled at peace with God Rom. 5. 1. Ioh. 2. 12. hence follows his peace with all creatures Q. VVhat is the third benefit next unto Reconciliation A. Adoption whereby the Lord accounts the faithful his Sons crowns them with priviledges of Sons gives them the Spirit of Adoption the same spirit which is in his only begotten Son Ioh. 3. 2. Rom. 8. 11 14 15 16 17. Q. VVhat is the fourth benefit next to Adoption A. Sanctification whereby the sons of God are renewed in the whole man unto the Image of their heavenly Father in Christ Jesus by Mortification or their daily dying to sin by virtue of Christs death and by Vivification their daily rising to newness of life by Christs resurrection 1 Thes 5. 23 Eph. 4. 24. Jer. 31. 32. Rom. 6. 7 8. Q. VVhat follows from this Mortification and Vivification A. A continual war combat between the renewed part assisted by Father Son and Holy Ghost the unrenewed part assisted by Satan this evil world Rom. 7. 21 22 23. Q. VVhat is the fifth and last benefit next unto Sanctification A. Glorification which hath two degrees The one in this life and the other in the world to come Q. VVhat is the first degree of Glorification in this life A. Lively expectation of Glory from the assurance and shedding abroad Gods love in our hearts working joy unspeakable Rom. 5. 2 5. Tit. 2. 13. Q. VVhat is the second degree in the world to come A. Full fruition of Glory whereby being made compleat and perfect in Holiness and Happiness we enjoy all that good eye hath not seen nor ear hath heard in our Immediate and Eternal Communion with God in Christ Heb. 12. 23. 1 Cor.