that it is the proper nature and tendency of Baptism to guide us to Faith in Christ alone for remission of Sins Holiness and all Salvation by Union and Fellowship with him and that a diligent improvement of this Ordinance must needs be of great advantage to the Life of Faith 5. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is as a spiritual Feast to nourish our Faith and to strengthen us to walk in all Holiness by Christ living and working in us if it be used according to the Patern which Christ gave us in its first Institution recorded by Three Evangelists Mat. 26.26 Mar. 14.22 24. Luk. 22.19 20. and was extrordinarily revealed from Heaven by Christ himself to the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 11.23 25. that we might be the more obliged and stirred up to the exact Observation of it It s end is not only that we may remember Christs Death in the History but in the Mystery of it as that his Body was broken for us that his Blood is the Blood of the New Testament or Covenant shed for us and for many for the remission of Sins that so we may receive and enjoy all the Promises of the New Covenant which are recorded Heb. 8.12 It s end is to mind us that Christs Body and Blood are Bread and Drink even all-sufficient Food to nourish our Souls to everlasting Life and that we ought to take and eat and drink him by Faith and to assure us that when we truly believe on him he is as really and closely united to us by his Spirit as the Food which we eat and drink is united to our Bodies Christ himself Joh. 6. doth more fully explain this Mystery Furthermore this Sacrament doth not only put us in mind of the spiritual Blessings wherewith we are Blessed in Christ and our Enjoyment of them by Faith but also it is a Mean and Instrument whereby God doth really exhibit and give forth Christ and his Salvation to true Believers and whereby he doth stir up and strengthen Believers to receive and feed upon Christ by present actings of Faith while they partake of the outward Elements When Christ saith eat drink this is my body this is my blood no less can be meant than that Christ doth as truly give his Body and Blood to true Believers in that Ordinance as the Bread and Cup and they do as truly receive it by Faith As if a Prince invest a Subject in some Honourable Office by delivering to him a Staff Sword or Signet and say to him take this Staff Sword or Signet this is such an Office or Preferment or if a Father should deliver a Deed for Conveyance of Land to his Son and say take it as thine own this is such a Farm or Mannor how can such Expressions import any less in common Senfe and Reason than a Present Gift and Conveyance of the Offices Preferments and Lands by and with those outward Signs Therefore the Apostle Paul asserteth that the bread in the Lords supper is the communion of the body of Christ and the cup is the communion of his blood 1 Cor. 10.16 which sheweth that Christ's Body and Blood are really communicated to us and we do really partake of them as well as of the Bread and Cup. The chief Excellency and Advantage of this Ordinance is That it is not only a Figure and Resemblance of our living upon a crucified Saviour but also a precious Instrument whereby Christ the Bread and Drink of Life is really conveyed to us and received by us through Faith This makes it to be a Love-Token worthy of that ardent Affection toward us which filled Christ's Heart at the time when he instituted it when he was on the point of finishing of his greatest work of Love by laying down his Life for us 1 Cor. 11.23 And this is diligently to be observed that we may make a right improvement of this Ordinance and receive the saving Benesits of it One reason why many do little esteem and seldom or never partake of this Ordinance and do find little benefit by it is because they falsly imagine that God in it only holds forth naked signs and resemblances of Christ and his Salvation which they account to be held forth so plainly in Scripture that they need not the help of such a sign Whereas if they understood that God doth really give Christ himself to their Faith by and with those Signs and Resemblances they would prize it as the most delicious Feast and be desirous to partake of it on all opportunities Acts 2.42 and 20.7 Another reason why many partake seldom or never of this Ordinance and know little of the benefit of it is because they think themselves brought by it into great danger of eating and drinking their own Damnation according to those terrifying words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.29 therefore they account it the safest way wholly to abstain from such a dangerous Ordinance or at least that once a year is enough to run so great a Hazard And if they be brought to it sometimes by constraint of Conscience their slavish Fears bereave them of all comfortable Fruit of it So that instead of striving to receive Christ and his Salvation therein they account themselves to have succeeded well if they come off without the Sentence of Damnation As the Jewish Rabbies write that the High-Priests Life was so eminently hazarded by his entring once a year into the Holy of Holies that he stayed there as little time as he could lest the People should think him to be struck dead by the Hand of God And when he was come forth alive he usually made a Feast of Thanksgiving for Joy of so great a Deliverance But there is no reason why we should be so much terrified by those words of the Apostle for they were darted against such a gross prophanation of the Lords Supper amongst the Corinthians as we may easily avoid by observing the Institution of it which the Apostle proposeth to them as a sufficient remedy against the gross abuse in not discerning or differencing the Lords Body from other bodily Food and partaking of it as their own Supper with such disorder that one was Hungry and another Drunken Besides that terrifying word Damnation may be rendred more mildly Judgment as it is in the Margent yea the Apostle himself Ver. 32. doth interpret it of a merciful temporal Judgment whereby we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the World We are indeed prone to sin in receiving this Ordinance unworthily and so we are also to pollute more or less all other holy things that we meddle with So that the consideration of our danger might sill us with slavish fear in the use of all other means of Grace as well as of this were it not that we have a great High-Priest to bear this Iniquity of our holy things Exod. 28.38 under the Covert of whose Righteousness we are to draw near unto God without
without blemish that he might redeem us from all iniquity by his precious Blood 1 Pet. 1.18 19 20. and he had the same Spirit then which filled his humane Nature with all its fulness afterwards and raised it from the dead and he gave that Spirit then to the Church 1 Pet. 1.11 3.18 19. Now this Spirit was able and effectual to unite those Saints to that Flesh which Christ was to take to himself in the fulness of Time because he was the same in both and to give out to them that Grace with which Christ would afterwards fill his Flesh for their Salvation as well as ours Therefore David accounted Christ's Flesh to be his and spake of Christ's Death and Resurrection as his own before hand as fully as any of us can do since their Accomplishment Psal 16.9 10 11. My flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption thou wilt shew me the path of life Yea and Saints before Davids time did all eat of the same spiritual meat and drink of the same spiritual drink even of the same Christ as we do and therefore were Partakers of the same Priviledge of Union and Fellowship with Christ 1 Cor. 10.3 4. And when Christ was manifested in the Flesh in the fulness of time all things in Heaven and on Earth all the Saints departed whose Spirits were then made perfect in Heaven as well as the Saints that then were or should afterward be on Earth were gathered together in one and comprehended in Christ as their Head Ephes 1.10 And he was the chief corner-stone in whom the building of the whole Church upon the foundation of the Prophets before and the Apostles after his comming being fitly fromed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord Ephes 2.20 21. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 His incarnation death and resurrection were the cause of all the Holiness that ever was or shall be given to Man from the Fall of Adam to the end of the World and that by the mighty Power of his Spirit whereby all Saints that ever were or shall be are joyned together to be Members of that one mystical Body whereof he is the Head DIRECT IV. The Means or Instruments whereby the Spirit of God accomplisheth our Vnion with Christ and our Fellowship with him in all Holiness are the Gospel whereby Christ entereth into our Hearts to work Faith in us and Faith whereby we actually receive Christ himself with all his Fulness into our Hearts And this Faith is a Grace of the Spirit whereby we heartily believe the Gospel and also believe on Christ as he is revealed and freely promised to us therein for all his Salvation EXPLICATION THAT which I asserted in the foregoing Direction concerning the necessity of our being in Christ and having Christ in us by a mystical Union to enable us for an holy Practice might put us to a stand in our Endeavours for Holiness because we cannot imagine how we should be able to raise our selves above our natural Sphere to his glorious Union and Fellowship until God be pleased to make known to us by supernatural revelation the means whereby his Spirit maketh us Partakers of so high a Privilege But God is pleased to help us at a stand to go on forward by revealing two Means or Instruments whereby his Spirit accomplisheth the mystical Union and Fellowship betwixt Christ and us and whereby rational Creatures are capable of attaining thereunto by his Spirit working in them One of these Means is the Gospel of the Grace of God wherein God doth make known to us the unsearchable Riches of Christ and Christ in us the hope of Glory Eph. 3.8 Col. 1.27 and doth also invite us and command us to believe on Christ for his Salvation and doth encourage us by a free Promise of that Salvation to all that believe on him Acts 16.31 Rom. 10.9 11. This is God's own Instrument of Conveyance wherein he sendeth Christ to us to bless us with his Salvation Acts 3.26 It is the ministration of the spirit and of righteousness 2 Cor. 3.6 8 9. Faith cometh by the hearing of it and therefore it is a great instrument whereby we are begotten in Christ and Christ is formed in us Rom. 10.16 17. 1 Cor. 4.15 Gal. 4.19 There is no need for us to say in our Hearts Who shall ascend into Heaven to bring Christ down from above Or who shall descend into the deep to bring up Christ from the dead that we may be united and have fellowship with him in his death and resurrection For the word is nigh to us the Gospel the word of Faith in which Christ himself graciously condescendeth to be nigh to us so that we may come at him there without going any further if we desire to be joyned to him Rom. 10.6 7 8. The other of these means is Faith that is wrought in us by the Gospel This is our Instrument of Reception whereby the Union betwixt Christ and us is accomplished on our part by our actual receiving of Christ himself with all his Fulness into our Hearts which is the principal Subject of the present Explanation The Faith which Philosophers commonly treat of is only an Habit of the Understanding whereby we assent to a Testimony upon the Authority of the Testifier Accordingly some would have Faith in Christ to be no more than a believing the truth of things in Religion upon the authority of Christ testifying them but the Apostle sheweth that the Faith whereby we are justified is Faith in Christ's Blood Rom. 3.24 25. not only in his Authority as a Testifier And tho' a meer assent to a Testimony were sufficient Faith for knowledge of things which the Philosophers aimed at yet we are to consider that the Design of Saving Faith is not only to know the Truth of Christ and his Salvation testified and promised in the Gospel but also to apprehend and receive Christ and his Salvation as given by and with the Promise Therefore Saving Faith must necessarily contain two Acts believing the Truth of the Gospel and believing on Christ as promised freely to us in the Gospel for all Salvation By the one it receiveth the Means wherein Christ is conveyed to us by the other it receiveth Christ himself and his Salvation in the Means As it 's one act to receive the Breast or Cup wherein Milk or Wine are conveyed and another act to suck the Milk in the Breast and to drink the Wine in the Cup and both these acts must be perform'd heartily with an unfeigned love to the Truth and a desire of Christ and his Salvation above all things this is our spiritual Appetite which is necessary for our eating and drinking Christ the Food of Life as a natural Appetite is for Bodily Nourishment Our assenting unto or believing the Gospel must not be forced
in three particulars 1st The Grace of Faith is as well fitted for the Souls receiving of Christ and Union with him as any Instrument of the Body is for receiving and closing with things needful for it By the very act of hearty trusting or believing on Christ for all Salvation and Happiness the Soul heaveth and putteth away from itself every thing that keepeth it at a distance from Christ as all confidence in our own Strength Endeavours Works Privileges or in any Worldly Pleasures Profits Honours or in any humane Helps and Succours for our Happiness and Salvation Because such Confidences are inconsistent with our Confidence in Christ for all Salvation Paul by his Confidence in Christ was taken off from all Considence in the Flesh he suffer'd the loss of glorying in his Privileges legal Righteousness and counted all other Enjoyments in matters of the World or of Religion to be but Dung that he might win Christ and be found in him Phil. 3.3 6 7 8 9. the voice of Faith is Ashur shall not save us neither will we ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our God for in thee the Fatherless find mercy Hos 14.3 We have no might against this great company of our spiritual Enemies neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee 2 Chron. 20.12 I might multiply places of Scripture to shew what a self emptying Grace Faith is and how it casteth other Considences out of the Soul by getting above them to Christ as the only Happiness and Salvation The same act of trusting or believing on Christ or on God is the very manner of our Souls coming to Christ Joh. 6.35 drawing near to the Lord Psal 73.28 fleeing unto the Lord to hide us Psal 143.9 making our resuge in the shadow of his wings Psal 57.1 staying our selves and our minds upon the Lord Isa 50.10 26.3 laying hold of eternal life 1 Tim. 6.12 lifting up our selves to the Lord Psal 51.1 2. rolling our way and casting our burden upon the Lord Psal 37.5 55.22 and of our eating and drinking Christ as hath already appeared Let us consider that Christ and his Salvation cannot be seen or handled or attained to by any bodily motion but are revealed and promised to us in the Word Now let any invent if they can any way for the Soul to exercise any motion or activeness in receiving of this unseen promised Salvation besides believing the Word and trusting on Christ for the Benefit promised If Christ were to be earned by Works or any other kind of Conditional Faith than this yet a Faith must be instrumental to receive him Some think Love as sit to be the uniting Grace but I have shewed that Love to Christ's Salvation is an Ingredient into Faith And though Love be an Appetite unto Union yet we have no other likely way to fill this Appetite while we are in this World besides trust on Christ for all his Benefits as he is promised in the Gospel 2dly There is in this Saving-Faith a natural Tendency to furnish the Soul with an holy Frame and Nature and all Endowments necessary thereunto out of the Fulness of Christ An hearty affectionate trussing on Christ for all his Salvation as freely promised to us hath naturally enough to work in our Souls a rational bent and inclination to and ability for the Practise of all Holiness because it comprehendeth in it a trusting that through Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God and that our old man is crucified Rom. 6.2 6 4. and that we live by the spirit Gal. 5.25 and that we have forgiveness of sin and that God is our God Psal 31.14 and that we have in the Lord righteousness and strength whereby we are able to do all things Isa 45.24 Phil. 4.13 and that we shall be glortensly happy in the anjoyment of Christ to all eternity Phil. 3.20 21. When the Saints in Scripture speak so highly of such glorious spiritual Privileges as I have here named they acquaint us with the familiar fence and language of their Faith trusting on God and Christ and they give us but an Explication of the nature and contents of it and they speak of nothing more than what they receive out of the Fulness of Christ And how can we otherwise judge but that those that have an hearty Love to Christ and can upon a good ground think and speak such high things concerning themselves must needs be heartily disposed and mightily strengthened for the practice of Holiness 3dly Because Faith hath such a natural tendency to dispose and strengthen the Soul for the practise of Holiness we have cause to judge it a meet Instrument to accomplish every part of that Practice in an acceptable manner Those that with a due affection believe stedfastly on Christ for the free Gift of all his Salvation may find by experience that they are carried forth by that Faith according to the measure of its Strength or Weakness to love God heartily because God hath loved them first 1 Joh. 4.19 to praise him to pray unto him in the name of Christ Ephes 5.26 John 16.26 27. to be patient with cheerfulness under all afflictions giving thanks to the Father that hath called them to his heavenly inheritance Col. 1.11 12. to love all the children of God out of love to their heavenly Father 1 John 5.1 to walk as Christ walked 1 John 2.6 and to give themselves up to live to Christ in all things as constrained by his love in dying for them 2 Cor. 5.14 We have a Cloud of Witnesses concerning the excellent works that were produced by Faith Heb. 11. And though trusting on Christ be accounted such a slight and contemptible thing yet I know no Work of Obedience which it is not able to produce And note the excellent manner of working by Faith by it we live and act in all good Works as People in Christ as raised above our selves and our natural state by partaking of him and his Salvation and we do all in his name and on his account This is the Practice of that mysterious manner of living to God in Holiness which is peculiar to the Christian Religion wherein we live and yet not we but Christ liveth in us Gal. 2.20 And who can imagine any other way but this for such a Practice while Christ and his Salvation is known to us only by the Gospel The explanation that I have made of the Nature and Office of true Faith and of its Aptitude for its Office is sufficient to evidence that it is a most holy Faith as it is called Jude 20. and that such a trusting on Christ as I have described in its own nature cannot have any tendency to Licentiousness but only to Holiness and that it rooteth and groundeth us in Holiness more than the meer accepting of any terms of Salvation and consenting to have Christ for our Lord can do
proceeding from God because it hath the Image of his Holiness and Righteousness engraven upon it This is a sure Test and Touch-stone which those that are seriously Religious will use to try Spirits and their Doctrines whether they be of God or no And they cannot rationally approve any Doctrine as Religious that is not according to Godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 By this Touchstone Christ proveth his Doctrine to be of God because therein he seeketh the Glory of God John 7.17 18. And he teacheth us to know false Prophets by their fruits Mat. 7. v. 15 16. wherein the fruits which their Doctrine tendeth unto are especially to be considered Hence it appeareth that until we know what are the effectual Means of Holiness and what not we want a necessary Touch-stone of Divine Truth and may be easily deceived by false Doctrine or brought to live in meer suspence concerning the truth of any Religion like the Seekers And if you mistake those Means to be effectual that are not and those that are effectual to be weak or of a contrary effect your Error in this will be a false Touch-stone to try other Doctrines whereby you will readily approve of Errors and refuse the Truth which hath been a pernicious occasion of many Errors in Religion in late days get but a true Touch-stone by learning this Lesson and you will be able to try the various Doctrines of Protestants Papists Arminians Socinians Antinomians Quakers and to discover the Truth and cleave to it with much satisfaction to your Judgment amongst all the Janglings and Controversies of these times Hereby you may discover whether the Protestant Religion established amongst us have in it any Sinews of Antinomianism whether it be guilty of any insufferable defect in Practical Principles and deserves to be altered and turned almost upside down with new Doctrines and Methods as some learned Men in late time have judged by their Touchstones 8ly It is also of great importance and necessity for our establishment in holy practice For we cannot apply ourselves to the Practice of Holiness with hope of success except we have some Faith concerning the Divine assistance which we have no ground to expect if we use not such means as God hath appointed to work by God meeteth them that remember him in his own ways Isai 64.5 And makes a breach upon them that seek him not after the due order 1 Chron. 15.13 He hath chosen and ordained such means of Sanctification and Salvation as are for his own Glory and those only he blesseth to us and he crowneth no Man that striveth except he strive lawfully 2 Tim. 2.5 Experience sheweth plentifully both of Heathens and Christians how pernicious Ignorance or mistaking of these effectual Means are to an holy practice The Heathens generally fell short of an acceptable performance of those Duties of the Law which they knew because of their ignorance in this point Many Christians content themselves with external performances because they never knew how they might attain to Spiritual Service And many reject the way of Holiness as austere and unpleasant because they know not how to cut off a Right-hand or pluck out a Right-eye without intolerable pain whereas they would find the ways of Wisdom if they knew them to be ways of pleasantness and all her paths to be peace Prov. 3.17 This occasioneth the putting off Repentance from time to time as an uncouth thing Many others set upon the Practice of Holiness with a fervent Zeal and run very fast but tread not a step in the right way and finding themselves frequently disappointed and overcome by their Lusts they at last give over the Work and turn to wallow again in the Mire which hath occasioned several Treatises to shew how far a Reprobate may go in the way of Religion whereby many weak Saints are discouraged accounting that these Reprobates have gone further than themselves whereas most of them never knew the right way nor trod one step aright in it for few there be that find it Mat. 7.14 Some of these ignorant Zealots do inhumanly macerate their Bodies with fasting and other austerities to kill their Lusts and when they see their Lusts are still to hard for them they fall into despair and are driven by horrour of Conscience to make away themselves wickedly to the scandal of Religion Peradventure God may bless my discovery of the powerful Means of Holiness so far as to save some one or other from killing themselves and such a Fruit as this would countervail my Labour tho' I hope God will enlarge the Hearts of many by it to run with great chearfulness joy and thanksgiving in the ways of his Commandments DIRECT II. Several Endowments and Qualifications are necessary to enable us for the immediate Practice of the Law particularly we must have an inclination and propensity of our Hearts thereunto and therefore we must be well perswaded of our reconciliation with God and of our future enjoyment of the everlasting heavenly Happiness and of sufficient strength both to will and perform all Duties acceptably until we come to the enjoyment of that Happiness EXPLICATION THose Means that are next to the attainment of the Great End aimed at are first to be discovered that we may learn how to get them by other means expressed in the following Directions Therefore I have named here several Qualifications and Endowments that are necessary to make up that Holy Frame and State of the Soul whereby it is furnished and enabled to practice the Law immediately and that not only in the beginning but in the continuation of that Practice and therefore note diligently that these Endowments must continue in us during the present Life or else our ability for an holy Life will be lost and they must be before Practice not in any distance of time but only as the Cause is before the Effect I do not say that I have named particularly all such necessary Qualifications but thus much I dare say that he that gaineth these may by the same means gain any other that should be ranked with them And this is a matter worthy of our serious consideration for few understand that any special Endowments are required to furnish us for an holy Practice more than for other voluntary Actions The first Adam had excellent Endowments bestowed upon him for an holy Practice when he was first created according to the Image of God and the second Adam had Endowments more excellent to enable him for an harder Task of Obedience And seeing Obedience is grown more difficult by reason of the opposition and temptations that it meeteth with since the Fall of Adam we that are to be Imitators of Christ had need have very choice Endowments as Christ had at least as good or something better than Adam had at first as our Work is harder than his What King going to make war against another king sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to
of it The second Adam also the Lord Jesus Christ was born an holy thing Luke 1 35. with an holy Disposition of his Soul and Propensity to Goodness and can we reasonably hope to arise to the Life of Holiness from which the first Adam fell or to be Imitators of Christ since Duty is made so difficult by the Fall if we be not renewed in a measure according to the same Image of God and enabled with such a Propensity and Inclination 3ly Original Corruption whereby we are dead to God and Godliness from the Birth and made willing Slaves to the performance of all actual Sins until the Son of God make us free confisteth in a Propensity and Inclination of the Heart to Sin and Averseness to Holiness Without this Propensity to Sin what can that Law of sin in our members be that warreth against the law of our mind and leadeth us captive to the service of sin Rom. 7.23 What is that Poison in us for which Men may be called serpents vipers What is that Spirit of whoredoms in men by reason of which they will not frame their doings to turn to God Hos 5.4 How is the tree first corrupt and then its fruit corrupt Matth. 12.33 How can Man be said to be abominable and filthy that drinketh iniquity like water Job 15.16 How should the mind of the flesh be continual enmity to the Law of God Rom. 8.7 I know there is also a blindness of Understanding and other things belonging to Original Corruption which conduceth to this evil Propensity of the Will but yet this Propensity it self is the great evil the indwelling Sin which produceth all actual Sins and must of necessity be removed or restrained by restoring that contrary Inclination wherein the Image of God confisted or else we shall be backward and reprobate to every good work and whatever Freedom the Will hath shall be employed only in the service of Sin 4ly God restoreth his People to Holiness by giving to them a new heart a new spirit and taking away the heart of stone out of their flesh and giving them an heart of flesh Ezek. 36.26 27. And he circumciseth their heart to love him with their whole heart and Soul And he requireth that we should be transformed in the renewing of our mind that we may prove what is his acceptable will Rom. 12.2 And David prayeth for the same end that God would create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him Psal 51.10 If any one can judge that this new clean circumcised Heart this Heart of Flesh this new right Spirit is such an one as hath no actual Inclination and Propensity to good but only a Power to chuse good or evil undeservedly call'd Free-will with a present Inclination to evil or an indifference of Propensity to both contraries it will not be worth my labour to convince such a Judgment only let him consider whether David could account such an Heart to be clean and right when he prayeth Psal 119.36 Incline mine heart to thy testimonies and not to coveteousness The second Endowment necessary to enable us for the immediate Practice of Holiness and concurring with the other two that follow to work in us a rational Propensity to this Practice is that we be well perswaded of our Reconciliation with God We must reckon that the breach of Amity which Sin hath made betwixt God and us is made up by a firm Reconciliation to his Love and Favour and herein I include the great Benefit of Justification as the means whereby we are reconciled to God which is described in Scripture either by forgiving our Sins or by the imputation of Righteousness to us Rom. 4.5 6 7. because both are contained in one and the same justifying Act as one act of Illumination comprehends expulsion of Darkness and introduction of Light one act of Repentance containeth Mortification of Sin and vivification to Righteousness and every Motion from any thing to its contrary is but one and the same though it may be expressed by divers Names with respect to either of the two contrary terms the one of which is abolished the other introduced by it This is a great Mystery contrary to the Apprehensions not only of the Vulgar but of some learned Divines that we must be reconciled to God and justified by the Remission of our Sins and imputation of Righteousness before any sincere Obedience to the Law that we may be enabled for the Practice of it They account that this Doctrine tendeth to the Subversion of an holy Practice and is a great Pillar of Antinemianism and that the only way to establish sincere Obedience is to make it rather a condition to be performed before our actual Justification and Reconciliation with God Therefore some late Divines have thought sit to bring the Doctrine of former Protestants concerning Justification to their Anvil and to hammer it into another form that it might be more free from Antinomianism and effectual to secure an holy Practice but their Labour is vain and pernicious tending to Antinemian profaneness or painted Hypocrisice at best neither can the true Practice of Holiness be secure except the Perswasion of our Justification and Reconciliation with God be first obtained without works of the law that we may be enabled thereby to do them as I shall now prove by several Arguments intending also to shew in the following Directions that such a Perswasion of the Love of God as God giveth to his People tendeth only to Holiness though a Misperswasion of it be in many an Occasion of Licenciousness First When the first Adam was framed for the Practice of Holiness at his Creation he was highly in the Favour of God and had no Sin imputed to him and was accounted righteous in the sight of God according to his present state because he was made upright according to God's Image and there is no reason to doubt but that these Qualifications were his advantage for an holy Practice and the Wisdom of God judged them good for that end and as soon as he lost them he became dead in sin The second Adam also in our nature was the Beloved of the Father accounted righteous in the sight of God without the Imputation of any Sin to him except what his Office was to bear on the behalf of others And can we reasonably expect to be Imitators of Christ by performing more difficult Obedience than the first Adam's was before the Fall except the like Advantages be given to us by Reconciliation and Remission of Sins and imputation of a Righteousness given by God to us when we have none of our own Secondly Those that know that natural Deadness under the Power of Sin and Satan are fully convinced that if God leave them to their own Hearts they can do nothing but Sin and that they can do no good work except it please God of his great Love and Mercy to work it in them Joh. 8.36 Philip. 2.13
continue without it for some considerable time Ephes 2.12 And though some may have the Spirit of Faith given to them from their Mothers Womb as John the Baptist Luke 1.15.44 yet even in them there is a natural Being by Generation before there can be a Spiritual Being by Regeneration 1 Cor. 15.46 Hence ariseth the Consideration of two States or Conditions of the Children of Men in Matters that appertain to God and Godliness the one of which is vastly different from the other Those that have the Happiness of a New-birth and Creation in Christ by Faith are thereby placed in a very excellent State consisting in the Enjoyment of the Righteousness of Christ for their Justification and of the Spirit of Christ to live by in Holiness here and Glory for ever as hath already appeared Those that are not in Christ by Faith cannot be in a better State than that which they received together with their Nature from the first Adam by being once born and created in him or than they can attain to by the Power of that Nature with any such help as God is pleased to afford to it This latter I call a Natural State because it consisteth in such things as we have either received by natural Generation or can attain to by natural Power through Divine Assistance as the Scripture calleth Man in this State the natural Man 1. Cor. 2.14 The former I call a new State because we enter into it by a new Birth in Christ and I may call it a Spiritual State according to the Scripture because it received from Christ the quickening Spirit and the Natural and Spiritual Man are opposed 1 Cor. 2.14 15. though some call both these States Spiritual because the everlasting Weal or Woe of the Soul or Spirit of Man is chiefly concerned in them It is a common Error of those that are in a corrupt natural State that they seek to reform their Lives according to the Law without any thoughts that their State must be changed before their Lives can be changed from Sin to Righteousness The Heathen that knew nothing of a new State in Christ were urged by their own Consciences to practice several Duties of the Law according to the Knowledge they had by the Light of Nature Rom. 2.14 15. Israel according to the Flesh had a Zeal of God and Godliness and endeavoured to practice the written Law at least in external Performances while they were Enemies to the Faith of Christ and Paul attainted so far that he was blameless in these external Performances of the Righteousness of the Law while he persecuted the Church of Christ Phil. 3.6 Some are so near the Kingdom of God while they continue in a Natural State that they are convinced of the Spirituality of the Law that it bindeth us principally to love God with all our Heart Soul Mind and Strength and to love our Neighbour as our selves and to perform universal Obedience to God in all our inward Thoughts and Affections as well as in all our outward Actions and to do all the Duties that we owe to our Neighbour out of this hearty Love Mark 12 33 34 And they struggle and labour with great earnestness to subdue their inward Thoughts and Affections to the Law of God and to abstain not only from some Sins but from all known Sins and to perform every known Duty of the Law with their whole Heart and Soul as they think and are so active and intent in their devout Practice that they overwork their natural Strength and so servent in their Zeal that they are ready even to kill their Bodies with Fastings and other Macerations that they may kill their sinful Lusts They are strongly convinced that Holiness is absolutely necessary to Salvation and deeply affected with the Terrours of Damnation and yet they were never so much enlightened in the Mystery of the Gospel as to know that a new State in Christ is necessary to a new Life therefore they labour in vain to reform their natural State instead of getting above it in Christ And some of these when they have mispent many Years in striving against the Stream of their Lusts without any Success do at last fall miserably into Despair of ever attaining to Holiness and turn to wallowing in the mire of their Lusts or are fearfully swallowed up with horrour of Conscience There are several false Opinions whereby such ignorant Zealots encourage themselves in their fruitless Endeavours Some of them judge that they are able to practice Holiness because they are not compelled to sin and may abstain from it if they will To this they add That Christ by the Merit of his Death hath restored that Freedom of Will to good which was lost by the Fall and hath set Nature upon its Legs again and that if they endeavour to do what lieth in them Christ will do the rest by assisting them with the Supplies of his saving Grace so they trust upon the Grace of Christ to help them in their Endeavours They plead further That it would not consist with the Justice of God to punish them for Sin if they could not avoid it and that it would be in vain for the Ministers of the Gospel to preach to them and exhort them to any saving Duty if they cannot perform it They produce Examples of I leathens and of such as had the name of Christians without any acquaintance with the Faith that I have described who have attained to a great Excellency in religious Words and Works My Work at present is to deliver those ignorant Zealots from their fruitless tormenting Labours by bringing them to despair of the Attainment of Holiness in a natural State that they may seek it only in a new State by Faith in Christ where they may certainly find it without such tormenting Labour and Anxiety of Spirit For this end I shall confirm the Truth asserted in the Direction and fortifie it against the forementioned false Opinions by the ensuing Considerations First The Foundation of this Assertion is firmly laid in the Directions already explained and confirmed by many Places of Scripture For if all Endowments necessary to enable us for an holy Practice be to be had only in a State of Union and Fellowship with Christ by Faith and Faith it self not by the natural Power of Free-will but by the Power of Christ coming into the Soul by his Spirit to unite us with himself who seeeth not that the Attainment of true Holiness by any of our most vigorous Endeavours while we continue in our natural Condition is altogether hopeless I need add no more were it not to shew more sully what abundance of Light the Scripture affordeth to guide us aright in this part of our way that those that wander out of it by following any false light of their own or others corrupted Judgments may find themselves the more inexcusable Secondly It is evident that we cannot practice true Holiness while we continue in
they love darkness rather light They deserve to be Partakers with the Divels in Torments as they partake with them in evil Lusts and their Inability to do Good will no more excuse them than it excuseth the Divils Eighthly Neither will this Assertion make it a vain thing to preach the Gospel to natural People and to exhort them to true Repentance and Faith in Christ for their Conversion and Salvation For the Design of our Preaching is not to bring them to Holiness in their natural State but to raise them above it and to present them perfect in Christ in the Performance of those Duties Col. 1.28 And though they cannot perform those Duties by their natural Strength yet the Gospel is made effectual for their Conversion and Salvation by the Power of the Holy Ghost which accompanieth the Preaching of it to quicken those that are dead in Sin and to create them a new in Christ by giving to them Repentance unto Life and a lively Faith in Christ The Gospel cometh to the Elect of God not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in such Assurance that they receive it with joy of the Holy Ghost 1 Thess 5.6 The Gospel is the ministration of the Spirit that giveth life 2. Cor. 3.6 8. It is mighty through God 2 Cor. 10.4 It dependeth not at all upon the Power of our Free-will to make it successful for our Conversion but it conveyeth into the Soul that Life and Power whereby they receive and obey it Christ can make those that are dead in Sin to hear his voice and live John 5.25 Therefore he can speak to them by his Gospel and Command them to repent and believe with good Success as well as he could say to dead Carcases Tabitha cumi Mark 5.41 Lazarus come forth John 11 43 44. And to the Sick of the Palsie Arise take up thy bed and go unto thine house Matth. 9.6 Ninthly There is no reason that the Examples of Heathen Philosophers or any Jews or Christians by outward Profession that have lived without the saving Knowledge of God in Christ should move us by their wise Sayings and renouned Attainments in the Practice of Devotion and Morality to recede from this Truth that hath been so fully confirmed out of the holy Scriptures Have we not cause to judge that the Apostle Paul while he was a zealous Pharisee and at least some few of the great Multitude of the Jews in his time that were zealous of the Law and had the Instruction of the holy Scriptures attained as near to that true Holiness as the Heathen Philosophers or any others in their natural State Yet Paul after he was enlightned with the saving Knowledge of Christ judged himself the chief of sinners in his highest former Attainments though in the Judgment of others he was blameless touching the Righteousness which is in the Law and he found it necessary to begin to live to God in a new way by Faith in Christ and to suffer the loss of all his former Attainments and to count them but dung that he might win Christ 1 Tim. 1.15 Phil. 3.6 7 8. And none of the great Multitude of Jews that followed after the Law of Righteousness did ever attain unto it while they sought it not by faith in Christ Rom. 9.31 32. What Performances are greater in outward Appearance than for a Man to give all his goods to the poor and to give his body to be burnt and yet the Scripture alloweth us to suppose that this may be done without true Charity and therefore without any true holiness of the heart and life 1 Cor. 13.3 Men in a natural State may have strong Convictions of the infinite Power Wisdom Justice and Goodness of God and of the Judgment to come and the everlasting Happiness of the Godly and Torments of the Wicked and these Convictions may stir them up not only to make an high Profession and to utter rare Sayings concerning God and Godliness but also to labour with great earnestness to avoid all known Sin to subdue their Lusts to perform universal Obedience to God in all known Duties and to serve him with their Lives and Estates to the utmost and to extort out of their Hearts some kind of Love to God and Godliness that if possible they may escape the terrible Torments of Hell and procure everlasting Happiness by their Endeavours Yet all their Love to God is but forced and feigned they have no hearty liking to God or his Service they account him an hard Master and his Commandments grievous and they repine and fret inwardly at the burden of them and were it not for fear of everlasting Fire they would little regard the Enjoyment of God in Heaven and they would be glad if they might have the Liberty to enjoy their Lusts without danger of Damnation The highest Preferment of those that are born only after the Flesh in Abraham's Family is but to be children of the bond-woman Gal. 4.23 And though they do more in God's Service than many of his dear Children yet God accepteth not their Service because their best Performances are slavish without any Child-like Affections towards God and no better than glistering Sins and yet these natural Men are not at all beholden to the goodness of their Natures for these counterfeit Shews of Holiness or for the least abstaining from the grossest Sin If God should leave Men fully to their own natural Corruptions and to the Power of Satan as they deserve all Shew of Religion and Morality would be quickly banished out of the World and we should grow past feeling in Wickedness and like to the Canibals who are as good by Nature as our selves But God that can restrain the Burning of the siery Furnace without quenching it and the flowing of Water without changing its nature doth also restrain the working of natural Corruption without mortifying it and through the greatness of his Wisdom and Power he maketh his enemies to yield feigned obedience to him Psal 66.3 And to do many things good for the matter of them though they can do nothing in a right holy manner He hath appointed several means to restrain our Corruptions as the Law Terrors of Conscience terrible Judgments and Rewards in this Life Magistrates humane Laws Labour for Necessaries Food and Raiment and those Gospel means that are effectual for Sanctification serve also for Restraint of Sin God hath gracious ends in this Restraint of Sin that his Church may be preserved and his Gospel preached in the World and that these Natural Men may be in a better Capacity to receive the Instruction of the Gospel and that such of them that are chosen may in due time be converted and that those of them that are not truly converted may enjoy more of the Goodness of God here and suffer the less Torments hereafter As vile and wicked as the World is we have cause to praise and to magnifie the Free
hath been one occasion of the prevailing of Heathenish Jewish and Popish Superslitions in the World We find by experience how Popery fell in several Nations in late years when the great Pillar of it the Doctrine of Justification by Works was overthrown by the Protestant Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone If these Legal Zealots be forced by strong Conviction to endeavour the Practice of spiritual Duties for the quieting of their guilty Consciences they may be brought to strive and labour earnestly and even to macerate their Bodies with Fasting that they may kill their Lusts but still their Lusts are alive and as strong as ever they were and do shew forth their Enmity against the Law of God by inward fretting repining and grudging at it as a grievous Task-mastertho ' a slavish Fear restrain their gross outward actings And if once these Zealots be enlightned with the Knowledge of the Spiritual nature of the Law to discern that God rejecteth all their slavish Service and will not own it for sincere Obedience then they fall into Despair of their Salvation because they see they have failed in their highest attempts to perform the Condition and then they can easily discover themselves that their Hearts swell in Anger and manifest Hatred against the Law yea and against God and Christ for prescribing such hard Conditions of Salvation which they cannot keep and yet expect to be damned eternally for breaking of them This filleth them with blasphemous thoughts against God and Christ and they can hardly refrain from blaspheming with their tongues and when they are brought to this horrible Condition if God doth not in mercy discover to them the way of Salvation by Free-grace through Faith alone they will endeavour if they can to sear their Consciences past feeling of Sin and fully to abandon all Religion which have proved such an unsufferable Torment to them or if they cannot sear their Consciences some of them are easily prevailed over by Satan rather to murder themselves than to live longer in the Hatred of God the Spirit of Blasphemy and continual horror of Conscience This is the pestilent effect of Legal-Doctrine upon a carnal heart that doth but rouse up and terribly enrage the sleeping Lion our sinful Gorruption instead of killing of it as is too evident by the sad Experience of many that have endeavoured with all their might to practice it and by the Scripture that sheweth a sufficient cause why it cannot be otherwise Therefore the Doctrine of Salvation by sincere Obedience that was invented against Antinomianism may well be ranked amongst the worst Antinomian Errors For my part I hate it with perfect Hatred and count it mine Enemy as I have found it to be and I have found by some good Experience the Truth of the Lesson taught by the Apostle that the way to be freed from the Mastery and Dominion of Sin is not to be under the law but under grace Rom. 6.15 6thly The way of Salvation by works was blasted by the Curse denounced against the first Adam's Sin so that now it cannot work Life in us or Holiness but only Death For the Law which requireth both sincere and perfect Obedience to God in all things was made known to Adam at his first Creation as the means of continuing the happy Life that was then bestowed upon him and it would have been effectual for this end if he had not transgressed in the forbidden fruit but when he had once brought himself and his Posterity under the terrible Sentence Thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 all that Knowledge of God or his Law that before wrought for continuance of Life was turned by that cursing Sentence the contrary way to work for his death even for the death of his Soul in sin as well as for the death of his Body and therefore it quickly moved him to hide himself from God as an enemy It was as if God should say All the light and knowledge that thou hast shall not be able to continue thy life or restore it but it shall rather tend to thy death Therefore while we continue in our Natural state under the first Adam's Guilt and Curse the knowledge of the Law yea and all such knowledge of God and his Attributes as natural Men may attain to must needs be in like manner accursed to us and seeing Man did not use his natural Knowledge and Wisdom aright God is resolved to revenge the abuse of it by giving us Salvation in a way contrary to it that seemeth foolishness to the Natural man and wholly to abolish the way of living by any of our works or by any Wisdom or Knowledge that the Natural-man can attain unto for it is written I will destrey the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.19 20 21. Hence we may conclude that no Truth known by the light of Nature can be an effectual Principle or Motive to work Holiness in us and Gospel-principles and Motives are but abused when they are applied to a Legal-way of Salvation 7thly The end which God aimed at in giving the Law by Moses was not that any should ever attain to Holiness or Salvation by the condition of perfect or sincere Obedience to it tho' if there had been any such way of Salvation at that time it must have consisted in the Performance of that Law which was then given to the Church to be a Rule of Life as well as a Covenant There was another Covenant made before that time with Abraham Isaac and Jacob a Covenant of Grace promising all Blessings freely through Christ the promised Seed by which only they were to be saved and the Covenant of the Law was added that they might-see their sinfulness and subjection to death and wrath and the impossibility of attaining to life or holiness by their works and be forced to trust on the free Promise only for all their Salvation and that Sin might be restrained by the Spirit of Bondage until the coming of that promised Seed Jesus Christ and the more plentiful pouring out of the sanctifying Spirit by him This the Apostle Paul sheweth largely Gal. 3.15 to 24. Rom. 5.20 21. Rom. 10.3 4. None of the Israelites under the Old Testament were ever saved by the Sinai-Covenant neither did any of them ever attain to Holiness by the terms of it Some of them did indeed perform the Commandments of it sincerely tho' imperfectly but those were first justified and made Partakers of Life and Holiness by virtue of that better Covenant made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob which was the same in substance with the New-covenant or Testament establish'd by the Blood of Christ Had it not been for that better Covenant the
Sinai-covenant would have proved to them an occasion of no Happiness but only of sin Despair and Destruction Of it self it was only a killing Letter the ministration of death and condemnation and therefore it is now abolished 2 Cor. 3.6 8 9 11. We have cause to praise God for delivering his Church by the Blood of Christ from this Yoke of Bondage and we have cause to abhor the Device of those that would lay upon us a more grievous and terrible Yoke by turning our very New covenant into a Covenant of sincere works and leaving us no such better Covenant as the Israelites had under their Yoke to relieve us in our Extremity DIRECTION VII We are not to imagine that our hearts and lives must be changed from Sin to Holiness in any measure before we may safely venture to trust on Christ for the sure Enjoyment of himself and his Salvation .. EXPLICATION WE are naturally so prone to ground our Salvation upon our own works that if we cannot make them procuring Conditions and Causes of our Salvation by Christ yet we shall endeavour at least to make them necessary Preparatives to fit us for receiving Christ and his Salvation by Faith And Men are easily perswaded that this is not at all contrary to Salvation by Free-grace because all that is hereby ascribed to our works or good Qualifications is only that they put usin a sit posture to receive a Free gift If we were to go to a Prince for a Free gist good Manners and due Reverence would teach us to trim our selves first and to change our slovenly Clothes as Joseph did when he came out of the Dungeon into the presence of Pharaoh It seemeth to be an impudent slighting and contemning the Justice and Holiness of God and Christ and an insufferable affront and indignity offer'd to the divine Majesty when any dare presume to approach into his Presence in the nasty pickle of his Sins covered all over with putrifying Sores not at all clo'sd boundeup or cleansed much more when they endeavour to receive the most holy One into such an abominable stinking Kennel as a Sinners heart is before it be at all reformed The Parable concerning the Man that was to be bound hand and foot and cast into outer Darkness for coming to the Royal Wedding without a Wedding garment seemeth to be intended as a Warning against all such Presumption Mat. 22.11 13. Many that behold with terrour the abominable Filth of their own hearts are kept off from coming immediately to Christ by such Imaginations which Satan strongly maintaineth and increaseth in them by his Suggestions so that they can by no means be perswaded out of them until God teacheth them inwardly by the powerful Illumination of his Spirit they delay the saving act of Faith because they account that they are not yet duly prepared and qualified for it On the same Account many weak Believers delay coming to the Lord's Supper for many Years together even as long as they live in this World and would be as likely to delay their Baptism if they had not been baptized in Infancy Against all such Imaginations I shall propose the following Considerations First This Error is pernicious to the Practice of Holiness and to our whole Salvation in the same manner with that treated of in the foregoing Direction and may be confuted by the same Arguments which are there produced whether Holiness be made a procuring Condition of our Salvation through Christ or only a Condition necessary to qualifie us for the Reception of Christ we are equally brought under those Legal terms of doing first the Duties required in the Law that so we may live Therefore we are equally bereaved of the Assistance of those means of Holiness mentioned in the foregoing Directions as Union and Fellowship with Christ and the Enjoyment of all his sanctifying Endowments by Faith which should go before the Practice of Holiness that they may enable us for it and we are equally left to labour in vain for Holiness while we are in our cursed natural State whereby our sinsul Corruption will be rather exasperated than mortified so that we shall never be duly prepared for the reception of Christ as long as we live in the world Thus while we endeavour to prepare our way to Christ by holy Qualifications we do rather fill it with stumbling-blocks and deep pits whereby our Souls are hindered from ever attaining to the Salvation of Christ 2dly Any the least change of our hearts and lives from Sin to Holiness before our receiving of Christ and his Salvation by Faith is not at all necessary according to the Terms of the Gospel nor required by any one Syllable in the Word of God Christ would have the vilest Sinners come to him for Salvation immediately without delaying the time to prepare themselves for him When the wicked Jaylor enquired what he must do to be saved Paul directed him forthwith to believe on Christ with a Promise that in so doing he should be saved and straitway he and all his were baptized Acts 16.30 33. Paul doth not tell him that he must reform his heart and life first though he was in a very nasty pickle at that time having but a little before fastened Paul and Silas in the Stocks and newly attempted an horrid wilful self-murder Those three thousand Jews that were converted by Peter's Preaching and added the same day to the Church by Baptism Acts 2.41 seemed to have as much need of some considerable time to prepare themselves for receiving of Christ as others because they had but lately polluted themselves with the Murder of Christ himself v. 23. Christ commands his Servants to go out quickly into the Streets and Lanes of the City and to bring in to his Feast the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind yea to go out into the high ways and to compel them to come in without allowing them to tarry away until they had cleansed the sores and shifted off their filthy rags and swarms of lice Christ would have us to believe on him that justifieth the ungodly and therefore he doth not require us to be godly before we believe Rom. 4.5 He came as a Physician for the Sick and doth not expect that they should recover their Health in the least degree before they come to him Mat. 9.12 The vilest Sinners are fitly prepared and qualified for this Design which is to shew forth the exceeding riches of Grace pardoning our sins and saving us freely Eph. 2.5 7. For this end the Law of Moses entered that the offence might abound that so where sin abounded grace might much more abound Rom. 5.20 He loved us in our most loathsom sinful Pollution so as to die for us and much more will he love us in it so as to receive us when we come to him for the purchased Salvation He hath given full satisfaction to the Justice of God for sinners that they might have all
the Spirit whereby we are made good Trees that we may bring forth good Fruit. Though they are given before the sincere Practice of the Law yet they are not given to us in our corrupt sinful Nature but in and with the new holy Nature which immediately produceth a holy Practice though it must necessarily go before as the Cause before the Effect and they are no other than Comforts of those spiritual Benefits by which our new Estate and Nature is produced and of which it is constituted and made up as the Comforts of Redemption Justification Adoption the Gift of the Spirit and the like Neither do I intend here any Transport or Ravishment of Joy and Delight but only such manner of Comfort as rationally strengthens in some measure against the Oppression of Fear Grief and Despair which we are liable unto by reason of our natural Sinfulness and Misery This Explanation of the Sense of my Assertion is sufficient to answer some common Objections against it and I hope the Truth of it will be fully evidenced by the following Arguments First This Truth is a clear Consectary from those Principles of Holiness that have been already confirmed I have shewed that we must have a good Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God and of our Happiness in Heaven and of our sufficient Strength both to will and to do that which is acceptable to God through Jesus Christ that we may be rationally inclined and bent to the Practice of Holiness and that these Endowments must be had by receiving of Christ himself with his Spirit and all his Fulness by trusting on him for all his Salvation as he is freely promised to us in the Gospel and that by this Faith we do as really receive Christ as our Food by eating and drinking Now let right Reason judge can we be perswaded of the Love of God of our everlasting Happiness and our Strength to serve God and yet be without any Comforts Can the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace be believed and Christ and his Spirit actually believed into the Heart without any Relief to the Soul from oppressing Fear Grief Despair Can the Salvation of Christ be comfortless or the Bread and Water of Life without any sweet Relish to those that feed on him with hungring and thirsting Appetites God will not give such Benefits as these to those that do not desire and esteem them above the World and certainly the very receiving of them will be comfortable to such except they receive them blindfold which they cannot do when the very giving and bestowing of them openeth the Eyes of a Sinner and turns him from Darkness to Light whereby he doth at least in some measure see and perceive Spiritually the things that concern his present and future Peace and reap some encouraging and strengthning Comfort thereby to the Practice of Holiness Secondly Peace Joy Hope are recommended to us in Scripture as the Spring of other holy Duties and Fear and oppressing Grief forbidden as Hinderances to true Religion The peace of God keepeth our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Phil. 4.7 Be ye not sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength Nehem. 8.10 Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 John 3.3 Fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in Love 1 John 4.18 This is the Reason why the Apostle doubleth his Exhortation to rejoyce in the Lord always as a Duty of exceeding weight and necessity Phil. 4.4 What are such Duties but Comfort it self and can we think that these Duties are necessary to our continuance in an holy Practice and yet not to the beginning of it where the Work is most difficult and Encouragement most needful Therefore we must make haste in the first place to get a comfortable Frame of Spirit if we would make hastâ— and not delay to keep Gods holy Commandments Thirdly The usual Method of Gospel-Doctrine as it is delivered to us in the holy Scriptures is first to comfort our Hearts and thereby to establish us in every good Word and Work 2 Thess 2.17 And it appears how clearly this method is adjusted in several Epistles written by the Apostles wherein they first acquaint the Churches with the rich Grace of God toward them in Christ and the spiritual Blessings which they are made Partakers of for their strong Consolation and then they exhort them to an holy Conversation answerable to such Priviledges and it is not only the Method of whole Epistles but of many particular Exhortations to Duty wherein the comfortable Benefits of the Grace of God in Christ are made use of as Arguments and Motives to stir up the Saints to a holy Practice which comfortable Benefits must be first believed and the Comfort of them applyed to our own Souls or else they will not be forcible to engage us to the Practice for which they are intended To give you a few Instances out of a Multitude that might be alledged we are exhorted to practice holy Duties because we are dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 And because sin shall not have dominion over us for we are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.14 Because we are not in the flesh but in the spirit and God will quicken our mortal bodies by his spirit dwelling in us Rom. 8.9.11 12. Because our bodies are the members of Christ and the temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.15 19. Because God hath made him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.20 21. And hath promised that he will dwell in us and walk in us and be to us a Father and we shall be to him sons and daughters 2 Cor. 7.1 Because God hath forgiven us for Ghrist's sake and accounteth us his dear children and Christ hath loved us and given himself for us and we that were sometimes darkned are now lightened in the Lord Ephes 4.32 5.1 2 8. Because we are risen with Christ and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3.1.4 Because God hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 Because of the many promises made to us 2 Cor. 7.1 Search the Scriptures and you may with delight see that is this the Vein that runneth through Gospel Exhortations and you may find the like Vein of Comfort running through the Prophetical Exhortations in the Old Testament Some may object that the Apostles used this Method in their Writings to Saints that had practised Holiness already that so they might continue and increase therein But to that I may easily reply If it be a Method needful for grown Saints much more then for Beginners that find the Work of Obedience most difficult and have most need of strong Consolation and I hope to shew how we may be able to lay hold
of these Consolations by Faith in the very first Beginning of a holy Life Besides the Gospel proposeth Peace and Comfort freely to those that are not yet brought to Holiness yet if they have Hearts to receive it they may be converted from Sin to Righteness When the Apostles entred into an House they were first to say Peace be to the house Luke 10.5 At their very first Preaching to Sinners they acquainted them with the glad Tidings of Salvation by Christ for every one that would receive it as a Free-gift by Faith Acts 3.26 13.26 32 38. 16.30 31. They assured them if they would but trust heartily on Christ for all his Salvation they should have it although they were at present the chief of Sinners which was Comfort sufficient for all that duly esteem Spiritual Comfort hungring and thirsting after it And this is a Method agreeable to the Design of the Gospel which is to advance the Riches of the Grace of God in all our Spiritual Enjoyments God will give us his Consolations before our good Works as well as after them that we may know that he giveth us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace and not through the Procurement of our Works 2 Thess 2.16 Fourthly The Nature of the Duties of the Law requireth a comfortable state of the Soul for the Performance of them I have before proved sufficiently that they require a Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God and of our future Happiness and Strength whereby we may be able to walk in holy Obedience Joshuah must be strong and very couragious that he might observe to do according to the Law that Moses the Servant of the Lord commanded him Josh 1.7 I shall instance briefly in the Comforts without which several great Duties cannot be sincerely performed Can we love God and delight in him above all while we look upon him as our everlasting Enemy and apprehend no Love and Mercy in him towards us that may render him a suitable Good for us and lovely in our Eyes What doleful Melody will the Heart make in the Duty of Praise if we account that all those Perfections for which we praise him will rather aggravate our Misery than make us happy What a heartless Work will it be to pray to him and to offer up our selves to his Service if we have no comfortable Hope that he will accept us Is it possible for us to free our selves from carking Cares by casting our Care upon the Lord if we do not apprehend that he careth for us Can we be patient in Affliction with Chearfulness and under Persecutions except we have peace with God and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.1 2 3. What Reason can perswade us to submit willingly according to our Duty to the Stroak of present Death if God be pleased to lay it upon us when we have no Comforts to relieve us against the horrible Fear of intollerable Torments in Hell for ever If we should be called to suffer Martyrdom for the Protestant Religion as our Ancestors in this Nation have done we should find it necessary to abandon the late upstart Notions that have been bred in a time of Ease and to embrace the comfortable Doctrine of former Protestants which through the Grace of God made so many couragious and joyful Martyrs Fifthly The state of those that are to be brought from Sin to Godliness requires necessarily that after they be convinced of the Vnnity of their former false Confidences and of their Deadness in Original-sin and Subjection to the Wrath of God they should have a Supply of new Gospel Comforts afforded to encourage their fainting Souls to holy Practices How little do many Physicians of Souls consider the Condition of their unconverted Patients that are altogether without Spiritual Life and Strength and are or must be convinced He that prescribeth bodily Exercise to a Man lying Bed-ridden under a dead Palsie before any effectual means be used to strengthen him deserveth the name of a merciless insulting Tormentor rather than of a wise and tender-hearted Physician How unreasonable is it to prescribe the immediate Practice of Love to God and universal Obedience to him out of Love as the means of Cure for those that see nothing but Wrath and Enmity in God towards them in their present Condition what is it but to require a Man to work without Strength promising him that he shall have Strength when his Work is done for Comfort and Fortitude is so called because it comforteth and strengtheneth True it is That the Law which is the Ministration of Condemnation obligeth them to Obedience but our merciful God expecteth no sincere Performance of his Law from such impotent miserable Wretches in order to their Salvation by Christ till he hath first delivered them in some measure from those Discomforts slavish Fears and Despondencies that hold them captive under the Law of Sin and Death We may require a strong healthy Person first to work and then to expect Meat Drink and Wages but a fainting famished Person must first have Food or a reviving Cordial to strengthen his Heart before he can work Sixthly Both Scripture and Experience shew That this is the Method whereby God bringeth his People from Sin to Holiness though some of them are brought under Terrours for a while that Sin may be the more imbittered and the Salvation of Christ rendred more precious and acceptable to them yet such are again delivered from their Terrors by the Comfort of God's Salvation that they may be fitted for Holiness and generally a holy Life beginneth with Comfort and is maintained by it God gave to Adam at his first Creation the Comfort of his Love and Favour and the Happiness of Paradise to encourage him to Obedience and when he had left those Comforts by the Fall he was no longer able to obey until he was restored by new Comfort of the promised Seed Christ the Second Adam set God always before his face and he knew that because God was at his right hand he should not be moved therefore his heart was glad and his glory rejoyced Psal 16.8 9. This made him willing to bear his Agony and bloody Sweat and to be obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross God drew the Israelites to Obedience with the Cords of a Man with the Bonds of Love by taking off the Yoke on their Jaws and laying Meat before them Hos 11.4 David telleth us for our Instruction how he was brought to an holy Conversation Thy loving kindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth Psal 26.3 Lord I have hoped for thy salvation and done thy Commandements Psal 119.166 We have several Examples in the New Testament of the Joy that Sinners had in the first receiving of Christ Acts 2.41 And when the Gospel first came to the Thessalonians they received the Word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost 1 Thess 1.4 5.
we are the children of God and if children then heirs Rom. 8.15 16. Gal. 4.6 And the Apostle tells the Ephesians that after they believed they were sealed with the Holy Spirit which was the Earnest of their Inheritance Eph. 1.13 14. i. e. They were sealed from the same time that they believed for the original Words are in the same Tense If this Witness Seal and Earnest of the Spirit had not been Ordinary to Believers it would not have been sufficient to prove that they were the Children of God and such manner of arguing might have driven some to despair that wanted this Witness Seal and Earnest Let us enquire now whether the Spirit beareth witness that we are the Children of God and enables us to cry Abba Father by the direct Act or by that which they call the Reflect Act of Faith for we must not think that it is done by an Enthusiasm without any ordinary means nor can we reasonably imagine that no true Believers can call God Father by the Guidance of the Spirit but only those few that are so sure of their own Sincerity that by reflecting upon it they can ground an Act of Faith concerning their own Interest in Christ no surely therefore we may judge rather that the Spirit worketh this in us by giving us saving Faith it self whereby all true Believers are enabled to trust assuredly on Christ for the Enjoyment of the Adoption of Children and all his Salvation according to the Free Promise of God and to call God Father without reflecting on any good Qualifications in our selves and by the direct Act of it For the Spirit is received by the direct Act of Faith Gal. 3.2 And so he is the Spirit of Adoption and Comfort to all that receive him They that assert that the Spirit witnesseth our Adoption only by assuring us of the Sincerity of our Faith Love and other gracious Qualifications and by the reflect Act of Faith do teach also commonly that you must again try whether the Spirit thus witnessing be the Spirit of Truth or of Delusion by searching narrowly whether our inward Grace be sincere or counterfeit so that hereby the Testimony of the Spirit is rendred so hard to be discerned that it standeth us in no stead but all our Assurance is made at last to depend on our own certain Knowledge of our own Sincerity There are several other Evidences to shew That Believers generally were perswaded of their Salvation in the Apostles times they loved and waited for the coming of Christ to judge the World 1 Cor. 1.7 2 Tim. 4.8 They loved all the Saints for the Hope that was laid up for them in Heaven Col. 1.3 4. The Corinthians that were very carnal and but Babes in Christ were perswaded that they should judge the World and Angels and that their Bodies were Members of Christ and the Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.2 3 15 19. The very first coming of the Gospel to the Thessalonians was in the Holy Ghost and much Assurance so that they received it with much Affliction with Joy of the Holy Ghost when as yet they had no Considerable time to get Assurance by reflecting on their good Qualifications 1 Thess 1.5 6. Likewise the believing Hebrews when they were illuminated at their first Conversion took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods knowing that they had in Heaven a better and more enduring Substance and this was their Confidence which they were not to cast off because the Just liveth by Faith and therefore it appeareth that this Confidence belonged necessarily to justifying saving Faith Heb. 10 32 34 35 38. Now let those that alledge the Examples or Experiences of many modern Christians to disprove all that I have asserted and consider well whether these are fit to be laid in the Ballance against all the Scripture Examples and Experiences that I have produced out of the Old and New Testament I confess that Assurance of Salvation is more rarely professed by Christians in these times than formerly and we may thank some Teachers for it that have deserted the Doctrine of former Protestants in this Point and vented against it several Errors such as have been already named and now would take Advantage to confirm the Truth of their Doctrines from those Doubtings in Christians that have been chiefly occasioned by it But however the nature of saving Faith is still the same and I assert that in these Days as well as formerly it always hath in it some Assurance of Salvation by Christ which doth and will appear at least in resisting and condemning all Doubtings and praying against them and endeavouring to trust assuredly and to call God Father except in extraordinary Desertions by which our Gase must not be tried We are not to trust the Judgment of many concerning themselves they will judge falsly that they have no Assurance at all because they know not yet by Marks and Signs that they are in a state of Grace already or because they think that there is no Assurance when there are many Doubtings and because it is so weak and so much oppressed with Doubting that it can hardly be discerned as Life in a fainting Fit but if their Judgments be better informed they may be brought to discern some Assurance in themselves We are also to take heed of mistaking those for true Believers that are not so and of judging this Point by their Experiences which is a vulgar Error The blind Charity of some moveth them to take all for true Believers which are full of Doubts and Troubles concerning their Salvation though it may be they only be convinced of Sin and brought to some Zeal of God that is not according to the Knowledge of the way of Salvation by Christ and they think it Duty to comfort such Ignorant Persons by perswading of them that their state is good and their Faith right though they have no Assurance of Salvation Thus they are brought to judge falsly concerning the nature of Faith out of their blind Charity to such as are yet in Ignorance and Unbelief and instead of comforting such they rather take the direct way to harden them in their natural state and to divert them from seeking Consolation by Saving Faith in Christ and to ruine their Souls for ever Fifthly The chief Office of this Faith in its direct saving Act is to receive Christ and his Salvation actually into our Hearts as hath been proved which Office cannot be rationally performed except we do in some measure perswade our Hearts and assure our selves of the Enjoyment of him as the Body receiveth things into it self by the Hands and Mouth So the Soul receiveth these things to it self and layeth actual Hold on them by the Faculty of the Will making choice of them and embracing them in a way of present Enjoyment and Possession as it doth by the Faculty of the Understanding see and apprehend them thus the Soul receiveth Comfort from outward things As a righteous
Person cannot receive inward Comfort from outward things as from worldly Estate Wife Husband Friends c. except it chuse them as good and count them his own by a Right and Title This is the only rational way whereby the Soul can actively lay hold on Christ and take actual Possession of him and his Salvation as he is freely offered and promised to us in the Gospel by the Grace of Faith which God hath appointed to be our great Instrument for the receiving of him and closing with him If we do not make choice of Christ as our only Salvation and Happiness or if we be altogether in a slate of Suspence and doubting whether God will be pleased to give Christ to us or no it is evident that our Souls are quite loose from Christ and have no Holdfast or Enjoyment of him They do not so much as pretend to any actual receiving or laying hold or choosing of him neither are they fully satisfied that it is lawful for them so to do but rather they are yet to seek whether they have any good Ground and Right to lay hold on him or no. Let any rational Man judge whether the Soul doth or can put forth any sufficient Act for the Reception and Enjoyment of Christ as our Saviour Head or Husband while it is yet in Doubt whether it be the Will of Christ to be joyned with us in such a near Relation can a Woman honestly receive any one as her Husband without being assured that he is fully willing to be her Husband The same may be said concerning the several Parts of Christ's Salvation which are to be received by Faith It is evident that we do not aright receive the Benefit of Remission of Sins for the purging of our Consciences from that Guilt that lyeth upon them unless we have an assured Perswasion of God's forgiving them we do not actually receive into our Hearts our Reconciliation with God and Adoption of Children and the Title to an everlasting Inheritance until we can assure our selves that God is graciously pleased to be our God and Father and take us to be his Children and Heirs We do not actually receive any sufficient Strength to encourage our Hearts to Holiness in all Difficulties until we can stedfastly believe that God is with us and will not fail nor forsake us Hence then we may firmly conclude that whoso seeketh to be saved by Faith and doth not seek to have Assurance or Confidence of his own Salvation doth but deceive himself and delude his Soul with a mere Fansie instead of saving Faith and doth in effect seek to be saved in his corrupt Natural state without receiving and laying actual hold of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Salvation Sixthly It is also a great and necessary Office of Saving Faith to purifie the Heart and to enable us to live and walk in the Practice of all holy Duties by the Grace of Christ and by Christ himself living in us as hath been shewed before which Office Faith is not able to perform except some Assurance of our own Interest in Christ and his Salvation be comprehended in the nature of it If we would live to God not our selves but by Christ living in us according to Paul s Example we must be able to assure our selves as he did Christ loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 We are taught that if we live in the Spirit we shall walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 It would be high Presumption if we should endeavour to walk above our natural Strength and Power by the Spirit before we have made sure of our living by the Spirit I have shewed that we cannot make Use of the comfortable Benefits of the Saving Grace of Christ whereby the Gospel doth engage and encourage us to an holy Practice except we have some Confidence of our own Interest in those saving Benefits If we do not assuredly believe that we are dead to Sin and alive to God through Christ and risen with Christ and not under the Law but under Grace and Members of Christ's Body the Temple of his Spirit the dear Children of God it would be Hypocrisie to serve God upon the Account of such Priviledges as if we reckoned our selves to be Partakers of them he that thinks he should doubt of his Salvation is not a fit Disciple for this manner of Doctrine and he may reply to the Preachers of the Gospel if you would bring me to Holiness you must make Use of other more essectual Arguments for I cannot practice upon these Principles because I have not Faith enough to believe that I have any Interest in them some Arguments taken from the Justice and Wrath of God against Sinners and his Mercy towards those that perform the Condition of sincere Obedience would work more powerfully upon me O what a miserable worthless kind of saving Faith is this that cannot fit a Believer to practice in a Gospel manner upon the most pure and powerful Principles of Grace but rather leaveth him to work upon Legal Principles which can never bring him to serve God acceptably out of Love and as such a Faith faileth wholly in the right manner of obeying upon Gospel Principles so it faileth also in the very matter of some great Duties which are of such a nature that they include Assurance of God's Love in the right Performance of them such are those great Duties of Peace with God rejoycing in the Lord always Hope that maketh not ashamed owning the Lord as our God and our Saviour praying to him as our Father in Heaven offering up Body and Soul as an acceptable Sacrifice to him casting all our Cares of Body and Soul upon him Contentment and hearty Thanksgiving in every Condition making our Boast in the Lord triumphing in his Praise rejoycing in Tribulation putting on Christ in our Baptism receiving Christ's Body as broken for us and his Blood as shed for us in the Lord's Supper committing our Souls willingly to God as our Redeemer when ever he shall be pleased to call for us loving Christ's Second Appearance and looking for it as that blessed Hope when we fall into any sudden Doubting whether we are in a state of Grace already when we are called to any present Undertaking as to partake of the Lord's Supper or any Duty that requires Assurance to the right Performance of chem we must relieve our selves by trusting confidently in Christ for the present Gift of his Salvation or else we shall be driven to omit the Duty or not to perform it rightly or sincerely can we judge our selves already in a state of Grace by the reflect Act of Faith if we do not find that we perform these Duties at least several of them sincerely or if we do not find that we have such a holy Faith as doth enable or incline us to the Performance of them And can we be thus enabled and inclined by any Faith that is without some true Assurance of
our Salvation Therefore I conclude that we must necessarily have some Assurance of our Salvation in the direct Act of Faith whereby we are justified sanctified and saved before we can upon any good ground assure our selves that we are already in a state of Salvation by that which they call the Reflect Act. Give me such a saving Faith as will produce such Fruits as these No other Faith will work by Love and therefore will not avail to Salvation in Christ Gal. 5.6 The Apostle James putteth thee upon shewing thy Faith by thy Works James 2.18 And in this Trial this Faith of Assurance cometh off with high Praise and Honour When God calleth his People to work outward Miracles by it all things have been possible to them and it hath frequently brought forth such Works of Righteousness as may be deservedly esteemed great Spiritual Miracles from hence hath proceeded that Heroick Fortitude of the People of God whereby their absolute Obedience to God hath shined forth in doing and suffering those great things which are recorded in the holy Scriptures and in the Histories of the Church And if we be ever called to the fiery Trial as Protestants formerly were we shall find their Doctrine of Assurance to encourage us in suffering for the sake of Christ Seventhly The contrary Doctrine which excludeth Assurance out of the Nature of Saving Faith bringeth forth many evil Fruits it tendeth to bereave our Souls of all Assurance of our Salvation and solid Comfort which is the Life of Religion by placing it after sincere universal Obedience whereas if we have them not first we can never attain to this Obedience and to any Assurance that dependeth on it as hath been proved and this as far as it prevails makes us subject to continual Doubtings concerning our Salvation and to tormenting Fears of Wrath which casteth out true Love to God and can produce no better than slavish hypocritical Service It is one of the principal Pillars whereby manifold Superstitions in Popery are supported as their Monkish Orders their Satisfactions for Sin by Works of Penance Bodily Macerations Whippings Pilgrimages Indulgences trusting on the Merits of Saints c. When once Men have lost the Knowledge of the right way to assure themselves of Salvation they will catch at any Straw to avoid Drowning in the Gulph of Despair There is no way to administer any solid Comfort to the wounded Spirits of those that see themselves void of all Holiness under the Wrath and Curse of God dead in Sin not able so much as to think a good Thought you do but increase their Terror and Anguish if you tell them they must first get Faith and Obedience and when they find they have done that they may perswade themselves that God will receive them into his Grace and Favour Alass they know that they cannot believe nor obey except God prevent them with his Grace and Favour and what if they be even at the Point of Death strugling with Death's Pangs so that they have no time or leisure to get good Qualifications and examine the Goodness of them you must have a more speedy way to comfort such by discovering to them the Free-Promises of Salvation to the worst of Sinners by Faith in Christ and by exhorting them to apply those Promises and trust on Christ confidently for Remission of Sins Holiness and Glory assuring them also that God will help them to believe sincerely on Christ if they desire it with all their Hearts and that it is their Duty to believe because God commands it Several other Evils are occasioned by the same Doctrine Men are unwilling to know the worst of themselves and prone to think their Qualifications better than they are that they may avoid Despair others please and content themselves without any Assurance of their Interest in Christ because they think that is not necessary to Salvation and that but few attain to it and in this they shew little Love to Christ or to their own Souls some foster Doubtings of Salvation as Signs of Humility though they will hypocritically complain of them many mispend their time in poring upon their own Hearts to find out some Evidence of their Interest in Christ when they should rather be imployed in receiving Christ and walking in him by a confident Faith Some are troubled with Doubts whether they should call God Father and what Apprehensions they should have of him in Prayer and are offended at Ministers that in their Publick Prayers use any Expressions that the People cannot joyn in as if they do own God as their God and Father and Christ as their Saviour and upon the same Account they are offended at the Publick singing of many of David's Psalms and avoid partaking of the Lord's Supper because they are not satisfied about their Interest in Christ Though true Believers have some Assurance of Salvation in Saving Faith it self yet it is much weakned in many by this contrary Doctrine and assaulted with many Doubtings and then other good Qualifications must needs be low and weak together with it and so obscure that it is very hard to discern them how hard a thing then will it be for true Believers to assure themselves by the certain Knowledge of their own Sincerity that they are in a state of Grace already which is the only Assurance of Faith Some prescribe Marks and Signs to distinguish Sincerity from Hypocrisie that Believers cannot sufficiently try themselves by them except they have more Knowledge and Experience than Ordinary Thus many Believers walk heavily in the Bitterness of their Souls conflicting with Fears and Doubtings all their Days and this is the Cause that they have so little Courage and Fervency of Spirit in the ways of God and that they so much mind earthly things and are so afraid of Sufferings and Death And if they get some Assurance by the Reflect Act of Faith they often soon lose it again by Sins and Temptations The way to avoid these Evils is to get your Assurance and to maintain it and renew it upon all Occasions by the direct Act of Faith by trusting assuredly on the Name of the Lord and staying your self upon your God when you walk in Darkness and see no light in any of your own Qualifications Isa 50.10 I doubt not but the Experience of many choice Christians will bear witness to this Truth DIRECT XI Endeavour diligently to perform the great work of believing on Christ in a right manner without any delay and then also to continue and increase in your most holy Faith that so your enjoyment of Christ Vnion and Fellowship with him and all holiness by him may be begun continued and increased in you EXPLICATION HAving already discovered to you the powerful and effectual means of an holy practice my remaining work is to lead you to the actual Exercise and Improvement of them for the immediate attainment of the End and I think it may be clearly perceived by the
mis-spending the precious time of their Health and Strength which is most meet for the performance of this great Work They highly provoke God never to give them Time or Grace to Repent hereafter Others imagine that after they have heard the Gospel of Salvation by Christ they may lawfully defer the Believing of it until they have sufficiently examined the Truth of some other different Doctrin or until God be pleased to afford them some other means to assure them fully of the Truth of the Gospel Thus they that are called Seekers mis-spend the day of Grace ever learning but never coming to the knowledg of the Truth 2 Tim. 3.7 But the Truth of the Gospel doth so clearly evidence its self by its own Light That if People do not wilfully shut their Eyes or blind themselves by their own Pride and love of their Lusts they would easily perceive that it is the Truth of God because the Image of his Grace Mercy Power Justice and Holiness appears manifestly engraven upon it It is a sign People are Proud when they consent not to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 If they were humble and sincerely inclined to do the Will of God they would know whether the Doctrine be of God or no Joh. 7.17 They would quickly be persuaded of the Truth by Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles spoken to them in the Scripture and if they will not hear them neither will they not be persuaded tho one rose from the dead or whatever other Miracle be wrought to confirm the Divine Authority of the Gospel Luke 16.31 Another sort of People there are that delay the great work of Believing to the ruin of their Souls upon the outward means of Grace and Salvation instead of any endeavours to receive Christ by Faith tho they be convinced of the Truth of the Gospel This they call waiting upon God at the doors of his Grace and Salvation in the use of Means appointed by him and sitting under the droppings of the Sanctuary But let them know that this is not the right waiting on God required in Scripture it is rather disobedience to God and to the Name of his appointment which requires that we should be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving our selves Jam. 1.22 and that we should come in to the spiritual Feast Luke 14.23 and not only stand at the door or sit under the droppings of the House of God lest Christ repute us no better than eve-droppers That holy waiting on the Lord commended to us in Scripture is ever accompanied with Believing and Hoping in the Lord and dependeth thereon I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living Psal 23.13 14. It is good that a Man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. 3.26 What is it that these deluded ones wait for before they perform the Duty of Believing Is it for more knowledge of the Gospel The way to encrease thy Knowledge as well as any other Talent is to make use of what thou hast received already Believe heartily on Christ for all thy Salvation according to that little knowledge of the Gospel which thou hast and thou wilt have an interest in the promise of knowledge contained in the New Covenant They shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them saith the Lord Jer. 31.34 Is it for the appointed time of thy Conversion that thou waitest then thou waitest as those impotent folk lay at the Pool of Bethesda waiting for the Season when the Angel would come down and move the Water know then that if thou enter into Christ now by Faith thou shalt find in him Waters of Life and the Spirit moving them for the Healing and Quickning of thy Soul God hath appointed by his Word that it shall be thy Duty to endeavour that the present time should be the time of thy Conversion as the Holy Ghost saith To day if thou wilt hear his Voice harden not thy Heart Heb. 3.7 8. and thou shalt never know at what time God hath purposed in his Secret Counsel to give Faith to thee until thou dost actually believe Dost thou wait for any Manifestations or Flowings in of Gods saving Love to thy Soul Then the way to obtain it is to believe that the God of Peace may sill thee with all Joy and Peace in Believing Rom. 15.13 Thou hast sufficient Manifestation of Gods Love to thy Soul by the free Promises of Life and Salvation by Christ do but trust on the Name of the Lord and stay upon thy God when thou walkest in Darkness and seest no Light of sensible Comforts any other way Otherwise thou waitest for Comfort in vain and this thou shalt have at the Lords hand thou shalt lye down in Sorrow Isa 50.10 11. Dost thou wait for any Qualifications to prepare thee for the work of Believing If they be good and Holy Qualifications thou canst not have them before Faith but they are either included in the Nature of Faith or they are Fruits of it as hath been largely proved If they be bad and Sinful it 's strange that any should wait for them and yet no more strange than true Some foolishly wait to be terrified with the Sense of Gods Wrath and despairing Thoughts and these they call the Pangs of the New Birth tho in their own Nature they are rather the Pangs of the Spiritual Death and bring forth Hatred to God rather than Holiness and therefore we should strive to prevent them by believing Gods Love in Christ rather than to wait for them It is true that God maketh these despairing Thoughts as well as other Sins work for good to them that are delivered from them by Faith in Christ they are moved thereby to hate Sin and to prize Christ the more and the Comforts of his Gospel and to loath and abhor themselves yet many are brought to Christ without them by Gods giving them the knowledge of their own Sins and of Christ's Salvation together several Examples of these were above mentioned who received the Word with Joy at the first hearing of it And we must not desire or wait for any evil of Sin such as these despairing thoughts are that good may come of it Neither should we expect to be worse before we be better when we may and ought to be better presently by believing on Christ 4. In the direction it is that we should continue and increase in the most Holy Faith and that we may we must not think that when we have once attained to the Grace of saving Faith and thereby are begotten anew in Christ our Names are up in Heaven and perfect we may lye in Bed till Noon but as long as we continue in this Life we must endeavour to continue in the Faith grounded and setled not moved away from the
any present interest in Christ and shall never attain unto Holiness or Happiness until they learn a better way of Religion 4. Think not that you can effectually encline your Heart to the immediate practice of Holiness by any such practical Principles as do only serve to bind press and urge you to the performance of holy Duties But rather let such Principles stir you up to go to Christ first by Faith that you may be effectually enclined to the immediate practice of Holiness in him by Gospel Principles that strengthen and enable you as well as oblige you thereunto There are some practical Principles that do only bind press and urge us to holy Duties by shewing the reasonableness equity and necessity of our Obedience without shewing at all how we that are by Nature dead in sin under the wrath of God may have any Strength and Ability for the performance of them As for Instance the Authority of God the Law-giver our absolute dependance on him as our Creator Preserver Governour in whose hand is our Life Breath and all our Happiness here and for ever His All-feeing Eye that searcheth our Heart discerneth our very Thoughts and secret Purposes his exact Justice in rendring to all according to their works his Almighty and Eternal Power to reward those that Obey him and to punish transgressors for ever The unspeakable Joy of Heaven and terrible Damnation of Hell Such Principles as these do bind our Consciences very strictly and do work very strongly upon the prevalent Affections of Hope and Fear to pross and urge our Hearts to the performance of holy Duties if we believe them assuredly and work them earnestly upon our Hearts by frequent serious lively Meditation And therefore some account them most forcible and effectual means to form any Vertue in the Soul and to bring it to immediate performance of any Duty tho never so difficult and that the Life of Faith consisteth principally in our living to God in Holiness by a constant Belief and Meditation on them And they account those things that serve to mind them of such Principles very effectual for Holiness as looking on the Picture of Death or on a Deaths-head keeping a Coffin by them ready made walking about among the Graves c. But this is not that manner of living to God whereof the Apostle speaketh when he saith I live yet not I but Christ that liveth in me and the Life that I live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me If a Man make use of these obliging Principles to stir him to go to Christ for Strength to Act holily he walketh like one that hath received Christ as his only Life by Faith otherwise he walketh like other Natural Men. For the Natural Man may be brought to Act by these Principles partly by Natural Light and more fully by Scripture-Light without any true knowledge of the way of Salvation by Christ and as if Christ had never come into the World And he may be strictly bound by them and vehemently urged and pressed to holy Duties and yet all this while is left to his own Natural Strength or Weakness being not assured by any of these Principles that God will give him Strength to help him in the performance of these Duties and can do nothing aright until he get new Life and Strength in Christ by a more precious saving Faith There would be no need of a new Life and Strength by Christ if these Principles were sufficient to bring us to a holy Conversation Therefore this manner of practice is no better than walking after the flesh according to our corrupt state and a seeking to be made perfect in the flesh No question but Paul was very diligent in it while he was a blind Pharisee Yea the Heathen Philosophers might attain to it in some measure by the Light of Common Reason The Devils have such Principles as they do believe assuredly yet they are never the better for them It s a part of that Natural Wisdom whereby the world knew not God not that Wisdom of God in a Mystery discovered in the Gospel which is the only sanctifying Wisdom and Power of God unto Salvation VVhat can you produce but corruption by pressing with Motives to Holiness one that hath no soundness in him from the sole of the foot even to the head only wounds and bruises and putrified sores He that is made truly sensible of his own vileness and deadness by Nature will despair of ever bringing himself to Holiness by Principles that afford him no Life and Strength but only lay an Obligation upon him and urge and press him to Duty What are meer Obligations to one that is dead in sin While the Soul is without spiritual Life sin is the more moved and enraged by pressing and urging upon the Soul the Obligations of the Law and its Commands The motions of sin are by the Law and sin taking occasion by the Commandment worketh in us all manner of Concupiscence Rom. 7.5 7 8. And yet these obliging Principles are very good and excellent in this right Gospel use of them as the Apostle saith of the Law that it is good if it be used lawfully 1 Tim. 1.7 The humbled sinner knoweth well his Obligations but it is Life and Strength that he wanteth and despaireth of walking according to such Obligations until he get this Life and Strength by Faith in Christ Therefore these obliging Principles do move him to go in the first place to Christ that so he may be enabled to answer their End by the strengthning and enlivening Principles of Gods Grace in Christ Some there are that make use of Gospel-Principles only to oblige and urge to Duty without affording any Life and Strength for the performance as they that think that Christ dyed and rose again to establish a New Covenant of Works for our Salvation and to give us a pattern of Good Works by his own Obedience rather than to purchase Life Obedience and good Works for us Such as these do not understand and receive the Principles of the Gospel rightly but they pervert and abuse them contrary to their true Nature and Design and thereby they render them as ineffectual for their Sanctification as any other natural or legal Principles 5. Stir up and strengthen your self to perform the Duties of Holiness by a firm perswasion of your enjoyment of Jesus Christ and all spiritual and everlasting Benefits through him Set not your selves upon the performance of the Law with any prevailing thoughts or apprehensions that you are yet without an Interest in Christ and the love of God through him under the Curse of the Law the power of Sin and Satan having no better Portion than this present World no better strength than that which is in the purposes and resolutions of your own Free-will While such thoughts as these prevail and influence your Actings its evident that you
Likewise your Hearts will be purified to unfeigned love of the Brethren in Christ and you will walk toward them with all lowliness meekness long-suffering forbearing one another in Love if you maintain a stedfast belief and perswasion of those manifold Bonds of Love whereby you are inseparably joyned with them through Christ as particularly that there is one Body and one Spirit one hope of your Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Finally you will be able to abstain from all fleshly and worldly Lusts that war against the Soul and hinder all Godliness by an assured perswasion not meerly that Gluttony Drunkenness Letchery are filthy Swinish Abominations And that the pleasures profits and honours of the World are vain empty things but that you are Crucified to the Flesh and the World and quickned raised and set in heavenly places through Christ and that you have pleasures profits honours in Christ to which the best things in the World are not worthy to be compared And that you are Members of Christ the Temple of his Spirit Citizens of Heaven Children of the Day not of the Night nor of Darkness So that 't is below your State and Dignity to practise deeds of darkness and mind fleshly worldly things Thus I have given Instances enough to stir you up to acquaint your selves with the manifold endowments priviledges properties of your New State in Christ as they are discovered in the Gospel of your Salvation whereby the new Nature is fitted for holy Operations as the common Nature of Man is furnished with the Endowments necessary for those Functions and Operations to which it is designed and also to stir you up to make use of them by Faith as they serve to strengthen you either for Universal Obedience or for particular Duties And by this manner of Walking your Hearts will be comforted and established in every good Word and Work and you will grow in Holiness until you attain to Perfection in Jesus Christ 8. If you endeavour to grow in Grace and in all Holiness trust assuredly that God will enable you by this manner of Walking to do every thing that is necessary for his Glory and your own everlasting Salvation and that he will graciously accept of that Obedience through Christ which you are enabled to perform according to the measure of your Faith and pardon your Failings though you offend in many things and fall short of many others as to degrees of Holiness and high Acts of Obedience And therefore attempt not the performance of Duty in any other way though you cannot yet attain to do so much as you would in this way This is a necessary Instruction to establish us in the life of Faith that the sense of our manifold Failings and Defects may not move us eitheir to Despair or to return to the use of carnal Principles and Means for help against our Corruptions as accounting this way of living and acting by Faith to be in-sufficient for our Sanctification and Salvation The Apostle Paul exhorts the Galatians to walk in the Spirit though the flesh lusts against the spirit so that they cannot do the things that they would Gal. 5 10 17. We are to know that though the Law requireth of us the utmost perfection of Holiness yet the Gospel maketh an allowance for our Weakness and Christ is so meek and lowly in heart that he accepteth of that which our weak Faith can attain to by his Grace and doth not exact or expect any more of us for his Glory and our Salvation until we grow stronger in Grace God shewed his great Indulgence to his People under the Old Testament that Moses the Law-giver suffered them because of the hardness of their hearts to put away their Wives Though from the beginning it was not so Mat. 19.8 and also in tolerating the customary practice of Polygamy tho Christ will not tolerate the continuance of such Practices in his Church since his Spirit is more plentifully poured forth under the Gospel Yet he is as forward as ever to bear with the Failings of his weak Saints that desire to obey him sincerely We have another Instance of God's Indulgence more full to our present purpose in his commanding that the fearful and faint-hearted should not be forced to enter into the Battel against their Enemies but suffered to return home to their Houses Though sighting in Battel against Enemies without Fear and Faint-heartedness was a Duty that God did much exercise his People in at that time Deut. 20.3 8. So under the Gospel though it be an eminent part of Christ's Service to endure the greatest Fight of Afflictions and Death it self courageously for his Name sake yet if any be so weak in Faith that they have not sufficient Courage to venture into the Battel no doubt but Christ alloweth them to make use of any honest means whereby they may escape the hands of Persecutors with safety to their holy Profession He will accept them in this weaker kind of Service and will approve of them better than if they should hazard a denial of his Name by venturing themselves upon the Tryal of Martyrdom when they might have escaped it Peter came off with Sin and Shame by venturing beyond the measure of his Faith into the hands of his Persecutors when he went after Christ to the High Priest's Hall whereas he should rather have made use of that indulgent Dismission that Christ gave to him and the rest of his Disciples Let these go their way Joh. 18.8 Christ dealeth with his People as a good careful Shepherd that will not over-drive his Sheep He gathereth his Lambs with his Arms and carrieth them in his Bosom and will gently lead those that are with young Isa 40.11 He would not have his Disciples urged rigorously upon the Duty of Fasting when their Spirits were unfit for it because he knew that imposing Duties above their Strength is like putting a piece of new Cloath into an old Garment and new Wine into old Bottles which spoyleth all at last Mat. 9.14 17. That Precept of Solomon Be not righteous overmuch Prov. 7.10 is very useful and necessary if rightly understood We are to beware of being too rigorous in exacting Righteousness of our selves and others beyond the measure of Faith and Grace Overdoing commonly proveth undoing Children that venture on their Feet beyond their Strength have many a Fall and so have Babes in Christ when they venture unnecessarily upon such Duties as are beyond the strength of their Faith We should be content at present to do the best that we can according to the measure of the gift of Christ though we know that others are enabled to do much better and we are not to despise the day of small things but to praise God that he worketh in us any thing that is well-pleasing in his sight hoping that he will sanctify us throughout and
soveraign Authority Omniscience perfect Holiness exact Justice the equity of his Law and reasonableness of our Obedience to it the unspeakable Happiness prepared for the Godly and Misery for the Wicked to all Eternity Meditation on such things as these is indeed very useful to press upon our Consciences the Strictness of our Obligation to holy Duties and to move us to go by Faith to Christ for Life and Strength to perform them But that we may receive this Life and Strength whereby we are enabled for immediate performance we must meditate believingly on Christ's saving Benefits as they are discovered in the Gospel which is the only Doctrin which is the Power of God to our Salvation and whereby the quickning Spirit is ministred to us and that is able to build us up and give us an inheritance among all them which are sanctifyed Rom. 1.16 2 Cor. 3.6 Act. 20.32 You must take special care to act Faith in your Meditation mix the Word of God's Grace with it or else it will not profit you Heb. 4.2 and if you set the loving kindness of God frequently before your eyes by meditating on it believingly you will be strengthned to walk in the truth Psal 26.2 and by beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord you will be changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 This kind of Meditation is sweet and delightful to those that are guided to it by the Spirit of Faith and it needs not the help of such artificial-Methods as the Vulgar cannot easily learn You may let your Thoughts run in it at liberty without confining them to any rules of Method you will find your Souls much enlivened by it and enriched with the Grace of God which cannot be effected by any other kind of Meditation though it be never so methodical and curiously framed according to the Rules of Art 4. The Sacrament of Baptism must needs be of great use to promote the Life of Faith if it be made use of according to its Nature and Institution because it is a seal of the righteousness of faith as circumcision was formerly Rom. 4.11 But then we must take heed of making it a Seal of the contrary Righteousness of Works as the carnal Jews did that sought to be justified by the Law of Moses and as many Christians do that transform the New Covenant into a Covenant of Works requiring sincere Obedience to all the Laws of Christ as the condition of our Justification into which new devised Covenant they think themselves to be entred by their Baptism I may say of Baptism thus perverted and abused as the Apostle saith of Circumcision Baptism verily profiteth if thou keep the Law but if thou be a Breaker of the Law thy Baptism is made no Baptism Rom. 2.26 If thou be Baptised so long as thou continuest in the abuse of that holy Ordinance Christ shall profit you nothing Christ is become of no effect to you Ye are all fallen from grace Gal. 3.2.4 Beware also of making an Idol of Baptism and putting it in the place of Christ as the Papists do who hold that it conferreth Grace by the very work that is performed in the Administration of it And as many Ignorant People do that trust rather on their Baptism than on Christ like to the Pharisees who placed their Confidence on Circumcision and other external Privileges Phil. 3.4 5. We are to know that God is not well pleased with many that are Baptised 1 Cor. 10.2 5. and the time will come when he will punish the Baptised with the Unbaptised as well as the circumcised with the uncircumcised Jer. 9.25 Beware also of advancing Baptism to an equal Partnership with Faith in your Salvation as some do who account all Baptism null and void besides that which is administred to persons grown up to years of Discretion and they that refuse to be re-baptized at those years are to be accounted Aliens from the true Church from Christ and his Salvation notwithstanding all their Faith in Christ If the Baptism of Infants were null and void yet the want of true Baptism would be no Damning matter to those that are otherwise perswaded Circumcision was as necessary as Baptism in its time and yet the Israelites omitted it for the space of forty years in the Wilderness without fearing that any would fall short of Salvation for want of it John 5.6 7. Many precious Saints in the Primitive times of Persecution have gone to Heaven through a Baptism of Suffering for the Name of Christ before they had opportunity to be Baptized with Water And in those ancient Times when the Custom of deferring Baptism too much prevailed we are not to think that none were in a state of Salvation by Faith in Christ that deferred that Ordinance or neglected it Take notice further that it is not sufficient to avoid the pernicious Errors of those that pervert Baptism contrary to its Institution but you must be also diligent in the improving of it to the ends for which it was instituted And here let me desire you to put the Question seriously to your Souls What good use you do make of your Baptism How often or seldom do you think upon it The vulgar sort of Christians yea it may be feared many sincere Converts do so little think upon their own Baptism and study to make a due improvement of it that its of no more profit to their Souls than if they never had bin Baptized yea their sin is the more aggravated by rendring such an Ordinance of none effect to their Souls through their own gross neglect Tho Baptism be administred to us but once in our Lives yet we ought frequently to reflect upon it and upon all Occasions to put the Question to our selves Into what were we Baptized Acts 19.2 What this Ordinance Seals What did it engage us to And accordingly we must stir up and strengthen our selves by our Baptism to lay hold on the Grace which it seals to us and to fulfil its Engagements We should often remember that we are made Christs Disciples by Baptism and engaged to hear him rather than Moses and to Believe on him for our Salvation as John baptized with the Baptism of Repentance saying to the People That they should believe on him that should come after him i. e. on Christ Jesus We should remember that our Baptism sealed our putting on of Christ and our being the Children of God by Faith in Christ and our being no longer under the former Schoolmaster the Law Gal. 3.25 26 27. And that it sealed to us the putting off the body of sin and our Burial and Resurrection with Christ by Faith and the forgiving of our trespasses Col. 2.12 13. Our being made Members of one Body of Christ and to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.12 13. We may find by such things as these which are more fully discovered in the Gospel
way to the Father before they clearly knew him to be the way John 14.5 And the best of us know it but in part and must wait for the perfect knowledge of it in another World One great Mystery is that the holy frame and disposition whereby our Souls are furnished and enabled for immediate Practice of the Law must be gotten by receiving it out of Christ's fulness as a thing already prepared and brought to an existance for us in Christ and treasured up in him and that as we are justified by a righteousness wrought out in Christ and imputed to us so we are sanctified by such an holy frame and qualifications as are first wrought out and compleated in Christ for us and then imparted to us and as our natural corruption was produced originally in the first Adam and propagated from him to us so our new nature and holiness is first produced in Christ and derived from him to us or as it were propagated So that we are not at all to work together with Christ in making or producing that holy frame in us but only to take it to ourselves and use it in our holy Practice as made ready to our hands Thus we have fellowship with Christ in recovering that holy frame of Spirit that was originally in him for fellowship is when several Persons have the same things in common 1 Jo. 1. This Mystery is so great that notwithstanding all the Light of the Gospel we commonly think that we must get an holy frame by producing it a new in ourselves and by forming and working it out of our own Hearts Therefore many that are seriously devout take a great deal of pains to mortifie their corrupted Nature and beget an holy frame of Heart in themselves by striving earnestly to master their sinful lusts and by pressing vehemently upon their Hearts many motives to Godliness labouring importunately to squeeze good qualifications out of them as Oyl out of a Flint They account that tho' they be justified by a righteousness wrought out by Christ yet they must be sanctifi'd by a holiness wrought out by themselves And thô out of humility they are willing to call it infused Grace yet they think they must get the infusion of it by the same manner of working as if it were wholly acquired by their endeavours On this account they acknowledge the entrance into a Godly Life to be harsh and unpleasing because it costs so much strugling with their own Hearts and Affections to new frame them if they knew that this way of entrance is not only harsh and unpleasant but altogether impossible and that the true way of mortifying sin and quickning themselves to holiness is by receiving a new nature out of the fulness of Christ and that we do no more to the production of a new nature than of original sin tho' we do more to the reception of it If they knew this they might save themselves many a bitter agony and a great deal of mispent burdensome labour and employ their endeavours to enter in at the strait Gate in such a way as would be more pleasant and successful Another greater mystery in the way of Sanctification is the glorious manner of our Fellowship with Christ in receiving an holy frame of heart from him It is by our being in Christ and having Christ himself in us and that not meerly by his universal presence as he is God but by such a close union as that we are one spirit and one flesh with him which is a priviledge peculiar to those that are truly sanctified I may well call this a mystical union because the Apostle calleth it a great mystery in an Epistle full of Mysteries Eph. 5.20 intimating that it is great eminently above many other Mysteries it is one of the three Mystical Unions that are the chief Mysteries in Religion the other two are the Union of the Trinity of Persons in One Godhead and the Union of the Divine and Human Natures in One Person Jesus Christ God and Man Though we cannot frame an exact Idea of the manner of any of these Three Unions in our Imaginations because the depth of these Mysteries is beyond our Comprehension yet we have cause to believe them all because they are clearly revealed in Scripture and are a necessary Foundation for other Points of Christian Doctrine particularly this Union betwixt Christ and Believers is plainly in several places of Scripture affirming that Christ is and dwelleth in believers and they in him Joh. 6.56 and 14.20 And that they are so joyned together as to become one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 And that Believers are Members of Christ's Body of his Flesh and of his Bones and they two Christ and the Church are one flesh Eph. 5.30 31. Furthermore this Union is illustrated in Scripture by various resemblances which would be very much unlike the things which they are made use of to resemble and would rather seem to beguile us by obscuring the Truth than instruct us by illustrating of it if there were no true proper Union betwixt Christ and Believers It is resembled by the Union betwixt God the Father and Christ Jo. 14.20 and 17.21 22 23. betwixt the Vine and its Branches Joh. 15.4 5. betwixt the Head and Body Ephes 1.22.23 betwixt Bread and the Eater Joh. 6.51 53 54. It is not only resembled but sealed in the Lords Supper where neither the Popish Transubstantiation nor the Lutherans Consubstantiation nor the Protestants spiritual Presence of Christ's Body and Blood to the true Receivers can stand without it and if we can imagine that Christ's Body and Blood are not truely eaten and drunk by Believers either spiritually or corporally we shall make the Bread and Wine joyned with the Words of Institution not only naked Signs but such Signs as are much more apt to breed false Notions in us than to establish us in the Truth And there is nothing in this Union so impossible or repugnant to Reason as may force us to depart from the plain and familiar sence of those Scriptures that express and illustrate it Though Christ be in Heaven and we on Earth yet he can joyn our Souls and Bodies to his at such a distance without any substantial Change of either by the same insinite Spirit dwelling in him and us and so our Flesh will become his when it is quickned by his Spirit and his Flesh ours as truly as if we did eat his Flesh and drink his Blood and he will be in us himself by his Spirit who is one with him and who can unite more closely to Christ than any material Substance can do or who can make a more close and intimate Union betwixt Christ and us And it will not follow from hence that a Believer is one Person with Christ any more than that Christ is one Person with the Father by that greater mystical Union Neither will a Believer be hereby made God's but only the Temple of God as Christ's Body
and Soul is and the Spirits lively Instrument rather than the principal Cause Neither will a Believer be necessarily perfectin Holiness here by or Christ made a Sinner for Christ knoweth how to dwell in a Believer by certain measures and degrees and to make them holy so far only as he dwelleth in them And though this Union seem too high a Preferment for such unworthy Creatures as we are yet considering the preciousness of the Blood of God whereby we are redeemed we should dishonour God if we should not expect a miraculous Advancement to the highest Dignity that Creatures are capable of through the Merits of that Blood Neither is there any thing in this Union contrary to the Judgment of Sense because the Bond of the Union being Spiritual falleth not at all under the Judgment of Sense Several learned Men of late acknowledge no other Union betwixt Christ and Believers than such as persons or things wholly separated may have by their mutual relations each to other and accordingly they interpret the places of Scripture that speak of this Union When Christ is called the Head of the Church they account that a Political Head or Governour is the thing meant when Christ is said to be in his People and they in him they think that the proper meaning is that Christ's Law Doctrine Grace Salvation or that Godliness is in them and embraced by them so that Christ here must not be taken for Christ himself but for some other thing wrought in them by Christ When Christ and Believers are said to be one Spirit and one Flesh they understand it of the Agreement of their Minds and Affections as if the greatness of the Mystery of this Union mentioned Ephes 5.32 consisted rather in a harsh Hope or a dark improper Expression than in the depth and abstruceness of the thing it self and as if Christ and his Apostles had affected obscure intricate Expressions when they speak to this Church of things very plain and easie to be understood Thus that great Mystery the Union of Believers with Christ himself which is the Glory of the Church and hath been highly owned formerly both by the ancient Fathers and many eminent Protestant Divines particular Writers concerning the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper and by a very general Consent of the Church in many Ages is now exploded out of the new Model of Divinity The Reason of exploding it as I judge in Charity is not because our late learned Refiners of Divinity think themselves less able to defend it than the other two mysterious Unions and to silence the Objections of those proud Sophisters that will not believe what they cannot comprehend but rather because they account it to be one of the Sinnews of Antinomianism that lay unobserved in the former usual Doctrine that it tendeth to puff up Men with a Perswasion that they are justified and have eternal Life in them already and that they need not depend any longer upon their uncertain Performances of the Condition of sincere Obedience for Salvation whereby they account the very Foundation of a holy Practice to be subverted But the Wisdom of God hath laid another manner of Foundation for an holy Practice than they imagine of which this Union which the Builders refuse is a principal stone next to the head of the corner And in opposition to their corrupt Glosses upon the Scriptures that prove it I assert that our Union with Christ is the cause of our Subjection to Christ as a Political Head in all things and of the abiding of his Law Doctrine Grace Salvation and all Godliness in us and of our Agreement with him in our Minds and Affections and therefore it cannot be altogether the same thing with them And this Assertion is useful for a better Understanding of the Excellency of this Union It is not a Priviledge procured by our sincere Obedience and Holiness as some may imagine or a reward of good works reserved for us in another World but it is a Priviledge bestowed upon Believers in their very first entrance into an holy state on which all ability to do good works doth depend and all sincere Obedience to the Law doth follow after it as Fruit produced by it Having thus far explained the Direction I shall now shew that though the Truth contained in it be above the Search of Natural Reason yet it is evidently discovered to those that have their Understandings opened to discern that supernatural Revelation of the mysterious way of Sanctification which God hath given to us in the holy Scriptures First There are several Places in Scripture that do plainly express it some Texts shew thâ—â— all things pertaining to our salvation are treasured 〈◊〉 for us in Christ and comprehended in his fulness 〈◊〉 that we must have them thence or 〈◊〉 at all Col. 1.19 It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell And in the same Epistle Col. 2.11 12 13. The Apostle sheweth that the holy Nature whereby we live to God was first produced in him by his death and resurrection in whom also ye are circumcised in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh buried with him quickened together with him when you were dead in your sins Ephes 1.3 Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. An holy Frame of Spirit with all its necessary Qualifications must needs be comprehended here in all spiritual Blessings and these are given us in Christ's Person in heavenly places as prepared and treasured up in him for us while we are upon Earth and therefore we must have our holy Endowments out of him or not at all In this Text some chuse rather to read heavenly things as in the Margent because neither places nor things are expressed in the Original but the former textual reading is to be preferred before the Marginals as being the proper Sense of the Original Greek Phrase which is and must necessarily be so rendred in two other Places of this same Epistle Chap. 3.10 6.12 Another Text is 1 Cor. 1.30 which sheweth that Christ is of God made unto us Sanctification by which we are able to walk holily as well as wisely by the Wisdom of which we are savingly wise and Righteousness by the Imputation of which we are justified and Redemption whereby we are redeemed from all Misery to the Enjoyment of his Glory as our Happiness in the heavenly Kingdom Other Texts of Scripture shew plainly that we receive our Holiness out of his fulness by Fellowship with him Joh. 1.16 17. Of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace And it is understood of Grace answerable to the Law given by Moses which must needs include the Grace of Sanctification 1 Joh. 1.3 5 6 7. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. God is Light if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another Hence